Real Estate Lead | Real Estate Lead Generation | Real Estate Marketing |

The official website for frustrated real estate agents desperately wanting to learn how to generate real estate leads on autopilot, eliminate cold calling and ulitmately make more real estate sales

Real Estate Lead | Real Estate Lead Generation | Real Estate Marketing | - The official website for frustrated real estate agents desperately wanting to learn how to generate real estate leads on autopilot, eliminate cold calling and ulitmately make more real estate sales

Tag Archives: real estate leads

How To Create More Real Estate Leads With Your Network

Real estate leads are vital to the success of any real estate agent. Without leads your business is non existent. People like to do business with those that they know, like and trust.

So one of the best ways to generate more real estate leads is through your ever expanding network of friends and business associates. But how do you actually do this?

Keeping in touch with your network is crucial so as to build long lasting relationships. In business it’s essential that you are top of mind with your network whenever they need a product or service that you can supply.

Here are 5 ways to stay in touch with your network:

  1. Use The Calendar Creatively
    Some real estate sales people send birthday cards to their customers. On the anniversary of their house purchase they might remember to send an anniversary card. But we need to be a little more creative and use the calendar to it’s full potential.
    Do you have a Jewish friend in your network? Send them a card for Hannukah. You’ll definately stand out from the pack. Make sure the cards are personal. Add a message aimed specifically at the recipient or the occasion.
    Over time you’ll build up a big list of creative ways to send cards throughout the year. Set up a system to track these events for you. People will be amazed how you remember them year after year.
    Any Irish mates? Why not do a St Patrick’s Day lunch. There’s lots of ways to use the calendar creatively.
  2. Be Aware Of Community Events
    What events are happening in your area this year? Do you have any members in your network involved in certain groups that run community events? Let’s say you have a colleague in Rotary and they are having a clean up in your area. Volunteer your services. Connect with your colleague and show your support to their cause.
    The Red Cross always have an annual Appeal. Donate to the charity.
  3. Be LinkedIn
    LinkedIn is a great place to connect and build a network. Participate in discussions and post regularly yourself. Observe any changes within your network with regards to employment. Send a friend a congratulatory email or card on thier promotion. Tell someone that they’ve done well if they’ve lost a few kilos and are getting healthier.
  4. Clip The Newspaper
    Just by reading the newspaper you can find ways to stay in touch with your network. What if you have a friend that lives in a town that’s featured in today’s newspaper. Clip the article and send it to your friend with a note saying that you were just thinking about them and thought they might like this article your saw in the paper. They’ll really appreciate your thoughtfulness.
  5. Use Stop Overs Wisely
    Are you stopping over in a city where you have a friend in your network? Even if it’s just for a short time, make contact even if it’s just a phone call. If time does permit arrange in advance to catch up for coffee or a meal. This is a great way to stay in touch with your long distance associates.

Being part of a netwotk means that you have to be active within that network if you want to grow it. Staying in touch allows you to build stronger relationships. Your network is a breathing organ. It can create and sustain life, especially your business life. Be involved with people and you’ll be rewarded in your agency business with more real estate leads that will convert into sales.

Top 5 Postcard Marketing Secrets Exposed

Top 5 Postcard Marketing Secrets Exposed

A couple of months ago the season for political campaigns were in full swing. The television and radio airwaves were full of political ads. I picked up the paper and there were even more ads.

And it seemed that every billboard on the road was being rented by a political candidate. One day I went to pick up my mail and got a huge postcard. It was from one of the local candidates.

It almost read like a special report it was so large.

Needless To Say…

… it got my attention and I ended up voting for the gal.

But it was amazing that big media like television, radio, newspapers, and billboards couldn’t sell me on a candidate.

But a humble (albeit oversized) postcard did the job. It was the postcard that had the ability to deliver the candidate’s marketing message in a way that convinced me to vote for her.

That’s the power of postcards.

