Let's say that you made a Hollywood movie. You wrote an awe-inspiring script and prepared the shoot's necessary things, such as cameras, lights, and the likes. Great artists and a fantastic crew were also hired to help you out. You shot the film flawlessly, edited the videos, and mixed it with music to give more emphasis to the emotion or the scene until it's ready for the world to watch – it is really breathtaking! Congratulations! Now, you just actually need to persuade people to watch your "masterpiece."
In our current settings, wherein the technological advancements are somehow easy to see and feel, persuading an individual or a group of men and women is more important than ever. With the seemingly innumerable quantity of realtors executing some real estate campaigns out there, to find a creative and unique way to attract the attention of those potential leads is a must. From posters, radio advertisements, television advertisements, and the likes, what could be the best way to capture your future lead's heart? Is it by using those strategies above? Or do we need to think outside of the box?
We live in an era wherein certainty can hardly be found, and what quenches our thirst for answers? – Google. As of this writing, Google processes 40,000 search queries every second. And by the way, that's only the average. Meaning, this can be translated to more than 3.5 billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide. The average American spends 24 hours online, but 1 of 4 U.S. adults say that they are almost always online.
Most people, including your future lead, are currently searching for something not only in Google but also in the realm of internet and social media. Why? Because the internet and social media are two exciting things. It contains helpful information; it virtually connects you to your loved ones; this platform also permits people to speak out their minds. Not only that, but most of those people who buy the right house for their family also discover it when they leisurely browse the internet or their Instagram or Facebook news feeds. This does not mean that you can't sell a real estate property without the internet. However, with the increasing number of searches and hours allotted in surfing or browsing, not using an available platform will give you a hard time. Furthermore, during these trying times wherein physical transactions and contacts are deemed to be risky, utilizing social media is a good thing in an era of pandemic jolts.
Before you respond to the question of "what should I put to make use of the realm of social media?" you need to address the primary questions before it. These are:
(1) How to engage those leads who are coming to social media? And,
(2) How to utilize social media to convert a potential lead to an actual lead?
These two questions will be discussed as you continue to read this article. In addition to these, sub-topics related to the main topics will also be addressed along the way. Let's begin!
How to Engage with the Leads from Social Media
Most of the people nowadays are trying to become successful, and there's no problem with that. The problem will arise if one does not envision it to become as long-term. Real estate agents should not commit that kind of mistake. The plan should be long-term that could survive whatever challenges may arrive for the coming years. Being a real estate agent also means that you are capable of building a relationship with your leads. This is not in any romantic manner but more of a way for your lead not to feel that you are just after their credit card or cash register. When you're getting into the real estate industry, other than building a good rapport, you must create a trustworthy platform for your lead. It would be best if you give your future lead a comfort zone to find a real serenity.
"The first step in understanding social leads is to understand what that lead is looking. You have to get out of yourself and start thinking about these leads as people who're looking for something, so you want to come from the value you want to come from contribution."
— Hillary Anne, Verse
Finding the right home is, somehow, like finding your future partner. It has a lot of pressure and is thus stressful. It has to go through various processes to say that it perfectly suits your personality or the one you are looking for. As real estate agents, we don't want to become another factor in triggering our leads' stress. For you to become more efficient, of course, you need first to evaluate and organize yourself. It will help if you get away from the stress of unorganized thoughts and nightmares of scrambled data. But the question that confronts us is, how can we do that?
In one of the past articles we published, we discussed the benefits of Customer Relationship Management (CRM). It is a software application for all the data of your previous and present leads. It also includes tools that are necessary for marketing, namely: emails and social media postings. In addition to that, the CRM is also in-charge in keeping all your essential documents in one compacted location. This application is also your support as an agent. It makes you more profitable and helps you become the better version of yourself by managing all the essential aspects of the realtor-lead relationship. Though picking suitable CRM is somehow complicated for the reason that there are a lot of options to pick from. However, there are still some options intended for the neophyte realtors. Also, there are these more complicated ones for those who want to get all the tools. At first glance, it seemed frightening; however, success will follow you when you find the one that suits you. You are now capable of taking your business into the higher platform. Here are some methods to take advantage of your CRM application and get the most out of your maximum potential as a real estate agent. These are Organization, Marketing, and Relationships.
