Search results for: “credibility”

  • The Surprising Correlation Between Google +1’s And Your Real Estate Investor Website Ranking

    The Surprising Correlation Between Google +1’s And Your Real Estate Investor Website Ranking

    google +1 matter for seo rankings for real estate investors

    Now more and more getting those high rankings in Google for top search phrases as a real estate investor (wholesaler, flipper, rental property owner, note buyer/seller, turn key investment property seller, etc.) can be a HUGE reward… but it isn’t like it used to be to get your real estate investing company’s website ranked high.

    How SEO Used To Be For Real Estate Investors

    When I started getting really good at SEO (back in 2007) ranking my own websites high in Google because I didn’t have the money to pay for ads or to pay an SEO firm… it seemed kind of like everyone was gaming the system.

    All you had to do was stuff a page with the keyword phrase you wanted to rank for (“sell my house fast Portland”, as an example)… go buy a bunch of backlinks from bogus websites pointing to your website… and get your title tag right… and you were on your way to a better ranking.

    But over the years Google has been making updates to the way they rank our websites in their search results. The most recent big update came in October… that focused on websites building “spammy” backlinks.

    What these Google updates are doing is making people… including you real estate investors… go back to the basics and really focus on putting together great websites that the visitors actually want to go to and browse around… with great content (not sites with barely any content)… solid credibility… get good quality “votes” from other websites (backlinks) and bumps from social media (Facebook “likes”, Google +1’s, etc.).

    With that said… since our members generate over 100,000 visits to their websites per month now… and many of our customers have top rankings in some crazy competitive markets using our tools and training… we’ve seen some major correlation to ranking your real estate investing website high in Google to…

    Correlation Between Google +1 – Why It Matters So Much In Your Google Search Rankings and SEO

    We first started to see this strong correlation in many of the most competitive markets in the country for highly motivated sellers during our weekly LIVE Coaching Calls with our Pro and Content Pro members (these calls are FREE to Content Pro and Pro members).

    When a member would send through their website URL during the Coaching Calls and the search phrases they were going for… I’d do a quick “competitive analysis” there on the call and come up with a quick action plan for them to rank well based on what the websites in the top 5 for those phrases tended to have.

    And more and more this year… the number of Google +1’s a website has (or even just the fact that they had some) has been showing up as a strong signal in the websites that were ranking in the first 5 results in a Google result for sellers, buyers, tenants, etc.

    As an example… here is one of the top markets for motivated sellers and the top 3 rankings on page 1 vs. the top 3 rankings on page 2 and the Google +1’s they have.

    Note that since there are hundreds of ranking factors that Google uses… no single factor is the main differentiator. So you’ll see some of the ones ranked high have lots of Google + action… some have low Google + action… but the thing in common is all of the websites in the top 3 in almost every market we’ve searched has some Google + action happening.

    Top Results Houston, Texas – “we buy houses Houston”

    #1 – 410 Google +1’s

    We_Buy_Houses_in_Houston_Fast___Inherited_or_With_Liens_Any_Condition

    #2 –  9 Google +1’s

    Sell_Your_Houston_House_Fast__We_Buy_Houses

    #3 – 16 Google +1’s

    We_Buy_Houses_Houston_-_Fast_Cash_Offers

    Collectively in this example… the top 3 ranked pages have a total of 435 Google +1’s.

    And a hat tip to Carrot member Guillermo for his #3 ranking (and climbing) in one of the most competitive search phrases in the country for motivated sellers… with his InvestorCarrot website and our SEO service help.

    Now the top 3 for the 2nd page in Google…

    #11 – 13 Google +1’s (but there are other reasons this site isn’t ranking on page 1 we can go into on another blog post)

    Houston_House_Buyers_-_Any_Condition_-_Cash_Offer_Within_24_Hours

    #12 – 0 Google +1’s 

    We_Buy_Houses_Houston___Locations___We_Buy_Ugly_Houses

    #13 – 0 Google +1’s

    123_Homes_Houston___We_buy_houses_in_Houston

    #14 – 0 Google +1’s

    Sell_my_Houston_Texas_home_or_house_today_for_fast_cash__I_buy_Houston_TX_homes

    In this example… collectively in the 11-14 positions for the same search phrase… they have 13 Google +1’s.

    I can show in many many other top rankings in other markets across the country as well that the…

     …top ranked sites on average have more Google + and Facebook activity than the sites ranking on page 2 and below. 

    This Is Just One Example, Does It Mean There Is Really A Correlation Of Google +1 Activity to Ranking Well In Google For Real Estate Investors?

    Even though we have access to probably the best data in the entire real estate investor website industry because of the 10k+ leads per month our members generate and the many many many top search rankings they have with their InvestorCarrot websites…

    … we wanted to make sure there was actually a correlation.

    Recently a report put out by a top SEO firm, showed its own data on the ranking factors that Google is showing right now in their search results. Notice how high the correlation of social media (including Google +) activity they’re finding in the top-ranked websites across the web.

    Correlation Between Google rankings seo ranking factors for real estate investors - searchmetrics
    Surprising Google +1 Correlation: As part of a well-optimized website, Google +1’s are showing up more and more in top websites according to this report by SearchMetrics. But, don’t let this blind you from the other important factors that are just as important on your website.

    You’ll also notice that just in this one graphic there are many many more things that also are showing up in websites that rank high… so don’t take this article as telling you to go out and buy 100 Google +1’s from Fiverr and your website will rank well.

    That’s not the case.

    Google +1’s Aren’t The Only Answer Though…

    Yes, one of the first things we have our members do now on their websites is share their website with their friends and family to get some Google +1’s on their websites… which we make really easy with our built-in social media buttons that you can easily turn on or turn off.

    But we do that just to cover our bases.

    Your website still has to be built to… 

    • Have great content on the whole site that is optimized well for the search phrases sellers, buyers, tenants are typing into Google (which our system makes easier for you)
    • Engage the visitor to stay on your website and click around (which Google looks at as a ranking factor)
    • Have the elements in the actual website code that Google is looking for (which Carrot sites are built to be liked by Google from the ground up)
    • Have solid backlinks pointing to your website (which we have training showing you how to do this)

    All this to say… that there’s a lot that goes into getting your website ranked well in Google for search phrases motivated sellers, cash buyers, private lenders, tenants are typing into Google to find what you offer.

    Google +1 action is just one of the latest things we’re seeing the top-ranked websites have in common versus the websites that are ranked lower.

    So, How Can You Get More Google +1’s For Your Website?

    Again, don’t look at this as a quick “SEO fix”. It’s not.

    Getting some good social media “likes” is just one part of the puzzle to outrank your competition in Google for your real estate investing business.

    But here are some quick easy ways to get some more Google +1 action on your website to give it a better chance of ranking well in your market (if your site is built and optimized with the other SEO factors in mind. If not, take a look at InvestorCarrot to save yourself time and money). 

