Earlier in this series, we introduced you to Customer Behavior, a new and free feature for WolfNet IDX subscribers that provides tremendous insight into what has motivated a web site visitor to complete one of several online lead forms. If you haven’t enabled Customer Behavior yet, you’ll want to reference the link above for instructions, and enable it today.

Once enabled, when you receive a lead notification email you can now reference the customer behavior that comes with it. Today we will discuss a few key pieces of information that may help you better qualify your leads immediately. Consider the following:

Type of lead – Is it a listing inquiry/showing request, or is it a user registration? The former will reference a specific listing, which may carry greater significance given the additional data in the Customer Behavior report. The latter will enable you to see additional data on that visitor in the Back Office and also make her subject to your Authentication Rates. However, if you are forcing a more restrictive Lead Capture Setting, the registration itself may not indicate a hot lead. This is when the additional Customer Behavior data becomes more revealing.

Behavior Summary – This is the meat of Customer Behavior, where the rubber meets the road, if you will. Here is where you will get the best insight into how serious or motivated this particular visitor may be. For example, consider the following data:

1. Total Visits – an inquiry on the first visit might be whimsical, whereas a history of multiple visits, especially when coupled with a relatively recent First Access Date and Time may indicate someone with a sense of urgency, or who is doing their due diligence. Reference their Total Searches and Total Listings Viewed; an inquiry after extensive research could mean a very motivated candidate to buy or sell.

2. Average Price – Is this all over the map, or narrowed within a reasonable range? Someone looking at homes in the $2 – $10 million range may be doing just that – looking. Kind of like watching Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous on your web site. But a range like $275,000 – $325,000 may indicate someone who knows exactly what she can afford, perhaps someone who has prequalified for a mortgage. It may also indicate someone looking to put a property on the market.

3. Average Bedrooms/Baths – By themselves, these criteria may only indicate the needs of the specific visitor, such as family size. But taken with other data like cities and price range, you can tell if the homework has been done about whether the search criteria is realistic or not.

4. Registered on: – A listing inquiry from an already registered user may indicate a listing match in that day’s SearchSaver email. Reference the Saved Searches and Favorites in the Back Office to detect a match. You may also want to look at the login history; someone who is getting regular email updates on saved search criteria may be a pretty loyal web site visitor, and an inquiry after sustained visits to your search may indicate a readiness to take action.

Top Listings Viewed – If the lead notification has indicated a listing inquiry, this is a key section to review:

1. First confirm the listing that is the subject of the inquiry is one of the top five.

2. Look at the other top listings and determine if there is a pattern: same community, same price range, similar features, etc.

3. When you respond to the inquiry, knowing what other listings the customer has viewed and why will lend to your ability to showcase your expertise. Reference the listing that is the subject of the inquiry, and consider referring the client to other listings on the list that are similar properties. Likely a productive, intelligent dialogue will ensue.

Top Cities Searched – The relevance here seems pretty obvious – real estate is all about location. A visitor searching a specific city may indicate she knows where she wants to live. But there are more subtle nuances to this information that may reveal even more about a her motivation, and her understanding of the current local real estate market. Here are a couple of things to consider:

1. Are other search criteria in her Customer Behavior summary consistent with these cities? Look at the behavior summary data for price range, bedrooms, and bathrooms. Is it realistic to find a preponderance of listings in these communities that meet these criteria? If yes, you may have a very focused and motivated buyer or seller. If not, she may be dreaming, but that still gives you a potential opportunity to show your own expertise and advise on more appropriate neighborhoods that match her criteria.

2. Not all searches include cities as criteria. MapTracks^SM users may not select a specific city, but rather use the map to draw their search area. In such a case, reference the latitude and longitude data in the Most Recent Searches section. For WolfNet clients with the new MapTracks^SM version 3.0, searches may include more city data, as the map automatically locates and scales the view based on cities selected from a menu.

Most Recent Searches – Many agents requested this feature long ago; the idea is understanding exactly what the visitor thinking right before she decided to submit an inquiry. This may provide some insight into her motivation, as well as enable you to target future leads by creating custom searches based on the search data from past leads.

