Back in the summer, SmartZip sponsored a crowd-sourced Active Rain webinar discussing new listing generation strategies. At that time, together with Active Rain, we gathered and shared six impressive, proven strategies that are helping agents to drive in new listings. As we approach spring selling season, we took another look to see if these strategies still have legs. We think so. See what you think
In the course of the webinar, agents on Active Rain answered the following question:
"Share something you're doing in your business that's leading you to new listings"
1. Leverage home valuation sites
Many agents, including Active Rain owner Ben Kinney, use valuation sites to generate seller leads. The webinar showed that about 50% of agents use these “AVM” squeeze pages to offer a home price in exchange for an email address and home address.
The key to leveraging these sites is to divide your audience into smaller segments (Just Listed neighborhood, sphere, etc.) and then tweak the language slightly so it resonates with each target audience. Here’s how Ben Kinney’s team does it.
2. Build content that doubles as a “lead magnet”
Flooring expert Debbie Gartner noticed that a blog post she’d written -- “10 Flooring Mistakes Home Owners Make” -- was getting a ton of traffic. Rather than keeping it as an open-read blog post, she turned it into a lead magnet” ebook. In exchange for the free ebook, interested readers simply entered their email address.
The result? Debbie grew her database with people she knew were interested in flooring, and she can retarget these names and email addresses with future offers. Here’s an overview of how Debbie created and boosted her lead magnet. Debbie even goes a step further to explain how agents can repurpose past content to drive in new seller leads.
3. Mine public records information
When she’s running low on leads, agent Susan Laxson doesn’t wait around for the next round to come in. Instead, she heads “to court” and begins reviewing public records information. Her goal is to identify the people who need to sell their homes.
As Susan mentions, these conversations can be tricky to navigate. In some cases, you’ll be reaching out to homeowners who are delinquent on payments or those who owe more than their home is worth. In other cases, you may be in contact with a family member after the homeowner has died. The benefit to becoming active in this space is that once you perform a few of these sales with respect and decorum, you may benefit from future business from probate attorneys, tax attorneys, and other related parties.
4. Build a new kind of farm
While traditional farming relies on a geo-targeted area, agent Evelyn Kennedy has been trying to farm a specific demographic that is common in her area. Alameda, California, is an aging community just outside the bustling tech hub of San Francisco. Evelyn has been sending targeted postcards to a retirement-age list she received from her preferred title company.
She also created a senior-focused Facebook group where she shares tips on retirement, aging, and wellness. For more information on this generational farming, check out Evelyn’s post.
5. A savvier, softer Just Listed campaign
Next, Debbie Reynolds shared a modified, two-step “Just Listed // Just Sold” campaign. When Debbie lists a home, her first step is to send a basic “Just Listed” notice to the neighborhood. The message comes from Debbie, and shares that she’ll be selling their neighbor’s (let’s call him Jim) house. It reminds the targets that they can reach out if interested.
Once the home is sold, Debbie riffs off a traditional “Just Sold” campaign by asking Jim to write a short note to his neighbors. In 1-2 paragraphs, Jim explains how Debbie sold the home in record time or for a record price. To play up the organic nature of the letter, Debbie ensures that the letter has no design and she keeps Jim’s exact language intact. Because the letter acts as a referral, many homeowners keep it on hand and call Debbie once they are preparing to sell.
Read how Debbie creates her own word-of-mouth referrals here.
6. Share your success in context
Have you ever sent a postcard advertising your sales volume or the number of units you sold over the last year? To you, this information may seem intuitive but most homeowners don’t know the average production numbers for agents or the average home sales price in their neighborhood.
The key to selling your success, says agent Chris Ann Cleland, is to present it in context. Dig through your recent sales and find something interesting to share. Rather than saying you sold a home for $405,000, say that it was the highest sales price EVER in that neighborhood. Instead of saying you got 10% over asking price, say that you created a bidding war with 8 tenacious buyers fighting over the property.
In short, says Chris, create a story instead of a data set. Here are her ideas for advertising your success in context.
What do YOU do to land more listings?
Whether it’s creating a new farm, leveraging targeted ads, knocking on strategic doors or reaching out to your SOI, we’d love to know how you’re identifying and winning over home sellers. Share your best ideas in the comments!
Watch a full recording of the Crowdsourced Active Rain webinar here.
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