    1. Setup Facebook and Google + sharing buttons on your website (just put them on your homepage and your blog post pages).We_Buy_Houses_Houston-social shares
      You can have your web guy do this for you… or if you’re using WordPress and you want to keep hacking your own site together… grab a plugin and configure it.  This is all built into your InvestorCarrot websites and pre-configured so you don’t have to do anything at all.
    2. Create your own Google + account and go to your website, and click the “G+1” icon and while you’re there… hit the Facebook “Like” too
    3. Share your website with your friends and family via email and Facebook with the quick message below:”Hey [name], we’re starting to really grow our real estate investing business and have been working on our website [insert your URL here]. Can you check out my website and give me feedback? It would help a ton!- [your name] PS – While you’re there… can you scroll to the bottom of the page and click the “Facebook Like” and “Google +1” buttons too?! It’ll help us out a ton. I’ll love ya forever! “Simple eh?
    4. Do the same thing with your colleagues at your local REIA, your workplace, etc. Get as many people in your network to G +1 your website

    That’s it.

    That should get you at least 10-20 likes and +1’s… and give you a great head start.

    What’s Next For You As A Real Estate Investor Trying To Rank Well In Google?

    First, keep an eye out for new changes from Google.

    It seems they come out monthly now.

    Make sure you’re subscribed to our blog for weekly updates just like this to help you get better results with your real estate investor websites… and by better results… we mean ranking better, converting higher, and getting more leads and deals.

    We send out weekly online marketing updates for real estate investors that’ll help you stay ahead of the competition.

    Last, focus on quality and focus on what you do best. 

    If you’re not a web guy, not an expert on SEO, and not an expert on conversion rate optimization… leave that up to someone else… or another system that makes it easier (or does it for you) like InvestorCarrot.

    The reason so many real estate investors are seeing such awesome success with Carrot is because we’re the experts in building websites that make it easier to attract high-quality visitors… and once the visitors get there, our websites convert higher than the average real estate investing website.

    Whatever you choose… get out there and focus on getting your website ranked higher whether it’s leveraging our tools or your own time and energy.  We have members generating dozens and dozens of leads per month and turning those into multiple deals per month… just from SEO.

    Search Engine Optimization has some of the highest return on investment around… it just takes some time and commitment to do the right things on your website to get yourself ranked higher.

    Hit me with your questions or just comments on what you’ve seen SEO wise in the comments section below. I’d love to hear from you!!!

  • Real Estate SEO Tips: Everything Investors Need to Know in Under 3 Minutes

    Real Estate SEO Tips: Everything Investors Need to Know in Under 3 Minutes

    real-estate-seo-tips-in-under-3-minutes_key

    Looking for quality Real Estate SEO Tips to help you generate leads? Congrats, you’ve found the best Real Estate SEO Tips out there… at least we think so. :)

    Search Engine Optimization can be super confusing. There is a ton of information out there, and most of it is contradictory or outdated.

    This video will help you break down in less than 3 minutes SEO tips for real estate investors.

    Real Estate SEO Tips (VIDEO):

    Real Estate SEO Tips: What Investors Need to Know About SEO in Under 3 minutes

    Real Estate Investor SEO Tip #1:

    real-estate-seo-tips-in-under-3-minutes.002
    Don’t rush! SEO isn’t a short term solution. It’s a long term investment in your business. So be patient… and make plans to get leads from other sources (we can show you how, no worries).

    Real Estate SEO Tip #2:

    real-estate-seo-tips-in-under-3-minutes.003
    Our biggest Real Estate SEO Tip is to Do Your Homework… you have got to know what keywords are being searched in your market and understand what it will take to beat your competition – otherwise you won’t get the results you want. Get your Free SEO Bible here.

    Real Estate Investors SEO Tip #3:

    real-estate-seo-tips-in-under-3-minutes.004
    Keep on truckin… doing a little bit of SEO work every day (or at least a couple hours a week) will pay off well over the course of a year – if you’re focused and stick to a good plan (we’ll help you learn exactly what you need to know).

    Real Estate Investor SEO Tip #4:

    real-estate-seo-tips-in-under-3-minutes.005
    Google has, like, the smartest people ever working on this stuff. If you wanna try and beat ’em, go for it… be prepared to suffer the consequences. We’d recommend sticking to a solid, proven content marketing strategy – not cheap tricks. Get a free real estate marketing plan template.

    Real Estate SEO Tip #5:

    real-estate-seo-tips-in-under-3-minutes.006
    Credibility matters more than almost anything else. Once you prove that you (and your website) have Authority with Google, you’ll find it way easier to get high rankings on additional terms (and generate more leads). A focus on building Credibility for your business will improve your conversions on your site – add testimonials for social proof, improve your bio, and share your site in as many places as possible!

    Real Estate SEO Tip #6:

    real-estate-seo-tips-in-under-3-minutes.007
    Don’t buy those crummy spammy “instant result” automated SEO services – we’ve seen investors waste thousands of dollars and loads of time, just to find out they need to spend a lot more money on cleaning up the messes that were left behind. Seller intent keywords such as sell my house fast Dallas have much more quality searches for you than say, “what’s the value on my home?” Focus on high quality and you’ll get high-quality results. Our trusted vendors can help – click now to get started.

    Real Estate SEO Tip #7:

    real-estate-seo-tips-in-under-3-minutes.008
    Make sure you’re driving traffic to your website with at least a few different methods. Think of it as diversifying your marketing portfolio – so if one method crashes (when Google changes their algorithm some sites drop their rankings like a bad stock when the market is tanking), you won’t be left high and dry.

    Real Estate Investors SEO Tip #8:

    real-estate-seo-tips-in-under-3-minutes.009
    If you’re an expert in SEO, congrats! You’ll find our platform will save you a ton of time. If you’re just starting out on your internet marketing journey, you will want to stick with a proven, tested platform that helps you generate leads… oh hey, that’s what we built! ;) Launching a website on our platform takes less time than you spent to read this blog post – click here to see how fast it is to get started.

    Want to get started?

    Get access to a free demo of the InvestorCarrot technology platform!

    Sign up now!
    Pssst… Carrot Members, don’t forget to register for this week’s Live Coaching Call <— click to sign up now

    Want to learn more about content marketing, lead generation and SEO?

    The majority of search traffic comes from page 1 – these terms are highly competitive, so it’s super-valuable to invest in good SEO in your local market. We can help you. Click to see Brittany’s story of going from zero online leads to multiple leads per day – and how she was able to quit her wage job to become a full-time investor working for herself.

  • 14 Real Estate Investor Lead Generation Strategies

    14 Real Estate Investor Lead Generation Strategies

    real estate investor lead generation strategies

    Don’t make your real estate investor marketing tough on yourself! Just take it one step at a time. Today’s post will show you expected and unexpected strategies for real estate investor lead generation.

    As the real estate market gets increasingly competitive, the search for quality inventory becomes tougher every day.

    If you’re like most of our members, you’d prefer to have your phone ring… you don’t want to cold call people from a list, right? I’ve done quite a bit of cold calling over the years myself, and even though I’m pretty good at it, it’s way more work… it’s a whole lot easier to learn solid inbound marketing practices from others, then replicate them for yourself.

