It may seem like only certain segments of the real estate industry successfully land new clients using use online lead gen tactics. But by leveraging digital platforms and tools, agents of all stripes can attract potential buyers, sellers, and investors in need of real estate services.
9 steps to optimizing your online lead generation real estate strategy
Your goal should be to maximize the effectiveness of your digital marketing efforts. Here’s a breakdown of the key steps with all the essential resources that will help you start today.
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1. Define your target audience
The first and most important step is to identify your ideal clients. You need to clearly understand their demographics, preferences, and behaviors to tailor your marketing strategies effectively. Define your ideal client profile through the PFDD framework, pinpointing your target market’s pains, fears, dreams, and desires.
Specificity is crucial; speaking broadly dilutes your message. Reflect on your strengths as an agent and the clientele you excel at serving. The more targeted you are in this step, the easier it will be to implement the subsequent strategies. It makes creating content, crafting ads, and leveraging social media more deliberate and effective.
2. Create a professional website
A beautifully designed, lead-generating website is essential for real estate agents. It serves as a digital home, positive first impression, and reflection of your professionalism.
But a well-designed website doesn’t only reinforce your brand image as an industry expert committed to delivering exceptional service. It also attracts organic traffic and should strategically incorporate features like call-to-action buttons and lead capture forms to convert visitors into qualified leads.
If this feels daunting, know that you have the opportunity to transform your online presence into a showcase of success with Luxury Presence. Take the first step toward digital excellence and elevate your real estate brand with a stunning website that captivates clients and generates leads.
3. Offer valuable content
Content marketing is pivotal for real estate agents’ lead generation efforts, as it establishes authority, attracts targeted traffic, provides upfront value, and effectively nurtures leads. Targeted content draws in individuals actively seeking real estate information, increasing the likelihood of conversion. Additionally, by offering valuable insights upfront, agents build trust and rapport with potential clients, fostering engagement. Through regular communication via various channels, agents stay top-of-mind with leads until they’re ready to make a decision.
Create informative and engaging content such as blog posts, videos, and downloadable resources that address the needs and interests of your target audience. Here are some tips to help you tackle different types of content:
For more, refer to our complete guide to content marketing.
4. Leverage social media
Social media marketing is essential for lead generation in real estate due to its wide reach, engagement capabilities, and ability to showcase expertise. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn allow agents to connect with potential clients across demographics and locations. Agents build trust and position themselves as industry leaders by sharing valuable content and engaging with their audience.
Instagram is best for property listings, virtual tours, client testimonials, community news and highlights, education, before and after posts, decor tips, industry and market trends, and interactive content. Check out our post ideas, guide for leveling up your profile, and Instagram accounts to follow for inspiration.
Facebook is ideal for building one’s brand, participating in relevant groups, highlighting properties, engaging with leads and clients, and, perhaps most importantly, paid ads.
LinkedIn offers an opportunity for agents to showcase their expertise. As a professional networking site, it’s perfect for posting about community news, market trends, and professional successes.
5. Implement email marketing
Real estate email marketing offers direct interaction with potential clients, the ability to personalize messages, and a cost-effective method to communicate at scale. If you’re looking for a way to thoughtfully nurture leads over time, automated email drip campaigns foster engagement, build trust, and ultimately drive sales.
To get started, build an email list of leads and subscribers and nurture them through regular email newsletters, personalized campaigns, and automated drip sequences. Your CRM can sort leads into the ideal email campaigns, sending personalized messages at the appropriate cadence. All you have to do is craft compelling calls to action and offer value to your audience.
6. Optimize lead capture forms on landing pages
Leveraging compelling imagery and concise content, landing pages effectively make an offer (for example, a property search for buyers or a property valuation for sellers) that drives visitors to take further action.
Landing pages allow for precise messaging tailored to specific audiences, ensuring relevance and resonance with visitors. By strategically incorporating lead capture forms, landing pages facilitate the collection of valuable contact information, enabling agents and brokerages to nurture leads and foster client relationships.
Streamlining the user experience and emphasizing a singular call to action allows landing pages to significantly enhance conversion rates and drive prospects to take desired actions such as scheduling viewings or requesting more information.
7. Invest in paid advertising
In a highly competitive market, paid advertising allows real estate professionals to amplify their visibility across various online platforms, including search engines, social media, and real estate websites. By strategically allocating ad spend, agents can reach specific demographics, geographic locations, and buyer personas, maximizing the likelihood of attracting leads who are likely to convert.
Businesses most commonly run ads through Google and Facebook. You can also set up Google Ads to leverage retargeting, which means putting ads in front of people who have already shown interest in your business by visiting your website or other online behavior. This feature allows you to virtually circle back with leads that may have been starting to warm up.
On Facebook, a product called lead ads helps you directly connect with prospects by allowing people to fill in their contact information in the lead form, hosted on the Facebook platform. This is a great place to advertise your educational PDF or video resource in order to prompt people to enter their email addresses.
Most often, ads drive traffic to a specific landing page. For example, an ad for luxury properties could direct the target audience to your property search landing page, where they enter in their contact information to save searches or see more properties that match their criteria.
We’ve helped agents see tremendous success from paid ads. One key step is to ensure you are constantly monitoring and evaluating how your ads are performing, ensuring there is a consistent return on your investment. Also, as a real estate agent, you must ensure your ads comply with the Fair Housing Act.
8. Don’t neglect SEO
Implementing strategies to increase your website’s search engine optimization (SEO) will help you get more new eyes on your site — and more people considering your services.
Your website’s SEO depends on a wide variety of details, from technical backend information to the keywords and headings you use on your pages and blog posts. Because the details can be so involved, busy agents often hire outside real estate SEO services to help ensure their sites offer demonstrable results. The best part is once you make the tweaks and learn the basics of great SEO, drawing traffic to your site happens organically. For the most part, you can set your SEO to autopilot and just make small adjustments to keep up with algorithm changes.
If you want to manage your SEO yourself, we have plenty of actionable resources to demystify it and get you on the road to true success. Simple tweaks like using the right keywords, confirming search intent, and using internal links can set you apart in a crowded market. Here are some other resources:
- Intro to SEO
- The Ultimate SEO Checklist for Real Estate Agents
- Is Your SEO Provider the Right Fit for Your Business?
- Our Real Estate SEO Experts Reveal Google’s 100+ Ranking Factors
- How to Maximize Your Real Estate SEO: 10 Strategies
9. Request reviews
Because prospective homebuyers and sellers often rely on reviews to gauge the reputation and trustworthiness of agents, reviews serve as powerful social proof of an agent’s credibility, expertise, and client satisfaction. Positive reviews not only attract more potential clients but also help to differentiate agents in a competitive market.
Reviews also contribute significantly to an agent’s online visibility and search engine rankings, as platforms like Google My Business and real estate-specific websites prioritize agents with a strong collection of positive reviews.
Follow up with clients a week or two after the sale or purchase of their home and request a testimonial to post on your website. You can also provide the links so they can leave a review on key sites like Google My Business and Facebook. Make it as easy as possible for them to spread the word about your excellent customer service.
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