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Listings, Marketing, and Lead Capture
Mastering Real Estate Marketing: Listings and Lead Generation
Chapter: Listings, Marketing, and Lead Capture
Listings, Properly Marketed, Attract Buyers!
This chapter delves into the critical aspects of listings, marketing strategies, and lead capture techniques within the real estate industry. While marketing listings can attract buyer business, the primary goal is to sell properties quickly, at the highest possible price, and with minimal complications.
Marketing Your Listing to Sell
Even though the majority of the marketing you do around your listings functions to attract buyer business for you, you do need to sell your listings as quickly as possible, for the highest price possible, and with the least amount of hassle. Consequently, this section will briefly address the most effective methods for getting homes sold.
Leveraging Other Agents
Your fellow agents are a credible source of information for prospective buyers. They directly interact with your target audience, represent qualified buyers, and seek efficient and straightforward transactions.
To capitalize on this marketing avenue:
* Networking: Engage with agents in your Market Center.
* Digital Brochures: Convert home brochures to PDF files and email them to:
* Agents within your Market Center
* Area leaders
* Agents targeting your specific area or demographic
* Host Events: Organize broker open houses, peer group meetings, or networking events within your listings.
* Participate in Caravans: Join agent caravans to showcase properties.
* Offer Training: Conduct agent classes or seminars in your listings.
* Incentivize Referrals: Offer higher commission splits or cash prizes to agents who bring in deals.
The Power of the Internet
The internet offers multiple methods for marketing your listings:
* MLS Listing: Your MLS listing should be complete, accurate, and generously illustrated with high-quality images. Statistics show that browsers are more likely to pull up the detailed listing on houses that have 6 or more images. Top agents often have a personal benchmark of 14 or more photographs per listing.
* Virtual Tours & Videos: Virtual tours and videos enhance your listings. Some listing aggregators prioritize listings with virtual tours in search results.
Data Exchange:
Posting listings on the Keller Williams Listing Service (KWLS) and Realtor.com automatically distributes them to various partners, including:
KWLS
* GoogleBase
* Trulia.com
* Cyberhomes
* Yuvie.com
* Point2Homes.com
* Geebo.com
* Unique Global Estates
Realtor.com
* MSN.com
* AOL.com
* 65 TV stations (ex. Philadelphia News)
* Juno
* Wall Street Journal Online
* Netscape
* iWon
* NetZero
* CompuServe
* IBS
* Yahoo!
Personal Websites:
- IDX (Internet Data Exchange): Provide access to the local MLS through your site.
- Featured Listings: Showcase your best properties on your homepage.
- Individual Websites: Create websites for each listing (e.g., 123mainstreet.com).
- Individual Blogs: Develop a blog for each listing (e.g., 123mainstreet.blog.com). Be cautious about disclosing sensitive information that could negatively impact negotiations.
Yard Signs
- Visibility: Place visible, legible signs in prominent locations. Corner lots require signs on each street.
- Maintenance: Keep signs clean and in good repair. Ensure the brochure box is stocked with flyers.
- Sign Riders: Use sign riders to increase urgency and interest, with messages like “Complete remodel,” “Home warranty,” or “Move-in ready.”
Marketing for Buyer Business
- Maximize Appeal: Ensure listings are cleaned and staged before photography or MLS publication.
- Design: Use compelling marketing flyers and Just Listed/Sold postcards to capture attention.
Strategic Information Disclosure:
When a buyer looks at a listing in a home magazine or some other marketing vehicle, they want to know:
* Is the house attractive?
* Will it fit my needs?
* Is the location right?
* Can I afford the home?
List attractive photos, features, and an IVR talking-ad number for price and address information. This captures leads before potential disqualification based on price or location. Serious buyers will call to listen to the recording. At that point it doesn’t matter if the price or location disqualifies the listing because you have already captured the lead in your IVR and can follow up with them.
MLS Listings:
* Provide comprehensive information on MLS listings as buyers are already working with agents.
Follow-Up:
* Regularly contact potential buyers encountered at open houses or through marketing efforts.
What If You Don’t Have Listings?
- HUD Homes: Market Housing and Urban Development (HUD) homes (where available). Any Realtor can market HUD homes. They sell quickly, allowing you to show similar MLS properties.
- Cooperate: Partner with agents lacking marketing resources. Advertise their listings with their permission.
Important Legal Note: MLSs prohibit advertising other agents’ listings without explicit permission. Establish a formal agreement before marketing their inventory.
