If you’re in the Real Estate world, you’ve probably heard people talking about the importance of generating leads. Right? “You need leads!” – “Get more leads!” – “Leads are critical to your business!”
Today, we’ll be covering some of the best strategies you can use to generate leads for FREE, or inexpensively. (Make sure to check in NEXT week for Part 2- Big Bang ways, and Leverage ways to generate leads)
Before we get to all of these methods though, there’s 1 tactic you need to implement to get the most from the strategies below – and that’s called reciprocity. What that means is, the best way to get someone to give up their email address is to give them something of value first.
To give you some ideas – Items of Value:
- Educational Report – (with a catchy title like “8 Secrets For Saving Thousands When Buying Your Next Home”)
- Free Resource – (a list of homes in their value range)
- How-To Video – (7 Costly Mistakes When Selling Your Home)
- A Monthly Newsletter – (Service For Life!– free, fun and helpful articles that they’ll want to save for later)
- NOT on this list– flashy marketing materials that scream “I’m selling to you!)
Once you have your item of value, there are a number of places and ways you can use it to get emails. A lot of our examples below use a newsletter because it is one of the easiest things to collect emails for, but you could easily swap in your item of value from the example list above.
Free Options
- Call Your Contacts
- Email Signature
- Opt-In Forms On Your Website/Blog
- Use a Signup Sheet At Events
Cheap Options
- Facebook Ads (read this article for more about Facebook Ads)
- Put An Offer on Your Business Cards
- Send Postcards to Your Contacts (Read this article for great tips about postcards)
Free Methods
#1 – Call Your Contacts
If you’re on a tight budget, you could start a simple call program to get the email address of the rest of your contacts. See the Phone Call Script you can use below:
GAME PLAN:
Use the next 1 to 2 weeks to call everyone on your database (or have your assistant do it). You’ll probably double your email list size and get likely get a few referrals in the process. Not bad to make money while you grow your email list.
PLUS:
If you get people “live”…don’t be afraid to ask who else they know who would like to receive your issues. Get the phone number and call this “friend of a friend” to confirm their FREE subscription to your email newsletter. Referencing your mutual connection (how you got their phone number) will give you credibility to ask them about their current need for your real estate services. And you can continue this process with each new connection!
NOTE: Include “Forward To A Friend” links in each piece of value you put out to make it easy for your contacts can send it to their friends at any time. This forward feature automatically adds a new person to your email list without you having to do anything. You’ll probably need to talk to your email service provider or read their help articles about how to set that up.
#2 – Use Your Email Signature
Add a note to your email signature with directions on how to get your piece of value or sign up for your email newsletter. Again, include the benefits someone will get by doing so, something like this:
#3 – Add Opt-in Forms on Your Website/Blog
Include a form to opt-in to get your piece of value like an email newsletter on every page of your website/blog. Include a similar message as your email signature to describe what someone will receive by signing up.
#4 – Use A Signup Sheet At Events
Any time you have an open house, put on a “live” workshop, or host an event in your office, collect email addresses on a printed signup sheet. Let people know on the signup form that you’ll send them a monthly issue, their email address will never be shared, and they can unsubscribe at any time.
Inexpensive Methods
#5 – Facebook Ads
This is something we’ve recently covered in depth here. Check out this article:
#6 – Put An Offer on Your Business Cards
This is a no-brainer. Put an offer on the BACK of your business cards for people to sign up for your email newsletter and get a free buyer or seller report as well. Simply print the same text as what you’ll use for your “email signature” (shown earlier) under #2.
#7 – Send Postcards to Your Contacts
After you send the letters to get updated information from your existing database, you can use postcards to remind them to signup for your email newsletter (if they haven’t signed up already!). Postcards are inexpensive to produce and send. They’re less personal but will get seen more since there’s no envelope. Include your phone, email, or website to contact you and join your email list. And remember to give your contacts a specific reason to sign up – this may be to get the helpful information in your monthly email newsletter, but it could also be a to get a free report or gift when they register.
EXTRA TIP: If you upload your contacts and find some emails bouncing, you can call them or use postcards to request their updated information.
Leads can both be the lifeblood of your business, or if you aren’t managing them correctly, they can turn into distractions that pull you away from closing business. Make sure you have systems in place in your business to deal with leads correctly- collect, manage, and follow-up!
Share your ideas about how YOU generate leads with us in the comments below- and, don’t miss next week’s article for more tips!
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