Copywriting for real estate sites - your thoughts

Hiring a good copywriter to create this for you will be more
costly than buying some courses and studying it yourself.

However you may not have the drive, perseverance, and
even talent to learn to write really great copy for your business.

You'll save money by doing it yourself. Whether you get
professional results by doing so is up to you.

Before you spend any money on copywriting courses, check out Dean Jackson's site ... Marketing Monday

His free archive has a ton of helpful information on how to use direct response in the real estate market.

Alex

How much is "an arm and a leg"? If I were to charge you $5000, say, for a salespage and it brought in $50,000 pretty quick, would you think it a good deal?

I have written for a number of real estate sites. I would be happy to take a look at what you have and give you some pointers about the best way to go from where you are now. Drop me an email and I'll get back to you.

Kevin [at] VirtualProfitCenter.com

I picked up a book called "Web Copy That Sells" by Maria Veloso at my local book store. At first I read the reviews on Amazon and then went to the store to pick it up. The only reason I didn't order it online was because I wanted to view it myself and make sure it would be what I needed. I got so excited after reading a few pages that I couldn't put the book down. I recommend you check it out for yourself because it has some great ideas that you can implement into any type of writing.

Some thoughts:

1. Everyone has different talents and abilities. Some people are good at writing while other people are good at selling things like real estate. If you can't write, consider finding a copywriter who can. That being said, there's no harm in visiting a local bookstore and checking out some of their copywriting books and see if you can't learn something from them. Maybe you can write and just need some guidance on sharpening the copy. It might be a better initial investment than going the copywriter route.

2. If you find you don't have the time or talent to write copy, then find someone who can so you can concentrate on selling real estate. Figure out what you can afford and get the best bang for your buck. The economy is down and prices for copywriters in your area might have gone down too. Hire the person for just one job (e.g. email) and see how he or she does as well as what the response rate is from their work. If you like what you see, hire them to do more. If not, try someone else.

3. If words aren't making a difference, consider better images or something to get people on your website to make an emotional response. Buying real estate is an emotional--whether or not people will admit it.

Hi RMorris,

There are some great copywriting options out there for your real estate website, but keep in mind that writing content for your website is one of the most important things because it should include key words and phrases that will assist your ranking on search engines.

Of course we all know how important it is to rank on search engines since about 70-80% of homebuyers start their search online. In fact, that is how I started my home search. I went to Google and typed in "El Segundo Real Estate Agent", and the first real estate agent that came up is the person I called. Your website goal should be to have your site come up for some of these keywords and creating unique content and putting it on your website will help to get you there.

If you are going to do it yourself, I would make a few suggestions:

1. Do not use duplicate content, in other words, if you put that paragraph on your bio page, do not use it on your company page, create new and unique text.

2. Use keywords and phrases that have to do with your area in the text as well as what your specialty is, for example, are you a relocation expert? Do you work with Short Sales? Etc.

3. Be as specific as possible. If you are focusing on something like "Los Angeles Real Estate" the chances of you ranking for this search team is not likely, unless you want to be on page 999; however, if your narrow your area, you will have more of a chance to move up in the search results.

If all else fails and you find that you just don't have the time or do not like to write, there are many companies out there that won't charge you an arm and leg for this service. That said, in full disclosure, I am the Director of Client Relations for The Design People. imFORZA is a division of The Design People and provides Internet Marketing services such as copywriting services. If you want to know about their services, you can call them at 866-963-1202 or you can go to Google and type in "imFORZA".

While there are many other companies out there that can provide this service, imFORZA is specifically geared toward real estate marketing so you have that experience and expertise in the industry. Good luck in whatever you decide!

You have a number of "real estate websites" and you are agents, what are your sites currently designed to do?

Do you put your listings on these sites? Is there only ONE property per site?

You say a few are in need of help, does this mean a few are performing well, and exactly what are you asking these sites to do? Generate leads? Get more listings? Sell your or other listings?

You want to increase your response rate, but what is the response you want? What do you want this response to be?

What is a motivated visitor?

I have many realtor friends who are doing the best business of their lives, surrounded by a depressed market.

Honestly, before you get any practical advice, you have to let us know what you want your sites to do?

What are people contacting you for? More info on a specific listing? More info on having their house listed?

The right message has to be delivered to the right person at the right time.

Thanks for any light you can shed on your web sites underperforming.

gjabiz

I thought that I would drop you a line and let you know that I am an x-short sale negotiator and I would be glad to help you.

There's a real estate advice thread in the main forum that's off to a promising start. Be sure to check out that one too.