There is a major but often unwritten rule to real estate marketing today. Most professionals know it, but rarely put a voice to it. That rule is that all your real estate marketing should be for the purpose of generating leads. Without leads, you’ve got no clients, and without clients, no commission checks.
If your real estate marketing doesn’t cultivate leads, it is most likely a waste. A waste of time, a waste of money, maybe even a waste of a good idea that with a few tweaks actually COULD generate leads. Whether you’re at the beginning of your career or half way through it, if you’re not making the kind of income you want, it is most likely time to start beefing up your marketing. The one thing about real estate marketing is that you shouldn’t ever stop (with VERY few exceptions). Many agents stop once they feel they have enough leads coming in - that is the wrong way to go about things.
Slow income periods are the best time to increase your marketing. After all, things are probably slow because you didn’t have enough leads in your pipeline to convert to clients. Not every lead will turn into a client within months, so it is crucial that your pipeline is full enough so that you have leads converting to clients on a regular basis. No matter how much it might hurt, if money is tight, it is time to increase your marketing to generate more leads.
Since 80% of consumers start researching real estate online before contacting an agent, your website is probably a great place to start. Is your website easily found online for visitors in your area? More importantly, if it is, does it have any kind of offer or call to action that will make visitors leave their contact information in exchange for free info?
There are several ways to generate leads on your website. You can offer a free service, such as a “free home value report” or an in depth article that guides a consumer through the buying or selling process. All the visitor needs to do is fill out a simple form to get this information. This way they get what they want, and you get a fresh lead in the form of contact information gathered from your website.
Your internet real estate marketing should extend beyond your website though. Another easy way to get online leads is to sign up for a lead selling service. There are plenty of them out there, and they’re a good way to get fresh leads every month without having to do anything but provide a credit card number. It’s important to look into different services though, as some are better that others.
Not everybody searches for information online. Some people still do it the good old fashioned way, by visiting open houses, or searching through local real estate magazines. That’s why it is important to still utilize more traditional real estate marketing tactics. For example, simply by leaving prices and MLS numbers out of your magazine ads, you can wind up garnering more calls for one ad than you did in the previous 6 months of ads. As long as you’re always leaving out some piece of valuable information, you can always give potential leads a reason to get in contact with you.
There are literally hundreds of other fairly easy techniques to add to your real estate marketing portfolio. As long as you’re willing to work hard and put a little elbow grease into things (even the things you may hate doing) you can easily find new clients just about anywhere you turn. Take some time to go through your current real estate marketing plan and analyze each tactic. Remember, if it’s not generating leads, it’s no longer worth your time!
Viewed 42 times by 16 viewers
