Why Squeeze Pages Generate More Leads Than Online Listing Ads Part 1

September 25, 2009

One of the most interesting results of the recent US housing market crash is it’s effect on real estate professionals.  Of course, the fallout has had tremendous impact on most of them.  I recently consulted a company with a database of US real estate professionals.  Though the database has about 1.4 million records, they said only about 600,000 of the records are still active.  That means about 42% of US real estate professionals have left the business in the past couple of years.

What’s even more interesting is some of the tactics the survivors have adopted for keeping in the business.  Trying times force those who don’t quit to get better at their profession.

One of the most innovative, brilliant ways I’ve seen of inexpensively advertising is using what’s known as a squeeze page.  They are very powerful and (believe it or not) can get even more leads than advertising your listings online!

The biggest problem with online prospects is the sheer anonymity they have when surfing the web.  The only thing you can know about visitors to your real estate website is their IP address.  That only tells you their geographic location and the internet service provider they use.  Even then, there’s no way any internet provider will give you these prospects’ contact info.  Further, it’s thought that only 20-30% of people who visit your website will ever visit it again, regardless of its quality.  So that means even if you have spent thousands of dollars on getting your website search engine optimized, you may only be able to identify and develop relationships with a small fraction of online prospects.

A squeeze page can help this problem dramatically.  It’s a web page whose sole purpose is making someone take a single, specific action.  You are narrowing or ‘squeezing’ their options down to a single choice.  For real estate professionals, that single purpose is getting a prospect’s contact info.  A squeeze page will have no links to your website on it or anywhere else on the page.  You shouldn’t even have your squeeze page on the same domain as your website.  If you do, people will be able to ‘escape’ the squeeze page, go to your website, see whatever info they want, and then leave.

Effective squeeze pages must give compelling reasons for signing up for your mailing list.  So you really need to think about what types of prospects you want.  If you want investors or bargain hunters, make squeeze pages advertising you sell foreclosure/distressed properties.  Make the prospect feel important: tell them you offer these properties to your mailing list before they’re put on MLS, making it easier for them to find a bargain.  Emphasize they’ll receive updates via email so they’ll never miss a property.  Always be very specific on the squeeze page about what information you’re offering.

Filed under: Attracting Buyers/Sellers With Email,Realtor Websites - Best Practices,SEO For Realtor Websites,Technology and Marketing/Selling Lists - Best Practices,Using Email For Attracting Buyers/Sellers

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