I’ve Got This List of Homeowners that Responded to My Marketing. Now What?

One of my favorite phone calls to get from Realtors® is when they tell us that they are getting a bunch of responses to the capture marketing campaigns we are doing for them in their farm area, or the Facebook digital farming campaigns we're executing. One of the least favorite things I hear from our clients is when they ask us, “Okay, so I have these responses from homeowners. Now what do I do?”

So for those of you that are stuck in this same conundrum, today I'll share two easy ways you can follow up with people that are responding to your postcard farming or Facebook digital marketing campaigns to help cultivate the lead and turn them from prospective lead into actual client.

Door Knock the Entire Block the Homeowner Lives On (with an Item of Value in Hand)

This does require a little bit of elbow grease, but it pays off HUGE. There are a couple of pieces to this. First off, you have to have an item of value in hand. A good item of value will be perceived as relevant and interesting to a homeowner, and will make for the perfect conversation starter. For instance, maybe you prepare a market update, showing what homes in the neighborhood are selling for and where you see the market trends heading over the next few months. This is the perfect conversation starter you can use to get to know the homeowners in your farm.

So why door knock the entire block? It’s very simple. You want to door knock the entire block because it is inevitable that the homeowner who responded to your postcard is going to talk with their neighbors and real estate will come up. For instance, they may be at a neighbor’s house for a barbecue. When there, they will inevitably ask, “What do you know about the Realtor® named XXXX?” If you took the extra time to door knock the entire block and have a conversation with the neighbors, they will have lots of interesting input about you that they can give your prospect. This type of “crowd sourced intelligence” is very common, so it really pays to hit that entire block when you get a lead.

Start a Secondary, More Targeted Marketing Campaign

This one should seem like a no-brainer, but you would not believe how many agents do not do this. If you have people responding to your farming postcards, or your Facebook digital marketing campaigns, you HAVE to set up a secondary campaign that will help you further cultivate these leads.

The purpose of this campaign will be to allow the prospects to learn more about you. Specifically, you want to use the campaign to teach them what makes you different from other Realtors® in your marketplace, and exactly how these differentiating factors are going to equate to an advantage for the homeowner.

These campaigns will require a little bit of initial set-up to get them going. Hopefully, you are working with an agency that can help you develop this content. If not, just examine your competitors and really hone in on differences, taking into account the fact the homeowners will always be looking at things from a “What’s in it for me?” perspective.

Once you have your campaigns set, you will want to determine the frequency with which you will touch these prospects. My recommendation is send a postcard every two weeks to homeowners that have responded to your postcard campaign. For homeowners that responded to your digital farming campaign, you’ll want to run an ongoing Facebook retargeting campaign that just runs all month long, month after month. I would suggest changing the content of the ad campaign every 30-60 days, though.

So there you have it. Leads that respond to your marketing are the lifeblood of growing your real estate practice. Be sure to follow up with them, actively and often, ensuring you turn those qualified leads into lifelong clients.

To view the original article, visit the Leading Agent blog.