How real estate professionals can generate leads

Lead generation is a process where you collect potential customer’s contact info. When we talk about real estate lead generation we refer to all the real estate marketing activities that are aimed at gathering useful contacts to improve the sale of properties. However, generating leads requires a well-designed strategy and it has one basic rule:

“Approach each customer with the idea of helping him or her solve a problem or achieve a goal, not of selling a product or service.”

— Brian Tracy

In this article, we want to tell you which are the must-have web platforms for your company and how to best use them to talk about your work and generate leads.

Write a blog

Blog is the top lead generator and a valuable ally in any marketing strategy as it helps you to get a better position on search engines, it attracts new partnerships and builds customers loyalty. The real estate agency’s website informs about listings and the blog is a support tool that helps in the final purchase decision. The first step in writing a blog is to understand what your potential customers’ questions and doubts are through analysing data given by Google Analytics. After that, try to answer them by proposing solutions. For example: do your customers care about the quality of services in the neighborhood where your listings are? Write an article promoting local facilities and businesses. This kind of content has a double benefit: it reassures your customers and it potentially increases your traffic, as the companies you talk about may find your article interesting and share it by consequence. A blog strengthens the relationship between the company and the customer and this generates satisfaction. Loyal and satisfacted clients are a great way to generate leads thanks to their feedback and reviews.

Podcast

Users sometimes prefer listening to podcasts rather than reading articles. In addition to writing a blog, you can make information material available in this format. Buzzsprout is the top platform for podcasts, a new tool that is continuously spreading. It has a framework attributable to the radio that develops its contents in sections, known as episodes. Just like in a television or radio show, it is possible to have guests, do interviews, generate content of a broad nature and make sure that the latter are not lost. In fact, unless for some reason they are not deleted, they will always be listenable or downloadable from the server where they are located. There are millions of ways to make podcasts and you can unleash your imagination in always new content. However, always keep in mind that the goal is to keep your leads interested, make a good impression, inform and engage your customers. Create content for your clients but also for other real estate agents so that you can start discussions and maybe partnerships. If you are not familiar with this tool, take a look and draw inspiration from this list of the best podcasts for both real estate agents and those who want to invest in the real estate market.

Show floor plans in your listings

Floor plans are an important tool for real estate marketing because they allow customers to visualize the property and imagine their future life in it. In other words: it helps you understand the property better before seeing it. This is the reason why publishing an ad complete with a floor plan intrigues users and generates leads. In fact, the floor plan, according to Zillow, can lead to a 52% increase in click-throughs and according to homebuyer and seller surveys from NAR, it ranks third among the most useful information on a listing, after photos and detailed descriptions. There are several ways to obtain a floor plan: usually the measurements are taken using a laser and then you can draw a sketch using them. However, there are also companies that make this operation easier. For example, CubiCasa provides an application with which you can obtain a floor plan after scanning the property with your smartphone in a few minutes.

Mind the reviews

Remember that a third of the buying population is made up of Millennials. The peculiarity of this group is that they undertake extensive research before contacting an agent and above all they read reviews. In fact, according to the Consumerist, about 70% of consumers check reviews before making a choice. As a matter of fact, users trust reviews much more than traditional advertisements. You must exploit this potential by incentivizing your customers to leave reviews online on the best real estate review websites such as Realtor.com, Zillow and Trulia. Think also about offering them rewards. The more reviews, the more users will think your business is trustworthy. After that, you should respond to any comments, both positive and negative. Always be courteous and show yourself willing to improve.

Use Quora to generate leads

Quora is a question-and-answer website where you can ask for absolutely anything. Many home buyers and sellers are flocking to Quora to get relevant answers to their specific real estate questions. And of course, for the modern millennial, this is a natural part of the process since we have already said how important the search for information is for this target group. This platform is able to generate a huge amount of leads and establish a relationship with them. Furthermore, the huge advantage of Quora is that leads are already pre-qualified as they are looking for details to buy or sell a property. First of all, create an effective Quora profile that contains a detailed description of you and your industry experience. Then, since the system of this platform is merit-based, write some good answers explaining what your work is and you will see that the traffic will increase exponentially.

