Are you tired of buying leads? Spending a fortune on advertising? And paying for mailers? And cold calling? Or, heaven forbid, door knocking?!
Give yourself permission to stop all that! Was it really working that well for you anyway?
There are more effective (and less painful!) ways to get qualified leads. In fact, you can funnel qualified leads to your website without doing any of those miserable tasks.
Today we’ll show you how to drive qualified leads to your website in just 2 steps!
Step 1: Blog
Wait – don’t leave! Hear me out…
The Problems with Blogging
As a professional real estate blog writer, I know a fair bit about real estate blogs. First, I know most Realtors® hate the idea of blogging. Don’t even want to consider adding a blog to their businesses. And for (semi-)legitimate reasons:
- It takes a lot of time
- Writing is a skill that takes practice
- Blog writing is very different than traditional writing
- “What would I even blog about?”
- Having a blog just sounds cliche
- It requires having your own website
- It’s a long game, so you don’t see results right away
This is why only 11% of agents have a blog (according to the NAR). And let me tell you, if the blogs I find are any indicator, most of that 11% is garbage.
In my professional estimation, only about 2% of agents have a blog consistently updated with unique content.
What does that mean for you? It means you can edge out 98% of your competition simply by consistently writing one post per week! Now imagine how you can stand out if your posts are actually good!
Why Blogging is Worth the Time and Effort
Let me explain why you need to strongly consider real estate blogging despite all those semi-legitimate reasons for not blogging.
First, blogging improves your SEO, which helps you get found by prospects online. When buyers and sellers Google “Real Estate Agent” in your city, are you going to be on the first page? If you don’t have a blog, probably not! Blogs give Google more information on your website to index, making you more rank-worthy. Blogs also show Google that you are actively, consistently providing new content. This also proves your worthiness to Google.
And when people can find you online, they come to you! You don’t have to spend all your time prospecting because people will be reaching out to you. For more info on SEO, check out my Introduction to SEO for Realtors®.
PS: referring agents may also find you online thanks to your Google ranking. So you may get more referrals!
Second, your blog demonstrates your expertise. You’ll be able to prove week after week that you know your market better than anyone else!
Third, your blog increases engagement with your prospects and clients. If you’re posting valuable need-to-know info about your market, you’re building a relationship with your readers before you ever hear from them. They start to trust you. And they start asking you questions in the comments in their early stages. That makes them much more likely to come to you when they’re ready to buy or sell.
Fourth, blogging provides increasing returns. You spend two hours writing a high-quality post. But then that post exists on your site as a lead-generator for years to come! Your rewards will come in very slowly over a lengthy period. But once they start coming, they’ll continue to come faster and faster! You’ll experience exponential growth that you would never see buying leads or cold calling.
Lastly, your blog can actually become a completely separate income source! We’re not going to get into that today, but I have a separate post dedicated to showing you how to make money with a real estate blog.
Addressing the Problems with Blogging
But there are still all those reasons not to blog. How do we address those?
It takes a lot of time: Spend your time blogging instead of cold calling and door-knocking. It’s a better long-term use of your time. And if you really don’t have time, outsource it! Professional real estate content writers like me are happy to write your blog posts for you! Learn more about real estate content writing services.
Writing is a skill that takes practice: Your writing will improve as you continue to post week-in and week-out. But again, if you would rather pay a pro to write your posts, do it.
Blog writing is very different than traditional writing: Even if you’re a decent academic writer, blog writing is totally different. Check out How to Write a Blog Post in 7 Easy Steps for proper blogging style.
“What would I even blog about?”: There’s plenty for you to write about! In fact, here’s your first blog post on a platter (this post will also provide links to other resources so you never run out of blog topics!). And if you really don’t have the time to invest in planning out your blog content calendar, you can always purchase a done-for-you real estate blog content calendar on Etsy!
Having a blog just sounds cliche: Most things sound cliche. Who cares?
It requires having your own website: You should have your own website anyway. More and more buyers and sellers continue to turn to the Internet to find their agents. It’s awfully tricky to be found when you’re just a page on your broker’s website. The good news is that it’s cheaper and easier than ever to get your own site. Check out How to Build a Real Estate Website for completely free step-by-step instructions on building your own website. It’s easier than you might expect, and DYI-ing your site will save you thousands of dollars!
It’s a long game, so you don’t see results right away: You have to be patient to be successful at blogging. It will probably take 6 months to a year before you start seeing results. And probably about 2 years before it really starts paying off. But again, thanks to those increasing returns, the longer you post, the more qualified leads you’ll get to your website every month.
Commit yourself to incorporating blogging into your marketing plan asap!
Step 2: Promote Your Blog Posts on Social Media
Now we can use your blog posts to drive qualified leads to your website.
Blogging alone won’t do it. You can publish a brilliant post, but no one will stumble across it in the vast expanse of the Internet. You need to force your post in front of eyeballs!
