Why do you have a real estate website? Is it because everyone else has one or because you've been told that you must be "on the internet?" 

Or is it to:

• Get more listings?

• Collect more leads?

• Create some leverage so you don't have to work so hard?

• Make more sales?

• Deliver quality information to your prospects?

While each of the items in the list above is a worthy business goal, I would argue that they are all by-products of a successful real estate website, not the primary purpose of one. your story into words takes thought. 

It takes answering questions like:

• "What makes my real estate business different?"

• "What do I offer that no other real estate professional can offer or is willing to offer?"

• "Why should buyers and sellers do business with me over any and every option available to them?

These are tough questions. And for that reason, they usually get skipped in the process of putting a real estate website together. 

Instead, most real estate website visitors are greeted with something like: "Mr. John Doe, Your Number One Source for Chicago Real Estate"

Considering there are tens of thousands of real estate professionals in the Chicago area, an opening statement like that on your website tells your visitors one of two things:

• You say things that aren't true.

• You think the world revolves around you.

And having them think either of those two things is not going to help you create a relationship with your visitor. But telling your own story is powerful and it is well worth the effort to put it together.

To illustrate, let's look at the example of Schlitz Beer in the early 1900s. Yes, we're looking at the beer industry to learn something about real estate. Back then, Schlitz beer was in trouble and its sales were down. 

In those days, all beers were advertised as "Pure." The beer companies spent a lot of money and time getting that concept in front of as many people as possible. 

So many of them said "Pure" so much that it pretty much lost all of its meaning. 

In an effort to turn around their fortune, Schlitz hired famous copywriter Claude Hopkins to create an ad campaign for them.

You know what the ad campaign was?

A story. A story about: How Schlitz filtered their water with white wood pulp until it was completely clear. How they dug 4,000 feet into the ground to find the purest water. How they ran 1,018 experiments to refine the yeast to give the beer just the right flavor.

The funny thing is, almost every beer maker in the country was doing the exact same thing in their brewing process. But Schlitz was telling the story. And the results of the campaign confirmed its power: Schlitz vaulted from 5th in the marketplace into a tie for 1st ... in just a few months.

That's the power of a compelling story. 

And that is what your real estate website is for. Tell a compelling story about how your services will benefit your prospects (along with reasons why) and there will be no stopping the leads, listings, sales and all of the other good things that will be produced.

Jason Leister, the Real Estate Technology and Marketing Guru (tm), is owner of Computer Super Guy LLC, a technology firm that helps real estate professionals market their businesses. Sign-Up for the free real estate technology newsletter Prof-IT here.

Published: September 6, 2006

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

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