Search Results for credibility

EP 248: How Credibility and the Right Partnership Led to 38 Transactions in 2020 w/ Carter Crowley

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The importance of the agent investor/relationship is something we’ve been talking about for a while now here at Carrot. We’ve often said that in the future, agents will need to invest, and investors should be licensed in order to better serve their leads. Well, the future is now. Now, more than ever, people are looking for ways to sell their homes. With the rise of iBuyers, people are looking to other sources when they are thinking about putting their home on the market. The agent or investor who is able to offer multiple solutions, is going to be able to complete more actions and help more people. Here’s how Carter Crawley is doing it.

Company Credibility Websites

Build Credibility, Attract Lenders, and Control Your Brand One of the most overlooked websites by real estate wholesalers and flippers is what we call a “main company” credibility website. The website that is your “online home”. Where business partners can learn more about you. Lenders and investors can see what you do and you can earn their trust. A place to post your wins as a company and educate your partners and clients. Our Main Company Credibility websites can help you create that online home that not only helps you build your credibility more easily, but also has our built in lead generation and SEO tools that makes your main website not just a pretty site… but also a lead generation tool at the same time.

What’s Your Credibility Score? The Top 5% Of Earners Are Doing These “Simple” Things To Build More Credibility In A Cluttered Market

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A lack of realism in the vision today costs credibility tomorrow. John C. Maxwell How serious are you about building a business that stands out from the clutter and gives you the income and freedom to live your best life? If you’re ready to get after it and do what it takes to succeed, this framework is for you! Key Takeaways Table of Contents Listen to the Podcast Podcast Timestamps & Highlights Lead generation, at its best Attract, convert & close more motivated leads Try Carrot Today In markets with little competition, the product and the offering are often the most important factors a prospect uses to decide what company to work with. But in a cluttered market, with lots of competition, like today’s real estate world… credibility has grown to trump “product” as the main deciding factor to make or break your next deal. So, what are the top 5% of real estate investors and agents doing to build more credibility in the market and make their competition irrelevant? Trevor Mauch, CEO of Carrot, dives into specific examples and lays out his Credibility Score theory to help you determine what you should fix ASAP to build your credibility even more. Listen to the Podcast Podcast Timestamps & Highlights 6:10 – What the consumer’s path to find a credible company online looks like.10:00 – Recognizing competitors’ opportunity to move in and cloud the consumer decision process is essential.12:00 – Example of an effective self-mailer used to build credibility. 15:15 – Marketing stages breakdown for real estate. What the most important pieces are.17:45 – Look at your past and present marketing numbers and build credibility after the first contact from a lead.18:50 – What it takes to build credibility into your real estate website.22:00 – We’re in the age of trust and credibility. Everyone is online. What are you doing to cut through the clutter?26:30 – Build a process within your business that adds credibility.29:15 – Taking a look at Opendoor and Express Home Buyers. Two examples of companies with a good credibility strategy.32:20 – Diving into Carrot’s credibility strategy.33:45 – Stanford’s Web Credibility Research Center – 10 credibility score items people view on a website.37:20 – What is the #2 most visited page on your website?39:30 – Does your real estate website look good on mobile? And what you need to fix if it doesn’t. Use our mobile check tool.42:40 – What does credibility mean? And how to do it so you connect with your lead more effectively.44:00 – Using the credibility score formula and how to build credibility through social media and testimonials.53:00 – Stacking upon the credibility score – Being picky on your website credibility.55:00 – Using some how-to’s to beef up the overall impression of your real estate website. And the importance of controlling the conversation around your brand.1:02:15 – Build things unique to your offerings to stand out from the online competition. Such as badges and logos.1:04:30 – Creating the connection with credibility and working hard to go the extra mile to show you’re an expert in your market.

