I’ve got a secret to tell you about the real estate investing business: It’s really a PEOPLE business. You find sellers who need to get rid of a property and you match that property up with buyers who want to acquire it. But the important point is: it’s the people who make the deal happen.
So the express lane to growth as a real estate investor is simple: Get more people of the RIGHT PEOPLE into your investor lead pipeline.
Specifically, get more people with properties and get more people with money to buy your properties to notice you.
If you’re struggling with getting enough leads from your website, this blog post can help you diagnose what’s holding you back and will reveal some step-by-step strategies to get you moving forward.
Ultimately, there are 4 main reasons why you as a real estate investor or agent may be struggling with getting leads online.
Below, I’ve outlined those 4 reasons, along with specific actions to take in order to resolve each problem.
1. Low Traffic or No Website Traffic
Are people landing on your website? Not enough traffic to your website is the #1 cause of the “Low or No Lead” problem. See how to solve that below…
Your website traffic volume is the first place to start.
After all, if you aren’t actively getting qualified people to your website with your marketing, anything else you do on your site won’t matter.
The first step is to get eyeballs on your site.
I like to set an initial goal to get just 10 – 20 people to your website each week. That’s not a large number… it’s totally achievable, and if you’re not getting 10 – 20 qualified prospects to your website per week with your marketing… it’s your first goal.
So how can you get more traffic (qualified prospects) to your website?
We focus on…
SEO (ranking high in Google)
Paid traffic like Google Adwords (PPC marketing)
Hustle marketing (Craigslist, social media, etc.)
Integrating your website into your offline marketing (Postcards, your email signature, etc.)
We’ve written posts on this blog about every one of these and have done several webinars on driving traffic… so dive into the resources at your fingertips and make that first goal of 10-20 qualified prospects per month!
Here are some resources on driving more traffic to your websites to dive into!
Effective PPC Marketing Strategies Training
20 Steps To Optimize Your Google PPC Campaigns
Techniques for Creating High Converting Motivated Seller PPC Ads
The 4 Critical Parts of SEO For All Investor Websites
12 Key Onpage SEO Tips To Rank Your Web Pages Better
6 Simple Steps to Master Location Based SEO
Our SEO Bible For Real Estate Investors
7 YouTube Video Marketing Tips For Real Estate Investors
Our Famous 3 Lead Per Day Training (40+ videos on SEO, YouTube Marketing, PPC, and more – Only $99)
There are a lot more free resources here on our site as well that’ll help you increase your traffic.
If you’re already an InvestorCarrot member… hop on the next weekly Carrot Mastermind Call and we’ll help craft a traffic plan for you right there on the call if you ask us :-)
As we’ve written about before, SEO is a long-term (and high ROI) strategy… so don’t expect that 10-20 qualified prospects per week to come to your site from SEO alone right away. It takes time to build… but it’s sure worth it once it does!
Also, Youtube marketing is a way to get your brand to the front page of Google search results (even if your website isn’t there yet), plus it’s a great way to get even more eyeballs on your brand if your website is already on the front page.
2. Low Quality Traffic To Your Website
Not all website traffic is created equal… Are the people landing on your website the right ones? Ones that will turn into leads and deals?
So you have at least 10 – 20 people landing on your website each week and still not getting the leads you want? They may not be the right people…
Eyeballs are good… but the right eyeballs on your website are better.
Once you’ve built website traffic-generating systems to get people landing on your website, then it’s time to start refining those systems to ensure that you get the highest quality traffic you can.
Is Your SEO Optimized For High Quality Search Phrases? While it’s tempting to drive as much traffic as possible to your website, the first action you should be taking is looking at your search engine optimization. Are you choosing the right keywords for the right audience? Not all audiences are looking for the same thing. One motivated seller segment may be more responsive to a specific keyword than another. Make sure you’re reviewing the latest version of our SEO Bible, which reveals over 71 SEO keywords that are working for investors right now. Avoid the temptation to alter any of our “baked-in” SEO, since it’s been tested and proven to work.
An example of traffic that may be low quality for the average real estate wholesaler…
… is people who came from a search phrase or Google PPC campaign like “sell my house” or “list my house”.
Yes, they’re looking to sell… but these keywords tend to be from people who are looking for retail. Focus on keywords that people you can actually help would be searching.
And, make sure you are using location-specific SEO on your site. Review these 6 simple tips to master location-based SEO to make sure your site is fully optimized for where you’re doing deals.
Use Facebook Marketing Carefully. I love Facebook marketing for buyers and tenants… but not for highly motivated house sellers.
