Who doesn’t want more real estate business? What about higher ROIs, more profitable deals, or faster closing times?
Real estate marketing and generating leads is just one part of the equation when it comes to actually getting more deals, and making more money. Marketing, advertising, branding, and web traffic are all important parts of this process. Yet, it is becoming increasingly, and sometimes painfully, obvious that gaining more business is more about using what you’ve got better, and making it easier for others to do business with you.
All the visibility, attention, Facebook likes, and website hits in the world might not mean much if there are few conversions being made to facilitate deals. So how do real estate pros and companies change their dynamic?
1. Respond
If you are ignoring leads, dragging your feet in replying, or are simply letting them collect dust, you are throwing away money. That doesn’t mean that you personally have to make yourself available 24/7, or that every lead will be a great fit for you. However, don’t burn money. Sell those leads, refer them out, and put them in your pipeline to nurture. The viable ones should be answered instantly. Every minute directly decreases the chance they’ll convert. If you can’t do it, have automated responses set up and hire assistants to handle the lead flow. If you don’t have a system in place for this, stop here and do something about it.
2. Make it Easy to Contact You
If it takes work to contact you, forget it. You are just burning opportunities and marketing dollars, while decreasing the profit margins on all potential deals. Don’t just make it easy for yourself: make it easy for prospects to contact you in their preferred medium. That could mean Twitter, Facebook, email, phone, and text message. Don’t just ignore every lead that doesn’t text message you, because how are they supposed to know that’s what you prefer? Offer as many options as possible. Even put contact information upfront. What about click-to-call features in Google ads, your phone number at the top of your website, and real email addresses on your real estate website versus only forms?
3. Building Bridges over Obstacles
Throughout the real estate sales process, there can be many questions and mental obstacles. Remember, people are busy. They aren’t always going to voice these concerns. Overcoming them by addressing them in advance on your real estate website can be a great way to increase and streamline conversions. Getting up and going fast is important for new real estate pros, but could it be a good time to revisit your copy? Successful brands don’t think anything of dropping a hundred bucks or two to perfect a couple of lines of web text on their home pages and key service pages. You may not have to spend that much, but it can pay to invest in the words you use to win customers.
4. Simplicity
Don’t underestimate the power of simplicity. Lots of information is good, but in reality too many options, and too much data, can simply be a distraction, and make it too overwhelming to make a decision. Many have built complex multi-step funnels. In some cases, these are necessary and advantageous. In others, they simply make it longer for leads to become customers, and increase the chances they’ll fall out of the funnel. Have you tried and tested simple landing pages lately?
5. Accessibility
As you start growing in the real estate business, it can become difficult to juggle your time. It can be hard to make sure you are making a profit, and that often leads professionals and business owners to barricade themselves off from all but the most profitable partners. That can be disastrous in the long run. In addition to prospects, it is also important for real estate pros to block out time to be accessible to the press, potential partners and investors, and staff.
6. Bulldozing the Objections & Building Trust
It is hard enough to get business without brands putting up barriers to trust and giving prospects reason to question their credibility. Some recent examples of this include: high upfront fees, or fees without guarantees, and contractual agreements that try to lock people in. If real estate companies, instead, focus on just wowing clients, there is no need for this.
7. Build the “Like” Factor
We all like to spend money with people and businesses we like, as opposed to those we don’t or are unsure of. So how much effort and thought are you putting into authenticity? Give people a reason to like you, and your business will reward you accordingly.
