In our July issue of Blueprint, we will present you with 12 website tips that will put you ahead of your competitors.
You are a real estate professional in the 21st century, which means a website is a marketing necessity. But, if you’re like most agents, the thought of creating and maintaining your own website is very daunting. Where should you begin? What skills are required? How large will the time investment be? What’s the difference between a mediocre website and a great website? These are just a few of the many questions that will run through an agent’s mind when considering a website. We are going to try to answer as many of these questions as we can.
First of all, let’s get one thing straight. A GOOD website is NOT an online business card. A basic website with virtually no content other than your contact information will not generate business, and is essentially wasted marketing dollars. A GOOD WEBSITE is a destination for homebuyers. It provides the resources they want and need during their home buying and selling experiences and it creates return visitors. It then converts these visitors into leads, aids in converting leads to clients, and gives clients the tools they need to complete their transaction. A destination website creates business and pays for itself many times over.
This article is all about how to create a powerful destination real estate website. We explain best practices, offer ideas, and for iHOUSE ELITE Website customers we’ll even give step-by-step instructions on implementing these strategies. All of the concepts have been divided into 2 critical categories – Lead Generation and Lead Conversion, because even a destination website is pointless if it fails to achieve these two objectives.
New! Flash Banners & Custom Graphics!
The New ELITE real estate websites now offer animated flash banners and the ability to upload your own custom banner graphic. If you want to really grab visitors’ attention, try a new animated Flash banner. Or, if you want to make your homepage really unique and/or local, the custom banner option is perfect! Take a Free Test Drive Today to try the new banners!
ELITE Websites are for Brokers & Offices Too!
Our new iHOUSE ELITE Websites® offer complete real estate marketing solutions for both individual agents and larger offices! All ELITE Websites come with loads of time-saving, life-simplifying features. Plus, each ELITE Office Website comes with at least 5 full Agent Websites too! Take a Free Test Drive Today!
IDXPro (and Elite Websites®!) is Now Available for 23 More MLSs!
We have been busy expanding our network of MLSs and our best-in-class IDXPro MLS Search Solution is now available for the following NEW MLSs:
Are you a member of one of these MLSs? If so, mention Blueprint when you sign up before the end of July and you will save 50% on your IDXPro Start Up Fee!
Did you know that the new ELITE Websites® allow you to create and edit pages offline? With ELITE’s Published/ Unpublished feature, you can take your time creating the perfect pages for your website and only publish them when they’re done! Your visitors won’t see them until you’re ready for them. Or, you can unpublish active pages to hide them (without deleting them)!
To Publish or Unpublish pages for your ELITE Website, login to your Admin Menu, click to Edit your site, and then click the “Pages” tab. Click the Published icon next to the appropriate page to turn it on or off instantly!
In the last Blueprint we asked, “How often do you update your website (listings, content, etc.)?” The results were split evenly between “Once a week” and “I can’t remember the last time.”
This month’s survey question is: In your opinion, are custom real estate websites worth the investment?
Robert Warner started with iHOUSEWeb back in 2009 in the Customer Service Department helping over 10,000 clients with all of their Real Estate Website questions. After launching the YouTube training videos for iHOUSEWeb he moved up to the marketing department where he helps design and write marketing materials as well as managing the Social Media side of iHOUSEWeb.