9 Principles for Capturing More Leads from Your Broker Website

Successfully capturing website leads is part art, part science. Any design decisions you make (the art) should be backed up by well-established principles and rigorously tested (the science). Below, we've rounded up nine ways--from design tips to psychological tricks--to capture more leads from your brokerage's website.

1. Provide value - Put yourself in the consumer's shoes and think about what's in it for them. Provide site functionality that helps, not hinders, consumers.

2. Ask for only what you need - Speaking of hindering consumers, website contact forms that request too much information are less likely to get leads. Visitors see too many as questions as invasive and shy away. On the flip side, the less fields you have, the more leads you're likely to get. However, asking for more information makes it easier for you to qualify leads. Brokers have to figure out what the sweet spot between too much information and too little is for their company.

3. Keep your form above the fold - Forms need to be placed where consumers can actually see it. "Above the Fold" is an old newspaper term where the most important stories are placed on the front page, above where the newspaper is physically folded. This placement means that stories are more likely to be seen. In website terms, "above the fold" means your forms (or other important items) should be viewable without users having to scroll down the page.