Systematic Marketing
A coherent marketing action plan with a clearly defined goal is essential. Your marketing and prospecting tactics are linked, so you must plan not only what marketing activities you will do, but also how you will integrate them with your prospecting.
Foundational Marketing Plans:
- The 8 x 8
- The 33 Touch
- The 12 Direct
Metwork Marketing (The 8 x 8 and the 33 Touch):
These plans are used for marketing to your “Mets”—your database of acquaintances.
Yields approximately 2 closed deals per year for every 12 people in your Metwork when completing the 33 Touch program (1 repeat, 1 referral).
Haven’t Met Marketing (The 12 Direct):
This plan, involving 12 touches per year, is suitable for agent-to-agent marketing and potential clients you don’t know (“Haven’t Mets”).
Averages 1 closed deal per 50 people in your Haven’t Met database with the 12 Direct program.
Optimal ratios are achieved after 18-24 months of consistent marketing, following one cycle of the 8 x 8 and 33 Touch.
Conversion Ratios
Mets = 12 names in your database will yield 2 closed transactions (12:2)
Haven’t Mets = 50 names in your database will yield 1 closed transaction (50:1)
Database Size Formulas
- Goal: Close 36 deals.
- Strategy: 3/4 from Mets, 1/4 from Haven’t Mets.
Calculations:
- Deals from Mets: 36 × (3/4) = 27 deals
- Deals from Haven’t Mets: 36 × (1/4) = 9 deals
Database Size:
- Mets: 27 deals × 6 = 162 Mets
- Haven’t Mets: 9 deals × 50 = 450 Haven’t Mets
Conclusion: Market to at least 162 Mets using the 8 x 8 and 33 Touch, and to 450 Haven’t Mets with a consistent program.
Prospecting is crucial to ensure the success of your marketing action plan.
Top agents often double the calculated database size for optimal results.
Key Strategies for Systematic Marketing
- Target Your Audience
- Be Consistent and Repetitive
- Don’t Overthink It
Key Strategy 1: Target Your Audience
Effective marketing is audience-focused. Determine:
- Target Audience: Geographic farm (location) or niche farm (shared interests/backgrounds)?
- Buyers/Sellers income range: \$ ______________ to \$ ______________
- Buyers/Sellers home value range: \$ ______________ to \$ ______________
- Buyers/Sellers age range: ______________ to ______________
- Preferred location
- Concerns
- Up-graders
- Down-graders
- First-time home buyers
- Retirees
- Investors
- Builders
- Relocating companies
- Relocating employees
- Other: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________
- Other: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________
- Current Knowledge: What does your target audience already know?
- Marketing Purpose: Repeat business? Referral generation? Reputation building?
- Call to Action: What will motivate them to respond?
- Desired Impression: What impression do you want to create?
- Special Offer: What unique offer can you provide?
- Service Guarantee: What specific service guarantee can you offer?
Use your target audience profile and Statement of Brand Identity to guide the content and style of your marketing materials.
Key Strategy 2: Be Consistent and Repetitive
Maintain a consistent and repetitive marketing schedule to stay top-of-mind with potential clients.
Key Strategy 3: Don’t Overthink It
Focus on delivering a clear, strong message consistently rather than over-engineering marketing materials. It’s far better to send out lots of mid-quality marketing than to waste weeks twiddling with your design to create one brilliant piece … that you send out once.
The 8 x 8 Plan
The 8 x 8 is an intensive marketing and prospecting blitz that allows you to make a very strong impression on the people you’ve just added to your Mets database. The heart of the 8 x 8 is that you touch your new Mets once a week for eight weeks. This allows you to establish mindshare, so that at the conclusion of the 8 x 8, your 33 Touch plan just has to maintain the dominance you’ve already built. Here’s an example of a basic 8 x 8 action plan:
Basic 8 x 8 Plan
Week 1: Drop off a letter of introduction, your personal brochure, a market report, and your business card.
Week 2: Send a community calendar, current market statistics, recipe card, or an inspirational card.
Week 3: Same as Week 2, but choose a different mailing piece.
Week 4: Make a phone call: “Hello, this is [agent name] with Keller Williams Realty. Is this a good time? I won’t take much of your time. How are you? Did you receive the mailout that I sent you? That’s great. Did you have any questions? The reason I’m calling is to find out who you know that might be buying or selling a house soon.”
Week 5: Send one of your free reports.
Week 6: Send a real estate investment or house maintenance tip.
Week 7: Send a refrigerator magnet.
