One of the foundational pieces of a successful career in real estate is identifying where you’re generating a bulk of your business. Is it from your social marketing efforts? Is it from cold calling? Or is it coming from your real estate web design?
When there are a hundred thousand real estate agents and only a thousand properties to buy or sell, how do you ensure that your source of leads and business is stable enough to allow you to not only survive but grow your business for a long period of time?
The biggest problem when it comes to lead generation and marketing in the real estate industry really stems from the fact that there are a lot of agents or Realtors who are sold on the silver bullet.
This silver bullet may be doing advertising like Facebook ads, Google ads, LinkedIn ads, or Zillow ads. Real estate agents invest their resources in these avenues expecting that these ads and efforts will move the needle for their business.
On top of that, when these avenues don’t generate the number of leads or amount of business that they’re expecting, they quit and stop the strategy after just a month or two.
However, what’s often misconstrued is that what’s going to really move the needle for a lot of these agents is knowing and identifying where you’re generating a bulk of your business from and capitalizing on that.
According to Paul Fig of Paul Fig LA, time and time again what he finds out is that way over 90% of almost all agents, whether they are newer or very experienced, it’s really coming from people that they have some connections to.
This means that when you’re an experienced agent, you’re looking at past clients as well as the group of people that you already know within your circle. These can be some sort of family relationship, or a neighbor, or can be somebody that that person knew, or someone that used to work for them when you’re on the job. It could also be your spouse’s friends at work
What usually comes next to your own network of connections, are the referrals from that same group of people. This is where the power of digital social media marketing comes in.
Social media allows you not only to market to the people that you know, but this provides you with an avenue to the different networks of the people in your network. These are the people that are close to your own circle but are outside of it.
Whenever you post online, there is always the chance that one or a couple of your followers will repost it on their feed. This opens up the window for other like-minded people to find you as well.
The National Association of Realtors released an article where they said that it takes around 13 to 18 months to convert a cold lead into a warm lead. This means that even if you spend over a year trying to nurture a cold lead, you still won’t get to generate business.
This means that the reality is, the bulk of your business isn’t going to come from this cold traffic. As a matter of fact, for many of the top producers, it works the same way. They don’t get a lot of their traffic, at least nowadays, from super cold leads. This is because they have friends of friends, or stragglers, or friends that refer and promote their social media accounts and business. Ultimately, this helps them gain a bigger audience.
The simple answer to this question is by nurturing your leads and connections.
According to Paul, more than a housing business, real estate is a relationships business. This means that it is not enough for you to take care of your clients when they’re trying to buy or sell a home but you also have to keep on nurturing them even after a deal is closed.
Whether it’s by sending them emails from time to time to check in on them or maybe saying hi when you see them around town or even maybe get a cup of coffee when you can. This may seem like a lot of work but it shouldn’t be.
The key to having a strong personal network of people is to be selective.
As much as you would want to generate business with anyone and everyone, you have to choose the people that you work with. These are the people that resonate with your brand, vision, and goals.
When you work with like-minded people, it becomes easier to build stronger relationships over time. This will work to your advantage when you start growing your business. Furthermore, the level of compatibility can also indicate how well a person fits into your perfect client avatar.
This means that if you can hang out with a person over coffee or even drinks, then they might not be who you are looking to do business with.
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For newer real estate agents, it can be exciting to work with strangers or with people who are outside of their network. It’s great when you see random people interested in your work and getting your expertise. However, this may not be the case all the time.
Back in March, it was released that the number of real estate agents in the country was around 1.4 million to 1.5 million. If you happen to get a new client out of the blue who was completely outside of your circle who is looking to sell their 2-million dollar home and they found you online through sites such as Zillow, it might be a red flag.
Now, you might be thinking, how is this a bad thing when I am getting new business?
The reality is, it is a huge red flag because it is almost impossible for anyone in our country to not know any real estate agent within their circle. This is the time for you to start thinking about why no one wants to work with this particular client.
No matter what you end up doing, the key to succeeding is consistency. You have to put your process in place. On top of that, don’t try to overcomplicate things. Remember that it doesn’t have to take a lot of people to do a good amount of business with if you focus on the right people.
Now if you’re looking to grow your network, I suggest that you join our free Facebook Group. We consistently discuss and share content about real estate digital marketing. However, if you’re looking to really focus on growing and nurturing your real estate business and network, then schedule a strategy session with us today.
Emmanuel here and my goal is to empower 1 billion realtors with tools to generate business online. Think you can be one of them?
Emmanuel is the CEO of Square 1 Group, a boutique agency that helps real estate entrepreneurs build a unique brand online. He has been in the real estate digital marketing industry for over a decade and has helped hundreds of real estate entrepreneurs grow their business. He ensure that Square 1 Group is able to design, build, and manage custom-built lead-generating websites.
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