lead generation

Go fishing on Facebook for real estate leads

May 13, 2019

“Successful marlin fishing involves having the right gear, knowing the right fishing tactics and techniques, and being in the right place at the right time,” according to FishermansOutfitter.com.

The same can be said about anything one is trying to capture, from a mouse or a crook to the perfect photograph and, yes, real estate leads.

The challenge for many real estate agents attempting to capture leads is that, while they may understand tactics and techniques, they lack the proper gear.

So, let’s start with that and then get into how to use that “gear” to lure real estate leads on Facebook.

Mackerel or marlins?

Real estate agents can learn a lot about lead generation and capture from the fishing world. And, the first step is to determine who it is you’re trying to lure. Gone are the days of agents marketing to “anyone who is breathing.” It’s inefficient and ineffective.

Who do you want to work with, buyers or sellers? First-time buyers or repeat buyers? Luxury homeowners or condo owners?

Figuring out what you’re fishing for and then who these people are is key to any marketing strategy, most especially when you’re marketing on Facebook.

Before you do any further planning, head over to Facebook’s Policies to ensure that your promotion follows the rules.

Choose your lure

Watching a video of man- or woman- against marlin, it’s easy to assume that the most challenging part of catching one is the fight. The angler, strapped into a boat’s fighting chair, pumping and reeling, while the huge fish leaps and spins, makes for compelling footage.

But, “big blue” didn’t just stop by and ask for the fight – he (or she) responded to a lure.

And, not just any lure. Depending on species and sea conditions, the boat’s captain will choose from an array of lures he or she feels will be most attractive to the fish.

Premium content might hook them

Premium content is one way to lure Facebook leads. This type of content is different than what you offer by means of blog posts. It’s “a type of digital content that may be accessed for a fee, and is usually of higher quality or more desirable than free” content, say the folks at Techopedia.com.

You won’t, however, be charging a fee for your content. You will, on the other hand, ask for information in return.

And, now that you know who you are “fishing” for, determining the type of content to offer is a whole lot easier.

Remember, it’s called “premium” content for a reason. It’s higher quality than regular content, longer in length and, as the Techopedia folks say, it’s “exceptionally informative.”

An ideal type of premium content is a Free Report. Offer Free Reports in person, through direct mail, email and add to your website as a free download in exchange for an email.

There are a variety of long-form content types from which to choose:

A list and in-depth description of down payment assistance programs
Infographic
Tutorial
Ebook
In-depth guides, such as city guides, neighborhood guides, buying and selling guides, relocation guides.
Reports (basically just 3,000-word articles)
Checklist (staging, moving, loan application, etc.)
Long articles (at least 3,000 words)

Get more tips on creating and marketing with premium content at LinkedIn.com.

Facebook giveaways to lure real estate leads

A prize giveaway is another way to lure Facebook leads.

And, make no mistake, what you’re giving away is key to the promotion’s success. “I mean, who’s really going to take the time of day to like, comment on, and share a post when all they stand to gain is a $15 gift card for coffee?” asks Pat Hiban at ActiveRain.com.

“Almost no one,” he claims. Take the time to carefully consider an item that you’re contemplating giving away. Hiban lists several that worked well for other agents:

Family passes to a popular local attraction, such as a waterpark or amusement park.
Tickets to a sporting event. Hiban suggests “tickets to a local team’s upcoming game or even tickets to college games often work.”
The latest smartphone

Or, make the prize appropriate to an upcoming holiday. In 2017, Chattanooga attorneys Warren & Griffin gave away a stainless-steel barbecue grill and threw in a $50 Walmart gift card that the winner could use to purchase the goodies to cook on the new grill.

Use your favorite graphics program to create compelling Facebook posts to promote the giveaway and ensure that everything steers them to a dedicated squeeze page where you’ll capture their information.

Facebook’s rules state that users can’t force participants to share, like or follow to be entered for the prize. So, don’t force them. Hiban offers a brilliant alternative:

“Know someone who needs” a new grill? “Share this giveaway so that they have a chance to win!”

Get more Facebook giveaway ideas and tips at Wishpond.com and Hootsuite.com.

Show them you know what’s on their mind (available in the postcard section under Get More Listing Series)

Another way to generate leads is to send at least 100 Should You Stay or Go postcards from the Get More Listings Series to an area where you want more leads.

You might also like:

Agent Facebook Success: Rules of Engagement

A Refresher Course in Attracting New Clients

Need help targeting the perfect niche of buyers or sellers? Use our mailing list tool to create the ideal list (it’s easy) or call our support team for assistance at 866.405.3638!

