Building a Powerful Lead Generation Machine that Converts

September 4, 2018

Joanna Harrison

You often hear about powerful lead generation, and how to generate “more, more, more.” But generating leads is just the very beginning. A large database is only as valuable as the agent’s abilities to convert. Meaning, without the proper tools, and without a skilled agent – all of those leads are going to convert somewhere else.

Think about your business for a second. What systems do you have in place for lead generation? Are you vetting them for quality? And what about lead management? This is the most critical process when it comes to converting. Do you have a follow-up strategy? Are you utilizing drip marketing?

If some of these concepts sound foreign, don’t worry! There are some tried and true strategies for success in real estate. With the right tools, a little bit of patience, and lot of determination – you can start converting more leads, and truly grow your business.

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Lead Generation Strategies that Scale

Here’s a story that will interest you. When Barack Obama first ran for president, there was one strategy he used throughout the campaign: Be everywhere. No duh, right? When his Chief-of-Staff visited top executives from companies like Google, Facebook, and Fortune 500 businesses, he learned one thing: You don’t know where people will learn about you, so cast your “marketing net” as wide as you can.

There are two lead generation strategies you can use. The first is paid lead generation. In real estate, the majority of leads you receive start their home search online. They want to see what homes are on the market before they contact an agent. Having a paid advertising campaign on platforms like Google and Facebook makes it easy for you to scale as your operation grows, and so does your budget. The catch-22 is you have to keep paying for the ads to receive leads. It’s all about measuring your ROI.

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The second strategy is inbound marketing (the organic stuff). Instead of money, what you need is perseverance. Inbound marketing takes longer to see results, but typically delivers higher quality leads. Some tactics involve blogging, posting on social media, and SEO optimization.

The key to make this strategy work is consistency. If you treat it like a plant that needs watering, every day, you will see real growth. And these are some of the highest quality leads, because they came to you by choice.

To recap:

Paid Lead Generation: Run digital ads on search engines like Google. It generates leads quickly, but at a cost. You’ll definitely want to consult marketing experts to make sure it runs efficiently.

Inbound (Organic) Marketing: Take the time to engage visitors on social media, write blog posts that are valuable to your clients, and double-check your SEO. It takes time to build up an online presence, but the results are satisfying (since you don’t have to continue paying for leads).

Partner with the Right Technology

This is where technology helps you get smart. Any marketing strategy you implement, it’s vital to have it aligned with your CRM system. It’s an even bigger benefit if your CRM already automates a piece of the marketing, such as register forms for your website or dialing phone numbers.

Automating any piece of the work, no matter how small, adds up – giving you and your team more time to service leads. Plus, having the data stored in one system allows everyone to stay on the same page. Think of your CRM as the iPhone to your business. You add apps to the phone, so you can do different things. The same applies to your real estate system. It’s a home-base with additional tools tied to it, so you can market new business, call leads, track their behavior, and so on.

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Time is of the Essence

Lead Follow Up in 90 Seconds

Once you’ve partnered with a CRM, you’ll be able to maintain control over your lead follow-up. The general rule in real estate is contacting a new lead within the first 5 minutes. In fact, you’re 80% more likely to make contact if you reach out in the first few minutes, vs. waiting 30+ minutes to reach out. Stay on top of all of your hottest leads within your CRM. BoomTown’s NOW mobile app will alert you the second a new lead has registered on your site, and you can immediately reach out directly through the app.

Stay on top of your follow-up with To Dos, and be sure to respond to all of your leads first time in the morning. Remember what we said earlier about the wine cellar with no corkscrew? If your database has gotten out of control, and you’re having trouble keeping up with follow-up, you need to consider scaling back, or hiring extra help. Too many leads, can actually become overwhelming, so you want to be sure that the size of your database is “just right.”

Nurture Your Cold Leads!

Here’s the trick to scaling your business, and establishing longevity. You need to build a lead nurturing process. Some internet leads are hot, some are warm, but most are cold. Consider these numbers: The average buyer cycle is 10+ weeks, and 50% of leads aren’t ready to buy at the time of first touch. Does that mean because you failed on the first few go-rounds, that you should give up? Definitely not. Many leads will be ready, eventually, even if it’s 6 months to a year down the road.

Stay in touch with those leads through automating marketing. This means automated email and text campaigns that keep your leads engaged, without you having to lift a finger. That way, once a lead is ready to convert – you are the first person they’re going to think of.

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