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The key to success in any business is being able to create a lead-generating machine. This article offers 18 tips that should help you get started in your own prospecting efforts and generate more leads for the work coming out of your pipeline.
The “real estate prospecting plan template” is a document that helps you to create a real estate prospecting plan. The document includes 18 real estate prospecting tips that generate new leads.
Real estate prospecting is the practice of finding new business prospects by contacting prospective customers in the real estate industry. Personal contact, time, and the use of real estate technology to establish a sales funnel are all part of the art of prospecting in real estate. You may become more consistent in locating and recognizing new customers by using these 18 real estate prospecting strategies, and you can establish a solid pipeline of leads to fuel your real estate company in the long run.
1. Pick a Real Estate Specialty
Establishing yourself as a real estate specialist in a certain field can help you prospect for customers and differentiate yourself from the competition. Choosing a specialization concentrates your real estate prospecting efforts on a certain demographic, allowing you to get the most out of your time. Asking previous customers how they discovered you and why they decided to work with you is a simple method to identify (or improve) your real estate specialty and connect with them.
Prospecting for real estate niches may include:
- a neighborhood, a city, a ZIP code, or a county
- Single-family or multi-family houses, condominiums, and co-ops are examples of property types.
- Investors, luxury, commercial, move-up, first-time, military, and downsizing purchasers, to name a few.
- Rooms, apartments, homes, communal housing, holiday rentals, business rentals, and more are all available for rent.
- Gated communities, senior living and retirement communities, communities developed around facilities such as golf courses, and so on are examples of communities.
Depending on your specialization, you may join similar social media Facebook groups such as neighborhood or city groups, military organizations, or even intramural sports clubs. Offer real estate advice to community members, advertise listings, or meet up in person to network. You may also employ customized language in outbound communications to your contact lists to entice folks who fit that niche.
If you’re looking for rental properties, for example, you may reach out to a local intramural sports club with newbies to the area by sharing fresh rental listings as well as information about local activities, restaurants, and so on. You may publish information regarding Veteran Affairs (VA) loans and housing listings near military bases if you’re targeting military groups.
You may more readily prospect for real estate customers searching for (or selling) homes in such regions if you position yourself as the go-to for real estate in a certain geography, buyer type, or property type specialty. It’s a method for agents to concentrate their time and resources on generating leads and increasing conversions (turning leads into clients and closed deals).
For a more in-depth understanding of niches and how to choose one, here are the 10 Most Lucrative Real Estate Niches & Why They Work.
2. Make a company website
Having your own real estate website can help you attract new customers, build your brand as a reputable company, and encourage clients to contact you. To attract new customers, your website should highlight your property listings, talents, and successful outcomes.
A real estate website as an example (Source: Placester)
Adding search-engine-friendly content to your website’s pages and blog posts may help your site rank higher in search results. This increases the likelihood that prospects will discover your material in an internet search and increases the amount of traffic to your website. Incorporating keywords that your prospects might look for online into your site’s content is known as search optimization. Here are 40 of the most-searched real estate keywords to help you get started with your site optimization approach.
To utilize your website for real estate prospecting, you must provide visitors with compelling calls to action before they lose interest. In return for the unique and important material you publish in your real estate newsletter, you may gather contact information by adding an email opt-in form to your site’s bottom.
You may also use your site’s blog to produce articles that clarify your services and persuade people to contact you for additional information. Finally, make sure your contact forms are basic and easy to use; in other words, don’t ask for too much information on your lead capture forms, as this may discourage leads from completing them.
If you don’t know how to make a website, Placester can develop a fully personalized website and landing pages for you that are completely code-free. They provide artistic guidance as well as the tools you’ll need to administer your site and make adjustments on your own. Placester websites are completely connected with internet data exchange (IDX) listings and include features like as office-specific webpages, recruiting, and new agent onboarding to help you manage your expanding staff.
Pay a visit to Placester.