Ultimately, the purpose of the Customer Behavior data summary is to enable you to better qualify your leads, and facilitate a more educated dialogue with your prospects. This will hopefully better enable you to turn more of these prospects into clients.

The Tip of the Week blog posts every Thursday. Each Post is labeled “Easy,” “Intermediate,” or “Expert” based on the concept being discussed.

Earlier this year, WolfNet launched Lead Notes for all IDX customers as a free enhancement. Lead Notes is a simple application that lets you input notes on individual registered users in the BackOffice section of WolfNet’s IDX administration area. Included are a subject field for up to 110 characters and a note body of up to 1000 characters. If you are in the habit of reviewing registered user login behavior, saved search criteria or favorite listings, Lead Notes provides an easy way to include additional relevant information about your leads. It’s perfect for noting remarks from phone conversations, login patterns, email exchanges or other pertinent notes in a handy location.

To access Lead Notes, do the following:

1. Log in to your BackOffice at www.mlsfinder.com/admin and navigate to the Reports section.
2. Run a report, such as a search for an individual lead, or a lead group you define.
3. Select the lead you want to review.
4. Below the login history calendar, you will see User Notes (“User Notes” is consistent with the current BackOffice vernacular; the change to “Lead Notes” will come with additional enhancements to the BackOffice). To see an example screen shot, visit http://wolfnet.com/examples/user_notes.html.

Lead Notes are part of a more comprehensive suite of enhancements designed to help WolfNet IDX customers better manage leads.  More enhancements will be released throughout the remainder of 2011.

The Tip of the Week blog posts every Thursday. Each Post is labeled “Easy,” “Intermediate,” or “Expert” based on the concept being discussed.

In simplest terms, long-tail Search Engine Optimization (SEO) involves targeting keyword search terms that are more obscure and less frequently searched. For example, a generic search term might be “Real Estate,” whereas a long-tail search term might be “green homes for sale in Cornelius NC.”

According to online marketing specialist Alan Mitchell, targeting long-tail keywords on your web site can provide the following benefits:

1. While individual terms may be somewhat insignificant, en masse long-tail keywords can generate significant search volume (high impressions).

2. Long-tail keywords have less competition than generic keywords, providing a potentially higher Click-Thru Rate (CTR) and lower cost per click (CPC) for paid campaigns.

3. Long-tail keywords are more specific than generic keywords, so paid campaigns can be better tailored to match individual searchers’ needs.  This results in higher CTRs and fewer wasted click-thru’s from irrelevant searches.

4. People conducting long-tail searches are usually further along in the buying or selling process than those conducting generic searches. This results in higher capture and conversion rates.

5. The combination of higher CTRs, lower CPCs and higher capture and conversion rates leads to higher profits via a much lower cost per acquisition (CPA).

With these benefits in mind, consider creating highly specialized content areas on your web site. These may include community pages, but it goes far beyond that. Think of featuring highly targeted listings within individual communities. For example, Jonathan Osman in Charlotte, NC not only has community pages that feature content about various neighborhoods around Charlotte, he also features pages on green homes, luxury homes, golf communities and forclosure/bank-owned homes. Creating dozens of highly targeted pages like these is excellent SEO for a large number of long-tail search terms relevant to Jonathan’s market area. A Google search for a variety of long-tail terms related to these pages usually finds Jonathan’s site on the first page of results, often with multiple entries.

Furthermore, Jonathan has linked to relevant IDX search results  from these pages using the URL Search Builder and related documentation. So if a web site visitor lands on the Green Homes for sale page, links to individual communities pull up matching homes with a single click (such as “Eco-Friendly Homes in Cornelius”). In other words, the specialized pages generate the long-tail search traffic, while matching IDX searches capture the leads. This combination of long-tail keyword targeting using specialized content areas, coupled with specific matching dynamic IDX searches fuels a lead capture rate for Jonathan that is far and away among the best of agents nationwide.

Of course, while it’s not rocket science, it’s not turn-key either. There is no secret sauce here; Jonathan has achieved these results through a lot of hard work, perseverance and creative use of available tools. But the results are well worth the effort.

The Tip of the Week blog posts every Thursday. Each Post is labeled “Easy,” “Intermediate,” or “Expert” based on the concept being discussed