The Only Follow-Up Plan You Need for Seller Leads
Perhaps you have the right plan in place for your buyer leads, but you're struggling to engage and nurture your seller leads, or maybe you just need some fresh ideas. Either way, here's a solid plan to create more conversations and land more listings. And did I mention this plan includes eleven weeks of touches?
Best Practices for Following up with Seller Leads
Don't forget the tried and true best practices for following up with anyone:
Apeed to lead. Respond as quickly as possible to new leads. Every minute counts.
Provide value: Give them what they need before they even know they need it with helpful, relevant information.
Include a variety of follow-up methods in your nurture plan: calls, emails, texts, social media, etc.
And remember, once you've gotten the response, pull that lead off of your campaign and communicate based on that lead's specific communication preferences and needs.
Okay, here we go!
Week 1 Seller Lead Strategy
This is the most intense part of the campaign, with a communication plan for each day. Since you know there is interest in their home's worth, now is the time for a full court press.
Day 1:
Since the leads are registering through your home valuation page, they should automatically receive their home valuation and market report upon registration, and you should receive a notification in your CRM. This lead is H.O.T. so call them ASAP.
No answer? Here's a sample voicemail:
Hi, this is <Your Name> with <Your Company>. You should be receiving your home value report shortly, but I am also putting together a custom report with some interesting comps from your neighborhood. I'd love to deliver this version to you and answer any questions.
Then follow up with an email:
Subject: Your Home Value Report for <address>
Hi <prospect name>,
I left you a voicemail, but figured I'd send you an email in case it's easier for you to respond this way. Thank you for your home value request on <company website>. I'm working up a custom report for you and was wondering if you had any questions I could help with in the meantime. I would love to deliver a copy to your home today if you're available.
Thanks!
Taking the time to deliver the report shows off your level of service and if they take you up on the meeting, it's a great way to get face-to-face, run through the report, answer any questions, and start taking the relationship to the next level.
Day 2:
Shoot the lead a text message. Sometimes this is the best communication method for people and they prefer to talk via text rather than over the phone. (It also eliminates the possibility of your email drowning in an overly-crowded inbox!
Day 3:
Try to call your prospect again, mail the customized value report to their address (with a note).
Voicemail:
Hi <prospect name>, this is < your name> with <company name>. Just wanted to follow up and make sure you received the home value report I delivered, and to see if you have any questions I may be able to help with. I actually have some questions for you that would help me with estimating you home's worth even better, so please give me a call or send me a quick email.
Hand-written note:
Hi <prospect name> Thank you so much for reaching out to learn more about your home's value. I hope you had an opportunity to look over the value estimate and report I delivered, but in case you didn't receive it, here's another copy for you to look through. Please let me know if I can answer any questions.
All the best,
<your name>
<company name>
*include a business card too!
Day 4:
Set your prospect up to receive automatic updates (e-Alerts) on similar listings and market activity.
Day 5:
Email some similar active listings:
Subject: Check out these comparable listings
Hi <prospect name>,
Here are some homes that are for sale that are similar to your own. Feel free to check out <company website> for more information and properties!
Day 6:
Send an email with your customized value report attached.
Subject: Your customized report
Hi <prospect name>,
I hope you enjoyed your valuation report. While they can be helpful in getting a better idea of your home's worth, they are generated from third party data, so I made a few tweaks based on my knowledge of market activity in your area. I dropped this by your home, but thought it might be helpful to have a digital version as well. I'd love to discuss any questions or issues you may have!
Day 7:
Make a phone call and follow up with a brief text.
Voicemail:
Hi <prospect name>, this is <your name>. I just wanted to follow up and make sure you your were satisfied with the requested property report and value range of your home. I know the range may seem a bit broad, but we can adjust and narrow that down if I could get you to answer a few questions for me about your home. Even if you're just curious about the market, I'd be happy to provide any advice that might be helpful. Feel free to call me any time or shoot me an email. Thanks and have a great day!
10-Week Drip Campaign for Seller Leads
If you still don't have a response after your week-long effort, it's time to approach your lead with the "low and slow" method. This next phase involves an email drip campaign that delivers one message per week for the next 10 weeks.
Week 2 Seller Lead Strategy
This email is just checking back in and trying to gain some information around the prospect's timeline and intentions.
Subject: Is your home worth more than you think?
Hi <prospect name>,
I wanted to check in with you about your home valuation report and see what you thought about the provided price range. Too high or too low? I know it's a broad estimate, but things like past remodels and updates could impact the value nicely.
Are you considering selling or simply interested in your home's current value?
I'd be happy to help either way.
All the best,
<your name>
Week 3 Seller Lead Strategy
This next touch is taking a new tack to trying to get a response: asking a very specific question. (If you are right, or wrong, in assuming they may be relocating, you have a high chance of getting a reply!)
Subject: Are you relocating?
Hi,
Since you were curious about the current value of your home, I was wondering if you may be planning to move or relocate. Is this the case for you? If you're planning to move somewhere nearby or relocating further away, I'd be happy to help.
Nearby: Just tell me which neighborhoods you're interested in and I'll make sure you receive the freshest listing information and a market report so you can get a good feel for pricing in that market.
Relocating: I'm happy to tap into my network to connect you with a trustworthy agent to help you look for homes in your desired area.
Just let me know what's most helpful!
Week 4 Seller Lead Strategy
Here's a check in on the e-Alerts they're receiving and if they are the right type of parameters. If they're enjoying the alerts then they might tell you as much, and if they're a little off, this is the chance for them to let you know.
Subject: Staying on top of the market
Hi,
I hope you've been enjoying learning a bit more about the market activity around your home and receiving similar properties that have been listed. I can make these alerts even more customized if you'd like to limit the search for only homes in your neighborhood, with the same square footage, etc.
Also, if you're moving, it's never too early to research the market you'd like to move to! Let me know what you're looking for in your next home and I'll send you some homes to check out!
Week 5 Seller Lead Strategy
Remember, to be of value for your clients, it's your job to share your expertise. That means taking the market information and translating it into terms they can understand, and relating it to their own situation. Or, as Steve Harney would say, "connecting the dots."
Subject: The right time to sell?
Hi,
Our area is enjoying a market where home values are on the rise. When homes are priced correctly and marketed effectively, there are frequently multiple offers for a property within a few days of listing.
Here's a helpful link to see current stats for your zip code <insert link>. Most of my clients find this really useful!
Let me know if you have any questions, I am happy to help!
Week 6 Seller Lead Strategy
Make another call! Check in and ask things like "What's your timeline?" "What did you think of the home value range?" etc.
Subject: Your home is worth how much?!
Hi,
To get top dollar for your home, we'll want to determine what a buyer will pay in the current market.
Determining the market value of your home is complex and you should use a local expert to help you determine that price.
Some key factors include:
Location
Lot size
Square footage
Special enhancements and features of your home
If you are a little ways out from selling, we can work together now on a few minor and inexpensive changes so you can draw in higher offers when you decide to put it on the market.
Call me on my cell <insert number> so we can find a time to discuss. Or send me your number and I'll call you.
Week 7 Seller Lead Strategy
Now is a great time to make sure your listing presentation game is strong. Offer an explanation of what you can do to market their home and show how many buyer leads you have at the ready!
Subject: A marketing plan for <insert address>
Hi,
What's the difference between listings and marketing your home? Listing is just getting it on the market, but marketing is what is done to drawing buyers in and getting top dollar for your home. That's where I come in!
As a successful listing agent in the area, creating a strategic marketing plan with the homeowner before we list has been crucial to getting my sellers the best price for their home.
Let's set up a time where we can discuss a marketing strategy for your home. Before we meet, feel free to send over any thoughts you have:
1. Who do you think will be the perfect buyer of your home? (A large family, a couple downsizing,etc.)2. What are your favorite features of your home? Why?
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Week 8 Seller Lead Strategy
If you're creating fresh content for your website, blog, or social media accounts (and you should be!), share something that might be useful to a potential seller. Want a little treat? Here is some tweetable advice you can share with seller leads.
Subject: Top 5 Ways to Boost Your Curb Appeal
Hi,
Did you know that doing just a few simple, inexpensive things to your home before you put it on the market can increase your home selling potential up to 10%?
Here's a link to my blog post, "The top 5 ways to improve your home's first impression." My past client found this very helpful when we were selling their home and I hope you will too.
Let me know if you'd like to chat about the selling process!
Thanks, and looking forward to hearing from you!
Week 9 Seller Lead Strategy
It may be worth offering some giveaway to pique the interest of the potential seller. The below email details the opportunity for a staging consult, but you could also offer a free appraisal as well.
Subject: Free home staging
Hey, I just wanted to drop you a quick note about a special offer for a free home staging consultation with my favorite local home stager (they help make your house look pretty when we show your property). These guys are awesome and this is a service I highly recommend. The deal is good for the rest of this month.
Let me know if you're interested!