3. Establish landing pages
Your real estate company is legitimized through websites and real estate landing pages. They give crucial and engaging information about your services in order to gather site visitor contact information and produce leads, which is very important for real estate prospecting.
Landing pages for real estate may help you prospect in two ways. You may grow by adding landing pages that appeal to new markets or niches to discover different sorts of client leads to increase your company, or you can target your present client types in different ways and prospect for additional leads in your current niche.
Conversion rates are often substantially higher for leads who react (such as requesting a house value or downloading a checklist). One, since the lead replied to a particular message that piqued their attention, and two, because by supporting them in some manner, you are effectively beginning the process of being their agent. You also know how to nurture leads especially depending on their enquiry and present oneself as an expert in that industry when they offer their contact information.
Landing pages provide significant and distinctive material, such as a home appraisal study or competitive market research, or access to listings. Check out Real Geeks’ all-in-one platform for real estate lead generation to quickly and simply develop a website and real estate landing pages. Their websites offer great conversion rates, and landing pages may be customized to appeal to buyers, owners, or renters.
Go to Real Geeks.
4. Make prospecting for real estate a daily habit.
Prospecting well for new real estate customers is a talent that improves with time with experience. Agents should set aside time each day to prospect in order to not only produce leads but also to improve their prospecting abilities.
You can acquire leads on a regular basis and miss fewer chances if you are consistent. Setting up time in your daily schedule to prospect will guarantee that it gets done and will assist you in balancing other commitments. If you’re prospecting every day, you won’t require a lot of time, so one hour a day should sufficient. The majority of real estate agents prospect for at least one hour every day, and one in every four spends several hours every day on lead generation.
Furthermore, picking the correct time period to prospect will increase the number of instant answers from customers. If you send emails or engage with prospects on social media around midnight, for example, you’re unlikely to receive many answers. You’re more likely to contact with customers in real time if your prospecting phone calls, emails, and social engagement take place between 9:00 and 10:00 a.m. or 4:00 and 5:00 p.m.
It may be difficult to juggle showings, open houses, listing presentations, and the time required for prospecting, which is why a program like Calendly is crucial for time management. Set your availability on the Calendly system and give a link to customers so they can plan meetings, showings, and other events without having to contact you. You may also set aside time for prospecting so that you are not interrupted during specified periods of time.
Calendly is a great place to start.
5. Take care of both current and potential clients.
When it comes to your company, previous clientele may have a big impact. They have knowledge of your expertise as a real estate agent since they have concluded a transaction with you. If they decide to relocate again, nurturing old customers helps you to remain top of mind, and you may ask for recommendations and reviews to leverage in your marketing efforts.
Email marketing is a powerful tool for staying in contact with prior customers and ensuring that you remain their go-to real estate agent in the long run. Many customer relationship management (CRM) platforms, such as LionDesk, HubSpot, and Real Geeks, provide templates that you may tweak to match your customers’ needs, or you can develop your own email drip campaigns to use on any email platform, such as Mailchimp or Constant Contact.
To add value to your customers’ emails, include current listings, market figures and reports, local news and events, and other real estate expertise. You may also send emails on special occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays to make your interactions more personal.
Giving a present to prior customers, on the other hand, may leave the longest lasting impact. EvaBot takes care of gift delivery while you’re on the go. You may send branded presents with a testimonial request, as well as recurring gifts for birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and other special occasions. The software may also link to your CRM to automatically trigger gift-giving as you gather consumer data.
EvaBot may be found on the internet.
6. Follow up on all leads on a regular basis.
When it comes to finalizing real estate agreements, timing is important. Due to a number of factors, the majority of sales do not close on the first contact. Window browsing, still requiring answers on home loan financing or preapproval, finishing repairs or renovating to make their property ready to sell, or awaiting an assessment of their present home are all possibilities for leads.
It’s critical to follow up with your leads on a frequent basis if you want to build a solid connection with them and keep your real estate services front of mind. It also increases the likelihood that you will catch them at the ideal moment, such as just before or just after they are ready to purchase or sell a house.