So consider what audience you’re looking to attract and choose your marketing strategies wisely. We’ve talked with lots of investors who have thrown hundreds of dollars at Facebook ads for motivated sellers only to be discouraged and think it’s a website problem. It’s a traffic quality problem. Facebook ads are a lot harder for motivated sellers than cash buyers.
Don’t Rely on Pay Per Click (PPC) Campaigns Right Away Unless You Have a Budget of at Least $1k-3k: Pay per click campaigns can take a while to optimize. In the short term, they can certainly drive traffic to your site but, they might not drive the right types of prospectsand you could you run through your budget faster than you expect! (Check out these 20 tips to optimize a Google PPC campaign – and pay attention to the case study at the very beginning of the post!) Pay Per Click is great, but make sure you’re using other methods to drive the right traffic to your site while you hone your PPC campaigns.
Build Valuable Content Everywhere! The most effective way to drive quality leads to your site is to provide valuable information that your target audience wants to know. It’s not about stuffing the right keywords into the title of a Youtube video or website page, it’s really about understanding who your audience is and addressing the problems, concerns, and questions that they have about how to sell or buy a property and why you’re the right person to help them.
In all your content – from offsite content to onsite content, make sure you’re being helpful.
In the end…
…don’t just focus on driving traffic. Focus on getting the right people to your website who you can help and who can turn into profitable deals for you.“
If retail house sellers aren’t your ideal prospect… don’t use keywords that will attract them.
And also… don’t forget that when you visit your own website that will show up on your website stats reports… so if you haven’t done any marketing yet and see 10 visits to your website this week… those visits may be you visiting your own website. So go out and actively market to get the right people to your website.
3. Low Credibility On Your Website
What’s the first impression people get when they land on your website? If your website makes them feel like you’re a fly by night operation or a “dark and seedy” character (or worse, like you’re hiding behind the website) your best prospects could bail and go to your competition
As they say, a first impression is a lasting impression. What is your website saying about you, your company, and your ability to honestly and ethically help them solve their problem?
As your traffic grows and the quality improves, your audience will be looking for reasons to trust you. Like detectives, they’ll be looking for clues on your website that point to your trustworthiness (or lack thereof), to assure them that they’re in good hands by working with you.
Fortunately, there are many ways that you can assure them of your credibility (and we help you with many strategies already built into the Carrot platform).
Just look at the first page of this InvestorCarrot member website and you’ll see that it contains subtle credibility clues for the site visitor.
The typical InvestorCarrot website has over 10 credibility boosters already baked in… then you can add more credibility like testimonials, info about your company, local pictures, and badges like BBB to boost your credibility even more.
Clean and trustworthy looking website and brand
Easy to find information and navigate the website
Company page gives information to the prospective lead that you are a legitimate organization
The How It Works link assures the website visitor that you have a plan to help them
Testimonials provide credibility from third-party “success stories”
A guarantee, when appropriate, helps reduce a sense of risk
Further assurances such as “No hassles. No obligation.” tell a prospective lead that you’re easy to work with and you have their best interests at heart
Localize the website so they know you’re a local solution they can talk to
Make it easy to contact you (add your phone number, opt in form, contact page, etc.)
This is just a start. There are many more ways to add credibility.
Here are a few:
Talk about how long you’ve been in business and your unique way of being able to help them
Fill your testimonials page with testimonials from folks who have done business with you
If you are accredited with the Better Business Bureau, add a BBB to your site
Include videos of you speaking to your audience
Emphasize a “risk reversal” (try to remove the sense of risk with working with you. Put the risk on yourself, not them)
Make sure your website is fully mobile optimized and looks great on mobile devices (test your website here)
Even other forms of marketing spread your name around your market, which contributes to people seeing your name, recognizing you, and trusting you.
Credibility on your website is one of the most important things you can do to help make sure your website isn’t turning your prospects away. InvestorCarrot makes it easier and more effective vs. other platforms or vs. you trying to build out a website from scratch yourself.
If you find that you’re driving great quality traffic to your site and it’s not turning into leads… it’s either number #3 (Credibility) or #4 (Conversion) that is holding your website back.
4. Your Website Conversion Rate Is Dragging You Down
Not all websites are created equal… some perform much better than others as far as converting a qualified visitor into a lead. If you’re getting enough quality traffic and you’ve built in credibility elements into your website… it’s likely that your website isn’t setup to convert very well (a very common mistake).
We always harp that performance trumps all else here at Carrot. It is more important than looking different in the market… more important than a “pretty” and “fancy” site… and far more important than a fancy CRM. Why?
Simple.
If your website isn’t built based on scientific testing to tap into your website visitors subconscious behaviors to help guide the right people toward making it easy to engage in your website and work with you…
… you’re wasting your marketing dollars.
