TOP 10 LEAD GENERATION TIPS FOR GREATER RESULTS AND GREATER INCOME!
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A WALL OF WORDS BUT WELL WORTH THE READ!
Looking for leads in all the wrong places...Could be a great country and western hit but it sure is not how you wish to spend your day! In an effort to bring forth my heart and soul into my new active rain world I have borrowed the draw of giving you a list in hopes to mingle and meet you! Even better than that - I hope to really give you something of substance and something you take to the bank with a few closing checks! So here goes all of my 15 years experience in real estate from the most simple to most crucial to know to survive...THE A LIST OF TOP 10 LEAD GENERATION TIPS FOR GREATER RESULTS!
1) Get out of your real estate world box and be the coca cola of the real estate market!
Social Networking is very powerful but do not forget what it is like to get FACE TO FACE with PEOPLE IN GENERAL! This means that there are more people in your community that are just everyday people that are NOT buying and selling than there are buyers and sellers. SO, WAKE UP out there and learn that you have to start working your community and be a visible icon to everyone - everywhere! Sure, sending just listed and sold postcards work and tooting your own horn for any and all accomplishments but let's get real here! Get to the heart of people and you will get leads!
SERVE! GIVE! SERVE!
I almost feel like the a preacher pounding this message but the stats are in (my stats) and the fact is that more people will know you when you reach out and build relationships. TALK the TALK and WALK the WALK everywhere you are and get out of the real estate marketing box and get your ads, your name, your body in places with people that are NOT currently buying or selling!
Because those people talk to to others and it is not always what you know or who you know but WHO knows YOU and KNOWS what you do!
2) KNOW your market Stats and be the GO TO SOURCE for Real Estate!
The best thing I ever did to really understand my market was learning how to break down stats from MLS and really learn my market area. Not just the area but key neighborhoods that I would work! Put your stats in a yearly binder and use it on listing appointments. Of course, show your personal stats compared to local stats and if you are new - get your companies stats and share those! Feel free to R and D my stats layout. *R&D meaning RIP OFF and DUPLICATE! My stats book is nothing fancy but it works great - Posted on my real estate website at www.wardsmall.com ! Make sure to know the average days on the market, list to sale ratio and average price range of homes that are moving etc...HOW and WHY is this going to give you leads?
Making graphs is simple with this 3rd grade math site: http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/
SHARE YOUR KNOWLEDGE! Send the chamber heads and bank leaders of my community a full market report each year - the mailing goes out by January 15th to about 50 BIG executives, attorney and big corporate heads! This puts you in front of them as a SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE!
Leads come if you stay consistent on this. Send quarterly postcards as well to these heads with current stats updates!
By the way - knowing your stats is not just pulling the ready made figures from MLS. It is researching and viewing homes online and REALLY knowing what is happening in your market place. When you go on a listing appointment you know why the Jones house at 123 SOLD CHEAP ST. because it had functional obselence when they made the laundry room the 1/2 bath for guest and kept it as a laundry room as well! DO YOU GET THIS PICTURE YET?
3) REACH OUT IN LOCAL BLOGS WITH YOUR KNOWLEDGE
Once you do step 2 take more of your flowing knowledge to a local blog scene. Not sure if you have any? Check your newspaper and google your local TV stations! There are many local places that would love to know about what is going on and YOU need to be the person giving this information! Do not ever forget to sound off with "If you know anyone in need of my real estate services, please send them my way"!
Do you use Virtual tours? Why not go an do a few on local scenes of interest to share with your community - Maybe a new school building or townhall? Maybe a new complex that you want to feature - Maybe feature the park, mountains, beach or whatever it is that brings buyers to your area! Post these links on these sites and show people WHY they should be working with: YOU! By the way! Hello POST it in localism here at:
http://activerain.com/blogsview/36033/Posting-To-Localism
Blogging is SUPER Powerful on a NATIONAL level and right there in your local area...
4) FARMING IS STILL ONE OF THE BEST TOOLS FOR REAPING A CASH CROP
If you are not a huge believer in farming neighborhoods...Think twice about this! Framing is back to the basics but I hope the show the world a different twist on this basic marketing magic! My twist is easy and it works! The methods I teach are based on the concept called RELATIONSHIP MARKETING!
Yes, you still are the person to share what is going on in real estate but focus farming methods more community driven events and work towards more of a GIVE and SERVE method. A few ideas of the farming plans that have worked best in the past for me are: Coat collections for the homeless, food drives for the local food pantry, back to school supplies for needed families, Community yard sales, Pride in Ownership awards, ICE CREAM socials, Driveway flags, community parties! More of this can be found on the CD "LISTING TOOL SUCCESS KIT"! I get leads from people all of the time in the two neighborhoods that are served by these methods. Try this and you will be known and seen as a real go getter and on top of your real estate game!
5) CLOSING PARTIES WORK WONDERS
Do you host closing parties for buyers? Once closed just ask them for a list of 25 people to invite to a closing party! Give them 3 choices on food for to serve depending on the taste of the buyer: Wine and Cheese, Beer and Pizza, Cupcakes with mints and punch! Simple - yes! If budget allows hire someone to cater and serve but you can budget this for less than $100.00 and in return you get 25 leads for your database and you get to socialize with your clients friends and YOU are the hostess with the mostest!