For example, if a lead has just contacted you about a new property, follow up with them to provide particular facts about the home, notify them of open house dates, send them related listings, and set up a phone call to discuss their home preferences. Because they are actively seeking right now, you should contact them many times to get their attention before another agency does.
If a lead contacts you to question about the homebuying process, on the other hand, you may be less pushy, but consistency is still crucial if you want to convert them to a customer. Pamphlets, downloadable white papers or reports, or a film describing the sales process might be used as follow-up. Then, to get them started early in the sales funnel, plan a phone call to discuss the specifics and their preferences, and provide them contacts for financing.
By calling your leads, you can remove the screen, personalize the conversation, and establish rapport, all of which will increase the likelihood of the lead becoming a customer. To begin your discussion off on the right foot, write a phone script or browse at our 11 Scripts for Real Estate Internet Leads in 2021.
Dashboard for Pipedrive lead management
If you handle a list of leads manually, clients may slide between the cracks, but a client relationship manager (CRM) can help you stay on top of current and former prospects. Pipedrive features sales automation, lead management, and analytics to help you better understand your company. Deal reports, income predictions, and activity statistics on how many emails and calls were made are among the insights available.
These resources are particularly useful if you’re trying to expand your staff. Pipedrive lets you build up workflow automation to automate actions based on a contact’s history of occurrences. For example, whenever you enter a transaction closing date in Pipedrive, you may immediately send a thank you or referral request to your customers by email or SMS.
Go to Pipedrive.com.
7. Spend time with clients face to face.
Meeting with prospects in person helps you to form stronger bonds and communicate in ways that are impossible to do over the phone. Face-to-face connection helps you to get to know your customers better and discuss their concerns and anxieties about the sales process, as well as learn about their hobbies, personalities, and reasons for selling or purchasing.
What if I told you that With people you’ve met in person, conversion rates are significantly higher. You’re no longer merely an ad, email, text message, or landing page when the relationship is humanized. An in-person request is 34 times more effective than an email communication request, according to Harvard Business Review.
In a world when people’s social media feeds and email inboxes are flooded with noise and information, in-person contact may be more beneficial. This form of personal connection is necessary for long-term partnerships, loyalty, and trust to emerge. In-person meetings allow you to transmit crucial information while also allowing you to pick up on nonverbal signs.
According to Albert Mehrabian’s research, 55 percent of communication is nonverbal and dependent on facial expressions, 38 percent is based on the manner words are spoken, and just 7% is vocal. Observing and noting your client’s nonverbal cues, as well as the manner they say things or the tone with which they say them, is a good method to figure out how they’re feeling and, as a result, how you might recognize and address their emotions.
If your customer fidgets or crosses their arms, this indicates that they are uneasy and are shutting themselves off to what you are saying. Clients who make eye contact and face you straight on, on the other hand, are comfortable, calm, and eager to listen, which should be your aim during face-to-face encounters.
There are several possibilities to meet with customers face to face. Ask inquiries and learn about their favorite restaurant, bakery, or coffee shop while prospecting for real estate customers. Invite them to join you for coffee, a lunch, or any other chance to meet up at that place.
These occasions can provide for ideal meeting chances if you have knowledge of their milestones, such as birthdays or anniversaries. The nuggets you collect should go into your CRM, which can then remind you of these activities and send you emails or texts inviting you to meet up.
If you can’t meet with a customer in person, consider a virtual conference using Zoom or another video conferencing service. It’s a practical option for your customers, and it may provide them with the same benefits of meeting in person while limiting physical touch. Even with COVID-related worries, you may still pick up on nonverbal indications and enhance their safety.
8. Participate in social media.
Social networking is an excellent approach to create your online presence and get new real estate customers. Create high-quality online material, build a following, and encourage your fans to engage with and share it with their friends.
Because each site has a distinct audience, the sorts of material you post on each should change. Property images, customer testimonials, real estate success stories, company insights, and even your own hobbies are all examples of content categories to provide on a regular basis (to create connections).