    My goal here of this blog is to take the best practices from others who are some of the best at real estate investor lead generation and bring them to you. Like a butler carrying a silver tray…. I want to serve lead generation techniques to you with style. :)

    We’ve shown you the not-so-secret formula for lead generation is simple: traffic & conversions.

    One fun thing to remember: traffic can come from anywhere. If you have a creative, fun or clever way to generate leads: do it! Don’t get stuck in “paralysis by analysis” — trust yourself when you think “hey, this might work.”

    Unique Strategies for Real Estate Investor Lead Generation

    The Expected:

    • Google Search
    • Optimize Your Real Estate Investor Lead Generation Websites
    • Craigslist for Real Estate Investors
    • Bandit Signs and Bus Stops
    • Direct Mail
    • Bird Dogging
    • Develop Properties

    The Unexpected:

    • Bing, Yahoo and “Off-Google” Search
    • Optimize Yelp, Facebook… Everything
    • Local Classifieds
    • Flyers at Laundromats and Non-Profits
    • Door Knocking with a “Down Payment”
    • Turn Your Vendors Into Business Partners
    • Develop Communities

    Expected: Google Search

    google organic we buy houses la rankings
    Carrot Members Ranking Organically on Google for We Buy Houses Los Angeles

    Definitely one of our favorite places to generate leads!

    A good chunk of our business comes from folks who search phrases like “real estate investor websites” online… then discover InvestorCarrot. They check us out, learn that we’ve got an awesome reputation… then start learning from us, launch a website, follow our training… and then get great results.

    Lots of our members are beating their competitors on the top Google keywords in their markets using our sites. It’s super cool to see.

    Our sites are written around some of the most frequently-searched keywords that generate >80% of the leads in most markets. We teach content marketing to real estate investors — so not only do you learn the top real estate investor keywords we use for our sites, our training teaches you how to generate leads from Google.

    Unexpected: Bing, Yahoo and “Off-Google” Search

    Carrot Members Ranking in Bing
    Carrot Members Ranking Organically on Bing for We Buy Houses Los Angeles

    While Google gets about 66% of the traffic, they seem to get about 99% of the attention.

    That leaves almost a third of the traffic out there without much competition. PPC costs are usually way lower on off-brand networks (although the conversion rates are often lower too, it still often ends up being cheaper than Google).

    Expected: Optimize Your Real Estate Investor Lead Generation Websites

    You know that you should be optimizing your website, right? Optimization is critical to getting found on search.

    Fortunately, it’s super easy to optimize your Carrot site… we have the tools built right in, and we can help you rank high in your market.

    Unexpected: Optimize Yelp, Facebook… Everything

    Did you know that investors are using pages on other platforms to crowd out their competition in search, too?

    I’ve seen pages on Yelp, Facebook, YouTube, Zillow, blog sites, and other big platforms used to dominate top keywords in busy markets.

    This is a really smart strategy because sites like Yelp and Facebook already have a ton of authority, so it’s way easier to rank your business’s page on their high-credibility site than on your brand new domain name.

    I’d love to see more of our members dominating their local search by ranking different websites on the same keywords… and crowding out their competition.

    Already a Carrot Member? Check Out Carrot’s Facebook Leads Masterclass

    Learn how to drive leads to your site and build an audience with Facebook marketing.

    Expected: Craigslist for Real Estate Investors

    I love Craigslist, and I’ve gotten lots of real estate business from it. There are lots of investors crowding all over it in busy markets, often running very similar ads… and it’s still a great source of leads. It’s also free. Here’s tips on how to get Motivated Sellers from Craigslist, plus access to our Craigslist Posts-to-Profits training.

    [cta offer=”craigslist” color=”orange”]

    Unexpected: Geebo, Reachoo, and Other Local Classifieds

    The same techniques that work so well on Craigslist also work for other local classified sites. I know one real estate investor who has had the same tiny little ad running for years in his local paper… I think he said it costs him about $80 per month to keep it there, and he makes about $25,000 per year off of the transactions that ad generates.

    If you’ve got a local newspaper that doesn’t charge a ton, it’s probably a good idea to run a tiny ad with your phone number, especially if your competitor *isn’t* doing it.

    It’s also not a bad idea to post ads on a lot of the free online sites that imitate Craigslist. On some of those sites, you might even get some SEO benefit when you link back to your site from your profile.

    Expected: Bandit Signs and Bus Stops

    Lots of investors have tried putting up signs or buying bus stop ads.

    They work, although paid ads are expensive and bandit signs are illegal in many areas (that’s why they got called “bandit” signs… cause they’re breaking the law).


    Unexpected: Flyers at Laundromats and Non-Profits

    If someone can’t afford to fix their washer, they might need to sell their house, right?

    Most laundromats have a bulletin board where you can hang a flyer. Better yet, buy the laundromat. People pump quarters into those things all day long. ;)

    Seriously though, make some quality fliers (or if you don’t have graphic design skills, hire someone)… and find the places where people go when they’re down-and-out.

    Talk to folks at non-profit agencies who help with foreclosure and probate assistance, and see if they need a partner who buys houses or helps with short sales (depending on your specialties). You may be able to give them a donation from every transaction, depending on referral laws in your state. Check with a good attorney to be sure.

    If you can build trust with the right agencies, you’ll have an ongoing deal pipeline for a long time. There are some insanely smart community development organizations who build housing and are solid real estate professionals. Don’t underestimate them.

    If you can provide a great service for the same population they serve, they’ll be a great business alliance.

    Plus, the partnership that you establish with them is great for press and building future credibility.

    Expected: Direct Mail

    Direct mail is still a viable real estate investor lead generation option, and it’s easy to replicate. There are a lot of systems for sale out there. It’s pretty expensive, and everyone’s doing it… if you’re in a busy market and using a popular system, you’re probably sending the same stuff as your competitors.

    direct mail for real estate

    It’s still better than doing nothing. Direct mail campaigns tend to have about a 2-3% success rate, on average… so you’re definitely playing a numbers game.

    Unexpected: Door Knocking with a “Down Payment”

    real estate investor lead generation door knocking

    I know this real estate investor lead generation method sounds crazy! But I know investors who do really well just walking up to houses and knocking on the door.

    Of course, they know who they are targeting… after signs of disrepair, utility notices, etc., they walk up to the door… and if the owner is home, they give that person a $5 bill along with a business card… and let the homeowner know that it’s just a “down payment” when that seller is ready to sell. It’s pretty easy to get their contact info – shoot, let ’em know you wanna send ’em another $5 on their birthday.

    I love that strategy… it’s a powerful psychological trigger to take money from someone.

    And if you’re thinking “whoa, that’s a fast way to lose $5” – then you’ve probably never run a pay-per-click campaign on Google. If you’re not planning to spend some time and/or money on lead acquisition, you’re not making a serious plan.

    Developing a list of people who have taken your “$5 down payment” and actually staying in touch with those people is a great way to get access to properties before anyone else in your market. You don’t want to go around giving away money… but if you can set yourself up to buy houses before anyone else, you’re winning.


    Expected: Bird Dogging

    Lots of real estate investors team up with “bird dogs” to send them leads. These are folks who (hopefully) do the work of finding potential off-market property sellers and then send you the leads. Depending on the bird dog and the strength of the lead, this might average out to a cost of $50-$1,500 per transaction.

