Leading the Mobile User to Your Website

The Internet has done a lot to change and enhance the way we market and the ways in which consumers can access information about real estate in general and properties specifically in geographical areas. It's all good, but we need to keep pace with advances, and staying ahead of the competition is nice too. Mobile device usage is skyrocketing:

• 91% of people on earth own a mobile phone
• 56% of those are smart phones

Of the seven hours per day in media consumption, here's how we spend our time:

• Mobile - 1.8 hours
• T.V. - 1.5 hours
• PC - 1.6 hours
• Other - 2.1 hours

People are buying online with mobile devices, it's hard to think of a more mobile activity than driving around neighborhoods checking out homes for sale. It's the ideal situation for the real estate professional to take advantage and guide the home shopper to their website. We've come a long way from sign riders with our office phone number or our name on them. We've moved through brochure boxes to website domains on riders. However, we can be more focused than that.

What we need to do better as real estate professionals is to market more like the Internet "affiliate marketing" entrepreneurs. They have perfected marketing on the Web by placing links around the Web that direct the visitor to a "landing page." This page is not just a destination, it's a carefully crafted sales page that balances information the visitor is seeking with a call-to-action to get their contact information or generate a purchase. Let's look at a plan and strategy to do this with a sign rider in front of our listing.

• The rider text: You have some latitude here, as you're putting a site address on your website on the rider. The main consideration is to keep the URL short to make it easy for the prospect to type it into their mobile browser, but you can be creative from there. It could be (if not already taken) Indoor photos at 349StilsonFixer.com for a fixer-upper on Stilson street. Or it could use the MLS number, as in MLS99999.com or any variant that's easy to enter and is available to register and use.

• The landing page: Now we're not just talking about the regular page on your site where you present the listing with photos and text descriptions. You could use a landing page for your listing presentation on the site, but not the other way around. The landing page needs to not only give the visitor complete information, but also needs to call them to take an action. Put the photos and descriptive information on the page, but keep space available prominently placed to make your call-to-action effective.

• The call-to-action: This is up to you. Do you just want them to call you? If so, ask them to do that by offering more detailed information or a showing. Maybe you want their contact information, especially if they rule out your listing when they see the details. Perhaps it doesn't have the bedrooms they want, but you don't want to lose them as a prospect. Since they're likely buyers, offer a list of similar homes in the area with details if they'll fill out a short form with their email address and name. Or you can have them text you at your phone with the address and "similar." There are a number of approaches you can take based on your desired goal.

Change a "suspect" driving around into a "prospect" you're helping by working the mobile angle. Of course, if you don't have a "mobile responsive" website, you're at a major disadvantage when they can't navigate or respond easily on a page simply shrunken down to display on a small screen.

To view the original article, visit the WebsiteBox blog.