How to get leads in real estate
When it comes to real estate, even experts with the most excellent sales tactics sometimes fail. On every level of the sales cycle, it needs a highly personal touch to succeed in this industry.
Finding real estate leads has its own set of problems, and all the sales advice in the world won’t help you close transactions if you don’t have reliable sources of real estate leads. Nonetheless, if you understand which marketing channels to employ, you can maintain a steady flow of new prospects.
To achieve this, you must employ a few tried-and-tested techniques for generating real estate leads.
What you need to know before getting real estate leads
Before we go into strategies, there’s one thing you should know about leads: the greatest ones aren’t online leads (the kind you buy through paid ads). The best leads come from the people with whom you’ve formed significant relationships, particularly during conferences and trade shows in your community.
When you make contact with these people, it is understandable to be curious or skeptical. Fortunately, you can use valuable online resources like Nuwber to verify information such as phone numbers, email addresses, and more. Maintaining these relationships will result in repeated and referral business (which, on average, accounts for 89 percent of all real estate transactions).
There are several thoughts for the best method for obtaining real estate leads, but these seven tactics are vital to building a thorough lead generation strategy for realtors:
Network, network, network
There is simply no way around it: If you work in real estate, you must network like crazy. Talk to your neighbors, go to the chamber of business to see what activities are going on, volunteer with local organizations, send networking emails, or pick up the phone and ring prospects.
Also, don’t forget to speak with people you already know. You have many years of trust with family and friends. Therefore it is OK to ask them first whether someone is looking for a house. They’ll want to work with someone they already know and trust, so you’re ideal for the task.
Ask for referrals
In real estate, referrals are worth their weight in gold. Unlike cold calling, when individuals don’t know who you are and may even be irritated at being called, a recommendation provides you with an immediate “in” with a prospect, saves a great deal of time contacting cold leads and moving them through the sales funnel. When asking for references, be assertive yet polite and considerate. Make it a habit to request one or two from each customer.
And, if you do receive a reference, remember to write a personalized thank-you message to the person who suggested you. This will foster a positive relationship with a person who may have additional references to provide in the future.
Come up with a process
To increase your productivity, every salesperson should develop and constantly adjust a sales process. You should have a strategy that outlines when you should conduct cold calls, your referral procedure, and how you go out and acquire new leads.
To do so, it’s a good idea to start by crunching the data you already have to develop a client profile. What sources do you use to locate them (social media, referrals, etc.)? What demographics? Is it more likely that they will sign up for your newsletter? The answers to these questions will assist you in determining how to develop an efficient approach.
Using this info, you can design a strategy that you can repeat week after week and then assess it every couple of weeks to see if it needs improvement to integrate new techniques or eliminate tasks that aren’t adding value.
Use social media
Yes, everyone thinks that social media should be used in marketing. You can, however, be excused for being annoyed by this medium. After all, not everyone has a large number of followers.
The value of social media for you as a real estate agent comes from your capacity to highlight eye-catching characteristics in houses on the market that individuals who like searching for their dream home would share.
Social networking is also an excellent tool to locate individuals in your market area to connect with. You may respond to people’s posts with helpful information or direct them to a house that could be of interest — but don’t be too pushy about it.
Make videos
If you’re like most realtors, you don’t bother with video – but you should. Offering to make a property video is an excellent approach to persuade sellers to list with you. And videos can show off a property in a way that pictures cannot.
However, in addition to showcasing properties, you can make short two-minute videos of:
- Step-by-step instructions
- Interviews with customers
- Question-and-answer sessions
- Favorite aspects of the house
Create a content marketing campaign
According to the National Association of Realtors, buyers use the internet to locate the property they eventually buy 50% of the time. When looking for a new property, one of the first things people do is use a search engine. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if your website was among the first to show up? You could start your content marketing strategy to boost your search engine visibility and acquire more quality leads that will be beneficial to your real estate business.
Use CRM software
Customer relationship management software could catapult your business forward. This software will help you manage your leads in one place, allowing you to identify where they are in the sales cycle so you can give them the correct message at the right time, improving overall operational efficiency. However, not all CRM software is the same, therefore seek real estate CRM software. Whenever it comes to sales, you’re in a different line of work since you’re selling a significant, life-changing investment rather than a can of Coke.