    Unexpected: Turn Your Vendors Into Business Partners

    Often the people you already know are your key to growing your business… you might just not see the opportunity.

    If you know an ambitious person… might be a sibling or a cousin, could be a virtual assistant, a student or a partially retired friend… even your spouse.

    If you find someone who isn’t afraid to knock on doors and talk to people, that person could be a great potential partner for your real estate business. Or maybe you’re the type of person who loves to talk but hates technical details — then you might want to find someone who can help you crush it with online marketing.

    Depending on the laws in your state, it might even make sense for you to help that person buy property under his or her name – or even together under a new LLC.

    There are a lot of creative ways to structure deals.

    As many industry veterans will tell you, often the price doesn’t matter as much as the terms.

    When you’re calculating your profit from a transaction, what’s important isn’t just the price you paid… it’s the money you made.

    If your subcontractor, virtual assistant, and your family are all working to help your business grow – if they have incentives, motivation and a clear path – you’ll have a

    So don’t be afraid to partner up with other people who can help you generate leads…. and don’t be afraid to publish in unexpected places!

    Expected: Develop Properties

    As a real estate investor, you should always be looking for easy ways to add value to properties. If you could spend $5,000 to improve the landscaping and increase your sale price by $50,000 – that would be a no-brainer of a decision, right?

    I like to think of my investments on a timeline… where can I add value today that I can pull out for the highest return later?

    In other words, if I can get my hands on a fully-rented apartment building with crummy apartments and slowly rehab each one for pennies on the dollar by keeping a few decent workers busy, I’ll make a lot more money by never having to lose my cash flow.

    If I build a 30-unit building from scratch, I’d have to have the money to wait until the building is mostly finished before I even take in any money… that means I’d have to take out a lot of loans, which all cut into my profit.

    So generally speaking, I look for properties that are already occupied, but not making the kind of cash flow they could be making if they were cleaned up, improved and well-managed.

    But either way, it comes down to the money… I like to find properties that need mostly cosmetic improvements because those are the cheapest ways to develop.

    Great investors know how to add value to the properties they own to get exponential rates of return.

    I’ve been lucky enough to work with some truly great investors along the way, and I’m looking forward to sharing more of what I learned from them… and what I’m still learning today from our awesome Carrot members – we’re lucky to have some of the nation’s top investors as our members, and we’re growing every day.

    Unexpected: Develop Communities

    As some of you know, I spent a decade in Chicago real estate… actually more when you count the years I spent as a kid getting dragged around to open houses by my mother, who loved to keep tabs on all the neighborhood real estate activity.

    I got involved with over $1 billion worth of real estate during my time in Chicago… most of it when I was the managing broker of a really busy real estate brokerage that helped to develop one of the coolest communities – the Wicker Park / Bucktown / Logan Square areas on the city’s Northwest side.

    My boss then was a tiger, and I’m sure she still is today. She built an amazing business from the ground up out of sheer will and determination.

    She represented some of the top developers on the Near Northside – guys who would buy millions of dollars worth of properties each week, as inventory became available. My boss sold the condos and buildings. I managed the office, training leasing and sales agents. We sold over $100M in sales volume and leased out hundreds of apartments each year. It was the glory days of a booming economy.

    But together, we sold a story. It was a story about the neighborhood, about the community… about the histories and cultures of the people who lived there.

    After years and years of working in those communities, we saw incredible growth. Now, that wasn’t just from our efforts, or those of our developers… there were huge economic forces in a city like Chicago much larger than anything we were doing.

    As successful brokers, we knew how to own the story of the neighborhood.

    We sold it to our clients: buyers, sellers, investors, developers, and tenants.

    Everyone wanted to participate in something larger than themselves… that’s that feeling of community that feels so good. When you’re really helping others, it shows… and people want to be a part of it.

    Your Real Estate Investor Lead Generation Efforts…

    should be centered on your community.

    We do the same with Carrot: we think of our members first. We want to help you do the best possible marketing for your real estate investment business.

    What’s working for you? Any unexpected techniques or tricks we should try? What’s got you stuck? What can we help you improve or understand better?

    Let us know… hit us up in the comments section below — and don’t forget to sign up for this weeks Live Coaching Call!

  • YouTube Real Estate Marketing Tricks: Video Optimization To Get Leads

    YouTube Real Estate Marketing Tricks: Video Optimization To Get Leads

    YouTube Real Estate Marketing doesn’t have to be tough, but if you want it to generate leads, you’d better optimize… we’ll show you how.

    Want to get great results from your YouTube real estate marketing? Read these tips to find out how to get leads with videos!
    Want to get great results from your YouTube real estate marketing? Read these tips to find out how to get leads with videos!

    Why use YouTube for real estate marketing?

    If a picture is worth a thousand words, a YouTube real estate video is worth millions.

    People can actually see you. They can hear you.

    A video gives people a chance to build trust with you.

    That trust is at the core of conversion strategy. Trust is what makes marketing work. People must have a certain amount of trust in order to make a purchase or fill out a form to get more info.

    They have to believe in you.

    That’s what makes video so great – it’s your chance to reach people, to connect with them, to inspire them to take action… to sell a house, to buy an investment… whatever you’ve got to offer, video can help you connect in a way that no other medium can do.

    Think of it this way… a great sales video can keep selling for years, while you’re kicking back with your feet up.

    So without further ado, here are the keys to getting great results from video marketing:

    #1 – Do your keyword research.

    I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to research your keywords.

    You must make sure that you’re optimizing for keywords that are actually being searched in your market.

    People search on YouTube differently than they do in regular Google search. They often use different terms and slightly different phrases. So don’t assume that the keyword research you did months ago when you were thinking about optimizing your site is going to be enough for a good video marketing campaign.

    Unfortunately, Google shut off the tool that told us directly what was being searched on YouTube… best we can see now is what they provide in their Display AdWords Planner – you’ll need a free Google account to use the tool.

    Here’s what the Display Tool looks like:

    youtube-real-estate-marketing
    When you’re using Display Planner, make sure to target only your local market to see your *local* search traffic… you probably don’t want or need leads from areas across the world. :) Want some suggestions of terms? Keep reading.

    #2 – Use no more than 2 keywords per video

    For search marketing purposes, it’s way better to make a lot of small videos on YouTube targeting many keywords than to make one long one.

    Think about it… people are searching a specific term, so you want your video to be directly related to that specific term. Sure, you can optimize a generic video a bunch of times with a lot of terms… but that technique won’t get good results.

    Here are a few places where keywords might help:

    • Title
    • Tags
    • Description
    • Channel name
    • Playlist titles
    • Playlist description
    • Comment field
    • YouTube hashtags
    • Social media posts that link to YouTube
    • Website
    • Annotations
    • Captions
    • Content or script
    • Thumbnails
    • Graphics in video
    • Channel art
    • Channel icon
    • Custom Bitly links

    Remember, Google is very smart. They work incredibly hard to make sure that good results climb to the top of their searches… so if you concentrate on making really high-quality content and optimizing it, you’ll get great results from it.