Week 10 Seller Lead Strategy
Testimonial time! Demonstrate the success you've had in a similar area selling homes, or showcase what similar homes you have sold. Now is a great time to pull in testimonials from past clients and brag a little bit (humbly of course!) about any big wins with multiple offers, time to sale, etc.
Subject: Sold: 3 homes just like yours
Hi,
Just wanted to let you know that these homes, similar to your own, were all sold in under one month (and one even went above asking price!). Here are some things my clients have to say:
*Insert testimonial*
*Insert testimonial*
I would love to be able to offer you the same experience they all enjoyed. Would you have some time today to chat about this market and what your timeline is like?
I look forward to hearing from you!
Week 11 Seller Lead Strategy
If you still haven't had any bites after all these touches, it's a good idea to make sure they haven't been put off by anything, and put the ball back in their court.
Subject: Did I drop the ball?
Hi <prospect name>
I have yet to hear back from you, so I want to make sure I didn't drop the ball. When you initially reached out to me you were interested in the value of your home. Are you just looking to refinance or do you want to potentially sell sometime down the road?
I don't want to bug you, so here's how you can contact me:
<insert name><insert phone number><insert email>
I would love to help you with any of your real estate questions or needs.
Warm regards,
<your name>
Nurturing Non-Responsive Seller Leads
Continue sending your seller leads automatic e-Alerts and market updates to stay top of mind and keep adding value. Even if they are a ways out from selling their home, or unresponsive, it's certainly worth keeping them involved in your digital marketing efforts. That way, when the time does come when they're ready for help, you'll be the person they turn to. With the right technology, and automated processes, nurturing seller leads can be a breeze.
To view the original article, visit the BoomTown blog.
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RETECHNOLOGY PREMIUM MARKETPLACE RELATED PRODUCTS | WEBINARS | SPECIAL OFFERS
Buyer Leads Think You're a Tour Guide? Here's What to Say
Have you ever encountered buyers that want you to show them houses... but they "don't want to buy for at least a year"?
Those aren't serious buyers, and any time spent showing them homes isn't likely to result in you being compensated for your efforts. So how do you handle these buyers?
Realtor Karin Carr has just the script for that, and she shares it in this video.
"You are not a tour guide," says Karin. "Your job is not to put people in the car and drive them around and look at pretty houses and waste your whole day having fun with somebody who has zero intention of buying a house anytime in the foreseeable future."
Watch the video above to learn how to set expectations and boundaries with buyers who are asking for the moon.
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6 Lists All Agents Need to Succeed
Broker Bryan Robertson shares six must-have lists that will keep you organized, drive new clients and make your business run like a well-oiled machine.
Here's Bryan:
Lists can be powerful when used properly. They imply organization, impart control and enable understanding. Instead of a "to do" list, I'm talking about lead lists. Instead of trying to explain a complicated customer relationship management (CRM) solution or an expensive training program, I'm going to tell you the six lists you need to succeed in this business. If you've got these and work them right, you'll close deals.
The 6 lists every Realtor needs to succeed:
Your sphere of influence
Your past clients
Your "A" leads
Your "B" leads
Your "C" leads
Business development contacts
If you've got people in each of these categories, you've already got a good start. What most agents need—and seem to pay a fortune for with consultants, advisers and coaches—is the definition of who to put in each of those lists and what to actually do with the lists. It's not complicated, as I'll explain.
Who is in each list?
Sphere of influence: Friends, family, past colleagues outside real estate.
Past clients: Duh! For new agents, this list will come.
"A" leads: Anyone buying or selling in the next 90 days, who are preapproved and motivated.
"B" leads: Anyone buying or selling in the next six months, who are organized, serious and seem loyal.
"C" leads: Open house contacts, website leads and anyone "thinking" about real estate.
Business development: Builders, lawyers, accountants, referral agents, etc.
Just to be clear on the ABCs, a lot of agents waste time massaging and cultivating their B and C leads as much as the A leads. In a word: DON'T! This is a numbers game, and you will never convert every lead.
Conversely, don't treat your "A" leads like Gollum treats The One Ring in The Lord of the Rings. That one client you really need to close is not "your precious." Clients can smell desperation and clinginess from a mile away. Provide good service, but balance your energies on other clients and prospects.
What to do with each list?
What's the reason most agents never do business with past clients? FOLLOW-UP! Even if they like you, if you don't reach out and touch them once in a while, they will forget about you. Don't take it personally, but if you don't send me a Christmas card or a "Happy Birthday" via Facebook, I'll probably forget you, too.
So, the crazy, insane, ultraclassified secret to successfully using lists is...
SEND THEM SOMETHING OCCASIONALLY!!
There, I said it. That's the secret. The cat is out of the bag. I've blown it for all the top producers.
If you follow Brian Buffini, then you'll send them something every month. If you're like me, I send them something six to eight times a year. Whatever you do, send them something so they know you're breathing and you'd like them to send you some business.
Now, seriously, what you send them is up to you. Here are some specific suggestions, but you'll find dozens of options from every sector of the industry:
Newsletters (short and useful)
Personal notes (NO PITCH, just say "hi")
Phone calls (NO PITCH, just say "hi")
Emails (useful information)
Gifts (something small)
Appreciation party invitation
Letters (yes, in an actual envelope)
Postcards (the big ones)
Are there other ideas? Sure. The point is that you send them things that are useful and genuine. If you treat them like just another cog in the system, they'll pick up on that. Read up on "mass personalization" and you'll understand what I mean.
Just a tip: Your MLS drip for buyers is NOT a contact. That buyer probably gets the same stuff from realtor.com, Zillow and Redfin. Your MLS drip is meaningless. Send them something about the neighborhood they're looking in. That's useful and will get their attention.
What is the business development list?
Rather than paying for leads or hoping that the next buyer at an open house will write an offer, you need to be proactive. The purpose of business development is to CREATE BUSINESS. For the record, that doesn't include whatever advertising or marketing program you're running. This list includes people you talk to about frequent, repeat business.
Let's say you want to sell trust assets (homes of seniors who die). You like working with the families and understand the process. You need to reach out to trust attorneys and promote your skills to them. Set up meetings and discuss what you offer. Build relationships with several trust attorneys and keep pushing for why you're the best agent to sell those homes.
Another group is builders. As agents, you've got contacts on the lending, investor and builder side. Okay, put that to use by building a team of people to buy and develop properties. Sure, many builders have these relationships already—but then again, they may not. It's up to you to figure out what they need and how to cultivate the relationship.
When do I drop people from the lists?
Patience is a virtue and, unfortunately, many prospects have very little of it. Your sphere of influence and past clients are most likely to remain stable and grow. Those two lists should seldom see people drop off.
The other lists will see people come and go regularly. Don't take it personally. Here are some thoughts:
Spend one to two hours each day on lead generation and cultivation.
Drop leads when they tell you they've gone elsewhere.
Drop leads when you determine they're wasting time or aren't serious.
Don't fear losing leads — generate new ones.
Customer service and your lists
The whole real estate business is based on customer service and how good you are at providing it. You don't even have to be great at marketing or sales — just ensuring the customer is happy can go a long way. Harry Gordon Selfridge is credited with using the phrase, "The customer is always right." His store, Selfridge's, was all about providing an exceptional customer experience. Keep this in mind with everything you do with the people on your lists.
Make people remember you. Make people want to remember you. If you do, those lists will grow and grow.
To view the original article, visit the Zurple blog.
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5 Real Estate Follow-Up Rules You Need to Be Following
Ready to level up your real estate career and begin generating more income? Read on!
We're sharing five must-follow rules to expand, grow, and scale your real estate business. Agents that successfully follow these guidelines typically see more transaction sides, more closings, and more revenue.
It's not magic — it's a data-backed approach based on findings from a study conducted by RealTrends in 2021. Let's explore the tips derived from the survey analyzing how marking practices and contact database size may impact performance.
1. Marketing Should Target Both Potential New Leads AND Former Clients
Did you know that including your entire sphere in your marketing plans can boost your success by an average of 9% more transaction sides?
Agents that only focus on attracting net-new clients are missing out on the opportunities for business introduced by their past clients.
Your past buyer and seller clients are sources of referrals. Staying in touch with them through regular outreach boosts your chances of being recommended to one of their deal-ready friends or relatives.
Furthermore, past clients also offer opportunities for repeat business. Your past clients will likely eventually become sellers and buyers in the future. If you're able to maintain a strong connection, they will be more likely to choose you as their agent again.
2. Implement a Systematic Follow-Up Process for Every Contact
Agents who do not employ any kind of systematic follow-up generate 12% fewer transaction sides than those who have a formal strategy for working new leads. For agents who have a formal strategy in place for both new leads and past clients, the difference in transaction activity is 22%.
Lead outreach and follow-up should be approached on a lead-by-lead basis.
Individually curated follow-up is more effective than dry, generic advertising. Not only does this approach build a connection between your sphere and your business, but it also delivers real, substantial value to your leads.
