Second of a four part series - "Making Money With Your Web Site"

The first article in this series took a look at successful Web marketing principles. In this second article, we will study lessons we can learn from two successful non-real estate sites and how we can incorporate what we learn into our own sites.

Greg Gorman, one of my top CyberStars®, is an expert at providing outstanding customer service. He had this to say in an article on customer service he wrote for my new book:

"Let me share one of the most important things we have learned about our business: our business model is not another agent or brokerage. Instead, it is companies already providing outstanding customer service such as The Ritz-Carlton, Nordstrom's and Lexus. It is these companies we have studied and from which we have taken ideas and translated them into services we offer."

If you are not making much money from your site, you would do well to follow Greg's advice when it comes to your own site. By studying successful sites from other industries and by creatively applying their successful features to your own sits, your site will be more profitable.

Toyota's site provides a starting point. One thing I am sure you will note if you take the time to go there is that Toyota's splash page does not feature a large photo and bio data on Fujio Cho. Who is Fujio Cho, you ask? He is Toyota's president, but you don't really care about that when you are considering buying a Toyota, do you? You go to Toyota's site to learn about products, features and services, a lesson that more agents should apply to their own sites. I know this is hard for most agents to swallow, but consumers do not care about the agent, at least at first. They are looking for homes, for information on buying and selling homes and for area information. Your splash page will do more for your site if it reflects this.

In other words, your site will be more successful if you focus on your inventory and your services, not on yourself. This is not to say that information on you should not appear on your site. It should, but your initial page will yield better results if you feature what the consumer is interested in, not on you, the agent.

As for design, note that Toyota has created a clean, neat "splash page" (first page), one that minimizes word clutter by using pull down menus. Everything that Toyota has to offer is accessible here, but the page remains clean and easy to navigate. If more agents would apply this concept to their own sites, their sites would be more appealing to consumers.

In addition to minimizing clutter on its splash page, Toyota demonstrates the fact that the fewer words you use on your site, the more success you will have. Whenever possible, Toyota gets the point across by using images rather than words. Their "Model Selector" demonstrates this. Clicking on this feature opens an animated graph, and the graph gets the point across more effectively than do mere words. As you review your own site, then, look for areas where you can maximize impact by substituting graphics for words. If, for example, you or your company is strong in your market area, a market share comparison chart or graph using readily available MLS data would be a good addition to your site.

Note that you can translate Toyota's site into Spanish with one click. I see more and more signs in Spanish in my own area. Banks here allow ATM users to choose either English or Spanish. My health care provider offers telephone instructions in either English or Spanish. If that is true in your area, it just might be telling you that the Spanish-speaking population is large enough so that major corporations are taking this into account. If they factor this into their marketing, vis a vis their Web sites, you probably should do so as well.

Another strong point of Toyota's site is that it makes it easy for the viewer to take action. I am still surprised that too many agent sites make it difficult for the site viewer to take action, i.e., contact the agent, request a relocation package, request a senior's package or request a showing for a listed property. When it comes to listings, for example, most agents provide bare bones information on the property. They show only one exterior photo of the home, they make the visitor search for the "Contact Me For More Information On This Property" link, and they do not include a "Schedule A Showing" link.

Toyota makes it easy to select and buy a car, just as you should make it easy for the consumer to select you, your services and your inventory. Toyota provides complete information while at the same time working hard to increase a buyer's motivation to buy and making it easy for him or her to do so.

The fact that Toyota provides complete information and that I am urging you to follow this same principle might, at first, seem strange. If so, I believe that you fail to realize that marketing today is totally different from what it used to be. Many of us were brought up to believe that the purpose of a newspaper ad was to make the phone ring. In other words, our goal was to give the consumer just enough information to whet their appetite, figuring that they would call us to "fill in the blanks." Most agents follow this outdated principle when it comes to real estate sites.

Toyota's and other large company sites exhibit a different marketing philosophy. They know that the consumer can find out all the information they want on the Web, so they give it to him or her. If I structure my site like we used to structure newspaper ads, I will lose them. My CyberStars® have taught me that there are two main factors that determine who gets the most business off of real estate Web sites:

• The agent who provides the most information on homes, the buying and selling process and the area will get the most leads from his or her site.

• The agent who gets back to a site inquiry first and who has a planned followup system will close more business than agents who don't, which will be the subject of the final article in this series.

There are other elements of Toyota's site we can learn from. Think of ways in which you can apply concepts similar to these to your real estate site.

• Toyota has complete information needed for decision-making, just as you should have for your listings. Such features as multiple photos, photos that can be enlarged, 360 degree tours of both the interior and exterior of a vehicle, specifications, accessories, model comparisons and financing information are all of value to the consumer. All are on the site and are easily accessible.
• Toyota's 7 page "eBrochure" should instantly give you an idea for your own site. It can be viewed, printed, mailed, and even emailed to your PDA. Any Web designer can implement this feature for any brochure you create, and there are a number of ways you can use it. You should, obviously, include a brochure for each listing. You should also consider a brochure showing your area, one for each neighborhood you serve, one that discusses your referral services, one explaining your relocation services, etc.
• Toyota provides ways to "improve" the car the consumer might want by accessorizing it. Sharp agents such as CyberStar® Marlow Harris have applied this principle to their sites using photo imaging software. For an example, click here. Marlow's "before and after" photos which "accessorize" the property, can dramatically increase a viewer's desire to contact her about the property, since he or she now sees its potential.

