The Facebook Funnel Series

Over on our Facebook group, Facebook for Real Estate Agents, we are hot and heavy into maximizing Facebook for real estate lead generation.

The questions I’m getting both here on the blog and in the Facebook group have inspired me to write an in-depth series on Facebook lead generation for real estate agents. This post is the second in the series, with The Facebook Funnel – The Real Estate Lead Generation Process Using Facebook being the series pilot.

Direct from The Facebook Funnel – The Real Estate Lead Generation Process Using Facebook, today I’m going to teach you about getting a prospect to come to your Facebook business page.

In order to get a prospect to come your page, you’ve got to give them something they want. Something that compels them to want more from you. Something that entices them to come to your page and explore and ultimately, to like your page. That something is called content.

Let’s dig deeper . . .

Every day there are questions such as this one . . .

How do you generate enough good content on your Facebook business page to get people to reach out to you to buy or sell real estate with you?

This question is at the top of most real estate agents minds when they are trying to figure out how to use Facebook to lead generate.

It is multifaceted though.

You’ve got the “how do you generate enough good content” question and the “get people to reach out to you for your services” question.

Today I’m going to address the first part of the question:

How do you generate enough good real estate content on your Facebook business page?

Ok.

First and foremost, you must understand the Facebook funnel. The real estate lead generation process using Facebook.

Go. Take a moment to understand it. It’s about 3 minutes of your time.

I’ll wait.

Now that you are back . . .

Do you remember when I taught you how to build your own real estate content calendar?

Well, you need to do that.

The starting point for “enough good real estate content” is having a master plan aka a content calendar, guiding you with this content.

Make a master calendar with an eye towards the type of content you want to share.

For example, pin point the days and times you want to share home maintenance tips, promote listings, promote blog posts, answer questions, ask questions, post testimonials, promote kudos’ about your town/city, etc.

Now, once you’ve got the master content calendar down, you need to start heading out and finding the content.

Do your research.

Over on my Inman Next post I gave 4 tricks to planning your content in advance.

Check it out. I gave some awesome content resources on there.

The key is, you will need to be well read and knowledgable and you’ll need to make sure it shows.

The other key is, making it “good”. By good I mean engaging, interesting, thought provoking.

There are good ways and bad ways to share your real estate content on your Facebook business page.

The bad way . . . .

Constantly providing just a link (with no thoughtful dialogue on your part) on your page.
Constantly providing content that the consumer isn’t interested in, but providing it just for the sake of having activity on your page.

What is content your consumer doesn’t care about?

Well, they don’t care about the latest Case/Schiller report.
They don’t care about what the interest rate is today.
They don’t care about being told they should work with a REALTOR©. They don’t like being talked at.
They don’t care about content that is not focused on their real estate needs
They don’t care about content they can easily get elsewhere

The good way . . .

Now flip this around.

Often, you can provide the almost identical information but in a different way.

When you are sharing a link, talk with (not at or to) your prospect and share with them why they should take their time to click on and go to the link source.
Provide content they are interested in and care about.

driving traffic with good content — Image courtesy of [Naypong] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What is content your consumer cares about?

They like knowing that their choice to buy or sell now is a good one. This means instead of telling them now is a great time to buy or sell, that you address their needs and wants for buying or selling. It means that you address their emotional reasons. Don’t just say “now is the time to buy”, that simply doesn’t work. They hear it all . the . time . from people who want money from them.
They like knowing that the loan they are getting now is perfect for them. This means instead of telling them they’ll be a failure if the interest rates rise, tell them about different loan options and what kind of buyer each option would be best for. Appeal to the emotions with a touch on the practical. No matter how practical the person, emotion will always rule the final decision when it comes to the purchase of a personal residence. Always.
They like having a conversation. This means you need to have dialogue. It means that even if they don’t respond on your page, you need to write your post to them just as if they are standing in front of you and just asked you a question. And then, after you’ve answered their question, you need to ask them a question.
They like knowing they know what they are doing, whether they really do or not. Empower your prospects. Help them to better understand the process.