Joining Facebook and LinkedIn groups and giving knowledge, as previously said, may be a terrific method to get new real estate customers. Connecting with local companies and other real estate agents on LinkedIn may also help you generate leads.
(Image courtesy of Social Factor)
The goal of utilizing social media for real estate prospecting is to publish material (including advertising) that drives visitors to your website or real estate landing pages. You may then use online forms to acquire leads, which you can subsequently convert with attractive, useful, and helpful content.
Real estate hashtags with keywords or phrases that define your firm might help you acquire customers. If you specialize in real estate in Miami, Florida, for example, you may use hashtags like #miamirealestateagent, #miamirealestate, #miamivacationhomes, #yourbrokeragename, #justlistedmiami, and others to attract customers interested in certain regions, home types, and phases of the sales funnel.
In addition to hashtags, you may use the @ sign to tag the related neighborhood, location, or local business’ social profiles to geo-target the places you’re interested in. Both of these tactics help with prospecting since they raise brand recognition for your real estate company’s specific market.
You may design real estate advertising targeting particular demographics on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to market your services. In-depth ad targeting features allow you to contact consumers depending on their geography and interests, allowing you to concentrate your marketing efforts on a specific demographic. Learn more about how to create leads with Facebook real estate advertisements.
It’s difficult to utilize all of the social networks in a coherent and successful manner, especially with so many on the market. Artur’in creates and feeds curated content to your social networks, email newsletter, and blog using artificial intelligence (AI). Through social media postings and real estate advertisements, Artur’in can also manage your online reputation and boost your local visibility. As a result, your referral network and prospecting outreach will grow, resulting in more leads for your firm.
Pay a visit to Artur’in.
9. Hire a professional to handle your real estate prospecting.
You’ll need a good marketing plan with tried-and-true strategies, as well as the time and know-how to put them into action, to be effective at real estate prospecting. Some services, like as in-house photography and access to listing databases, may be supplied by your brokerage. Many agents, on the other hand, must be self-sufficient when it comes to developing marketing materials and maintaining leads.
Real estate brokers often outsource prospect marketing to platforms like Market Leader to improve their capacity to generate leads and convert customers. It’s a full marketing suite with an all-in-one lead generating platform to help you generate professional-looking, easy-to-customize marketing materials.
Market Leader’s Marketing Suite includes a content library with ready-to-use material.
Market Leader’s website builder offers a range of page layouts as well as stock photographs, saving you money on image purchases for your website and landing pages. Market Leader also offers automated marketing services for both email and print newsletters.
To establish your business as the go-to resource for local real estate themes, your real estate newsletters should provide unique, essential material. If you provide important and entertaining information, your contacts are more likely to email it to others they know or share it on social media.
Market Leader’s printing choices make the process easy, and physical print mailers may help you target audiences you may not have previously interacted with. Print marketing material and ship it yourself, or submit a list of contacts and Market Leader will handle everything from printing to mailing.
Market Leader may be found on the internet.
10. Seek referrals.
Referrals are a low-cost method of generating leads. Requesting references in person, over the phone, or by email may be as easy as that. Once a sale is done, you may utilize CRM automation tools to send out referral requests. Automation procedures for requesting recommendations from your customers are integrated into platforms like HubSpot and Contactually.
Email template for requesting a referral (Source: HubSpot)
In addition, request references from previous customers and other people in your sphere of influence, such as friends, family, and former coworkers who had a good experience with you. Make your email marketing outreach personal so your contacts don’t feel like they’re getting a bulk email bombardment.
Clients who have had a positive experience with you will naturally want to recommend you to their friends and family who are seeking for real estate help. Don’t forget to thank your referrers with a handwritten letter or a modest gift after your referral company is up and running. Read through the recommendations in 10 Real Estate Referral Lead Generation Ideas for more methods to earn referrals.