    Don’t try to do too much with one video… make a plan to create new videos often.

    #3 – Focus on making a great YouTube Real Estate Channel

    Yeah, I know… you wanna just make one video, then call it quits.

    But seriously, don’t bother. Trying to make one video will make you nuts. You can’t say everything you need to say in 90 seconds unless you’re super focused on just one or two keywords.

    Either prepare to make video marketing a big part of your business, or don’t do it at all.

    If you’re gonna do video marketing on YouTube, you’ll want to set up a really great YouTube channel.

    That’s the goal… the top of the mountain you’ll want to climb. High credibility, high trust, high views… high revenue. :)

    Videos that are on a great channel go to the top of the rankings.

    Don’t stress about creating a great channel – it’s not something that will happen overnight. It’s the same offline and online – your focus should be on building high-quality, educational content that helps people in your local market.

    That’s a long-term activity for major wealth-building, not a short-term, get-rich-quick trick.

    So organize yourself in the way that makes the most sense for your working style.

    Can you make one video per week? In a year you’ll have 52 videos… that’s a good amount for a channel.

    Need help making your videos?

    Organize it as a project instead… plan to make 20-30 videos at once. It takes less time and money than you’d think.

    You can totally do it yourself, or hire some help.

    You’ll need 3 people to help you:

    • A copywriter to help you script out your videos to make great content
    • A videographer to help you film and edit your videos
    • A search marketer to help you optimize your videos

    That last piece is so important… there are so many examples of great quality videos that get no views, simply because they weren’t set up right from the beginning.

    But like everything else, just optimizing on the video alone might not be enough to get it to the top of the search.

    #4 – Surround Your Videos With Great Content

    Here’s where you can really put your Carrot sites to use: embed your videos!

    You might not want to put a video right on the top of your home page… we’ve found that those can lower your conversion rates. It’s important not to stuff videos any old spot… but to put them in the right places.

    Put them into blog posts or pages that are optimized for the same keyword, and that will help Google (and the other search engines) realize the value of your video and serve it up to the right audience.

    You can also send out videos as a part of a well-written press release, too – that will help increase your exposure and connect up your video with your keywords on many sites.

    Just like a page, a video needs credibility coming from the outside… the more related places where your video appears, the better. It’s a great practice to embed your video on an optimized Carrot page, then focus on getting high-quality back links directly to that page… that will help increase your site’s ranking and reputation as well as your video at the same time.

    #5 – Learn All You Can About Video Marketing

    We’re gonna have a special guest for tomorrow’s Live MasterMind Call… and we’re gonna talk a bunch about video marketing, why real estate investors have been too shy to use it well, and what a huge set of opportunities there are gonna be coming up for investors who do the work of setting up a really great video marketing system for themselves.

    So make sure you sign up and register here!

    If you’re not already a member, sign up now to join Carrot… you’ll be glad you did.

    Let us know if that helps… we’d love to answer any questions you’ve got. Happy Marketing! :)

  • The #1 Skill Your Real Estate Marketing Should Include Right Now

    The #1 Skill Your Real Estate Marketing Should Include Right Now

    Your real estate marketing plan should be based on a powerful story. Our trainings can help you learn how.
    Your real estate marketing plan should be based on a powerful story – like the ones told by Windell Campbell, a great teacher, and puppeteer. Our trainings can help you learn how. Don’t worry, you don’t need to like kids or puppets… we do, but it’s not a requirement. ;) You’ve just gotta be willing to learn with us.

    Does your real estate marketing tell a story, or are you just advertising?

    After all, stories are the most powerful tool of communication, in business and in life.

    Humans communicate best through stories. How good are your storytelling skills?

    Besides reading this post, what are you doing to develop those skills?

    If you’re like most of our members, you’re constantly learning and developing your skills. Most of our members joined because they knew we’d give ’em a website that converted way higher than the typical real estate investor website, but they didn’t really understand our highest value: teaching skills.

    Storytelling is one of the most powerful skills you can possess.

    You already know that marketing is an insanely valuable skill. Marketing brings leads, and leads bring revenue. That’s obvious.

    But here’s the thing that most people don’t get about marketing: it’s all about telling a great story.

    STOP! Before going further, take some time to listen to how Max Maxwell Leverages Online Real Estate Marketing and Inspirational Storytelling to Close 1 in 4 Leads

    Closing 25% of His Leads: How Max Maxwell Leverages Online Marketing to Close 1 in 4 Leads

    Behind every great brand is a powerful story that most consumers never see. Companies like Nike, Apple, and Coca-Cola didn’t become household names because of their relentless pursuit of quality or their fantastic products – although those factors were certainly critical to their success.

    building conversation around your brand

    Companies become known for their stories. A great brand story is behind every powerful piece of marketing you’ve ever seen. Every great ad, every flawless logo, every iconic image was all carefully planned to contribute to the way that consumers view that brand.

    A powerful story actually creates the company’s identity, building up like thin coats of plaster, brushed on slowly, layer by layer to form a wall.

    Think about how many times you’ve heard of Nike, Apple, or Coca-Cola – way too many to count, right?

    Every time you heard that company’s name mentioned, it contributed to the story in your mind about that company.

    Your brand’s story can be that powerful.

    Sure, I know – you don’t have Coca-Cola’s marketing budget. But a powerful story travels, and it takes on a life of its own. A truly powerful story is one that can transform the lives of the people who hear it.

    But think about it…

    • Doesn’t it transform someone’s life to get rid of a property that has been plaguing them with problems?
    • What’s it like for someone to finally get the burden of a pending foreclosure off of their back?
    • What’s it like for someone to finally get through probate?

    It’s a huge relief. It’s a life-changing experience. It is transformative.

    Tell that story. Make your story connect people with your business.

    Sure, we’ve done a lot of the hard work for you. When you launch one of our sites for Motivated Sellers, Cash Buyers and Private Lenders, or Rent to Own Tenants, you’re fully loaded with a ton of key components that help you tell visitors to your site a great story about your business.

    But if you want to tell a truly powerful story, you’ve gotta get personal.

    Here are some questions you should ask yourself when preparing to tell your most powerful story:

    • What are the toughest problems facing people who are looking for help from my business?
    • How can my business change people’s lives?
    • How can my business impact my communities?
    • Why am I the exact right person to help?
    • What experience do I have that allows me to relate to the person I’m trying to reach?

    Those are really tough questions, no doubt. We’ve wrestled with them ourselves while building this business.

    There’s a whole lot of benefit to be had in crafting a true story-based content marketing strategy around your Carrot site.

    We’re here to help you learn how to tell your best story. We have powerful tools and trainings that help you hone your skills and grow your business… like our weekly Live Coaching Call.

    We weave in all kinds of powerful tricks, tips, and techniques into an interactive, lively discussion with some of the top real estate minds in the country.

    Some of the top real estate investors in the country are Carrot members, too – they show up on those calls each week because they’re here with us to learn and improve – just like you.

    Storytelling is the most important skill that you can learn with us. It’s one of those skills that is considered to be a “mastery” skill – like leadership, music, or golf. You never really “master” those skills – you just keep improving, practicing, and developing them.

