Companies can be a lot like the agents they employ when it comes to the Internet. They often give lots of lip service about what they are going to do to improve their online business, then end up frustrated when half-hearted efforts don’t produce expected results. However, just as there are exceptional Internet-savvy agents, there are also exceptional companies whose commitment to transforming their online business is backed with determined action. Here's the story of one that got it right.

Clark Realty (www.clarkhawaii.com), the largest independent real estate firm on the Big Island of Hawaii, is such a company. And here’s how their singular focus to improving online profitability resulted in about a 50% increase in online leads, and more importantly, increased their conversion rate of those leads from only ½% to 15%.

It Takes a Leader

To have any chance of successfully implementing any kind of online initiative, it takes someone in authority within the firm to be the “driver.” Someone who fervently believes in the online possibilities and relentlessly keeps the entire organization focused on achieving them. Penny Pagliaro, VP of Marketing for Clark Realty, is their driver. She had been in contact with me since early 2000 because of my many articles in REALTOR® Magazine. When we finally met in February 2004 (when I keynoted at their company’s annual conference) they had already implemented important changes to their Internet strategy. These included making their website the center of their marketing efforts in branding their company’s look and feel and implementing written Internet policies and procedures for their sales associates.

While these changes produced good results, Clark’s web team wanted more — much more. So during my visit I consulted with them on the next steps they should consider, including:

• Focus on creating relationships with online visitors by adding staff to handle all incoming referrals from web and RELO and give special hands-on attention to them.

• Humanize the site using more engaging copy and headlines, spotlighting different sales associates, personal stories, video tour of the Big Island etc.

• Improve Web forms by adding privacy assurance on every form, rewording form questions to be more engaging and specific to the site section in which it is located.

• Create a Concierge referral program run by dedicated staff who prioritize responses to inquiries based upon projected purchase date.

• Make the site more visitor friendly by incorporating a site map, site search engine, and RSS feeds of their showcase properties and include floor plans, parcel and location maps whenever possible.

• Add print, radio and television advertising to drive traffic to the site.

This is just a partial list of the action items implemented by Clark Realty in the last 18 months that resulted in a higher number of repeat visitors, longer stays on the site and a much higher conversion rate. As Penny points out, improving their online business is a high-priority work in progress: “Our corporate goals for the website have been to provide a broad range of information to our visitors/prospective buyers and sellers and at the same time to reflect our company’s ‘persona’ as friendly, helpful, professional and knowledgeable. We’ve consciously chosen to hold back on expanding our web business until we were ready internally to provide the same level of service to our web visitors as we would an office walk-in.”

This “holding back” is largely due to management’s realization that sales associates must be trained on how to work effectively with the Internet Empowered Consumer. While the Clark team certainly understands them, they also know that any successful corporate online initiative requires that their front-line sales associates need to embrace and understand them as well.

“We’re making progress in this area,” Penny confirmed, “but our goal is for everyone of our sales team to be completely proficient in handling transactions online.”

Understanding the online consumer, knowing what it takes to engage them, and then using laser-like focus and determination to put that knowledge to work are the ingredients necessary for building ongoing success online. This holds true for an individual sales associate as well as an entire company. Even though it can be more challenging for a company to pull this off, Clark Realty Corporation has admirably proven it can be done when everyone from the top on down is clear about the vision and determined to see it through.

Mr. Internet is the alter-ego of Michael J. Russer, an internationally recognized Internet speaker, trainer, author, and strategic consultant to the real estate industry. He's dedicated to helping real estate professionals leverage their people skills into profit on the Internet. You'll see his column on REALTOR® Magazine Online every month and in the magazine quarterly. Send your Internet questions to help@askmrinternet.com or you can visit his Website at http://www.russer.com

This article is reprinted in its entirety from the December 2005 issue of REALTOR® Magazine by permission of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. Copyright 2005. All Rights Reserved other than mentioned above. Mr. Internet® is a registered trademark and Ask Mr. Internet!™ is a trademark of RUSSER Communications.