Your Digital Face |
You’re hired
For estate agents, a dynamic website needs many of the qualities found in their best sales professionals. Gillian Kent, CEO of Propertyfinder.com, looks at how employing a website and investing time and money in its development, is a crucial component of your business.
Think of your site as a salesperson: Not only the public’s first point of contact with your business, but also the one whose job is to guide the client through the home buying and selling process in the most professional way possible. Your website should act as your lead negotiator, as friendly, full of knowledge and accessible as the best salesperson. With careful tending, your site can be a way of putting distance between you and your competitors, winning repeat instructions and inspiring good word-of-mouth.
Thinking of your website as a valued member of your sales staff, it’s very clear what you want a salesperson to bring to your business: New business. To that end you will need to invest in that employee, give them the tools they need to do the job correctly, evaluate performance and be creative in thinking of ways to utilise his or her expertise in a more effective way.
So, in a practical sense, how does the forward-thinking agent use its website to generate leads in a tougher market? The first thing is to do a complete evaluation of your site, from the inner workings to the public face. You want your site to be well presented – the one that draws buyers first. But to retain interest you can not neglect functionality.
Carry out the review, pinpointing the areas at which it excels and the areas it could improve on. Ask yourself these simple questions, and you’re well on your way to making your digital presence reach its potential.
Basic information
Does your site have the information it needs to sell your homes? Prospective property buyers don’t like guessing – they want all the information at their fingertips. And the vendors on whose ‘yes’ you rely don’t want confused buyers either. Make sure simple information about every property is present and correct; and displayed consistently.
Think about whether the properties you present are categorised sensibly into discernible areas? Remember, what’s Shepherd’s Bush to some is Holland Park to others. Are the maps you present with your properties spot-on and easy to read? If not, you may want to rethink your supplier.
But by far the most important thing is that prospective buyers and vendors know how to get in touch with you – it sounds simple but you’d be surprised how many agents don’t list their contact details. Buyers need to be able to get in contact with you quickly, easily and by every means - from pitching up at your offices to zapping across an email. And they expect a response.
Measurement
Do you measure your website’s effectiveness? If so, how often? Knowing your metrics is a must: Unique visitors – the total individuals who go onto your site – is the number that will impress vendors. But you also need to be able to demonstrate to vendors how many visitors (not unique) and page impressions you get. After all, the more people that visit the site, and the more each one looks around, the more easily you’ll be able to convince vendors that you can sell their property.
Getting the word out
Is your site communicating effectively? Just as the ability to communicate through different means is a crucial skill in a salesperson, so it is with a website. Are you offering users newsletters and RSS feeds? The world of the web changes almost daily; it pays to keep up with the latest ways of demonstrating that your business knows what’s going on in today’s market. Presenting that information in multiple platforms has the advantage of showing your customers that you have the technical savvy to present information on their properties in the most up-to-date way possible – and catch every potential buyer in the process.
Fight complacency
Top-quality salespeople will never rest on their laurels. There is always an avenue that hasn’t been explored, always a conversation from months ago that may yield results at some point. Every potential lead is run down, every ‘what if’ is exercised. Similarly, a top-quality agent’s website will always be looking for ways to renew itself. This is not easy; it involves keeping up with a wide range of information types, from technical, to design, to business practices. But you must present your site as being always eager to serve and endlessly striving in your customers’ interests.
If you carefully address all these points, your website will become a high-value contributor to your sales success.
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Posted On
27
August
2008
at
06:34
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