    Sports legends like Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan (when he was still pro) never stopped working to improve their top skill. If you’re dead set on success in real estate, you need to tell great stories.

    After all, every negotiation is kinda like a story, isn’t it?

    Think about it… you’re trying to convince the person on the other side of the table to tip things in your favor, aren’t you?

    You want to get the best possible price when you’re buying or selling, right?

    That’s the story you’ve gotta know how to tell.

    But that’s a little later in the process.

    When someone is first visiting your website, they are trying to find reasons not to trust you.

    conversation marketing discovery

    You have to give them reasons to believe that you know what you’re doing, and that you can help them with their problem.

    If they don’t see that you can solve their problem, they won’t turn into a lead. They’ll leave the page, and call your competitor.

    Even if they are trying to solve the wrong problem, they have to see the solution they believe will work.

    That’s the secret to our high conversion rates, folks… they establish credibility, and they build trust.

    They tell a powerful story.

    But if you want the best results out of your business, the skill you have to improve is your storytelling.

    Use your Carrot real estate website as a platform to tell your most powerful story.

    We’re here to help.

    Join up on Wednesday for our weekly Live Coaching Call.

    Or if you’re not already a member, get on board – join us now.

     

  • How to Create Custom Real Estate Reports for Lead Generation

    How to Create Custom Real Estate Reports for Lead Generation

    InvestorCarrot websites include some pretty cool Free Reports that will help you generate leads, plus you can create unlimited reports of your own to offer, too! Click the picture to sign up for Carrot right now, or keep reading to find out more about how to get great results from your Report Opt-Ins.

    Real estate marketing: should it be based on data or stories?

    The answer: Both.

    Reports are a great example. A good report is full of credible data, but it also tells a story. A great report builds credibility that helps you get better results in your future negotiations.

    So how do you use data to tell a great story that helps you improve your credibility?

    Just keep reading. ;)

    This post will tell you about the awesome Free Reports that are included with our sites to help you generate leads and conversions, plus I’ll let you know a few awesome tricks and tips to get even better results in your local market.

    First off, here’s what’s included in our sites:

    Motivated Seller Free Reports In Your System

    • Selling To A Real Estate Investor (already inside of our motivated seller websites)
    • 5 Ways To Stop or Avoid Foreclosure (already inside of our motivated seller websites)

    Free Investor Reports In Your System

    • Passive Income Investing Report (already inside of our main company and cash buyer websites)
    • Private Lending Report  (already inside of our main company and cash buyer websites)

    If you’re already an InvestorCarrot Member, you can:

    Brand and Customize Your Free Reports

    If you want to edit / brand these free reports you can click here to gain access to the Microsoft Word document versions of these reports.

    COPYRIGHT NOTICE: These reports are the property of Carrot and are only for the use of active / paying InvestorCarrot members. As long as you’re an active InvestorCarrot member you can use these all you want! If you’re not an active InvestorCarrot member and would like to use our free reports, see our pricing and plans and sign up for a plan that’s right for you. All Copyright violators will be pursued.

    Once you brand them…

    1. “Save As PDF” to save them as a pdf
    2. Upload them to your website(s) via the Media tab in your website dashboard
    3. Update the download link on the download page on your website to point to this new PDF file
    4. Save, and you’re done!

    If you need help just hit us up on support or LIVE chat! We’re here for ya!

    If you’re looking for an innovative way to stand out in your market, you should:

    Create High-Value Free Reports for Your Market

    You don’t even have to write these reports yourself.

    Most of the time you can find a decent blogger in your local marketplace who is willing to work for cheap… plus, they might even be a good partner to help you drive traffic and build your lists. You never know til you look, right?

    But what kind of Free Reports should you create?

    I’ll let you know a few ideas for content that will help you reach your target audience.

    Start with the end in mind. Who are you trying to reach?

    1. Motivated Sellers.

    What types of situations can you help solve?

    There are countless examples of reports out there on what folks facing foreclosure, divorce, probate can do… so create one that’s specific to your market!

    Localize it… check out the rules and regs in your market. Interview a couple of brokers, attorneys, title company reps, folks from local non-profits… shoot, interview anyone who might be able to add a few great local tips and resources for folks with distressed properties and make sure to cite ’em as a source. It will help boost your credibility (and grow your referral network) to include other local experts as sources in your report.

    What does someone in your area need to know about the difficulties of selling in your market? Show sellers what you do for them in a transaction. If you can eliminate their hassles, you’ll earn their business.

    Make sure your report has a compelling title, like “What _______ Area Sellers MUST Know Before Selling Property in 2014” that reflects the value you’re offering within that report.

    If your report has a lot of great value within it, you’ll just have to list out the contents on a Lead Page and you’ll get great conversions from it. Just focus on creating high value with information that Motivated Sellers in your market should know, and you’ll end up with a great Free Report that will generate good leads for your business when you market it (more on that in a second).

    2. Real Estate Buyers, Investors, and Lenders.

    Can you provide deep insight and analysis for folks in your market who are investing in real estate?

    (Or can you hire a good writer and analyst?)

    If you can compile local market data, broken down by property type, from a few sources and show the different rates of return that local investors and real estate owners have been able to earn, chances are good you’re well on the way to delivering a very valuable report for your local real estate market.

    Investors love data – and a Free Report is a great way to judge a potential partner for future business. After all, opting into a form is a pretty low-risk proposition… so if you can deliver even a decent basic overview of the past 5 years within your market, and perhaps some quotes from local media, brokers, and other sources of information… you’ll have high-quality content to offer.

    And that’s the big goal here, folks… it’s all about high-quality content.

    Our sites deliver some great Free Reports that you can customize and brand with your information, plus easy-to-implement Lead Pages to accompany each report. That’s included with every plan we offer.

    But the best part – you can create unlimited amounts of Free Reports and Lead Pages on each site.

    So get out there and start writing!

    Or get ready to hire someone who can help you deliver a great Local Market Report.

    Use Great Data and Tell Powerful Stories

    If you can use data and stories to show folks how you’ll solve their real estate problems, you will win.

    In this week’s Coaching Call, I’m going to let you show you exactly how easy this is to do… plus, I’ll show you some easy and free sources of data on your local market that you can use to start building an awesome, totally unique Free Report for your market…. and you’ll get a ton of great ideas that you can start implementing for your business right away.

    I’ll even tell you how to turn your reports into Press Releases that get picked up by the local media… I’ve done it before for clients, and it’s the same techniques that have gotten me and my clients interviewed on the radio, by newspaper reporters, and filmed on television.

    There is simply no better advertisement for your business than getting covered by the local media… the best part is that it’s totally free!

    Much like our weekly Coaching calls… they’re free for our Members, at least.

    So sign up for that call right now – I’m looking forward to telling you all about how to add some serious value to your business (and bottom line).

    And if you’re not already a member… sign up now!

  • Video Marketing For Real Estate Investor Websites: Good Idea or Bad?

    Video Marketing For Real Estate Investor Websites: Good Idea or Bad?

    Video marketing can generate huge traffic and great conversions, or… it can suck the life right out of your message.