Week 8: Send another marketing piece.
Lead Capture Strategies
Effective lead capture is the systematic process of attracting potential clients and gathering their contact information for future communication and business opportunities.
Step-by-Step Methodology for Lead Capture
- Sign-in Sheet/Registration Form: (Name, Phone Number, Email, Address, How did they hear of the open house?)
- Conversation: (What are you looking for? What area? Price Range? When are you looking to move? Are you pre-approved?)
- Mortgage Pre-Approval: (If they are not pre-approved, get them in touch with your lender.)
- Property Information Package: (Include details about the property, neighborhood, schools, and local amenities.)
- Calendar:
- Open House Program:
- Email/Fax/Voice Broadcast: (Include your website address)
- Track Showings/Collect Feedback:
- Target Marketing:
- Weekly Seller Updates:
- Property Caravans:
- Creative Marketing Ideas:
Chapter Summary
Listings, Marketing, and Lead Capture: Scientific Summary
This chapter explores the synergistic relationship between listing properties effectively, employing strategic marketing techniques, and capturing potential leads to grow a real estate business. It underscores that successful listing marketing not only sells properties but also attracts buyer clients.
Key Concepts:
- Listing Marketing: Emphasizes marketing listings to sell properties swiftly, at optimal prices, and with minimal complications, while also generating buyer leads.
- Agent Networking: Highlights fellow agents as crucial, credible sources for connecting with prospective buyers.
- Online Marketing: Stresses the importance of complete, accurate, and visually rich MLS listings, supplemented by virtual tours and videos. Leverage listing aggregators (KWLS, Realtor.com) for extended reach. Independent websites and blogs are also effective, but necessitate caution regarding confidential information.
- Traditional Marketing: Affirms the value of visible yard signs with informative riders (“Coming Soon,” “Remodeled”) and well-stocked brochure boxes.
- Buyer Lead Generation: Prioritizes creating attractive marketing materials to attract a wide range of buyers, not just those interested in a specific listing.
- Strategic Information Disclosure: Advocates for withholding certain details (price, address) in initial marketing to encourage inquiries, while providing comprehensive information on the MLS for serious buyers working with agents.
- Consistent Follow-Up: Emphasizes the necessity of tracking and maintaining contact with leads generated through open houses or any marketing method.
- Marketing Without Listings: Recommends marketing HUD homes or, with permission, other agents’ listings to generate leads when inventory is low.
- Systematic Marketing: Introduces structured marketing plans (8x8, 33 Touch, 12 Direct) tailored to different audience types (Met vs. Haven’t Met), and details strategies for implementation, including audience targeting, consistency, and avoiding over-analysis.
Key Takeaways:
- Effective listing marketing serves dual purposes: selling the property and attracting buyer leads.
- A multi-faceted approach combining agent networking, online presence, and traditional methods maximizes exposure.
- Strategic information release in marketing materials can drive lead capture.
- Consistent follow-up is crucial for converting leads into clients.
- Systematic marketing plans (8x8, 33 Touch, 12 Direct) provide a framework for consistent outreach and relationship building.
Broader Real Estate Principles:
- Lead Generation: This chapter directly addresses lead generation, a core pillar of sustainable real estate success.
- Relationship Building: Networking with agents and cultivating relationships with potential clients are fundamental to long-term growth.
- Marketing and Branding: Consistent and targeted marketing efforts enhance brand recognition and establish credibility.
- Market Knowledge: Staying informed about market statistics and effectively communicating value to clients are essential for success.
Practical Next Steps:
- Optimize MLS Listings: Ensure all current listings feature high-quality photos, virtual tours, and detailed descriptions.
- Implement a Follow-Up System: Create a system for tracking and contacting leads generated from marketing efforts.
- Develop a Systematic Marketing Plan: Choose an appropriate plan (8x8, 33 Touch, or 12 Direct) and implement it consistently.
- Network with Other Agents: Actively participate in agent caravans, broker open houses, and networking events.
- Evaluate Marketing Materials: Review current marketing materials to ensure they are visually appealing and strategically designed to capture leads.
Further Exploration:
- Power Session 4: Leveraging a Powerful Contact Database: Learn about automated marketing systems.
- Power Session 5: Working with Mets: Understand the underlying concepts of different marketing plans.
- Power Session 7: Open Houses: Explore effective open house strategies.
- Power Session 9: Agent-to-Agent Referrals: Learn how to foster relationships with other agents.
- KWU’s “Win with Sellers” Course: Further investigate marketing listings.
