Lead Generation

Facebook Leads vs. PPC Leads: Which Ones Are Better For Real Estate Lead Generation?

I recently had a conversation with someone interested in using our services. The crux of the conversation ended up that this person decided not to use our services. That wasn’t the issue I had. Our services aren’t for everyone.

What actually came up that concerned me was something that clearly, I’ve not been able to communicate. I need to change that.

This person said that from their research, Facebook leads were just too far out to go after. They were too far out for closings. They decided to stick with their PPC and work on their organic search.

Wow. I failed. Big time.

I’ve failed to show several things here:

The value in using Facebook, for one, and the value in having at least three online lead channels in your real estate business.

One of the awesome things about creating, building and maintaining a Facebook business page is that it will strongly enhance your online presence, organically.

A #Facebook page for your #realestate business will enhance your online presence

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The beauty about Facebook business pages is that they are indexable. This means they show up in keyword searches in Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. This means you have another chance to have an additional resource for the consumer, ranking very high on these search engines.

In other words, you’ll knock your competition out of the search rankings, the more options you have showing up on page one. There are only ten places you know.

In many (if not most) cases, Facebook pages will outrank your website.

This is powerful for your online presence. It gives you yet another point of connection for prospects as they use the search engines.

The other issue I failed to address was the singular focus on PPC as a better lead source than Facebook.

Here’s the deal . . .

When Google comes out as saying that click-thru’s in ads are down, significantly, you know two things . . .

That it will take more money to get the same results
You better start leveraging and finding other ways to bring in leads.

Lead generation for your real estate business should never be a one “source” channel. You really need to set up your lead generation like a stool with three legs.

Three legs of online lead generation sources. When one changes, because it will, often faster than you can react, you’ll be stuck high and dry if you haven’t created other strong lead generation channels.

Take the Craigslist changes in November 2013 as a perfect example. So many agents were tied up using Craigslist as their main (if not one and only) lead generation source (not just online, but their entire lead generation focused solely on Craigslist) that many just crashed when Craigslist took away links in posts.

It was huge repercussion.

The uproar in the real estate community was very loud.

You do not want to be in the position of many of these agents, struggling when that lead source changes, stops working, disappears, etc.

You must must must have three online lead generation channels.

By the way, if you are still struggling to generate real estate leads on Craigslist, check out our free eBook on how to Sneak In And Dominate Craigslist. We didn’t crash and fall when Craigslist made their major changes. You can still generate leads using Craigslist.

As far as “taking too long to close” . . . there is this idea out there that certain kinds of online real estate leads are ripe for the picking and others are dead (no lead is dead).

Here’s the thing about “taking too long to close”. It’s not true. I’m just talking about different sources of online leads here.

Online leads are in all different stages of the home buying/selling process. All different stages. Despite what some SEO experts might be telling you, people searching google for “City Homes For Sale” are no closer to closing than any other online lead.

A #realestate agent must have three online lead generation channels

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The key is, you’ve got to have a system in place that nurtures the lead through the process, whether that process takes ten days or ten years.

Here’s a fantastic plus for Facebook leads vs. PPC leads:

Facebook leads are better overall for several reasons . . .

Once they feel “connected” with you, they are loyal. Very loyal. If you keep them engaged, keep nurturing them via other methods, keep connecting with them, you’ll have a long-term, loyal client.

They make referrals. Lots of them. If they like you, even if they haven’t used your services yet, they will refer their friends, family and acquaintances and they will take pride in that referral.

The length of time to close is the same as any other “online” lead, no more, no less. However, the power behind the connection (with loyalty and referrals) is much more enhanced with a Facebook lead than it is with a typical PPC lead.

So which one is better? You need both, plus one more.

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

by Christina Ethridge 5 Comments

How do you get people from your Facebook business page to reach out to you to buy or sell real estate with you?

The other day, someone asked this question:

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?

I answered the first part of the question just a few days ago, How do you generate enough good real estate content on your Facebook business page

Today I want to focus on the second part of this question:

How do you get people to reach out to you to buy or sell real estate with you?

