Latest / Know Like Trust for Real Estate / How to Build a Real Estate Website That Converts
Transcript
- 0:00[SPEAKER_01]: What is the purpose of a website?
- 0:02[SPEAKER_01]: The website is almost the last stop for people researching a solution to a problem that they have.
- 0:10[SPEAKER_01]: With AI right now, and even the way Google's presenting results, they're giving answers to your questions without having to go visit the website.
- 0:19[SPEAKER_01]: So once I get to the website, I think we have to communicate what we do and how we help people, even more quickly than we used to.
- 0:28[SPEAKER_00]: Hey everyone, welcome to the No Like Trust podcast where I help you craft branding and marketing strategies that align with your unique strengths.
- 0:36[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Christine George and agents who work with me grow their business on average by 40% by aligning their marketing with who they are, not what they sell.
- 0:44[SPEAKER_00]: And today I'm super excited for today's guest.
- 0:47[SPEAKER_00]: Katie Martin is with us, she is a website developer and brand strategist, and she's here to tell us why content is more important than color in your website.
- 0:56[SPEAKER_00]: Katie Hills from Australia, she's joining us from Steamboat, Colorado, and she is a wealth of information about how to build a website that sells.
- 1:06[SPEAKER_00]: So take a listen.
- 1:12[SPEAKER_00]: Katie, welcome to the no-like trust pod.
- 1:15[SPEAKER_00]: I'm super excited to have you here and really excited to talk about branding as it relates to websites.
- 1:22[SPEAKER_01]: Christine, thank you for having me.
- 1:23[SPEAKER_01]: I'm really excited to talk about it too.
- 1:25[SPEAKER_01]: And a bit of it go look like that and happy to dig into it all.
- 1:29[SPEAKER_00]: I know, we both get nerdy when it comes to what we do.
- 1:32[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm really excited to share,
- 1:36[SPEAKER_00]: everything all your expertise around website.
- 1:38[SPEAKER_00]: So I want to just get right into it.
- 1:40[SPEAKER_00]: What does it really mean for a brand to come to life on a website?
- 1:44[SPEAKER_00]: Meaning what's the difference between just slapping on a logo and some colors and actually making some like that emotional connection come to life?
- 2:01[SPEAKER_01]: We've only got a few seconds to make a connection with somebody on the internet where all busy and things like that and it's amazing how much we read that we take in from imagery and text and things like that on a page and so when a brand really sings, it's
- 2:21[SPEAKER_01]: We just connect much more quickly with that post.
- 2:23[SPEAKER_01]: And we understand what they do, what makes them different.
- 2:27[SPEAKER_01]: So the combination of photography and text and the experience of the website makes a connection with the viewer much more quickly.
- 2:38[SPEAKER_01]: And I honestly think that that's as basic as it is.
- 2:40[SPEAKER_01]: Is that you're just trying to connect with somebody.
- 2:43[SPEAKER_01]: And it happens more quickly or successfully when the brand is harmonious
- 2:51[SPEAKER_00]: Can you go with a little further into it?
- 2:53[SPEAKER_00]: So what does that mean when the brand is harmonious?
- 2:55[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe it would be helpful if you gave an example of one of your favorite clients' websites and tell us why they're...
- 3:06[SPEAKER_00]: brand sort of sings.
- 3:08[SPEAKER_01]: We recently did a website for a realtor called Diane Bertini.
- 3:13[SPEAKER_01]: She lives here in the town that I live in, steamboat.
- 3:15[SPEAKER_01]: When you go to her website, she's not trying to sell steamboat.
- 3:19[SPEAKER_01]: She is selling herself, right?
- 3:21[SPEAKER_01]: Because when people are visiting her personal brand website, not her page in the brokerage that she's part of, they're really looking for a connection.
- 3:32[SPEAKER_01]: So in terms of the brand being harmonious, they go there and they see all the cues of am I in the right place?
- 3:41[SPEAKER_01]: And do I feel like I'm in the right place?
- 3:44[SPEAKER_01]: Is this a good connection for me?
- 3:45[SPEAKER_01]: Do I get a good vibe, right?
