When calling a real estate lead an agent should have something to offer to the buyer, not only expect them to say " Yes, I am looking for an agent and I want to buy a home next month can you help me?  The reallity is that most leads will not say this.  

 The way to approach a potential home buyer is by offering something of interest to them.  I leave this to your own imagination.  Some examples can a system where they can search the MLS, save their favorite properties, view school and neighborhood statistics.  Some agents also offer a rebate. If anyone else has had success using other strategies feel free to post it on RealtorExposure's blog.

August 29, 2007

With most of the home buyer using the interenet as a resource, the interenet is a great tool to generate leads.  There seem to be a missunderstanding of how real estate leads work online.  As the interent is a shopping/education tool for home shoppers, real estate agents have to understand that it takes  time to close online leads.

 Most agents in the industry do not have the patientce or money to stay in touch with a lead for more than 3  months.

 A way to solve this issue might be to ask your site visitor when they are planning on buying.  The truth is that most of the leads witll close escrow at some point or another so why not close more deals.  Following up with online leads is one of the most improtant factors to closing more leads.  Remember patientce is intelligence.

When real estate agent enter the online lead generation market, they contact many leads but fail to stay in touch.  One of the most important factors to consider and follow is to always stay in touch with your leads.  Most leads close at some point, this is a point to recognize and keep in mind.  On average most agents start closing leads on the third month.  So generating online leads and following up takes persistance and patience. Remember patience is intelligence.

As I am sure a large number of agent are hit in someway or another by the current bubble burst of the mortgage industry.  This is the time for real estate agents and brokers to spend their money wisely.  Invest in marketing techniques that will result in higher return of investment (ROI). 

At realtorexposure.com we find it hard to believe that some agents still advertise in the yellow pages, with most likwly less than 1% of a chance that they will close a sale from it.  

It is definately a wise decision to market online and let a professional as RealtorExposure.com guide you through the process.

 Well, RealtorExposure.com can help you generate real estate leads with our lead generation solutions.  We offer lead generation through search engine marketing (SEM).  This is a very efficient way to generate pre-qualified traffic to your website and generate leads.  If you would like to learn more contact us today.

The number one and most important thing to do when generating online leads is to call them right away, as statistically according to a recent article by NAR 65% of home buyers go with the first agent they speak to.

 Then number two factor to consider is that if you are generating leads through a third party that the leads are delivered to you in real-time.  Real-time means as soon as the leads is generated you will have it infront of you, not we will send it within 72 hours, by then most likely it is too late.

The number three factor is are the leads exclusive.  Is the lead generated given to you or a group of 5 agents competing to call first.

 Based on these factors you should be able to determine who can provide you with leads that have a higher return on investment.

 There are six main types of online marketing, some more effectient than others as far as return on investment (ROI).  The different types of online marketing are: search engine marketing, banner ads, podcasting, online public relations, syndication, and video media. 

What type of online marketing should a real estate agent be doing?  The most effective are search engine marketing and video media.

Search engine marketing has the highest ROI due to its efficiency of directing pre-qualified traffic to an agents website.  Traffic is pre-qualified as soon as a potential home buyer or seller searches on a search engine the real estate location of interest.  Once that potenital real estate consumer comes to the search results page and is directed to an agents webpage that visitor is pre-qualified.

Video marketing in the real estate marketing has become more popular and has evolved.  The type of video marketing that should be done is a presentation of a listing or real estate services, not a virtual tour.

 These are two types of online marketing every real estate agent should be taking advantage of.   Visit RealtorExposure.com to find out more how we can help you generate real estate leads, with our lead generation solutions.

Having an online presence is essential to a real estate agent's marketing plan.  The truth is that other types of marketing such as: print media is not what it used to be.  As time goes by the return on inverstment (ROI) diminishes more and more.  

The most cost efficient marketing strategy  that generates leads is search engines marketing.  Many agents in the industry market online, but have no prior experience or knowledge of what it takes to create a succesful lead generating campaign.