4 Reasons Why You Should Be Using Postcards

…Yes postcards.

Reason 1. LOW COST

Postcards are a low cost way to get your message out. In fact, standard sized postcards are 38% cheaper than using regular sized letters

Reason 2. CLEANSES MAILING LIST

They keep your mailing list clean. One of the benefits of using first class postage for a regular size postcard is that it will be mailed back to the sender if it has a bad address, which helps you update your list.

Reason 3. HIGH IMPACT

Postcards can have a high impact. Because letters are enclosed in an envelope the consumer gets a chance to decide whether to open the envelope or just throw it away.

Many people will just throw the letter away without opening it. However, with postcards, there’s no envelope to hide the message. It’s almost impossible to throw the postcard away without looking at its message.

Reason 4. SIMPLE

Postcards are simple to create and send. With postcards there are no assembling, collating, stuffing, licking envelopes etc. The hardest part of sending a postcard is putting on the stamp. And there are services that will even do that for you.

But if you decide you want it done for here’s the service I use.

http://www.getgreetingcards.com

You don’t have to touch the postcard at all. It’s all done for you with the push of a button.

5 Tips for Successful Postcard-ing

Here are four tips to make your postcard marketing campaign successful.

Tip 1. BE BRIEF

Keep Your Message Very Brief Only use your postcard for lead generation.

Don’t try to explain all the details just give some teaser information to get your reader to take the next step, which might be going to your website or calling your office or a toll free recorded message.

Tip 2. EDITORIAL DESIGN

Design Your Postcard in an editorial format.

I’m not a big fan of four color postcards. I’d rather use all the space I can on the postcard to give the reader an irresistible urge to take the next step.

The best way to do this is to make the postcard look like it came from a personal friend. But make sure you use a compelling headline.  That will be the most important part of your entire postcard.

When I want to send them to a website I show a picture of my website and if I want to send them to a phone number I make the phone number as big as I can.

Tip 3. GO CHEAP (SOMETIMES)

Don’t spend a lot of money on printing. When I send bulk postcard I use an 8 ½ by 11’, 110lb fluorescent yellow cardstock and I simply print four postcards to a sheet by cutting the cardstock into quarters. Its that simple.

HOWEVER, when I show pictures of websites, people, locations etc., I’ll use a 4 color postcard.

Tip 4. QUALITY LIST

Remember, no matter what type of mailing you’re doing, it’s usually the list that will determine its success.

In the direct mail world you’ll hear the 60-30-10 Rule.

The success of your direct mail campaign will be determined by the following:

60 – List 30 – Offer 10 – Design

Any in house list will outperform a rented list and if you’re wanting to use a rented list make sure you use a list broker to help you.

Tip 5. PURLs!

If you are driving your prospects to a website, very few things will increase the response rate of your postcard than a PURL (persoanlized URL).

For example, if I was sending a postcard to “John Smith” using a PURL, I would put a link on the postcard that looked like this…

http://www.MarketingBestPracticeReport.com/John.Smith

When John saw that URL, his curiosity would immediately compel him to visit the URL.

For my PURL marketing campaigns, I use http://www.getresponse.com/index/gregreed

Postcards make sense for most any small business and using these postcard marketing tips you won’t go wrong.

Article by David Frey

54 Ways To Generate Real Estate Leads

Every agent needs one thing to be successful: real estate leads. Real estate leads are basically anyone who has the potential to become a customer or client in your real estate business. Having a solid supply of regular business leads can help you stay busy all throughout the year.

It’s vital of course to remember that real estate leads are people, and that most people do not like to be treated as “leads”. It takes a small bit of tact, self control, and excellent people skills to talk to someone without them feeling like you are a typically starving sleazy real estate agent. It is up to you what you do with my list of 54 ways to generate real estate leads and how you handle and convert the leads that come to you as a direct result. As the saying goes: “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.”

