Lead Generating Website
A lot of investors are stuck doing things the old-fashioned way and make things harder on themselves than they have to by doing everything manually and also by missing opportunities to build their credibility in the community.
You’ve probably noticed that just about every business these days has a website. Besides just the big businesses, you may find that your local plumber has a website, and so does a local carpet installer, your dentist, and just about everyone else.
Why do you think they have websites? Probably for several different reasons. For one, consumers expect people they do business with to have a website these days. If a business doesn’t have a website, they instantly lose credibility in many people’s eyes. On the other hand, when a small business owner hands you a business card and tells you to check out their website, their ranking in your eyes probably goes up because you think, “Hey, they must be serious about their business if they’ve invested in a website.”
Another reason small business owners often get a website is to generate more business. Of course, having a website doesn’t magically generate more business for you because you have to put your website address out there where people can find it. But if you have a website to send people to, it means they can come get more information on what you do without the pressure they may feel of talking to you in person or on the phone.
Not only is the pressure removed, but they can get information on what you do at their convenience. That means if they’re a night owl, they can come to your website at 2 in the morning if they want and get what they’re looking for or contact you.
The final major reason a lot of small business owners put up a website is that it can save them a lot of time. Depending on the business, a website may do things for them that they would otherwise have to do manually. For instance, if they typically have to answer a lot of questions people have about what they do and how it works, they can put up a Frequently Asked Questions page. Then people can just go to the website and have their questions answered without bugging the business owner, which is great for everyone.
It’s also possible to automate other business processes through your website. For instance, if part of your business involves interviewing your potential customers/clients, you can put a form on your website for them to fill out that asks them all those same questions. All they have to do is fill it out and click Submit and then you’ve got all their answers to review at your convenience.
If you think about how long it might take you to get all that information on the phone, with them giving you details you don’t need and going off on tangents and asking questions, etc. and compare that to how long it takes to scan over that same information in an e-mail, you can see how much time you’d save just on that one person. Multiply that by dozens of leads and you’re talking about hours and hours of saved time.
As you may know, during the initial contact phase a lot of time is wasted because the majority of people don’t qualify for what you have to offer. So just getting to that point of deciding whether they qualify takes a lot of time. If you could automate that process and pre-qualify people, you’d be able to focus your time on the really good leads.
If your local plumbers, landscapers, and roofers have websites, why wouldn’t you as a real estate professional? In fact, a website could do more for your business than theirs.
People are sometimes skeptical of real estate investors because they misunderstand what they do and how they work. A properly designed website can get rid of their fears and misconceptions and help them to trust you. Just having a website adds a lot of credibility because it’s clear you’re serious about your business if you’ve invested in a website. Your website can also answer some of the questions they may have and help them gain trust in you.
Besides those things, a website can help you automate parts of your business that can free up hours and hours of your time. If you have forms for buyers and sellers to fill out, it cuts way down on the number of initial contact phone calls you have to make because you can just send them to your website and have them fill out the appropriate form.
Just the fact that they’ve filled out the form tells you they’re at least somewhat serious. If they’re not willing to take 5 minutes to fill out a form with their details, do you think they were very serious to start with? But even after they fill out the form, their answers reveal a lot more about their motivation and situation so you can determine whether it’s worth your time to pick up the phone and call them.
If you decide they’re not worth calling back, the nice thing about them coming in from your website is that you have their e-mail address and you can just shoot them a quick e-mail that thanks them for submitting their information but it’s not what you’re looking for at this time. I’d recommend putting together the e-mail the way you like it and save it in a text file on your desktop so you can just copy and paste your reply to the “time waster” leads quickly and be done with it so you can move on to the good leads.
An additional benefit, besides saving time, is saving energy. What do I mean? Well, if you’ve ever got on the phone and talked with a homeowner who wasn’t motivated, you’ll know the truth in this: unmotivated leads will suck the life out of you. They will drain you mentally and emotionally and you won’t have anything left for the good leads. By pre-qualifying your leads, you can really cut down on the number of unmotivated people you have to deal with.
Due to advances in technology, it’s now possible to get a website set up for less than you may think, so don’t dismiss the idea until you really look into it. It’s really a small investment for the amount of good it can do for you and your business.
