Elissa Giroux
on

My career began in the editorial department at a large publishing house in New York in the mid-90s. The web was so new that only the high-level managers at my company were allowed access. It would be a while before I could afford a modem of my own, but my interest in the web was born! Within a couple of years, I landed a job as a content editor with a well-known print and web publisher. Watching the web industry grow - and collapse - and continue to evolve over the past 15 years has been an adventure. My own web career has evolved, as well. My early exposure to search engine optimization piqued my interest in online marketing and discovering ways to use the web to serve business needs. Today I am still excited by the changing nature of my industry. Social media, mobile devices.... What will come next?

How Effective Is Encouraged Registration?

You probably know the number of leads your website generates every month. You probably watch your inbox for them. But do you know the number of potential clients who visit your site without making that transition from visitor to lead? According to a study by Google, home buyers visit an average of three real estate sites before they make contact with a company. So how do you make sure visitors contact your company instead of moving on to seemingly greener pastures? Answer: forced or encouraged registration.

On Union Street Media’s real estate websites, users can register to receive email updates for their favorite searches. Every time a visitor registers, you receive a “new lead” notification. Want to see more of those? Prompt your visitors to sign up by displaying a “please register” message after a predetermined number of searches or property page views, reminding them of the benefits and making it easy to register.

ForcedEncouragedRegistration

Many Realtors opt for “encouraged” registration; they feel that it’s more customer-friendly to suggest registration rather than require it. We get it. No one wants to feel like the bully on the real estate playground; no one wants to make more enemies than friends. But that’s not the result we see: real estate agents who have tested the waters with “forced” registration (blocking further searches or property views until the visitor registers) have seen some good success with increased conversions.

Either way, we have found that some prompting has a positive effect on conversion rate:

  • The percentage of visitors filling out the registration form was 84% higher with an encouraged registration setting than with none enabled.

  • The percentage of visitors filling out the registration form was 90% higher with a forced registration setting than with none enabled.

  • The percentage of visitors filling out the registration form was 36% higher with a forced registration setting than with encouraged registration enabled.

However, I should note that a lower percentage of visitors exited the site from listings pages that did not prompt registration (11%) than pages that encouraged (18%) or forced (16%) registration.

It’s a balancing act. It can take some experimenting to establish the ideal threshold between getting the action you want and sending the visitor away. The threshold can be set at any number, but we see the best success when it’s set between 5 and 10 searches and property detail views.

We recommend adjusting the settings as needed. Whether you’re looking to encourage or force registration, 
check your registration settings and adjust them to see what best benefits your site. If you would like assistance or advice, please let your Internet Marketing Specialist know. We’re happy to help!