If you haven’t already, go over and read my post on The Facebook Funnel – The Real Estate Lead Generation Process Using Facebook

You’ll need to understand the entire real estate lead generation process as it pertains to Facebook in order to understand this small segment I’m addressing today.

Ok. Back to the question at hand:

How do you get people to reach out to you to buy or sell real estate with you?

First, let me paint you a picture (with words).

Imagine you have no idea how to alpine (downhill) ski. I’m going to take you up to the mountain with me today. We get there. You get your clothes, boots, skis on and we head over to the lift. We jump on and head up to a gorgeous, deep snow, black diamond run (if you don’t know the lingo, black diamond simply means advanced). We push off the top and head down. It’s exhilarating. We hit the bottom and head up for another run.

Oh.

Wait.

Maybe you don’t know how to ski. Or maybe, you’ve only been to a single lesson. Or maybe, you’ve been a couple times but you’ve never done a black diamond run in deep snow.

So I suppose that just because I got you up to the mountain and even got you to put the equipment on, doesn’t mean you are ready to make the leap to a black diamond run, right?

Well, lets apply that to Facebook.

Just because I’ve gotten a prospect to “like” my Facebook page (put on the equipment) doesn’t mean that prospect is ready to call me and buy a house today (hit the lifts and big slopes).

So, by jumping from “getting them to my Facebook page” right into “call me to use my services”, you are skipping a whole heck of a lot of lessons and practice. Many times, months and months of practice.

In the business world, you have got to nurture and nurture and nurture the leads.

But, in order to nurture a lead, you’ve got to get that lead to give you a WAY to nurture them.

To convert Facebook likes into clients you must get their email address — Image courtesy of [Master isolated images] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

An email address.

You need the prospect to give you their email address.

How?

Give them something they can’t refuse. Give them something they want.

Give it to them using their email address as an exchange.

Get their email address into your contact management system.

People hate the word “email drip campaign”, but that is exactly what you are doing. You are setting up a way to contact them on a continuing, recurring basis, until the time that their need for your services hits a point that they then feel the need to reach out to you to use your services.

It’s all in the timing.

That time frame is a long time. Long. Consumers are starting their search months and months, years and years, before they are ready to make the move to buy or sell real estate.

The more information that is available at their fingertips, the farther in advance they start the process.

Capture them into your email database at any time in that process, whether it be the very beginning or the point where they are ready to choose a home (or sell). Your “fastest” sales will be people who’ve already been in the process for months and months. However, if you know how sales work, the most amount of sales will come from the 90% who are not ready “right now”.

If you nurture them over the long run, they’ll be yours.

But, in order to get them to “be yours”, you have got to give them value. You’ve got to give them something that they want enough that they will give you their email address to get it.

And, don’t make the mistake and think that what you have to give is “listings”. While that is one thing, that’s definitely not the only thing, nor is it the most valuable thing, not by a long shot.

sending valuable emails on a consistent basis nurtures your real estate lead — Image courtesy of [Stuart Miles] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Do your research.

Step out into other real estate markets and do some serious web searches. Check out what other awesome real estate agents are giving their prospects in exchange for an email address. You don’t have to read it or even look at it. Just look at WHAT they are offering – is it ebooks? Is it video training? Podcasts? What?

Now, step outside of the real estate industry. What are other businesses giving their online leads? How can you take that idea and mold it to work with your real estate business?

What appeals to you? What appeals to your clients you’ve already served? What is something totally the opposite of what everyone else is giving out?

Take that and create something valuable to give to your consumers. Something that fits you and your personality.

Now back to the original concept, you must get an email address in order to move your lead along the steps to becoming a client. They don’t just leap. They walk. Be there with them every step of the way.

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Questions are being asked by real estate agents over on our Facebook for Real Estate Agents group. Are you part of this fantastic group? If you are not, you are definitely missing out.

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

by Christina Ethridge 13 Comments

Strike while the iron is hot – why Craigslist is NOW the place to be for real estate agents

Do you realize that the best time to be doing something is when everyone else is doing the opposite?