So there it is.

Between the content you create yourself, essentially your blog posts that consist of answers and solutions for the consumer, and the content you curate, you’ll have no troubles finding enough good real estate content for your Facebook business page.

Have you struggled with finding enough good real estate content to fill your Facebook business page?

Christina Ethridge is the founder of LeadsAndLeverage.com, helping real estate agents capture, convert and close Facebook leads.

Featured Download: The Facebook Page Setup Checklist. The step-by-step guide you need to get your Facebook page up and running and bringing in real estate leads. (Download Now)

Sometimes I think that real estate agents think that if they build a Facebook business page, the clients will just pop out of the wood work. And, when they don’t, they insist Facebook doesn’t work for real estate lead generation.

Well, I’m here to tell you that no, clients probably won’t pop out of the woodwork and that yes, Facebook is a breeding ground for generating massive real estate leads.

However. In order to generate massive amounts of real estate leads using your Facebook business page, you’ve first got to understand the Facebook funnel. The real estate lead generation process using Facebook.

First, let’s look at the real estate lead generation process . . .

There are 4 main steps to the real estate lead generation funnel.

Step 1 – Capture
Step 2 – Convert
Step 3 – Close
Step 4 – Cultivate

Let’s break down each one and put in all the right ingredients…

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Step 1 – Capture (Facebook)

This is where Facebook comes into the funnel. The Facebook portion is where we’re going to leverage the absolute best source of highly targeted traffic and drive it into your database, aka capture it.

There are several steps in this process including:

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Step 2 – Convert (Database)

This is where your email marketing comes into the funnel. You need to treat your email marketing with just as much, if not more, importance than you would your phone calls. You’ve got to leverage your email marketing to build know, like and trust relationships.

There are several steps in this process including:

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Step 3 – Close (In Person)

This tends to be where most agents (and brokerage trainings) give their highest energy and focus to… getting people who you have face to face or phone contact with into a position to close them.

The thing with this is that if you do Steps 1 and 2 the right way, Step 3 is insanely easy. In fact, you’ll close even more in Step 3 than if you just focus on Step 3 in all of your trainings.

There are essentially two steps in this process:

You’ve got to compel your prospect to sign a contract with you. Conversion.
You’ve got to guide your client to closing. Close.

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Step 4 – Cultivate

Something like 75% of real estate agents completely toss this step into the trash. They don’t do it. When 70% of sellers say they would definitely use the same real estate agent again, and yet only 25% of them actually do use the agent they previously worked with… this isn’t the fault of the seller, it’s the fault of the agent. They haven’t been doing the fourth step in the real estate lead generation funnel.

You must focus on the long haul. If you want a solid, consistent real estate business, you absolutely must have a way to continue to deepen your relationships with your closed clients. 64% of sellers used an agent referred to them by friends and family. If you aren’t cultivating your closed clients, you are going to fail in the real estate business.

There are basically two steps in this process:

You’ve got to encourage your client to refer others to you. Action.
You’ve got to compel your client to use you again. Conversion.

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Take a look at that process again.

The real estate agent mantra can be summarized into: Capture * Convert * Close * Cultivate. That’s easy enough to remember. It’s just not seemingly easy to implement.

At every point in the capture, convert, close, cultivate process, real estate agents freeze up. Some aren’t sure how to capture, others aren’t sure how to convert, others aren’t sure how to close and then, most don’t know how to give enough value after the closing to cultivate more business. That’s ok. Each step in the process can be learned and implemented in your business.

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The most important thing is to understand the process.

Understanding the process is the first step in knowing how to capture, convert, & close real estate leads with your Facebook business page.

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I want to help you do this!

What’s why I created the Facebook Page Setup Checklist. It’s the step-by-step guide you need to get your Facebook page up and running and bringing in real estate leads. You can download the checklist here.

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