Whether you’re a listing agent, project developer, a new real estate business or a realtor with years of experience, it’s never been more important to know how to get real estate leads without wasting your time with cold calling.
You want hot real estate leads that are ready to make a move, right?
Cold calling is any attempt to offer products or services by telephone to a potential customer who may or may not know your company.
Maybe you’ve just set up your business and therefore don’t have enough customers yet or don’t have the resources to use any other form of marketing. Or maybe your sales team wants to make sure that all potential prospects have been approached. Whatever the reason for cold calling, it is in any case an immediately usable method for finding new leads.
Cold calling is not usually considered the most effective sales method. Yet it is an important technique for every sales person. Cold calling is not called that for nothing: it leaves the recipient cold. Now that social selling is booming, it is important to make this distinction. However, social media can make a positive contribution to cold calling, because it means that much more is now known about the prospect.
A prospect who is a good match for your product or service is not necessarily open to your offer. That is why the effectiveness of cold calling is questioned.
What makes cold calling so difficult is that your prospect can react in all sorts of ways. Many people hang up on you straight away and, in the worst case, you get a tirade of abuse.
That is why it is important to develop a good strategy to avoid all of this.
As a real estate business, you are always on the prowl for new clients. Not just any client, but qualified real estate leads—people who are ready to buy real estate in the next 60 days. But first, let’s define what a qualified real estate lead is.
An unqualified lead is the contact information of a person who’s considering buying a home sometime in the future, but with no definitive plans. A qualified real estate lead is the contact information of a person who is actively looking to purchase their new house, in the next 60 days.
Realtors and project developers need to focus on getting qualified leads, people who are ready to buy. People who have money and are prepared to make big decisions. While unqualified leads may have the best intentions, they can inadvertently waste your time with indecision and a lack of commitment.
So, here are tips on how you can get real estate leads that are qualified.
1. Define your core audience
Start simple. Know who your audience is and talk to them. Understanding your audience is the key to reaching them. Don’t try to be all things to all people. Avoid creating generic marketing messages that are irrelevant or easy to ignore. So, how do you do define your core audience? People want to feel like their needs and desires are understood by their realtors. By knowing who your audience is, you can begin to craft messaging that resonates and is relevant to them.
At Immowi we do this a little bit differently. We believe that through the use of Big Data and machine learning you can really understand your customer. We match the characteristics of your real estate project to online personas and characteristics of your perfect customer, we tailor our message to them and generate the real estate leads you are looking for.
2. Unique Value Proposition
Realtors often struggle to differentiate themselves in highly-competitive markets. Seemingly every real estate agent is focused on property specs and costs of a home. While focusing on the features of a property is important, it fails to communicate why a particular buyer or seller should work with you versus someone else.
This is your unique value proposition (also called a USP). It’s what makes you different. Create a list of “difference makers” by jotting down what sets you apart from other businesses. Answer “What’s the clear benefit of working with you?” It might be: responsive service, high close rate, fast close times, better price, saving time, etc.
Then take the top two or three benefits and draft it into a concise sentence. For example: “Sell your home faster with my industry-leading close times and responsive service.”
Include your unique value proposition across every marketing channel where you’re seeking to generate new real estate leads. By differentiating your services, you’ll be on your way to higher engagement, higher click-through rates, and more leads to listings on every channel.
3. Become a thought leader
Find ways to turn your answers into valuable content on your real estate website that you can quickly and easily repurpose. If you notice your current clients have similar inquiries, capture them and turn them into blog posts. Then take the time to ensure every article is search engine optimised with essential keywords.
Pro tip: Remember to add a call to action in the middle and at the end of your article so that, if the content is of interest to the user, they can click and be referred to your landing page or contact form to become a qualified lead.
4. Check Google Reviews
Google is the number one place where consumers leave reviews. So, it’s a priority to focus on that channel. Businesses who manage—or at the very least keep an eye on—their online reviews, while working to improve and maintain their brand reputation on Google will have an easier time generating real estate leads.
Just above 60% of homebuyers rank online reviews as the number one thing they look for when finding real estate agents online. Why not let the real estate leads come to you and make sure you’re acquiring Google reviews from happy customers.
5. Social proof
While it may be difficult, your success as a real estate business lies in showcasing your credibility to prospective clients. That means you need to tell people all the great things you are doing for your satisfied clients. If you received an email from a client who loved working with you, share it on your social media channels (with their permission, of course). If you sold a house in record time for your area, talk it up! It’s a fine line to not be overly confident, but you need to always make sure you’re promoting yourself and sharing your success stories. Show confidence and offer proof in numbers, not just empty bragging.
As a real estate business, your reputation is your most important asset. So make sure that you’re leveraging it as much as possible.
6. Local blog
Create strong content that is local and beneficial to incoming residents. Local content is a great way for prospective clients to learn about an area that you service, while also demonstrating that you have unmatchable local knowledge and you’re taking an active interest in your community.
Talk about the key highlights of certain neighbourhoods. School, work, and transit options. Local parks and recreation opportunities. Cafe and restaurant culture. Write about the importance of walkability in certain areas. Even updating zoning can be hugely interesting and persuasive to a prospective client. And it shows that you really know your stuff.
7. Create content silos
Boost your business ranking position on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs) by building a content silo around the specific lifestyle or type of property you are selling. These efforts are completely free. If you have a website already, you will need $0 to create the content silos—simply a bit of time. And you will reap the benefits by drawing in real estate leads for a long time into the future.
8. Find a niche
- What fraction of the population are buyers
- What fraction of those are couples without children?
- How many with children?
- How often do they move?
- What percentage moves to another location in your service area?
- How many move outside your service area?
Find your largest niche and build a brand around that. Every realtor wants to serve every possible buyer or seller. But it’s a wiser decision to separate yourself from the crowd by specialising in a sector. It doesn’t mean you have to only serve that sector; it simply means that you position yourself that way and increase the likelihood of owning that sector of the market someday. Once the brand is built, your entire digital presence should reflect the pain points and desired solutions for your selected sector.
9. Showcase already-sold listings
When you sell a property in a specific area, showcase the already-sold properties to gain awareness and collect real estate leads from those who are looking to buy within that same region.
Simply leave the ads up! In doing so, you’re priming people to have you in mind for their next real estate transaction.
Be sure to link your ads to a landing page where interested people can get in touch and request more information.
10. Create a lead magnet
Turn web traffic into real estate leads by creating a highly valuable resource your target clients will crave to download in exchange for an email address. This free resource will give massive value to your target clients and address a pain point they currently face. And as a real estate agent, nobody knows those points better than you do.
Use the resource as a lead magnet to capture the name and email address of your target clients. From there you can continue to send them more valuable tips via email. Not only does this tactic build trust and credibility in you as a realtor, it also positions you as an authority. Then, through email, get them to schedule an appointment and turn them into a client!
You can make this content yourself or hire someone else to write it—but only include a teaser on your website. This will be enough to entice the user to download the full piece of content, which will be unlocked upon them providing their contact information.
Now they have helpful content and you have a qualified lead, so it is really a win-win!
