In today's competitive and fast-paced real estate industry, successful agents know that it's not only smart but necessary to be their own marketing director and strategist.

While there are many moving parts in real estate marketing, an important aspect is lead generation. This aspect of marketing may feel difficult, initially, for many agents to navigate. How are leads generated? What are the best ways to generate leads for real estate? Let's get honest for a moment, while hiring out is an option, you actually don’t need a lead generation company.  

How are real estate leads generated?

Social media, content production, website optimization, referral marketing, and other techniques allow you to gather valuable real estate leads. As a real estate agent, a big portion of your time is spent looking for new customers. Why not make things easier by applying some of our suggestions?

What is the best lead generation for real estate?

The best lead generation is whatever you find works for your real estate business. Email marketing, website forms, social media sponsored posts, or gated content are all examples of effective lead generation. Try to avoid purchasing leads as a list if possible. Leads with an opt-in are always more valuable.

We created a comprehensive and thorough guide for real estate lead generation ideas that will help you win valuable real estate leads.

Real Estate Lead Generation Ideas

Social Media

If cold calling and direct mail aren't working or you need another avenue for lead generation then turn to social media.

Social media channels have provided real estate agents with a strong platform for selling properties, connecting with other real estate professionals, and developing relationships with prospects.

Below are 3 social media lead generation tips to incorporate into your marketing strategy.

Social Media Marketing Tip #1: Share Links to “Gated Content”

Gated content is content that is made accessible through a user completing a lead gen form. This is where all your value-based content will shine and attract more leads. When readers find your content valuable, they will be willing to give their contact information (email address or phone number) to gain access to more targeted content.

Gated content can include white papers, webinars, case studies, videos, infographics, and more.

Share the link to your landing page, where the gated content and lead gen form will live, on your social media channels. From the landing page, new prospects will be excited to provide their contact information to download the value-based content.

Social Media Marketing Tip #2: Use Digital Flyers to Promote Your Listings

Digital listing flyers should be cohesive, shareable, and eye-catching. When you use a professional real estate photographer to market your listings this step becomes much easier.

This social media marketing strategy will help spread the word about a specific listing and attract future sellers and prospective buyers in your area that like the way you market your listings.

Social media channels, especially Facebook, are great for sharing content to a targeted audience. That content needs to attract users, though. Instead of posting a listing description and tour link on your Facebook page, try dressing up the post with a digital listing flyer. The post can include the description and tour link in addition to your spiffy new listing flyer.

Social Media Marketing Tip #3: Social Proof Your Social Media Channels

Social proof may significantly boost leads as well as conversations by influencing consumer beliefs. This psychological phenomenon, where people conform to the actions of others based on the assumption that their behavior is correct, has shown promising results for real estate marketers.

Experts agree that consumer feedback has a profound impact on purchasing decisions. According to research, about 70% of customers look at product evaluations before making a purchase. Consider your services and brand to be a sales pitch. You want to show why you're useful from the perspective of your clients and colleagues.

What is the best way to show off your promoters? With testimonials and case studies. Ask happy clients to provide a testimonial then share these little nuggets of social proof generously on social media platforms and in email campaigns. Pair these testimonials with your real estate photography images for extra visual oomph! 

Branding

Developing a strong brand is imperative to finding success in real estate. A strong brand image allows you to stand out from the competition and other agencies during listing presentations and beyond.

Below are three lead generation strategy ideas to incorporate into your branding strategy.

Branding Marketing Tip #1: Differentiate with Visual Marketing Solutions

As a listing agent, the portfolio you build throughout your career is your bread and butter for gaining valuable leads. Include your marketing statistics, neighborhood metrics, and real estate images from your previous listings. Be sure to also include information and examples of the visual marketing solutions you use.

Here are some examples:

HDReal® Still Images - Your brand image is reflected through your published real estate listing images. You want these images to be beautiful, professional, and most importantly consistent. Choose a real estate photographer you can depend on! Once you find your preferred real estate photography provider use them for every listing so you know exactly what your real estate images will look like and alleviate any added stress.

3D Virtual Tours - A 3D Virtual Tour allows prospective buyers to walk through the home as if they were there in real life with a seamless and complete tour of the property. With 3D Virtual Tours, no buyer is too far away and the virtual tour is available 24/7 online.

360-Degree HDReal® Panoramas - 360-degree panorama images are another option to create a virtual tour. Buyers can easily view panoramas with their smartphones, which deploy gyro sensors for an experience similar to actually being in the home.

Single Listing Website - A Single Listing Website shows your listing in the best light with a high-quality virtual tour slideshow, a well-written listing description, an interactive map, and more. To learn more about single listings websites, click here.