    Welcome to another edition of the Carrot Test Kitchen… where we break down our recipes and show you how to create insanely great lead generation sites for your real estate business.

    Today’s post will tell you how to set up a great, low-cost video marketing campaign that (if it’s done right) can really help move your business forward.

    Fortunately, it’s really easy to add video to your InvestorCarrot site… and to get some great benefits from Google’s traffic at the same time.

    In this post I’ll show you how to add video to your InvestorCarrot sites, plus give you a great example of a video to watch right now… and tell you what *not* to do.

    First, why does video marketing matter to real estate investors?

    Video marketing is particularly important for real estate investors, because when you use it properly, it can really help to grow your business.

    Think of your video like an automated salesperson for your business… once you record that video, it can be played again and again to anyone who is looking for your services, day or night, on weekends and holidays… without the bother of an interrupting phone call, while eliminating the hassle of having to say the same thing again and again.

    A great video is more than just a commercial for your business – it builds trust for a great beginning to your relationship with a new client.

    A great YouTube marketing video sets the stage for negotiations by showing off your credibility and describing how you do business.

    A truly great marketing video helps the viewer to trust you, like you, and want to do business with you.

    On the flip side, a bad video can really turn people off.

    If you’re showing your potential clients a cheesy video that’s heavily scripted with obvious sales language, loaded with stock photography and drowning in clip art, what are they supposed to think about you and your business?

    To put it another way…

    If you never show someone your own voice and use your own face, how are they supposed to trust you?

    See, here’s where real estate investment is very different from a household product that’s advertised on the television.

    If you’re selling something like shampoo or root beer, you don’t have to convince the consumer that you’re trustworthy or credible… just that the shampoo will bring you that silky, luxurious hair you’ve been wanting, or that this root beer will deliver more delicious flavor than any root beer they’ve ever had.

    When you’re selling products, trust can really help… but it’s not essential.

    But when you’re trying to convince someone to let you buy their property or sell them an investment, trust is utterly critical. It’s everything. Without trust, you don’t have a deal.

    And yet I see so many real estate investment companies using these terrible little $5 videos they bought online, probably late at night after a few drinks… and now they’re probably wondering why no one is watching and why their business isn’t growing.

    Would you want a $5 salesperson to represent your business?

    In most big companies, the top salesperson is the second-highest-paid in the company… right after the CEO.

    Sales is the life blood of businesses. Without sales, there is no revenue, and without revenue, your company will die.

    Exactly why would you trust a $5 sales video with the life blood of your business?

    Don’t get me wrong… I don’t think you need to spend a ton of money on making a video in order for it to be effective.

    In fact, we’ve found that most real estate customers are turned off by flashy marketing loaded with gimmicks. They really are just looking for a credible, trustworthy person to help them take care of business.

    You really don’t need to do more than just talk into a webcam to make a decent sales video.

    These few things will help you to make a great video marketing piece:

    • High quality audio (i.e. a great microphone)
    • High quality video (i.e. a decent camera)
    • Good lighting
    • Nice setting
    • Clean editing

    You can find someone in most cities who already has the equipment and pay them for a few hours of help… generally under $500 can get you a handful of pretty good short videos.

    If you’ve got the budget you should definitely be hiring great people to make your videos even better.

    Want to see an example of a decent low-cost marketing video?

    Check this out:

    Sell House Fast in Portland Oregon: 4 Easy Steps

    They’ve got almost 10,000 views on that video, wow!

    Their other video has a more reasonable view count – 352.

    What I like about this couple is that they’re showing off themselves – sure, they’ve dressed up to film the video and put on their best smiles, but it’s genuine and authentic.

    Side note – I checked out their site, and there are a lot of reasons their site won’t get very many conversions… it’s got good credibility, but it makes it hard for folks to sign up for the offer… those folks need to Watch the InvestorCarrot Demo and make the switch! Any of our affiliates know these folks and want to sign them up? :~)

    But they did the smart thing of actually using the description on YouTube to pull traffic over to their site by using links and a lot of the most commonly used search terms. Since Google owns YouTube, the videos will show up at the top of the search (even if their site isn’t ranked that high), so this can be a great way to get traffic to your site

    Plus, it looks like they got a few of their friends to comment and share the video (which helps to boost credibility/

    Those are all really great video marketing practices!

    Now let me show you how easy it is to add a video to your InvestorCarrot site from YouTube.

    First, get the video up on YouTube and copy the link to the video.

    In another window, open up the post or page where you want to embed the video.

    Then click the snazzy little “Embed Video” button.

    This nifty little window will pop up, and just paste the YouTube (or Vimeo) link into the form.

    That’s it! How simple was that?

    If you’ve got any questions: A full tutorial is available for Carrot Members here.

    And if you’re not already a Carrot Member, check out the reasons you should be!  Watch our Demo Video right now!

  • How Affiliate Marketers Can Use the Storytelling Secrets of Pixar to Make Money

    How Affiliate Marketers Can Use the Storytelling Secrets of Pixar to Make Money

    Quick Note – Our Affiliate Contest is Taking Off! There’s a few people leading the pack, but there’s plenty of room for you to jump in. Go check out the contest now – and if you’re not already an InvestorCarrot Affiliate, sign up here – it’s fast and free!

    You know Pixar is the ONLY movie company never to take a loss, right?

    All of their movies have been successes at the box office (although Cars 2 was kind of a dud, it still earned big $$$$).

    Their secret storytelling formula was leaked and tweeted out, and when we saw it… whoa! It’s pure gold for anyone who is engaged in affiliate marketing – really, content marketing in general. You know why?

    Storytelling is the key to successful sales.

    No matter how good of a storyteller you are, you can always be better.

    We’ve got a powerful video for you here… even tho the audio is pretty lame, the content is great.

    In the time it takes to watch an episode of the Office, you could be lining up the strategy that will make you thousands of dollars – and help you win some cool stuff in our affiliate contest.

    In this video you’ll learn:

    • The exact formula Pixar has used to write every single movie they’ve made – (none of their movies have ever taken a loss – that’s a first in Hollywood)
    • How to use Pixar’s character development tricks to create sales content that builds trust, credibility, and engages your audience more than ever before
    • Fast, easy ways to get “unstuck” when you’ve got writers block and are struggling to put out that next content piece
    • Why you should never ever try to make “perfect” content… and why you should always begin at the end to get the best results.

    You’re not already signed up???

    Join our Affiliate Program now!

     

  • [Real Estate Heat Map Results] Where Are Sellers Clicking On Your Real Estate Website

    [Real Estate Heat Map Results] Where Are Sellers Clicking On Your Real Estate Website

    This article is the first in our Carrot Test Kitchen series – it’s a series of posts that help you to dissect the secret recipes we use to generate thousands of leads for real estate agents and investors across thousands of websites around the USA.
    heatmap-results-header
    Ever heard of “real estate heat maps”? We’ll show you how motivated sellers interact with your website and how to make your website more effective…

    Are you putting lots of effort into building a high-converting real estate website to pull in buyers, sellers or investors… but not getting the results you want?

