There are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of different lead generation tactics that can be used daily to improve a database, the number of clients, company visibility and ultimately the revenue of any given business. How you generate leads all depends on personal preferences and what does and does not work for you, your location, and your industry.
For real estate it can be anything from the new age modern sourced PPC or SEO methods or the old fashion styles of cold calling and door knocking. You may also get a number of leads from websites such as Realtor.com or Zillow!
But I don’t need to tell you this, surely you have experienced leads coming in from many different sources. You likely have a large database already with all of these names, numbers, and addresses that have come to you from far and wide.
That being said, names and numbers don’t guarantee a paycheck. While it is great to have hundreds of potential leads, these leads need to be able to be CONVERTED in order to provide true value to you, your business, and ultimately your pockets.
It is important to note too that each lead that comes in is completely unique. They are all at different points in the buying or selling process. Some are ready to make a move tomorrow, others won’t be ready for two years and just need some support through the process. Some leads will work with the first or second agent they speak with, others will interview around and won’t want to make a commitment until the last minute.
Every agent has different strengths and weaknesses when it comes to converting leads. Some are amazing at turning a lead into a client on day one, others need a little bit more nurturing.
Luckily for you, if you have a Real Geeks website there are a number of tricks and tools that you can take advantage of in order to convert more leads! If you don’t have a Real Geeks website, you may want to switch to one after learning all of the benefits they have to offer! Read on to discover 10 great ways to use your Real Geeks website to convert more leads.
#1 Ask better initial questions
Will Rogers, a famous American Actor, once said “You never get a second chance to make a great first impression”. This statement reigns so much truth, especially in the real estate industry where you are really trying to sell yourself and give a reason for someone to choose you over the next agent down the road. Being able to successfully convert a lead all starts with you and your first interaction.
Maximizing the information you get from a lead all depends on the questions you are asking and how you are asking them. Just as you were taught years ago in primary school, the “Five W’s” are questions which are considered crucial in information gathering and problem solving. Make sure you cover all of them in your conversation.
Who is involved in the decision making process? What are the client’s needs? Where are they in terms of mindset? When are they ready to start the process?
Make sure to dig for motivation and their true goals surrounding a move. Asking these questions and finding out their “Big Why” will help to give you the knowledge and awareness to make everything else naturally fall into place.
Showing a lead that you care enough to spend the time asking the right questions, digging deeper, and establishing a connection with them is more likely to benefit you in the long run. The more you can get them to open up and be willing to share this information with you, the better chance you have at leaving a lasting impression and ultimately gaining their business.
The Real Geeks team has expanded on each of the Five W’s and created a detailed list of questions that may be helpful to reference during your calls or meetings with new leads.
#2 Use your CRM at a high level
Real Geeks offers numerous organizational and time saving tools to help you shift your focus to where it really matters… converting leads. The most basic, and arguably the most important, tool you can use as a real estate agent is your CRM database. This stands for Customer Relationship Management. Make sure you really are using your CRM to manage and improve those relationships with clients.
The Real Geeks CRM allows you to do absolutely everything from scheduling appointments and setting reminders, to actively tracking who is and isn’t engaged on your website.
Real Geeks allows you to monitor and track real time activity on your website. You can notice leads noticing you. You can see what they are looking at and what they are favoriting. Pay special attention to those leads that are more active in visiting your website and in favoriting properties. The more they visit/favourite, the closer they are to the bottom of the conversion funnel.
From this information you can then share similar listings as to what they are looking at, or photos of kitchens or yards that may interest them based on what you have seen them look at already.
When sending these photos, make sure to take the extra step and also ask them what they think of these photos and listings. Be sure to use open ended questions as you don’t want to receive a simple yes or no response. Open ended questions encourage engagement and can help in developing a relationship.
Reaching out to these people personally to provide extra value and offer your assistance in whatever way you can helps to solidify your relationship and make the shift from lead to client!
#3 Track your leads more efficiently by adding tags
Adding tags to your leads in your Real Geeks CRM is a simple, yet extremely effective way to categorize leads quickly and better keep track of them. Very few people are taking advantage of this feature and it is mind-boggling. If you are one of these people already adding tags, great work! Hopefully you can still benefit from these ideas and expand on the number of tags you are using. If you don’t have any tags yet… you’ve got some work to do!
This may be a time consuming process initially but once you have worked through your database all new leads that come in can be tagged immediately.
You can add as many tags as you want/can think of. Anything from whether or not you have met them/made contact to if they are a pet lover. Here are some examples to get you started:
- Met vs Not Met
- Have you made contact with them, or are they an online lead that has come in
- Type of transaction
- Buyer, seller, investor, buy & sell, etc
- Type of client
- First time home buyer, upgrading, downsizing, second home, etc
- Stage in the buying/selling cycle
- Immediate, 3m+, 6m+, 1y+, etc
- Where the lead came from
- PPC, sign call, cold calling, networking, sphere, etc
- Where they currently live
- City, neighbourhood, house vs condo
- Notable interests or hobbies
- Ex. golfer, surfer, pet lover, retired, young kids, etc
The list can go on and on, this is meant as a starting point and a guide to get you on the right track. You are going to have to come up with your own categories and subcategories… we can’t do all the work for you!