I-A. Organization
As a real estate agent, we don't just want to help our present and future leads to get their new homes. We also help them to attain their own strategic goals and objectives in life. In other words, we don't just exist to sell them the house they want and then vanish afterward. We don't want them to feel that they are only being used, and for us to do that, we must be ready to adapt to a sudden change. Because at some point in our lives as real estate agents, we are salesmen. We offer them different varieties of homes to choose from. Suddenly, suppose you want to increase the number of your sales. In that case, you have to act as if you are a psychologist to fully understand their needs and venture how our leads want to take.
"When it comes to my leads, there's no such thing as this instant gratification, especially when it comes to real estate leads because it's a huge decision in our life right, and it's a big purchase. We're not buying a cell phone, we're not buying a car, we're buying a house, yeah and there's a lot of little things that people are looking for. Then there's credit, and then there are all these other factors that come in. It's being able to understand that and being able to nurture that lead from the time that they come in. It's how do I build a relationship right and then figuring out their wants needs right in their pains and then figuring out how to coach them through that cycle until they convert from a lead into a prospect."
— Nick Reis, COO & Co-Founder, Agent Elite
It is awful to see some agents who stayed as salesmen. There's nothing wrong with what they want to do. Maybe, they are just mastering their skills as salesmen – nobody can give a truthful conclusion regarding that matter. However, if you really want to become successful and level up your agent skills, you need to adapt to various changes. And this would mean that you need to maintain all the information given to you by your lead. We don't want to forget those important details of our leads. Still, it is also hard to maintain those using our traditional writing method in a notebook or something. Gone are the days of those thick notebooks under your table or on a shelf with your lead's information. Because with the available tools in your CRM, you can bring together all the information from your previous leads up to your present leads. Using this database, you can effortlessly and resourcefully transact to your past and future leads. However, data organization is not only about putting this one to the previous leads, and these two in the present lead.
To locate that stored information quickly and efficiently, we also need to distinguish whether these leads are associated with you as a real estate agent and the industry you are in. Were they acquaintances or friends of your first cousin? Were they met when there's an open house? These questions and more related to these should be considered when you are making a list.
There are types of CRM's that let you organize the database based on how you want it to look like, so you just need to hover your mouse to find those options, and that's it, you have set your database. In addition to that, CRM's also possess different types of tools for you to input all your predetermined details of sales into a system where you can easily access it. You can also put your specific goals to achieve for a particular month and the source where the lead is coming from, such as website, poster, social media, or referred by a friend or someone. You can also add some activity streams and many more database features.
I-B. Marketing
In the previous paragraphs of this article, you have encountered the word "relationship," and maybe, you asked yourself, "how come that this word is related to the realm of real estate?" Well, let me explain how. In the real estate industry, your sphere of influence is said to be the mainstay of your connections. What does this "sphere of influence" or "SOI" mean? SOI is a list of people you know, whether in the professional fields or even in the unprofessional ones; it may also include your family or even acquaintances. Of course, you have not met these people in the same place and at the same time. Maybe you met this guy when you went fishing and this one when you watched a basketball game. In reality, you will not speak to them all in the same manner. You will not sell or market to the new lead you met while fishing the way you actually would to your relatives or best friend. By adequately organizing these bunch of acquaintances of yours into some specific categories, you will be able to adjust your marketing strategies in accordance with the situation where you met. This is helpful than to use a single marketing technique for all. That's not bad, but that's not good for you too. Words and jargon that you always use to your professional clients might not be attractive or applicable to the people you met in the fishing club or basketball game. For you to have a good catch, you need to exert some effort. When people feel that there's a connection between you and them, the possibility of selling is high. So, you might want to consider that.