Advertise using social media

Social media plays a crucial role as it connects you with your target who later can potentially convert into real users. The best idea is to create a continuous communication system 24 hours a day so that the user feels confident that he can always count on your company support. To do so, you can activate a chat that allows direct communication with people interested in your properties. However, each social network has its own peculiarities, its own way of communicating and each of them can contribute differently in your generating lead process. Here it is a list of the platforms on which your real estate company must be present and how to use them.

1 — Facebook

Facebook is the most famous social network in the world and it counts millions of users all over the globe. Users continuously express their opinion and it is where you can find your audience looking for people who have searched for ads similar to yours. But how to create an ad? And how to make it efficient for your target? Take Joe Taylor Group at Love Local Real Estate as an example: it is one of the best real estate agency profiles on Facebook. In its ads it uses numerous high quality photos that show the property in order to provide a sort of tour without leaving the Facebook page. The advice we give you is to give users a complete idea of what they are looking at providing detailed information and using the carousel format to publish both the photos of the property and its floor plan.

2 — Instagram

Instagram now has more than 1 billion active users and it is the website par excellence for sharing photos and videos. This means that it is absolutely well suited for real estate marketing. In fact, its photo and video based content format, different from that of Facebook and LinkedIn, makes it easier to show the properties, thanks also to features such as location data and geo-targeting. Make your Instagram profile visually pleasing to users to arouse their curiosity and then convert them into customers and be sure to build your customers’ home daydream using all the instruments provided by this platform. This is what the owner of the_real_house_of_ig, Kate Rumson, did: she has more than 2.4 million followers thanks to its content regarding interior design and real estate investments. His posts make users dream about their ideal home and they cannot get enough of her visuals.

3 — Linkedin

Build the best LinkedIn profile, showcase your projects and major achievements in order to emphasize what sets you apart from others. Share at least two pieces of content a day to drive user traffic from your LinkedIn page to your website. The first thing to do in your LinkedIn real estate strategy is to build your network with many connections that are part of your target audience. One of the best ways to increase the number of leads is to create or join groups based on a topic relevant to your real estate agency and your area. Be active in these groups in order to increase the community and consequently generate new leads. In fact, according to LinkedIn, your profile is 5 times more viewed if you are part and active in groups.

4 — Youtube

This is the primary platform for real estate video marketing. It gives the company numerous advantages such as visibility on search engines, greater access to the website and virality. As a real estate agency, your contacts primary interest will probably be looking for a house they like, so make videos showing your properties. Another topic of interest for your target may be the neighborhood where you are working and the new market trends. Take inspiration from the most successful real estate agents and study their videos so you can understand how to create clips for your real estate YouTube channel. For example, Graham Stephan: he has more than 2.3 million subscribers and 517 uploads and is one of the best real estate Youtube channels. He creates videos in which he shares all his experiences, both unsuccessful and successful. The themes he most addressed only: investing to create well-being, investing in real estate, remodeling and renovating, real estate agent strategies, etc.

Old but gold: door knocking cold calling

So far we have talked about generating leads using technology based methods. However, it is important not to forget how powerful traditional door knocking and cold calling techniques can be. These have strictly to do with human contact and interaction which are the most effective ways to establish a reliable relationship. We get a lot of emails every day and most of them go unnoticed in the spam section while it’s hard to forget the smiling face of a real estate agent knocking on your door. They may seem somewhat outdated methods but they are perceived as more persuasive.

Do not neglect leads

We talked about how to generate leads but there is something even more important: once you’ve found your leads, don’t forget about them! Customers want to know if a company values ​​them, which is the reason why you must continually inform and update them. Otherwise you risk that they decide to turn to your competitor and all your work will be pointless.