2.0 Real Estate Vendors
We spend a lot of time networking, researching, and studying the 2.0 real estate vendors in the market place in all spaces of real estate, and over and over again we find a complete lack of understanding of their audience. I must preface with the fact that most 2.0 vendors spend a great deal of time and money on their actual products and making sure they’re useful to the agent as well as the real estate buyer and seller, however…
The assumption is that because the tiny space of the real estate blogging community knows who and what you are, that concentrating on actually converting the user seems forgotten. Thousands of dollars a year are spent by vendors teaching the real estate pro about 2.0, yet we wonder how much cash is spent on smart web interface to convert the deal?
The complaint about the real estate professional overwhelmingly is that the professional can barely check email, upload an image, or edit their own websites, and to some extent that may be true; however, looking at many of the websites for many real estate products, it’s no wonder there’s a disconnect.
If the vendor landing page does not exactly explain what you are, and the second page does not explain exactly how to use your product, then how in the world do you expect an agent to even find the bar to jump over?
In many cases, there is so much information on the landing page that beginning makes no sense, much less an end- you’re lost before you’ve even started.
I’m a pretty savvy guy- I can often overcome the hurdles many vendors set up for the average 1.0 agent, but more and more often I’m finding it harder and harder to even care to get past the clutter to get to the point. I’m off looking for a better solution regardless of how valuable your product is. I’m assuming your product is just as complicated and confusing, true or false.
The other problem I am seeing is a complete lack of investment in the UI of the selling website. For instance, many vendors are running an average free wordpress theme, or free template, for an otherwise fantastic product. Boring, drab, and unattractive, the average agent gets a feeling that your product may be equally as boring.
I highly recommend that vendors get in focus and do it now rather than later. Have a few folks you know are savvy, but unfamiliar with your product/website answer these questions:
- How long did it take you to figure out what our product was?
- How long did it take you to find pricing?
- Was the site easy to navigate, or was it confusing?
- Was there too much or not enough information on the landing page?
- Did you feel that our site copy was exciting, or full of propaganda?
- Did you find any dead links on our site?
- How can we improve?
If you’re really feeling brave, ask me…
Obviously, less is more, but less should always lead to more or as much as it takes to lead the buyer closer to making a buying decision, not continuously describe why it’s important to get into the 2.0 way of doing business. Obviously, the consumer knew that, or they would not be on your site.
Here’s what I’m looking for:
- 3 steps to getting started
- No more than 3 things to do if I need more information
- a demo of your product is often my selling button
That’s it.
The arrogance of many vendors (but not you of course) is that you need to train us to be 2.0 savvy in order to create the need for the product you represent, while reminding us of how behind the times we are, while many (and yes I mean the majority) of the same vendors have completely overlooked the fact that their website may actually be the turnoff that leads to a lack of adoption of the product.
Things to remember
- In an elevator Pitch your accolades are irrelevant.
- I’m not interested that you’re in the press.
- Why I ‘need you’ leads to overselling.
- Lead me in with easy click and go options.
- I’m not interested in real estate politics, I’m interested in your product.
- Show me success stories by other agents.
- Show me innovative uses by other agents or brokerages.
These are things I really want to read on secondary pages, and on your blog, not all lumped on your front page.
The images I’m using for this post are a brilliant example of a landing page that impresses all by itself. Never mind if you like black or not, or enjoy an applesque interface, my points are made in the overall. It’s beautiful, guides you into use, the price is obvious, and the explanations are elevator pitch in nature (no clutter)- to the point. Zipvo Platinum has done a great job in the next generation of vendor presentation, and sets the bar high in the process, and it’s only real downfall is that it may appear intimidating to the new user upon first glance, but it’s so crisp, I’d give it a second look.
In closing, I’m friends with most, if not all of the 2.0 vendors in the real estate space, and I respect all of them and their passion to create products that make the real estate pro look great in their business, reduce costs, and disintermediate old 1.0 products from their marketshares, and I want them to succeed, but this issue is real in all corners, even real estate networking sites.
Why am I writing this? Because helping you, the vendors, helps us, the real estate professional.