Each one of the above-mentioned visual marketing techniques is useful for developing leads while also improving your real estate brand. These solutions are especially significant when it comes to promoting your property virtually, whether through online marketing or virtual house visits.

Branding Marketing Tip #2: Shine with a Stellar Google My Business Page

Google is the most common search engine, accounting for 63.5 percent of all searches conducted online. While the internet may be a competitive environment for local real estate professionals, Google My Business may help you gain brand recognition.

Google My Business is a free service provided by Google. It enables business owners to create a custom website to promote their brand, with pictures, a location on Google Maps, and client reviews. This is a platform that you'll want to maintain updated and optimized in case new Google algorithms are released.

One of the best parts about having a Google My Business page is the preferential ranking Google awards business pages with positive reviews. Online reviews, according to some experts, make up 10% of how search engines choose what to rank. We recommend that agents not only build out their business page but also create an email campaign directing previous clients (who are considered promoters) to write a Google review.

And this brings us back to the idea of social proof for lead generation. Social proof doesn’t have to be specific to social media channels. Reviews, especially ones on Google, are highly credible forms of social proof.

Branding Marketing Tip #3: Optimize and Maintain Your Website

A website without lead generation optimization does no one any good. You might be missing out on some valuable prospects if your web page looks good but lacks an enticing CTA (call-to-action).

The reality is that most prospects are not ready to become a customer during first contact, or even second contact. To convert leads you'll need to nurture them. There are a few different techniques to make your website more appealing for lead acquisition.

A good starting point is to add lead capture forms to the pages you know drive the most traffic. If you find that you are bringing in a large amount of local traffic then your web visitors are finding relevance in your content. This is a great place to add a “subscribe to updates” opt-in.

According to a survey conducted by HubSpot, company websites hosting 30 or more landing pages generate 7 times more leads than websites with 1 to 5 landing pages. Create a new landing page for each of your listings and you'll quickly ramp up the number of pages.

Optimize your website for Google, Yahoo, and Bing by implementing search engine optimization as one of your digital marketing strategies.

Content Creation

All marketing campaigns, regardless of the size or type, start with good content. There's nothing to put on a website without material, and there's nothing to help drive traffic to it. Consider content to be an essential element of generating helpful leads.

Below are 3 lead generation ideas to incorporate into your content creation strategy.

Content Marketing Tip #1: Publish Value-Based Realtor Blog Content

If “Content is King”, then value-based content will land you on the Iron Throne.

Publish valuable content that speaks to the needs of your audience. When potential customers see your insightful industry content they are more likely to continue engaging with you. Great content can provide you with a great source of leads.

Position yourself as an industry thought leader by publishing more value-based content. Thought leaders are highly regarded in their space and pull in a significant number of leads through their content alone.

The more useful your content is, the more likely it is to produce significant leads. Remember to always incorporate the keywords you want to rank for. Keywords can be one word or ‘long-tail’ phrases you know your prospects are searching for.

Content Marketing Tip #2: Optimize Your Website for Search Engines

You've posted fantastic value-based content and curated a portfolio of professional listing images – so where’s the traffic? This is when you need to optimize your website pages

Before you publish content, look at your title and meta description. The title should relate to your post and include your farm area. Google loves localized links. Keep the title to below 60 characters. MOZ suggests that you can expect 90% of your title to show on Google if it stays below that 60 character count.

Likewise, your link’s meta description needs to relate to your post. This is the perfect space to describe what your value-based content is all about.

Although Google announced that meta tags and meta descriptions do not affect their ranking algorithms, they remain important. The purpose of the descriptions is to draw in leads. When you improve your page’s CTR (Click Through Rate) by writing a captivating, non-spammy description, you will see positive ranking impacts from Google.

Content Marketing Tip #3: Add a Testimonial Page to Your Website

Testimonials help build social proof for your Facebook and Twitter accounts by demonstrating credibility. They've also been shown to boost site traffic significantly.

For SEO purposes, gently guide your testimonial narratives. Instead of asking for their referral through an unstructured email exchange, send them a form they can fill out.

Include questions that elicit both branded and non-branded terms. Consider the services you provide as an agent and pose them in an open-ended question. According to Placester, there should be three distinct markers in your keyword phrasing: general, local, and hyperlocal.

Here's an example - Your prospects search for a “3 bedroom house for sale in Denver” and you have the exact matching phrase on your testimonial page: “John Snow was an incredible realtor. When we were searching for a 3 bedroom house for sale in Denver, he set us up for a number of showings in the area. We highly recommend.”

It’s really that easy!