Having Trouble Closing Online Generated Real Estate Leads?
The internet has changed the way real estate consumers purchase and sell real estate. Over 80% of real estate consumers start their search online. This demands real estate agents to have an online presence. While the demand exists, the majority of real estate agents are not taking advantage of this lucrative market. So why is the vast majority of agents and brokers not succesful in the online market? The answers to this question will be explained in this article.
There is a process involved before closing an online generated real estate lead that needs to be followed. Prior to going trough an overview of the process I would like to point something out - not all online generated leads should be treated the same - because not all leads are the same. Now lets start from the beginning and analyze the whole process.
The beginning point of an online lead starts when a potential home buyer or seller goes to an agent's website and leaves their contact information. This lead can fall into one of four different categories, depending on the potential buyer's real estate buying cycle. Lets look at the buying cycle below :
- Awareness Of Real Estate Market
- Research Of Real Estate Area
- Desire Of Particular Area and Property
- Ready Purchase or/and Sell a Home
At this point you may be asking yourself how does this apply in a real life scenario? You can have leads that are at their infancy, leads that will be purchasing or selling in 8 months from today, leads that will be purchasing or selling in 3 months from today and so on. The determination of where in the buying cycle the leads falls in will shape your marketing strategy. No lead is a waste of time because most of these leads will have a real estate transaction in the future. Here at RealtorExposure.com we see a lot of potential in retaining longer term leads since most agents do not incubate the leads.
How should one determine the appropriate marketing strategy for these leads? Leads that are identified as having a life of 3 months or less should fall in the tradition real estate marketing. Leads with a longer time frame than 3 months should be incubated.
How are real estate leads incubated? This is usually the point where real estate agents loose control. In order to be able to successfully incubate a real estate lead, one should have a system that facilitates the process along every step. Some of the most crucial elements of the incubation process are:
- Email Drip Campaign
- Consumer Personal Real Estate Account
- Neighborhood and School Information
The way a lead should be incubated is by always having a presence that is not overly aggressive, yet keeps the real estate agent in front of the potential real estate consumer. This can be accomplished by establishing a system which would encourage the "leads" to have their own account. This account would allow the "lead" to search for homes, to look at neighborhood information, such as school information, test scores, etc., to save their favorite homes, to get email updates regarding their favorite properties and to view virtual maps.
If you are looking to join a company that can help you accomplish a succesful lead generation campaign RealtorExposure.com can help.