We were at lunch. Charleston’s in Mesa AZ. I was a title rep and he was a top producing REALTOR® at a national brokerage. It was an appointment that was a long time in the making. I had been trying to set an appointment with him for some time. I had called him, emailed him, posted on his Facebook wall, I would have Tweeted him if he had an account – he didn’t.
Let’s call him “Paul“. I tried everything. Paul never responded to anything I did. In frustration I spoke with a client in the same brokerage, I asked her – “who does “Paul” use for title?” “Does he have a Rep?” “Is his rep any good?” I asked her, “would you mind telling Paul how I have helped you with your real estate business?” “No problem” she said. I expected her to talk to him later, maybe in passing or at an office meeting, instead she whipped out her cell phone and called her office to be connected to him. [With a little coaching from me, she said] “Paul, you really need to meet with my title guy [nice ring to it huh?] Stephen, he is teaching me about WordPress, how to use the Internet to get more business, how to use Facebook for business and he showed me how I can find people talking about buying or selling homes in Phoenix – on Twitter!” She hung up the phone. The following day I had a voicemail from him:..“Stephen, this is Paul, It looks like we are playing tag [we weren’t – he had never called, emailed, facebook’d me back] I’m available next week if you are. Call me back at….
I tried everything to get a hold of “Paul”. I knew what title company he used, I knew he didn’t really have a rep that could help him with the future of real estate marketing and I knew he would be better off with me. I tried everything. Nothing worked. Finally I went to someone that knew him with a compelling call to action, “would you call Paul and tell him how I have helped your real estate business?” It worked.
BusinessDictionary.com
There are two types of REALTORS in my market. The ones that understand and leverage technology to grow their real estate business and the ones that need to learn HOW TO. Paul was the latter. I have been in sales in one way or another for my whole life. One of the most important aspects of the sales process is the Call To Action. Many title reps fail to secure a clients business because they fail at the basic requirement of asking for the business [call to action] – many REALTORS fail for the same reason. If you have bought a car you have experienced a call to action. It probably sounded something like this: “if I can meet all of your requirements [he/she repeated the requirements you mentioned] will you buy and drive today?”
There are calls to action and the there are compelling calls to action. In my 10 years in the title industry working closely with REALTORS I have noticed many REALTORS are very poor in the call to action department. Some REALTORS don’t even use them and the ones that do use them, typically choose CTA’s that are not specific enough or don’t promise something of value – to the consumer. “For more information about 1234 E Main Street call 480. . .” is not the best call to action in the real estate space. “To see 1234 E Main Street today or a list of REO homes, short sales, my 5 best deals in X city, please call, visit, click, email, tweet, smoke signal . . “.”
The call to action tells the consumer what you want them to do, the compelling call to action tells the consumer what you want them to do AND solves a problem. I’m going to take this one step further and say it must also provide value. Using calls to action is imperative in your real estate marketing. It used to be you could help someone with something and expect they would work with you. Notice I said “used to”. A compelling call to action will tell your customer what you want them to DO and why. The compelling call to action will include the value of them doing so. Because more and more of your clients are finding you online, [they should be anyway] your website or blog needs to be filled with compelling calls to action. Below are some typical calls to action I see on real estate blogs/websites and the compelling ones I would use instead.
Search The MLS. or even worse, “Search The MLS like a REALTOR” What’s the MLS? Sounds like a soccer league to me. Drop the industry jargon and speak like a human. Instead of search the MLS consider “find your dream home today, NO registration required”.
Subscribe! Subscribe to what? Most likely this person has just found your website/blog and now you are asking them to be your best friend and subscribe? Instead, consider “enter your email address for [insert value – list, ebook, local market data].
Want Market Information? Market information where? Stock Market? Fish Market? What is in this market information? Consider “stay in the know with [insert city or subdivision] price changes, days on market, new homes to the market etc.
Get A FREE CMA! CMA? Is this a ticket to the Country Music Awards? Again, drop the industry jargon and say what it is. Consider: “find out what your home is worth in today’s market – Now!”
Call Me! Self explanatory
Once you have identified your calls to action and the value for the consumer, where will you put them? Here are some places you should be using your compelling calls to action:
- Your email signature
- Your Facebook fanpage
- Your Facebook Fan Page Updates
- Your Custom Twitter Page Background
- In your Tweets
- On your Banner Ads
- Your YouTube Channel and below every video
- Your custom YouTube Skin
- In your videos
- Your blog side bar
- In your LinkedIn Page
- In your blog posts
- Your landing pages
- Your ebooks
- Your Google Profile
People like to be wanted. You should not hope they will “do the right thing” or know what to do next when they get to your website or blog. Using a compelling call to action in your real estate marketing will help you attract and convert your prospects into your customers. Even the best calls to action will be rendered worthless if a real estate website is not search engine friendly, a chunk of the website is missing, is not mobile friendly, takes too long to load, forces consumers to “root” around for the information you promised or does not support video. For more information about how to use compelling calls to action in your real estate or title marketing or where to get an affordable website to help you get found by your ideal client when they need you, please fill out the form below. [notice the call to action].