Your leads don't gain anything when you send out a conventional "let's do business" email. They already understand that you are there to do business, and you're not really offering them any new, innovative value.
On the other hand, your leads do benefit from customized, specific messaging that speaks to their needs and circumstances.
For example, if you know that your lead is a first-time homebuyer concerned about securing financing, you will be able to grab their attention with personalized messaging. You might share a guide for preparing for a first mortgage and an overview of the escrow process as attachments to that "let's do business" email.
Your follow-up becomes value-driven rather than value-lacking.
3. Workflows Should Use a Mix of Contact Types
Real estate teams that do not use both programmatic and social media advertising typically see 29% fewer transactions on average.
When reaching out to your previous clients and new leads, you should combine a diverse mix of contact types — including programmatic and social media advertising.
Social media should be a key component of your lead generation and outreach strategy as consumers spend an average of nearly seven hours a day online, with 145 minutes dedicated to social media.
If you want more eyes on your business, make sure that your ads are coming up when your prospects are scrolling through their social media feeds.
4. Aim for 10+ Touchpoints Per Person, Per Month
Want 39% more transaction sides? That comes from making 10 or more touchpoints per person, per month to all of the contacts in your database.
Reaching out less than ten times per month is not going to introduce the success you're hoping for. But, when you achieve ten or more outreach touchpoints per lead each month, you will boost your chances of securing business by moving leads through your sales funnel.
Increasing the number of touchpoints sent to each lead can help you retain the opportunities for business that are sitting in your CRM. Since you're top of mind, your leads will be less likely to seek another agent.
5. Grow Your Database Beyond the Tipping Point of 500 Contacts
Agents whose database contains more than 500 contacts have an average of 25% more transaction sides than agents with databases smaller than 500 contacts.
Investing time on marketing and networking action plans can help you grow your database beyond the "tipping point" of 500 contacts.
If your database currently has less than 500 contacts, getting the contact information of your web traffic should be a top priority for growth. To do so, include captivating calls to action that prompt site visitors to submit their contact information when interacting with your website.
Then, add them into your CRM so they begin to receive your communications — putting more leads into your seamless, "rinse and repeat" sales funnel that's been achieved by following these five tips.
To view the original article, visit the BoomTown blog.
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To Bot or Not? The Modern Way to Engage Real Estate Leads
Lead concierge services are gaining popularity in the real estate industry -- and it isn't hard to see why.
Automated lead concierge programs help agents focus on high-dollar value leads. Instead of being glued to your computer screen digging through your CRM, you can be out in the field going to meetings and closing deals.
While you're out there doing more of what you love, all of the leads in your database are followed up with on time. The lead concierge acts as an extension of your team.
While the appeal of lead concierge services is clear, deciding whether or not to adopt this strategy for your business can be a tough decision for many agents.
Pros and Cons of Lead Concierge Services
Pros of Lead Concierge:
You can spend more time serving your active clients
The lead concierge service is keeping all of your leads warm
You get your time back
On one hand, agents want to free up the time they're spending engaging and following up with their leads — while ensuring that they're actually warming their entire CRM at every level of the sales funnel.
Any agent knows that it's not easy to keep in touch with hundreds or thousands of clients manually 24/7 — let alone develop strong, trustful relationships by sharing personalized content.
Agents also know how difficult it is to quickly respond to each new lead that submits their contact information.
Since home buyers buying properties online are most likely to work with the first agent they speak to, it's critical that real estate teams are responding quickly and effectively.
Cons of Bot-Powered Lead Concierge:
Your leads may need to speak to a real person
Your client experiences may lack a human touch
Your leads may not feel like they're building trust with you
However, many agents might not feel comfortable passing off one of the most crucial elements of their business to technology. Sometimes, your clients will need to speak to a real person.
A study found that nearly 90% of people prefer to speak to a live customer service agent on the phone, despite the efficiency of phone menus for businesses.
Your CRM is your goldmine, and your lead engagement plan is your baseline for generating deals and pushing your sales funnel toward conversion.
If you've built your business with strong, human-centric communication, can you really pass that off to bots and maintain the same quality? Even if that will allow you to grow your business, is it worth risking the quality of your client experiences?
To bot or not to bot can be a tough question to answer — until you've heard of the BoomTown Effect.
The Best Solution for Lead Concierge
The solution? Less DIY and more ROI with BoomTown's Success Assurance!
What agents really need is a seamless lead concierge service that keeps a human quality, but boosts the quantity of your outreach. In other words, helping you do more.
The greatest value of BoomTown's Success Assurance is that it is powered by a team of real humans. It's not a concierge team of bots. Trained sales professionals serve your clients — no bots involved. Real people qualify and nurture every lead for up to 365 days from registration. You won't have to worry about responding to new leads or stressing about sending out follow-up emails. Instead, you and your team can focus on active buyers and sellers while accelerating the team's lead conversion timeline.
It's a win-win for you and your clients. You get more time, and they get superb quality experiences and real, human-to-human assistance.
To view the original article, visit the BoomTown blog.
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Real Estate Agents: Cash in on the Money in Your 'Trash'
One of the biggest mistakes that real estate agents make is thinking that cold leads are dead, trash, or not valuable.
In reality, your leads are playing the long game with their real estate transactions.
They're thoughtfully approaching one of the biggest transactions made in an entire lifetime. For them, buying or selling a home is a marathon — and leads aren't moving from the starting line to the finish line in one step.
In order to win their business and cash out on the value sitting in your CRM, you need to start playing the long game, too.
Busting the "Lead Quality Myth"
World-renowned real estate success coach, Verl Workman, said, "The goldmine in your database is those 3 and 4 year-old leads that are sitting in BoomTown that no one is working. I like to go in and look in one of my agent's trash leads and work through them and say, 'Hey, look, I just did four contracts with your trash.'"
In other words, there are leads in the "Trash" or "Archive" category on your CRM that actually might convert. When you call them "dead" and stop engaging, you're leaving money on the table.
According to a study from Sirius Decisions, 80% of prospects are deemed "bad leads" by sales teams, yet still go on to purchase within 24 months.
Agents need to rethink the way they've thought about the sales funnel journey in the past.
Let's review the truths about lead flow and how online leads — which are lower in the funnel — actually work.
Research has found that:
Only 25% of your leads are ready to buy at any given time.
50% of leads are qualified, but not yet ready to buy.
Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than those who buy immediately.
Your leads take time to covert. It's a process. Instead of seeing colder leads that are farther out from conversion as "weak" or "dead," start thinking about them as your future business opportunities.
If only about a quarter of the leads in your CRM are conversion-ready at any given time, you need to be constantly working that remaining 75% so you can build up a continual stream of conversions to fuel your business.
Not only will you prevent hitting a "drought" after closing on your current deals, but you'll also be making sure that you're retaining the business in your CRM.
Long-Term Nurture Plans Are Essential for Accessing the Goldmine in Your CRM
When strategizing your lead follow-up and nurture plans, work smarter — not harder. You need a seamless, technology-enabled system to automate your long-term lead nurture plans.
7 Ways to Stay Connected with Leads via Email:
Introduce yourself and your services with a welcome email
Ask for more information about their position as a buyer or seller
Send out gift cards to local businesses on holidays, birthdays, and special occasions
Share testimonials of past clients
Provide tips for preparing for a mortgage (for buyers), or how to prepare your home for listing (for sellers)
Promote deals that close successfully
Discuss the common pain points of a transaction and provide helpful solutions to overcome obstacles
Pro Tip: Make your website more engaging so your leads can gain value by visiting your site again and again. While your website needs to serve as the main landing spot for your online traffic, your site should also delight:
Leads that are already in your sales funnel
Past clients
Community members
Become a true hyper-local market leader by generating content that appeals to your leads beyond their sales funnel journey.
After they've signed up for your email list and have been added to your CRM, the leads in your sales funnel should be able to go to your website for helpful information regarding their transaction — through home buying and selling guides, and financial information to help them prepare.
Your website should also be a resource to continue supporting your past clients after closing — with helpful new homeowner tips, or a list of service providers in your area.
Build trust, reputability, and a presence within your neighborhood by publishing locally-driven content — like shoutouts of all the small businesses in your area, or a list of the best things to do in your community.
Once it's posted on your website, you can recycle all of this content through email drip strategies and social media to boost your audience even further.
To view the original article, visit the BoomTown blog.
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Pet Peeves from a Real Estate Lead's Perspective
There are plenty of things that buyers and sellers do that can easily be annoying for real estate agents. But did you ever stop and think about what buyers and sellers might find annoying about YOU? There are a few things that real estate agents do that leave a foul taste in their clients' mouths -- and that you may want to avoid.
Here are three common real estate lead pet peeves:
1. Bad or No Pictures on the Listings
For most homebuyers, when they are starting their home search, they do so on the internet. A listing on a real estate website is often the first impression a buyer will have of the property. If the very first photo they see is a screenshot of Google Street View or a poorly lit cell phone photo, that will be the ONLY impression. Instead, make sure to hire a professional when it comes to taking photos of your seller's home.