- 3:48[SPEAKER_01]: Just like if you walked into anthropology or into a coffee shop that you love or Starbucks, like there's so many cues in there to be like, okay, this feels good.
- 3:58[SPEAKER_01]: I'm in the right place.
- 4:00[SPEAKER_01]: So like on a website, when you got a logo and often like a tag line that clearly communicates what this person does.
- 4:08[SPEAKER_01]: So you immediately know, okay, this person is a realtor and this is the area they serve.
- 4:13[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, something that's really basic things are missing on websites.
- 4:17[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, I will where are you?
- 4:19[SPEAKER_01]: Do you help me?
- 4:20[SPEAKER_01]: Right?
- 4:21[SPEAKER_01]: So then, you know, you've got imagery.
- 4:24[SPEAKER_01]: Do I, does it?
- 4:26[SPEAKER_01]: Do I look like I connect with this person?
- 4:29[SPEAKER_01]: Yep.
- 4:30[SPEAKER_01]: And if they have like a headline on the page, like a unique selling proposition, is it unique, right?
- 4:38[SPEAKER_01]: Is it speaking to me?
- 4:39[SPEAKER_01]: Or could I take that sentence and slap it on any other website out there and it would do the same thing?
- 4:46[SPEAKER_01]: Like a webinar that headline,
- 4:49[SPEAKER_01]: really speaks to what they do like all those little cues we're reading in milliseconds and I think that that's kind of when a brand is harmonious when you get there and you know you're in the right place yeah immediately aware of the credibility and you this person's professional and that's a point too is when sometimes Wendy DIY is pulled together their brand or or it's been you know
- 5:17[SPEAKER_01]: We read all those cues that they're not quite as professional, so are they going to be as professional when I work with them?
- 5:25[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like I had the realtor who didn't shop with a pen.
- 5:31[SPEAKER_01]: That's right, it's missing some stuff.
- 5:34[SPEAKER_01]: Feeting was he gonna be a guy that doesn't bring a pen to the contract signing?
- 5:38[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
- 5:39[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
- 5:40[SPEAKER_00]: I love what you said about, can you take that sentence and put it on any other realtor's website and have it?
- 5:49[SPEAKER_00]: like mean the same thing and work.
- 5:51[SPEAKER_00]: And I mean, it is something that I say to my clients quite a bit is if you take your logo and you just take your name off of it and you put it on somebody else's Instagram for example.
- 6:06[SPEAKER_00]: it means the same thing.
- 6:07[SPEAKER_00]: It is, it is that sort of feeling that you know that you've got something special when it uniquely is a reflection of who you are, what you stand for, your values, all of that, because essentially that is your brand.
- 6:23[SPEAKER_00]: And so I love
- 6:25[SPEAKER_00]: I loved it when you said that.
- 6:26[SPEAKER_00]: It is just such a great litmus test, isn't it?
- 6:29[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, can you take this?
- 6:32[SPEAKER_00]: Is it really unique to you?
- 6:34[SPEAKER_00]: Because if you can put it on anybody else's site and it doesn't change, then that's your answer.
- 6:41[SPEAKER_00]: It's not really unique.
- 6:43[SPEAKER_01]: And even further, can you put it on any website?
- 6:45[SPEAKER_01]: Like the number of businesses that have a headline, and you could go put that on the front page of Apple, or it went around out there, and even though Apple wouldn't say that, you know, it's amazing how, like a beeflet's locked around and meaning that headline doesn't say anything about what you do.
- 7:07[SPEAKER_01]: It's just a member, like a jumble of words.
- 7:12[SPEAKER_00]: It's just doesn't have any meetings, so it's just the generic, you know, it's like private label, you know, it's like
- 7:19[SPEAKER_00]: it's just generic.
- 7:21[SPEAKER_00]: It is what it is.
- 7:22[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
- 7:23[SPEAKER_00]: So I love that.
- 7:24[SPEAKER_00]: And I also love the analogy with walking into Abercrombie.
- 7:29[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, think about the experience or the feeling that you get when you walk into, you know, any clothing store, you know, like a target versus a Walmart or,
- 7:46[SPEAKER_00]: you know, some generic store.
