Y.I.M.S Blog

The weather has been warming up around my hometown of Alameda, CA. I live on the third floor of my apartment complex so it can get a bit toasty during this time. Being the Californian that I am, when the weather takes a turn to the sunny side I think of two things: car wash and ice cream.

One of my favorite things about getting ice cream from a local parlor is the whole experience itself. There’s got to be some justification for paying the price of a whole half gallon of Safeway Select brand for a measly one scoop at the store. So what is it that gets me to make this financially disastrous decision?

I walk into a local shop and stare excitedly into the beautifully polished display cases housing the buckets of dairy miracles and salivating over the possibilities. What will it be today? Good ole’ faithful Mocha Almond Fudge? Or the delectable Mint Chocolate Chip? Or perhaps the nostalgia-inducing Rocky Road? This is where the whole experience of being at a ice cream parlor kicks in to effect. ”Excuse me, may I try _____?” The ipod-clad high school student manning the station starts to bring out the arsenal of tiny white spoons and begins to dish out samples to my curiosity’s satisfaction.

What in the world does this have to do with on line lead generation you say? Well I’m glad you asked that question. Let’s walk through the typical consumer’s experience for someone searching for homes in Alameda, CA for example.

1) www.google.com

2) Search “Alameda, CA homes for sale”

3) Click on one of the sponsored links that entice me with a eye catching value proposition:  “Free Alameda MLS Search. See thousands of photos, addresses, reduced prices…”

4) I’m automatically redirected to a realtor’s website

5) HIT THE BACK SPACE AS FAST AS I CAN!

What just happened? I landed on a website with an terribly frightening REGISTRATION page demanding my personal goods. Talk about assuming the close here… Why would I voluntarily furnish information (and accurate information at that) at the very beginning of my search process when, as far as I am concerned, I’ve been assured of nothing?

Could you imagine walking into your local ice cream shop and the first thing they ask you to do when you want to try a flavor is to require $3.25 payment in advance? Does this not violate the inherent entitlement that you automatically assume as a consumer?

The analogy holds tight and  secure when it comes to online lead generation. Don’t expect an online consumer in 2009, with the plethora of registration-free solutions available, to leave anything more than asdf@asdf.com or 555-5555 on your menacing registration form at the beginning of their search process. NO NO NO!

Let’s learn from our childhood experiences at the ice cream parlor, when it was not frowned upon to ask for samples of this and that flavor, and apply it to lead generation 101.

May I suggest the following “Baskin Robbin’s Approach”

1) Whether you are managing your own keywords, employing a third party to do it for you, or better yet using HomeGain’s Buyerlink to drive traffic, make sure your LANDING PAGE IS OPTIMIZED

In other words, when a consumer who is searching for “Alameda, CA Homes for Sale” clicks on your Pay- Per- Click advertisement, make absolutely sure that the very next page that the consumer “lands” on is most relevant to that consumer’s expressed expectation:  TO  SEE HOMES IN ALAMEDA, CA.

If you can manipulate your IDX solution to produce just the Alameda, CA homes in the MLS, you are already ahead of 90% of the realtor’s landing pages out there today.

Then, allow the consumer to search unlimited previews. They will not be able to see “exclusive” information such as the address or MLS #. Even the ice cream parlor doesn’t give you a sugar cone with the sample =). Allow the consumer to execute 2, 3 or even 4  FULL DETAIL page views where they can get all the information they were expecting. Then, after the pre-determined # of “free” views transpire, you can ask for the consumer’s information.

At this point, the consumer has hopefully spent a couple of minutes on your idx solution (an eternity in a world of 1.2 second attention spans), and has been assured to some degree that your website and your idx solution in particular, has all of the information that is needed for his/her home search experience. This is what we call in the industry a “delayed registration module”.

I’ve probably raised more questions than I’ve answered, but that was really my intent in this post.

In conclusion, here are some questions that I think you should walk away with:

1) Is my landing page optimized?

2) Do I have lead capture implemented into my MLS search process?

3) Is my lead capture module an upfront registration or delayed registration?

4) Does my current idx solution allow me to manipulate custom searches, i.e. just pulling up the MLS search results of a particular city?

5) Does my current idx solution allow me to customize my lead capture experience?

6) Out of 100 visitors that I pay to drive to my website, how many are registering? Out of that number, how many of them leave valid contact information?

Feel free to ask me any questions at 510-420-4272.

All this talk about ice cream + sunny day today = a trip to ice cream parlor.

written by David Yim