Did you know that 65 per cent of online shoppers have engaged in a live chat at some point? That means the lions’ share of Internet-savvy users are engaging with vendors of products and services online. Are you missing an opportunity to engage with the website visitors that you’ve worked hard to earn?
Live chat is a truly untapped resource in the real estate industry. While a small percentage of trendy early adopters have incorporated this technology into their websites (less than five per cent), very few agents have given it the time, attention and knowledge it takes to turn this innovative technology into a lead powerhouse.
Integrating a live chat technology into your website offers you a free (with a paid model available for added features) proactive opportunity for engagement with potential clients. Live chat is a phenomenal lead-generation tool, but like any great tool it’s only a toolset and you still have to put in the virtual elbow grease. In this case, virtual elbow grease means being online on a regular basis, responding to queries in lightning speed and engaging pre-emptively with website visitors.
Succeeding with live chat
There are a number of elements to succeeding in lead-generation with live chat.
- Traffic: Using live chat without website traffic is like holding an open house with no advertising. If your website isn’t garnering traffic already then you’ll need to invest in SEO, PPC, social media marketing or another form of on or offline advertising.
- Proactive chatting: Only a tiny percentage of your chats will be initiated by the user. This means you need to be active in proactively engaging your users.
- Research: Knowing a little about the user before chatting is important. Use your chat tool to look at where they are chatting from, what page(s) they’ve visited, what pages they navigate to while chatting, how many times they’ve visited before and if they’ve already chatted with you. For example, if they’re looking at one of your listings, give them a tidbit of info not available to the public.
- Triggers: Set up “triggers” that send a pre-selected welcome message to users based on the time of day, amount of visits, current page, number of prior visits or dozens of other triggers.
Chat Ninja-level tip: Find a pain point
Once you’ve found your voice and have begun to engage people, use your chat to find a pain point. People are incredibly open with the anonymity of online chat, so use that to your advantage. Solve the thorn in their side and you’ll find it a cinch to turn this online chat into an offline deal.
Following the above five tips will put you on track to becoming a live-chatting, lead-generating ninja in a blazer. From there it’s a trial-and-error learning process to hone your skills.
Robin Wilding is the creative mind behind The Lead Gen Factory and The Realtor Pipeline. The Lead Gen Factory is a boutique real estate online marketing company hyper-focused on lead generation; The Realtor Pipeline is a digital DIY platform showing Realtors how to generate online leads, lead conversion, Social Media Marketing, sales pipeline building, and more. She also leads The Realtor Pipeline Facebook group, a group for Realtors to learn new online techniques, technology and share best practices.
