How to Make Your Property Site “Lead-Friendly”

Whether you’re a traditional or online agent, online presence is critical.

You probably spent a lot of time and effort getting your website set up the way you want. You might even spend tons of money driving traffic there. However, if you don’t have a lead-friendly site, all the work may be wasted. The whole goal is to collect the names and information of potential clients so you can serve their property needs. 

The housing sector in the U.K. is becoming more competitive as the global impact of the pandemic impacts all sectors. The Guardian recently reported expectations of a 20% decline in home purchases. If you want to remain competitive in a tightening field, you must ramp up your website efforts. 

If you aren’t capturing at least a few vendor or landlord leads from your site visitors, it’s probably time to make a few adjustments. The more people you reach, the more sales you’ll make. Converting users into leads and leads into buyers is how you slowly grow your brand into a powerhouse. 

 

Steps to Make Your Site Lead-Friendly

What can you do to ensure your site is lead-friendly and you turn as many visitors as possible into potential customers? 

Here are some clear steps to improve your site today and increase conversion rates. It’s best to employ as many of these elements as possible to get the results you’re looking for.

1. Tweak Your Headline

Your headline is the first thing people see when they land on your site. If your typography doesn’t already have a built-in hierarchy, now is the time to create one so people know which bits of text are more important and hold more weight.

Your headline should tell the reader what the page is about. Use action verbs and concrete language to paint a vivid picture for the site visitor. Your headline often appears in search engine results pages (SERPs), too, so that wording matters and can help you stand out from competitors.

2. Create a FAQ Section

People letting, selling, buying or renting for the first time tend to have a ton of questions. You can set their mind at ease and establish yourself as an authority in your field by answering their questions upfront. 

Make a list of the common questions newbies ask and create a FAQ for your website. An excellent FAQ will save you time and attract new leads. For example, renters might have questions such as, “How long is the lease term?” Addressing these queries upfront gives the impression that you are an expert source and can be trusted to help people with their needs.

3. Add Relevant Content

Your customer service logs are a great way to figure out what people want to know more about. Take the time to skim through them and look for topics to add to your site. Online content allows you to drive traffic and new leads by giving people answers to their most pressing questions.

Relevant content also adds a trust factor to your site. You give the visitor something for free, so if they want to buy or lease a home, they are much more likely to consider your company as they feel a bit obligated.

4. Barter for Information

Most people hate sharing their email or phone number. You can thank the many irritating companies that spam them and never stop. However, they may share this information in exchange for something they want.

Depending upon the type of property website you run, there are several things you can offer in exchange for info. For example, you can provide a custom home shopping plan that meets their budget, a guide to the steps to buying a first home, or a showing of a house for sale or rent.

5. Link to Social

Datareportal’s recent Digital 2021 October Global Statshot Report found the number of social media users is over 4.5 billion, with over 75% of the world’s population now using mobile devices. Social media adds to your trust factor and can make people more likely to share their information so you can take them from site user to lead.

Add links on your website to your social media pages, share reviews, and make it easy for others to share your articles and content on their walls. 

6. Keep It Simple

Your estate agency’s marketing will fail if you have lengthy forms that try to collect every bit of information from site visitors. For example, if you only need their cellphone number to confirm an appointment, don’t also request their address, email, and the name and birthdate of their firstborn. 

Make your form so easy to fill out and click that it’s barely a second thought. Gather first name and phone number and keep the form fields as short as possible. Some people may be filling out the form on smaller screens, so adding capabilities such as autofill will help increase your conversions.

7. Try Videos

Videos continue to grow in popularity. You can say a lot more with a short video than with text. You can use pictures, typography and the spoken word to tell a story to your visitors.

You have to decide what type of video suits your business model best. If you sell mostly residential homes, you might include an explainer video that talks about the buying process or how you work with buyers and sellers. On the other hand, if you’re a mortgage broker, you might want to focus more on how you save clients money over the life of their loan or ways for those with iffy credit to buy their first home. 

8. Optimize for Mobile

Is your site optimized for mobile devices? According to BankMyCell, as of March 2022, approximately 6.648 billion people use smartphones worldwide. You risk losing leads if your site doesn’t convert well on smaller screens.

Be sure to test all your forms on a cellphone. How hard is it to fill in? Is the submit button easy to click? Do all the buttons, headings and images convert to a smaller size? How fast does your mobile site load? 

9. Create a Navigation Hierarchy

Your navigation bar is typically what site visitors use to orient themselves to your site. They’ll use your logo to jump back to the homepage. They’ll look for the navigation bar no matter where they go on your site. 

Make sure your navigation is intuitive and consistent. It should be in the same location no matter where the site visitor goes. Keep the number of categories to a minimum, too. It’s better to have five tabs than 20. 

10. Tweak Your CTAs

Your calls to action (CTAs) can make or break your conversion rates. If the site visitor doesn’t know what you expect, how can they know you want them to turn into a lead? Look at the CTAs on your page and make sure there is a clear path to them throughout your site. If your goal is to get users to sign up for a newsletter, do you have a single CTA offering a quick signup?

Your CTA button should contrast with the rest of your color palette. You want it to pop and grab user attention. Red and blue grab attention. 

You’ll also want to use active verbs that are quick and to the point, such as “Subscribe Now” or “Get Free Newsletter.” 

11. Use Pop-ups

Some people claim to loathe pop-ups. They can irritate visitors, not work well with accessibility readers and seem a bit in-your-face. However, they can also be highly effective at capturing more leads.

Think about when you might want to add one, such as when someone hovers over the X to close out your page or after they’ve been browsing for a set amount of time.

Trigger the pop-up only when you feel it is warranted. Make sure the offer entices the user to sign up and share their information. 

 

Test, Fix, Repeat

Be sure to use some split testing and try different tactics to increase the number of leads you get on your website. Add some A/B tests and utilize different-coloured CTA buttons. Make adjustments and track results until you find the elements that work for your site. Once you have some success, you can repeat those efforts on other pages. 

Over time, you’ll gain more leads than you had before. The goal is to seek highly qualified leads who are most likely to turn into lifelong customers and share your company’s information with their friends and family.