- 7:48[SPEAKER_00]: You know that you're, like you said, you know you're in the right place or you also know when you're in the wrong place and let's face it.
- 7:54[SPEAKER_00]: We're not, we can't be all things to all people.
- 7:57[SPEAKER_00]: We're not everybody's cup of tea.
- 7:59[SPEAKER_00]: And so you want to attract the people who as soon as they get to your website, they know they're in the right place.
- 8:06[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go back to when you first meet with a client.
- 8:09[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know,
- 8:12[SPEAKER_00]: you have your discovery call with them.
- 8:14[SPEAKER_00]: They just had their branding done.
- 8:16[SPEAKER_00]: It's sitting on your desk.
- 8:19[SPEAKER_00]: What's the first thing you do to translate that into a powerful website that communicates who they are and his harmonious?
- 8:30[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so sometimes we're leading branding projects, so we're developing that at the same time and sometimes people come to us with the brand like in the experience you just mentioned and I actually love that because it feels like being given.
- 8:46[SPEAKER_01]: a set of paints that you can only do so much with.
- 8:50[SPEAKER_01]: So you kind of it sets boundaries.
- 8:53[SPEAKER_01]: And so sometimes starting with some boundaries is actually really exciting and liberating as opposed to being like we can do anything with anything.
- 9:03[SPEAKER_01]: So to turn it into the website, we're going to be
- 9:09[SPEAKER_01]: taking those colours and fonts and honestly, I think the very first thing we're working with as photography, that is probably the most important part of the website, especially for individual brands.
- 9:24[SPEAKER_01]: whether that's photography of the agent and or whether it's being a photography of the area that they're selling.
- 9:31[SPEAKER_01]: That's going to kind of influence how the colors all come out from their brand as well.
- 9:38[SPEAKER_01]: They should be some harmony between those.
- 9:41[SPEAKER_01]: different scenes.
- 9:43[SPEAKER_01]: So I think what's interesting is with the color palette.
- 9:45[SPEAKER_01]: Like you get a three or six blocks of color and it really means nothing.
- 9:50[SPEAKER_01]: So what our world becomes is to identify like what is the boldest color and what is the, you know, is less used.
- 9:59[SPEAKER_01]: on it.
- 9:59[SPEAKER_01]: We always want a strong color for buttons than anything else around it.
- 10:04[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that's the key.
- 10:05[SPEAKER_01]: And so it's working out, like, yeah, what the hat, like, you might be having a dark emerald green and a deep blue, but they may not work huge blocks of color in those things.
- 10:15[SPEAKER_01]: They might be more subtle.
- 10:17[SPEAKER_01]: foundational.
- 10:18[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, like in an oftentimes people develop brands and brand colors and we end up having to add to them as well because, you know, it's not really expressing whether it needs to be on a crisp white background or a cream to soften it or, you know,
- 10:40[SPEAKER_01]: So we're kind of taking those colors and working out the hierarchy and the quantity of the colors on the page and how they blend with the photography and then, you know, with fonts, we're then working out the, we systematize everything.
- 10:55[SPEAKER_01]: meaning that on a website every single page has one headline one.
- 11:01[SPEAKER_01]: That's the main headline on the page and that's what Google and the search engines look for.
- 11:06[SPEAKER_01]: This is the main headline one.
- 11:08[SPEAKER_01]: And then you go to headline two for the next kind of headline.
- 11:12[SPEAKER_01]: And so you might have headline two
- 11:18[SPEAKER_01]: If headline, the headline two then breaks down, you go to headline three, right, cause you've kind of owed down.
- 11:23[SPEAKER_01]: So we establish what those rules are as well.
- 11:27[SPEAKER_01]: So then it becomes the theme throughout the whole website.
- 11:30[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you know, it's that foundational development of like the hierarchy of colors, the hierarchy of fonts.
- 11:37[SPEAKER_01]: And then you get into like the nitty gritty details that kind of really give a personality whether there's some
- 11:43[SPEAKER_01]: patterns or little details and the patterns have rounded corners or square edges and kind of how that relates to the personality of the brand and their strategy, those sorts of things.
