
10 Solutions To Boost Real Estate Seller Lead Generation
The need for real estate lead generation ideas is one of the few aspects of the real estate business that everyone from a rookie agent to an agent with years of experience always focuses upon. The reason for this lies in the fact that leads, both potential buyers and sellers, are the foundation of this industry.
Without leads, there would not be a business to run. Unlike other industries, where a good proportion of the prospective customers tend to approach professionals. In real estate, that is not always the case.
In this industry, there is a need to proactively seek out leads, build relationships with them, nurture those relationships before finally being hired as the agent to represent them in their real estate transactions.
Before we delve into the different ways in which a real estate agent can start generating leads, let us first focus on the importance of leads and their three primary sources for all agents.
The Importance And Sources Of Real Estate Leads For A Real Estate Agent
Leads, as mentioned above, are important because they are the foundation of all real estate business. Irrespective of the fact that whether it is an individual residential or commercial agent, it's a brokerage or a real estate firm, all need to keep on finding new sources of leads.
The three common ways in which many real estate agents get real estate leads.
A. Attract Leads Through Family And Friends
The first source is their own family members and friends. This particular source is also referred to as a sphere of influence. This is an agent's personal and social circle from which they stand to gain leads. All these leads are based on referrals that the agent has received from his social circle.
B. Gain Incoming Leads Through The Brokerage
The second source is the brokerage with which the agent is registered. It is the responsibility of the brokerage to provide all their agents with help for generating real estate leads. However, at boutique brokerages or virtual brokerages, there could be fewer leads coming through due to many constraints.
C. Gain Organic Leads Through Lead Generation Activities
The final source to generate leads is the real estate agent's own active efforts. These generally include a mix of both inbound and outbound marketing strategies to attract potential customers. This aspect is going to be the focal point of our article.
Real Estate Lead Generation Solutions From Successful Real Estate Agents
1. Boost Your Real Estate Marketing Efforts
When it comes to real estate lead generation efforts, one of the crucial steps to take is to ensure that you have a properly planned marketing strategy. This strategy has to be created based upon the local real estate market conditions and the overall financial scenario prevalent over there.
Try to focus on your common client type, and then try to plan out a marketing strategy where you will be able to offer them your services. For instance, if you handle the sale of homes of retirees, then the traditional methods of advertising may be more suitable.
However, let us say you handle the first-time home buyers and sellers. Then your target market is millennials, and you should focus more on digital marketing. This could be in the form of paid ads. You could even opt for the pop-up ads service if you wish. These should enable you to get more leads regularly.
2. Incorporate Social Media Marketing Strategy
Next in our list of real estate lead generation ideas is somewhat of an off-shoot of the previous ideas. However, this has grown in importance over the last few years and now occupies a separate position when it comes to generating leads.
This is indeed a social media marketing strategy. Every successful real estate business today needs a dedicated social media strategy in order to stand out from the competition. The largest segment of the target audience is online. According to the statistics of the National Association Of Realtors, in the past couple of years, due to the pandemic, more real estate transactions have moved to the virtual space.
Therefore, there is a need to create content that will have a positive impact. It could be informative or anecdotal, and it needs to be shared online.
3. Run A Professional Real Estate Website
A real estate website is one of the first key business preparations that you should make. This website will be the common factor in all your marketing activities. This will be the first stage of your sales lead funnel and where your target audience is going to land.
Ensure that you have a clearly planned system of landing pages on your website. A landing page is essential to ensure that your leads go through the sales funnel to the next stage. Real estate lead generation is one of the core aspects of creating a website apart from marketing purposes.
To generate leads from your website, you need to offer free real estate advice to establish your position as a market expert for visitors. Create informative resources for both an average homeowner and a real estate investor. Your website should cater to all groups of real estate sellers.
4. Invest In Proper Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
To ensure proper real estate lead generation through your website, there is a need to consider the befits offered by carrying out SEO activities. The search engines rank websites based on certain changing parameters.
Investing in SEO will ensure that your website remains optimized on both the technical aspects, such as the site architecture and the content aspects, which are based on the keywords. SEO will also ensure the posting of interesting blog articles regularly to keep the site relevant.
By doing this, it will keep your site in the top position when it comes to search engine rankings and ensure that you have a steady stream of website traffic.
5. Become A Member Of The National Association Of REALTORS® (NAR)
The NAR is one of the largest trade organizations in the US and has over 1.5 million real estate professionals on its membership rolls. Now, how exactly does becoming a member of the NAR help you with real estate lead generation?
