Realtors, real estate brokers, this one is for you.
Have you ever felt like your follow-up process is letting leads slip through the cracks? You spend money generating leads. Or having real estate lead generation boosted for you by a lead generation agency like Pearl Lemon Leads. Or at least you should. You’ve got the lists. You’ve got the contact information. You try to reach out. And then … no response. No engagement.
It’s frustrating to see what you are almost certain are active homebuyers leave you high and dry. And even worse when you later find out that they went with someone else, as in your competition. If this happens enough times you begin to feel like you should probably just give up right? Why keep spending money on lead generation if so few are panning out?
Before you call it quits, or start blaming the quality of your leads, here’s a look at a few less used ways to effectively follow up with real estate leads that should get your the results you want.
CHANGE THAT FIRST CONTACT SCRIPT
The traditional model for real estate lead follow-up is to qualify for LPMAM: location, price, motivation, approval for a loan and mortgage amount. About 75% of agents will introduce themselves and attempt to start off a conversation – either via phone or email – with this structure in mind. So, what can you do to stand out?
Add a data point to your script. For example, when a new lead registers on your website, they have probably been looking at several properties beforehand. Use that data to your advantage.
Here’s an example. “Sally Smith” completed your contact form. She had viewed a couple of homes in the “Jonestown” neighbourhood. They were all around 300,000 and all had 3 bedrooms. So, as you now know something about her, your conversation can go like this:
“Hi Sally! My name’s Joe and I work for ABC Real Estate. I noticed you registered at our website. It looks like you were looking at homes in Jonestown. Those are beautiful homes! Now, are you set on moving to that area or are you specifically looking for homes that match that style?”
Opening your pitch in this way immediately sets you up as an expert who’s ready and willing to help, not as someone who is getting ready to judge the potential buyer’s budget or tastes. There is a big psychological difference between trying to gather info to sell to someone versus trying to help someone and you should find that the latter is almost always going to be more appealing.
SEGMENT AND SORT YOUR LEADS BY CATEGORY
No two real estate leads are exactly the same. Some will be ready to see houses now, others are “just looking.” A potential client may have been generated via cold email or from cold calling. Some people will have signed up for your newsletter. Some of your real estate leads may have come from social media. However you got them though, each one is likely to be at a different stage in the ‘process’.
Randomly contacting each one of them, one after the other, with the same pitch and the same frequency is rarely going to work. This is where lead segmentation comes in.
Simply speaking, segmentation is dividing your long lead list into few or several smaller groups and preparing unique messages for each of the groups (or segments).
Instead of crafting one email copy or one phone script and using it for everyone on the list you are giving your potential clients, customers, content that is relevant to their needs or interests and, perhaps most importantly, their stage in the buying process.
A prospective client might already have made a decision about the type of house they’re looking for. A new lead may just be on the market to check out the prices in a local area.
Here’s a couple of stats to show you how important it is to have your lead list segmented:
Segmented and targeted emails generate 58% of all revenue. – DMA
Segmented email campaigns show 50% higher CTR than un-targeted campaigns – Help Scout
Segmented email campaigns open rates increased by 39%; revenue, deliverability and sales leads all increased by 24%, transactions – 18% –SuperOffice
One of the most effective ways to segment your leads is to determine their timeframe. If they’re a year out, automate their communication with market updates and touch base every few months. If they’re actively looking to buy/sell, then be more aggressive with your outreach. Getting a qualified lead can be difficult, but it doesn’t have to be. It all depends on your technique and marketing strategy.
BE WILLING TO SWITCH UP YOUR CONTACT METHODS
You are probably used to calling leads. It’s the way things have been done for decades. But, the times they are a changing. As you are no doubt aware, in many markets, the people who are most active are Millennials, and their younger counterparts, Gen X’ers are beginning to get into the property market too. And they communicate differently. They tend to prefer contact via email or even via text, because, in their minds at least, they just don’t have time to talk on the phone.
Will this be true for you? You might have to test. Create a follow up system that integrates several communication methods and monitor what works. This can be automated emails, social media (eg. a Facebook ad), cold calling, and others.
Don’t have the time for that? Hand the leads over to an outsourced appointment setting team. These people do have the time – you will be paying them to have it – and they also have expertise that you may not. So, they can contact the leads and set up appointments for you. Leaving you to do what you do best, serving the clients your lead generation efforts have already connected you with.
We can help you generate more leads! Give us a call today to help generate more real estate leads!