Use the Carrot Credibility Bar to Build Trust and Increase Conversions

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Do we ever sleep? Not when it comes to optimizing your websites for conversion. ;-) Constantly, we’re on the look-out for new ways to improve your (our member’s) website conversion rate. But we don’t just want to increase your conversion rate, we want to make it dead simple for you to make those conversion rate improvements. In other words, we want to help you convert more visitors in less time. The Carrot Credibility Bar Here’s a look at what this credibility bar might end up looking like on your website. This is a version with a testimonial. And here’s a version with logos. If that ain’t enough for you, then we even have a custom version where you can add your own text and images to your heart’s desire – like we did with this block quote… Or video… Pretty awesome, right? But this new feature isn’t just remarkable because the dev team here at Carrot did an amazing job designing it and making it easy for our members to use. No. The feature is amazing for another, more important, reason. It’s going to help you build more credibility on your website, instantly. But you don’t have to take my word for it. ConversionXL ran an in-depth test to determine which type of social proof on a credibility bar is the most effective. They used testimonials with and without photos, logos, social sharing buttons, and a whole slew of other types of social proof. Here’s one example. Then, they had a control version that ran without any credibility bar. In the end, one thing was for sure: every single variation of the page with some type of social proof performed better than the control. And the reason is simple: when people arrive on your website for the first time, they have no reason to trust you. You have to show them that you’re trustworthy. Of course, you want to do that as quickly as possible to avoid them bouncing from your website. This is why a front-and-center, top-of-the-page, no-scrolling-required credibility bar is so damn effective at building that necessary trust. People see it the moment they arrive on your website and it confirms for the visitor that they can, indeed, trust you. Just consider massive organizations like Opendoor, insurance.com, or ourselves ( :D ) that count on a credibility bar for building trust with visitors. So, you’re probably wondering by now, What should I put on MY website’s credibility bar?  For that, there are a few different options. Consider… Displaying a compelling testimonial from a happy customer. Displaying a series of logos from publications your business has been mentioned in. Displaying a series of logos from other companies you’ve worked with. Displaying awards your business has won. The way you to choose to use this feature will depend on how you want to build credibility with website visitors and the kind of credibility builders you have access to. But, to help you make an informed decision, here are the types of social proof that ConversionXL found (from the study I mentioned earlier) had the highest recall rate among participants, and thus (this part is conjecture) the highest impact. As it turns out, testimonials were the most effective at generating website visitor recall.  Whatever type of social proof you choose, every single Carrot member should be able to make use of this feature – whether it’s through a testimonial or a series of company logos. This feature worked with our real estate agent websites as well! Plus, a credibility bar can help you stand out from other websites online (i.e. the competition), giving you the extra edge you need in your market. If you still don’t want to use the credibility bar, though, … Continued

How to Build Online Credibility for Real Estate

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We’ve done videos, coaching calls, and podcasts teaching how to build online credibility for real estate. Credibility isn’t a new thing, right? In competitive real estate markets, your online credibility score—the subconscious evaluation prospects make when visiting your website—can dramatically impact your deal flow and determine whether potential clients choose to work with you. Key Takeaways Audit your website and marketing materials to eliminate negative credibility points and strengthen positive ones—from logo clarity to content authenticity—to stand out in a crowded marketplace and earn the trust of potential clients. Table of Contents How to Build Online Credibility for Real Estate Having Clean Logos Is Important Credibility Badges Build Credibility With Testimonials Use Real “Local” Images One Of The Most Important Pages On Your Website Optimizing Your Website For A High Credibility Score Lead generation, at its best Attract, convert & close more motivated leads Try Carrot Today But, it amplifies when you have a competitive market. When you’re in a market with a lot of competition but lack online credibility, you have lower deal flow. When a buyer or seller has multiple choices, they often look at the agent’s or investor’s credibility. To help you learn how to build online credibility for real estate, we’ve devised the “credibility score.” Whenever you go to a store, whether online or in person, you go to the grocery store. You’re walking in the grocery store, and subconsciously, there are all kinds of things that you’re doing to size up that grocery store. Is the floor clean? Are the vegetables arranged in a way that makes sense? Are they rotten, or are they good? Are the people who work there wearing good clothes, clean clothes, or something that’s a uniform that looks like they’re put together? Are they friendly? Is the signage in the grocery store in a make sense way? All these little things stack up to create this score subconsciously in your mind. You’re probably not going to work with that grocery store because one of those things is wrong. You’ll probably not choose not to work with the grocery just because the signage isn’t exactly clear and clean. But, when you stack up all those together, and there are these negative credibility marks, what happens is, you leave the store and you go somewhere else, and you’re not sure why sometimes. You can’t place your finger on why you chose not to work with that company but another one, but this credibility score is subconsciously stacking up in your mind. We’re going to walk through as an agent or an investor. How do you size your business and find your credibility score? The first thing you need to look at is to realize people are subconsciously sizing you up, whether you think about it or not. If you’re doing what everyone else is doing, you’re probably not giving yourself many positive credibility marks. What we’re going to be doing is looking at the website. There are a lot of different things that people are doing when they’re trying to size up your website and size up your credibility score subconsciously. How to Build Online Credibility for Real Estate Having Clean Logos Is Important The first thing they will be looking at is your logo area, your logo area. Is your logo clean, or is it fuzzy? Is it pixelated? Does your logo match the colors and the branding on your website? I know that’s a little thing, but it’s one of those things that people can go, “Well, there’s something off. I can’t place what it is, but there’s something off,” … Continued

