Landing pages are a great way to generate real estate leads through your website. But many agents don’t know what a landing page is to begin with, and how to use them to produce leads. In today’s lesson, I’ll talk about each of these things. I’ll also give you a sample landing page to reinforce the lesson, and to get your marketing wheels turning.

So What Exactly is a “Landing Page”?
Within the context of Internet marketing, a landing page is where a person “lands” upon reaching a certain website. So in a sense, every page of your real estate website could be a landing page, because you never know where somebody will land upon finding the site.

But you can also create specific landing pages for specific purposes. For example, people who use sponsored search / PPC in Google and Yahoo usually have landing pages as part of that program. Or at least they should. So when the search engine user clicks on a sponsored ad, they are sent to a specific landing page that is relevant to their search and the overall ad campaign (as opposed to sending them to the website’s home page, which is just plain silly).

Think of Landing Pages as “tentacles” that can reach out and grab new leads for you and your website.  A blog post could even be a landing page, or a forum post at that.  A Landing Page can be seen as a “mini-website” too!  Landing Pages should ONLY briefly describe your product or service, compelling the reader to click through to your main website.  They are great, short-story style marketing web pages that get great results!

Here is an example of the perfect Landing page:  http://www.loanofficermarketinglab.com/chrish

know, I know… Active Rain is primarily a real estate specific blog, so why would I choose to post a blog that talks about mortgage lead generation? For starters, you’d be surprised with how many mortgage professionals regularly visit, and post to Active Rain.

It’s a great platform, and excellent tool to reach a targeted demographic. Not to mention, everything I post about mortgage lead generation applies to real estate marketing as well – We’re all targeting the same group of people. Those who want to buy or sell a home.

Though my comments today will be short, they will be pointed. Mortgage lead generation has changed. We’ve all watched it happen in fact… The market has shifted, the refi boom ended, and people have been hesitant to take action.

As if these changes were not enough, the shopping habits of the average consumer has changed as well. According to the National Association of Realtors, in 2009, 93% of home buyers used the internet to help select a new home. While I don’t have official statistics in front of me, we can imagine that a huge percentage of those home buyers also used the web to check on mortgage rates, and compare loan officers.

Direct mail, magazine ads, cold calling… Traditional methods of mortgage lead generation are not as effective as they once were. I’m not here to scream that the sky is falling, and that these means of generating business are completely dead. Traditional methods will always have their place when used correctly.

However, in 2010, the average consumer is hit with (According to the most recent stats from the DMA) more than 3,000 advertising messages per day. That’s right, more than 1.2 million per year! Is it any wonder that interuption based advertising methods such as direct mail and cold calls are not as effective as they once were?

This is advertising overload! Which brings me back to the original point I wanted to make. If you want an effective marketing strategy, you’re going to need to alter your focus. Instead of lumping everyone into a single group to advertise to in bulk, why not spend your time marketing to those who are already interested?

Sounds impossible at first glance doesn’t it? I named this blog post “mortgage lead generation” for a reason, and that’s because despite appearances, it’s very doable. There are hundreds, if not thousands of prospects in your area taking the time to search for mortgage rates, companies, brokers, and more. These people are actively searching, and they’re leaving bread crumb trails for savvy marketers to follow.

I’ll continue telling you about the process in my next post. Make it a great week, and please check back in a few days to learn how to identify these hot prospects.

http://www.loanofficermarketinglab.com/chrish