11. Specific Farming Areas
Real estate farming is a method of establishing oneself as the go-to agent in a certain region. Your agricultural campaign should be focused on a region you are familiar with, such as the location of your real estate agency or perhaps your home. To connect with potential leads, choose a location and utilize marketing and advertising materials to create your expertise over time in campaigns that provide value to homes in the real estate farm area.
Farming postcard example (Source: PostcardMania)
In-person or community events, social media groups, and email marketing may all be used to find new customers in your agricultural region. Mailers may also be used to reach out to prospective house sellers in your agricultural region. PostcardMania has a track record of success and makes the sending procedure a breeze. You can use their in-house design services and have the postcard printed and mailed for you.
Go to PostcardMania.com.
12. Contact FSBO & Expired Leads
Many agents seek out For Sale by Owner (FSBO) or expired real estate listings to locate new customers. Agents may find FSBO and expired leads by offering significant knowledge to assist homeowners in selling their houses and overcoming issues they may have had when they first listed their property for sale.
Homeowners attempting to sell a property or house without the assistance of an agent may believe they would save money by foregoing agency fees, but they may lack the information necessary to take full advantage of the market and attract buyer interest. Use this gap to your advantage by demonstrating why dealing with an agent is a better way to sell their house and how it may help them earn more money in the long run.
Clients with expired listings, on the other hand, may be wary of agents since their house did not sell with the prior agent they worked with. Prospecting for these leads may need some persuasion through expired listing letters or scripts for expired listings to help in lead creation.
Contacting all of the homeowners on these lists is a difficult undertaking, but a solution like REDX can assist in generating leads from FSBO and expired listings. The REDX power dialer works its way through your contact list until it connects with someone. This saves you time and allows you to contact more leads in a shorter amount of time.
Go to the REDX website.
13. Achieve the status of Zillow Premier Agent (ZPA)
Purchasing leads is another way to ensure a steady supply of leads. BoldLeads and Quazzoo, for example, are two platforms for purchasing real estate leads that provide reasonable and cost-effective choices. Some real estate lead generation solutions let you choose and choose contacts based on the information they supply, while others rely on predictive analytics and paid advertisements to bring visitors to your website.
Profile of the agent (Source: Zillow)
If you’re seeking for homebuyers to represent, becoming Zillow Premier Agent is one method to do it (ZPA). It allows you to immediately contact active homebuyers by displaying your agent information alongside the listing agent’s contact information on active listings. It brings your name to the attention of potential homebuyers who are searching for a house and encourages them to pick you to represent them in the purchase of that home.
To participate in the purchasing process on the Zillow Premier Agent platform, you do not need to have exclusive listings. While you won’t know when or where your contact information will appear, you will be given a proportion of impressions depending on your ZIP code, budget, and property costs, with leads costing anything from $20 to $60 per lead. Begin for free right now.
Visit Zillow Premier Agent for more information.
14. Organize open houses
Holding open houses while representing an exclusive property might help you fuel your company and attract new customers. When conducting an open house, make sure you promote ahead of time and have suitable signs out front and around the area so that visitors can see your contact information. For sale and open house signs are a tried-and-true real estate prospecting strategy that converts passers-by into potential buyers.
When guests come at your open house, be sure to gather contact information, including that of other real estate agents, and utilize these lists to prospect for leads and referrals. If someone comes to your open house without an agent, make sure you engage them and give them something useful to assist them with their home search.
HomeSpotter’s Spacio is intended for usage during open homes. It’s the ideal electronic platform for collecting visitor information, with the added benefit of being able to sell your listings after the information has been acquired. It also simplifies follow-up and remarketing, allowing you to acquire and convert as many leads as possible from your open houses.
Pay a visit to Spacio.
15. Participate in networking opportunities
Networking events are usually organized around a shared interest, so choose the ideal ones to go to. Attend an Inman Conference or a National Association of Realtors (NAR) event that is mostly made up of real estate agents and brokerages if you want to network with other real estate professionals. Look into events hosted by your local Chamber of Commerce if you want to meet a range of business experts.