PLUS: When you have time…here are Free killer tools to help your success this year!

1. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here

2. “Get More Listings” Free Online Webinar

“Get MORE Listings & Begin to Dominate Your Market!” Free online webinar. Learn the 3-7-27 strategy for explosive growth, why 95% of agents have less than 20% market share, and how to become the agent everyone competes against. – Click Here

3. The 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do when. Four key market segments are included, Niche Marketing, Get More Listings, Geographic Farming, and Sphere of Influence. –Click Here

4. The Free One-Page Real Estate Business Plan

Treat your business like a business it is vital to long-term success in this industry. Some agents may put together elaborate business plans, yet there’s something powerful about keeping it simple. Check out our one page Online Real Estate Business Plan. – Click Here

5. The Free Online ROI Calculator

Consistency and automation are the keys to success. Discover how effective direct mail marketing can dramatically increase your bottom line. Enter your statistics in our Free online ROI Calculator and click the ‘CALCULATE MY ROI’ button to see your results instantly! –Click Here

New agent success: Generate listing leads

Lead Generation

Nov 12, 2018

Who started the thing where new agents should go after buyers? Sure, right now there are lots of buyers in the market, but it isn’t always like this.

And, there is a truism in real estate: If you list, you last.

So, let’s get you some listings before you stereotype yourself as a strictly buyers’ agent.

Do it right

While shooting a bunch of arrows into the air may result in you eventually hitting something, a planned, disciplined approach to lead generation works far better.

This means choosing which methods you will use, planning your marketing approach carefully and scheduling a time to perform the necessary follow-up.

Most important of all is that, should you seek advice from your colleagues, ignore the unsuccessful among them and definitely pay close attention to anything offered by the most successful agents.

Target neighborhoods

You’ll often hear this approach to real estate lead generation referred to as “geographic farming,” and for good reason.

To be successful requires certain farming techniques, such as choosing a fertile plot of land, planting marketing “seeds,” and having patience while these seeds germinate.

Then, you need to nurture them along.

To find that fertile plot of land, research. While there’s no consensus among the experts, many suggest that you start with an area of about 500 homes. Ultimately, it comes down to your budget – how much money you have for marketing – that will determine the size of your initial farm.

To narrow down the choice of area, agents use different techniques. Some choose an area based on its current sales activity.

“Look for movement,” suggests Martin Bouma with The Bouma Group in Ann Arbor, MI in an interview with Gary Keller.

Others choose by home price point. For instance, if you know how much you want to make in gross commission income, it’s easier to hit your target if you’re consistently listing homes in a particular price range.

Bouma suggests that you research each area of interest to determine how many commission dollars were earned last year (by all agents) and then determine if any particular agent dominated in listings. If the dollars are high and competition is low, go for it.

Ok, so you’ve chosen your ideal geographic farm – now what?

It’s time to start communicating with these people. Again, how you’ll do this depends on how much money you have to spend on marketing.

If you aren’t crunched for money, consider using “things that people will hang on to,” Bouma suggests. He mails 4-page market reports in a color-magazine-like format.

Successful lead-generating marketing ideas include postcards, flyers and door hangers with the following information:

Introduce yourself as the area expert
Announce just listed or sold homes in the farm area
Advertise an open house that you’ll be holding (hopefully, someone in your office has a listing in the area and they’ll allow you to hold it open)
The advantages of buying over renting (for the tenants in the area)
An invitation to contact you to learn what’s happening with home values in the area (ideal for absentee owners)
Offer a CMA

How often?

“If I was brand-new I think I’d do it every month,” suggests Bouma.

More important than how often, however, is that you reach out consistently. Gary Keller calls consistency “the magic pill” and Bouma agrees: “I just keep reaching out in a bunch of ways, consistently.”

“The medium is the message”

In the 1960s, Canadian professor Marshall McLuhan studied the media as a way of understanding society. He coined the phrase “the medium is the message” to describe how the medium is as, if not more important than the message, because of its enormous influence on how the message is perceived.

What medium (or mediums) will you choose for your message?

While digital messaging can be inexpensive, it’s also hit and miss in its effectiveness. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. Consistent blogging and social media use coupled with direct mail, however, is the bullseye you should aim for.

Postcards, capture the recipient’s attention instantly making them less likely to be thrown away than something sent in an envelope.

If you’re a door-knocker, consider printing up your message on door hangers. You can blanket an entire neighborhood (up to 400 homes) for less than $200.

“Having the right attitude is probably more important than any other factor,” when trying to become a top listing agent, according to Phoenix mega-agent Russell Shaw.

