This is part 1 of a special report on Lead Generation that I am writing. I'd love to hear people's thoughts on it.

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It's a good idea to decide whether you are targeting buyers or sellers because a buyer and a seller are looking for two different things and will respond to two different marketing strategies.

A buyer wants something - a new house, a mortgage, a new lifestyle, and they want help and direction from their agent in attaining these things.

A seller, on the other hand, is looking to get rid of something - their house, their lifestyle, their financial obligation. They want comfort in knowing that they are in good hands, that the person they choose will genuinely care for them and their situation. Even if a seller is happy about the process, they may also be scared, while a buyer may just be excited. A seller is saying, "Help me, take care of me, relieve me". A potential buyer is saying, "Give Me".

As a buyer's agent, there are things that you need to do to generate leads that are different than the things you'd do to generate listings. As you may know, according to the National Association of REALTORS (R), 77% of all buyers use the internet for their home search. That's about 3 out of every 4 home buyers. Is your site set up to capture the potential buyers that come through?

Your Website.  The way to capture those leads is to give lots of information in exchange for their email address. Remember that a buyer wants things. If you give better things than other agents, they will sign up with you.

So a prospect has signed up for your mailing list. They get the free download that they want, then their friend recommends an agent that she knows, and the prospect goes with that agent. How do you prevent that? By becoming a trusted friend. People buy from people they know and trust. When it comes between you, a picture on a website, and their friend's recommendation, it's easy to see why a prospect would choose the friend's recommendation. They know their friend better than they know you.

When your lead signs up for their free download they should be immediately added to your customer relationship software and put on a drip email campaign that sends them more free, useful information on a regular and periodic basis. How often you send something should depend on the prospect's timeline. Another NAR statistic is that most prospects begin shopping on the internet a full six months before they plan to make a purchase. So expect this drip campaign to run that long, sending things about once a month for the first 3-4 months, then moving up to twice a month as the date comes closer.

This is not the same as adding them to your MLS daily new listing updates. It's in addition to that. A big mistake many RE professionals make is they put the prospect on the list and forget about them thinking the drip email will do the job. Well, that's kind of why the prospect jumps ship and goes with their friend's recommendation. You really have to make it a personal relationship if you want to retain them when they are ready. Besides the letters you can send them gift certificates for coffee, or better yet, offer to meet them for coffee once in a while to discuss their goals and dreams. Make it your goal to become known and trusted.

SEO.  So where does this traffic come from in the first place? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one way. A prospective buyer types in what they are looking for into a search engine and if what they type matches what you have on the page, your page will pop up.

Writing.  As I stated, buyers are looking for information more than they are the homes. Sure, they want to see what's out there, but most of them aren't going to make their purchase for another six months, so I think it's safe to assume they are in the information gathering stage. Blogging about the area where you sell and linking back to your website in the blog is a great way for the prospect and the search engines to find you.

Another great way for them to put two and two together is through article writing. Everyone is an expert at something. What is it that you know that your buyers will want to know? Write it in an article and send it to article banks online. Article marketing is guaranteed to drive traffic to your site.

SOI. If 77% of buyers are searching the internet for their homes, that means 23%, or 1/4 of prospects are not on the internet. Those must be the buyers who have a friend recommended to them. You have friends. You could be the agent that is being recommended if your friends are thinking about you when the opportunity arises. So keep in touch with your friends. Send them cards, birthday cards, holiday cards, just wanted to say hi cards. Take control of who is recommending whom in your sphere of influence.

Phone Duty. I remember being in my real estate office and having to fight the senior agents for prime phone duty hours. One time that I never had to fight for was Sunday mornings. The listing agents were busy getting ready for their open houses and the buyer's agents were driving their buyers to the open houses, which left Sunday morning all to me. Sunday is the day when the newspaper ads came out, so Sunday was the day when buyers where reading and making phone calls. Sunday afternoon I was showing properties to new prospects and Monday morning when the listing agents were on phone duty, I was busy qualifying my new prospects.

Cold Calling. Floyd Wickman swears by cold calling. I listened to his tapes. I believed him. I had no proof otherwise. Yet, no way on this green earth was I going to pick up a phone and bother people with my message. One yes to 99 no's was just not good enough odds for me. I do believe there is a place for cold calling, though. If you read in the newspaper that a row of rentals is being torn down and the inhabitants will have to move, then by all means give them a call and ask them if they thought about buying. If you find out that someone won the lottery, give them a call. There's a good chance they are thinking about buying.

Direct Mailings. When it comes to buyers, direct mail should only be used to introduce yourself or announce something.

Click on this link to read Where Do Listings Come From.