- 11:56[SPEAKER_00]: So okay, so then let's so you have a hierarchy of colors, a hierarchy of fonts,
- 12:02[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I love, it's like the finish work, right?
- 12:04[SPEAKER_00]: The details around the buttons and things like that, patterns, photography, imagery.
- 12:10[SPEAKER_00]: But then what about sort of the overall flow of the website and like the copy?
- 12:19[SPEAKER_00]: text.
- 12:20[SPEAKER_00]: How does that, how do you roll that in so that it aligns with the color palette, the fonts, the imagery, and you deal with all brand and the feeling that you want to evoke?
- 12:32[SPEAKER_00]: How does that play into it?
- 12:34[SPEAKER_01]: So I have perhaps a controversial belief in that you can have a relatively boring or ugly website.
- 12:42[SPEAKER_01]: and have great copy and you'll do it pretty well.
- 12:46[SPEAKER_01]: And you can have a beautiful website and terrible copy and it will do worse than the other one.
- 12:54[SPEAKER_01]: I want to get why.
- 12:56[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I just think that good copy speaks for Williams.
- 13:00[SPEAKER_01]: I just think that like that's the
- 13:03[SPEAKER_01]: You know, we take stock of kind of everything we see on the page in milliseconds, right?
- 13:08[SPEAKER_01]: We're kind of seeing, you know, having experience of the brand, the photography and the colours and the logos and how that speaks to us.
- 13:16[SPEAKER_01]: But then we're reading, we all read, and I think that that, and I'm saying the bluntly, albeit there, it sounds stupid, but it's like, we go at that messaging, communicate so much.
- 13:29[SPEAKER_01]: And if you miss that, if it's confusing, if it's worded, hardly, if it doesn't tell me who you are, what you do, where you are, like, I'm in a balance very quickly, in terms of bringing kind of the brand elements together and then the brand copy and it's brand voice.
- 13:51[SPEAKER_01]: We often work in synchronously with a copywriter.
- 13:56[SPEAKER_01]: So there, you know, let's such as this stuff, right?
- 13:58[SPEAKER_01]: We're always doing the strategy first.
- 14:02[SPEAKER_01]: And so, you know, we can be developing design and the, you know, whoever's writing copy can be doing not at the same time and then we bring it together.
- 14:10[SPEAKER_01]: And the end of the day, a website is
- 14:14[SPEAKER_01]: meant to be a system of, you know, a collection of templates doesn't mean that it's templated and that it's not custom, but there are systems to it.
- 14:25[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, we're taking that copy, you know, we can once it comes to us, where then, you know, applying these headlines in
- 14:38[SPEAKER_00]: When you say, you know, the content is critically important, are you saying that from an SEO perspective or are you saying that from sort of just that customer or that viewers experience once they get to the website or is it a combination of both.
- 14:57[SPEAKER_00]: And this actually connects perfectly to what we've been talking about because clarity and your business isn't just about marketing, it's about what's happening behind the scenes too.
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- 15:50[SPEAKER_01]: I'll see you there.
- 15:52[SPEAKER_01]: It's a combination, but once somebody is on the website, I think that that's when the copy is of utmost importance.
- 16:00[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot that happens behind the scenes from an SEO perspective and AI as well, which is like in a skill part of search volume at this time, but everyone's kind of freaking out about it.
- 16:14[SPEAKER_01]: Traditional SEO tactics are very valuable.
- 16:20[SPEAKER_01]: separately to the copy on the page.
- 16:23[SPEAKER_01]: When we're writing copy for a website or working with somebody to create copy for a website, my first and foremost goal is that it connects with whoever's visiting the website and communicates really well uniquely in the brand voice and also
- 16:45[SPEAKER_01]: Tell us, tell tell signs of a DIY.
- 16:47[SPEAKER_00]: I heard it was when I was just much copy.
- 16:50[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, oh my god, that's one of my biggest pet peeves too.
- 16:55[SPEAKER_00]: It's like they want the whole kitchen sink out there because they think it's super important just to make sure people know everything and possible.
