Real Estate Lead Generation Plan
(Image by: www.lumaxart.com.)
A large portion of my business requires me to generate leads for real estate agents and real estate investors (or more precisely, set up automated systems that do this). Many of those in the real estate business don’t know where to start, or even exactly what potential prospects they are looking for. Here is a simple checklist I go through to set up a real estate lead generation plan:
Determine what your ideal client is. OR, read it this way: What type of client will earn you the most money in the least amount of time?
If you have been in the business for awhile, you should be able to look back and see what deals were the easiest, and what took the longest. Is their a pattern? If you are new to the business, do your research. Ask others that are more experienced. My advice for real estate agents is to get listings. Target neighborhoods in the mid price range to upper price range. I try to stay away from the lowest price range neighborhoods when working with a commission based on a percentage. If your business model is flat fee, the price range of the neighborhood won’t matter as much.
The reason I say target listings first is that listing bring buyers. They call on your signs. They call on your ads. And now you have something to advertise. If you have 20 listings, and properly advertise them with just yard signs and free on the Internet (try craigslist.com) you can bring in hundreds of buyer leads.
Determine your marketing strategy based on your budget.
I am a fan of maximizing your marketing budget, and for a long time had a $0 marketing budget but still brought in a very substantial number of leads. If you have the money, hire a reputable company or person to set up an online marketing campaign for you. Just remember this, if they are trying to sell you on new technology and all the latest and greatest flashy website designs, they are probably going to charge you way too much. The best sites for finding new clients are simple and straight forward. They provide a specific solution for a specific need. For example: You are looking for first time buyers. All 1st time buyer advertising you put out directs buyers to a page on your site titled: Important information for first time buyers. With the correct call to action, a high percentage of viewers will contact you.
If you are starting with a small budget or zero budget, there are ways to get going. As I mentioned in the last paragraph, craigslist, and many other ad sites are completely free. Even if you don’t have any properties of your own yet, ask around in your office and see if anyone will let you post their properties to bring in some leads for yourself. I recorded a video on how to use craigslist and Blogger to set up a free marketing campaign that works really well. You can get it free here.
Conclusion
Always work backwards when creating a marketing campaign. Decide who you want to work with. Then determine exactly what they are looking for. Next, find the best way to get that in front them. And finally, have a good lead follow up system in place to maximize your conversion rate.
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