Are Your Clients Getting What They Want? Caribou?

January 22, 2010
Volume 3 Issue #12

Over the recent holidays we had a delicious (my opinion) caribou (sort of like reindeer who roam the Alaskan tundra in herds) dinner. It was a present from my son who lives in Alaska. I really liked it but I'm not sure most of the people I know would have enjoyed it as much as I did. I may have been influenced a little bit because it was from my son and it took a lot of effort to bring it from the tundra thousands of miles away to our home.

My caribou culinary adventure stimulated some website thoughts. I have to admit, I spend a lot of time thinking about websites and it doesn't take much to get me going. Actually, my thoughts could apply to just about any client interaction but for this newsletter I am going to stick to how it applies to real estate websites.

The beginning of the year is a great time to look at your website and your client presentations and examine them through the eyes of the prospective clients. The big question to ask is, are you giving them what they want? All too often we give them what we think is important or the company line without any consideration of what matters to the client.

How do you find out what is important to the client? If you are working with a website, do some research. Find out what people are searching for. Ask your past clients and friends what they searched for when looking for their homes. Check out the website of agents who are known to be effective on the web to see what is emphasized on their websites.

My bet is that local listings and unique, useful information about the area or areas they were interested in top the list. There is also a good chance some unique information about a phase of real estate such as short sales or foreclosures is on that list.

Now take a look at your website. Does it match what your prospects want?

If your website doesn't match up with clients wants you may have a "caribou website".

Your site could be a "caribou real estate website" if:

• You like it but most people don't find it so appetizing.
• Someone close to you built your site, so you are attached to it but the rest of the world isn't.
• Your site is so similar to thousands of other real estate websites that visitors can't pick you out of the herd.
• You've had your site a long time and it is outdated but you just haven't had the time to update and make it more relevant... this is an old caribou that needs to be removed from the herd.

What do you do once you have determined your site is running with the caribou?

• Take some action!
• Make sure your site appeals to today's visitors.
• Stand out from the herd; make your site unique, give it a makeover.
• Get help from someone who stays current knows what they are doing.    
   

One more thought. Some "caribou sites" may be OK if the target of the site is a very particular niche and it has unique content. Niche sites don't have to appeal to everyone.

PS We have a delicious recipe for caribou wrapped in bacon and marinated in red wine we would be willing to share but we aren't anticipating much demand for it.

Tech Tip
Add a countdown timer to your website to create some immediacy for buyers considering taking advantage of the home buyer and first time buyer tax credits available until April. A count down timer is a simple piece of code that can be added to most websites. If you need help, give us a call.

In The Works

• Special Blog product (This will really make blogging easy)
• New Special Reports
• Drip Email program
• More editing options