Every profession has tasks and responsibilities that are necessary for success, but aren’t the most fun to execute no matter how you slice it. In real estate, lead generation and nurture is essential to even having a thriving business in the first place. But it’s a pain to gather even a handful of leads when you’re just starting out, not to mention time consuming to regularly check in with your list of contacts once you’re established in your community.
Luckily, there’s certainly more than one method of real estate lead generation (we’ve discovered at least 10 main outlets), and we’re here to tell you about all of them in detail. So read on for ways to improve your own lead generation techniques, or jot down a few notes if you come across ideas that you haven’t tried yet.
While you may approach real estate lead generation and nurture from a different angle than another agent in your community, one thing’s for sure, it absolutely must be part of your marketing strategy to get your name out to a wide array of people.
How to Get Real Estate Leads ?
1) Build several optimized IDX Pages
More than anything, a real estate lead who’s in the market for a new home wants…you guessed it, to pore over listings of available properties. It’s important to know what your potential clients are looking for so you can be the first one to give it to them. IDX pages are an ideal, low maintenance way to drive people to your real estate website.
Not only are they easy to create, but you can feature as many of them as you want on your website. Not to mention, fully optimized IDX pages drive traffic to your site by being amazing for SEO and just by being visually engaging and informative. Learn how to get more leads by making optimized IDX pages.
2) Make the most of VOW Websites
TREB members are in luck! Real estate agents belonging to this association have access to a data-sharing service that allows them to give their leads access to property listings. The service is password-protected though, so it’s only available to those leads that have established a professional relationship with a TREB agent. This requirement typically produces better qualified leads, since it’s a safe bet they’re ready to actively look at properties if they’re making contact with an agent. Find out more about Virtual Office Websites.
3) Communicate using Google Messaging Feature
Without text messages, phone calls or emails, it’s pretty tricky to stay in contact. And consistent communication is essential when it comes to generating leads. Google Messaging can help with all of that. It’s connected to your Google My Business page and a preferred messaging app. When potential customers land on your website, they get directed to your messaging app to ask a question and get the conversation started.
This is a passive, simple way to generate leads, especially when Google Messaging gives you the option to set up an initial auto response anytime a new customer reaches out, keeping you in contact no matter the day or time. Learn how to get leads with Google Messaging.
4) Brand your niche real estate website
Do you sell luxury condos? Or maybe properties for first-time home buyers? Work solely among three specific apartment buildings? Then a niche website is definitely for you! Your leads have specific wants and needs when they’re in the market for a home, and if you specialize in the sorts of things they’re looking for, there’s good reason to leverage a branded niche website to attract new buyers.
Plus, actively promoting and displaying the niche you focus on can help you stand out among a sea of other similar real estate agents. And when the day comes that a homebuyer who only wants to look at log cabin-inspired homes in the middle of the city (or something like that) lands on your site, you’ll be prepared. Explore how having a niche real estate website can help you get more real estate leads.
5) Manage Google AdWords campaigns
Yes, they can be intimidating to figure out at first, but there’s major real estate lead generation powers available within Google AdWords. Much like having a niche website, selecting specific keywords to attach to your ads can really attract your ideal leads to your website. Plus, as you learn to analyze and understand how your leads are searching and how traffic is driven to your site, you can adjust which keywords are connected to the campaigns you run. Learn how to generate leads by setting up a PPC campaign.
6) Create a Facebook for Business page
There are tons of social media platforms out there, but possibly none as wildly popular as Facebook. Thanks to people’s familiarity with the platform, they use it to search for anything from downtown comedy shows to homes for sale. This means you simply must have a Facebook for Business page at the ready with regularly updated content and eye-catching listings. Increase your reach by setting up a Facebook Business Page in less than 5 minutes.
Just like you must regularly communicate with your leads, available listings aren’t much good if people don’t know about them. So that means honing your promotional skills to ensure those listings are seen by as many eyes as possible. Tools like your blog, social media platforms and email marketing are all fantastic real estate marketing techniques to get the word out. Get more leads by promoting your real estate listing properly.
We get it, writing isn’t everyone’s favourite thing, but the phrase, “content is king” isn’t around for nothing. When potential real estate leads are researching neighbourhoods and cities they want to learn specific details about the area. If you know the best Asian restaurants in town or the friendliest dog parks, share that information to attract people to your website. Drive more traffic to your site by starting a real estate blog.
9) Produce stellar landing pages
A pressing goal of any agent is to obtain a lead’s contact information. Do you know how most accomplish this feat? Why, through a landing page of course! Since landing pages exist solely to gather someone’s information after they’ve looked at a piece of content, they play a big part in actually generating leads from your website. This means you must create landing pages that are simple, aesthetically pleasing and promise something to the lead in exchange for their contact information. Explore a quick video of our top 3 real estate landing pages. A free piece of content is a surefire way to entice a qualified lead. Generate more real estate leads with beautiful real estate landing pages.
10) Leverage Instagram Campaigns
Possibly the most real-estate friendly social platform out there, Instagram can help you generate some serious new real estate leads. First off, humans are visual creatures, and the listings and videos you can share on the platform appeal to the kinds of content people want to consume. Here’s how any Realtor can get started running their own Instagram campaigns:
Simply, set up an Instagram Business account, select the listing you wish to promote, choose which call-to-action button you’ll use and your audience, and launch your campaign. You can check-in on the campaign whenever you want by clicking “View Insights.”
Using Instagram campaigns as part of your real estate marketing strategy is an excellent idea because they’re easy to set up and run, engaging to new leads and the results they yield are easy to see. Learn to setup an Instagram Campaign for agents.
Can it be challenging to manage several different online marketing channels to generate new leads? Absolutely. Is the process necessary and rewarding? Definitely! As we’ve said above, you can’t have a successful business without consistent, persistent amounts of lead generation. But since there are as many tactics to drive traffic to your website and business as there are potential homebuyers, with a lot of planning and a healthy dose of perseverance, any dedicated real estate agent can build a business to be proud of through lead generation.
