Use an Online Real Estate Survey on Your Website for Feedback and Leads

Is there something more a real estate website can do to generate leads that everyone isn't already doing?

Online surveys on real estate websites are not easy to find, so they meet the unique requirement, but can they actually generate leads? Online surveys not only can generate leads, they can also provide valuable information about your website and how visitors use it. If you put the lead generation second to asking questions, your site can be a better destination and resource for your visitors--and that generates leads.

Step #1: Think Site Improvement First

You may think you know what your visitors want to find on your site, and in many cases you're right. However, your site visitors may have different ideas or want more of something you're already providing. They only way you'll know is to ask. This is especially true if you want to know how people are finding your site; you could be surprised at times.

Action

You don't want to ask too many questions, as they'll shy away from filling out the survey. You may want to be careful about which you make "required" versus optional. Ask how they found your site—and the best format is multiple choice or checkboxes. Ask about which areas of the site they found most helpful, as this also tells you their primary category as a prospect (buyer, seller, etc.). An online survey can give you some very important information about the type of prospects you're attracting, what they like on the site, and what they'd like more of.

Step #2: Think Lead Generation Next

You'll be asking for their email address as a part of the survey form. Their responses will give you prospect segmentation information. Based on their answers, you will know which email list you want them on for follow-up marketing.

Action

When you receive their individual responses, you will know their interests and whether they're buyers or sellers for your follow-up email marketing. The best approach is to have a special report prepared for each list segment to send out to them when you get their survey responses. Mention it in the call-to-action to fill out the survey. You can say something like, "Submit the survey and get an exclusive local real estate market report based on your interests."

Step #3: The Survey

If you're going to do an online survey, you could just build a simple form and have them submit it via email, and that would work. However, using an online survey tool will not only make your survey look more professional, but it will also collect your data in a way that you can use it more efficiently to improve your website.

Action

There are a number of online survey providers, some with a free level and paid enhancements. However, for a good basic survey tool that will report results and give you response information you can use, try Google Forms.

This is a simple example form created in under a half hour on Google Forms. The checkboxes allow multiple answers to a question. The last question gets their comments, suggestions, etc. You don't put the form on your site. Instead, you have a link to it online, and you simply put a call-to-action and the link to take the survey.

You get an individual report for each respondent, but you also get a breakout of responses like the example above. You can quickly see trends that can tell you what people like or found most valuable on your website. You may want to add more of this information or improve what you have. This is an aggregate report for all respondents. However, you'll also receive an individual report so you see if they're buyers or sellers.

The respondent can request a copy of their survey as well. If you present this well with a strong call-to-action, you'll begin to add prospects to your lists and get information to help you improve your website.

To view the original article, visit the WebsiteBox blog.