Real Estate Website Design: Credibility Sites Vs. Targeted Sites

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So you’re getting ready to launch your online marketing campaign, but you’re probably thinking “Man, what type of website am I going to build?” At Carrot, we have general credibility websites and we have targeted websites. Where the targeted websites are specific to a certain type of lead. It could be a motivated house seller. It could be a cash buyer. It could be a retail buyer. There could be a note seller or buyer. You get the idea. Those are very, very targeted towards a certain type of lead. We get a lot of our clients asking us, “Why can’t I focus it all into one general credibility site?” Or, “Is a general credibility site going to work well or perform as well as a targeted site specific for, as an example, motivated house sellers?” Well, this video and post are going to walk you through the data and what the actual results are and what you should do depending on the type of lead you’re looking for. Real Estate Website Design: General Credibility Sites So, first of all, we’ve got the general credibility site. A general credibility website is mainly focused on, just that, building general credibility for your company. So, it could be trying to get people there to show them who you are. What types of things you’re doing. What types of things you’re doing in real estate. And it could be multiple things. Saym, we’ve got this real estate fund and we’re flipping houses, so we buy houses. But we also sell houses and oh, by the way, did you also know that we do rent a home?” So it’s kind of “here’s who we are as a company”, and build that credibility. You could be looking for private lenders on that website. You could be building a cash buyer list on there and selling properties. That works really well on a main company credibility website. But it’s a lot of general stuff. It’s not really focused in on any one particular message. And it’s a split message. Your home page might say, “Hey, we are a real estate investment solutions firm. We buy, sell and rent houses.” But you’re going to be talking about all of that stuff if you’re on the homepage. So there’s no one focused message if you’re doing direct marketing toward that. If you’re driving a house seller there, they’re then going to get distracted by other messages. They’re going to get distracted by the message about investments. They’re going to get distracted by the message about looking for cash buyers and private lenders. If you’re doing direct marketing and paying money to drive people there, you don’t want to distract the message. But the general credibility website serves a very specific purpose. If you’re networking at your local chamber of commerce or rotary, you’re probably going to hand them the business card that drives them here. This website is then going to drive people toward your other specific target websites if you’re doing multiple things in your business. So you might have a link that says, “Sell your house.” And it’s gonna drive to your house seller specific website, ideally. That’s what the data shows works the best. Real Estate Website Design: Targeted Credibility Sites On the other side, you have the targeted website. So, when we suggest that you focus on using a targeted website, it’s any time you’re actually going to be actively driving people to that website to convert as a lead. These websites are set up for conversion. The general credibility websites are not particularly set … Continued