And social media is the perfect way to do that.
You may have already started your social media marketing to reach potential buyers and sellers. But you can do so much more than post words of wisdom and memes! Posting links to your blog offers your audience a chance to learn more about real estate, to see how much you know about your local market, and to join the conversation.
You’re providing a ton of value to your audience, which will make them far more likely to remember you when the time comes to buy or sell.
Want to see Blogging and Social Media done right?
If you want a real-world case study of a Realtor® killing it with a blog/social media partnership made in heaven, check out Bill Gassett of Max Real Estate Exposure.
Poke around Bill’s blog, and you’ll notice a few brilliant details:
- Social shares: Even his brand new posts have hundreds of shares. And his older posts that have been circulating a while? Several thousand shares.
- Consistency: Every Monday, like clockwork, a post is published.
- Length: Most posts are long-form (over 1,500) words. Google rewards in-depth posts with higher page rankings.
- Creative Post Titles: Hold an Open House to Increase Your Odds of Getting Burglarized is a classic.
- Images: Want to catch someone’s eye as they scroll through their social feeds? You need images. Here’s an example from Max Real Estate Exposure of a post with a few thousand shares (by the way, you can make your own images with text overlays like this for your blog for free with Canva. If you’re not familiar with Canva, check out Canva for Real Estate Agents for a quick introduction):
Now look at Bill’s social media accounts:
How to Boost Your Social Media Presence
Follow Bill Gassett’s lead!
Start by joining social media groups where you can share your blog posts with much larger groups than just your followers. It’s a great way to spread the word and gain more followers of your own!
Bill’s post on the Best Real Estate Social Media Groups is the perfect starting point!
By promoting your blog posts on social media, you’ll start to see traffic to your website increase.
Some of your traffic at this stage will be qualified to some degree simply by the post title. For example, anyone clicking your social media link to a post called “Can You Afford a Home in San Diego?” is probably interested in buying in San Diego. Basic qualification met.
But of course some of your readers will learn from your post that they can’t actually afford a home in San Diego. We want to focus on driving qualified leads to your website, so we have a little more work to do.
What To Do With Your Traffic
So you’re now driving some qualified leads to your website. But what should you do with that traffic? How can you convert them to clients?
Build Your Mailing List
It’s time to use your increased website traffic to start building your mailing list.
Collecting names and email addresses from your website visitors is vital to converting traffic to clients because it gives you a direct line of communication with your potential leads. It means you can follow-up with targeted messages to provide additional information and promote your services.
So how do you collect these names and email addresses? You need to offer a free resource for your readers to receive via email.
In blogger circles, this free resource is commonly called a “lead magnet”, “content upgrade”, or just plain “freebie”. Think downloadable checklists, short eBooks, worksheets, or templates of some kind.
For example, if you’re looking to work with more investor buyers, you could write a short guide to obtaining financing for multiple properties. It’s a valuable resource to the buyer and fills your mailing list with investors looking to make multiple purchases!
Or if you’re looking to convert sellers who are considering going FSBO, you could offer a free For Sale By Owner Guide. Not only is it valuable to the seller, but it also gives you a chance to point out the many tasks of going FSBO that most sellers don’t consider. Bring those sellers in as clients before they actually list FSBO and all the other agents start contacting them!
And you don’t have to limit yourself. You can create multiple freebies to apply to multiple groups. Even if you’re going broad with just 1 freebie for buyers and 1 for sellers, you can keep these 2 distinct groups separate so you’re not bogging down your first-time buyers’ inboxes with info about selling.
Now logistically speaking, how do you add these freebies to your website and keep your email list organized? I have a post for that! How to Build Your Real Estate Mailing List explains how to set up your email collection and freebie delivery systems.
Stay in Contact with Your Email List
Now that you have a direct line of communication with your potential leads, you can contact them (sparingly of course!) to provide even more valuable information to them and to further qualify them.
Whenever you come out with a new freebie, email it to the appropriate groups in your email list. Notify your buyer group when you get a new listing. Send well-wishes on holidays with little real estate tips or fun facts.
How often should you email your list?
Well, I’m personally a little paranoid about emailing too often. I hate when I get an email that feels like spam. So I only email my list once per month (a round-up of the month’s blog posts) plus whenever there’s something extra great going on…a new resource or webinar or something that could really help my audience.
Pay attention to who opens your emails and who clicks through to your website. They’re your hot leads. You might want to reach out to them personally to offer more tailored assistance to meet their needs.
Get a Small Win
Great victories are made possible by small wins. Before you move on with the rest of your day, get a small win!
Your small win challenge is to commit to starting (or restarting!) your blog. Commit to posting just once per week. If you follow the steps outlined in this post week-in and week-out, you’ll have a completely different business by this time next year!
