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Real estate Marketing Blog

Live Chat for Real Estate – Best Practice #3: Don’t Ask Too Soon!


Posted September 29, 2011, 11:28 PM by ReadyChat

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Proactive chat can be a great online engagement tool if used correctly. Here at ReadyChat, we totally understand the power behind being able to reach out and grab the attention of website browsers. It really is the most interactive experience you can provide your online customers on the Web.

Unfortunately, we see so many companies and online businesses doing it incorrectly.

Tip: Send proactive chat invites often, but never too soon.

In many industries, live chat has become a must have for online customer service and sales support. When consumers think of live chat, they think of what is called “reactive” live chat, where the customer initiates a chat conversation with a live agent by clicking a “click-to-chat” button. This form of live chat engagement is still highly effective when made visible on a webpage, because it provides online customers convenient access to quick answers for sales and support. However, this form of live chat is no where near as effective as “proactive live chat”, when an operator initiates a chat conversation with a customer by sending a greeting or popup message to the website visitor as they are browsing a webpage. Although highly effective when delivered at the right moment, can also be more damaging than good if done too soon.

Remember the last time you were shopping in a retail store and the sales clerk approached you just as you walked in the front door? Your initial response seems to always be “No thanks, I’m just looking around.” This type of reaction is the result of engaging customers too soon, before they have even gotten the chance to look around. Your website is no different. In this case, engaging your website visitors prematurely may cause them to close the proactive chat invite, or even worse yet, leave your website altogether.

By waiting until after the online customer has had enough time to browse your website to familiarize themselves with your offering, you will enjoy better interaction rates, and increased customer satisfaction that will result higher overall conversions.  Do your research and get a real estate lead generation system that offers proactive live chat.

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Real Estate Lead Generation: It’s About Quality, Not Quantity


Posted September 27, 2011, 6:44 PM by ReadyChat

Real Estate Lead Generation Companies

Real estate lead generation has become a trending topic on the Web in recent years. With over 90% of homebuyers taking to the Internet to start the buying process, it’s no wonder why lead generation for real estate agents has become such a hot topic.

Any successful real estate agent has a good real estate lead generation system in place, whether it includes online or offline marketing. A good real estate lead generation program can mean the difference from the average performer to top producer for your brokerage.

So what makes a good online real estate lead system? In our opinion, it all starts with the quality of the lead.

Lead generation has become a booming business as of late. Marketers and real estate lead generation companies around the world are helping agents find more leads online than ever before. Outsourcing your lead generation efforts can be a great way to gain more business, reduce marketing costs, while remaining focused on your core business. But as with most good things, there are some downsides to outsourcing your lead generation to third parties. The greatest downside is the uncertainty in the origination of the lead and exclusivity to you – both greatly affecting the quality of the lead.

Pro’s and Con’s About Outsourcing Lead Generation

Pros:

  • More sales opportunities entering your funnel with less effort on your behalf.
  • Reduced marketing costs to gain access to buyers and sellers in the market.
  • Prospects are pre-qualified, saving you time and shortening your sales cycle to close.
  • You can purchase leads on-demand, meaning that you can set your budget to receive the number of leads you want.

Cons:

  • Buying real estate leads can be costly especially when you are paying per lead (can range from $50-$500).
  • No personal branding – leads are not aware of your identity or brand name.
  • Leads are cold when you get them because someone else generated the lead for you.
  • Too much time has passed before you receive your lead. The longer an internet lead is followed up with, the colder they become.

There are some benefits to buying leads from third parties (like the ones mentioned above), but the cons can play a significant factor in your closing rate. The reality is, when you buy leads from third parties, these leads do not know who you are, or what you want when you call on them. If you don’t like cold calling, these leads will be just as difficult to close as opening your local phonebook and randomly calling names.

The best approach to get real estate sales leads are from your own sources. Organically grown leads have 3 times greater closing rate than any other third-party lead source. Why? Because leads generated from your own sources (website, social media, flyers, etc.) have a chance to become familiar with you and your brand before you try to establish contact with them. For instance, an Internet lead will come from your website, your referrals will come from already satisfied customers, and so forth. If you want to close more business, you will need to invest in the right channels that will allow you to grow and develop leads organically from your own sources, not relying on others to do the dirty work for you.

Real estate lead generation is a process, so focus what little time you have on building and creating your own effective process to capture and covert leads quickly. Your website is the most visited property you own. That would be the best place to start. Invest in SEO, lead capture systems such as live chat, and lead nurturing such as email marketing. It will make all the difference in the world if you spend your money on these areas.

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Live Chat for Real Estate – Best Practice #2: It’s All About Location


Posted August 29, 2011, 11:27 PM by ReadyChat

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Just like in real estate, the location of a property is the key factor in determining its value. The real estate on your website is no different. Where you locate a call to action on your website is a key to how likely a customer will be to engage.

Tip: Place important call-to-actions “above the fold” on your webpages.

Based on its extensive experience with its customers, ReadyChat suggests that click-to-chat graphics always be placed “above the fold” of each webpage, so they are visible without the site visitor having to scroll. If your visitors have to search your webpages for your click-to-chat buttons, then they are likely not going to take the action you would like them to. Always make sure you are making the conversion process as simple as possible by making next steps or call to actions obvious. Making customers scroll down to the bottom of the page or search for the click-to-chat option are sure-fire ways for your engagement strategy to get lost on the page. Also, click-to-chat buttons should be seamlessly integrated near, preferably above, other contact methods like email or telephone contacts, in order to encourage customer interaction.

Further, it’s important to be consistent in the placement and implementation of click-to-chat throughout your site. This means that if you place your click-to-chat buttons in the top right-hand corner of your homepage, then it should appear in the same location on the other webpages of your site. This way, customers will see how easy you make it for them to get the online assistance they need, wherever they are on your site.

Lastly, use click-to-chat buttons to build confidence in your brand by always being available during regular business hours, at minimum. It’s so important to be available when your online prospects have questions or need assistance. By offering online support via live real estate chat instills confidence in your brand and reminds your customers that you are open for business and encourages them to interact.

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