How to Capture Real Estate Website Leads Using a Landing Page
We’ve talked lots on this blog about different strategies for generating leads for your real estate business. Strategies like…
- Implementing IDX on your real estate website
- Using chatbots
- Creating online quizzes
- Adapting your Facebook approach
Today, we’re delving into a different kind of lead generation strategy for REALTORS® — landing pages.
And it might be the most effective strategy yet.
“Wait, What Are Landing Pages?”
Landing pages are standalone web pages, separate from your real estate website, that are designed for a very specific call-to-action.
Visitors typically get to these landing pages by way of paid ads (more on this below).
Unlike your website homepage, which greets visitors and encourages them to explore, the sole purpose of a landing page is to convert visitors into real estate website leads.
Because landing pages only have one goal, every element on the page — from copy to images to buttons — is designed specifically to achieve that goal.
For ecommerce businesses, that goal could be to sell a specific pair of shoes. For real estate agents, that goal could be to collect names and email addresses from visitors in exchange for a report, a guide (also known as a lead magnet) or a contest entry.
You could, technically, build a landing page yourself (or with the help of a web designer), but you’re better off using one of the many landing page tools that offer capabilities like point-and-click design, A/B testing, and ad-to-landing-page optimization. We’ll get to these tools further on in this post.
“What Makes Landing Pages Effective?”
There are three big reasons for why landing pages are much more effective for converting leads than your website:
1. They’re focused
Like we mentioned earlier, landing pages exist for one reason and one reason only: to convert visitors into leads. That means they have a single call-to-action.
For example: “Sign up for my free guide to DIY home staging!” rather than more general CTAs like “Email me,” “Browse listings,” or “Read my latest blog post.”
The messaging on a landing page will draw a visitor’s undivided attention to one goal, without the distraction of competing CTAs, links or text.
2. They’re consistent with your ads
Landing pages are called such because they are where someone winds up — AKA lands — when they click on a paid Google, Instagram or Facebook ad.
Unlike your website, which can’t be edited to suit your ad each and every time, your landing page can reflect your ad’s headline, messaging and images.
What’s the big deal? Well, that consistency enhances the strength of your message. It increases the likelihood of conversion by visually and verbally communicating to your visitor that the page is delivering on the promise made by the ad they clicked on.
3. They can be tested
Unlike your website, a landing page can be edited on the fly to improve its effectiveness.
You can experiment with different versions of both your ad and your landing page, trying different visuals, headlines and CTAs, until you land on a combination that maximizes clicks and conversions.
“How Can I Take Advantage of Optimized Landing Pages?”
For a landing page that looks and performs its best, and that doesn’t occupy all your time, we highly recommend using a landing page tool rather than going the DIY route.
Fortunately, there is no shortage of awesome tools out there that can help real estate agents create lead-generating landing pages. Here’s a look at the platforms we like the best:
Big brands use Unbounce, including the New York Times and Vimeo, and it’s easy to see why: it’s easy to design, test, implement and measure mobile-friendly landing pages that offer 
integrations with tons of other marketing tools you might already be using.
We like Unbounce for its variety of landing page templates (over 100!) and how simple it is to tweak them.
A free trial is available; after that, pricing currently starts at US$79 per month.
Yep, one of our favourite email marketing services also offers a landing page tool.
Mailchimp’s is simpler with fewer templates and integrations, but the pages it creates are modern, fresh and effective.
Real estate agents can use them to run a contest or offer a free download (like a neighbourhood guide).
Bonus: the landing page tool is free for all Mailchimp users.
Leadpages offers comprehensive tools for landing pages, including automatic deployment of your opt-ins (so your leads will receive that neighbourhood guide as soon as they sign up — no work from you required) and a powerful Facebook Ad builder.
After the free trial, pricing starts at US$25 per month.
What other questions do you have about lead generating landing pages? We want to help!
