Oh, I get what you're thinking. You think that a pop up window will force people to contact you before they do anything else. You think that these leads will result in a sale because people want your listings so badly they just can't help themselves.

You're wrong. But it's likely a waste of breath to tell you. Anyone who puts a pop-up on their real estate website – or anywhere else for that matter – already fondly believes that forced leads will result in conversions, so should we really waste our time telling you? Probably not, but we might as well tell you anyway so that anyone reading this article who is at all in doubt about the efficacy of pop ups in marketing will be disabused of their notions.

In case the thought hasn't dawned on you, pop ups are annoying. They interrupt the flow of a website and jar us out of our peaceful house hunting habits. They make us think evil things. They make us want to jump in front of you while you're escorting your family into the grocery store and force you to give us your name and address before we let Little Timmy pick out which fruit is going into his lunch bag this week.

Pop ups don't help you gain useful leads. We're already at your site and we're just looking around. A hard sell at this point is going to make us run in the opposite direction. You know, right into your competitor's arms. The one who doesn't have annoying pop-ups on HER site. She's probably less obnoxious and more likely to listen to what WE want.

Oh, you might think it's because we're just “looky-loos”, but really, we're not buying a house with you on principle. The principle that you're probably exponentially more annoying and pushy than your site is. You may not be, of course, but the time for letting us know that has come and gone. We've already flown off to other pages that require less hoop-jumping.

“But it's only a couple of seconds out of your day!” Yes, that's true. But they're OUR seconds and we don't want to waste the sand in our hourglass on filling out a pop up form just so you can send us unwanted emails and phone calls. We're sure you're the greatest Realtor® that ever lived, but you're not going to be our Realtor®.

Oh and the people who do put an email address into your pop up box? Is it a[at]a.a? mindyourown[at]business.com? Yeah, that's not a lead. That's a hint.  M Shane