It’s true that I spend my time consulting with real estate professionals about web-centric real estate marketing. But, that doesn’t mean that all I ever think about is the next technology toy coming down the pike.
In reality, the web-centric part is just the spark that begins the sales cycle. The web-centric part is just what generates leads. The real work begins when you try to convert a lead into a client. And, after you set up your Internet presence to display your expertise, turning a lead into a client has nothing to do with the Internet.
What’s Your Sales Cycle?
Your success in turning leads into clients will depend on how you define your business’ sales cycle. You’ll find lots of different definitions of the term sales cycle. Here’s how I define it: a sales cycle is the process you use to move from the point when you’ve just been exposed to a lead to the point where you have made a sale.
In real estate a “sale” occurs when you sign a listing or buyer’s agreement. You do require a buyer’s agreement, right? If not, how do you know when a sale has occurred?? But, I digress.
For example, let’s assume that your first exposure to a lead occurs when a visitor fills out a form on your website. At that point, the cycle has started! Quick! What’s the next thing you’re going to do??
Hmmm. If you don’t have a crystal clear answer to that question, your success rate for converting Internet leads is going to be pretty low.
The key to being successful is. . . . follow up!
Ah, the Stats
This is where sales stats should be helpful, but they’re easy to ignore because when those stats aren’t simply wrong, they’re way too plentiful. I know about sales stats. So, I set out to find a definitive source to quote from.
I failed. I found all kinds of stats – some were actually similar. But, interestingly enough, not one resource I discovered cited a source. I’m going to list some of them, anyway:
- 48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect
- 25% of sales people make a second contact and stop
- 12% of sales people make more than three contacts
- 48% of salespeople never follow up after the first contact with a prospect (right – this one is like the first one, but different)
- 2% of sales are made on the first contact
- 3% of sales are made on the second contact
- 5% of sales are made on the third contact
- 10% of sales are made on the fourth contact
- 80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact
- 44% of sales reps quit after 1 “no” from a prospect
- 22% quit after 2
- 14% quit after 3
- 12% quit after 4 (total is 92%)
- 60% of customers say no at least 4 times
Do I believe the stats – take them at face value? No. I don’t imagine you do, either. But, the underlying message is the same. If you expect the sale to fall in your lap, you’re dreaming. If you think that one phone call (not returned by the lead) is enough, you’re just not in touch with reality.
I know, I know. The idiot filled out the form saying:
- Nothing - just left a name and email address, OR
- “Looking for a home in ABCVille” – no requirements, no price range, number of bedrooms, etc. etc.
Is that a lead? Yes, it is. Keep trying to contact that person until they say no. It doesn’t matter that they didn’t follow your pre-conceived notion of the proper way to fill in a contact form.
Until they tell you to leave them alone, you’re still in the sales cycle. Go for it!
This guest post was contributed by Jade Mills Estates. Jade Mills is a Beverly Hills real estate agent specializing in Beverly Hills and Bel Air homes.
The real estate industry as a whole has truly embraced social media marketing over the past few years. Real estate agents use social media sites to post video house tours, schedule showings and connect with their local community. And there is no better place to do all this than on Facebook.
Facebook reported having 845 million monthly active users at the end of 2011, and it has the widest user base demographically out of all the social media sites. These days, no matter what your real estate niche, your clients are almost certainly on Facebook. That being the case, it just makes sense that you should be there as well.
Facebook offers many opportunities for real estate marketing. It provides one place where you can post video tours and photos, highlight your listings, offer advice and establish yourself as an expert in your local community. Here are 6 steps to help you set up a Facebook presence so you can take advantage of all the social network has to offer.
1. Create a fan page
As a real estate agent, your personal networks are probably interconnected with your professional networks. Even so, on Facebook it’s best to keep the two separate. You can’t always control what your friends and family may post, which can be detrimental to your image as a real estate broker. Similarly, your friends and family probably don’t want to see all of your real estate-related posts. The simple solution is to set up a local business fan page.
2. Write a great About section
Use this area to key in on your particular target audience. What specific real estate niche do you serve? Are you a Beverly Hills real estate agent who caters to clients looking for luxury homes? Write about how you help people to find the dream properties that allow them to live the elite life they crave. Are your clients more often families with a modest income? Tell them how you’ll help them find a home they can enjoy in a community where their kids can get a fantastic education.