2. Slow Response Time
It really irks real estate leads if you take too long to respond to their messages. Be sure to always check your messages—this includes email, text messages, and social media notifications. While it is true that checking your messages every 10 minutes is bad for time management, you can overcome this obstacle by setting clear guidelines with clients and leads when you will be responding to their inquiry.
3. Not Just Picking Up the Phone
Not every lead will answer the phone, but there is a population of leads that will. And for those leads, you don't want to get into a heavy conversation over text or email. There are certain subtelties that written words can't convey that the human voice can. So during those times of back-and-forth, just pick up the phone.
To view the original article, visit the Zurple blog.
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What Makes a Good Lead?
What makes a good lead? Understanding the what, why, and how of lead qualification can save so much time for real estate sales associates, allowing you to focus your energy on leads that are more likely to convert while setting aside dead-end leads. In order to effectively qualify leads, you need to have a reliable process in place to identify promising leads with speed and efficiency.
In short, a good lead is someone who is ready to buy or sell a home. They've likely already put significant thought into the process, have an idea of what they want to accomplish, and are looking for a real estate agent they can trust to get the job done. These are the leads that you want to prioritize over other, less qualified leads who are further from taking real action.
How to Qualify a Lead
In order to identify which leads are good ones and which can be put on the back burner or discarded, you need to ask the right questions. Ideally, you want this to happen as soon as possible when a lead enters your pipeline. That's why it's so important to have a system in place for qualifying leads and to use it consistently.
Is the Lead Buying or Selling a Home in Your Markets?
Start simple, and make sure that the lead is interested in buying or selling a home in one of the markets where you do business. Naturally, a lead shopping for a home in a city or neighborhood that doesn't fall under your umbrella can usually be easily disqualified.
What Is Their Motivation for Buying or Selling a Home?
Figuring out the motivations of the buyer or seller is one of the most important steps that you can take when qualifying a lead. What is their motivation, and just how motivated are they to take the next steps? A buyer or seller who's moving for work, financial reasons, family reasons, or another strong motivating factor is more likely to take action than a lead that lacks a strong motivation to move forward quickly.
Have They Been Pre-Approved for a Mortgage?
One way to gauge the motivation and engagement of a lead is to find out whether they've already been pre-approved for a mortgage. A buyer who has already made an effort to get pre-approved is more likely to be ready to take the next steps. Lacking pre-approval isn't necessarily a factor that disqualifies a lead outright, but it's certainly a positive when a buyer has been pre-approved.
What Type of Budget Are They Shopping With?
Is the buyer searching for a home that fits the price range of the homes that you have to offer, and the listings in your cities/neighborhoods? If it's a seller, are they interested in listing a home in a price range that fits your market, and your target demographic of buyers? Answering these questions can help you determine whether the lead is a good fit for your real estate services.
Are They Looking for a Specific Type of Home?
For buyers, are they looking for specific features from a home? Not only will the answer to this question help you determine how far along the buyer is in the process, it can also tell you whether you might already have listings that match their preferences.
How Long Have They Been Searching?
Has the lead been working on buying or selling a home for a long time? Have they already worked with a different agent in the past? These questions help determine motivation, and knowing if they've already worked with an agent can help you plan how to move forward.
How Soon Are They Hoping to Close the Deal?
A highly motivated buyer or seller is also more likely to be a highly qualified lead. If they're interested in closing the deal quickly, that's a good sign.
Are They Ready to Set an Appointment?
Is the lead ready to take concrete action and plan next steps? If they're willing to set an appointment, then one of the most critical questions is already answered.
Use the Right Tools to Turn Qualified Leads into Satisfied Clients
Of course, qualifying leads is just the first, important step in the process, and the right real estate tech can make the next steps in that process so much more efficient. The right real estate all-in-one solution, like DeltaNET®6, offers so many valuable tools for converting leads. Whether you're sending AI-driven newsletters, reaching out with convenient SMS text messaging, helping people tour homes from afar with virtual open houses & showings, taking advantage of integrations with all of the top real estate platforms, or using one of many other tools, DeltaNET®6 provides everything you need to get the job done in one convenient package.
RE Technology readers can try DeltaNET®6 free for 30 days.
To view the original article, visit the Delta Media Group blog.
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5 Reasons Leads Are Choosing a Different Agent
Today's red-hot residential real estate market has agents competing for leads more aggressively than ever before. Not only is inventory low and demand high, but right now there are more real estate agents than homes for sale — another unforeseen byproduct of the pandemic, as more people decided to enter the industry to make a living.
Simply put, competition is steep. Every interaction, every consultation, and every listing presentation counts if you want to expand your client list this year.
Buyers and sellers are carefully scrutinizing the agents they interview to find just the right one. Even a small negative experience that might've been overlooked in the past may be reason enough for someone to pick another agent. Ensure you're the choice agent by avoiding these five missteps.
1. Your response time is too slow
There are a number of factors at play here. First, with properties moving quickly in this market, buyers and sellers are looking for an agent who can act fast. To know whether that's you, leads are judging your response time.
If a lead submits an inquiry and doesn't hear back from you for 5+ hours, they're going to think it'll always take you hours to respond to them. You can bet they'll start contacting others, and they'll select the agent who responds quickest.
A fast, less-than-an-hour response is a high expectation, but it's the expectation nonetheless, and that's because of the world we live in. The speed of digital transactions has made us all accustomed to lightning-fast service.
Finally, not all leads will be ready to transaction right away. If you leave them waiting too long, their cold feet could catch up and convince them to delay buying or selling. Then you may not be able to get them on the line at all. However, had you replied quicker, it's possible you could've made them feel more comfortable in their initial decision to start the process.
2. Interactions have not met expectations
No two clients are the same, but you can likely gauge their personalities — laidback, sensitive, nervous — and adjust your approach accordingly. Otherwise, they might instantly recognize that it's not a good fit and move on to someone else.
Let's say you consider yourself a "shark" because you're not afraid to be assertive and a bit aggressive with your negotiation tactics. That plays well with some clients, but maybe other prospects need a more nurturing approach because they don't want to feel pushed into a deal. If you can sense the frustration, try to re-calibrate and ask clients what they are comfortable with. There's a delicate balance between making sure they are ready to move quickly in a hot market and making sure they feel heard along the way.
Similarly, make sure you set expectations right off the bat for how intense the process might be. You don't want a potential buyer or seller to feel like their expectations weren't met because you didn't sit down with them and set the stage.
If you think that either of these scenarios may describe you, ask your colleagues, past clients, and even lost leads if they would be willing to give you honest feedback.
3. You aren't easily found on Google
Buying and selling a home are among the most important financial decisions we'll make. As such, you can bet that consumers will be researching any agent they are considering working with. Nowadays, that research starts on Google — the most-used search engine in the country.
If a potential lead types in your name and can't find much about you on the first page of search results, what do you think their impression will be? Probably, "Is this agent still in business?" Or, "Is this agent any good?"
Prospects will choose your competitors instead of you because they appear when leads search for them, providing instant credibility and trust.
Make sure you are easily found on Google by maintaining SEO on your real estate website, updating your Google business profile regularly, and taking out ads that are featured prominently at the top of the search results page, like Google's Local Services Ads.
4. Leads forgot about you
How are you ensuring that you stay top of mind after acquiring new leads? As we mentioned earlier, not everyone will be ready to transact right away. Some might get cold feet, while others just need to sort out some details before jumping in. Either way, you need to stay visible so that leads get back in touch with you when they do become ready to buy or sell.
Here are a few ways to stay top of mind:
Add new leads to your digital ads' custom audience list so your ads are served to them whenever possible.
Include leads in your regular emails, such as e-newsletters and local market reports.
Check in with a personal text or email to ask if you can answer questions or help with next steps.
5. You didn't prove your expertise
Consider the elevator pitch you give when you first connect with new leads. Do you exude confidence, effectively communicate your real estate expertise, and help leads understand how you outshine competitors?
If not, all it will take is a convincing conversation with another agent — or even an intriguing advertisement — to change someone's mind.
Don't take personal referrals for granted, either. Just because a former client or mutual connection made an introduction doesn't mean that lead has committed to working with you. Prove your expertise when you speak to them, be easy to find on Google when they search for your name, and take the necessary steps to stay top of mind if they aren't ready to transact.
To view the original article, visit the Homesnap blog.
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The Importance of Long-term Engagement
Most homeowners would be glad to work with their real estate agent again -- but they never do.
It's true. The average homeowner will own three or four properties in a lifetime, with most purchases spaced out between three and seven years. But even when they are thrilled with the service their real estate agent offered, they often end up using a different one for every transaction.
How can this be?
Some of the reasons are purely logistical. If someone is moving across the country, odds are they connect with a real estate agent in their desired area as one of their first steps. But there is a bigger reason: traditional real estate marketing is focused on customer acquisition, not retention.
Customer acquisition can be an all-consuming part of any real estate agent's first year on the job.