Your ability to succeed will also be determined by your preparation before to these events. Make a 30- to 60-second elevator pitch that highlights your real estate experience, defines your value proposition, and encourages people to learn more about your services. Make sure your sales presentation is tailored to the sort of event you’re going, and that you’ve prepared and rehearsed it so it stands out among the other participants.
If the event does not provide its list of attendees, always ask for contact information. You may manually enter business cards into your contact list or utilize a business card scanner mobile app like CamCard or HubSpot. To manage your connections and successfully follow up with event participants, you may scan a business card straight to your phone and upload the contact information to HubSpot’s CRM.
Scan your business cards using HubSpot’s business card scanner.
Local business organizations, charity events, alumni organisations, and internet groups may all provide additional networking possibilities. LinkedIn is a fantastic place to look for networking possibilities. Posts regarding in-person and virtual events that your professional contacts are hosting or attending are common. LinkedIn Sales Navigator can help you target targeted audiences by optimizing your lead and business searches. It will also suggest and link you with potential prospects who have similar perspectives to you.
Furthermore, Meetup is a prominent website that allows people to meet others who have similar personal and professional interests. These events don’t have to be about real estate, but if you discover themes that interest you, it will be simpler to interact with people.
16. Relationships with Local Companies
When it comes to prospecting, connecting with local companies may be mutually beneficial. You may push customers to another firm by offering a special promotion or discount in exchange for them referring customers to you. This might be anything from local coffee shops to businesses that are strategically aligned with yours, such as homebuilders, handy services, trade experts such as plumbers, roofers, landscapers, and electricians, title firms, or a local credit union that provides mortgage loans.
Ask the owner or management of a neighborhood coffee shop, restaurant, bar, or store to put your business cards on the counter to market your company to their customers. You might also consider providing a financial incentive to the company’s owner. For example, for each customer they suggest, you may buy and offer the referrer a gift card to spend at their business. This results in a mutually beneficial commercial partnership for all parties concerned.
17. Participate in knowledge-based forums.
When prospecting for real estate leads, online groups may be an efficient approach to utilize your experience. People ask real estate-related queries in forums on websites like Quora and Reddit. You may establish a profile on Quora that includes connections to your location and company, as well as a section where you can describe your areas of expertise.
On Quora, there is a real estate agent forum.
Because you may choose subjects related to your knowledge and share your ideas as a user, online forums are a terrific tool for lead creation. You may also have an open discussion with other people on the forum. Make sure your contribution is interesting and valuable without becoming transactional. You may also use the subjects to generate content for your other marketing channels.
18. Get Involved in Your Neighborhood
Prospecting for real estate clients by participating in programs that are important to your community strategically creates local brand awareness, increasing your potential client base while doing good. Getting engaged in your community allows you to form significant relationships with people and other professionals in your area on an organic basis.
Fundraisers, festivals, parades, charities, cleaning and beautification initiatives, school activities, community centers, and more are all examples of local community participation options. Similar to networking, you want to provide value and highlight your local real estate experience so that your company comes to mind when these contacts are looking to purchase, sell, or recommend someone.
You may even sponsor a community event and give back to the community on an annual or continuous basis to make a powerful, long-lasting impact. Local community events may be located on your city’s website or by contacting groups such as the Chamber of Commerce, school system, or food bank in your area. You can also use websites like Eventbrite to identify locally marketed events that are relevant to your real estate prospecting and branding objectives.
Conclusion
It all comes down to your ability to build and maintain connections when it comes to prospecting for fresh leads. Online lead generating systems, as well as organically produced leads via community activities and referrals, are all great ways to connect and offer value. Not everyone will want to do business with you right first, but with time and work, you’ll be able to build a solid basis for maintaining and developing your real estate company.
Real estate prospecting is a process that can take years to complete. However, it doesn’t have to be difficult or time-consuming. Here are 18 real estate prospecting tips that generate new leads for your business. Reference: real estate prospecting tools.
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