I-C. Relationships
Here we are on the third method to fully take advantage of your CRM software application. In the past sub-topics, we have carefully discussed the importance of organization and marketing in real estate. It is indeed true that being an organized and market-smart agent is two aces in this industry. You can go beyond what you've envisioned when you are used to these two things. However, this industry is not all about properly organizing your leads' data and getting the top spot. This is more about handling and developing those relationships that you have started. No matter how your friendship started, even if it's your close friend or just someone whom you met in a coffee shop a couple of hours ago, sustaining those bonds will surely and eventually make or break your future as an agent. The choice is always ours. The first step is still the hard one because it takes a tremendous amount of courage to actualize. However, you will not encounter this kind of drama and find that courage phase because CRM's have built-in tools that help you trace those leads that touch with you as their agent. Through the CRM, you will receive notifications to get in touch in return to those leads. In this regard, the guarantee that your information will not fall into the misery of being left-out is high. In addition to this, your leads will also feel that they are being taken care of, and this will add them to your potential sales list. Remember that CRM's sole purpose is to make your life a real estate agent, and your lead's life is less complicated. There are a lot of demands, to-do's, and the likes. How are you going to respond to that? You don't have to think of it twice.
We are done talking about how to handle or engage those leads who are coming from the realm of social media. It is by using the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software application. Through this, we will be able to organize the data of our previous and future leads. We can also ace the market and maintain the realtor-lead relationship. How to engage those leads? Use CRM!
Now that we were able to answer how to handle those leads who are coming from social media, we will now talk about how to utilize social media to convert our potential lead to an actual lead. This is not foreign to most of us. There's an increase in social media usage, especially when the pandemic made the whole world stop doing the usual things. In this regard, many ways to promote social-marketing and such were paused for an indefinite period of time. That is why we, as real estate agents, should maximize the use of social media. There are parts of this article, especially in the earlier paragraphs, that happened to discuss the realm and importance of social media for a short time. However, in this second topic, we will not only be talking about the importance of it but, we will also tackle the role of social media in this era in which certainty can hardly be found. Apart from that, this article will also discuss how realtors should effectively use social media. Are you ready? Let's continue!
Importance of Social Media
We all live in a period in which all the necessary information is just one click away. Most of the people were being persuaded by the figures that are revolving around us. Today's youths tend to ask a lot of different questions, want to understand a lot of things, and then speak their minds out. This is where the importance of social media comes into life – it is one of the pivotal elements in all aspects of life, whether in medicine, academe, economics and such – this is the real deal, and we can't just ignore it. Since the importance of it, social media can be widely seen in different walks of life. It is also valid to say that social media also plays an essential role in the real estate industry. However, to discuss how realtors use this kind of platform, let us first talk about the role of social media in the area wherein no certainty can be found.
II-A. The Role of Social Media in the Era of Ambiguity
There are a lot of questions that make us uncertain and a lot of problems that make us ask, "why?" There are more and more events that let us question reality. Because of this, some want to vent out their anger and concerns. Where can they be found? On every social media site. But, if you don't have many questions in life and you want to chill, look for a cozy home, and such, are you still welcome on the said platform? The answer is, and will always be, YES! Many leads are venturing social media fields to find a place to call as "home." Are they also uncertain? The answer is, YES! They are still looking for something that will perfectly suit their needs and personalities. And this is where we, real estate agents, enter into the scene.
Facebook is the most famous social media platform for the young and for those who are working, including the real estate agents. This platform has more than 2.45 billion users every month, making it the social media platform with the largest number of active users. This is the most popular place where the agents promote not only their selves but also the house that they are selling. In this platform, the agent writes a fair amount of persuasive words that will capture the lead's heart. But, the agent must be prioritizing his or her work by being approachable to those who continuously ask questions, an agent must also understand what the lead is looking for, and again, given that this platform is really famous and thus accessible, the agent must be available most of the time to answer the queries of the leads. The agents also include their contact details, the company where they are associated with, and the likes so as for the leads to contact them easier. The agents also, in this platform, are not only posting about the house they are selling, but they also post something that captures one's curiosity. This technique can boost your site. So, if you are an aspiring agent, try to think of content other than houses. Why should you do this? Simply because you want to establish a connection. Not just a seller-buyer connection but more of a personal. Because, just like what we have discussed in the earlier paragraphs, relationships are also meaningful.