After that, it's important to start building referral business. This means you can spend less time going after that next client and more time building the long-term assets you need for the kind of firm you really want. In the long run, retention is easier than acquisition, which can cost 25x more.
Long-term engagement is the key. And it can start with the clients you have right now.
Long-Term Engagement Turns Customers into Allies for the Life of Your Business
According to research from 2018, real estate agents are among the least trusted professions in America.
In fact, only 11% of respondents consider real estate agents trustworthy, placing them above only politicians and car salespeople. Responses varied by region, with those out west feeling most suspicion of the profession.
That's bad news, of course. But it means that when someone finds a real estate agent they trust, they don't really want to start over again from scratch. By recognizing and working with that reality, you can create lasting loyalty. That, in turn, has the potential to multiply the value of every customer relationship you hold.
Getting more transactions from a single customer is an obvious example. You could double or triple lifetime value from your customers if they keep coming back to you every time they're ready to buy a new property. But that's not all: you can also get dozens of referrals from each customer over the lifetime of your practice. From that perspective, having even a handful of strong relationships could drive your revenue goals for years.
After all, long before you have the opportunity to meet a client-in-waiting, that same person is expressing their desire to buy a home. . . to their family, their friends, and to just about everyone they know other than you.
Referral business is a hot ticket, letting you be the very first real estate agent to talk to any buyer or seller. That positions you to build trust and continue the cycle, helping more people while growing your business.
Set the Stage for Long-Term Engagement with Digital Marketing and Smart Follow-Up
Real estate digital marketing becomes easier than ever when you adopt the right technology. Good technology doesn't get in the way of relationships; it makes them easier — allowing you to check in with people in helpful, meaningful ways without wasting lots of time on data entry.
Here's how you can strengthen client relationships into real bonds of trust:
Have a Consistent Plan for Following Up
Everyone has their own schedule when it comes to following up with happy clients. It's not unusual to follow up with clients four times in the 12 months after their transaction, including on their closing day anniversary and New Year's. Some agents aim to follow up once a month. Whatever suits you best, have a plan and stick to it.
Share Content Related to Home Ownership
A blog is one of the most crucial features of your real estate website. To give you topics to talk about with your clients after move-in, consider creating content around homeownership topics. Maintenance, DIY, decorating, and more are all on the table and mean you can send useful content to the right clients.
Use a CRM to Make Things Easier on You
The DeltaNET™ 6 all-in-one solution for real estate centralizes everything you know about your clients. It gives you access to your whole history at a glance, no matter if someone is a new lead, in progress toward closing, or a satisfied customer. This saves time and keeps your contacts relevant.
Treat Customers to Pleasant Surprises
Relationships between people are built on sharing pleasant experiences and learning more about each other over time. You can put a little brightness into a customer's day with a handwritten note, a small gift, a coupon, or many other surprises. If they've opted in, real estate text messaging can be effective, too.
RE Technology readers can try DeltaNET 6 FREE for 30 days.
To view the original article, visit the Delta Media Group blog.
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5 Unconventional Methods for Mastering Lead Conversion
Real estate agents are taught that lead conversion is a methodical process to follow, but what if the process of converting leads is not a process at all and rather a carefully mastered people skill? Would it change how you approached your conversations?
The Problem with How Agents Handle Lead Conversion
Imagine that you just finished a long, exhausting day of work and you're finally home and about to sit down and have dinner, when your phone rings. It's a number you don't know, so you let it go to voicemail. The caller doesn't leave a message. Not 60 seconds later, your phone rings again. It's the same number and the caller doesn't leave a message—again. Suddenly, you get a text message from the unknown caller asking if you're you. Instantly, you experience a wave of nervousness and you think about all of the wild possibilities for the cryptic calls and messages. Your curiosity quickly gets the best of you and you decide to respond to the text confirming that they have reached the right person and you ask them to identify themselves. Your phone rings again and this time you immediately pick up only to discover that the cryptic caller is some random real estate agent who got your information from an ad you inadvertently clicked while scrolling through Facebook earlier that afternoon. You can probably guess how well this particular conversation went for the real estate agent.
The real estate agent in this all-too-common scenario is following a regularly practiced step-by-step process that many real estate agents are taught in order to most efficiently handle the initial phase of lead conversion—getting the lead on the phone. The problem with this "process" is it fails to address the human aspects of dealing with real people. People have varying emotions, circumstances, schedules, personalities and habits that all impact how they react to and handle different situations. If the real estate agent in the aforementioned scenario had treated the "lead" like an actual person instead of using a clever process to essentially trick them into getting on the phone, they might have stood a chance at building genuine rapport instead of destroying any possibility of establishing a professional relationship based on trust.
Where Do You Go From Here?
So now what? If you've been handling lead conversion like this, do you throw everything you've learned out the window? Not entirely, but there are some things you can do to improve your strategy and ultimately your results, but the methods might seem a bit unconventional. Try to keep an open mind and let's dive in!
Method 1: Shift Your Mindset
The first thing you need to do to improve your rate of lead conversion is to shift your mindset from a sales-based mindset to a value-based mindset. This may sound counterproductive, but when you switch to a value-based mindset, you're allowing yourself to focus on selling the actual service you're providing instead of physically making a real estate sale.
Ditching your scripts is something that will really help you move to a value-based mindset. Scripts are the enemy of authenticity. Your goal when reaching out to prospective clients should be to establish trust and show your value as the absolute best source of real estate information.
Being genuine and human is the first step to building up trust. When you're running scripts on someone, you don't come across as either of those things. To add insult to injury, they've probably already heard all of your scripts from the last real estate agent they spoke with, so why not take advantage of the unique opportunity to set yourself apart by learning how to control your instincts of trying to push, sell, and get them to sign on the dotted line when they're likely not ready to do so?
Method 2: Reframe the Conversation
If you've ever gotten on the phone with potential clients and you can instantly tell that they have their guard up from the moment you said "hello," you might need to work on reframing the conversation.
What does it mean to reframe the conversation?
When you start a conversation with a lead, you might be inclined to ask them something like, "What kind of home are you looking for?" Instead of asking such a direct transactional question you should ask, "What are you trying to accomplish with your move?"
Can you feel the difference?
When you ask someone what they are trying to accomplish with their move, you're asking them something personal about themselves and their motivations. This question immediately drops their guard and you create the opportunity for them to open up about all kinds of things, specifically about what things are influencing them to make decisions.
Some simple reframing of how you're asking your questions can immediately increase your value and will allow your conversations to go more smoothly by showing the lead that you actually care about them and their situation, ultimately rewarding you with their loyalty.
Method 3: Digging Deeper (Mastering Conversion)
The most successful real estate agents know that it's the motives and emotions that really sell, not the surface statements or facts. But still the majority of agents are afraid of digging deeper and having a really prolonged conversation with the lead in fear of inconveniencing them or keeping them too long on the phone.
You need to let this kind of thinking go.
To really provide someone with the most value and the best service, you need to be confident enough to dig deep and learn about what is really motivating them at the heart. Knowing someone's motivations and personal situations allows you to do your job to the best of your ability and on a timeline that is ideal for your client. Without knowing what is influencing someone, you might as well be throwing darts at a wall blindfolded, hoping to eventually hit the bullseye.
Method 4: Challenging Their Thinking
Even the most experienced and successful real estate agents asking the best possible questions are still going to encounter objections. This is a very normal and expected part of being a real estate agent—or any salesperson, for that matter. There are many ways skillful salespeople can overcome objections by challenging the opposition's thinking, but one of the best ways is to master the psychological technique called "shifting the spotlight."
Here an example of what it means to shift the spotlight:
Method 5: Mirroring and Matching
The last thing you should consider doing to improve your lead conversion is to become more likeable.
I know what you're thinking, "Easier said than done."
You'll be happy to know that being naturally likeable is not a gift that a few lucky people were born with and that it's actually a carefully mastered skill called mirroring and matching.
Mirroring and matching is a technique that you can use to subtly key into your prospect's interest level and personality type. It's so effective in building rapport, earning trust and increasing overall likeability that FBI lead negotiators use it on the job.
In a nutshell, people like other people who are similar to them, so to implement mirroring and matching successfully, you simply need to mirror the behavior and speech patterns of the person you're talking to and match their tone and level of interest in order to increase their overall engagement and satisfaction with you.
Putting It All Together
At the end of the day, the one thing that will make the biggest difference in your lead conversion is to actually care about the human being you're speaking to. Stop treating them like a lead and really humanize them. Empathize with their situation, try to understand what things are influencing them, and provide them with true value.
Throw out your step-by-step lead conversion process and embrace the mindset that you're in the business of dealing with people first, not just selling real estate.
Taking These Methods to the Next Level
There are so many other ways you can work to shift your mindset, handle resistance, and avoid uncomfortable conversations with your prospective clients. All of these techniques can even be repurposed to better communicate with your family and friends, not just leads.
