While most agents are not even on
the web yet, the ones already there perhaps fall into two categories:
- Those who went out and bought or took advantage of a free minimal, entry-level,
off-the-shelf template web site and say, "Whew! Now I can finally tell my prospects
that have a web site, too."
- Those who paid extra money to get a custom web site; one that looks different---not a
rubber stamp image---from all their competitor agents in their marketing region.
The value to the custom site is that you can add valuable content that
will attract prospects like sticky paper and keep them glued to your site.
Adding valuable links are not only easy, they give your prospects
reason to stay, and more important, to come back and visit again. You become the valuable
resource in their minds.
Let's say that you and three other agents are being evaluated by a
buyer who's moving to your city. During your meeting with the buyer you wisely choose to
be interested instead of interesting and as a result, he ends up telling you his entire
life history.
In fact, he saw that you were so interested in him (not in yourself and
your fabulous accomplishments) that he ended up meeting with you not just for a half-hour
as he'd indicated, but for an hour and fifteen minutes. Later, you find that he spends
only twenty minutes with each of the other agents he interviewed.
Knowing this, you'd feel pretty good about yourself and your chances of
being chosen to be his buyer's agent. Right? And why? Because you equate the excessive
time you were granted with some magical chemistry that occurred. And you're probably
right. We typically give more time to people we like. People who are interested in us. In
fact, we "stick" around them.
A web site works the same way. If your site is packed with content and
links that overtly demonstrate that you're on the web not merely to just be interesting,
but to actually be interested in your visitor's needs, your visitor will stick around in
your site far longer.
How do you make your site sticky? You include stuff other agents don't.
Yes, your site needs basics like various mortgage, moving and salary, calculators;
weather, map, school and crime info, and links to city information sites, but these
city-related links usually don't go far enough. To be sticky, your site needs to zero-in
on local info beyond these. Don't just send visitors to some big community web site in
your city and expect them to drill down to find the specifics. Drill down yourself, find
the exact URL of the page the specific info is on and put that link on your site.
Here are some ideas for links to add: Let's start with golf courses.
Add a subhead called "Local Golf" that links to a directory of all local
courses, and then below it, individual links to each course by name.
Include links to a number of hospitals, fire department, local
emergency plans (tornado, hurricane, earthquake), clubs, museums, tourist attractions,
non-profit groups, city history and the official city government departments, phone
numbers of each utility, a link to each local school's web site beneath a heading such as
"Yournewcity School District. Have that heading be a hotlink leading to the
district's very own web site.
Include links to specific categories of business and professional
sources that relate to moving and/or relocation: storage, truck rental, handymen, concrete
work, carpet and drapery sites, etc. For a great example of a sticky site, look at the
local information for the Lake Tahoe area on Schaller and Schaller.
More than anything, buyers want to look at homes on the web. So add a
link to an MLS search site such as HomeSeekers or HomeStore. If possible, link directly to
the exact page in the national MLS search site that covers your own marketing area. This
will save your visitor work in drilling down to find it.
And that's mainly what being sticky is all about. A sticky web site
keeps the visitor in your site longer because the site reflects the visitor's areas of
interest, not just information about you. And the more time he spends in your site the
more likely you are to gain a buyer. You are your site.
Bill Koelzer
