The internet is an inexhaustible source of real estate leads and therefore a great way to bring in new business. But for those who are not yet completely familiar with the wonderful world of lead generation and have not yet mastered the (online) tools, lead generation can also be quite a tricky task. And the many pitfalls play a major role in this. Let’s discuss 4 myths about lead generation.
Lead generation means continuous work
Let’s start with a tip, because you don’t build a company overnight, and certainly not in a digital age where the rules change almost daily. Those who think that they will get there by applying for a company number, reaching out to a few personal contacts and setting up a website – beautiful or otherwise – are wrong. Building a business takes time (and mainly patience), skills and the right management. And it’s no different when it comes to generating online leads: the right tricks of the trade are not mastered in 1-2-3.
That is why in most cases we do not speak of lead generation, but of lead management. How do you attract leads? How do you maintain those leads? And where can I adjust my way of working to attract a different type or new leads? It is a thought process that you have to keep busy with. Only then will you find the right solutions and succeed in performing better than before. And only then will you be able to see the pitfalls from miles away.
Myth 1: "The number of leads is more important than the quality".
If you want to boost your business, a healthy amount of leads is important. But what many people are all too happy to get caught up in is the urge to get more and more leads. Although getting a lot of leads is fun and probably motivating, having a lot of leads can also have negative consequences.
Following up your leads, a long-term job
At first, an excess of leads is not easy to follow up on. Potential buyers of your product need to be contacted and informed, but they also need to be followed up and, in case of doubt, triggered positively all the time. This is a huge task, especially in the early stages of your business, where you also have to put a lot of energy into other things.
A lower workload thanks to qualitative leads
The quality of your leads is also important. The more leads you receive, the more of them you risk losing. Therefore, set your parameters correctly: analyse the profile of the people you want to attract for a specific real estate project and adjust your campaigns accordingly. This way, you can filter out the ‘rotten apples’ or less interesting profiles, even before you start following up your potential buyers. This can only have positive consequences for the efficiency of your real estate activities, for your employees (motivation!) and consequently for your sales.
Myth 2: "With lead generation I can solve all my sales-related problems"
If there were miracle drugs that would put our businesses on the map and make them boom from day one, everyone would use them. And although lead generation can help you get a lot more (potential) new customers on board, it is not the solution for your entire sales process. Although the automation of processes is very useful and can also lighten the workload to a very large extent, human interaction with interested parties is and remains the preferred sales method. So it is best to show your own face in all cases.
Myth 3: "The vast majority of inbound leads are worthless".
While an incoming lead may not necessarily be useful for the specific campaign you’re rolling out at the time, that same lead may come in handy at a later date. We’ll outline it in an example:
You have set up a lead campaign for the sale of property project X at location Y and receive a few leads. Upon contact by telephone with one of those people, it turns out that he or she is ‘quietly looking at property, but does not feel like making a purchase at the moment’. An understandable – but unjustified – reaction of the seller of that project would be to immediately write off this lead as ‘not a suitable profile’ and to remove him or her from the list of interesting potential buyers. However, a few months later, the same seller has another project in the same location where the previous one was for sale. What if that potential buyer, who was not really looking for a property before, is now genuinely interested in buying it? So you better think twice before you cross a lead off your list.
No idea what your target group should look like or which leads are most suitable for your real estate project? At Immowi, we match the unique characteristics of a real estate project, nationally or internationally, with the surfing and clicking behaviour of potential buyers or investors. This way, we provide you with a clear insight into the profiles of potential leads, on which you can fine-tune your digital campaigns even better.
Myth 4: "Getting a real estate lead to convert is peanuts"
One of the biggest problems for both real estate agents and those studying to be real estate agents is that they don’t get enough explanation of how lead generation works and how to follow up on leads correctly. Too often, real estate professionals think that their bread is already buttered when a lead comes in. As a result, they do not follow up on incoming leads adequately or even at all. But in practice it is different. (Potential) customers like to be pampered and receive personal service. Your sales skills are therefore undoubtedly decisive.
It is also important to understand the following:
- How can you immediately qualify or disqualify a lead?
- How should you nurture and track a lead?
- What is a Call to Action?
- How do you execute a successful marketing campaign?
- What are the expectations regarding the cost and time frame of a marketing campaign?
Do you want to fine-tune and streamline the lead generation for your real estate prospects? Then you should consider using a CRM system. By linking your advertising account to this system, you not only gain an immediate overview of the number of incoming leads, you can also follow them up, categorise them, ‘store’ them for a later date or classify them if necessary.
Would you like more information about this? Then click here.
