The real estate market is hot right now. So, so, hot right now. But does that mean standards are put aside in favor of marketing with reckless abandon?
No. It translates into the exact opposite. When the good times keep rolling you need to maximize your segmented seller lead efforts and crack down on quality efforts for quality leads. The unfortunate challenge of hot markets is the saturation of agent competition. But there exist several tactics to market the heck out of your brand and come out on top in your area at the end of the day.
A strategic real estate mailer sent at exactly the right time has potential. But in this market, among so much competition, there are much more specific ways to appeal to seller leads.
1. Establish Local Partners
Local businesses and vendors could be one of the most reliable routes for seller referrals. Consider vendors such as attorneys, banks, lenders, interior designers, landscape architects, event planners, etc. Expanding your sphere and network is one thing. But strategic networking is a whole other ballgame. Challenge yourself to meet with one new person each week. Creating partnership programs, special offers, or simply establishing a relationship with these vendors will go a long way when it comes to referrals.
And don’t ever underestimate the power of your people. Take event planners for example. Oftentimes newlyweds are going to be visiting with event planners or wedding coordinators at one point during the planning of their big day. And these coordinators have vendor lists. Finding out how to have your business ready and waiting for couples about to make a big transition in their life is the perfect opportunity for product placement.
2. Real Estate Agents and Houzz
Real estate professionals now have the ability to make a professional account and begin posting photos, provide contact information and interact on a platform with more than 40 million unique monthly users. Head on over to this agent’s Houzz profile for inspiration.
15 percent of Houzzers are planning to buy a home in the next two years, and 10 percent of Houzzers are planning to build a custom home in that time frame. Resource: Houzz.com
Along with the incredible audience potential, there are upward of one million home remodeling professionals providing further opportunity to connect and expand your network.
Consult this resource for how you can communicate with Houzz users, specific real estate pages, user tips and Houzz best practices.
3. Write and Promote an eBook
Don’t be discouraged by the daunting task of writing an eBook. Consider how much time you spend answering clients’ questions on a daily basis. Explaining in depth anything and everything about the buying and selling process. Now think how many pages you could fill with this actionable knowledge.
Amazon and CreateSpace among many other outlets make creating content much easier than you would think. Freelance editors, writers and designers will help navigate the editing and design process.
For example, take a look at this eBook an Austin agent prepared for her area. After the book’s creation there is a gold mine of marketing opportunities available for your business.
Break down the chapters of your one eBook into individual blog posts, social shares, online guides, etc. Every piece of the eBook puzzle combines to create a content strategy which will extend well beyond the actual eBook.
4. Targeted Facebook Ads
Targeted Facebook ads are the online equivalent of local vendor partnerships. Similar to how wedding coordinators put you in touch with newlyweds, attorneys with divorcees, and mothers groups with growing families, targeted Facebook ads focus on specific interest groups. If you are already running lead generation campaigns through Facebook, find a minute to take a closer look at your area and audience.
Facebook ads have the ability to target segments of your current audience or the interest groups you would like to work with in the future.
Is Your Paid Advertising Optimized? Consider Your Options.
5. Fostering Online Communities
Another way to use Facebook to your advantage is the growing popularity of neighborhood groups. Now you may not be the first agent to the game in this situation, but it is all about your pitch and value add. One local Charleston agent aligned himself with several historic preservation projects in his area.
This agent drops popular information about home renovations, relevant town meetings, and historic photos of the neighborhood’s oldest homes into his neighborhood’s online group.
In your own communities, post information relevant to the group’s tone and conversation, maintain an appropriate posting frequency, and participate in the conversation beyond your own posts.
Be an online neighbor. Your audience will take note.
6. Specific and Segmented Market Update Emails
Email is not out of the question for highly qualified seller leads. But as in all of these seller lead ideas, you must do two things:
Deliver Value
Do NOT Make It All About You
The secret to email drip campaigns addressed to potential leads is the delivery of quality value. As Dan Pink describes in the Harvard Business Review article “A Radical Prescription for Sales,” salespeople nowadays are “selling insights rather than items.”
Create concise market updates detailing specific market trends, pricing, and analysis specific to your geofarm. Online sites such as Canva and Tableau make it much easier to build graphs and other visuals to bring your numbers to life.
Follow-up such as seller campaigns are easily templatized through a real estate CRM. The BoomTown Library includes extensive follow-up resources if you need to hone your skills:
Watch Here! The BoomTown Library Has 7 Quick Videos Specific to Lead Follow-Up
7. LinkedIn Potential FSBO or Expired Leads
LinkedIn is not only a favored professional platform for content sharing, job searches, and resume building. It is also an excellent venue for networking. Even though you cannot send a message unless your are “connected” on LinkedIn, you do have the opportunity to join local groups, communities and appropriate professional networks. After joining, you are able to freely message members.
Now we do not advise joining several groups for this purpose. But if you are trying to get in touch with specific FSBO buyers who do not list contact information on Zillow for example, this is a potential route.
8. For High End Seller Leads, Make Print a Priority
When agents were searching for answers and solutions in the economic downtown, Mary Maloney was relying on the power of print. Her brokerage, HomeTown Realty, leaned on print marketing throughout the downturn.
Maloney delivered quality content through neighborhood magazines delivered to the areas she wanted to keep her brand present and top of mind. This strategy paid off then and it is paying off now. Higher end leads and clients in particular make print marketing a priority.
Listen In! Closers Podcast Episode with Mary Maloney’s Bricks and Clicks Marketing Strategy
9. Open House Hacking
Open houses serve as opportunities for research and networking for door knocking expert Dylan Hale from Go Realty. Now door knocking is not for everyone. But with one hour of door knocking producing 5 seller leads, it is definitely worth consideration.
Hale maximizes his time at open houses through chatting with attendees and checking the pulse of local real estate emotions.
Learn How Dylan Hale Acquires 5 Seller Leads in 1 Hour
10. Immerse Yourself in the Community
Investing your time, much like the challenge to meet with one new person per week, will pay off. BoomTowner Tim Young is dominating the downtown Ft. Worth condo market. His strategy is filled to the brim with catered personal approaches to locals and relocation leads alike. A casual interest in downtown Ft. Worth history has also developed into one of his most dependable referral sources.
Listen to Tim Young’s Take on Local Marketing Here.
Young’s name is often used for referrals as a result of his coordination of historic Ft. Worth breakfast walking tours. Every month Young makes breakfast for a group of locals, visitors and friends before embarking on a guided tour of downtown.
Establishing a network in your sphere doesn’t have to be done with breakfast burritos. But it serves as an excellent example of resourceful marketing. Think about what you could do with existing hobbies, communities or interests?
So, You Have a Seller Lead, Now What?
No matter the tactic you chose to help pursue seller leads, you’ll need a strong foundation to direct your leads. We live in a world where user experience is paramount to customer service right off the bat. Your website is your business’s resume.
And no one is going to enlist your services if your resume is sub-par. All of the seller lead tactics above have one thing in common: they will eventually direct seller leads to your website or contact information. And most likely, users will explore your website, content, photos and reviews before they contact you.
Take a closer look at your Consumer Website, content and lead generation strategies. Are they consistent quality experiences throughout? Or is there a stop along the track in which you could improve the overall user experience and clarity of the value you will provide.
Think about it. Because first impressions matter, but second impressions close deals.
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