Another industry site, Lands' End, can give you more ideas for your site if you study it. By looking at some of its features and by creatively applying them to your own site, you will make more money from your site.

Lands' End provides complete information and photos of their inventory, as does Toyota. It allows consumers to shop in their own language, provides the opportunity to subscribe to an email newsletter and more. Above all, Lands' End's "My Model" gives the creative agent a number of ideas for building or revising his or her site.

"My Model" allows you to customize a model ("mannequin") to match your shape. You can then select one item or many, try different colors, select any number of accessories and buy what you select online.

How can you apply "My Model" to your site? By examining "My Model," you find that Lands' End makes it easy for the consumer to buy not just the outfit but to buy far more than he or she intended to buy. How? By providing complete information on the desired item and other choices, in this case graphically.

Applying this principle will definitely improve your "hit ratio" with regards to listings on your site. Most of my Web site analysis and coaching clients come to me having only one photo and bare bones information on their listings. You will be much more successful if you see that your job is to provide every bit of information that would make it easier for the consumer to make a decision to contact you, just like the Lands' End site does.

You might take the photo imaging "before and after" principle we mentioned at Marlow Harris's site and apply it to your listings. Find a Virtual Assistant who is good at photo imaging, then have him or her "spruce up" a new listing, and include the before/after pictures. You will find that you can create a stronger desire for the home by doing so....and that you will sell more of your own listings from your site.

Take a moment to look at your site from the standpoint of what you provide for your listings. Ask yourself if you currently feature:

• Complete photos (exterior front and back, complete interior photos, photos of the area surrounding the home, etc.)
• A description of the property written by the current owners. (Click here for a good example)
• Virtual tours, especially those you create using the excellent VisualTour.com
• Area tours that include virtual tours, again created using VisualTour.com
• Articles, menus and photos from restaurants near the property. Click here for a nice lineup of local restaurants that CyberStar® Dianne Dunn has compiled for her site, as well as CyberStar® Patti Oates's restaurant list here.
• Personalized school information, not just links to the school district! Consumers want information on transportation, pupil/teacher ratios, programs for the academically gifted and challenged, sports, music, art, foreign languages, after school activities...and much more.
• Maps showing the location of the home and the location of important area sites such as hospitals, shopping centers, restaurants, etc.
• Plats and floor plans for the property
• All documents a buyer will see, in downloadable form: sales contract, loan application, termite inspection, mold forms, disclosure packet, closing statements, etc.)
• Financing alternatives and lender links
• Downloadable flyer and multi-page brochures
• Your marketing proposal. Sellers are "interviewing" you without your knowledge by looking at your site, and this can be a real tie breaker. For an example, go to CyberStar® Wynne Achatz's site and click on her photo to see her professionally done marketing proposal.

Establishing these content areas increases your up front work load, of course. Once you have created them, however, it is just a "fill-in-the-blanks" template operation which takes very little time. Most importantly, having these features will dramatically increase your income if you handle your site inquiries promptly and properly. This will be the subject of the fourth article in this series.

Am I suggesting that you spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on your site, as Toyota and Lands' End have? Of course not. What I am suggesting is that you understand and internalize the concepts these and other such sites exemplify. Once you understand them, use your creativity. Find ways to apply them to your own site.

I use the following list when I do a Web site evaluation for a client. It shows you how agents just like you have focused on applying creative, money-making principles to their sites. Taking a moment to see how each one exemplifies a particular feature of a successful site will pay you big dividends.

Most agents now have a Web site, yet few are making any money from their sites. Your site can be one of the ones that does make big money if you expand your horizons and get your creative juices flowing. Study successful non-real estate and real estate sites such as the ones mentioned in this article. Apply their principles and techniques to your site. Finally, make the commitment to invest the time and money it takes to do make your site an effective one. By doing so, you will surely join those few agents who successfully capture the Web consumer in their area!

For Part One of this series from Allen on "Making Money With Your Web Site", click here.

Editor's Note: Be sure not to miss the recent audio interview with Allen Hainge "What Makes a Money Making Web Site".

Allen F. Hainge, of Reston, VA is a national technology speaker/trainer who shows sales associates and companies how to make money using today’s technology. Allen teaches courses for 5 REALTOR® Institute programs around the country and has been a featured technology speaker at ten NAR annual conventions, three RS Sell-A--Brations, and for Howard Brinton's StarPower conference. He taught the nationwide RS 206 technology course for 10 years and has been a featured technology and marketing speaker for state and local REALTOR® Associations, conventions, RS Chapters, Women’s Councils, companies and franchises in 42 states....always to rave reviews! He has just released his second book, “Secrets of the CyberStars®: Making Money With Today’s Technology.” Over 200 agents have benefited from his personal Web site evaluation and analysis coaching. To learn more about how Allen can help you succeed in your real estate business, please visit www.afhseminars.com.