“A complete willingness to do whatever is necessary and to have the viewpoint that you are going to persist until you have arrived.”

Get started now, send out at least 100 Free Home Market Analysis postcards from the Free Offer Series to an area where you want more listings.

Need help targeting the perfect niche of buyers or sellers? Use our mailing list tool to create the ideal list (it’s easy) or call our support team for assistance at 866.405.3638!

PLUS: When you have time…here are 4 free ways we can help you STILL CRUSH IT in 2018!

1. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook.

2. The Free 2019 Real Estate Business Plan.

3. The 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan.

The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do when. Four key market segments are included, Niche Marketing, Listing Inventory, Geographic Farming, and Sphere of Influence – Click Here

4. The Free Online ROI Calculator.

Also…check out these cool tools

Three Click Postcards – Just snap a home photo & create a postcard all from your mobile phone

MLSmailings.com – Automated Just Listed, Just Sold Postcards

Market Dominator System – Become a neighborhood brand

Want to Refer a friend or colleague? Refer them, Here. THEY get a Free $25 Gift Card and YOU become their hero. BTW, you also get a $25 Gift Card too (now that’s what I’m talking about)!

The Secret to Converting Leads

Lead Incubation

Jun 20, 2018

More words of wisdom from Dean Jackson (the king of real estate marketing). In today’s article, he explains his innovative approach to converting leads over time. Dean Jackson is the founder of GoGoAgent and Listing Agent Lifestyle.

Playing the long game

I’ve heard many agents complain when they try different sources to generate leads, for a few months, and get nothing out of it. Unfortunately, the point being missed with this way of thinking is the real payoff with lead generation is in playing the long game.

The correct approach is to look at your lead generation process, not as a short-term expense, but as a capital investment. Do not add unnecessary and misguided pressure to the action of generating leads by expecting to recapture your money in 30, 60 or even 90 days.

It’s time to amend your perception of the value of a lead over time. And begin to cultivate your leads over 12, 18 and even 24 months (regardless of lack of response). Then you will begin to build a true capital asset. And this asset of unconverted leads will become an incredible treasure trove that will continue to pay dividends for years.

A case study

A great story defending the above philosophy is of agent Tony Kalsi. We tracked lead conversion results on Tony’s listings for four years in a “Getting Listings Case Study”. And we discovered 21 transactions he achieved over the four-years were from leads he had generated in the first year that he had continued to cultivate.

If Tony had written off these 21 leads as “duds” due to not being able to convert them quickly, he would have missed out on – I don’t even want to think about how much money!!

I’ve heard story after story like this from agents who understand the long-term approach to converting their leads. They patiently educate and motivate their lead list, then watch the yield from that portfolio continue to pay off year after year.

Being conscious of your marketing dollars has its place. However, focusing only on what you can achieve “right away” from your marketing dollars and discarding the rest is a mistake. And this mistake will cost you longterm valuable assets.

Every new lead that you add to your “lead portfolio” is a potential future client. Some leads may convert quickly, but many more will convert over time, even years after your initial contact.

From “dud” to dynamite

If you have leads gathered over the years that you’ve identified as “duds” due to not converting quickly, I have a great marketing campaign for you. This campaign has the potential to bring many of them back into the fold.

Gather together an email list of your so-called “dud” leads and send them the following email. Put their “first name” in the subject line of the email and then ask them one simple question in the body of the email. “Hi ‘insert person’s name’, “Are you still looking for a house in ‘insert city or neighborhood’?”.

That’s it.

That little email and nothing more. Send that email to all of the dud leads you’ve generated and neglected for 90 days or longer (or you feel have neglected you). And you’ll be amazed at how many people respond “Yes, we’re still looking.” You’re also going to be surprised, not in a good way, at the number of responses you get from people that say, “No, we’ve already bought.”

This second response will break your heart, but don’t sulk, just make a mental note that YOU can not predict when a prospect will be READY to move forward. This knowledge will become a reminder to not prejudge your leads. But instead to take the long-term “asset management” approach to nurturing your leads as the treasure trove that they are.

Begin cultivating and nurturing your lead portfolio today by sending out the Ever Thought About Selling postcard from the Listing Inventory Series to at least 100 prospects from your lead list.

To learn more about the other incredible tools and resources Dean has available for agents go to GoGoAgent.com and ListingAgentLifestyle.com.

Need help targeting the perfect niche of sellers or buyers? Use our mailing list tool to create the ideal list (it’s easy) or call our support team for assistance at 866.405.3638!

PLUS: When you have time…here are 3 free ways we can help you CRUSH IT in 2018!