Some of these ways to get real estate leads are free, some of these ways will cost only time, others may cost a small amount in advertising or marketing costs. Sure, you can buy real estate leads too – but why do that when you can get your own better qualified leads on your own?

Read More………

7 Key Ingredients For Real Estate Lead Generation Success

Real estate lead generation is most probably one of the missing links in most real estate agents success.

If you could wave a magic wand, what would be the one thing that would make a massive difference to your success as a real estate agent? The answer that most people tell me is that they’d love an easy way to generate leads.

In fact, most people I speak with in the industry tell me that the way in which they generate most of their leads is through opens and through their branding on vendor paid advertising.

Is there a better way? After all, what happens if you dont have listings? If youre new to the industry … if most of your listings sell before you get to run any advertising. How do you get listings without first having listings to get enquiries from? Its a vicious circle.

In an ideal world, real estateagents would have a lead generation system where they run an ad, arrange for some letters to be sent out, and attract large number of leads that contact you, and you’re away.

Then, have a system that (almost) automatically keeps in touch with the people who arent ready to sell right now – so when theyre ready to sell, they call you.
It is vital to have a systemised way to build rapport with those people, so when they are ready to sell, youre the first and only person they want to call.


Some in the industry may tell you that this kind of system is the stuff of fantasy. I assure you it is entirely possible. For instance, right at this very moment, one of our clients is attracting dozens of seller enquiries each and every week.

A real estate lead generation system is an awesome way of attracting a large number of people who are interested in hearing more about the best way to sell their home. The challenge lies in the fact that these people may or may not be ready to sell right now.

This in mind, it is vital to have a systemised way to build rapport with those people, so when they are ready to sell, youre the first and only person they want to call.

One of the key differences between successful and not-so-successful real estate agents is that the successful ones recognise the importance of building relationships and they have a high tech, high touch way of doing so. High tech meaning a system that automates the process and high touch because the quality of the communication is warm and nurturing.

The right lead generation system will do that for you … not only does it automatically spin in the background, printing out warm, relationship-building letters to be sent out on certain days, automatically sending out nurturing emails at key intervals, and prompting you to phone people on certain days.

Obviously, a system is only as good as its operator. Set it up correctly in the first place, and have an efficient postgresistrative assistant (or virtual assistant) to run it for you, and watch your results spread wings.

The essential ingredients…

1. POWERFUL LEAD GENERATION OFFER

  What reason are you going to give people to call you in the first place? A FREE market appraisal or Im in your street this week probably wont cut it. After all, everyone is doing that. The offer needs to stand out. It needs to appeal to the needs of the home seller and be of a high perceived value. It also needs to pitch you as an expert.
2. A CLEVERLY CREATED AD, LETTER OR FLYER CAMPAIGN

  As you know, home owners are being bombarded with junk mail. Its little wonder then that 99.5 (or more) out of 100 hit the bin before they even get read. It makes sense then to ensure your marketing piece communicates the right message.
The offer needs to stand out. It needs to appeal to the needs of the home seller and be of a high perceived value. It also needs to pitch you as an expert.
For instance, with letterbox flyers, look in your letterbox and see what others are distributing. How can you make yours stand out – not just with the wording but also in all the elements below? The weight of the paper that is used ” if everyone is using paper, you use card The size of the flyer ” if everyone is using A5 you use DL The colours used on the flyer ” if most are black and white, use colour. If most are colour, use black and white. Design ” a poor quality design reflects badly on an agents professionalism. On the reverse side, a slick full colour design looks too much like mass”produced advertising literature. Its important to strike a balance. Copy ” it needs to jump off the page. It needs to also have a powerful headline on both sides of the page because its impossible to know which side people will read first. A $1million marketing study determined that there were 5 key factors that affect the success of a marketing campaign.
They are: List ” 500% Offer ” 200% Timing ” 100% Copy ” 35% Response (device) ” 20%
Address all these factors and you can easily generate a great result. In fact, we produced a letterbox campaign with an unusual design, powerful copy, a powerful offer and an eye-catching format that stood out and didnt look like junk mail. The result was a massive 5% response rate (as opposed to the .5% we were getting with the old flyer).
3. MAKE IT EASY TO RESPOND

