A market shift forces agents to rethink almost everything that they do. One crucial area that you may have to reassess is your internet strategy, which sits at the crossroads of expense management and lead generation. Here’s the catch: Generating quality leads from the internet is difficult at the best of times. In a shift, it can be downright daunting.

You can’t expect to meet today’s challenges with yesterday’s tools and expect to be in business tomorrow. If your website isn’t consistently generating appointments with motivated buyers and sellers, then it isn’t earning its keep. The only measure of an effective website is how many appointments it generates that give you business. If you’re not thinking mobile, then you’re not ready for a shift.

A good website will be content-rich and will focus on the shelf life of its content, as well as delivering what its buyers and sellers want. You must meet and exceed their expectations or they’ll go elsewhere.

With buyers, give them access to all of the listings, as well as a system to provide notifications of new listings. Additionally, give them information that they want about schools, neighborhoods, communities, and the ever-so-complicated home buying process.

With sellers, give them free home evaluations with better insight and data than Zillow. Give them market statistics and information on the home selling process. Lead generate for traffic, because a great website—and I’ve seen a lot of incredible websites—without any visitors is completely useless. Offline and online marketing is used to drive traffic to the website.

Here are a few topics and features to consider adding to your website:

1. Search the MLS for free best-buy lists
2. Reasons why you should buy in a buyer’s market instead of waiting
3. Five mistakes sellers make in a buyer’s market
4. Five mistakes buyers make in a seller’s market
5. Things you don’t know about financing that could benefit you
6. Instant notifications of homes for sale
7. Find out what your home is worth today
8. Free market reports 
9. The myth of renting versus buying
10. How the market affects you

“You can’t expect to meet today’s challenges with yesterday’s tools and expect to be in business tomorrow.”

There’s no such thing as a bad inquiry, just inquiries that aren’t properly followed up on. Don’t capture a bunch of inquiries if you can’t address them in some way.

There are three keys to successful lead follow-ups:

1. Follow up immediately, within two minutes if possible
2. Have a short-term follow-up plan that includes at least 15 phone calls in the first 90 days
3. Have a long-term follow-up strategy that includes calls, emails, and text messages

Your long-term plan should be one that lasts at least 12 months. Over 80% of sales occur during lead follow-ups. Also, be sure to dedicate specific teams each week to make both the short- and long-term follow up calls.

If you have any questions, you can visit our website at www.RealEstateCareersInUtah.com to sign up for our agent newsletter. There, you can also sign up for our business planning clinic, or you can do so by booking a one-on-one appointment with our team and dive deeper into a valuable conversation about you, your business, and how to thrive in a shifting market. We hope to hear from you soon!