Prospecting for Seller Leads with a CMA

Yesterday, we talked about landing page strategies for capturing buyer leads. But what if you'd rather focus your marketing efforts on seller leads instead? How does the process differ?

Let's start by first thinking about what a buyer wants versus a seller. Buyers want a home that matches their criteria for price, size, location, etc. You can offer them this by providing a landing page that lets them search for properties or sign up for listing alerts.

Sellers, on the other hand, want their home to sell for as much as the market will bear. To attract seller leads, agents often set up a "What is my home worth?" landing page that offers homeowners a free, automated home valuation report. They can use this landing page in conjunction with digital ads, print marketing materials, and more.

In addition to using an IDX solution to create landing pages, we talked yesterday about leveraging Cloud Attract, a made-for-real-estate landing page tool, in conjunction with Cloud Streams, a super-fast listing alerts and property search app. But Cloud Attract has another side that you can use to attract sellers. Rather than using Cloud Streams with Cloud Attract, agents can use Cloud Attract with Cloud CMA, a tool highlighted in our 2017-18 Technology Guide.

How It Works

By integrating your seller landing page with a CMA tool, you can offer homeowners an instant estimate of what their home is worth. With Cloud CMA, this information comes wrapped up in an attractive report, complete with your branding and contact info.

And for those who don't want to use Cloud Attract, Cloud CMA comes with a free, pared down 'What's my home worth?" landing page that you can use instead.

Don't restrict yourself to using your home valuation landing page with digital ads or postcards only. Here are a few no-cost ways to increase your page's exposure:

• Social media - Feel free to tweet out, I would like to send you a personalized CMA for your home, but don't forget to add local hashtags. If you serve the Orlando area, for example, you don't want people from Chicago asking you for a home valuation. Use a tag like #Orlando to discourage far away prospects.
• Your email signature - Generate seller leads with every email you send out by adding a call-to-action that's linked to your landing page to your email signature.
• Your email newsletter - Add a text link or even a graphic banner to your email newsletter that encourages readers to find out what their home is worth.
• Blog posts - Did you just write an overview of your local market's performance last month? Add a call-to-action that reminds readers that they can see how their home stacks up by contacting you.
• Your website - Add the link to your site's front page or sidebar to catch the attention of sellers. Neighborhood pages are a good place, too, but be sure to add the area's name to the call-to-action.

From Seller Lead to Client

One great thing about using a CMA for lead generation is that once your lead is ready to move to the next stage of your relationship and become a client, you can use your CMA tool to create the listing presentation.

Using the same tool means that the seller will see your branding and presentation design in a format that's already familiar to them, thanks to the automated home valuation that they received. This means that they're already warmed up and more comfortable with your brand than a seller with whom you've had no prior contact.

With Cloud CMA, you can jazz up your listing presentation's CMA report with extras like client reviews, data from Yelp and WalkScore, MLS data, and more. This can all be displayed in an interactive format on your tablet, too, wow-ing homeowners further. When the presentation is done, you can email the sellers a copy of the branded CMA right from your tablet.

Many MLSs across the nation offer Cloud CMA as a member benefit, so this tool may already be available to you. Check with your MLS to find out more.

Next Steps

• Want to learn more? Visit the Cloud CMA website
• Download your free copy of the Technology Guide to explore more technology solutions
• Explore more CMA solutions in our Product Directory
• Read articles about how to leverage CMAs in your business