We all know leads are essential to a business that clearly knows its goals and wants to keep flourishing. How should you get customers to be interested in your real estate business and contract your service, if not by gathering and converting leads? Anybody who’s paying attention to your service as a potential customer is definitely a keeper. So you really wouldn’t want to cold call them, as it’s a reputed scare-off factor.
When talking about leads, we can always refer to two different categories:
- paid ones, for which you end up taking some money out of your pockets without having the certitude that’ll pay off in the end
- unpaid ones, which come in more natural, more organic. One might say that unpaid leads have a bigger conversion potential, since people generating them are definitely interested in your product.
One risky maneuver of lead collecting for not only real estate, but business professionals in general is cold calling. If you’re not familiar with this term, a cold call stays for an offer sent to a person who is not by far interested in your service at that point. Offering free wedding invitations to a freshly married couple is a cold call. On the opposite end, providing them with a real estate offer when they were interested in your service is very likely to monetize.
In order to avoid straightforward cold calling, you can either go with getting some relevant paid leads or choose to gather them for yourself. When it comes to the first option, there are numerous companies that offer you leads in exchange for a fee. When making the choice on the provider, be sure to get good quality leads that are up-to-date. “Good quality” refers to the fact that people are really interested in a certain product and don’t mind being a lead for your business. Getting exclusive leads (as in those offered just to you, not also to other marketers) could be more effective for you and spare you of the sigh in the customers voice when he gets yet one more offer on that real estate he wasn’t looking after.
However, if you have any doubt on purchasing bulk leads for your business, you can gather some for yourself. At least then you’ll be sure to have real-interest leads and avoid the cold calling. How is this feasible? Well, the good news is there’s more than one option, both offline and online.
Offline ways of gathering leads:
· Do some research in your (personal) network. You can never know who’s looking for a real estate offer. Be sure to advertise yourself inside your network, so people will come to you when they’ll need a service like yours.
· Ask friends to refer you to other friends. This kind of referrals is likely to serve as a guarantee that you and your product are reliable. Besides, you can also offer some rewards for people who recommend you. It’s a win-win, after all.
· Try to set up some partnerships with business professionals from other fields, such as a real estate specialized attorney, a real estate agent, a house builder.
· Advertise yourself through paid or unpaid channels. Get some business cards, attend social events and different events from your industry field or write an article for a real estate magazine.
Online leads can be gathered through:
· Setting up a website where potential clients can see who you are and what you’re offering. Be sure to have a good-quality website with up-to-date and relevant content, a friendly design and user-oriented information, strong calls-to-action. Feel free to experiment with the website elements to find the most effective configuration for your visitors.
· Provide yourself an effective way of interaction with your website visitors. A lead generation form is a very easy to use, cost- and time-effective solution. Include a contact form on your website to be sure customers can address you specific questions and you can send them offers tailored to their needs. You can also opt for operating with an online Consulting Agreement Form which you can send to your customer after setting up the first phase of a business relation.
· Be present on social networks. Nowadays, most businesses can be found on several social channels, because that’s exactly where their customers are.
· Offer something for free on the Internet, such as an e-book or a free consulting session.
· Try out the affiliated marketing option: display an offer with your service on partner sites which are convergent with your business.
Whether you have an affinity for online or offline, a mix of those two channels would probably work best. Try out different methods and find the most suitable ones for you and your business. After all, what works for one type of business might not work for another others.
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