Do you open your emails? If you are like most people, you only open an email 20 to 30 percent of the time.
That also means you open direct mail up to 90 percent of the time. Direct mail is a critical component for receiving an immediate response from prospective clients.
Lead generation is a large part of the real estate business, but you want clients who will immediately interact with your website and contact you for your services.
Direct response marketing can do this for you. Learn more about how direct response ads work and why you need them for your business.
What Is a Direct Response Website?
A direct response website focuses on generating leads. Emphasizing form over function (i.e., it is not necessarily a “pretty” website per se), customers can easily interact with your content.
You are more likely to receive a direct response when funneling website visitors to calls to action. Your response rate should increase if you target your prospective clients with customer-focused, personalized content.
The content on your website should be affordable and measurable, so you do not have to invest in your website's constant overhauls. Professional marketing services should monitor your site traffic to help you convert leads into paying clients.
What to Include in a Direct Response Website
Your direct response campaigns only go as far as the elements used in your marketing strategy. If your website does not include the minimum components, it is a wasted resource.
Knowing even a small amount of web development can help your business. Below are some critical elements that should be a part of any realtor's direct response site.
Researched Keywords
Keywords are an essential part of digital marketing related to your website's visibility on search engine results pages, and they are a critical component in search engine optimization (SEO). Whatever marketing services you consult with should be experienced in SEO.
There are several strategies you can employ with SEO, including local marketing. Local search engine results can increase your site's visibility, increasing the number of regular visitors to your website.
You can convert traffic with a targeted invitation for a direct response when more visitors to your site.
Researched keywords help you stay local and relevant to your target client base. Not only will your name or brand be more recognizable, but you are also likely to be associated with the real estate agency with which you work.
Well-Crafted Copy
Part of inviting a direct response means providing content with which your clients want to engage. As crucial as researched keywords are for visibility and digital relevance, they are also a critical part of well-crafted material.
Although targeted and built to funnel possible leads to action items, your site's content should not be hastily thrown together. Your various landing pages should offer opportunities that invite prospects to action, and these calls to action are often part of a well-developed direct response website.
When crafting copy for your website, you need to choose a focused goal with concise body text for each piece. Your headlines need to be attention-grabbing and evoke a sense of urgency. You should also include an offer prospective clients can not refuse.
Calls to Action
Calls to action are a virtual cornerstone of any direct response marketing campaign. They are the crux of any advertising you create and one of the essential features of a direct response website. Your well-crafted copy naturally invites any direct response if composed as suggested.
Your calls to action are not exclusive to any advertising you produce, and they should be peppered all over your website with features like popups, header banners, chatbots, and more. These calls to action vary based on your direct response marketing campaign.
These are typically the incentivizing element in your copywriting. Your call to action should be clear and straightforward, directing clients to whatever your desired result may be. If you want clients to contact you, browse property listings, and so on, calls to action are a trackable way to get a direct response.
Lead-Capturing Incentives
If you want to generate leads, your calls to action need to provide specific offers to prospective clients. Particular proposals, packed with value, incentivize website visitors to do more than buy a home. Instead of merely selling the customer, you provide an opportunity for them to have an experience that teaches them more about you and your business.
Leads you prospect are more likely to give you the direct response you want when you let them know what is in it for them. Providing prospects with helpful information about the home buying process can solve one of their pain points instead of pressuring them into spending money.
When prospective clients engage with these calls to action, you can require submitting their personal information. Providing their personal contact information takes the pressure off them to act instead of requiring you to follow up with your prospects. At the same time, it saves you time and money prospecting as your incentive captures leads for you.
Follow Up
Following up is an essential part of any direct response marketing campaign. Your lead-capturing incentives have given you the tools to connect with prospective clients without investing in tons of advertising. Instead, you now have a bank of leads to draw from and act.
You could invest in automated follow-up systems that contact clients for you, but it will be most effective if you take action yourself. Depending on how you want to generate leads, you can follow up with clients via phone call, email, direct mail, or some combination.
You can also encourage follow-up on the part of clients. For example, even if they have already input their contact information to participate in a specific, limited-time offer, you can still invite them to follow your site's blog. This sort of invitation always keeps them connected to your business until they are ready to take more action.
