The world is currently battling the coronavirus pandemic, but I tell you what? There's life after this period. Businesses and individuals are gradually adjusting to the new normal, knowing that things would never be the same. Realtors are not left behind as they are also seeking novel ways to advance their careers. The world is moving faster than we expect and would not wait for sluggish people. 

Traditional marketing strategy involved a physical meeting with prospective investors to pitch their ideas to them, but things are different now. Most of your potential investors are indoors, and even if they would leave their houses, they may not travel that far to meet with you. It then means that there have to be other ways to reach your potential customers. 

The internet has made it seamless to generate leads, and if you study these tips, you will stand out amongst other realtors that depend on traditional marketing methods to drive sales.

In this article, you’ll discover 20 ways to generate more leads for your business and bring more customers through the virtual door.

Contents:

• What is Lead Generation for Real Estate?

• 20 Ways to Get More Leads

 

Before We Get to Those Tips, What is Lead Generation For Real Estate??

Lead generation is a digital term that describes the process of converting visitors to customers. As a realtor, your customers are investors who are interested in buying or renting a property through you. You may own a site where you offer useful content on real estate, but your visitors do not reach out to you after reading your content. It could be that you are not getting things right. This article opens your eyes to the various ways you can generate leads effortlessly. 

Depending on your marketing activity, you’ll capture leads in a variety of ways. For example, people could be filling out printed forms at events like open houses, or they might complete an online form to request further information about your services or a specific property. 

20 Ways to Get More Free and Paid Real Estate Leads

 

#1 Create Your Real Estate Website

With the post-COVID-19 world, your number 1 priority should be taking care of your web presence. Is your website up to date? Does it look good on all of the mobile devices? Does it fully cover what you do and why you are different from the other real estate agency? Do you even have a website?

You won't be taken seriously in your industry if you do not have a web presence. If you want to gain trust from the clients, you should give them the benefit of the doubt by making your website as detailed as possible. Your site should be one that people can get all the information they need within a few minutes. As much as you want to reach a wider audience, a mobile-friendly site helps you achieve that aim. Since most internet users access the net through their mobile phones, it should not be a daunting task navigating your site through their mobile else; they'll leave. You will lose a lot of leads if your website is not mobile-friendly.

Take a look at our solution for IDX real estate websites

Mobile, mobile, mobile. We often hear from realtors about their website with desktop computers in mind. The recent data shows that mobile traffic makes up more than 53% of the total internet traffic now. It varies from industry to industry of course and it's an average number. But for real estate, mobile traffic is more than 57%. Think about it. If you don't have a mobile-optimized real estate website you potentially losing A LOT of leads.

#2. SEO (or Search Engine Optimization)

These days, about 45% of real estate clients go online to search for a house or property. Because they cannot go from street to street searching for a home, an online search is their best bet. How then would you benefit from SEO? Amongst various criteria, Google ranks websites based on keywords. If your content is rich in specific keywords that your prospective clients are searching for, they'll locate you quickly. While you strive to create valuable content, target the right keywords so that Google ranks you high. There are keyword research tools online to help you with long and short-tail keywords. Optimizing your Google My Business is another way to generate leads because when people can find you easily on the map, the chances that they'll patronize you.

Ranking highly in the map pack will help generate more traffic, phone calls, and website visits for your real estate business.

 

#3. Landing Pages

It is challenging to convert clicks to conversion, but with landing pages, things are different. This page is precise and built for users to take a specific action. It is here that your prospective customers land after clicking your ad, email link, Facebook, or Instagram link. It is one of the best ways to increase the conversion rate. There are various landing pages, depending on what you want to achieve, but more importantly, it should target the right people. 

Research was conducted and a website with 10 to 15 landing pages increase leads by 55%:

If you’d like to see examples of different real estate landing pages and learn how to increase your conversions, check out this article.

#4. Referrals From Other Brokers

The essence of networking with other brokers is that they can refer you to some of their clients to you when they run short of property. Your colleagues in the same community are not necessarily your competitors, but they can be partners in progress. When other realtors refer you, clients trust you and feel relaxed to do business with you. Are you still considering partnering with other realtors? The time to do that is now.

#5. Analyze the Competition

If you can find out where your top competitors are getting online leads and replicate their strategy, you can generate more leads for your business. As a beginner, you can avoid guesswork by using online tools to view the traffic to the competition. First, pick the referral and social media sites that drive most of the traffic and promote your business through that medium. As a beginner, it is advisable to model your strategy after top performers because it is the quickest way to trump over competitors.

You can use a tool like aHrefs.com to view the traffic to the competition websites.

#6. Open Houses

Here is another way to generate leads for your real estate business. This open house allows you to get a list of potential buyers. On the day of the offline event, signposts on streets can be used to direct prospective clients to the venue. Take a record of the names and email addresses of visitors so that you can reach them personally after the event. During the occasion, initiate discussions related to real estate to keep them curious and interested in your service.

#7. Neighborhood Pages

Before a client purchases or rents a house in a new neighborhood, they research to know the environment they are moving to. Neighborhood pages on your website are an excellent way to attract prospective clients who want to move to another neighborhood. Neighborhood pages contain details of the economy, local pages, restaurants, transportation, and other vital information they'll need. This page should include a link to your website to refer to you if they have further clarification.

#8. Virtual Tours

The traditional model of touring is outdated, especially in this COVID-19 period, when your clients stay indoors. Instead of taking them to a physical location to view the property, you can subscribe to a virtual tour where they can view a property from the comfort of their homes. This method is smarter and free from the hassles of moving from one location to another. Virtual tours can be showcased on websites or social media pages and should contain all the essential details about the property. 

