If you're like most mortgage brokers, you're always
trying to figure out what makes your website "sticky" — the term used
to describe a website that’s interesting, interactive and engaging
enough to keep a visitor on the site and coming back to it again and
again. Here are a few tried-and-true tips from fellow XSite
owners to increase the "stickiness" of your site:
Avoid clutter. Of course one of the benefits of having an XSite
is the availability of more than 90 content pages. But don't
add all 90 pages to your XSite just because they're available. Make
sure they relate to the rest of your site and the clients with whom
you do business.
Keep your images small. A picture is worth a thousand words,
but not if it takes a thousand seconds to download. Make sure you
optimize your digital images for online viewing.
Click here to view a website that will help you calculate download
times. [Note: Your XSite's Flash headers and pre-loaded images are
already optimized to download as fast as possible, even on a slower, dial-up
connection.]
Allow visitors to interact. Include a call to action on your
content pages to give visitors a reason to get in touch with you by
using one of the provided lead generation forms such as "Got a
Question?" or by creating your
own. When filled out, the visitor is sent an automated response from
you, letting them know their information has been sent to you.
Give them tools
they can use. People love interactive websites and online tools
are what tend to keep visitors on a website the longest. With
more than 17 different mortgage calculators, your prospects can run
numbers on different loan scenarios to see how much house they can
afford.
Change it up. Don't add too many pages to your XSite at once. One of the best ways to keep your prospects coming back to your site
is to update it periodically with fresh content. Consider adding pages
that relate to a specific season such as the "Improvement Loan
Insurance" during the summer months when homeowners are more likely to
do work on their homes or the "Winterize your Home"
page for fall.
XSellerate grows and improves, providing you more ways
to market to clients
With the busy
summer real estate season upon us, look to our
XSellerate
marketing system to
provide you even more ways to generate business. We've pumped up
the system with several new ways to communicate with new prospects, as
well as current and past clients.
Some of the newest
features in XSellerate are fully customizable newsletters for you to
send to your contact list. Newsletters allow you to reinforce
your rapport with existing clients and establish yourself as an expert
in the eyes of prospects at the same time. And by sending your customers useful news and information,
you're also using one of the most effective marketing tactics in the
business — providing a free gift!
We've provided the
templates for you, but you can name your newsletter, edit the existing
text, drop in your picture and contact information and customize it
however you like. You don't have to worry about writing articles,
either. Each month, we'll automatically upload new, timely
stories and tips to your newsletter templates. Of course, if
you'd like to write your own news items, there's room to add them. Or
replace one or all of our stories — it's up to you!
Along with the
newsletters, we added more than 50 new campaigns to XSellerate. They
include a selection of sympathy and get well messages to give your
clients the personal touch. Plus, you'll find and spring and summer-themed messages to
target clients during the busiest time of the year for the real estate
business. We also added new campaigns that prompt recipients to use
the tools provided on your XSite, such as mortgage calculators and
DirectFax to make their mortgage experience fast and easy.
There have also
been changes made to XSellerate’s delivery capabilities, giving you more
choices on how and when your campaigns are sent to your clients:
-
Recurring one-time
campaigns. This feature allows you to send a one-time ad daily,
weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly, which is especially helpful
for newsletters, annual events and internal reminders. This
option also allows you to schedule a one-time ad in advance by
choosing to have the ad start and end on the same day under the "Daily" option.
-
Add-in options
for drip ads. You now have the option to start incoming contacts at
the beginning of a drip campaign or from the day that they enter a
drip campaign. This option is available on Step 2 of your XSellerate
Campaign Wizard.
-
Date selection for drip ads.
You can select specific days via a calendar or select days in
between ads for your drip campaigns to be delivered. These options
are also available on Step 2 of your XSellerate campaign scheduling
Wizard.
We're constantly
adding new features and campaigns to your XSellerate marketing
solution (at no charge), which we hope translates into more repeat and
referral business for you. If you ever have a suggestion or a
question about XSellerate, feel free to e-mail us at
info@alamode.com.
