website yay or nay?

Marketing Your Property
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website yay or nay?

Henrietta M.
New to Real Estate · Ogden · Member since 2014 · 107 posts · 19 votes

Creating a website is pretty simple and quick, but does anyone have any recommendations on how to market your website, without paying a fortune??

I created a simple introductory web page from weebly. I plan to purchase my own domain when I buy a new PC. My old computer died on me a few months ago.

Can someone give me website pointers? As well as marketing advice. What makes a website pop and persuade sellers to call ME? I mean, what makes Me Different? Why will they choose me? Thanks!!

--> www.Shebuyshousesfast.weebly.com 

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Trevor MauchPro Member
Investor · Roseburg, OR · Member since 2014 · 141 posts · 149 votes
11y

@Henrietta M. great work getting rolling!

That's the first step :-)

Like the other guys mentioned, the website could use some work and improvement to make it an effective asset for you moving forward. 

There are elements that we've found in all of our testing (about 13k opt in leads per month right now w/ our clients) that work well on a website. 

If you're going to stick w/ Weebly... try to see if it'll let you adjust the look of the page to have the elements I show in the screenshot below. 

  • How They'll Contact You... Make It Front And Center: Like @Keith Belzner mentioned, you don't want people to have to search and dig to find out how to contact you. Make it crazy clear and give them multiple ways. You can see in the pic below the phone number is very very clear and large. 

  • Clear Benefit Statement (How You Can Help Them): You've done a really pretty darn good job w/ your messaging on that page, showing how you can help them. You may make it a bit more specific to the area you buy houses in if you focus mainly on a certain area. 

  • Call to Action Form: You'll see on the pic below the very very clear call to action in that form that we've built out. We've tested lots of different formats over the last 2 years... just under 1 million visitors to our members sites in 2014... and that format currently is working great. The Very clear benefit... simple info (address, phone optional, email)... big opt in button w/ benefit on the button. Then after they fill it out it works great to send them to a 2nd form that's a bit longer to see if they'll provide you any more info about their situation (the way we've built ours we see about 65%-75% fill out the longer form as well). 
  • Credibility: @Aaron Montague had great feedback about finding ways to build some credibility in there. There are thousands of other "House buyers" out there... and making them feel comfortable with you is a big deal. Now, I don't agree with putting "I've done 14 deals in 2014" on the site... no need to say the # of deals you've done... whether you've done 500 or 1.  The client doesn't care how many deals you've done. We've ran surveys to motivated sellers and ran extensive tests on our InvestorCarrot websites to see where people engage on the web page... and their primary concerns (in this order from our research) was 1. How does the process work?   2. Is the company / person credible and honest?  3. Will the offer be fair? 

    So make sure to have a tab on your site that walks through the process and how it works. Also, either in addition to or rather than the # of deals you've done... I'd take the approach of building personal credibility. If you have done deals, get your customers testimonials and how you helped them. How you did what you said you were going to do. How they are better off now, then before they met you. Or, if you haven't done any deals... focus on your personal credibility. Pretty much everyone has "personal credibility". Even if you've never done a deal... you have co-workers who can attest to the type of person you are, your honesty, your ability to help people... your banker can attest to you being a responsible and honest person, your insurance agent, your investor mentors, etc. If you don't have any deals yet, focus on getting a few character based testimonials up there from people. Then add the deal based ones as you go. 

As far as driving traffic to your site. 

Right now I'd focus on tightening up the website first and attaching your own domain name to the website if possible. I see it's on a weebly domain still.  Getting your own domain will add a bit of credibility to the site rather than showing the visitor the site is on a free hosting system. 

Next, once you make those tweaks to the site, or hire someone to build a site for you, or join a system like InvestorCarrot if it was a fit... 

.. the first thing you need to look at is whether you'll be doing the work to drive traffic to your site (investing your time) or whether you have a budget to pay others to do it for you (investing your money). 

If you'll be investing your time and focusing on free traffic sources... here's whats working well right now for our InvestorCarrot members to pull in leads and deals. 