Try a year end GALA event! I have done this since 1994 and of course, the party has gotten much bigger and now includes wine and wine servers, band or piano and a full catered party . This gala is the 1st week of December and everyone is asked to bring a new toy for TOYS for TOTS. Marines stand gaurd at the box of toys and the night is ful of fun and social networking ALL ABOUT YOU! Make sure to tell your guest they are welcome to invite another family - just RSVP - the more the merrier and the more people you meet the more leads that will come the next year! Take pictures and send everyone a thank you newsletter sharing how many toys were collected and how you value them as customers for life!
6) FOLLOW UP BEFORE...DURING...AFTER!
When I list a home my seller gets about 5 greeting cards the 1st month with special thanks for allowing me to serve them! When I meet a buyer at an open house that person will get 3 cards from me over the next 2 weeks!
When I close a client they get a handwritten card from me every month, chocolate at Valentines Day, Candy at Halloween and Cookies at Christmas all for less than 50.00 - they also will get an Home Anniversary card for 4 years for less than $5.00 and my clients are my biggest lead source as well as great repeat business!
I am huge fan in handwritten notes and love the system Sendoutcards.com for this type of high tech yet high touch approach it has brought to follow up! The system allows you to create your own handwritting and up to 4 signatures. I send personalized greeting cards with real lick and stick stamps direct from my computer! It looks like I sat down and wrote a note and mailed it. See for yourself on this tip by sending someone you need to a card today. After you comment on my blog just register at www.sendoutcards.com/The3BMethod for a FREE gift account to see how this works! I have tons of campaigns for follow up that I will GIVE you if you decide to be a user of this system.
I have a blog just on this program: http://www.activerain.com/blogsview/521450/SEND-OUT-CARDS-MY
7) WEBSITES WORK IF THEY HAVE LEAD FORMS ONLY!
A website that has no lead forms may work for visiblity but you have to have a way to capture the leads! I am a rep for TopProducer Systems and was very clear to them I would not promote the websites until I believed in them. I kept my other sites to compare lead traffic and was amazed at the hits and leads that were automatically stored on my TP8i account! I do not care who you use for your website company just make sure they have a way to get your leads to you in a fast effective manner for follow up
8) CALL CAPTURE WILL CAPTURE YOUR ATTENTION
If you want to test me on this please do! Go look in any real estate magazine and see what agent is using a call capture company and call that office and I will promise you that the agent is a top producer. I recall in 1995 when pagers were the tech tool to own I would have between 50 and 60 leads per day from my call capture on ads! It still works the same today and is a great source of referral business for me! Compare if you like: archtelecom and FreedomVoice are the 2 I have used - they both have a total different price plan - FreedomVoice has more features for the money...I have no relations with any of the businesses but I do know that Dirk Zeller represents one and I will assure you whatever he promotes is worthy!
9) USE HIGH TECH TOOLS WHEN NEEDED!
There is a need for every client and the best real estate agent will have a tool box of tools to use for each job!
Video email is a great added bonus to have when you have clients that you will never meet face to face. There are many ways to make this happen from using your camera video and posting a note on YOUTUBE to an Activerain video source. Check out Brad Anderson's blog for more information on this! My advice is to determine how much you will use this and pick the best plan to meet your budget! There are lots of FREE ways to use video so learn all of your options!
ECARD Signatures are one of the neatest tools I have seen. It may look huge here but I can tell you it looks perfect in all of your outgoing emails! The best feature to this card is the links surrounding it will drive up your site traffic and will impress your clients. The card can be FREE with an ad tag beside it or it is a small annual fee to have it removed. The main feature to removing the ad is getting to track your leads and using this as a proven tech tool on a listing presentation! Maybe you feature your new listings as one of the links!
Make your own: www.bojonow.com - send it to me and I will post it at www.LiveBBB.com
10) BUILD YOUR EMPIRE BY WORKING YOUR DATABASE: DRIP AND DOMINATE
I could have never closed over 150 units without a system like top producer! Many agents have TP and have no clue what they have available to make money with this! Did you know that every client in the system has a personal website that you can create for them to watch the listing and closing transaction steps and know what you are doing for them! The lead generation in building your empire by working your database is making sure that everyone in your system has some type of ACTION PLAN attached to them - Sharper Agent is another great tool to DRIP and DOMINATE your database with ecards! Follow up in any system must be automated to work for a busy agent - so make sure to get the ground work done for this and you will be home free in making sure every client is set up in your system to GENERATE YOU MORE INCOME WITH LEADS!!!
I hope you enjoyed these tips and tools! Elizabeth Ward Small brings 15 years of real estate success to you! A previous National ranking agent for listings sold, Elizabeth is now traveling all over the US presenting The 3 B Method Seminars: Live Life Busy - Balanced - Blessed as well as teaching many real estate topics and CE to help agents make more money - have more fun and by all means work smarter and not harder!
Remember....Elizabeth teaches webinars each month. These classes are found at www.LiveBBB.com as well as on the links list here on ActiveRain! If you are interested in Elizabeth doing a LIVE rally in your area please have your broker/owner or training director contact me. I am now booking for 2009. Some dates are still open in 2008! I would love to come and INSPIRE YOU!
My goodness...Sorry this was so long!
UPDATE: 5/29/2009 It has been a year and a few of these tips had to be tweaked!
UPDATE: 1/1/2009 I am honored this BLOG has been back in the rankings in AR - Please make sure you have not missed the blast into 2009 with the blog:
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Liz, thanks for the information. There is so much more that I could be doing! Thanks again!