SmartPath Leads vs. Forced Registration

Recent 3rd party research confirms what we've seen across the board on hundreds of sites where we manage traffic: online lead conversion rates are declining!

In fact, results from studies by many reputable sources are producing summaries similar to this study by CSO Insight:

"The study's findings were based on more than 100 metrics gathered from 585 companies worldwide. CSO found that 'first-discussion conversion rates'—that is, the percentage of qualified leads—have been eroding over the past five years."

Inman recently released some survey results that also confirmed that it is particular ugly for real estate agents:

"...7 out of 10 (agents) put their websites conversion rate at 3% or less."

3%! REALLY!?

That means the typical agent gets 3 leads for every 100 visitors to their site. Although not terribly exciting, just a few years back that number was more in the 5%-7% range. On the high end there were some real estate platforms that were focused on lead gen, would produce 10%-12%.

But things have changed.

At Elevate, one thing that really put us on the map is our industry-leading conversion rates. As such, we are still higher than the previously mentioned ranges.  However, we too have felt the sting of these declining lead capture rates.

Why?

Because it drives everything - with higher conversion rates the same amount of traffic will produce: more leads, lower costs and ultimately more closings.

We've been actively managing traffic and providing lead generation services for years. We've spent several million dollars on live traffic. Part of this spend was budgeted to constantly test 'theories" and to develop the best lead conversion practices.

The biggest challenge is getting maximum quality data without creating too much form friction.

Form friction?

In other words, you want to make it as enticing & easy as can be for someone to fill out a form on your site.

Because it's so important: there's literally a science dedicated to reducing form friction. Most of it has to do with testing and changing things like: the number of fields, the form's copy, the button text, the color, the layout, etc.

These form components are all continually 'tweaked' to try to get conversion rates high. But as the studies cited above show, it's not enough.

At Elevate, we've taken reducing form friction and increasing lead conversion rates to an entirely new level.

 

 

 

Process Map

 

Our cutting-edge SmartPath Lead technology increases conversions and gets you more leads at a lower cost using two main tools:

       

Advanced Multi-part Registration   We break the lead capture process into mini-size bites and capture the lead's input at each point allowing you to not just have a single "yes" or "no" conversion, but multiple conversion points.   We go for the consumers' information in 3 parts in a very orchestrated and inviting manner. Many leads complete the entire process. However, if the prospect bails out at any time during the multi-part opt-in chain, we process the data that we have collected and a lead is created.

   

SmartPath Multi-type Registration   Instead of just focusing on a one-size-fits-all optimal opt-in design and format, we've created "SmartPaths".   These SmartPaths provide unique and separate ways (paths) that increase the response of each of the different types of traffic. This leads to high levels of conversion.

 

Here's a quick overview of how we treat the 3 main sources of traffic:

 

Path 1: Cold Traffic - For Google Adwords, Bing, and Organic Traffic we use the detailed elegant multi-part lead capture process detailed above.

 

Path 2: Facebook Traffic - in many cases, we reduce "form friction" altogether with this source of traffic by generating a lead into our Agentjet ONE™ platform with 2 taps WITHOUT even leaving Facebook! (HUGE!)

 

Bottom-line: tap. tap. lead!

 

With this, we essentially removed all form friction and it's working amazingly well:

 

 

 

 

Miami is a competitive market and even on honed in campaigns, leads normally run in the $14-$19 range.

 

But our new SmartPath Leads for Facebook is converting at $6.58 a lead!

 

That's less than 1/2 of what it normally costs. And that's a whopping 37% conversion rate!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Path 3: Friends & Family - We think it's crazy to ask Friends and Family to go to your site and "register". We've made it very simple for you to upload a list. Then our platform will create an account and automatically send your friends & family engaging emails encouraging them to use your site for all of their real estate needs.

 

 

 

What About Forced Registration?

 

 

       

Forced Registration Opt-In Process   This is the normal one-size-fits all registration process. We've always been know for our high converting pages and even in this case, you can see that we do multi-part registration. We break the opt-in process down into mini-steps. This helps to keep conversion as high as possible using this method. First, we engage them in what they want: to perform a home search. Then we ask for all details. If they don't want to provide all details, they don't get access and you don't get a lead.

 

 

 

Pros & Cons - Forced Registration

       

FORCED PROS         All leads will have name, phone & email (we perform validation, but some fake data will get through)   Uniformity of leads - all will look the same   Possibly easier to work with as they've already shown that they will jump a hurdle even with form friction

 

FORCED CONS         You'll lose roughly 1/2 the total possible leads by 'forcing' them to provide all data   Cost per lead will be much higher   Perfect data is still not possible   Less overall opportunities   Bogs down the lead's initial user experience

 

 

 

 

 

Pros & Cons - SmartPath Registration

       

SMARTPATH PROS         Lead registration rates will be roughly twice as high   More leads   Less cost per lead   More opportunities   Chance to work with valid leads that only want to provide partial data AT FIRST that you would've otherwise turned away   Advertising budget will go much further   Aprox. 1/3 of leads will provide email only, 1/3 will produce same as forced method, 1/3 will provide additional info such as: time to move?, pre-approved?, etc.

 

SMARTPATH CONS         Roughly 1/3 of the leads will be 'email only' at first (not really a con because of our DataMiner Pro add-on)

 

 

 

DataMiner Pro - Icing on the Cake!

 

Once a lead is captured, Elevate automatically goes to work behind the scenes to build out a profile for every lead. This combined with SmartPath Leads is truly the best of both worlds: high lead capture rates & maximum data for each lead.

 

Once you have this additional info like: name, income level, home value, length at residence, occupation and much more; you can build targeted segments. Then with a couple of clicks, you can email, text or postcard blast the segmented leads a tailored message.

 

It's amazing state-of-the-art technology!

 

(Keep in mind, the software will be scouring the internet, public databases, public listings, etc. to enhance the lead's information. It will bring back a lot of matches but sometimes nothing can be found. In those cases our system attempts to extract data with other methods over time.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Recommendation

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our recommendation is to use SmartPath Registration. It converts 76% more leads then forced registration. That means roughly twice the amount of leads with the same amount of traffic. Your budget will go much further and you'll have more opportunities.

 

There are too many benefits with SmartPath to sacrifice by being rigid and 'forcing' all leads to fill out name, email & phone. Especially when you consider that you'll be generating a nice blend of leads. Some will be name, phone & email. Some will be name, phone, mail and more data such as when they're looking to move, are they pre-approved, etc. And some will be email only.

 

Elevate will automatically gather more data on many of the email only leads so the SmartPath option really is a no-brainer.