6 Ways to Make Your Website More Personal

In previous posts, I’ve talked about mistakes real estate agents make with their websites and how to make your site more useful to visitors. In this post, I’ll discuss how to make your site more personal.

People do business with those they know, like and trust. They want to know who you are - not just that you have local real estate knowledge and experience but that you’re an honest, trustworthy person who will help them complete one of the most confusing and stressful transactions of their lives. Here’s how you can connect with prospects through your site.

1. Don’t use jargon. Write as if you were having a conversation with your readers. Be clear and concise and focus on them and their interests, problems, concerns, fears, and hopes. People don’t want to read about you. They want to read about themselves - what can you do for them? Why should they believe you?
   
   
2. Add a professional photo. Hire a professional photographer to shoot a few photos of you and use them throughout your site. A good photographer can capture not only your professionalism but other qualities you may wish to convey such as friendliness, warmth, and approachability. Dress conservatively. When in doubt, go with a dark colored suit jacket and try to avoid bold patterns, light colors, short sleeves and extensive jewelry.
   
   
3. Add audio. Adding audio to your site is easy even for the non-techie with sites like AudioAcrobat.com. You simply call a phone number, record your message, then copy and paste the script they give you into your site or blog. What should you talk about? Anything, as long as it’s not a sales pitch. Try adding a brief welcome message explaining where people might start looking for information on your site. You can also add educational podcasts focusing around frequently asked questions and common concerns your prospects have.
   
   
4. Add video. Video is slightly more complicated than audio because it usually requires some basic editing and compression, but it’s still fairly easy to do if you have a video camera (or web cam) and basic video editing software like Movie Maker (free for Windows) or iMovie (free for Mac). Want something even easier? Put together a Powerpoint presentation, plug in a microphone to your computer, then record the slide show + you talking with Camtasia. (You can download and register the previous version, Camtasia 3, for free. If you like it, you can pay the upgrade price for Camtasia 5, but version 3 should do what you need.) Then, upload your video to YouTube or other video sharing sites and copy and paste the code into your site. Video makes you “real”. Now, you aren’t just a nameless, faceless website in cyberspace but a physical person talking to them. It’s extremely powerful.
   
   
5. Add testimonials. You can either ask your past clients to send you written testimonials, or better yet, have them call into AudioAcrobat.com and record a message about you. Try to get testimonials that explain what working with you was like and how your services enhanced your client’s life. Testimonials add a credibility - or as Seth Godin recently said, “people talking about you is far more effective than talking about yourself.”
   
   
6. Add a press room. Like with testimonials, having a press room where you add articles you’ve published or had published about you, interviews you’ve done, and talks you’ve given can add credibility. Again, the more people talk about you, the easier it is to promote yourself.

As people read your writings, see pictures and videos of you and hear your voice, they begin to feel more comfortable around you - though they haven’t met you yet! Your website becomes your virtual office where you can welcome them into a comfortable space to learn more about homes for sale, neighborhoods they might want to live in, and the home buying or selling process.