Below is a great article from The Rainmaker Formula Blog. As you’ll see, a real estate contact management solution is key to almost all of the 10 ways to generate real estate leads discussed in the blog post:
Real estate lead generation means constantly looking for new business. When people are looking for ways to generate new business, one of the first questions people usually have for me, as a Lead Generation Strategist, is what’s the MOST effective way to generate leads for my business. It’s understandable that you would want to cut straight through the BS and get to what’s going to work for YOUR business, but unfortunately there is no one MOST effective strategy. Much the same as there is no magic bullet in any industry.
Much of what will give you the biggest bang for your buck depends a lot on your current skillset and budget and even more importantly, your audience. If you’re selling products or services to everyone, there would be a million ways to reach all those people. If on the other hand your audience is targeted and you KNOW who you’re trying to reach, you will find all of your marketing and real estate lead generation efforts will automatically become more effective.
But generally speaking, I’ve put together a list of what can be the top 10 cost effective real estate lead generation strategies when targeted to a specific audience:
#1 Referrals– Why Referrals? Because as we know, people like to do business with those they know, like and trust or who come recommended by people that they know, like or trust. A recent article I wrote for those struggling on a peanut butter and jelly budget talks about how following up with contacts and clients you already have can breathe new life into your sales funnel by bringing in referral business.
[stextbox id=”info”]”People like to do business with those they know, like and trust” [Tweet this][/stextbox]
Note from IXACT Contact: The easiest way for busy Agents to follow-up with contacts is with a real estate contact management software. With the software, you can schedule your keep in touch communications, set reminders, and store key information about clients (interests, profession, spouse) so you can build deep relationships.
#2 Live Seminars– This one is one of my favorites to generate real estate leads because in the day and age of the internet we’ve all become really comfortable in our PJ’s (myself included) and even lazy when it comes to “social” networking. But when measuring effectiveness there is NO substitute for pressing flesh. This goes back to #1 in that people like to do business with those that they know, like and trust. It’s MUCH easier for someone to feel like they know you if they’ve actually met you. And hopefully from there they will like you and come to trust you. Live seminars can be events that you host (i.e. homebuyer workshops) or events that you attend as a guest. Either way, get OUT there and mingle.
Note from IXACT Contact: With a good real estate contact management system, you can schedule your very own seminars (for example, a New Buyers Seminar) and plan all the necessary steps involved in executing one. Seminars can be daunting to put on but with a real estate contact management system, they’re truly a breeze.
#3 Compelling Offers– Whether you’re hiding out in your home or office or actually out there meeting people in person, you’ll need a reason for someone to want to become a lead. What do you have to offer them that they can’t get from every other person offering the same products or services? Your USP (unique selling proposition) should be translated into a compelling offer that they can’t refuse. One that your prospects would feel like they can’t afford to miss out on. This offer can be used on squeeze pages to collect email addresses, in social media to get people to “like” your stuff or even as part of a direct mail campaign.
#4 Paid Advertising– I’m sure there’s a reader or two out there who wants to skip this one because you’re freaked out by the word “Paid”. But if you’re in business and not willing to test the effectiveness of your real estate lead generation strategies, you should be freaked out by that instead of the word paid. Successful lead generation involves time AND money. That’s an article in itself, but in order to see if anyone is really interested in your compelling offer or to see if you’re using the right keywords, etc. the fastest (most effective) way to figure it out is with paid advertisements. Paid ads include banner advertisements, pay per click, solo ads on other people’s email list, FB ads, etc.
#5 Creating Pillar Content– Whether marketing on or offline, an effective way to get new readers, subscribers, prospects, leads or whatever you want to call them, is to write content that they want to read. If you’re not a writer there are other ways to produce valuable content including podcasting and video (which can be transcribed into articles). The most important aspect of making content creation an effective real estate lead generation tool means having a super strong call to action.
#6 Establishing Expertise is directly related to creating pillar content, but is more about how you leverage and distribute content. Expertise is also about branding and other factors depending on your industry, but most important is to know that in order to build TRUST people will need to know and feel like you know what you’re talking about.
Note from IXACT Contact: On a related note, use the Business Directory built-in to your real estate contact management system to easily refer trusted professionals to your clients. This is one way to position, or market yourself, as a “home expert.”
#7 Participate on related blogs with lively commentary, become active in forums that your target audience hangs out it, and answering questions on sites related to your industry where your prospects are asking questions. Simple yet effective.
#8 Social Media is not just about what your dinner plans are or projectile vomiting your content on as many networks as possible. You should share some personal information so that people know you’re a real person and not a spam robot, but real engagement comes from asking questions and sharing problems that your audience is having along with tips and advice on how to overcome those problems.
#9 Video Marketing is another substitute for pressing flesh with live seminars and events. People can actually see you when you’re in front of the camera, and even if you use different types of video like screen sharing and presentations, prospects get another sensory feel of who you are and whether or not they would want to get to know you, whether or not they might like you and whether or not they trust you. See the pattern yet?
#10 Last but certainly not least is the importance of Tracking and Measurement when determining the most cost effective way to generate leads for your business. If you don’t have tracking in place and you’re not measuring results, there is NO way in the world to guess what’s most effective. In other words, track and measure EACH of the 9 strategies above or don’t bother doing them. You’ll be wasting time AND money.
Note from IXACT Contact: This is an extremely important point and one of the reasons why a real estate contact management system is vital to your success as an Agent. Using the software, you can run reports that will give you insight into where your business is coming from so you know where to spend more and less money.
The original article can be found here.
Which tip do you think is most important? Leave a comment!
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