 It is recommended to find a marketing firm such as RealtorExposure to do this.

 As this market is still in its infancy, there is room for improvement.  Creating the proper video is a way to rapidly attract consumers.

 A real estate video about a listing or about your services should capture the users attention and to the point as internet users have a short attention span.  Most internet users do not like to think.

 Registration online lead generation is a good way to generate leads if you have a marketing firm that can compete in this market.  Another option is to provide a free account to home searchers and have them contact you when they are ready. 

 The best way to close leads today is to contact the lead right away, incubate, and close.

The use of virtual maps from Google, Yahoo and MSN are being used more and more, to present the location of a home, schools, and neighborhood statistics. 

 The technology is still new and it has not reached its peak, yet since most website still have bugs. One thing for sure is that search engine marketing is here to stay as it delivers great results. 

What differentiates successful and those less than successful agents and brokers? Lets start by overviewing the steps to closing an online lead. 

Three Steps to Closing an Online Lead: 1. Search engine marketing (SEM) 2. Lead generation 3. The Close. Those who dont follow the three steps correctly usually waste time and money in their pursuit of online leads as they are not able to produce a sufficient lead base.

Step One Search Engine Marketing:  Simply signing up for Google Adwords or Yahoo Search Marketing does not qualify as effective online marketing. In this very same market there exhist large companies that specialize in generating real estate leads with a sophisticated lead capturing process integrated with web analytics tools. The " I can do it myself and safe money" to try competing against large marketing firms is frankly NOT a smart idea. 

 Uderstanding how to target a potential home buyer or seller through SEM is crucial. Often, agents contact real estate leads that are not quite ready to purchase nor are sure of where to wish to buy. For example, a consumer that would make a broad search for homes typing in keywords at a county level would qualify at the inital stages of the buying process. Whereas, a real estate consumer searching a specific city or neighborhood would be categorized at a much more developed level. It is impearative to acknowledge and identify where your customer falls in the buying process.

Phase Two Lead Generation: Now that you are targeting the right prospects, let’s deliver relevant results. When a prospect is redirected from a search engine to your webpage they want to find what they are searching for right away.  At this point is good to apply the concept of “Don’t make me think”. The more p``ages they have to go through the less leads you will generate.  The solution is to deliver relevant results on the first page the prospect views after leaving the search engine. For example, if a prospect searched in Google “Las Vegas High Rise Condos” the first page should be relevant to Las Vegas high rise condos, not your home page

Phase Three Closing A Lead: Most agents after generating a real estate lead they put leads on a drip campaign and forget about it. All leads are not equal since all leads are not equal and not is the same buying cycle time frame.  A lead should be treated accordingly to the time frame and needs of the potential client.  Some of the information most real estate consumers find useful are neighborhood statistics, personalized account for MLS search and school information.  Every agent should have a system to incubate leads where users can find all the information needed during a buying cycle.  Visit RealtorExposure.com to learn more about our lead generation programs

The truth is that while there are many agents still advertising in newspapers with no success, there are also agents advertising online with nothing to show for.

One reason is that real estate professionals try to do the marketing themselves, when a marketing firm should be doing the work.  While there are many agents marketing online that come and go, there are also  companies that specialize in generating real estate leads.  When agents try to penetrate this market they up loosing money.  Save yourself time and money and consult a professional.

 Some real estate agents purchase or generate leads by companies that deliver their leads to the agents within a 74 hour period decreasing their odds of closing a lead dramatically.  The most important factor to consider when shopping for leads is how fast will the lead be delivered to your inbox.

 According to NAR " There is a 72% success rate of turning a online generated lead into a sale if live contact is made within the first hour after the lead's visit.  After 4 hours the odds drop dramatically to 29%."  According to the statistics provided by NAR it is obvious that having a fresh leads makes the difference is the world.  That is why RealtorExposure.com delivers their leads to their agents within a minute of being generated.