    There are two main problems that we often see on real estate sites:

    1)   The site is getting no visitors, and

    2)   The site’s visitors aren’t submitting their information.

    The first problem is usually solved with SEO content when:

    1)   The site doesn’t have good content,

    2)   The content is not optimized to reach the search terms that people in the local market are actually using, or

    3)   The site’s competitors are ranking higher in a search.

    There are quite a lot of other tricks to boost traffic to your site, and we’ll be talking about that again real soon…. But today, I want to help you out with the second main problem we see:

    What are people doing on your real estate website?

    It’s critical that the design of your site is set up to actually convert visitors to leads.

    Although it’s utterly crucial, conversions are often overlooked when average people are putting together their websites. Too often they hire designers who are obsessed with aesthetics… rather than results.

    Those folks need to quit calling themselves marketing experts… because they’re artists. Most art doesn’t sell. It hangs there, looking pretty… but it’s not selling your business.

    Are you trying to create art, or are you trying to get real estate leads?

    Listen, I get in this argument with designers a lot… so please don’t send me a bunch of angry emails about how design matters… I know it matters. It’s just that it doesn’t matter if it’s pretty… it matters if it works. Like with my accountant – I don’t care if my accountant is pretty, I care about what happens if I get audited.

    When you’re setting up your real estate site, it’s not how it looks… it’s how it works.

    That’s the really cool thing about real estate heat maps – one of the many tools that we use at Carrot to test out our theories of web design… because we don’t even trust ourselves – we want to know that our system is built on proven data about what works before we commit your hard-earned cash – and more importantly before you shift the marketing of your business to our system. We know your business is super important to you… just like ours is to us.

    So what’s a real estate heat map anyway, and how can you use it to generate more leads online??? 

    Back to the point, thanks… in this context, a heat map is a generated picture of where visitors to the website move their mouse and where they click on the page.

    Below I’m gonna put a few examples of a heat map that we generated for a user’s site, and give you a few key points on what works so well on this design.

    Brittany sent us a quick email after watching one of our webinars, asking for help getting more leads… we were able to double her conversion rate with just a couple of simple changes that I’ll get to soon.

    Check out these heat maps (the site is greyed out, with little points of light showing where people have lingered with their mouse or clicked – the “hotter” the click spot, the more often it’s clicked).

    real estate investing website heat map

    What did you notice on that heatmap?

    See all of the bright spots? The Orange and Yellow spots are where a lot of people click… indicating things that the motivated sellers felt were really important.

    …94% of clicks happen on the top of the page…

    First off, 94% of clicks happen on the top of the page. The vast majority of web visitors to any given site don’t bother to scroll down – in fact, they make the decision to stay or go on to another site within 2.3 seconds.

    Side note: That statistic is valid across websites in general – on our investment sites, we tend to get about 8 seconds per page on average – 4 times more engagement than average, but still a lightning-fast choice to stay or go. You only have microseconds to reach your target audience – just another reason that your content and design matter so much.

    There are a few great lessons to learn right away from this click map…. 

    1)   People are clicking in many spots. The clicks aren’t just happening in one spot… visitors to this real estate website are clicking through to find information that answers their questions. The site is designed to appeal to a specific audience (sellers), so it’s validating to know that different visitors to the site are finding what they’re looking for on the site – and then submitting their information.

    2)   Titles matter a lot. Check out the title of the top menus – these titles are designed to appeal directly to people who need to sell. “We buy houses in Baltimore”, “Get A Cash Offer”, “Sell My House Fast” and a contact form right on the front page that asks people to put in their address, phone, and email first thing.

    3)   Customers want to know about the company before they submit their info. Check out how red the spot over the testimonials is – not only are people clicking a lot on that page, but they’re thumbing through the testimonial mini-display on the bottom right of the page. Testimonials are a huge way to create credibility for your business… more on that in a minute.

    Where is your credibility on your own real estate website?

    It’s a really common problem that hurts a ton of great real estate agents and investors… when people get to the site they need to have a compelling reason to give over their personal information. Think about it… real estate is the largest investment most people ever make in their lives. There’s no piece of real estate more intimate than someone’s home.

    And yet…

    So many real estate sites don’t build trust or credibility.

    In fact, there are 3 key factors that I wanna mention that are critical to successfully designing a site that converts – and I’ll tell you how we’ve used them to design the Carrot sites like this example that are generating great leads.

    Credibility, Content, and Contact

    Check out this graphic – I’ve broken down the links on the page into numbers, so you can see the percentage of page visitors that clicked on each link or form.

    Even more great lessons here… 

    As you can see, 33% of the clicks are for Credibility, 24% is on the Content (which is written to develop trust and credibility while reducing the fear and anxiety that most people who need to sell now are feeling), and 43% of the clicks on the home page are actually converting – they’re contacting members using the forms.

    Now, keep in mind that the percentages are recording just clicks on the home page – a lot of other conversions happen on the lead pages that we’ve optimized for the local market.  That means that people are most often giving their info over to get a free report or another valuable tool… 43% of the clicks on the home page isn’t always the main source of leads. It just depends on how the site is being promoted, and where the majority of traffic is directed.

    I really want to emphasize that the mix of those 3 factors is critical to a successful lead generation site.

    Content pulls people through search engine traffic, but it has to create Credibility once people arrive… or they just won’t Contact you.

    BONUS: 1 Minute Tweak That Doubled The Conversion Rate To Leads

    One more thing… I promised that I’d tell you the simple fix that we did on this page that doubled conversions… it’s so crazy simple that we were totally surprised that it worked so well.

    We increased the size of the bar that says “Click to Continue” on the opt-in form and changed the color to Orange.

    Yup, that’s it.

    When this Carrot member got in touch, her site was converting well… but she’d made the size of the Continue button pretty small and black… so we ran a split test – half of the visitors to the site saw the small button, and the other half saw the larger button (we also changed the color to yellow).

    In just one month of running the test, visitors to the large-button site submitted their info twice as much as those who saw the small button. Wow!

    Even after doing this stuff for years, it’s crazy to see what a big difference such a small change can make.

    That’s why we’re constantly testing different sites. We love to learn the nitty-gritty details that make all the difference… we don’t rely upon assumptions, and we certainly don’t make our websites to be pretty – although we do think they look nice. Most important – we design them to be effective.

    For marketing folks who love data, real estate heat maps are a fantastic tool.

    This Is All Built Into Your Carrot Websites Already!

    The beauty with everything we walked through in this post is that everything is already baked right into your Carrot websites. We’re constantly running tests with our members and making tweaks to improve how well our system works for you.

    We get paid up to $6,000/mo by large companies to do this same kind of work for them… but you get this as part of your Carrot membership for no extra cost. Why? Simply because we believe in results over anything else and are continually improving our system to help you get better results.

    Keep An Eye Out For More Articles Like This!

    We’ll be posting lots more info on the tips, tricks, and techniques we use to improve SEO, conversions, and get great results for Carrot customers… so if you’re not already getting our emails, make sure you sign up now! And if you want a website that truly generates leads for your business, go check out our different member plans to join Carrot and leverage our marketing knowledge and testing to generate more leads for your own real estate investing company. 

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