Free Traffic Routes: 

  • Craigslist: Craigslist recently did a big update and are making it much harder to market on there as an investor. But, you can work within their guidelines and still do well in many markets.  PM me and I'll get you over some free resources. 
  • Your Email Signature: One way people overlook too often is using their own email account. How many emails do you send each day to people just in your every day life? Put a signature line in the email that lets people know you buy houses and give a clear call to action... a way for them to submit a deal or get a hold of you if they know someone (or themselves) who needs to sell. 
  • SEO: SEO is a bigger commitment.  In most markets it takes time to rank high enough to pull in consistent leads. But once you get there... it's awesome.  PM me and I'll get you over some free resources to get you rolling on the SEO side if that's what you want to focus your time on. 

Paid Traffic Sources: 

  • Google PPC: This still works crazy good when you setup and tweak the adwords account well. You can hire people to set it up and manage it for you for pretty reasonable ($150-$400/mo) + the cost of the ads. 
  • Paid SEO: If you don't have the time or patience to do SEO... hire someone. It's not cheap but can yield some of the highest long-term returns on investment we've seen. 

Haha, I was feeling a little spicy today so sorry for the long post! 

To sum it up, get that website improved. You can have all the traffic in the world... but if sellers don't feel comfortable putting in their info and feel it's a credible house buying site... they'll bail and go to the next. 

So that's #1. We can help you w/ that if it's a fit. Just PM me anytime. I'm here for ya :-)

#2, decide what you want to invest right now. Your time, or your money (or a bit of both). That'l dictate what you do to drive traffic to your site. 

Hope that helps! Good luck! 

Podcast Guest on Show #508
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  • Keith Belzner
    Nottingham, MD · Member since 2014 · 109 posts · 37 votes
    11y

    Hi @Henrietta M.

    I just took a look at your site and one big problem i found was i did not see your phone number until i went 3/4 of the way down on your about page. I would recommend you  google other cash for houses and see their format and setup. You should have contact information all over the place in my opinion.Also you should get right to point of why they came to your site, I think you have to much personal information and fluff that motivated sellers will overlook. You will have many others here on BP give you a lot better web site and marketing advice then me. Look up @Chaz Reid and  @Antonio Coleman and see what they say.

    1Reply
  • Henrietta M.
    OP
    New to Real Estate · Ogden · Member since 2014 · 107 posts · 19 votes
    11y

    Thanks so much! I agree with you. I just really didn't know. It actually is fluff lol

    0Reply
  • Aaron Montague
    Rental Property Investor · Brookline, MA · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 777 votes
    11y

    @Henrietta M.

    Home Page:

    Put your phone number in your top banner.  Add your email link right below it.  Realistically if any has found your page, they know why they are there.

    Put your home base on the front page.  People still like local.  If you will actually travel anywhere in the US, put that in smaller print somewhere.

    Contact Page:

    A single copy of your H&M logo is enough.

    About Page:

    Put up a useful stat that draws users in.  If they've gotten to that page, they want to know why to use your services.  "I've completed 14 deals in 2015 already" 

    Or if you've only done 5 total deals: "I've done 5 deals in the last year.  Each one made money."

    Your Weebly site is probably enough to get the traffic you want.  If it starts getting major, or you are running large scale marketing campaigns with different entry points, then think about a major upgrade.

    0Reply
  • Antonio Coleman
    Specialist · Sibley, LA · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 190 votes
    11y

    @Keith Belzner Thanks for the mention 

    @Henrietta M.When it comes to the marketing of the website I will say you must start out the gate the right way. It will be a lot of hard work, and to be honest no one will be abel to explain it all here. Just know that it will come down to social media, seo, blogging and video marketing. These together will introduce you to tons of leads. 

    0Reply
  • Trevor MauchPro Member
    Investor · Roseburg, OR · Member since 2014 · 141 posts · 149 votes
    11y

    @Henrietta M. great work getting rolling!

    That's the first step :-)

    Like the other guys mentioned, the website could use some work and improvement to make it an effective asset for you moving forward. 

    There are elements that we've found in all of our testing (about 13k opt in leads per month right now w/ our clients) that work well on a website. 

    If you're going to stick w/ Weebly... try to see if it'll let you adjust the look of the page to have the elements I show in the screenshot below. 

    • How They'll Contact You... Make It Front And Center: Like @Keith Belzner mentioned, you don't want people to have to search and dig to find out how to contact you. Make it crazy clear and give them multiple ways. You can see in the pic below the phone number is very very clear and large. 