To get more in-depth training, you can complete the six-lesson Lead Conversion Masterclass with instructors Robby Tefethren and Barry Jenkins and fully master the art of better communication, understanding people and lead conversion. The entire course is available for free enrollment here.
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How Long Does It Take to Convert Online Real Estate Leads?
Feeling frustrated that your online real estate leads aren't converting? Or does it seem like they're taking forever?
Here's the truth: online real estate leads take longer to convert than other sources and may convert at a lower rate than other sources like referrals, call-ins, etc.
The average incubation rate for online real estate leads is anywhere from six to 24 months.
The national average conversion rate for online real estate leads is usually reported to be between 2-3%. However, The National Association of Realtors® disclosed that the rate is actually closer to 0.4% – 1.2%.
So, that means for every 100 leads you generate and work, you may convert two or three, and it may take a while to see it happen.
I know what you're thinking—but don't be discouraged! With a seamless system in place designed to work and convert those leads, online leads can still be a lucrative part of your business.
The name of the game is to leverage automation tools and technology services that allow you to work these leads without investing too much of your own valuable time.
Build a Seamless Online Lead System
First, make sure you have all of the necessary elements in place to turn those leads into closed deals. We recommend focusing on these three things:
Speed to Lead
It's critical to reach out within five to 15 minutes of the lead registering on your site. This is your best opportunity to make an impression!
However, this is where many agents drop the ball. At BoomTown, we conducted a study of 40k+ agents and found that the average response time for an online lead was nearly 90 minutes. Yikes! That's enough time to lose an opportunity.
It's impossible to stay glued to your desk all day. It's simply not the best use of your time! Plus, some leads might register on your site during the middle of the night or while you're on vacation. So this is a good area to rely on technology or a new hire in order to give focused attention to reaching out to leads.
With BoomTown's Lead Concierge Service, Success Assurance, we generate and qualify your leads on your behalf (24/7 in as little as 90 seconds) and nurture them for up to one year. This way, no lead gets left behind.
Qualification
Have a plan for qualifying your leads and tagging/categorizing them appropriately within your CRM. The goal is to get as much useful information as you can as soon as possible. Like, LPMAMA: Location, Price Range, Motivation, Agent (are they working with one?), Mortgage (are they pre-approved?), and Appointment. (Note: If you're leveraging a Lead Concierge Service or an ISA, this should be a part of what they handle for you!)
Pro Tip! Leverage your technology partner to embed qualifying questions within your IDX website. For example, when they're sharing their contact information with you, including the questions, "Are you pre-approved?" and "Do you have a house to sell?"
Follow-Up and Long Term Nurture
Plug your leads into the right nurture plan to continue delivering timely soft touches with helpful information. You should be able to automate this within your CRM!
Trust the Process
If those three strategies are in place, the next thing you should do—be patient and trust the process. Yes, yes, I know it's not the sexy answer but it's the right answer. Online leads are "top-of-funnel," which means many of them are just beginning their search. They may be months away from being ready to transact. In fact, the average is six to 24 months. So you need to understand the lead funnel and the process of slowly moving leads through it, nurturing them so that when they are ready—you are their go-to agent! Remember: Your database is a powerful tool. Keep fueling it, keep working your pipeline. Stay on top of your systems and trust the process.
To view the original article, visit the BoomTown blog.
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How to Find a Lead With Only Their Name and Email Address
Your phone receives a notification while you're driving home from your brokerage. *Beep* *Beep* It's a lead alert! You start feeling excited as you press the notification. To your dismay, the lead you just generated only left their name and email address.
This isn't new for you. In fact, it happens far too often. With shattered expectations, your excitement turns to an emotion best represented with the onomatopoeia, "meh." There's nothing you can do with just an email, right? Wrong! You couldn't be further from the truth.
In this article, I will show you how to gather more information such as a full name, address, phone number, and more from a lead that only leaves their email address.
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Converting FSBOs to Clients: 4 Tips
Homeowners who attempt to sell their homes on their own (FSBOs) may seem like lost causes. They often have many objections to listing with an agent, with the forerunner being the cost of commission is too high. Truthfully though, they are an underestimated potential client base, and converting FSBOs to clients could just push you over your sales goals this year.
It is difficult to build a relationship with someone who wants nothing to do with your services, but that needs to be your focus. FSBOs will not be easy to recruit, so building a meaningful, trusting relationship with them over time is your best bet to successfully convert them to a client. Follow the tips below in order to learn how to foster these necessary relationships, and eventually make them profitable.
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2 Secrets to More Lead Conversions, Straight from a Top Team's Playbook
Lauren Bowen leads one of the most productive real estate teams at Robert Slack. She's increased conversion rates and productivity while the company nearly doubled in size.
The secret to her team's success? They stalk their real estate leads... or, more accurately, they let their lead generation solution do it for them.
Targeting the Most Likely Buyers
Anyone who has spent any time on the internet has been "stalked" by an online ad. You visit a site once, and for days or weeks after, an ad from that site follows you around the web. This is called "ad retargeting," and marketers love this advertising strategy because it is so effective.
The Lauren Bowen Team employs this strategy to great success via realtor.com's Local Expert program. Local Expert users can create three types of ads: For Sale ads, Just Sold ads, and Branding ads. Those ads are then displayed to buyers in your chosen area on realtor.com. Once they leave the site, those same ads are displayed in their Facebook feed.
"This not only helps bring a buyer to the house, it also shows the seller that we are putting it in front of numerous buyers for them," Lauren says.
Tip: Because Local Expert offers detailed campaign analytics, you can impress your sellers by telling them exactly how many people have seen their home's ad.
Dialing Up Lead Volume for a Higher Conversion Ratio
Lauren's team may have stumbled on another secret to improved conversion rates when, thanks to the success of their realtor.com program, they decided to increase their volume of leads.
This lead to a curious phenomenon. The team's number of lead conversions not only increased—as expected with more overall leads coming in—but their conversion ratio increased as well. That means the team is converting a higher percentage of leads than they were at their previous lead volume.
"We've almost doubled our conversion ratio with the same leads," says Lauren.
See Lauren THIS THURSDAY at Inman Connect NY
Want to hear more real estate lead wisdom from Lauren? On Thursday, she'll be sharing her expertise during a panel discussion on the Team Track at Inman Connect New York. Check out her panel, Lead Distribution: Who Gets What?, on January 30!
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Virtual Tours: The New Qualification Tool
If you put 10 real estate agents in a room and asked them to swap their most interesting viewing stories, you could come back hours later to find them still trading tales and acting out anecdotes.
For all the diverse colour and detail, however, there will be two common themes – the majority of the stories will be about negative, odd or downright rude viewings, and the agents will have spent large amounts of time away from their office in the process, accompanying people who have no intention to proceed.
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Success Story: Exploring How Agents Choose Real Estate Technology
Selecting a new real estate technology product can be intimidating. In addition to a dizzying array of apps and platforms to choose from, agents and brokers have to evaluate if a product has the features they need, if it fits their budget, if it can adapt easily to their workflow, among other criteria.
Helping real estate pros find the right technology for their business is our mission here at RE Technology. It's why we created our Product and Company Directories, and why we publish helpful, educational content every weekday.
Today, we're introducing a new weekly feature to further help our readers decide if a technology product is right for them. "Success Story" highlights the real-life stories of agents and brokers who found the technology that fits their business. Each week, we'll explore how and why they made their decision, and how the tech they chose transformed their business.
Our series kicks off with a deep, multi-week look into BoomTown, a CRM and marketing automation platform, through the eyes of its real-life customers.
Want to see how BoomTown works for yourself? Check out the product tour here.
Introducing Brandon Prewitt
Our first Success Story starts with an age-old problem in real estate tech: software that's feature-dense, but difficult to use.
In 2011, Columbus, Ohio-based Realtor Brandon Prewitt was searching for a real estate technology platform that would help him scale his business and manage his rapidly growing database of leads. He eventually settled on Commissions, INC. (CINC) because it fit his budget and had a lot of "bells and whistles" that he was excited to try.
But Brandon only ended up using about 10% of the system's features because the user interface was clunky and a struggle to use. CINC's lackluster support only compounded the problem—there was nowhere for Brandon to learn how to use the system even though he wanted to.
"With Commissions INC., support was really lacking. When I signed on with them, there was no onboarding. There was no, 'Here's what you do to be successful using our system.' It was, 'Here's your username. Here's your password. Good luck,'" says Brandon.
Making the Switch to a New Platform
Frustrated by the user experience and lack of support, Brandon sought out another technology platform. He eventually decided on BoomTown. Why?
"It comes down to simplicity," says Brandon. "BoomTown is easier to navigate, and it's just all around more user-friendly. At the end of the day, all of those buttons that CINC had were just noise."
Here's a look at the specific features of BoomTown that changed the game for Brandon:
Advanced Lead Filters
Brandon needed a way to categorize his leads, not just get them all into one spot. For a busy agent, ease of use is important. Brandon wanted to sort through leads by simply clicking a button and seeing which leads are 3-6 months out from buying a home or 6+ months out.
