An often overlooked benefit of your voicemail is driving traffic to your website.

Savvy agents add their web address into their voicemail. How many voicemails do get everyday? 10 voicemails a day = 3,650 people a year! There are many people who try to contact you everyday. Most of the time the information they are looking for is on your web site (and if it is not, let’s get it on there!) Here are some examples:

“Hello. Thanks for calling, I’m sorry I can’t take your call right now, but please leave me a message and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Don’t forget that you can always view my listings and get free local information online at my website - www.YourDomain.com. Have a great day!”

“This is [NAME] and I’m not in right now, but please leave a message, or for immediate assistance, 24 hours a day, you can reach me on the web at www.YourDomain.com”

“You’ve reached [NAME], Sorry I’m not in right now but please leave a message or you can reach me on the web at www.YourDomain.com for answers to your questions, Free Local Information, or just browsing listings”

“This is [NAME], I’m not in right now, but please leave me a message and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. . .by the way, to view up to date listings, and do a home search in the local area please visit www.YourDomain.com. Thank you very much, and have a great day.”

If at all possible give them 2 reasons to go to your site. One real estate reason and one reason that is not necessarily directly related to Real Estate, such as area information, information on local schools, maps, etc.   That way everyone has a reason to go to your site even if they are not in the market for your services.

It’s a simple thing to do and a very effective way to get people to your website - and best of all - it’s FREE!

People love to use the Internet because it offers a non-threatening and hassle-free way to gather news, facts and advice. They know they can visit your website without the pressure of talking to a sales representative or being sold. They know they won’t have to talk to anyone if they don’t want to. They can spend as much time as they want looking at information without feeling threatened.

Clearly, this is a double-edged sword. People know they can visit your site without the hassle of being contacted, but you want to talk to the real prospects. The Solution?

• Use strong guarantees
• Use specific testimonials
• Give prospects compelling reasons to contact you over another agent
• Explain the benefits of working with you (what’s in it for them?)
• When editing your site, remember: “Will doing it this way maximize the number of qualified home-buyers and sellers who identify themselves to me?”
• Use forceful headlines. Headlines must pass the “who cares” test.

Direct Marketing

Open any local newspaper and you’ll usually find an entire section of realtor advertising filled with realtors making the same empty and meaningless boasts:

• “We Are The Biggest!”
• “I’m Number 1!”
• “I Sell Homes In The Best Communities!”
• “I Care About Your Business!”
• “I Have All The Credentials and Awards!”
• “I Provide Great Service!”

What’s wrong with ads and slogans like these? Several things:

• they don’t give prospects any compelling reason to contact you over any other agent (anyone can make the same claims).
• there are no benefits for the prospect (What’s in it for them?)
• they don’t tell a complete story
• they don’t make a specific offer
• they don’t include a call to action

People don’t want to be sold. But, they do want to be helped. Successful marketers understand that they must concentrate on a prospect’s needs and wants. This kind of advertising is called Emotional Direct Response Marketing (or more commonly just Direct Response)

With effective direct response marketing, you offer people what they are dying to know, and then they contact you to get it. Compare the following direct response style headlines with the previous ones: *Your Home Sold in 90 Days at a Price Acceptable to You or I’ll Buy it for Cash!

• FREE Over-the-Net Home Evaluation
• Find out how to beat other buyers to HOT new listings.
• Stop renting and own your own home. Free list of zero-down homes.
• How to Save Thousands of Dollars When You Buy Your Next Home
• 6 Things You Must Know Before You Buy
• 27 Quick & Easy Fix Ups to Sell Your Home Fast and for Top Dollar

Put yourself in the shoes of someone looking to buy or sell a home. Think about all the advertisements you are inundated with on a daily basis. Do you process all these advertisements? Or have you unconsciously (or consciously) devised a strategy to deal (or, more to the point, not deal) with all this advertising?

Of course you have. It’s called Tuning-out/Ignoring. The fact of the matter is… You can’t make anyone read what they’re NOT interested in.

The last thing people want to do is “raise their hand” so that a salesperson can contact them. In order to overcome the reluctance of being sold, you must give them forceful and compelling reasons to contact you. With a direct response website, people will be compelled to leave their contact information behind in return for the free information or specialty service you will provide to them.

Written by Daydree Snow