As a realtor, the importance of capturing leads and building a database of potential buyers can't be overstated. When it comes to establishing these relationships, your online presence is the most powerful tool in your arsenal.

According to REALTOR.org, 43% of all home searches start on the internet. That's half your prospective audience ready to be engaged online. And what's the best way to capture this audience? A real estate landing page that's optimised to convert them into leads.

But first: What is a Real Estate landing page?

Landing pages are one of the most effective ways to get inbound leads. In other words, the leads come to you rather than you having to hunt for them. Generally, the job of a landing page is to act as a single web page that captures someone's contact information.

The job of a good landing page, however, is to convince your audience to provide this information in the first place.

You can attract traffic to landing pages from a variety of sources, such as Google search search, social posts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Pinterest or through email marketing.

Best Real Estate landing pages: Some examples for inspiration

We've scoured the internet to find you the best examples of real estate landing pages that are well optimised for conversions. Read ahead to see what these different kinds of landing pages are getting right (and how yours can too).

Home value landing page

Source: HomeLight

When someone intends to sell their house, they want to know what it’s worth. A home value landing page allows a prospective seller to enter various information about their home and then calculates the estimated value. To see the estimate, they need to enter their contact information. And that, ladies and gentleman, is a lead.

What this page gets right: The lack of distractions around the 'Enter address' field and call-to-action (CTA) button mean that your eyes are immediately drawn towards the conversion elements on the page. By asking the user to fill just one field at a time, the page eases the user into providing information, making the whole process seem less daunting.

Make your own: You can create your own home value landing page in less than 30 minutes using this template.

Home search landing page

Source: David Mueller.

A home search landing page allows prospective buyers to search your site for homes in a specific area. For example, if you’re a realtor in the Ann Arbor area, buyers can type in a specific postal code and see all of your listings in that area. If they want more information on a particular listing, they enter their contact information.

What this page gets right: Simple, modern design that draws your eye to the yellow CTA in the middle and reflects the unique brand of the website. By listing the high volume of homes available in Ann Arbor on top of the form, the page indicates to the user that there is an abundance of information on the other end of the 'Search' button.

Make your own: Use section breaks to easily create a similar search page for your website with Paperform. You can also create beautiful listing pages like this one to direct your customers to.

Free content landing page

Source: OpenAgent.

Another effective way to generate both buyer and seller leads is to offer free content in exchange for contact information. For example, you could give away a free eBook that helps sellers prepare their home to sell. Or you could offer a series of short videos that provide potential buyers with tips for getting the best price.

What this page gets right: Bright, eye-catching CTAs placed throughout the landing page remind the user to convert at every point. Using the word 'free' in CTAs also provides the user with an incentive to click.

How to create landing pages for Real Estate that convert

While landing pages are excellent tools for collecting leads, it’s not enough to simply slap one together and assume that the masses will come running. While there's no such thing as a ubiquitous "perfect" landing page, there are best practices you can easily adopt today to supercharge your conversion rate.

1. KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid)

The most effective landing pages are simple and to the point. If you overload people with information and options, it creates cognitive friction, which often leads to no action at all. Use simple, clear, compelling copy and images.

Simplicity is especially important when it comes to the number of fields on the landing page. Think about the landing pages in the examples above. What's the one thing they all have in common?

They're all multi-step forms that show no more than 3 fields at a time.

If you want more conversions and leads, keep your forms simple by splitting them up into multiple steps. Here's how.

2. Create a compelling headline

When it comes to capturing people’s attention, you have an extremely limited window. The human attention span is currently around 8 seconds (officially shorter than the attention span of a goldfish).

This means that if you want people to read the content of your landing page, you need to have a compelling headline that pulls them in immediately.

Here are examples of some of the compelling headlines used by real estate websites:

The best headlines:

Use simple, positive, powerful language

Make bold, attention-grabbing statements

Include numbers

Create a sense of urgency

Your headline is the entry point for the rest of your page. Create one that compels people to read the rest of the form.

3. Focus on benefits over features

Focusing on helping potential leads understand how their life will improve if they opt into your offer.

For example, if your landing page features a home value calculator, talk about how the seller can get more money if they know what their home is worth. If you’re giving away a free eBook about preparing a home for sale, explain how the tips in the book will help them sell their home faster.

Your goal is to help the potential lead envision all the value they’ll receive if they give you their contact info.

4. Use high quality images

Real estate, more than most other industries, is highly visual.

Put yourself in the shoes of a prospective buyer or seller. If you came to a landing page with a grainy picture of a house that looked like it might be haunted, would you enter your contact information? To quote Simon Cowell, “it’s a no.”

If you want someone to trust you enough to give you their contact information, use high-quality images. Also consider testing two versions of the same page with different images using a testing platform like VWO or Optimizely. Tip: Some companies have found that photos with people tend to convert more effectively.

5. Create intent-specific landing pages

If you’re trying to attract renters who might want to buy, create a landing page that speaks specifically to that audience in a language that will resonate with them. If you’re targeting older individuals who want to downsize, speak in ways that address the challenges they face and the potential solutions you offer.

Platforms like Facebook and Google can let you get very specific with who sees your ad, allowing you to target people with landing pages that are designed to get them to convert in their specific situation.

Creating separate landing pages for each customer intent might seem time-consuming, but it's actually really simple with the right tools. With Paperform, creating a landing page is as easy as creating a doc. You can even automate your marketing efforts, so that your forms integrate with your favouring email apps to automatically send emails when certain actions are performed.

So start building those landing pages and collecting leads!

Try Paperform for free for 14 days (no CC required).