- 17:03[SPEAKER_00]: But what is the purpose of a website?
- 17:05[SPEAKER_00]: Actually, that's like, I should have asked you that in the very beginning.
- 17:07[SPEAKER_00]: Like, what is the purpose of a website?
- 17:09[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's something I've been pondering recently.
- 17:14[SPEAKER_01]: because of the AI revolution that we're witnessing, which is going extraordinarily fast and also very slow at the same time, and you're like, okay, how is changing websites?
- 17:23[SPEAKER_01]: Are we even going to need a website in the future?
- 17:26[SPEAKER_01]: Like, that's kind of my existential crisis.
- 17:29[SPEAKER_01]: Right now, it's like, do I have a role in the future?
- 17:32[SPEAKER_01]: What's it look like?
- 17:35[SPEAKER_01]: So, right now, the website is almost the last stop for people researching a solution to a problem that they have.
- 17:47[SPEAKER_01]: So, people are researching in Google, or maybe AI, or they're seeing stuff in their social channels.
- 17:59[SPEAKER_01]: And with AI right now, and even the way Google's presenting results, they're giving answers to your questions without having to go visit the website.
- 18:11[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, I recently traveled to Portugal and in doing research and I'm asking questions and instead of me going into a blog and having to sift through the whole blog to get to the answer I want, I'm now getting the answer in the Google results.
- 18:26[SPEAKER_01]: By the time I go to the website, I've had a lot of education about either the problem or the brand, so once I get to the website,
- 18:41[SPEAKER_01]: communicate what we do and how we help people even more quickly than we used to.
- 18:47[SPEAKER_01]: So on the surface we need to connect and then we need to make sure we have a clear goal for every page in our website and whether that's capturing a lead or getting them to book an appointment.
- 19:02[SPEAKER_01]: or contact us or sell something, we need to make sure that we are helping them get to that solution as quickly as possible.
- 19:12[SPEAKER_01]: Then all websites, very long time, have had a secondary role which is to have content on them that helps educate such engines about all the different service areas or problems we can help with.
- 19:24[SPEAKER_01]: And that's kind of all those keywords out there, right?
- 19:29[SPEAKER_01]: You know, traditionally, it's been a lot of blog posts with AI, people are doing a lot of FAQs to help answer stuff quickly.
- 19:37[SPEAKER_01]: So, let's say it's two-fold in that one.
- 19:40[SPEAKER_01]: It's, you know, one of that, communicating what you do, helping people get to the solution quickly, but then as kind of all this other content to dig into for both the user and search engines.
- 19:59[SPEAKER_00]: We know with AI, people are getting the answers that they need before they visit your website.
- 20:03[SPEAKER_00]: So your website needs to communicate and get the point across extremely quickly.
- 20:08[SPEAKER_00]: Let's talk about that hero section on the homepage.
- 20:13[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm a real estate agent.
- 20:15[SPEAKER_00]: That hero section is essentially the headline that is above the fold, like as soon as you click on the website, how do you utilize that section most efficiently and most effectively to get them to continue to scroll or to click that, you know, connect with me button?
- 20:36[SPEAKER_01]: It's not rocket science.
- 20:38[SPEAKER_01]: I think the hero section is
- 20:42[SPEAKER_01]: the logo.
- 20:43[SPEAKER_01]: And again, I'm a fan of having a little tagline, not a cutie tagline, but kind of what you do tagline, like real estate and for steamboat springs or steamboat springs, real estate agent.
- 20:57[SPEAKER_01]: Something like that.
- 20:58[SPEAKER_01]: could be a little more clever, but just be very clear.
- 21:01[SPEAKER_01]: Because people look there very quickly, am I in the right place?
- 21:07[SPEAKER_01]: The header having a really good photograph, whether it's of you, or maybe your area, but it depends on one of the purpose of the website.
- 21:17[SPEAKER_01]: Then it's hard as the overlaying like a...
- 21:20[SPEAKER_01]: unique selling proposition again.
- 21:22[SPEAKER_01]: You just want to be communicating.