#9. Google Ads

Google can rank your site higher if it optimized for SEO and meets other content quality requirements. It takes a while before Google ranks your website high, but to speed up the process of reaching a larger audience, Google Ads brings your business to the target audience.

Checkout this article that covers PPC in depth

 

PAID ADVERTISEMENT OR CPC

Your marketing strategy should not stop at creating ads; it should be more strategic. Pick the keywords that fit your field, but it doesn't have to be too broad. The keywords should be straight to the point so that when users type in a query, they can find you easily. 

For example, you could use the keywords “Miami”, "Oceanfront" and “Condos for sale” to target people searching for “Miami condos for sale” or "Miami oceanfront condos for sale"

Clicking on the link in the ad takes potential leads straight to your landing page:

 

 

RETARGETING WEBSITE VISITORS

When visitors leave your site, they are likely to visit a similar one. You can generate leads by targeting visitors that visited your site in the past but could not make any purchase. You can retarget them by sending lists of the new property you have to entice them to give you another chance. Retargeting old visitors increases your chance of generating leads since they initially showed interest in your content.

#10: Useful Video Content

To reach prospective clients who are not willing to read your content, video marketing is another option. People love to watch videos and feel entertained while seeking for the right information. Realtors are using videos to capture the minds of viewers. You can create a video about any aspect of real estate and publish it on your website or YouTube. Make your videos as appealing as possible so that your viewers can watch till the end. 

#11. Blogging

As a realtor, you need a blog where you inform and educate prospective buyers. Blogging is not just about posting lengthy articles and waiting for users to stumble upon it, but there is more to that. Your blog should provide valuable information to visitors such that it becomes a go-to whenever they need ideas about their homes or need clarification. When you have used your blog to create trust, your visitors would gladly run to you when they need a realtor.

#12. Social Media Ads

Social media is an excellent way to generate leads for your business. Billions of users are on social media researching, purchasing, and hiring the services of one expert or another. when you advertise on social media, you target a specialized audience based on their interest, demographics, age, income, behavior, etc. You can choose from different ad types like video ads, collection ads, slideshow ads, photo ads, etc. Your social media ad should showcase the property you want to sell and the location so that the intending buyer would contact you directly. 

#13. Improve Your Social Media Pages

Generate more page views and followers by utilizing absolutely free social media platforms. Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram. They will all increase your local and international visibility. Try to create useful, informative posts consistently and results will come.

#14. Local Partnerships

This is an outbound marketing strategy that requires you to collaborate with other realtors in your area. There are realtors unions in your local community that protect your interest, and you can connect with like minds. Attend social events and connect with others for future collaboration. The essence of partnership is that you are exposed to other opportunities in the field and learn from experts.

#15. For Sale By Owner Listings

For sale by owner (FSBO) listings are properties that are listed for sale by their owners rather than by a realtor. Usually, those are motivated sellers and it's easy to strike a deal with them that will make you both happy.

You can find a potential for sale by owner (seller) leads in:

• Craigslist / Offer Up / Let Go – check your local market real estate listings

• Facebook Groups and Marketplace – check your local real estate Facebook Groups and Facebook Marketplace

• Local blogs and websites

#16. Copywriting

Most real estate agents never think about the writing they feature on their website or social media. Which give you a great opportunity to stand out from the crowd if you do.

Words matter. It might feel like this is something we all hear all the time, but especially in the real estate industry, the words you put out into the world to describe yourself, the benefits of working with you and the properties you help pass from one owner to the next, this statement quickly takes on a whole new meaning.

Check out our tips for copywriting in this article.

 

#17. Live Chat on your Website

People love to have a one on one interaction with whomever they are doing business with. Some clients do not have all the time to read through your content, but they'll jump on an opportunity to ask mind-boggling questions. Talk to your audience via a live chat and let them know you exist. Answer their questions intelligently and prove your expertise before them. Social media sites offer a live video segment you can use to advance your career. 

#18. Automated Text Messages

Text messages sent to clients directly hits differently. Especially for clients who are busy and do not have time to check out your blogs and website, an automated message is another option you can use to reach them. Messages sent directly are read faster than emails because it could take days before they read those emails. The chances that they'll reply to your text is far higher than when you call or email them. 

#19. Get into the Local Real Estate Investors Network

If you work in an area where prospective investors live, it is better to pitch them directly instead of doing general marketing. How does it work? When you identify someone you think can invest in real estate, approach them with the details of the property you have for sale/rent. Since they are mostly first-time investors, you would need to impress them well enough to convince them you are reliable. You can also reach them through strategic posts made on your social media account.

#20. Email Newsletter Lists

Sending email newsletters is one of the oldest forms of marketing. These letters contain news and the latest updates aimed at reaching out to prospective clients. Research says email marketing yields almost 4000% ROI. These emails are not sent randomly but are assigned based on consumer's behaviors and preferences. If you hope to generate leads, then send only relevant information to your prospects else, they wouldn't click nor buy. Email marketing is a competitive field, and as such, you should be creative if you must succeed in it.

Bonus tip. Don't hesitate to ask clients to share their feedback if they are satisfied with your services. In most cases, they will be more than happy to share positive thoughts on thematic websites like Agent Advice and bring you new leads.

If you follow our recommendations, you will be in a way better place than you are now. Remember, consistency is key to success.

Idea for the post is taken from the Agent Advice