Your Online Resource Centre
What Is the Primary Purpose of Your Real Estate Website A Lesson From Schlitz Beer
By: Jason Leister
Why do you have a real estate website?
For what reason are you directing your money, time and attention to a bunch of electrons living out there on the internet somewhere?
Is it because everyone else is? Is it because you've been told that you HAVE to be "on the internet?"
Is the reason to:
While each of the items in the list above IS a worthy business goal, I would argue that they are all byproducts of a successful real estate website, NOT the primary purpose of one.
The primary purpose of your real estate website is to TELL YOUR STORY to the people that want to hear it. This is simple, but it is not easy. Because getting YOUR story into words takes thought.
It takes answering questions like:
These are tough questions. And for that reason, they usually get skipped in the process of putting a real estate website together.
Instead, most real estate website visitors are greeted with something like:
"Mr. John Doe, Your Number One Source for Chicago Real Estate"
Considering there are tens of thousands of real estate professionals in the Chicago area, an opening statement like that on your website tells your visitors one of two things:
And having them think either of those two things is not going to help you create a relationship with your visitor.
But telling your story IS powerful and it is well worth the effort to put it together.
To illustrate, let's look at the example of Schlitz Beer in the early 1900s.
Yes, we're looking at the beer industry to learn something about real estate.
Back then, Schlitz beer was in trouble and its sales were down. In those days, all beers were advertised as "Pure." The beer companies spent a lot of money and time getting that concept in front of as many people as possible.
So many of them said "PURE" so much that it pretty much lost all of its meaning.
In an effort to turn around their fortune, Schlitz hired famous copywriter Claude Hopkins to create an ad campaign for them.
You know what the ad campaign was?
A story. A story about:
The funny thing is, almost every beer maker in the country was doing the exact same thing in their brewing process.
But Schlitz was telling the story. And the results of the campaign confirmed its power: Schlitz vaulted from 5th in the marketplace into a tie for 1st... in just a few months.
That's the power of a compelling story.
And that is what your real estate website is for. To get that story, YOUR unique story out to the people that need to hear it. Tell a compelling story about how your services will BENEFIT your prospects (along with reasons WHY) and there will be no stopping the leads, listings, sales and all of the other good things that will be produced.
Jason Leister, the Real Estate Technology and Marketing Guru (tm), is owner of Computer Super Guy, LLC, a technology firm that helps real estate professionals market their businesses. Visit the Real Estate Technology Guru to subscribe to our free monthly eZine, ProfIT, and receive a FREE copy of our special report "The Truth About Real Estate Websites and Search Engine Optimization." |
