So it’s the end of 2019 and we're coming into the beginning of 2020.
I’m headed over to one of my favourite conferences, the One C21 conference for Century 21 Canada.
Before I head out, I touch base with our customers. I send out a blast email letting them know about a new CRM, a new promo etc (you know doing my sales & marketing thing) and for those that write back I also ask them a very important question.
“How has your experience with REW been so far?”
I ask because I genuinely want to know. I want to make sure we’re as good as we can be, but also since I know I’m headed to a conference where we have hundreds of customers, I need to be prepared to work on any relationships that need love. "Run towards any problems” that is what Tim from my team says.
And yes, there were a few folks that said they’d like to bend my ear. There always is. Sometimes expectations aren’t met, sometimes timelines aren’t met, or sometimes we just plain screwed it up somehow and need to make it right. That’s the point of asking.
But I’ll also say that the responses were overwhelmingly positive overall. Lots of really happy / engaged customers who were excited to tell me about their results and show me their leads app, or deal sheets.
One such response from Sharon Clark, an agent out in Saskatchewan got me thinking, man I should really update my commentary on websites and their effectiveness if you use them right (which means following instructions, implementing the basics, doing some lead generation and actually following up with every lead).
So I titled this post “how much “not” having a website is costing you. 2020 edition.
I wanted to write it because as I was at the conference most of the agents talked about the “expense” of a website and lead generation (as if it was an expense and not an ROI generating activity). These are the same agents that did NOT have a website or lead generation program and were speaking from a place of inexperience (or in some cases poor past experience with past vendors and they had given up).
So let’s talk real numbers for a second here. Sharon’s quote (with her permission of course) is below:
“So far we've been super happy with REW and our website and are really looking forward to the new CRM. As far as leads go, since Jan 1, 2018 we have had 677 leads and if I remember right our conversion rate for 2018 was 2.8%. We haven't done our conversion rate for 2019 yet but it looks like it's probably on track to do the same.”
677 leads (a strong sample set)
2.8% conversion! (And that’s just in the first year they are captured, there is more gold still left in that database!
Simple arithmetic says that is equal to approximately 19 deals!
Let’s talk about what that means in terms of potential commissions.
Now, I’m going to use some hypotheticals here because everyone’s structure is different.
- So we’re going to use some common US numbers: $500,000 house = $15,000 GCI
- 19 Deals x $15,000 GCI = $285,000 GCI
- 80 / 20 split with a broker means $228,000 to the agent (again insert your own splits and numbers)
So how much would these deals have cost to generate at Real Estate Webmasters?
Here it is, retail.
- A site with us (not including any promos) is $5,000 USD one time ($1,666 if you amortize over a 3 year term)
- SAAS fees for single agent are $300 USD per month (so $3,600 per year).
- Add $50 a month for a texting module and that’s another $600 USD
- Cost for 677 leads? Let’s use a high number, let’s say $20 per lead (many markets are less than this). That means the leads are costing you $13,540
- And finally, what does REW charge to manage your budget? We charge 20% of said budget, so 20% off that is $2,708
Let’s add it all up for the year:
$1,666 + $3,600 + $600 + $13,540 + $2,708
And the grand total is? $21,514 USD
To make $228,000?
Subtract your cost and this means by NOT having a website and lead gen, you are potentially costing yourself over $200,000 in lost business. TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND!
Now again, every market is different. Leads can be a little more (or a little less) conversion can be more (or less) etc, but if you play with these numbers ANY way you like you’re going to find that website + lead generation more than pays for itself if you follow the program.
And this is not just one example: Gary B (ironically from the same area) pulled me aside at the first nights party, he opened up his leads app and excitedly showed me almost 3,000 leads generated this year!
My good buddy Stephen? since signing up 6,575 leads! (and that’s just his first site with us) he has a whole other custom one that has 2,761 hyper targeted condo leads. That’s almost 10,000 leads generated since starting with us less than 2 years ago.
Just a few months ago, I had a visit from a young man right here on Vancovuer Island. He lives in an expensive town (high price point, high cost per lead) he’s projected to do 20 deals this year too, and it’s his FIRST YEAR IN REAL ESTATE!
How? He just follows the program. Forced registration, follow up with every lead. That’s it!
Here he is sharing his experience in his own words.
The point of this post IS to sell you something. I’m not hiding that at all. What I’m selling is that a well run, PPC program on a “stock” (not custom website) with proper follow up WILL generate an amazing ROI.
**Update: REW Client AJ just messaged me some incredible stats after seeing this post: He's currently generating over $100,000 GCI PER MONTH using his REW website + PPC. I don't even want to share his stats because quite frankly they are TOO GOOD and I don't want to set unrealistic expectations on CPL but this is with under 300 leads per month generated. The guy is a deal closing machine! Congrats AJ!
These are facts folks: It’s time to silence the folks who sell “other things” (which may also work btw) when they try to say “websites aren’t of value” “lead gen is dead” etc. Really? Because you don’t sell it or you’re not good at it?
C’mon! Websites + PPC quite frankly are still one of the most reliable sources of deals available.
Anyone who wants help setting up their site AND their campaigns exactly like we’ve done for these folks, sign up and register for the forums as well. I will personally join you there and help you get the best results possible from your campaign.
A big part of this is still you (you still have to text, call and email right away). But if you can do that, and you’re good at sales, you’re going to like where we go with this.
So how about it? You in?
It’s time to stop losing money by NOT investing in your web platform and lead gen.
You can contact me on any form at Real Estate Webmasters.com to get started