The easier you make it for someone to respond to your offer, the more responses you will get. Many people are wary of real estate agents so ask them to respond by visiting your website or sending an email and leaving their details. Do that and your responses will be higher.
A lead generation system isnt a magic pill, but it does work magically if you spend the time setting it up correctly


4. MAXIMISE ROI

Set KPIs and have a system for monitoring and measuring responses so you know which ads and which media and which marketing methods, give you maximum ROI. Measure things like: No. of enquiries per ad No. of CMAs No. of listings Commission value of listing Cost per enquiry Cost per CMA Cost per listing
5. HAVE A SUITE OF TOOLS TO HELP BUILD RELATIONSHIPS

  Its a fact that 80% of consumers only buy after the 5th contact with a salesperson, so keep in touch with them. With that, youll want a series of warm, relationship-building communications pieces on a variety of topics (as well as follow-up phone contact, of course). Be sincere. Add value.
6. AN EFFICIENT, WELL-SET-UP CRM SYSTEM

Youll want a contact manager that stores contacts and offers a semi- automated way of nurturing a relationship with prospects over a period of time. For instance, it might do the following: Day One ” Nurturing Letter A ” merged and printed Day Three ” Follow up call scheduled and you are notified Day Seven ” Thank you email ” merged and emailed Day 21 ” Nurturing Letter B ” merged and printed Day 30 ” Newsletter Day 45 ” Nurturing Letter C ” merged and printed Day 60 ” Follow”up call scheduled and you are notified … and so on.
7. RECOGNISE THAT NOTHING IS 100% AUTOMATED

  A lead generation system isnt a magic pill, but it does work magically if you spend the time setting it up correctly in the first place, and have some postgresistrative help for the data entry and mailing functions. Whether youre a real estate veteran or completely new to the industry, this method of attracting listings can be a powerful and cost- effective marketing tool for you.
treat their marketing like an investment not a cost

Another key difference between successful and not-so-successful real estate professionals is that the successful ones recognise that real estate is a business.

They recognise that as owners of that business they treat their marketing like an investment not a cost. They recognise that in order to maximise their listings they need to invest money in marketing. With that, they not only invest in the right marketing material and the right systems (the high tech, high touch) but they also have the right postgres people around them to help them stay focused on what they do best ” building relationships and selling.

See how I built relationships and Sold 11 Homes In 5 Hours

Dogs Don’t Bark At Parked Cars

Only moving ones.

And as agents, we also need to be ‘moving’ in order for people to be talking about us.

Are you being spoken about in your area today?

What can you do today to get people talking about you or your agency so as to get the phones to ring? – and make you some money

What about these real estate lead generating activities:

  • Facebook comments – Your upcoming Convention
  • Tweet the $50,000 Cash Drop or some other promotion your company is involved in
  • Send out a newsletter on ‘Winter Warming Tips That Will Make Your Home Sell Faster’
  • Any ‘bad news’ story in your area that you can turn into good and send out a press release eg
    ‘ANZAC vet gets home spruce up thanks to FN XXXXXX (agency)’
    ‘ Home invasion victim Molly Polly receives a $xxx Coles Voucher from FN XXX 9agency name)’
    ‘Billy Blogs from FN XXXX mows ANZAC Vet’s Lawn To Say Thanks’
  • Put up a Youtube video on ’10 Tips For Better Open Home Inspections’
  • Interview an expert and post the tips on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and in your newsletters. ‘Expert name Top 3 Tips On………’

You need to become your No.1 cheerleader.

Start moving and shouting today.

And remember dogs don’t bark at parked cars.