Trick-or-Treat Yourself to Better Lead Generation

by | Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Lead Generation, Lead Management, Uncategorized

While it’s certainly true that some of your leads will be generated by word of mouth and referral source connections, that doesn’t mean your lead generation strategies should only be a skeletal effort.

As a professional, you understand that investing a bit of effort behind a worthwhile initiative can help it gain momentum. The same can be said for lead generation.

There are three basic strategies you can use to scare up more lead generation:

1. Feed Your Beasties

Your website, blog, email campaigns and social media marketing all work together to feed lead-generating content to your clients, prospects and referral sources. These access points help interested onlookers find your business and give “tire-kickers” an idea of the benefits they’ll get when they connect with your business.

Take the following steps to move prospects from cold to qualified:

  • Provide relevant and engaging content that connects with your target markets
  • Amplify your content through multiple access points, such as your blog, website, email messaging, social media and other online channels
  • Include calls to action in your messaging
  • Maintain consistent communications to create repetitive touch-points
  • Experiment with a fresh approach as needed – be willing to try something new

The key to successful nurturing is to consistently position your content in front of your onlookers.

    2. Feast Your Eyes On Your Metrics

    Without the reporting and metrics tools behind your efforts, you’ll never know who is responding to your marketing. You’ll also miss out on determining which content is garnering the most interest. Metrics and reporting pull double-duty by helping you connect with nurtured clients and prospects while also giving you a feel for what’s resonating with your audience.

    3. Pursue Your Lead

    Frame out a system for maintaining consistent communications, and include clear calls to action in your messages. Your efforts truly begin building momentum when you tap into the results generated by your marketing and proactively follow up on your warm leads.

    Identify your rainmakers, offer incentives based on achievement and build a system of lead follow-up accountability into your strategies.

    Using the example of an email campaign, your marketing and lead generation workflow could resemble a plan following these basic steps:

    • Gather contact information for your clients, prospects and referral sources and create a marketing list
    • Create email messages with informative, timely information that will be of use to your target markets
    • Launch your message and monitor readers clicking on content that has a direct tie-in to your service offerings
    • If possible, set alerts on such content to inform your rainmakers as new leads come in
    • Follow up via phone or email to contact your warm leads and begin a conversation that may segue into a new opportunity for your firm

    Granted, these are simplified tips, and there is some work involved in launching and maintaining strategies that consistently generate warm leads. However, today’s professional marketing options are endless. It is often possible to outsource a number of the steps along your prospect’s journey.

    Consider which steps your firm would like to maintain in-house, and which would be more efficiently handled by a third-party resource. With a little push behind your marketing and lead generation initiatives, you’ll be scaring up more new opportunities in no time.

    >> CLICK HERE to Check Out Some More of HomeActions Lead Generation Tools

    3 Things To Help Generate More New Opportunities

    by | Lead Generation, Lead Management, Prospecting, Uncategorized

    If you’d like your real estate email marketing to start bringing in more new opportunities, you’ll need to turn your messages into attention-getting emails full of click-worthy content.

    Here are three quick tips to help you dazzle new prospects and keep existing clients enthralled.

    1. Improve Your Subject Line

    Before you can generate a lead, you’ll need to get readers to open your emails. The email subject line is your opportunity to make a good first impression in the inbox. Leverage it properly, and you’ll entice more readers to act on your messages.

    Your email subject line should clearly address the needs of your readers in concise language. It should also convey the importance of your message.

    Here are some subject line tips to encourage readership:

    • Explain the actual contents of your email newsletter (don’t pull a bait and switch with deceptive teasers)
    • Create a sense of urgency using deadlines, dates and actionable words
    • Use a personalization field to include your readers’ first names
    • Pull the title of a timely article or important update in your email newsletter and duplicate it as your email subject line
    • Ask questions and let readers know your newsletter provides the answer
    • Appeal to your valued readers by including phrasing that makes them feel exclusive, important, or as if they are part of a VIP inner-circle
    • Mention a numbered series of items that will be covered in your email, such as “5 Quick Tips” or “3 Ways to Improve”
    • On occasion, use seasonal themes and other fun subject lines to avoid a sense of stale repetition

    Your subject line should always clearly represent what readers can actually expect to find in your email newsletter. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different subject line formats and tones. Watch your open rates to see which approaches are working the best for your messaging.

    2. Send Click-worthy Content

    Everything you include in your email marketing should have a subtle tie-in to your services. If you want your email marketing to resonate with your target audience, you’ll also need to offer content tailored to their needs and interests.

    It can be challenging to strike a balance between communicating your value as a real estate agent while also offering insights to your readers. To accomplish this, consider your client success stories. Why did a recent client need your services? How did your services solve their problem? Were there any note-worthy takeaways from the experience? Answer these questions in an email article, and you’ll have the kind of click-worthy content that converts into new opportunities.

    3. Don’t Let New Opportunities Go Cold

    Once you have your prospects clicking on content, be sure to reach out to those who have shown interest in your articles. There are a few simple ways you can connect with warm prospects generated through your email marketing:

    1. Send a one-on-one follow-up email
    2. Review prospect click activity to gain insight into probable needs, and then give them a call to determine their level of interest in utilizing relevant services
    3. Enter the reader into a targeted email nurturing campaign that mirrors the topic of the article they initially clicked

    When you reach out to any warm prospect, be sure to thank them for their interest in your email newsletter. This conversation-opener will help your prospects make a connection between the follow-up activity and the article they read.

    One-on-one follow up emails can be used to set up a short meeting. You can leverage these meetings to explore the prospect’s level of interest in buying or selling a home.

    You can also send a message to seek out fresh information from the prospect. Ask them if they read the article in order to achieve a particular goal and if you might be able to help them reach that goal.

    Nurturing campaigns can also be used to continue nurturing prospects who seem to be “tire-kicking.” Make sure your follow-up communications are as professional as your email newsletter. These messages will continue to build a positive impression of your brand. They will be seen as the digital voice of your company. Even if your prospect doesn’t convert to a new client today, they may choose you at some point in the future.

    Continue testing new subject lines and fresh content to keep readers interested in your communications. Follow-through is essential to the success of your marketing. Make sure you implement strategies to track, respond and manage engagement generated by your email newsletter.

    CLICK HERE to learn more about lead generation with HomeActions™.