- 21:24[SPEAKER_01]: Here you are what you do for you sort of like wear.
- 21:28[SPEAKER_01]: Very nice.
- 21:28[SPEAKER_01]: It's like going to a restaurant website and you can't find the phone number or the hour or the address, right?
- 21:39[SPEAKER_01]: Like make it easy, don't let down.
- 21:42[SPEAKER_01]: So that
- 21:45[SPEAKER_01]: It's communicating a lot of stuff with the imagery and the, you know, the brand, but then the content needs to be very explanatory and then obviously have a strong call to action.
- 21:58[SPEAKER_01]: What do you what is a very much next thing you want somebody to do?
- 22:01[SPEAKER_01]: Do you want them to contact you, call me?
- 22:13[SPEAKER_01]: But either gets people to scroll down the page or we're does the other thing.
- 22:17[SPEAKER_01]: And with good design, you can have, you know, up to three, like, links there.
- 22:24[SPEAKER_01]: So you have a strong button of what the one thing you want them to do.
- 22:27[SPEAKER_01]: And then, underneath you, you have one more link of button that's more subtle.
- 22:33[SPEAKER_01]: Because further down the page to say, you know, get to know me or check out the latest listings in the area.
- 22:43[SPEAKER_01]: But having not too many choices is important, but having a call to action is important.
- 22:50[SPEAKER_01]: The number of websites you go to and you're like, what do I do next?
- 22:54[SPEAKER_01]: You should be able to answer that on every part of your page.
- 22:56[SPEAKER_00]: What do I do next?
- 22:58[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
- 22:58[SPEAKER_00]: So you're saying that needs to go on the hero section as well.
- 23:01[SPEAKER_00]: That's about the full section.
- 23:03[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
- 23:03[SPEAKER_00]: Makes a lot of sense.
- 23:04[SPEAKER_00]: Let's talk about data now because...
- 23:08[SPEAKER_00]: creative as you are, you also really believe in data.
- 23:12[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, you've created a report which I would love for you to talk about because I think that is one of the things that I know for myself, I'm like, I hate looking at Google Analytics because I feel like what are these numbers really mean?
- 23:25[SPEAKER_00]: What are the most important things I should be looking at?
- 23:27[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, what is it like, what is the story that I need to understand so I can improve?
- 23:34[SPEAKER_00]: Tell us about that.
- 23:37[SPEAKER_01]: I have always been a high achiever, meaning from my early days in school, I always wanted to be top of my class and get the A and get the tick, right?
- 23:46[SPEAKER_01]: As a designer, it's very hard to get a mark that says you did it right.
- 23:53[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
- 23:55[SPEAKER_01]: For me, while I believe in the subjective value of brand, like it makes me feel more confident, people trust me, I've credibility and I look professional.
- 24:07[SPEAKER_01]: I really needed to see reasons why the investment from the client is so worthwhile.
- 24:17[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, and whilst we can get
- 24:20[SPEAKER_01]: anecdotal feedback, like, oh my gosh, I had three new clients that I'd never have before.
- 24:25[SPEAKER_01]: I had three thousand new leads, whatever those metrics are, I needed to find a way to track that.
- 24:32[SPEAKER_01]: And so a critical part of any new website is how they're doing with traffic and in search engines and then engagement, what people doing on your website.
- 24:44[SPEAKER_01]: And it can get very technical and
- 24:50[SPEAKER_01]: So with any website we built, we started up by always collecting the previous few months before launch.
- 25:00[SPEAKER_01]: some data from Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
- 25:04[SPEAKER_01]: So Google Analytics is what people do on your site and kind of the traffic sources and search consoles telling you what's happening in search results.
- 25:13[SPEAKER_01]: So how many times you show up when people type in a keyword phrase, for example, it's way more complex than that but on a high level, it's that simple.
- 25:23[SPEAKER_01]: So we would always collect the prior three-month data and then we would collect three months at least afterwards because we wanted to make sure that the website didn't lose rankings.
- 25:34[SPEAKER_01]: I want to tick to say, it either stayed steady or it got better, right?