If you have an eye of a photographer, Instagram is the best for you. If on Facebook, you will see all the necessary information for a particular real estate property on Instagram, what you can most probably notice is the promoting side of the real estate. The agents and realtors post as often as they can to remain active in the feed. They also do it with eye-capturing captions, unique hashtags, and good photos of their real estate property.
So, what type of work do you have today? First, you need to have great, useful, and user-friendly content. Your present leads and potential leads need real solutions to their problems about real estate concerns. They need the information to feed them and make them informed as they continue their search despite the uncertainties. To recognize you as a trustworthy and market expert in the real estate industry, they look for content that helps them find out. They had enough stress coming in different forms. We should not add one to them to secure another deal.
When everything seems uncertain, social media is always there to find at least a portion of certainty that your lead is looking for. As agents, we should feed them with certainty. Meaning, when they ask for something, we should answer them right away to answer a particular question. Questions with no answers will make you feel that you are hanging. And by the way, giving them certainty also means that we should make sure that no rigid will be asked in every post. Remember, social media is a haven for our uncertain future leads.
But how do realtors use social media? For CRM alone? For posting and such? Well, let's see…
Agents in Social Media
An agent's most important thing in social media is to make himself or herself available for the leads. Facebook and Instagram are just two out of different websites that allow the agents to remain available even when only using mobile devices. Through this, the lead and the agent can communicate with one another regardless of location and time. The agent can quickly respond to inquiries and potential sales. By being just accessible or easy to contact, the agent can establish better relationships and deepen the communication with the clients. Every client wants to work with agents or professionals who can respond faster and offer solutions to their different problems. Who doesn't like it, right? So, if you want to be an efficient agent. Be available online!
In addition to the aforementioned statements, one of the things that the agents do in the realm of social, or should I say, why the agents are, somehow, always present in the social media is that social media is the best possible way to communicate and join various activities especially today. This is also one of the main advantages that social media networks could offer. Agents could also use this "social engagement" thing to keep all the target leads interested. An agent might consider doing something like starting conversations or chats, providing links, and other media sharing forms. The realm of social media allows real estate agents to have a meaningful conversation with people worldwide. Indeed, the social media interaction would increase for the reason that it brought convenience to all.
"Social media game is about user engagement; it's about staying in front of your sphere of influence."
— Nick Reis, COO & Co-Founder, Agent Elite
Another thing that an agent usually does in social media, as was discussed in the earlier paragraphs, is social media marketing. Most of the real estate agents use hashtags to attract their target clients. Besides, you can track who among your Facebook friends or Instagram followers are your best supporters by using the hashtag. Who are these best supporters? They continuously use your given hashtag, and they also share things regarding your offers and such.
Furthermore, as a real estate professional, location is one of your daily concerns. Why? Because you always want to provide what's best for your client to have. In that regard, by using and sharing locations, you can get more clients that you can talk to. Also, by using this location that most of the social media networks offer, you can set an accessible meeting to you and your lead. You can also use the location when you are sharing real estate photos so that the leads near that area can see it too.
Most real estate professionals do not work alone. They have networks of friends. Some might want to get in touch with other agents for referral purposes. By doing this, the agents are establishing their reputation. Imagine you are acquainted with most of the real estate professionals in your area. As a neophyte in this industry, that's a good thing. You will make your profile catchy and informative. By having this, you can attract more followers, and these followers will eventually become your lead.
As you read this article, many diverse ideas were emphasized, meaning they always have a significant role in the real estate industry. The written information above is just a portion of what an agent should learn to survive this industry's challenges. This pandemic indeed hinders us from doing the usual things. It is also true, through proper engagements and utilization of social media, as an agent, you can surpass those hindrances. Social media and technology continue to unfold different realities; as agents, we must be flexible in responding to the present-day dilemmas. For the reason that modern questions require modern solutions.
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