9 Ways to Boost Your Real Estate Investing Website Credibility

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In a field with low entry barriers and many unethical operators, a credibility-focused real estate investing website is essential for standing out and convincing motivated sellers, cash buyers, and private lenders to choose your company over competitors. Key Takeaways Implementing at least seven of the nine credibility-building website elements will put you ahead of 90% of your competition and significantly increase prospect trust, leading to more closed deals and business growth. Table of Contents Importance Of Building Credibility 9 Ways to Boost Your Real Estate Investing Website Credibility Action Plan To Boost Your Real Estate Investing Website Credibility Lead generation, at its best Attract, convert & close more motivated leads Try Carrot Today So, how do you boost your real estate investing website credibility? Real estate investing is one of those professions where the entry barriers for new investors are so low… there are lots of unethical investment companies out there giving real estate investors a bad name. So, how do you stand out above the crowd… and make it so that when a motivated seller, cash buyer, or private lender finds your website… they feel compelled to work with you? First… Importance Of Building Credibility (and how to do it with your website) It goes without saying… that today consumers have more options than ever.  If you’re a motivated seller going into foreclosure… or a private lender doing your research… one of the first things you’ll look at after you hear of a company is THEIR WEBSITE to see if they are real. Our society is an internet society now. Just look at the phone book and newspapers… those businesses are in decline… while internet news sources and directories are on the rise.  People go to the internet to research companies they’re getting ready to work with. So, what will a private lender prospect or motivated seller see when they search for you online? Will they even visit a website? If not, people immediately think, “They don’t have a site… are they a real company?”. If you have a website that doesn’t have the 9 elements below… that could be even worse.  Is your website harming your credibility (if I had to guess, I’d say probably 60%+ are). If people don’t feel comfortable that they want to work with you within the first 2 minutes of being on your website… odds are you’ll lose that business. So, here are 9 ways to boost your real estate investing website credibility. × × See How Carrot Works How many deals are you losing to your competitor’s website? See How Carrot Works 9 Ways to Boost Your Real Estate Investing Website Credibility Stanford University did a study called the “Web Credibility Research” project.  Stanford compiled 10 elements that your website should address that can either make or break your credibility as an investor… we’ve consolidated them into 9 elements that, without them… your credibility (and profits) are likely suffering.  See how many of these your real estate investing company website is doing well: So, how many of those 9 credibility builders for your real estate investing website are you doing on your website? If you’re doing 5 or more… you’re ahead of the curve. 7 or more… you’re doing better than 90% of your competitors. All 9?  You’re crushing it and should be teaching this lesson alongside us :-) Action Plan To Boost Your Real Estate Investing Website Credibility Real estate investor websites can be a huge tool in building credibility, or they can harm your credibility. If you currently have a website, pick 3 of the 9 elements above and implement … Continued

What’s New at Carrot? Q3 2025 Updates

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We’re officially in the last quarter of 2025 (how did that happen?). And while Q3 included a good chunk of the summer, we didn’t spend the whole time on vacation! Instead, we were busy releasing new features and improving existing ones. Here’s a recap of some of the highlights from Q3 2025. Key Takeaways Table of Contents New Subscriptions New Features CarrotCRM AI Call Tracking  Performance Improvements LLMs.txt for AI Discoverability Google Maps Load Time Hide or Show Website Elements Based on Screen Size Speed Improvement for Google Analytics Users What’s Coming from Carrot in Q4 2025? More Design Customization Property Analysis & Offer Recommendation AI Lead generation, at its best Attract, convert & close more motivated leads Try Carrot Today New Subscriptions If you’ve looked at the Carrot pricing page lately, you might have noticed some changes. We’ve simplified our subscriptions so you get more baked-in features with fewer add-ons.  (If you’re a current Carrot member, don’t worry, your subscription is staying exactly the same. But if you want to change to one of the new plans, connect with our Support team using the live chat.) Our new subscription model follows a traditional “good, better, best” approach, giving you more features as you move up. But we made some critical changes to ensure that you’re successful no matter which Carrot subscription you choose! A few notable changes include: New Features We’re always looking for ways to improve Carrot, and last quarter saw a couple of very exciting feature releases! CarrotCRM AI The first set of CarrotCRM AI features technically came out in late June. But in case you missed the announcement in the haze of summer, it’s worth repeating here. CarrotCRM — a best-in-class CRM for real estate investors, formerly known as InvestorFuse 3.0 — offers a range of AI tools that highlight the most motivated leads, instantly surface critical information, and save investors hours of manual work. Want to see for yourself? All CarrotCRM users can try AI Lead Scoring and AI Summaries for free on five opportunities! Call Tracking  Understanding where your leads come from and which source generates the most deals is critical to smart marketing and budgeting. Why spend a lot of money and time on a lead source that never converts? Dedicated landing pages and forms are good for tracking online leads, but what if a lead calls you, either because they got your phone number from a piece of offline marketing (like direct mail) or because they found your phone number on your website but simply prefer to call than fill out a form? You can ask where they heard about you, but that information isn’t always reliable.  With call tracking, you know without a doubt what piece of marketing drove that call. And now, Carrot members can access call tracking right within their website platform! With just a few clicks, you can get dedicated phone numbers for each of your marketing campaigns, and an insightful dashboard to pinpoint which campaigns are most successful. Performance Improvements Carrot’s top priority is making sure you have the best performance possible. But what exactly does performance mean? It means that Carrot websites are intentionally designed to load fast, be secure, show up when and where people are searching, and convert website visitors into leads. Here are some recent updates that ensure top-notch website performance. LLMs.txt for AI Discoverability We all know that AI search tools are becoming more popular. And built-in AI search results in Google are impacting the SEO landscape. To help Carrot members adjust to these shifts, we’ve now implemented LLMs.txt files on all Carrot … Continued