- 25:40[SPEAKER_01]: A can't always promise that it get is going to get better because it's out of my hands but we can do all the right things and most of the time it's obviously going to increase and get, you know, the search rankings
- 25:53[SPEAKER_01]: So we developed the automated report, which can back data as far back as you want, like two to three years, and then automatically put data in every single month.
- 26:02[SPEAKER_01]: So on the first of June, you can go in and you've got the prior month of May, the data all sitting there for you.
- 26:09[SPEAKER_01]: And the value of that was that we stopped having to manually enter something and spend our precious time.
- 26:17[SPEAKER_01]: checking numbers and having to go work out way to look and you know well Google change the things and whatever and it was just like well I'm sweating all this time just like plugging in numbers and now we can actually go and go and look at it and say okay what changed
- 26:33[SPEAKER_01]: So in terms of getting to know and love your data, what I love about this from, and I do love the data because it tells a story.
- 26:42[SPEAKER_01]: Yep, what's going on?
- 26:45[SPEAKER_01]: For example, we were running these reports recently, we backed it at like two years, because we can do that in milliseconds now.
- 26:51[SPEAKER_01]: And I, you know, one client's report, we saw, hey, there was a big spike of direct traffic in May.
- 27:01[SPEAKER_01]: What were you doing in May?
- 27:02[SPEAKER_01]: And they're like, oh, I did a speaking gig or I was on a podcast or, you know, they have that anecdote.
- 27:09[SPEAKER_01]: Like, well, I can see that really worked.
- 27:11[SPEAKER_01]: You had a spike in traffic.
- 27:13[SPEAKER_01]: So do that again.
- 27:14[SPEAKER_01]: Go find more gigs like that because that clearly influenced how many people came to your website.
- 27:21[SPEAKER_01]: And you can obviously go and correlate whether that, you know, you got more subscribers or did you get more leads at that time?
- 27:28[SPEAKER_01]: But that's what I like about is when you're kind of able to go and look at it and see the history, you can start to see the stories.
- 27:35[SPEAKER_01]: and take cues on what to work on next.
- 27:39[SPEAKER_01]: As opposed to always feeling like, I've got to do 10,000 things, and I don't know what's working.
- 27:45[SPEAKER_01]: People are spending so much time creating content posting it.
- 27:49[SPEAKER_01]: And there's one client in particular, actually two of them, who I can say to them, I know you haven't been referring to your links lately, or you haven't been posting links, or I haven't said,
- 27:59[SPEAKER_01]: check link my link in bio or DM me or whatever their way to get people is back to the website.
- 28:06[SPEAKER_01]: I can see when they're not doing it because they're traffic drops from social channels.
- 28:11[SPEAKER_00]: Interesting.
- 28:12[SPEAKER_01]: It's a nice little reminder to be like hey if you can in the time on social if one of your goals is to get people back to your website so you can capture their email or have them contact you.
- 28:24[SPEAKER_01]: Make sure you include links or references to it.
- 28:27[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
- 28:28[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I love that because I think so many of us put the website together, put it up there and just kind of like a business plan sometimes or goals, you know, and then we just walk away from it and we forget about it.
- 28:41[SPEAKER_00]: And it's important to make sure everything we do from a marketing perspective drives people back to our website.
- 28:49[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's obviously critically important.
- 28:54[SPEAKER_00]: this has been amazing.
- 28:55[SPEAKER_00]: If an agent were to take one thing away from this conversation today, what's the biggest takeaway?
- 29:01[SPEAKER_00]: What is the biggest thing they should be thinking about as it relates to their website?
- 29:05[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to suggest to you because we spend a lot of time talking about copy about how important
- 29:13[SPEAKER_01]: your main headline on your website is so maybe go check out what your headline on your website says and does it clearly communicate who you are who you are I mean you don't want to cram too much in their business does it communicate well so if you did nothing else maybe have a look at that
- 29:32[SPEAKER_01]: And then the second thing is, I think photography is so important, and when we're developing websites, the easiest websites.
- 29:44[SPEAKER_01]: that end up being the most beautiful and the most evocative and the communicate well are the ones that have really good photography of the person.
