facebook marketing

The Facebook Funnel – The Real Estate Lead Generation Process Using Facebook

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.

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)

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…

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:

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

by Christina Ethridge 6 Comments

Real Estate Agents!! Whatever you do, don’t automate!

Say what?

Automate? Automate what? Where?

There are very few “laws” of social media marketing. Well really, there aren’t any “laws”, just perceived do’s and don’ts.

Today I’m going to tell you the one, single, law for real estate agents who use Facebook for lead generation.

Ready?

Here it is.

Do not automate the posting of your real estate listings to Facebook.

Ever.

Let’s look at your two options….

First of all, posting your listings on your Facebook personal profile is breeding ground for getting your profile shut down, closed out, deleted, by Facebook.

It’s blatantly against their terms of use.

Say what? You’ve never known anyone who has had their profile deleted by Facebook? You say you are too small and inconsequential and Facebook won’t notice?

Ok, aside from the fact that you are breaking your word… yes, you lied. When you signed up to use Facebook you agreed to their terms of use, so if you are ok with lying, so be it. There isn’t anything I can do to change that and quite frankly, if you are going to lie about something so small, I guarantee, you’ve got bigger issues to deal with than listing automation on Facebook.

Clock — Image courtesy of [Stoonn] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Now, aside from the whole lying issue, don’t fool yourself. Facebook looks at the little guy. They check to see if you are using your personal profile for business. People you are connected with may report you. Who knows how they’ll find out, they will. Eventually. When they find out (it’s not a matter of if, it’s when), they won’t give you any warning. You’ll lose everything… all your photos, all your friends and connections, all your work to build a network.

Why on earth would you put your efforts into something that will be deleted? Oh, wait. You’ve never seen Facebook delete a profile? Does it help that I have? That I know, personally, three profiles that were deleted because they were blatantly using their profile for business? Additionally, I know, through my networks, of 4 others who have had profiles deleted. Both in the real estate industry and outside of it. Profiles. I’m not talking about pages, I’m talking about personal profiles. All that work, gone.

Me, little ole me, someone who doesn’t have a massive network, knows 7 people who have had to deal with their unfortunate choice to “game” Facebook’s terms of service. I’m one user out of millions. I guarantee, there are more. Many more.

Ok, so you get the whole “no posting listings on your Facebook personal profile” thing. You intend to have them automatically posted to your Facebook business page.

That’s ok, right?

Well, yes . . . and no.

Yes, it’s within Facebook’s terms of service. You won’t have your page shut down for doing that.

However, what is your goal for your Facebook page? Is it to just have yet another place to “syndicate” your listings – so your sellers are happy you are advertising on Facebook?

It is?

What a waste.

Really. It’s a waste to use your Facebook business page like that.

Your Facebook business page has so much potential as a lead generating tool for your real estate business. Maximize that potential!

Instead of automating your listings, schedule them to post, but do it this way…

Pick a listing
Pick a feature
Upload a photo of said feature to Facebook
Ask a question from your prospects about the feature
Include a link to the listing IDX
Schedule the posting for high use period
Rinse. Repeat.

Do five to ten listings at once. With the scheduling feature, you can have days or weeks of listings ready to go, within about 30 minutes of your time.

You’ll also have created an engagement focused post – promoting your listings (making your sellers happy) and encouraging engagement and feedback from your prospects, which generates more leads (making you happy).

Ok – now do you see why automating the posting of your real estate listings isn’t a good thing, even if it’s allowed by Facebook? I totally and completely understand the need to leverage your time. Believe me, I do. I think that is probably one of the number on things real estate agents deal with.

However, real estate listing automation doesn’t truly leverage your time as it brings you no results. Leverage your time like I showed you above and you will see results.

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

by Christina Ethridge 3 Comments

Real Estate Agents – Want to know why your Facebook page isn’t getting any engagement (or bringing in leads)?

The number one reason your real estate Facebook page isn’t getting any engagement or bringing in any leads is because you aren’t posting on it.

The number two reason your real estate Facebook page isn’t getting any engagement or bringing in any leads is because when you are posting, you are posting either your listings or, you are posting content that is totally irrelevant and confusing to your prospects.

That’s why.

The reality is that 99% of real estate agents with a Facebook business page simply are not posting anything. They create the page, post once or twice, and then stop.

Maybe they’ll even post once a month or so.

I’m not real sure what they are expecting and I’m not sure why they stop. It’s probably a multitude of things really.

Even at that, do you know what they are posting? They are posting “ads” for their “services”. They are posting links to their listings.

Come on people.

Think about your Facebook business page like a cocktail party. If you yell out that you are a real estate agent at the beginning of the party, how on earth will that help you? No one really knows you, no on really cares. Listen to conversations and provide your expertise, don’t stuff it down their throats.

If you yell out in the middle of the party that you have a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, town home in the downtown area, look, here are the pictures, what do you think that is going to help you do? You’ve just eliminated anyone who wants a condo, a single family home, out in the suburbs, on a ranch, whatever.

If your Facebook business page is like a cocktail party, you have got to mingle. Mingle a lot. Mingle often.

This translates like this:

Post to your page daily. At minimum.

Um, yup. You have to post content at least every single day, ideally at least three times a day.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that two to three times a week is good. There are some businesses focusing on selling Facebook status updates to real estate agents and they are discouraging posting more than three times a week. Know what this tells me? Tells me that said service doesn’t know much about Facebook OR real estate except that real estate agents are looking for content and they want a piece of agent commissions. They aren’t there to solve the problem for real estate agents, they are there to capture a piece of the pie from real estate agents.

Respond. Engage.

When someone “likes” something you post, thank them! When someone “comments” on something you post, respond to them! When someone “shares” something you post, comment on their share, on their page or profile.

Check this daily. Engage daily.

Don’t blatantly sell or promote every time you post.

The worst mistake you can make. Selling you, advertising a house, pushing your services in their face. The consumer does not care. They don’t. Keep sales and promotional posts down to one out of five, at minimum. This means you post interesting stuff four times then post a listing or sell your services.

It also means that you don’t just post a “hey look at my new listing” link. You post something interesting about your listing. You engage the prospects to talk about your listing.

Don’t post content that isn’t relevant.

Some “gooroo” somewhere is telling real estate agents to post anything and everything. Just post. Oh my gosh. Someone needs to pop that “gooroo” in the mouth.

Seriously? Your business page is about real estate. Keep it there. It is not about knitting, or sky diving, or football. It’s about real estate. I mean come on, do you go to a camping page to learn about tennis shoes? Do you go to a cycling page to learn about social media?

Your prospects are coming there for you to answer their questions about homeownership. Answer them. Give them content that focuses on homeownership. You’ve got a huge wide world to post on: from the buying or selling process to home maintenance to credit repair to remodeling to decorating to insurance needs. Get what I’m saying? You’ve got so much content that is important, valuable, and usable for the consumer that you don’t need to saturate your page with irrelevant content.