NEW YORK — When marketing is your lifeline to your clients, hearing your website sucks is never a good thing, but sometimes you have to accept the bad to get to the good.
That was the topic of discussion on the Inman Connect New York panel titled “Your Website Is The Worst. Here’s What To Do About It,” moderated by Ryan Bokros. Panelists Morgan Carey, CEO of Real Estate Webmasters, and Mary Capella, VP Platforms and e-Business with ERA, gave their top three things to consider for agents who are evaluating (or re-evaluating) their websites.
1. User experience: Consider what consumers use your site for and be sure that your site is platform responsive in this mobile world.
2. The consumer: It’s not about you. If consumers can’t find what they are looking for, they’ll move on.
3. Your brand: Make sure your site positions you as a local expert. And both panelists agreed that the name of the game here is authenticity. Regardless of how you write your agent bio, be sure that it represents you online and that you embody it in real life.
Capella said the key is to think about who you are and let your voice come forward.
Carey agreed. He said at the end of the day, reinventing the wheel with a customized website (which almost no agents truly need) is unnecessary. He sees the bigger opportunity being in focusing on branding through content.
Capella chimed in and agreed while stressing the importance of making sure that your brand is consistent.
When it comes to advertising, Carey said to focus on the “low hanging fruit” such as Google AdWords and Facebook Ads. And he said, work your leads. You don’t need more leads if you are having trouble converting them; you need to work on conversion.