- 29:55[SPEAKER_01]: And so especially if they're an agent, it communicates so much about who they are by what they're wearing and where they are in their
- 30:10[SPEAKER_01]: I believe in investing in a good photo shoot before your website and having lots of different poses and angles in so that the web developer has a good selection to choose from.
- 30:27[SPEAKER_01]: But without a doubt, I could give you 10 websites right now and it was like, I feel like I didn't have to do a lot.
- 30:33[SPEAKER_01]: Other than strategy, yeah, with design because there
- 30:40[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I think the website you referred to earlier in our conversation, Diane, what's her last name?
- 30:46[SPEAKER_01]: Diane Botini and this live in steamboat.com, so it's a little bit, you know, there's a disconnect between the name, but if you Google Diane Botini, she would come up.
- 30:59[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I will make sure to put her website in the show notes because I think that's a beautiful example of your work and a beautiful example of what you're talking about as it relates to lifestyle and work style photography because you just know as soon as you open that website if she somebody that you could potentially work with.
- 31:21[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, those that imagery
- 31:25[SPEAKER_00]: And the blend of her entire color palette and everything her brand just speaks to immediate trust and then it allows you, you know, and that's exactly what she wants right because she wants you then to say, okay, I'm willing to stay on this website for a little longer and read more about her so.
- 31:45[SPEAKER_00]: That's just a great example.
- 31:46[SPEAKER_00]: Like I said, I'll put that in the show notes.
- 31:48[SPEAKER_00]: I also want to let people know about our new collaboration Katie.
- 31:52[SPEAKER_00]: So you and I are collaborating on branding and website development and I'm super excited to be working with you.
- 32:01[SPEAKER_00]: I think between the two of us we are going to.
- 32:06[SPEAKER_00]: make our clients look and feel just so incredibly amazing.
- 32:11[SPEAKER_00]: So if anybody is interested in working with Katie and I together, like two for one, you can go to post and be in creative.com slash real estate branding and you can find out how you can work with the two of us.
- 32:24[SPEAKER_00]: I'm super excited about that.
- 32:25[SPEAKER_00]: Where can people find you?
- 32:27[SPEAKER_01]: So my website is joyfuldesign.co and my Instagram handle is joyfuldesign underscore co.
- 32:39[SPEAKER_01]: If I recall correctly, I have not been prolific on Instagram I have a mixed relationship with it.
- 32:45[SPEAKER_01]: I spend way more time working.
- 32:48[SPEAKER_01]: with my clients doing their work and haven't had a lot of time to promote.
- 32:52[SPEAKER_01]: I'm trying to change that.
- 32:54[SPEAKER_00]: So that's where you can find me.
- 32:57[SPEAKER_00]: Awesome.
- 32:58[SPEAKER_00]: Awesome.
- 32:58[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for being with us today.
- 33:00[SPEAKER_00]: And for all of your knowledge and experience, this has been hugely helpful.
- 33:04[SPEAKER_00]: And I can't wait for people to check you out.
- 33:06[SPEAKER_00]: And for anybody who's interested in working with us together, you're
- 33:10[SPEAKER_00]: You've got a pretty good team behind you creating your brand and your website.
- 33:14[SPEAKER_01]: So I think it's going to be exciting and I'm really excited for your strategic approach to this.
- 33:21[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's so important that one of my very strong values is to always start up with good strategy and goals, the reason why we're doing all of this throughout clients.
- 33:33[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, I'm excited.
- 33:35[SPEAKER_00]: All right, Katie.
- 33:36[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks again.
- 33:36[SPEAKER_00]: And thanks everyone for joining us.
- 33:38[SPEAKER_00]: Have a great day, everyone.
- 33:41[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks so much for listening.
- 33:43[SPEAKER_00]: If you loved this conversation, we would love it if you share it with a friend.
- 33:47[SPEAKER_00]: Sign up for the Sunbeam app post in being creative.com.
- 33:51[SPEAKER_00]: Make sure to click that subscribe button if you're watching us on YouTube and follow if you're listening on your favorite app.
- 33:57[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Christine George and you're listening to No Like Trust for Real Estate.