Time and time again… we have investors switch to InvestorCarrot (one’s who are already driving quality traffic) because they are getting good Google rankings or putting good money into Google PPC marketing… but their website is underperforming.
Then they switch to our science based lead generation websites with our Carrot Conversion Methodology built into them (so you don’t have to be a conversion rate expert) and they see an immediate increase in their leads.
“I was spending $100 a day on Google PPC driving to my other website I spent good money on to have built…and struggled to get leads. Once I switched to Carrot & just used what you’d already built and perfected, in 3 months I’ve been with Carrot I now spend $10 per day and have over 450 rent to own tenant buyer leads. The only thing I changed was my website.”
Jim Pellerin – Home Ownership Made Easy
The only change was the way the website was structured and the elements (often they’re ones you can’t notice) that we’ve built into our websites boosts the performance and the ROI for the investor.
So, if you…
Are getting at least 10 – 20 highly qualified visitors to your website each week
Have built in great credibility elements into your website
… and your website still isn’t converting at a bare minimum 3-5% of those visitors into leads.
(our average motivated seller website is converting over 9% of visitors to a lead, cash buyer websites over 18% and rent to own websites over 24% of visitors turn into leads. How does yours stack up? Learn more about conversion rates here)
You have likely have a conversion rate problem my friend.
Again, once your audience trusts you, they’ll more likely be willing to act, but they’ll need some guidance and direction to get them to take the right action right away. That’s where conversion elements come in.
This is where we specialize here at InvestorCarrot!
We are constantly testing and modifying our sites to find the very best converting strategies that work! Although you may choose to make adjustments on your Carrot site, we urge to you to do so carefully so that you maintain the conversion elements that we’ve carefully placed.
For example, the first portion of the site that your website visitor sees is strategically designed to increase conversion. Everything from the words in the menu to the call to action to the simple form – even that scribbled orange arrow is there for a reason!
We have over 30 Carrot Conversion Method elements built into our websites… many of them you likely will never notice but they boost performance… without you having to be a conversion rate expert.
If you want to make sure that more people take action when they’re on your site, keep those Carrot conversion elements in your site.
For very specific ways to increase the conversion rate on your own website check out these free resources:
16 Point Conversion Rate Checklist (and examples)
2 Step Opt In Process To Boost Your Leads
How To Get More Rent To Own Leads w/ This Conversion Tweak
These Simple Words Improved Conversion Rates By 45%+
Why Button Size DOES Matter
… and more.
Implement just the things in those posts above and your website will perform a heck of a lot better.
Look at your website conversion rate this way. It’ll really hit home…
Lose just 1 deal every 2 years because of an underperforming website… and that costs you $10k+. That’s enough to pay for InvestorCarrot for over 10 years.
But you say… “InvestorCarrot is more per month than the other website guys in the market“.
Yes we are… because we focus on providing you with the highest return on investment platform. Our websites are the highest performing websites in the industry and almost every other website builder in our industry emulates our conversion methodology for their website designs.
So, you may be paying a bit more per month with InvestorCarrot… but you’re saving yourself from losing out on deals and leads because you’re using a low-performing website solution to “save a few bucks”. Take a tour of InvestorCarrot or connect with us for a call. We’d love to walk you through case study after case study of how InvestorCarrot has helped more high achieving investors than any other company in the world to ramp up their ROI from their online marketing.
It’s the reason that more and more of the most active and largest investors (one’s who understand ROI) are moving from their WordPress websites into InvestorCarrot… our focus on performance and ROI.
If You Fix These 4 “Low or No Lead” Reasons On Your Website… You’ll Stop Losing Out On The High Quality Leads Coming Online In Your Market Each And Every Day…
Not generating the leads you want online as a real estate investor really boils down to those 4 things we went over in this article.
Find where your weak spot is and start implementing the changes we suggest in this article and our other free resources.
If you look back in 3 months and still aren’t getting the results you want… there’s only 1 other reason. I call it the 5th “low lead” reason. It’s you :-)
So go out there and get focused on growing your online traffic, getting more qualified prospects to your website, building that credibility on your website, and focusing on using a high performing website platform.
If you do that… you’ll be crushing it in no time. After all, our members are pulling in over 20,000 real estate investing leads per month right now… there’s no reason you can’t pull in your fair share too.
And if you feel that InvestorCarrot may be able to help you grow your business as well… hop on over and take a demo or reach out to us anytime. We’re here for you!
The post Here Are The 4 Reasons You’re Not Getting The Real Estate Leads You Want Online appeared first on InvestorCarrot.