Create tags that make sense to you and your team and to the goals you are trying to reach. Be as specific as possible. Also, make sure to have a master list of all of the different tags you want to use and the exact spelling/capitalization/formatting of each so that there is consistency across the board.
The ultimate purpose of adding tags is to be able to filter and sort through your database to provide more relevant and valuable information through different touches.
For example, if you have a new listing that is a great first time home buyer opportunity, you can filter your database to find all those people you have tagged as being first time home buyers and share it with them specifically. Or if you are organizing/sponsoring a golf tournament or a pet adoption event, you can search using the appropriate tags and share the information of the event with them. Even if they don’t attend, it gives you an extra reason to contact them and keep you top of mind without having to send another email saying “Ready to buy or sell? Call me”. You get the idea.
Again, the purpose of tags is to give you the option to share more personalized information with your leads and encourage the development of a relationship to convert them from just being a lead in your database.
#4 Use Facebook’s ad creation tool
Instead of creating an ad on Facebook itself, use your Real Geeks CRM to do all the hard work for you! It is faster, easier, and gives you more time to focus on following up with leads and converting them into clients.
The Facebook ad creation tool has a number of different templates that can be used depending on the type of ad you are creating and what you are trying to achieve. These templates are prebuilt and can pull information from your website such as photos, links, contact information, etc.
You can also select the hours you want to run you add during, the days of the week, as well as the main demographic you are aiming to target.
In addition to these creating tools, you are also able to more closely monitor your ads and track engagement. You can track everything from cost per click, to number of likes and shares, and many other conversion metrics.
All of this through one simple tool!
Real Geeks has put together a more detailed tutorial on creating Facebook ads that you can take a look at to learn more about creating these ads.
#5 Set up and use workflows
The main goal is of course to have a large database filled with lots of potential buyers, sellers, and investors. A bigger database leads to a larger pipeline, a larger pipeline leads to more transactions, and more transactions lead to a bigger bank account. However, that being said, the more people you have in your database, the more people you have to maintain contact with in order to stay top of mind.
A large database is only beneficial if you are able to keep in touch with the people in it, otherwise, you can expect a lot of ignored calls and emails from people wondering how in the world you got their contact information in the first place.
The workflow tool within Real Geeks is free to use and can make your life… well your work life… so much easier and increase your productivity, and ultimately your conversions. So why wouldn’t you use them!
A workflow is essentially a set of tasks that are automatically generated and completed (for the most part). This can be emails or text messages that are sent to leads. They can also be set up to include reminders to give a lead a personal phone call and try to touch base that way.
You can set up a variety of workflows depending on the type of lead, what information you have from them, or the stage they are in the buying process. There can be different workflows for initial contact with leads, as well as for maintaining contact with them and current/past clients.
Real Geeks has a workflow library where you can assign different workflows to different leads. You can also come up with your own custom workflows depending on what you are trying to achieve.
Workflows are going to be most successful if they’re relative to the lead (ie. 6 months away, 1 year away, etc.) Therefore the workflows and segmenting/categorizing your database through tagging go hand-in-hand!
#6 Use SMS automatic text responder
As you are (hopefully) already aware… you have a much better chance of making contact and converting a lead if you respond to them within the first 5 minutes that the lead comes in. Especially as a Realtor, you can resonate with the fact that 5 minutes is not a lot of time. It can be very difficult to drop absolutely everything you are working on, pick up the phone, and develop a response within that short of time. This becomes even more difficult if you happen to be already talking to another client, out on showings, or in the middle of negotiating an offer. Lucky for you, Real Geeks also has yet another solution to one of these many issues.
This solution is the SMS automatic text responder. This tool is especially handy in a world where many people (especially the younger generation) prefer to be communicated with via text message. You can use this auto response feature to send the initial message to a lead that has come in and at least acknowledge that they have contacted you and are interested in a specific property, buying or selling in general, or getting more information on the team.
You can create a variety of different text templates as well to have saved on your account. Especially in the initial stages of working a lead, many of the responses/questions that need to be asked or answered will be similar. You can have templated responses for a variety of different messages so that you don’t have to type out the same response dozens of times. This is a great time saving feature, and also eliminates typos or missed information.
You are also able to set business hours and schedule times for the text messages to be sent out. For example, you can have an initial response/introduction text be sent out 3 minutes after a lead comes in. However, you can also set business hours so that messages are only sent between 8am and 8pm for instance. This way if a lead is scrolling through your website at 2am they aren’t going to get an instant response from an insomniac real estate agent, the message will be sent at 8am instead.
