It looks like I’ve finally found a solution to a problem that has haunted me since I launched my first real estate web site almost five years ago — what to do about those folks who come in at the very early stages of their real estate search and request information, such as signing up for a Property Organizer Account. I’ve never really felt like I’ve done a good job of making customers of the folks who are four to eight months away from buying something. I do a good job with folks who are ready to buy and call, but at any given time I suspect my web site consists of a visitor pattern something like:

• Ready to buy right now, or pretty darned quick. 10%
• Will be ready to buy, but not now. Using my web site for research. May or may not end up using me as an agent. 50%
• Other. High school kids doing homework, colleagues hoping I’ll write about them, and other assorted tire kickers. 40%

And that’s fine, really. I don’t mind the 40% kicking the tires, as long as there’s a 10% paying me to publish the tires. Helping some portion of that first 10% of my visitors is what’s kept me afloat for the past few years, but I’ve been awfully interested in what might happen if I could ever master the art of connecting with that middle 50%.

So far I honestly don’t think I’ve done a very good job of that, because I’ve alternated between not contacting them at all — a sort of Puritan Privacy Policy approach — and phoning them to welcome them to the site, which in sales etiquette terms is reminiscent of the Furniture Store Millisecond, named after the amount of time it takes a guy in the furniture store to get in your face and say “Can I help you?”

So, avid real estate sales Goldilocks that I am, I am now working very hard to split the difference between the too-cold porridge of hands-off, and the too-hot porridge of the welcome phone call. The answer, all along, has been a simple speedy response with a request to opt in to a permission-based newsletter. I’ve been testing out the services of GetResponse.com, and it’s looking like their system will enable me to put something together that is permission based and therefore extremely privacy-sensitive and user-friendly, yet still sales-effective. As a side benefit, it will also enable you (soon) to subscribe to the blog’s content, and doing so will also make you eligible to receive discount offers.

I’m pretty excited about it. I’ve got some typing to do!

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