What to Include on Direct Response Marketing Landing Pages
No matter the type of advertising you use to generate a direct response, your ads must include a few key elements. Your ad focus needs to be airtight, only promoting one facet of your services or one specific lead magnet, which solves the prospect's problem or pain point.
Eye-catching headlines are essential for any copy, no matter the size or platform. Your ad copy body should be to the point for the few seconds you have a website visitor's attention.
Be sure to communicate the perceived offer of any exclusive, lead-generating incentives is high. Whatever opportunities or resources you promote should include an urgent call to action. If clients do not feel any urgency, they are less likely to act on your direct response ads.
Below are a few examples of where you can include your direct response ads on your website landing pages.
Page Headline
Your landing page headline needs to capture the viewer's eye immediately, and it is not compelling if it does not compel users to scroll further down the page. Your headline needs to point to a solution for customers.
Whether you ask a question and solve it with the landing page, the headline needs to address their problem. You can also format your header with large font sizes and bold, on-brand color schemes to increase the chances of direct response conversions.
Page Fold
A page fold is a visible space visitors see once the page fully loads. If users have to scroll to see more of the page's content, they cross the “fold” on the digital webpage. Ideally, you present the essential information needed before users scroll past the page fold.
Sometimes, you may need to place content beyond the page fold on a direct response website. If you use a long-form sales letter to prompt direct response, you need to provide enough copy to inform the visitors. You can still maintain an impact with a compelling headline and rich, well-crafted content.
Once you are ready to test your page's size, to get a better feel for what viewers will see, use a browser size tool. These tools preview your content overlay to help you avoid crossing the page fold.
Audio and Video
You want streamlined, punchy content when you use a landing page with direct response marketing in mind. That means using anything to grab your viewer's attention, including audio and video. These clips need only be a few seconds in length but just long enough to grab attention.
Depending on how direct you aim to be, you can even use audio or video clips that auto-play when the page loads. If you include a feature like this, ensure that it only lasts a few moments or that users can mute or pause it.
Extra Content
When visitors see a landing page cluttered with excessive text and images, they naturally desire to click away. Visually oversaturated pages deter your attempts at direct response. If page visitors cannot understand the call to action in a few seconds, you've lost your chance.
The best way to capitalize on concise landing pages involves trimming digital fat. Instead of bulky paragraphs of text, consider breaking those into smaller sentences. Use bullet points over large sections, giving your viewers' eyes a break in a wall of text.
When removing text, don't forget to remove excess images. If you have stock photos all over your website, your content will appear similar to the competition's site.
Supporting Trust Area
Even with a compelling page headline and streamlined content elsewhere, you can still use the supporting trust area to provoke a direct response. A supportive trust area can be a small graphic or block of text in your landing pages' margins, and supporting blocks can include testimonials, numbers of clients served, and more.
These supporting blocks should only work to support your overall landing page. You can use them as calls to action, but the goal is to help the page provide an opportunity for response to viewers.
Key Fields
Key fields are an excellent feature for a direct response website. You can split sign-up processes across different pages to increase direct response opportunities. Too many key fields on a landing page appear daunting and diminish chances for conversion and response.
Start with a name and email address on one page, then collect more sign-up details on a secondary page. Spacing your request for information fields allows you to capitalize on viewers' short attention spans if they decide to leave your site halfway through providing their information.
Direct Response Website: Examples of Landing Pages
To help you better understand the ins and outs of a direct response website, examples of web pages like those below can guide you through some ideas.
- Shopify: explore their trial landing pages for sign up; they use a customer-focused headline, bullet points, and as few fields as possible
- Transferwise: exchanges currencies on separate landing pages to avoid confusing users, with a transfer form in the supporting area and more tabs to call users to action
- Wistia uses a one-field form to sign up for a free account, drawing in bright colors, clear fonts, and simple design.
These are just a few examples of successful direct response initiatives.
You can always look at them directly or even consult competitions' pages to determine where your calls for response fill a gap.
How to Get the Direct Response You Want on Your Website
Now that you know what goes into receiving a direct response from prospective clients, you need to know who to consult for the more technical aspects of online direct response marketing. The Website Marketing Pro is here to help.
We are experienced in lead generation and traffic conversion; we also have several strategies to engage your customers and get them to respond. We offer other marketing services, too, so contact us today for a free site audit and see how we can help your business grow.
Need more local marketing tips? Check out our entire Guide to Local Marketing for Real Estate Professionals
