What can you sell with a landing page?
Is it possible to sell houses online?
Giving a definite answer to this question might seem far-fetched, but based on the projects I have done over the past 5 years, I can tell you that yes, in most cases it is possible to sell real estate through the web.
I’ll tell you more: I also feel confident in saying that an Effective Landing Page, combined with profiled traffic from Google Adwords, Facebook Ads and Local Advertising, is absolutely the most effective and efficient sales tool for selling homes today.
Before arriving at these conclusions, I gained some experience in this field: since 2012 I have worked for the sale of 5 specific construction sites, and in all of them I have seen a very good market response.
As a specialist, however, it is my job to warn you, not all that glitters is gold, and instead of the usual promises I prefer to put some premises before them:
What characteristics must the Client have
The client must be someone willing to go beyond the common “I’ll ask for 5 quotes and pick one at random from the lowest” approach and agree to invest time and money in the project.
- It takes time, because while it is true that thanks to payperclick we can get results right away, it is in the medium term that we can really optimize campaigns and communication.
- Patience is needed, because in this industry sales are often driven by weather patterns or seasonality: there are more favorable periods than others, and identifying them is not always easy (especially for me).
- You need money, because people who know how to communicate to sell have no reason to sell their services cheaply, so to work with experienced people and put the odds of success on your side, you have to invest.
When we talk about prices, of course, everything is relative: if we compare the Web with traditional sales systems (in which the agent takes a percentage of the value of the sale) the costs of a well-structured online campaign are significantly lower.
What results can we expect?
Each case is unique, but in today’s case study we will see how a client of mine who used to sell one, maximum two apartments a year came in less than 11 months to have sold 12 apartments thanks to the appointments generated by the Effective Landing Page I developed for him.
Exactly: we went from one apartment every 6 months, when it was going well, to one apartment per month. +600%
But let’s go beyond the numbers, which in my opinion always leave a bit to be desired, and try to understand what made this project work so well.
With me, to get started, you don’t have to invest large sums or take leaps of faith to believe in hyper-complex strategies. We always take one small step at a time: we create the Effective Landing Page, write the ads, and only when Phase1 begins to bear fruit do we start Phase2 in which we implement lead optimization systems and conversion rate optimization cycles (more on this later in the article).
Basically, to put it more clearly, after we see that the feedback on the offer is good we try to make the most of the contacts we get and work to reduce acquisition costs.
What characteristics must the Complex have
The complex, like any product on the market, must be designed for a specific target audience that develops a demand in the target market.
What does it mean? That I need to be careful about two important aspects
- I need to sell something particular.
For example, I might sell apartments located within a small residence designed for managers, entrepreneurs and singles who are interested in a state-of-the-art home in which their lives will be simplified as much as possible by technology: home automation, smart burglar alarms, advanced energy efficiency systems… if I create an offer with the latest in technology I can make an apartment preferable to others, even if the selling price is higher.This specific type of offer, promoted in the Milanese hinterland, has had excellent feedback throughout the period with which I have worked with the agency.
The above the fold of my first Landing Page for real estate sales, in 2014
- The construction company (my client) will have to become an invincible and preferable seller for the buyer than the normal real estate agency. Typically, this transformation is simple and occurs through the definition of exclusive conditions.If I am the builder I will be able to afford to offer benefits such as notary deeds included in the price, a year’s worth of condominium fees paid, access to extra finishes at the base specification price…plus of course savings on the agent’s sales commission.
These are of course just examples, but they should always be highlighted in the offer so that the reader understands that if they buy from us they are smarter (and in fact they MUST be).
Extraordinary conditions “glue” target users to the page
Effective Landing Page for Real Estate,
the case study Residences Asiago
I started working with Marcigaglia Spa in July 2017 to promote the Residenze Asiago complex. My referral, who is in charge of sales, is really smart: before I even met him, he was introduced to me by a mutual acquaintance as someone who sold houses through Facebook–a very good premise, because it confirmed that one of the two basic requirements for selling houses through the Web was validated.
But the complex?
Residenze Asiago is a complex (carved out of an old diocesan colony) that has been renovated and equipped with services that make it similar to a hotel: in addition to a 24-hour doorman, there is a laundry, ironing and cleaning service that, upon request, makes your vacation similar to what you might spend in a good hotel.
Of course, like any well-designed product, it is not for everyone: the target audience is affluent couples aged 45 to 55, without children, who wish to relax or enjoy outdoor sports without straying too far from home.
Target audience must identify themselves as they navigate the offer
Thus, it is a matter of selling vacation homes in a narrow geographic area that has been marked by a pronounced commercial depression in recent years. My client, on average, had been selling at most 1-2 apartments a year for several years.
What we did in Phase1
Landing Pages and PPC
As always I start each project by starting with an Effective Landing Page matched with traffic from Adwords…but how to know if it would work?A test was needed.
The Effective Landing Page and Adwords are a great dry test even for products or services that do not yet exist: with about 3000 euros you can get accurate feedback on how the market will respond to your product or service.
