If you could wave a magic wand, what would be the one thing that would make a massive difference to your success as a real estate agent?

The answer that most people tell me is that they’d love an easy way to generate leads.

In fact, most people I speak with in the industry tell me that the way in which they generate most of their leads is through opens and through their branding on vendor paid advertising.

Is there a better way?

After all, what happens if you don’t have listings? If you’re new to the industry … if most of your listings sell before you get to run any advertising. How do you get listings without first having listings to get enquiries from? It’s a vicious circle.

In an ideal world, agents would have a lead generation system where they run an ad, arrange for some letters to be sent out, and attract large number of leads that contact you, and you’re away.

Then - have a system that (almost) automatically keeps in touch with the people who aren’t ready to sell right now - so when they are ready to sell they call you.

Some in the industry may tell you that this kind of system is a fairy tale. I assure you it is VERY, VERY real. For instance, right at this very moment, one of our clients is attracting dozens of seller enquiries each and every week.

A lead generation system is an awesome way of attracting a large number of people who are interested in hearing more about the best way to sell their home. The challenge is though, these people may or may not be ready to sell right now.

That means it’s important (no, vital) to have a systemised way to build rapport with those people, so when they are ready to sell, you’re the first and only person they want to call.

One of the key differences between successful and not-so-successful real estate agents is that the successful ones recognise the importance of building relationships and they have a “high tech, high touch” way of doing that. “High tech” meaning a system that automates the process and “high touch” because the quality of the communication is warm and nurturing.

The right lead generation system will do that for you … not only does it automatically spin in the background, printing out warm, relationship-building letters to be sent out on certain days, automatically sending out nurturing emails at key intervals, and prompting you to phone people on certain days.

Obviously, a system is only as good as its operator. Set it up correctly in the first place, and have an efficient administrative assistant (or “virtual assistant”) to run it for you, and watch your results spread wings.

The Essential Ingredients …

1. Powerful lead generation offer.

What reason are you going to give people to call you in the first place? A FREE market appraisal or “I’m in your street this week” probably won’t “cut it”. After all, everyone is doing that.

The offer needs to stand out. It needs to appeal to the needs of the home seller and be of a high perceived value. It also needs to pitch you as an expert.

2. A cleverly created ad, letter or flyer campaign.

As you know, home owners are being bombarded with junk mail. It’s little wonder then that 99.5 (or more) out of 100 hit the bin before they even get read.

It makes sense then to ensure your marketing piece communicates the right message.

For instance, with letterbox flyers, look in your letterbox and see what others are distributing. How can you make yours stand out - not just with the wording but also in all the elements below?

• The weight of the paper that is used – if everyone is using paper, you use card
• The size of the flyer – if everyone is using A5 you use DL
• The colours used on the flyer – if most are black and white, use colour. If most are colour, use black and white.
• Design – a poor quality design reflects badly on an agent’s professionalism. On the reverse side, a “slick” full colour design looks too much like mass-produced advertising literature. It’s important to strike a balance.
• Copy – it needs to jump off the page. It needs to also have a powerful headline on both sides of the page because it’s impossible to know which side people will read first.

A $1million marketing study determined that there were 5 key factors that affect the success of a marketing campaign.

They are:

List 500%
Offer 200%
Timing 100%
Copy 35%
Response (device) 20%

Address all these factors and you can easily generate a great result.

In fact, we produced a letterbox campaign with an unusual design, powerful copy, a powerful offer and an eye-catching format that stood out and didn’t look like junk mail.

The result was a massive 5% response rate (as opposed to the .5% we were getting with the old flyer).

3. Make it easy to respond.

The easier you make it for someone to respond to your offer, the more responses you will get. Many people are wary of real estate agents so ask them to respond by visiting your website or sending an email and leaving their details. Do that and your responses will be higher.

4. Maximise ROI.

Set KPI’s and have a system for monitoring and measuring responses so you know which ads and which media and which marketing methods, give you maximum ROI. Measure things like:

• No. of enquiries per ad
• No. of CMA’s
• No. of listings
• Commission value of listing
• Cost per enquiry
• Cost per CMA
• Cost per listing

5. Have a suite of tools to help build relationships.

It’s a fact that 80% of consumers only buy after the 5th contact with a salesperson, so keep in touch with them.

With that, you’ll want a series of warm, relationship-building communications pieces on a variety of topics (as well as follow-up phone contact, of course). Be sincere. Add value.

6. An efficient, “well-set-up” CRM system

You’ll want a contact manager that stores contacts and offers a semi-automated way of nurturing a relationship with prospects over a period of time.

For instance, it might do the following:

Day One – Nurturing Letter A – merged and printed
Day Three – Follow up call scheduled and you are notified
Day Seven – Thank you email – merged and emailed
Day 21 – Nurturing Letter B – merged and printed
Day 30 – Newsletter
Day 45 – Nurturing Letter C – merged and printed
Day 60 – Follow-up call scheduled and you are notified
… and so on.

7. Recognise that nothing is 100% automated.

A lead generation system isn’t a magic pill, but it does work magically if you spend the time setting it up correctly in the first place, and have some administrative help for the data entry and mailing functions.

Whether you’re a real estate veteran or completely new to the industry, this method of attracting listings can be a powerful and cost-effective marketing tool for you.

One final thing to remember …

Another key difference between successful and not-so-successful real estate professionals is that the successful ones recognise that real estate is a business.

They recognise that as owners of that business they treat their marketing like an investment not a cost. They recognise that in order to maximise their listings they need to invest money in marketing. With that, they not only invest in the right marketing material and the right systems (the high tech, high touch) but they also have the right admin people around them to help them stay focused on what they do best (building relationships and selling).

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Kristina Mills is a leading real estate lead generation and internet marketing expert, speaker, and publisher of Real Estate Letters that Sell. Kristina also speaks on direct at real estate conferences.