    • Clear Benefit Statement (How You Can Help Them): You've done a really pretty darn good job w/ your messaging on that page, showing how you can help them. You may make it a bit more specific to the area you buy houses in if you focus mainly on a certain area. 

    • Call to Action Form: You'll see on the pic below the very very clear call to action in that form that we've built out. We've tested lots of different formats over the last 2 years... just under 1 million visitors to our members sites in 2014... and that format currently is working great. The Very clear benefit... simple info (address, phone optional, email)... big opt in button w/ benefit on the button. Then after they fill it out it works great to send them to a 2nd form that's a bit longer to see if they'll provide you any more info about their situation (the way we've built ours we see about 65%-75% fill out the longer form as well). 
    • Credibility: @Aaron Montague had great feedback about finding ways to build some credibility in there. There are thousands of other "House buyers" out there... and making them feel comfortable with you is a big deal. Now, I don't agree with putting "I've done 14 deals in 2014" on the site... no need to say the # of deals you've done... whether you've done 500 or 1.  The client doesn't care how many deals you've done. We've ran surveys to motivated sellers and ran extensive tests on our InvestorCarrot websites to see where people engage on the web page... and their primary concerns (in this order from our research) was 1. How does the process work?   2. Is the company / person credible and honest?  3. Will the offer be fair? 

      So make sure to have a tab on your site that walks through the process and how it works. Also, either in addition to or rather than the # of deals you've done... I'd take the approach of building personal credibility. If you have done deals, get your customers testimonials and how you helped them. How you did what you said you were going to do. How they are better off now, then before they met you. Or, if you haven't done any deals... focus on your personal credibility. Pretty much everyone has "personal credibility". Even if you've never done a deal... you have co-workers who can attest to the type of person you are, your honesty, your ability to help people... your banker can attest to you being a responsible and honest person, your insurance agent, your investor mentors, etc. If you don't have any deals yet, focus on getting a few character based testimonials up there from people. Then add the deal based ones as you go. 

    As far as driving traffic to your site. 

    Right now I'd focus on tightening up the website first and attaching your own domain name to the website if possible. I see it's on a weebly domain still.  Getting your own domain will add a bit of credibility to the site rather than showing the visitor the site is on a free hosting system. 

    Next, once you make those tweaks to the site, or hire someone to build a site for you, or join a system like InvestorCarrot if it was a fit... 

    .. the first thing you need to look at is whether you'll be doing the work to drive traffic to your site (investing your time) or whether you have a budget to pay others to do it for you (investing your money). 

    If you'll be investing your time and focusing on free traffic sources... here's whats working well right now for our InvestorCarrot members to pull in leads and deals. 

    Free Traffic Routes: 

    • Craigslist: Craigslist recently did a big update and are making it much harder to market on there as an investor. But, you can work within their guidelines and still do well in many markets.  PM me and I'll get you over some free resources. 
    • Your Email Signature: One way people overlook too often is using their own email account. How many emails do you send each day to people just in your every day life? Put a signature line in the email that lets people know you buy houses and give a clear call to action... a way for them to submit a deal or get a hold of you if they know someone (or themselves) who needs to sell. 
    • SEO: SEO is a bigger commitment.  In most markets it takes time to rank high enough to pull in consistent leads. But once you get there... it's awesome.  PM me and I'll get you over some free resources to get you rolling on the SEO side if that's what you want to focus your time on. 

    Paid Traffic Sources: 

    • Google PPC: This still works crazy good when you setup and tweak the adwords account well. You can hire people to set it up and manage it for you for pretty reasonable ($150-$400/mo) + the cost of the ads. 
    • Paid SEO: If you don't have the time or patience to do SEO... hire someone. It's not cheap but can yield some of the highest long-term returns on investment we've seen. 

    Haha, I was feeling a little spicy today so sorry for the long post! 

    To sum it up, get that website improved. You can have all the traffic in the world... but if sellers don't feel comfortable putting in their info and feel it's a credible house buying site... they'll bail and go to the next. 

    So that's #1. We can help you w/ that if it's a fit. Just PM me anytime. I'm here for ya :-)

    #2, decide what you want to invest right now. Your time, or your money (or a bit of both). That'l dictate what you do to drive traffic to your site. 

    Hope that helps! Good luck! 

    Podcast Guest on Show #508
    2Reply
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