When using this feature, the texts are being sent from a separate number that will then be redirected to your phone. Real Geeks does not have special powers that allow them access to your messages (yet at least). You are then able to text back through the mobile app or your website’s backend.
#7 Send text messages with properties for sale
When your phone vibrates for a text message the first instinct is always to pick it up, open the message, see who is messaging you and what they have to say. Whereas when you get an email notification (especially when it looks like a promotional or spam email) you might look at the preview for the message but then clear it, or delete it right away without even opening the full message.
Not only do people prefer to be communicated with via text message as previously mentioned, many realtors are also noticing that the open/response rate is higher when a message is sent by text instead of through email. It’s important to give the people what they want… Time to jump on the text message train!
That being said, the messages that you send to leads need to have some value to them. A simple “Hey, how was the weekend? Have you thought more about making a move?” type of messages likely aren’t going to get you much response. Instead take a look at the properties that people are looking at and favoriting.
Through your Real Geeks website, you can text links to properties that leads may be interested in based on previous searches conducted. Sharing a visual of the home, or a link to your website helps to make you stand out and improve engagement.
The more you contact and stay in touch with leads, and the more pieces of interest you provide them with, and the more times you get them to your website looking, the more likely you are to be able to convert them into actual clients.
#8 Send market reports
Engagement is key to conversion. In order to increase engagement you need to provide people with items in which they see value. Sharing market reports is another simple but effective way to accomplish this.
Through your Real Geeks website you are able to create and share market reports with prospective clients. You are able to share these reports with both buyers and sellers.
You can share them monthly, or every other month, depending on the level of action in the specific neighbourhood. You can also personalize your report to
You can also personalize the reports to be prepared for specific neighbourhoods based on where the lead currently lives, or the area they are hoping to move to. Sharing market reports gives you another excuse to reach out to a lead, provide them with something of interest, and potentially give them a reason to speed up their real estate plans.
This report can be mailed, emailed or even texted to a lead depending on the information you have available. In an effort to engage and re-engage leads, the experts at Real Geeks have suggested sending out 10 market reports per week to various leads. They have some other great tasks to add to your weekly checklist too that you can take a look at!
You can learn more about marketing reports and how to set them up here.
#9 Share and reshare the property valuation tool link
Most of the online advertisements that realtors use have a purpose of generating buyer leads. There is one key way to increase the number of seller leads in your database. This can be done through the property valuation tool.
Adding this link to your website, it essentially gets a person to insert their current home address to instantly find out what their home is worth. Well almost instantly. After entering their address, the person is brought to a second page where they are asked to fill out more information about themselves and the home in order to provide an accurate evaluation. Of course
That being said, not everyone who starts to fill out this form will actually make it to the end of the process. You will likely receive a lot of partial information. While many real estate agents may just delete this lead from their database, you do have one key piece of information. Their home address. Don’t delete the lead just yet!
You can do so much with this address that many will not spend time on. You can look into finding out the owners of the home, you can mail personalized information to the address, and if you want to make a really personalized introduction you can door knock the home. This will give you a quick gauge on how interested they are in actually making a move.
The majority of the people filling out this information will in fact be people who are considering selling their home.
Now that you have added this page to your website, share it everywhere! Post it on Facebook and other social media accounts. You can also embed widgets linking to this tool on other pages that you create outside of your Real Geeks website.
#10 Encourage the use of the mobile app
Since people seem to like looking at their phones so much, why not give them a useful reason to continue their scrolling?
Real Geeks offers a mobile app that is free and easy to use! Leads can be sent a unique link that allows them to download the mobile app that’s pointed directly to your website. People love apps! There is an app for almost everything nowadays, so why not an app to help house hunters? You can find out exactly how to share your app with prospective clients here.
The mobile app is also much easier and user friendly for people to search for homes with than going to your website. You are also able to keep clients as up to date as possible with new listings that have come to the market.
You can especially encourage leads that you are actively engaged with to download and use this app since you would much rather have them looking around at properties through your website than through Zillow or Realtor.com.
Through the app you are able to be more engaged with the people who are actively using the mobile app. Not only can you send notifications, you can also get notifications based on what leads are looking at and what they are interested in taking a look at. Yet another way for you to share your knowledge and expertise in a unique way!
Conclusion
As you can see, Real Geeks is a platform with countless benefits. The site is designed to help you and offer you solutions to the many strains that come with being a realtor. This blog is only a shortlist of 10 ideas on how to take advantage of what Real Geeks has to offer. There are numerous blogs and tutorials available about everything else you may have questions about. Make sure to spend some time digging through these archives and seeing what else you can learn.
In the meantime, implementing these 10 tips and tricks can surely start you off in the right direction of converting more leads through your Real Geeks website!