1. The Free 2018 Real Estate Business Plan.

2. The Free Online ROI Calculator.

3. The 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan.

Also…check out these cool tools

Three Click Postcards – Just snap a home photo & create a postcard all from your mobile phone

MLSmailings.com – Automated Just Listed, Just Sold Postcards

Market Dominator System – Become a neighborhood brand

Blogging For Listings

Listing Lead Generation

Mar 26, 2018

When 1,500 U.S. consumers were asked what type of research they performed before hiring a real estate agent, nearly 43 percent said they seek advice from a neighbor or friend. More than 34 percent say they check the agent’s website.

When the second most popular way of finding agents is by trolling their websites, it’s critical to take a good look at your online presence. Blogging has benefits.

Listings, listings, and more listings

Here’s a “well, DUH” for you: To capture website leads you need visitors to your website. There are several ways to generate more traffic and blogging is one of the best methods.

Merely having a blog on your website will increase the site’s number of visitors, according to a Hubspot study. In fact, companies that blog receive 80 percent more visitors and small-business bloggers (which is what you are) get 126 percent more leads.

The bottom line is that if you promote your posts widely and consistently, you’ll drive more traffic to your website.

SEO

And, if you search engine optimize your blog using long-tail keywords, you’ll be focusing on traffic that is more likely to convert.

Examples of short and long-tail keywords in real estate include:

Short: Lake homes
Long: Lake homes for sale in Madison
Short: Homes for sale in Phoenix
Long: Homes for sale in Phoenix with a pool
One-story homes in Las Vegas
One-story homes for sale in 89123 under $200,000

Real estate consumers are using longtail keywords to find you

Agent Steve Jolly of nashvillerealestatenow claims that he counted “21,050 keywords that were used to find my website” over the course of one year. More than 90 percent of those keywords were longtail.

In a nutshell: Although long tail key phrases will result in less traffic, what you do get will convert easier. And, when you think about it, are you in the traffic-generating or lead-generating business?

Finally, if you’re posting valuable, high-quality content, you may attract inbound links – the holy grail of anyone seeking to rank in Google.

If you want Google to see your site as authoritative, having high-quality inbound links is the only way to do it, according to Jayson DeMers at Search Engine Land.

Blogging helps build trust and establish expertise

The folks at Google asked real estate consumers what is important to them when choosing an agent and nearly half of them said “trust,” according to Tom Ferry.

So, how do you create trust? Through your online presence.

Blogging helps you appear human instead of as a brand. Regular blogging, on a schedule, helps people trust you as well. You show up, you are consistent – those are all qualities consumers seek in an agent.

A blog will help you to position yourself as an expert in your niche

The How

Stuck for topics? Think about your clients and the questions they ask. The chances are good that others have the same questions.

There are at least a gazillion (ok, an exaggeration, maybe a bazillion) pieces of online advice about how to write blog posts. The key thing is to know your audience before you sit down to put fingers to keyboard:

Buyer or seller?
What pain point is your topic addressing?

Keep the answers to these questions in mind to remain focused as you write.

Make the post easier to read by structuring it so that it has lots of white space. Chop up overly long paragraphs and use photos, subheadings, content boxes and block quotes.

The When

How often should you post to your blog? Businesses that “published 16+ blog posts per month got about 4.5X more leads than companies that published between 0 – 4 monthly,” according to a Hubspot survey.

Sounds a bit excessive, doesn’t it? Other than agents who outsource their blogging, who has time to write four blog posts a week? Nonetheless, the takeaway from this survey is that blogging more often results in increased lead generation.

Not only does inbound marketing work, it’s far less expensive than most other types. If done right, blogging is inbound marketing on steroids.

Another way to get more listings, send the Timing is Everything postcard from the Fence-Sitter Series to at least 100 new prospects in an area where you want more listings.

PLUS: Whenever you have a moment…here are 3 things to check out that will help you CRUSH IT in 2018!

1. The Free 2018 Real Estate Business Plan

Treat your business like a business it is vital to long-term success in this industry. Some agents may put together elaborate business plans, yet there’s something powerful about keeping it simple. Check out our one page Online Real Estate Business Plan – Click Here

2. The Online ROI Calculator

3. The 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do when. Four key market segments are included, Niche Marketing, Listing Inventory, Geographic Farming, and Sphere of Influence – Click Here

Also…check these out

3 Click Postcards – Just snap, tap, send all from your mobile phone

MLS Mailings – Automated Just Listed, Just Sold Postcards

Market Dominator System – Become a neighborhood brand

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