3. Choose a vanity URL
The URL that is automatically generated for fan pages isn’t terribly user- or SEO-friendly. Make sure that you personalize your Facebook URL so that people can find you more easily. A custom URL also looks nicer than the default if you add it to your business card or email signature.
4. Create a custom landing tab
Once you’ve got your fan page set up, use Facebook Markup Language (FBML) to create a custom tab. You can set it so that anyone who comes to your page but hasn’t “Liked” it yet gets sent automatically to this tab. Make sure to include a beautiful image, info about your real estate agency and a call to action (“Like this page!”).
5. Add a tab for testimonials
Don’t just sing your own praises–get other people to sing them for you. Potential clients want to see that you’ve served others well. Including a testimonials tab is a great way to do this and at the same time get others to provide free content on your wall. Whenever you complete a real estate transaction successfully with a client, ask them to post a testimonial. You could even offer some kind of incentive to do so.
6. Add Facebook buttons to your website
The point of social media marketing is to get people to share your website and other content with their networks. Make it easy for people by providing buttons so they can do it with a simple click. Put a button that links to your Facebook fan page right on the top of every page of your website. Add a “Like” button to every blog post and article you publish. All of your online profiles should be interconnected so that people can navigate between them with ease. Link to your Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter profiles from your real estate blog and vice versa.
Once you’ve completed these steps, you’ll have a good start on marketing yourself as a real estate agent on Facebook. Now all that’s left is to start providing useful content to your fans that will make them want to share your page with their networks and also establish you as their go-to agent for all their real estate needs.
I was on a couple websites recently that I found interesting and wanted to subscribe to their RSS feed.
Unfortunately, I discovered that they didn’t have a subscription option. If I wanted to get their information automatically, I’d have to view it in an RSS reader.
I do have an RSS reader set up. I don’t like it. I never look at it.
So, I decided that maybe I was just missing something. At least, that’s what I told one of the support reps using their contact form. Surely there was a subscription option, I just didn’t see it, right?
Ah, no. There really was no way to subscribe. But, the support rep did help me out by mentioning FeedMyInbox.com.
Maybe I’m the only person who’d never heard of it, but in case you’ve found yourself in this situation, you can schedule up to five websites using the Free version. So, I did. The feed comes right to my inbox. Works out quite well.
Just a brief update on CrackerJackAgent.com. As of January 29, 2012, the home page and the post I published on January 18th are cached.
It looks like the search engines have noticed the site. The domain name was created on January 8, 2012. As of today’s stats, it has an Alexa rank of 647,823 globally and 45,750 in the US. These stats don’t come close to rivaling ActiveRain, of course. But, not bad for a site that has been online for such a short time.
I’m going to keep watching the site. It is a viable place to publish, in my opinion. Time will tell how the community comes together.
This is a guest post contributed by Ben Fisher, a real estate agent
at Summit Sotheby’s International Realty in Park City, UT. Ben’s service area
includes Park City Real Estate & Deer Valley Real Estate.
Keeping in Touch
If you’re a real estate agent like myself, you more than likely have a few different types of client lists that you stay in contact with.
Some of you do newsletters, foreclosure reports, or random property alerts for select leads who sign up for this information. In the past I have always done these things using either Gmail or Outlook and this worked just fine. Make a group, save them all together, and blast out an email when the time comes.
Well, I decided it was time to join the rest of you in 2012 and actually implement an email marketing service to gauge my results and gather further statistical information. I found out that a number of my emails were not getting to some of the recipients and some were going straight to the junk folder.
Enter MailChimp….
For some reason the first time I tried out this product, which was a year or two ago, I did not fully utilize its features to see how powerful it actually was.
This time, I went from being in the dark about my email lists, to being able to see every single statistic I could imagine. Whether I am looking to see how many people opened an email, how many times it had been forwarded, or even seeing which links were clicked on, the information was all there.
Now when I send out a property alert, I can see who opened that particular email, and how much interest it actually received. From this I can optimize future emails accordingly. Another feature I really enjoy is the email templates that are already geared towards the real estate industry. They have designs for Open Houses, Featured Properties, and templates for sending multiple listings to a client.
MailChimp has not only been a time saver for me, but it has increased my productivity and response rates significantly.
I highly recommend using this if you are in need of sending out emails to leads and clients on a regular basis in the real estate industry.