Right now, today, is the perfect moment to capture high quality real estate leads from Craigslist.

Why?

Because everyone is freaking out.

Because every other real estate agent has stopped posting.

Because the ones who are still posting, don’t have a clue how to make it easy for Craigslist prospects to get to you.

Why?

Because the “experts” are saying “go somewhere else”.

The “experts” are saying “they saw it coming”.

Well, honestly, just about everyone saw it coming.

With the “experts” teaching real estate agents to blatantly violate Craigslist’s terms of use by . . .

creating multiple fake accounts
buying pre-paid phones so you can phone verify multiple fake accounts
posting an obscene amount of posts every day
manipulating multiple accounts via multiple IP & MAC addresses

In other words, let’s agree to use Craigslist by their terms (you agree when you sign up for an account) and then let’s lie to them, cheat the system, and create havoc for everyone (which is exactly what is happening now).

Guess what this lying and cheating resulted in?

Thousands of ads each day of spam. Spam from real estate agents throwing up anything and everything on Craigslist. Craigslist users not being able to use any of the Craigslist search functions. Functions like price sort, photo sort, mapping, keyword search, etc.

It’s resulted in Craigslist shutting down the ability to put in any links in the for sale ads. Making it impossible for legit posts that want to have an active link that points to video tours, neighborhood tours, etc.

So. Should you give up on Craigslist?

The “experts” say you should.

I say – ignore the “experts”. I always have.

Here’s the deal . . .

First of all, you should already BE somewhere else.

Your online lead generation strategy should always be at least a three legged stool. If you put all of your eggs in the Craigslist basket, you are definitely paying for it now.

With that said, here’s why I have always ignored the “experts” when it’s come to Craigslist . . .

It never sat right with me to have multiple accounts. It just didn’t. It is explicitly against Craigslist’s terms of use, and I didn’t want my personal account shut down.

And, the short time frame that I did utilize multiple accounts, and did what the “experts” teach, I noticed something. Something significant.

My ad to lead ratio (the number of ads I needed to run to capture one lead) actually went down. I captured fewer leads per ad doing it the “experts” way.

So, while everyone else was running multiple accounts and an insane amount of ads, while still others insisted they were getting junk leads from Craigslist . . .

I was running all of our ads through our single Craigslist account.
I ran no more than ten ads per day, sometimes I’d go as high as twenty, but that was a true rarity (my lead ratios always increased when I did this, but I was also exposing my account to ghosting and flagging, which I didn’t want).
I was bringing in anywhere from 34-55 leads each month into our database from our Craigslist prospecting.

Yes, I could have brought in more, if I had wanted to ignore the recipe that was working for us, bringing in higher quality leads.

I got our ad to lead capture rate down to 3.6 to 1. For every 3.6 ads I ran, I captured one lead.

Our first year conversion rate (closing) for our Craigslist ads was 34:1. For every 34 leads we brought in, we closed one.

Our Craigslist buyer leads who closed on a property with us ended up being a couple of things:

33% of them were all cash
78% of them bought at 53% or more over our area average price
23% of them made a second purchase within a twelve month time frame

In other words, we had some excellent leads from our Craigslist ads, and we ignored what the “experts” were doing and teaching others to do.

We didn’t run “fancy” ads.
We didn’t do the “video” trick on our ads.
We didn’t run multiple clickable links.
We didn’t run multiple photos.
We didn’t use fancy symbols in our headlines.
We never advertised foreclosure lists.

So. Should you give up on Craigslist because things have changed? Because the “experts” say you should?

That’s your choice.

As far as my choice, I’m staying on Craigslist. The pickings are RIPE right now. Excellent.

I’m especially looking forward to paying to run my ads. I’m betting that my lead capture ratios will go through the roof at that point.

Want to know exactly how we do it?

I’ll teach you. Free. No obligation.

When you sign up to receive Get RE-Freshed! Our weekly online real estate marketing to do list and confirm your subscription, I will email you a free pdf copy of my 18 page ebook: How To Sneak In And Dominate Craigslist While Every Other Real Estate Agent Is Freaking Out About The Changes

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