Advanced Access Blog

This is the 2nd Marketing Tip in a series about overcoming obstacles that get in the way of making your real estate website a success.

Last week I wrote to you about time and how you can make some simple changes to make time to improve your website. I am sure you’ve all set aside some time to get working…

Now what do you do once you decide to work on your site? Once you’re sitting at your computer - what’s next?

I don’t know where to begin.

There have been times I have had a goal in mind, but I had no clue where to start myself on the path to seeing that goal through, so I didn’t do anything. I assume I am not the only one who has ever given up before I started.

Think of all the things you can accomplish with your real estate website if you push past that initial mental road block and try something new.

You don’t have to know everything there is to know before you get started. That’s one of the reasons you hired Advanced Access. We have been designing and hosting real estate websites for 10 years! Use us to your advantage.

What can we do for you? First, we can continue to publish helpful articles and email you tips on what to do. There isn’t a “right order” at this point, just taking one step at a time toward a more successful business. Don’t just file these away, take them in. I realize sometimes it’s difficult to take in so much at once - this is why our Marketing Tips are going to be a bit shorter from now on.

What else? We have online training classes with a live instructor to help you learn about the tools you have available and how to use them. We also have a Customer Support team available to you 7 days a week to answer any of your questions you have (even if you don’t know what to ask).

Let’s get a starting point for you…

Once a visitor reaches your website, what do you want them to do next? Do you want them to blindly contact you? You may get some people to do that, but they will likely be pretty unqualified leads. So you need to decide what you want your visitor to do, and how you want them to get to that point.

This is your first task - figure out why you have a real estate website and what kinds of leads you want contacting you. Next, you need to decide which way is the best way to get them there. Think of your “main attractions”, such as listings, and neighborhood info. How can you engage people while they are headed to those popular areas of your site?

I’ve gone over listings and content very recently and how to use them to your advantage. Re-read those tips and then make up a very basic “path” you want your visitors to follow. Next, use your content to guide them exactly where you want them to go. And don’t be afraid to change it up to figure out what works best for you.

I’ve found that the best way to overcome this particular obstacle of not knowing where to begin is simply understanding that having a successful real estate website doesn’t just happen, and certainly not overnight. It is a process that you keep reshaping as you go.

Get working on your plan for getting leads to contact you once they are on your site. We’ll work together on what to do next.

“Begin at the beginning…” - Lewis Carroll

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 at 4:26 pm and is filed under Weekly Marketing Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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