4 Ways to Generate Seller Leads

We recently conducted a survey of real estate professionals and found that the largest portion of their marketing budget is spent on purchasing leads while only 13 percent of new business comes from there. In addition to the upfront cost, managing these leads requires time and effort and isn't yielding a notable result. So why not generate your own?

Your website, email, phone and computer are all great ways to find interested sellers. Here are four easy ways to generate seller leads:

1. Have a tool to lure home sellers and find out their info

We recommend using an Automated Valuation Model (AVM) to generate seller leads. You can build your own or buy a turnkey solution like myAVM. People who are about to sell their house are interested in how much it is worth. Another alternative is to provide content that potential sellers are interested in, like an eBook on how to prep your house before you sell. Whatever tool you use, put it behind a lead capture form, so in exchange for this valuable content, online visitors will be forced to leave their information.

2. Once you have a tool, put it everywhere

Put a link to your AVM or eBook everywhere. This includes:

• Your website
• Any email sent through your CRM
• Any drip marketing campaigns
• Online newsletters or updates
• Any email you send – put the link in your signature
• Your profile info on social media
• A tattoo on your arm

Okay – maybe not that last one – but be generous with your link. If you have built or bought an AVM or created a book designed to attract home-sellers, make sure you are letting everyone know where to find it.

3. Reconnect with your network

Another effective way to generate seller leads is through phone calls. The most effective real estate teams are calling everyone in their network once a quarter. Maintaining contact is crucial and a great way to uncover potential sellers. People respond well to messages like, "I have some very interesting news on your property," and "I have a lot of interested buyers in your neighborhood." It can seem like a daunting task, especially with a large network, but the grunt work of phone calls can pay off exponentially.

The added benefit of having an AVM or a market report is that you'll be able to back up these claims with real data.

4. Advertising, Google, and Facebook

The fourth channel is through media. If you think about the typical behavior of someone interested in selling their home, they probably aren't looking for ads when they're looking for agents to help them sell their home. Unless you're trying to promote a specific brand, advertising is not effective for generating leads.

Most people start their search on Google when looking to sell their home. Companies that want to appear at the top of the search results have to pay big bucks to appear above the organic search results. After searching "what is my house worth," the top organic search results are from Zillow, Redfin, and LendingTree. So if you're trying to reduce your marketing budget, here's a great way to use Facebook instead.

If your company has a Facebook page, you can follow these steps for creating ads to continue driving traffic to your lead capture form on your website.

1. Start - Go to your ads account and create an ad.
2. Objective - Drive traffic to a specific page
3. First Audience - Since the best way to generate leads is through your existing network, create a custom audience and import your contacts from your CRM, Gmail or Outlook, followers and friends.
4. Second Audience - Create a second campaign with a look-a-like audience. These people live, breathe, and act like the first audience.
5. Third Audience - If you'd like to test, create a third campaign with an audience based on behaviors of new movers. You should know, however, that most experts agree these segments are not as effective as your network and the look-a-like audience.
6. Building your Ad: Image - Import different images for your ads to see what works better. From previous experience, people tend to click on images that feature puppies and babies, so feel free to add some of those to your average house stock photo and watch your click rate soar.
7. Building your Ad: Copy - Then, you're going to have to write copy for your ads. Don't fret, the big companies with their big marketing budgets have already done the leg work for you. Go back to that search of "What is my house worth?" Check out the top ads, copy and paste.

If you're interested in reading more, here's a more detailed eBook of how to effectively generate leads through Facebook ads. Don't get intimidated by the big players in the room. You can carve out your own market share by effectively putting your network to work for you.

If you want to see this all in a live demonstration, we have a video you can view below. Want to learn more about building or buying your own AVM? Reach out to us today.

To view the original article, visit the Onboard Informatics blog.