| Dear Garry:
One of the critical failings I see
with most real estate agent Web sites is that they do a very poor
job of engaging the Internet Empowered Consumer (IEC) to
initiate a business-producing dialog. At worst they simply offer
an e-mail address on only one page of the site �somehow hoping
the visitor will be magically compelled to contact them for
"more information". While others go as far as
using forms to collect visitor data (in exchange for "more
information") or including a suggestion within the Web copy
to contact the agent via e-mail in case the visitor has any
questions.
Unfortunately, when it comes to
creating meaningful dialog, the offer to provide "more
information" or answer questions just doesn't go far enough.
Call To Action vs. Call To Interaction™
In traditional marketing (i.e
print, broadcast, or direct mail media) it is important to
include a "call to action" where you ask the prospect to
do something (e.g. "call now to learn more about this
great property!...") that will lead to a situation where you
can start having a dialog either face-to-face or on the
phone. However, it is effectively impossible to actually have
the dialog within these traditional media, their power is
limited only to the possibility of bringing you together with the
prospect so that a dialog may start.
Online, the possibilities are
considerably richer. If you limit your "call to
action" within your Web copy to simply responding to requests
for more information or even suggestions to "get
together", you are missing a huge opportunity to create
relationship-building dialog.
A much more powerful approach is to
include a "call to interaction" on nearly every
page of your site. A call to interaction is designed to
engage site visitors in a very personal way, causing them to feel
like they are part of the process being discussed within the Web
copy.
How To Create A Compelling Call To Interaction™
Every Web page and even every copy
subsection on a page is a golden opportunity to invite, or better
yet �compel, your visitors to interact with you. Remember
with the IEC, you will only do business with them if a
relationship exists. And interaction is the start of the
relationship building process. In the box below is an
example of Web copy (geared toward the first time buyer) that
incorporates this powerful tool:
Making Your Offer
Five Steps To
One That Wins The Home Of Your Dreams
And Protects You From Costly Mistakes
Most people think that writing an
offer on their dream home is not much more than filling out
a form and handing it to the listing agent with a deposit
check �nothing could be further from the truth! The
first step to having a offer that gets you everything
you want starts with research...
Step 1 - Gathering
Intelligence
Four
Things The Seller Doesn�t Want You To Know!
Your ability to get the best price
and terms for your new home depends greatly on how much
you learn about the seller�s situation (i.e.
motivation, schedule needs, settlement requirements, etc.)
and about the property. Here are the four things you absolutely
need to know before we even think about putting an offer
together:...
...This process may seem a little
daunting at first, but don�t worry! Doing the crucial
research is where I excel in helping you feel confident
they you are getting the best home for your needs �while
avoiding the potential disaster of a poorly written offer.
Here�s
a great exercise for you:
Imagine doing your own research on a property you just fell
in love with! �what questions and concerns come up?
Take a moment to jot them down and e-mail them to me at offertips@seattle1sthomes.com,
I promise I�ll get right back to you with ideas on how
to alleviate them!
Once we�ve completed our research,
the next step is to carefully craft the offer so
the seller says "Yea" instead of "Nea",
and you are completely protected... |
The highlighted section is the call
to interaction. Notice how it causes the visitor to stop,
think, and most importantly become engaged within the very
process the copy was covering.
Creating successful interaction with your
Web visitors is very similar to that of a dynamic speaker
interacting with an audience. You "work the crowd", get
them involved, excited, and include them as collaborative part of
the learning process. Imagine how long a speaker would be in
business if at the end of a monolog, she simply asks "Any
questions?". Yet, most Web copy doesn�t even bother to ask
that boring question, much less entice true interaction.
One of the most effective ways to get your
visitors to interact (and thus contact you) is to ask open-ended
questions relative to the material you are covering. This
approach accomplishes two objectives: 1) it causes them to think
about other things they can ask you; 2) it helps them come to
their own conclusions that you are the source of the answers they
need.
Avoid Becoming An
"Informational Commodity"
Without a call-to-interaction, your Web
site ends up becoming nothing more than a great informational resource
or "report" where you effectively commoditize your services
�which is the exactly the opposite of the differentiation you want
to achieve. A good
exercise for you to do now, is to examine your site's current copy and
see how well it truly engages and involves the visitor, and how that
process might be improved.
This is not an easy concept to master
and it takes a bit of practice. However, this is approach is so powerful, that once fully
implemented, you will have to hire more people just to handle all the serious inquiries it will generate for you!
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