How to Get Real Estate Leads in 2016
At slightly higher than 20 percent, the proportion of Americans that migrate every year within and across state lines and those that change countries entirely is quite astonishing. That figure has not gone below 14 percent for the past quarter century according to the U. S. Census Bureau, and given the recent surge in home buyers and sellers, I am quite sure it will maintain this trend for years to come.
Millennials are joining the housing market, and are actually shaping it. The baby boomers are either buying their second homes or downsizing from their loftier ones. It is quite an opportunity in the business of real estate lead generation, which prefaces our topic with a question: Are you getting your piece of the pie?
Are you doing what it takes to generate good leads in an active market? The market is becoming more and more diverse, and the strategies that you applied in the past are not going to cut it. With millennials and baby boomers adapting technological advancements and technologies more and more, you have to adapt to the new environment or watch yourself lag behind.
This is why we have prepared six sure-fire ways on how to get real estate leads in this ever-changing environment. If your answer to the questions we posed was no, or you are unsure, pay closer attention.
Real Estate Leads with Facebook Ads
There’s a saying: “always be closing.” A potential customer’s attention, interest, or email address, will not matter if you goal is not to always be closing new business. Your approach using Facebook, should be obtaining real estate leads, through various channels, whether its ads or organic reach.
The objective is to acquire leads from the social network to your email database. The most effective way to do this is to conduct highly targeted Facebook ads and call-to-action campaigns that drive the leads to a landing page on your website. Leveraging your content based on the kind of traffic you are attracting, make it unique, varied, and valuable and post it regularly.
Remember the goal is to close on their emails, so make sure that your website is doing its part in capturing your Facebook real estate leads.
Facebook ads are all about testing. Try different ad creatives, update them every two weeks so they don’t grow stale, and try different media types in your ads, from static, to video to carousel ads.
Tap into Craigslist Real Estate Leads
Craigslist dished out a whole new set of terms of use to curb on spammers mainly, but guess who else was caught unaware—your regular real estate agent. Agents can no longer post hyperlinked ads of their listings to drive leads to their websites. It is much more systematic if you place calls to action besides your ad that spell out the next move for the lead if at all they are interested in the listing.
Something in the lines of “For more information and images regarding this property text the number below” will do. It is also fundamental to optimize the ad’s headline with location-specific wording and basic property information to attract sufficient attention. When a prospect texts to inquire for more details about the property, ask for their email address and then send them the link.
The Local Press is Your Friend
Your goal is to be in your potential clients’ faces and a newspaper ad is a start. Have the local press run a special about your business.
Even better, contribute to a regular column in the paper to update the locals about real estate activity in the neighborhood. You not only provide valuable information, but also create awareness for your business.
The LinkedIn Funnel for Real Estate Leads
We look at LinkedIn as merely a social network for professionals, a tool for head-hunters and job seekers. That is all right, except there’s an opportunity you are missing by keeping that attitude. Your company’s LinkedIn account, if set up properly, can be your biggest real estate lead generation tool.
It is one of the most efficient ways to reach out to professionals from your local community who are due to engage in home buying or selling. You can track locals by creating or joining community groups, or by directly connecting via LinkedIn’s advanced search feature.
Try to establish your intentions by sending a personalized message to each one. At least 60% will be prompted to check out your page, which at this point must contain the details of your business. This is a sure way of having your name on top of their LinkedIn search results when they seek a real estate agent.
Door to Door Real Estate Leads
With the advent of the internet, some may regard this as an activity of the past, but I am yet to see a better way of picking a resident’s brain if not face-to-face at their own homes. It is the perfect place to give more information about your new listings and to invite people for open houses.
It is also a good opportunity to request residents to refer you to anyone in the neighborhood who’s looking to sell or buy a house.
One referral a day …
Clients sell your business much better than you. The high level of trust between them and the person that they are referring puts you on a pedestal you can’t achieve anywhere else.
By the time a real estate referral lead reaches your desk, they are already so far down the sales funnel that all you need to do is close them. And because your best agents for real estate referral leads are your current and past clients, you should encourage them either directly or indirectly to refer people to you.
You can do this by having a great before and after sale customer service and a referral based reward program. Another source of referrals is your business associates, the people that know and deal with you every once in a while. Next time you are at a networking event, set your sights on recommendations to prospects and make sure you handout your business cards at every opportunity that you get.
Stop wasting your marketing dollars on ineffective ways to generate real estate leads when the basics provide better results. For a few dollars a day, Facebook alone can generate enough leads for you.
Go ahead and try one of these ideas in your marketing campaigns and see for yourself. Also, do not forget to leave a thought in the comments below.