"I don't need to have all of these complicated algorithms or labeling mechanisms to be able to filter down all this information," says Brandon. "I just want to click a button and see all those people. That's it."
BoomTown made this possible. Brandon finally had a system that could turn his 4,000+ leads into workable lists. In addition, BoomTown's expert support staff and user-friendly platform meant that Brandon had a technology partner that would help him drive the success of his business.
Mobile App
As an agent who's always on the go, Brandon finds that BoomTown's Now Mobile App is an invaluable tool.
"I like to be able to just see who's on there. Who's on the site? Who do I need to call? What are my to-dos for the day? I appreciate the simplicity. It's not just a ton of information in your face. It's just: call, email, or leave a note on their profile."
Success Achieved: The Results of Switching Platforms
Ease-of-use is one thing, but how did switching platforms actually improve Brandon's business? Well, since signing up with BoomTown, Brandon has:
Increased his follow-up with leads
Increased his lead conversions
Stayed on top of conversations with leads that may have previously fallen through the cracks
Regular phone calls with a BoomTown success manager have kept Brandon focused on his business goals. During his onboarding, the "bulk import" of his 4,000+ lead database was naturally a stressful day. "But I knew I had someone, a live person, my own specialist that I could call and talk to. We were in it together."
Want to see which BoomTown product is right for you? Compare packages.
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The Five Fifty-Five Program
We all know real estate is a networking industry. If you're not networking and building contacts, then you're not growing... and if you're not growing, then there's probably untapped potential lying dormant within the recesses of your abilities!
It can be hard to find the time, resources, and strategies for successfully networking and building your database, which is why we came up with the Five Fifty-Five Program, or the 5x5x5.
The Five Fifty-Five program is a system for continually expanding your database so you can get more referrals and rapidly spread word-of-mouth for your real estate practice. The more you build your database, the greater opportunity you have to sell real estate.
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5 Ways to Lose a Lead Real Quick
Leads are the lifeblood of any business. Period. Whether you are communicating to a lead or client, both should be given the same amount of attention.
If a prospect was recommended to you, found you online or heard about you by way of word of mouth, the clock has started for you to make them feel comfortable in helping them with this major transition in their life.
You might think that mishandling a new lead is a short term problem, but if it's consistent, putting a band-aid on it will only make the same issues persist down the road – damaging your reputation and your business referrals.
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The Missing Ingredient that Can Ensure Your Success in Real Estate
Time is money! How to get off the real estate hamster wheel and be more dollar-productive
Here is a pretty simple pattern. The larger your lead database grows, the more successful your real estate business will be. We have seen a direct correlation between real estate growth and the size of a lead database. Seems like a no-brainer, right? More leads equal more opportunity for success.
In fact, we've discovered that teams and businesses investing in lead generation efforts experience a compounding growth effect. Over eight years, they typically witness growth in production volume by four times. On top of that, we've uncovered a formula to virtually ensure success in real estate.
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5 Ways to Convert Open House Leads into Sales
There's no doubt about it: An open house is a great way to draw attention to a home on the market.
Open houses can attract more motivated buyers than any other form of in-person marketing. When real estate agents combine well-executed open houses and smart digital marketing, more transactions occur. In the end, that means growing your real estate practice much more quickly.
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A Guide to Making a Great First Impression with Your Real Estate Prospects
As every real estate agent knows, May is one of the busiest months of the year. Buyers are on the hunt, which makes it a great time to sell quickly and for a good price. So at this crucial time of the year, making the best first impression is most important. Here are a few ways that you can "strike while the iron is hot" and make a great first impression.
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How You Can Add Flavor to 'LPMAMA' So Leads Stick with You
Imagine a slice of bread. Served plain, it doesn't look tasty, does it? But top it with a few other ingredients and sandwich it with another slice of bread, and you have a delicious meal suddenly. The same premise applies to LPMAMA in real estate. By itself, it provides agents a series of questions they can qualify leads with. However, there's one drawback to LPMAMA's questions. They're very "agent-focused." They're designed to serve you, not necessarily the consumer – which puts them in a weird emotional state.
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Top 3 Tips for Following Up with Real Estate Leads Like a Machine
So you've got a solid lead generation strategy and you're trying to build a lasting pipeline. But is your follow-up working?
Agents often expend most of their energy on generating more and more leads. And while drumming up business is important, it's what comes next that truly matters and moves your leads from that first phone call to the closing table. Follow-up is critical, but it's also pretty straightforward! Implement these three steps and your process will work seamlessly.
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6 Signs It's Time to Rethink Your Referral and Lead Flow
The real estate business is unpredictable. One minute you're riding high with three signed offers and the next, you've lost a major, career-making deal.
In today's market, it's more critical than ever to leave no stone unturned by strategically managing your referrals and leads. As an agent, time is money and spending it following up on bad phone numbers and email addresses is not the best use of your energy.
If any of the below scenarios apply to you, it may be time to rethink how you manage your referrals and lead flow to take your business to the next level this year.
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How to Follow-Up with Leads 450% More Effectively
Do you ever feel like your follow-up process is letting leads slip through the cracks? You've spent money generating leads. You've watched them register on your website. And then... no response. No engagement.
It's frustrating to see active homebuyers leave you high and dry. Done enough times, you get fed up, right? Now, before you call it quits, let me walk you through a few "investigative" ways to improve your lead follow-up.
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What Can Real Estate Agents Do to Improve Engagement with Leads?
Selling real estate is a constant dance. You've got to find ways to attract leads, then nurture clients and close the sale...all at the same time. If you get the first part right, the rest of the sales process can go more smoothly. Here are a few tips to help you really engage leads to move them into the sales funnel.
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Busted! 7 Myths About Real Estate Leads We Can Finally Put to Rest
Forget what you've heard! We're taking a look at what is fact vs. fiction when it comes to online real estate leads.
Growing a successful real estate business means creatively and strategically generating leads. In addition to referrals, many real estate professionals turn to "online leads" to generate more business. This could be in-house digital marketing (through Google and Facebook Ads), or paying for leads from a provider.
Whatever your methods, you've probably heard plenty of "facts" about online lead generation and quality. And you might be frustrated with your results. But before you scrap your strategy all together, let's clear a few things up!
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Did You Make Your Broker's Naughty or Nice List This Year?
With the year almost over and Christmas almost here, it's time to figure out whether you made your broker's naughty agents list or their nice agents list.
Which list you made it on comes down to a few different factors: lead generation, lead follow-up, and marketing. But if you weren't so nice this year, don't worry--now's the perfect time to start practicing for next year!
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Nurture and Convert More Leads with Creative Email Autoresponder Messages
You've probably already used an automatic email response a few times. While email autoresponders are generally used to let people know when you are away on vacation, this tool can also be used more creatively.
Used correctly, email autoresponders can help you to speed up the introduction process with your future clients and to start nurturing your leads right away.
Start nurturing your leads before you even open your inbox
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New Lead? Follow Up Using These Steps
Maintaining contact with past clients and your sphere of influence can be difficult, and you already know those people. But what about those who are not your clients yet? Leads you receive online or from your listings can be used to build your business and increase your sphere of influence, but you have to maintain contact with them first.
To be successful with this, you have to have a game plan to connect with your leads as they come in and continue that connection for the long haul until they are ready to move. With these steps, you may feel that you are more prepared to build up your business with the leads that you have.
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Online Real Estate Leads: How to Make Them Convert
Yes, we know, online real estate leads can be a pain. Whether they come from a third-party platform where you advertise your listings, directly from your own website, or you buy them from somewhere, these leads generated from online activity have that bad reputation of not converting. But is that really the case? And how can you move around it?
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7 Tips for Converting More Real Estate Leads
The internet is full of real estate tips on a number of different topics. However, at the end of the day, what is more important than understanding how to convert real estate leads?
If you can't master this fundamental skill set, nothing else matters. You either turn your leads into happy clients, or you lose out to competitors who do.
Fortunately, we've put together seven tips that are proven to turn leads into satisfied customers again and again.
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3 Tried and True Tips to Re-Engage Cold Online Leads
Once an online lead goes cold, it's a guessing game for Realtors to decide if they should put effort into re-engaging with the lead or if they're better left cold.
The majority of online leads are usually people you haven't met face-to-face, and because the line of communication between you and the lead has weakened, there's no way of knowing what stage of the home buying or selling process the potential lead is in anymore.
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How to Leverage Automation for Lead Nurturing
Lead nurturing, or guiding leads along the customer journey so they become buyers, is one of the more important and time-consuming tasks real estate agents do every day.
To nurture your leads, you have to communicate with them frequently through a variety of channels. However, sending hundreds of emails, texts, or social replies is not always the best use of your time, especially when you have to customize the email to each customer and their place in the customer journey.
One of the best ways to nurture your leads is via marketing automation. If you've dreamt of being in more than one place at once, read on and learn what automation is, which tasks can be enhanced with automation, and how this all ties together for easier lead nurturing.
