For today’s real estate pros, business comes from a wide variety of places. For those not maximizing leads from the Web, a lot of prospective clients—and money—could be left on the table. For Galand Haas, operating principal of Keller Williams Realty Eugene and Springfield in Oregon, and Lane Hornung, CEO and founder of 8z Real Estate in Boulder, Colo., and the co-founder of COhomefinder.com, appropriately capturing and managing Internet leads is the reason why they garner hundreds of added leads each and every month.
In a recent installment of RISMedia’s Agent Webinar Series, “Spark Sales Success…Online!” moderated by Verl Workman, founder and CEO of Workman Success Systems, Haas and Hornung shared with attendees how their companies handle these valuable online leads.
“There is no one source for Internet leads,” says Haas, whose companies pull in 250 – 300 buyer leads and 150 – 200 seller leads per month from the web alone. Some of his business comes from pay-per-click (PPC) Google AdWords and postcard campaigns, as well as plenty of other sources. Using a variety of systems such as Real Pro Systems and Client Creator, Haas is able to manage these leads and ensure that his agents have plenty of leads to work with.
Haas then ran webinar attendees through what he believes to be the critical components of conversion, noting that exposure through PPC ads is a must. Consumers are out there, he says, but companies must market and obtain phone numbers, names and emails. “If you get those three components, you have a pretty good chance at converting that lead into real business.”
Haas doesn’t rest on PPC alone, however. He still uses weekly email blasts to update everyone in his database, hitting 15,000 people each week with information about what’s happening in the area or an informational news piece. He also works newspaper ads into his strategy, placing ads in the Sunday Classifieds section, pulling in an additional 20 – 40 buyer leads every weekend.
Hornung has found similar success in navigating digital waters and was one of the earliest adopters of online lead generation. He remains a big fan of using Facebook ads, which allow him to get hyper-local and hyper-targeted. Out of 80,000 visits to his sites, 5 percent (4,000) become prospects, and 8 – 10 percent become referrals to agents (300 – 400 monthly leads).
Hornung says that online marketing is akin to online dating—“It’s all about the eye candy. Nobody reads text online. We work with Studio, out of Canada, to produce killer digital fliers in order to attract people. I don’t think too many Match.com profiles without photos are getting dates.”
Like Haas, Hornung believes phone numbers are key. Even if the number of people who sign up on the form decreases, the quality of leads you receive in the end will go up dramatically, along with your ability to convert them, he says.
BoomTown helps his company stay organized, allowing them to tackle large numbers and decipher between prospects they’ve spoken to and those they haven’t yet connected with.
“The whole goal is to move from an online relationship to a real-world relationship so we can do what we’ve been doing in real estate forever—provide belly-to-belly service,” says Hornung.
This post was originally published on RISMedia’s blog, Housecall. Check the blog daily for winning real estate tips and trends for you and your clients.
