When it comes to running your business, real estate lead conversion is one of the most important things you can focus on. No matter how small or large your real estate business is, this proven tactic will help increase your sales. This article teaches you what real estate leads are, how to convert online real estate leads, and six ways to generate leads.
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What are real estate leads?
In general, leads are people who might be interested in doing business with you. One of the biggest jobs of salespeople is to find a lead then sell them the product. Real estate leads are people who are looking at property and might be interested in hearing a pitch from you.
You might call a lead a “future client.” If everything goes well, then you’ll likely close the deal. In between getting a lead and closing a deal, you need to nurture the lead.
What is lead conversion?
Real estate lead conversion is the process of leading a person through the buying process and ultimately doing business with them. You’ll start off with a long list of leads — some will buy from you, some won’t.
The leads that buy from you are considered converted leads. Walking these potential clients through the process is called lead conversion.
What is lead nurturing?
Part of lead conversion is lead nurturing. As the name suggests, this is when you take care of the lead and make them feel comfortable. During the nurturing process, you build a strong relationship with the client.
Lead nurturing works because the client will view you less like a company and more like an individual. They’ll be more comfortable spending money with you. A psychological phenomenon comes into effect during the nurturing process. Leads believe that they owe you something since you put so much effort into helping them. In the case of real estate companies, this comes by way of a purchase.
As you walk through the stages of real estate buying with your lead, you need to remember lead nurturing.
Stages of a real estate buying journey to nurture along
The stages of buying are also called the sales funnel. In any situation where you’re selling something, you’ll attract people in different stages of the buying journey.
Experts commonly agree that there are three main pieces of the funnel and five unique stages. From start to finish, the stages of a real estate buying journey are:
- Awareness. The first stage and first piece of the funnel is awareness. This refers to whether or not someone is aware of the product, your company, and the buying process. In real estate, this might look like a client who is considering selling their home but they aren’t sure yet.
- Interest. In this stage, leads start interacting with you. They might reach out and ask more about the selling process or ask you what properties you have listed. In its simplest form, this stage is when someone clicks on one of your listings.
- Conversion. In the third stage and second piece of the funnel, people start to show serious and specific interest. They start interacting more with different listings you have within a certain area or price range. They might read more of the content on your site surrounding the buying or selling process.
- Qualification. This is the stage where someone is completely open to buying or selling. They’ve done their homework and had the right conversations with the right people. At this stage, they’re looking for the right real estate company to close with.
- Closing. The final stage and third piece of the funnel is closing. This is when the paperwork is signed and the deal is made.
It’s important to realize that people are looking for something different depending on which step of the journey they’re on. If you try to sell someone a house when they’re in the awareness stage, you could scare them off. If you try to tell a customer why they should sell their house in the closing stage, you might be too late to make the deal.
6 types of real estate lead conversion strategies to implement
With those definitions out of the way, you’re ready to learn how to convert online real estate leads. The following sections outline six types of real estate lead conversion strategies that work for many different real estate companies. Try them out and see which works best for you.
Real estate drip campaigns
Real estate drip campaigns consist of a series of different emails triggered by different events. When someone signs up for your real estate mailing list, shows interest in a property, or starts heavily searching in a certain area, then they will get a message.
A drip campaign aligns with the customer’s buying journey by default. When they’re first considering a purchase, they’ll get a corresponding drip campaign email since they set off that specific trigger.
Most drip campaigns are automatic and use a program or certain software to do the job.
Real estate content marketing
Just like in any other industry, real estate content marketing aims to provide shareable content to viewers. The ultimate goal is to go viral within the demographic you’re targeting. How do you do that? Put out helpful blogs, videos, and infographics that are connected to your site.
This helps build your authority in the space and creates a higher level of brand awareness. You can post marketing content on your site as well as your company’s social media profiles.
Real estate social media marketing
Having a real estate social media account is the first step to generating leads. People will naturally find you and follow you. You’re left with a friends list filled with potential leads — it’s your job to nurture them and convert the leads.
The bottom line is that social media provides a free way to get your message across to the right people.
A real estate email newsletter
A real estate newsletter converts leads like you wouldn’t believe. It shares new information, deals, properties, and developments at your company, and it keeps you at the forefront of your leads’ minds.
Since the lead gave their email address to you, they’re showing that they’re interested in working with you. At first, it’s hard to know exactly where they are in the sales funnel, but a brief survey can help with that and a newsletter helps with real estate lead conversion.
Email segmentation
Another tactic that experts suggest for lead conversion is email segmentation. This is the process of breaking down your contact list for your email real estate marketing into little segments. These segments better capture different parts of the buying journey so you can send relevant information to the right people.
Remember the brief survey I mentioned above? Combine the survey with click segmentation and you’ve got a fast and easy way to segment your mailing lists.
The more specific your message is, the better. That’s the key behind how email segmentation nurtures and converts leads.
Marketing personalization
Marketing personalization is when you turn your marketing strategy into more of a conversation. Rather than casting a wide net with a billboard, you focus on individuals when you market. You can send personalized messages that feed into the interests of specific leads.
This level of attention is a fruitful way to nurture a lead, and it’s one of the top tactics in lead conversion. But, you don’t want to focus too much on marketing personalization and forget about your general marketing campaigns. So, use this alongside your standard marketing techniques.
Wrapping Up
Knowing how to nurture and convert leads is just as important as finding leads. Lead conversion means more money in your pocket and more success for your real estate company. If you focus on lead conversion, you’ll find a lot of success.
