One of the critical failings I see with most real estate agent Web sites is that they do a very poor job of engaging the Internet Empowered Consumer (IEC) to initiate a business-producing dialog. At worst they simply offer an e-mail address on only one page of the site somehow hoping the visitor will be magically compelled to contact them for "more information". While others go as far as using forms to collect visitor data (in exchange for "more information") or including a suggestion within the Web copy to contact the agent via e-mail in case the visitor has any questions.

Unfortunately, when it comes to creating meaningful dialog, the offer to provide "more information" or answer questions just doesn't go far enough.

Call To Action vs. Call To Interaction™

In traditional marketing (i.e print, broadcast, or direct mail media) it is important to include a "call to action" where you ask the prospect to do something (e.g. "call now to learn more about this great property!...") that will lead to a situation where you can start having a dialog either face-to-face or on the phone. However, it is effectively impossible to actually have the dialog within these traditional media, their power is limited only to the possibility of bringing you together with the prospect so that a dialog may start.

Online, the possibilities are considerably richer. If you limit your "call to action" within your Web copy to simply responding to requests for more information or even suggestions to "get together", you are missing a huge opportunity to create relationship-building dialog.

A much more powerful approach is to include a "call to interaction" on nearly every page of your site. A call to interaction is designed to engage site visitors in a very personal way, causing them to feel like they are part of the process being discussed within the Web copy.

How To Create A Compelling Call To Interaction™

Every Web page and even every copy subsection on a page is a golden opportunity to invite, or better yet compel, your visitors to interact with you. Remember with the IEC, you will only do business with them if a relationship exists. And interaction is the start of the relationship building process. In the box below is an example of Web copy (geared toward the first time buyer) that incorporates this powerful tool:

Making Your Offer: Five Steps To One That Wins The Home Of Your Dreams And Protects You From Costly Mistakes

Most people think that writing an offer on their dream home is not much more than filling out a form and handing it to the listing agent with a deposit check nothing could be further from the truth! The first step to having a offer that gets you everything you want starts with research...

Step 1 - Gathering Intelligence: Four Things The Seller Doesn t Want You To Know!

Your ability to get the best price and terms for your new home depends greatly on how much you learn about the seller s situation (i.e. motivation, schedule needs, settlement requirements, etc.) and about the property. Here are the four things you absolutely need to know before we even think about putting an offer together:...

...This process may seem a little daunting at first, but don t worry! Doing the crucial research is where I excel in helping you feel confident they you are getting the best home for your needs while avoiding the potential disaster of a poorly written offer.

Here s a great exercise for you: Imagine doing your own research on a property you just fell in love with! what questions and concerns come up? Take a moment to jot them down and e-mail them to me at offertips@seattle1sthomes.com, I promise I ll get right back to you with ideas on how to alleviate them!

Once we ve completed our research, the next step is to carefully craft the offer so the seller says "Yea" instead of "Nea", and you are completely protected...

The highlighted section is the call to interaction. Notice how it causes the visitor to stop, think, and most importantly become engaged within the very process the copy was covering.

Creating successful interaction with your Web visitors is very similar to that of a dynamic speaker interacting with an audience. You "work the crowd", get them involved, excited, and include them as collaborative part of the learning process. Imagine how long a speaker would be in business if at the end of a monolog, she simply asks "Any questions?". Yet, most Web copy doesn t even bother to ask that boring question, much less entice true interaction.

One of the most effective ways to get your visitors to interact (and thus contact you) is to ask open-ended questions relative to the material you are covering. This approach accomplishes two objectives: 1) it causes them to think about other things they can ask you; 2) it helps them come to their own conclusions that you are the source of the answers they need.

Avoid Becoming An "Informational Commodity"

Without a call-to-interaction, your Web site ends up becoming nothing more than a great informational resource or "report" where you effectively commoditize your services which is the exactly the opposite of the differentiation you want to achieve. A good exercise for you to do now, is to examine your site's current copy and see how well it truly engages and involves the visitor, and how that process might be improved.

This is not an easy concept to master and it takes a bit of practice. However, this is approach is so powerful, that once fully implemented, you will have to hire more people just to handle all the serious inquiries it will generate for you!

No one likes spam, and unfortunately real estate professionals get the brunt of it because it they are so easily targeted. Using simple e-mail harvesting software, some vendors can find all e-mail addresses on real estate related Web sites in just minutes. However, I have developed a sure-fire (and free) way to stop these vendors from sending you any more unsolicited e-mail, here s how you do it: Any time you receive an unsolicited commercial e-mail from a real estate industry vendor, just forward it to the Spam Recycle Center be sure to save this address in your e-mail address book. Before sending it on, put this text in the message area, above the spam: To whom it may concern - Please add this sender to your *blacklist* of suspected spammers so that I (and others in my industry) will no longer be bothered by unsolicited e-mail from this vendor --Thank You! Lastly, CC: the forward to the vendor who originally sent the message --this will scare the heck out of them and you will likely never receive e-mail from them again! (NOTE: don t try this with professional spammers (i.e. non-legitimate vendors), because all it does is verify that your address is correct. This method *works* and puts you, not the vendors, back in control of your inbox, where it should be!