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What's Better? Quantity of Leads or Quality of Lead Follow-Up?
Last week, I wrote an article about methodical and responsible ways to increase your lead generation budget. Along those lines, today I'll discuss what you should focus on: the quantity of leads coming in, or the quality of your lead follow-up?
This is an interesting question, but it has a very simple answer. Specifically:
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8 Powerful Resources for Building a Lead Capture System
Building a high-converting lead capture system is appealing to many real estate agents, but the process of building the lead forms and pages can be a complex and daunting process. It doesn't need to be this way. After all, as a REALTOR you have access to RPR reports, which work great as a lead magnet—the offer you have for prospects in return for their contact information.
If your goal is to attract people looking to sell a home, you may want to offer an RPR Market Activity Report, which highlights current market opportunities, or a request for a free home valuation. If you're looking to attract buyers, try offering a Market Activity Report customized with an upcoming open house schedule or new homes on the market.
With that sorted, let's explore eight different solutions worth considering before building your next lead capture system:
Form Builders
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Triple Your Leads with Better List Segmentation
Just what is a real estate prospect? That's starting with an easy question, as we all know that it's someone who wants to buy or sell real estate. Staying with this big picture viewpoint, many real estate CRM systems break down their prospects into buyers and sellers. There may also be an investors category, but for the most part, those are the three that you'll see in the top navigation of many real estate websites.
Idea #1: Stop Thinking Simple
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How to Create a Conversion Engine for Your Online Seller Leads
It's an open secret: many real estate agents believe online seller leads aren't valuable. They don't convert... they take too long to convert... they take too much effort... it's impossible to be sure where they are in the buying or selling process.
We've heard it all before. And it's true—trying to convert online seller leads into clients can be a significant challenge. But that's only if you don't have a proven system. Knowing the key elements and steps to effectively take online seller leads from prospect to client can turn your challenges into a conversion engine that's integral to your real estate business.
In a previous post, we shared a simple system for attracting and converting online buyer leads. This post focuses on the six key elements to generate seller leads and turn them into your clients.
By the end of this post you will:
Know the process and elements to convert online seller leads
Have templates for seller lead communications
Understand the different ways to handle warm and cold leads
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Easy Tips to Convert More Seller Leads
Seller leads are once again on our collective minds, so we talked to some experts to hear what they have to say about not only attracting seller leads, but actually converting them. Here's what we learned:
Buyers Buy Houses. Sellers Buy Agents.
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Boyenga Team Delivers Online Excellence through Chime
Eric and Janelle Boyenga are a husband and wife real estate team working with buyers and sellers in one of the most technology focused markets in the world for two decades. California's Silicon Valley is not only the epicenter of global technology, but also real estate technology.
To position their company, the Boyenga Team comfortably promotes themselves as Property Nerds. They aim to deliver the best digital experience to their clients with an abundance of software applications. They target their services to engineers and other employees of companies like Google, Facebook, Sun Microsystems, Apple, and many of the leading technology firms in the Silicon Valley. "You cannot grow a successful real estate team in the Silicon Valley without a constant investment in cutting edge technology," says Eric Boyenga.
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Desperate for Seller Leads? We have the answer!
In these times where inventory is so low, there is nothing more important than figuring out new ways to secure listing appointments and convincing consumers that it's the right time to sell!
Finding the best ways to engage with potential sellers is the KEY to business success. You've probably heard the old adage, You have to list to last!
What you do in the minutes after you receive a lead makes a huge difference. And when you wait to contact that lead, chances are that another real estate agent is going to get to them first.
So what can you do?
You need an iron-clad lead follow-up strategy that instantly responds to leads for you, so even when you are busy... you can still keep them focused on you and not another agent.
On Wed., Sept. 27th at 9am PT/12pm ET, W+R Studios' National Trainer, Ricardo Bueno, Marilyn Wilson from RE Technology and Realtor Ray Fernandez are holding a free, panel-style webinar called, "Lead Follow-up Secrets for Busy Agents."
This webinar will cover simple and proven lead follow up strategies that will help even the busiest agent convert more leads into clients. You don't want to miss this!
Register now!
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Create a Conversion Funnel to Turn More Facebook Leads into Clients
In a 2016 interview, Matthew Nicolas and Reid Boles shared how they use Top Producer® CRM and StreetText to stay ahead of their competition by generating high quality leads on Facebook and implementing systems to turn those leads into clients. One year later, Stephen Whiting of StreetText sat down with Matthew to discuss their results and the Facebook lead gen strategy that is making them stand out.
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What to Do When Your Sales Leads Say 'Not Now'
Sales is a tedious game of converting leads into paying customers, but, as you know, not all leads end up that way. Data shows that 80 percent of sales are made after the fifth call, but only 8 percent of salespeople keep up with leads until then. Regardless of persistent follow-ups, some cold leads never heat up and some leads convert to customers instantly. However, there are times when a lead is developing well, seems interested, and just when you're about to close the deal they say, "Not now."
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A Tale of Two Follow-up Plans: Rachel Adams Lee's six-day, 14% lead conversion system (Part 2)
Are you ready to get more persistent as you pursue the sale, but aren't sure exactly how to follow up multiple times without coming off as a huge pest?
Last week, we shared lead expert Travis Robertson's aggressive two-week follow-up plan. His approach isn't for the faint of heart, so we also wanted to share a six-day, six-step system from Rachel Adams Lee, the CEO and Founder of Rachel Adams Real Estate Group in Roseville, California.
Rachel Adams Lee's Two-Day, Six-Step Conversion Plan
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How to Prevent Your Leads from Ghosting on You
Ghosting is when someone stops responding to your communications without explaining why. And while it's usually used within the context of dating, it's also becoming a tried-and-true tactic in sales and lead conversion settings.
While it's true that your leads don't really owe you anything, it's always frustrating to lose contact with someone you thought was prepping to work with you. Below are three ways to engage a too-quiet lead when you think they may be ghosting on you.
1. Give them a clear path to action
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How to Get into Your Leads' Phone Contacts (and Stay There)
Ever had a great initial chat with a potential new client, but left feeling unsure if you'd ever hear from them again? If you're not sure how to follow up after a promising appointment or impromptu meeting, follow these three quick tactics to ensure you stay on their radar.
Tactic #1: The right-then thank you note
First, don't leave the parking lot until you've begun your planned outreach. Keep a stack of thank you notes or other personal stationery in your glove compartment or in a small storage container. Get in the habit of writing a quick thank-you note in the car every time you leave a meeting with a potential new client.
Keep stamps on hand and deliver the thank you note to the first mailbox or post office you see as you drive away. While it isn't the most efficient method of communicating your gratitude, a handwritten note still goes a long way when it comes to attempting to land a new client. And because our other two tactics are immediate, text-related follow-ups, you'll also guarantee that your contact thinks of you 1-2 days after you've met in person (right as they may have otherwise forgotten about you).
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Heat Up Cold Leads this Summer
Do you have a list of hot leads that went cold over the winter? Now that summer is here and people are thinking about moving again, this is the perfect time to heat those old leads back up.
If you want to be a successful agent, you must be persistent about reaching out and connecting with your prospects regularly. Letting leads go "cold" costs your business time and money which shouldn't be wasted, so now it is time to follow up! However, you can't simply reach out to an old lead and ask them if they're ready to buy. Your strategy needs to be a little more polished than that and with just a few tips, you will be ready to reconnect with old leads.
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Earn More Income by Creating a Virtual Team
Are you struggling to keep up with all the business coming your way? Or are you getting leads or referrals for potential clients that are outside your area of specialization? Then it may be time to switch up your business model.
Joining a team or bringing on a partner to handle the clients you can't serve is a common strategy for overwhelmed agents. But if you enjoy working independently, or just aren't ready for the adjustments that come with joining a team, there's another tactic you can take, courtesy of nationwide referral service ReferralExchange.
Creating a Virtual Buyer/Seller Team with ReferralExchange
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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.
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Identify and Engage Warm Seller Prospects Using Intel and Tools You Already Own
The realtor.com® Results Series team has been on the road sharing our top 10 tips for drawing in and converting seller leads. And now, we're ready to share them online with you!
For the next few weeks, tune into the Results Series blog to learn how we recommend you engage and convert sellers this spring and summer. So far we've covered:
How to become an online video expert
How to write compelling, seller-focused calls to action
How to write a 9-word email to cold prospects
Today, we'll focus on engaging warm seller prospects with real information they want, and should have, as they make the decision to sell this year.
Identifying warm seller prospects from your database
If you have an automated CMA tool, like Market Snapshot®, that helps you offer free market reports and one-to-one housing values, be sure to dig into the product analytics to determine who is opening your CMAs or market reports with the most frequency.
Anyone who has opened a Market Snapshot®, market reports or other CMAs within the last three months will comprise your main list of warm seller prospects, and you should begin engaging them as though they are truly preparing to sell this year.
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