NAR is the apex body for realtors in America, and as such, has a strict code of ethics and guidelines that all members have to adhere to. There are two ways in which obtaining membership of the NAR benefits you.
First, only accredited members are allowed to use the term realtor. This automatically boosts the confidence and trust of any potential clients when they meet you. The term carries a lot of respect, which gets passed on to you once you become a member.
The second benefit is that the members of NAR get the chance to attend various specialists led business seminars and training sessions which helps you with both lead acquisitions and lead conversion. Moreover, you also get access to exclusive real estate data, which might help you better guide your clients and prepare the strategies for marketing and business for the upcoming quarter.
6. Collaborate With A Virtual Seller Leads Providing Platform
Registering on a real estate platform that provides assistance to generate seller leads could be a potential way to gain more exclusive leads. There are many lead-generating platforms, with each of them having a different niche and providing different sorts of services and perks.
Our pick is Dorrmat. A popular seller leads providing a platform, Dorrmat provides superior quality leads to its agents because of its robust technological infrastructure. Once a real estate agent has registered on the platform, they shall immediately start receiving lead capture links.
The additional benefit of working with Dorrmat is the host of benefits provided by the platform. From support to tools, from features to assistance, with Dorrmat, an agent stands to gain a lot as this platform was specially created by actual agents who have a thorough understanding of the market.
7. Consider Forming Real Estate Partnerships To Gain New Leads
Another way to gain a potential lead is by increasing your engagement and connection with the local businesses and individuals engaged in the real estate businesses. A real estate agent does not exist or work in a vacuum. Think about all the services any client of yours may require, and then consider who in your city can provide those services? Make a list of such establishments/individuals and start making rounds. There are two categories on which you need to focus first.
A. Engage With The Local Business Owners
Local businesses providing various home improvement and constructions services, landscape services are some of your best bets. Ask these establishment owners if they would be interested in joining you as vendors, as many of your clients would require their services.
B. Opt For Collaboration With Other Agents
Similarly, it is equally important to form collaborations with other agents as well. In many cases, it may happen that, as an agent, you may not have the necessary expertise to handle a particular type of home. Instead of letting that lead slip by, it is better to collaborate with another agent and share the commission.
8. Reach Out To Homeowners With Expired Listings
Real estate agents should go through the multiple listing service and identify the expired listings, as these could be potential leads if worked properly. These are homes that failed to garner the interest of any buyers or were unsold due to issues in sales transactions.
The common cause behind expired listings is a high asking price, major issues in the home, or improper or inadequate marketing of the home. All this could lead a home's listing to become expired. Once you have identified such homes start approaching these owners.
Always opt to pick those listings which have expired over a couple of months ago. Their reason for this is twofold. The first is you will avoid all the competing agents who will be busy approaching the recently expired listing homeowner. Secondly, after a couple of months, the homeowners will be more willing to go through the entire procedure of the listing and try to sell their home again.
9. Create A Referral Program To Obtain New Leads
To obtain more leads from the deals that you have closed successfully, you can set up a referral program. This will ensure that for each property deal that you close successfully, you are able to obtain at least 4 to 5 referrals.
The key is to establish a system beforehand and utilize it adequately. A few basic like a short script for asking for referrals, a small gift for individuals who give you successful referrals, and a reminder system to ask you, happy clients, for referrals is all that is needed.
You can also ask for referrals from your family and friends as well as your professional circle. Do ensure to offer these individuals a small gift or free services in exchange for the valuable leads that they bring in.
10. Host Open Houses To Gain Lead generation Opportunities
Hosting an open house is a great way to bring in new prospects. Announce on all social media platforms that you shall be hosting an open house for new clients. Ensure that you either carry out cold calling or door-knocking in the neighborhood to invite everyone to the open house.
At the event, be prepared to treat it like a networking event. Your goal is to not only sell the home for a good value but to also meet and interact with as many individuals as possible.
Do more than hand out your business cards. Spend some time talking and interacting with all so that after the event when you reach out to them, it would be easier to convert them into potential leads.
Summary
In order to generate real estate leads, the real estate professionals are constantly working to find new sources and come up with new strategies. The most challenging aspect of this real estate industry is the fact that things keep changing on an ongoing basis. That is why in this article, we have tried to provide the agents with some essential real estate advice about lead generation strategies.
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