Does it work? You can develop the strategies and start optimizing.
Doesn’t it work? You can change the offer or communication, and try again.
Without this test, you can’t figure out the best mental angle to use in selling: developing an entire communication strategy is meaningless if you don’t first validate the differentiating idea and the ability to intercept interested audiences.
My client was familiar with the target audience of the complex, which allowed me to create a Landing Page that immediately got a great response, so after the first 6 months (in which we sold 2 apartments with Landing Page and Adwords alone).
At first we struggled a bit to exclude searches from people looking for a vacation home to rent, but by juggling the ad text and adding reverse keywords we were able to correct the course fairly quickly.
A second problem we encountered (but against which we could do little, this time) was seasonality: we had periods when there was a lot of research while for others, even quite long ones, public interest dropped to almost zero. Our target audience simply thought of something else.
So would it have been worthwhile to do some alternative campaigning, perhaps in the local press or on Facebook?
Probably not, because if at that time people’s attention was not focused on buying a vacation home the wise thing to do was to wait for interest to return. In analyzing the data, we realized that this normally manifested itself on fine days and often resulted in a request received on weekends.
Okay, so would it make sense to do Adwords only on weekends, when the conversion rate was higher? No, because conversion is not necessarily generated on the first visit: maybe someone sacrifices some of his time in the office for research, then discusses it with his wife, and over the course of the week becomes convinced that it is worthwhile to do an inspection.
My client’s ability to convert the client at this stage is very high: the apartments are beautiful, the residence is fantastic, and-not least-he is a very good salesman.
I find this last one to be a very important point to make: it is not just the landing page and pay per click that sells-I just generate opportunities that need to be taken advantage of and converted into contracts.
The first communication of an apartment sold via Landing Page and PPC I think came last winter (I tried to search in messenger to post a screenshot, but it was impossible to go that far back) so since January we have moved to phase 2.
What we did in Phase2
Conversion rate optimization &
Email marketing automation
The continuation of Effective Landing Page will focus precisely on Phase2, that last piece that in the OggiVinciTu method was unfairly summarized in the word Efficiency, the last chapter of the TU phase: efficiency is important! Not prioritized, but critical to creating a healthy business.
‘Efficiency,’ to me, means that the moment my page converts at a reasonable cost and my client succeeds in turning leads into customers I can focus on visibility.
You know how I say (jokingly) that I always do things backwards? Here, consider that most agencies, consultants, and gurus focus only on this point: bringing traffic to the site at the lowest cost.
But what madness!
Organic traffic from Google, for example, is perfectly useless if users do not have the right search intent and if the website fails to filter, segment and turn it into queries.
On the Landing Page of Residenze Asiago we used as a “prize” the residence’s brochure and price list with the latest offers: by subscribing to the form you receive it automatically and at the same time, if you want, you can request the inspection.
The goal, for me, remains this: to foster opportunities for interested people to contact Henry to do an inspection.
Thus, after sending the request for more information, the user receives a series of emails that guide him or her down a very particular path: first, I illustrate an offer to him or her that over the course of 5 emails becomes unaffordable, and at the end, I close the loop by targeting an even more advantageous but time-limited offer. This path is sometimes alternated with real-time communications that update potential clients on the latest apartments sold.
Those who have expressed interest, in this way, ALWAYS know when we are selling an apartment, and the site is always updated with periodic offers that normally sell out before the deadline defined by the sales office.
If Asiago is an Exclusive Residence and an attractive investment opportunity, the goal of communication through email should not be to “educate the user” but rather to make them feel that – slowly – they are missing out on the opportunity to relax on their doorstep by investing in brick.
He will never contact us just because a simple counter reaches zero, but because our communications are never too pushy and he has realized that apartments are really running out.
If he does not seize the opportunity someone else will do it instead.
Getting results is possible but it is good to know that it requires effort on everyone’s part, as I always say there are no shortcuts or magic wands.
After all, at this very moment the apartments to be sold have become less than 10, the client has just written to inform me: tomorrow I have to send a new email, it seems that by this evening I will still have some writing to do.
Here is the feedback from Enrico Marcigaglia, collected last month:
Enrico Marcigaglia
Sales Director
Marcigaglia SPA
My experience
★★★★★
Making a website is simple.
Making an aesthetically pleasing site is easy enough… but making a site that helps me sell real estate, by now I thought it was impossible.
Before I lost all hope about the REAL business effectiveness of a website dedicated to selling real estate, I decided to give it one last try, and turn to the best one on the market.
I don’t care that Luke and I have never seen each other’s faces (our meetings are only via chat or email).
I don’t care that Luca may not be the fastest consultant in the world.
In 10 months, with Luke, I have sold 6 apartments, and as a sales manager, this is the only thing that interests me.
What did I particularly appreciate?
No doubt the turnover in the last year.
How about you? Want to know if your offer can work online?
Do you sell houses, boats or high-margin products and services?
Contact me, maybe we can work together.
Want to get your business off the ground with a Landing Page?
Choose the solution that suits you best!