Why You May be Generating Leads but Failing to Convert

You have leads. Whether from search engine optimization or search engine marketing, people are visiting your site and completing a registration form. But when it comes down to it, they are not buying or listing with you. Why are you failing to convert website users into real estate clients? Your real estate website - or the way you are using it - may be letting you down.

When many real estate agents set their goals and marketing strategies, they hyper-focus their efforts on online lead generation and are then left struggling to understand why their business is not growing - despite succeeding in driving traffic to their website.

What many fail to understand is that success in real estate is a two part process. The first step is generating leads by growing your online audience. Beyond this, however, you need to be able to convert those leads into clients. What good is it to have hundreds, or even thousands, of online visitors registering on your site if few ever lead to a transaction? This is wasted lead potential. Real estate agents looking to lead their market and grow their business need to focus not just on generating leads, but on converting them once they register.

Why are you failing to convert leads, and what can you do about it? Here are some of the most common problems that lead to poor conversion rates:

1. Your website offers a poor user experience.

One of the biggest barriers to conversion is a website that offers a poor user experience. A huge factor to consider here is whether your site is mobile-responsive across all devices. Study after study shows that most real estate searches are done on mobile devices. Whether on the go or researching from home, buyers and sellers are by and large using their mobile devices - phones and tablets - to conduct the bulk of their real estate related business. If your site is not mobile-responsive, you will lose most users. No one wants to struggle to read or see listings because the site is not optimized for all screens.

Other important factors that impact a positive user experience and should be an integrated part of your website system include:

• Sleek, clean design
• Clear, persuasive navigation
• Well-written, informative content
• Easy-to-locate calls to action
• Logical organizational structure
• Relevant tools

Website users are looking for a reliable resource that gives them the information that they need in an easy to use format, period. If your website system does not offer this, you will struggle to convert leads. [Read more about why user experience is so vital for a real estate website - real estate marketing tips.]

2. Your website does not have enough relevant content or useful tools to provide value to prospects.

Most of your website visitors will find your site while in the discovery phase of the sales cycle. They are looking for information - about listings, neighborhoods, market trends, etc. If you don’t have enough information via well-written content or buyer and seller tools to feed their drive for knowledge, chances are they will look elsewhere for it before you can convert them into a client.

Remember, conversion is about cultivating a relationship with your online leads. Having a wealth of useful content and a variety of tools on your site encourages engagement from users and will keep them on your site longer. The more engaged a user is with your site, the more value you provide, the greater the likelihood that they will happily turn to you when the time comes to buy or list. Even better, it will help you position yourself as a market expert - one of the most important criteria that buyers and sellers look for when deciding whom to trust with the biggest purchase or sale of their lives.

3. You do not have a sufficient or efficient method of consistent follow up throughout the sales cycle.

Follow up may be the single most important factor when it comes to your real estate conversion rate. Conversion rates directly correlate to the level of investment on both sides of a real estate business relationship. The best way to build this relationship is through consistent and effective lead nurturing throughout the entirety of the sales cycle.

Without the right follow-up, early sales cycle leads will rarely convert into viable real estate clients because they are not invested in you as a real estate agent. Engaging in consistent follow-up starts right from the beginning - for example a personalized welcome email immediately upon registration. To stay top of mind with each lead, follow-up needs to continue throughout the whole sales process, and can include sending listing recommendations, market reports and more for weeks, or even months, until the lead becomes ready to move. The more you flood each lead with information relevant to their needs, the greater their investment in you and the higher your chance of conversion.

To mitigate the stress on time that effective lead nurture can inevitably impose, consider investing in a real estate website system that employs cutting edge technology powered by artificial intelligence to automate your follow-up efforts. Automated follow-up is what real estate agents need today to be able to provide the kind of relationship-building that boosts conversion rates.

Your real estate business will only grow as far as your conversion potential allows. If you are not employing the right strategies, your conversion rate will stagnate. The good news, however, is that by avoiding a few common pitfalls and following best sales and follow up practices, enhanced conversion rates will drive your business forward towards reaching your real estate goals.