As we have been teaching throughout different markets in the last few months, I have still found it amazing that one of the biggest fears in starting to do Internet marketing is around “lead quality”.  Most of the time the question is posed in such as fashion as “I know you guys generates 100’s of leads a month, BUT what is the quality of your leads?”.

The question is an odd one, as we usually probe and ask “Do you mean valid phone numbers? or Valid e-mail addresses?”, but this is usually not the case.  The question is more of a polite way of saying “Aren’t the leads you get from your website really garbage?”.  OK, maybe not that harsh, but one of the biggest fears that still permeates throughout real estate professionals is the simple statement:

Do leads from blogs and websites actually work?

In reality I think it is a very honest question.  Starting in a new form of marketing is never easy, and with technology often coming with some apprehension from many there is a sentiment that these leads are “bad” or “just don’t work”.  If you have taken one of our classes, then you know our commitment to our attendees is that they won’t be in the crowd of people saying “Internet leads don’t work”, but if you are new to Internet marketing or just haven’t had a chance to take our class, here are some tips, so you can ensure you turn leads into commissions.

  1. Response Time - Don’t wait days to return calls and e-mails to leads received from your website and blog.  Statistics show that 60+% of people making a request on a real estate website expect a response time in under 4 hours.  Set a consistent schedule that allows you to return e-mails and calls to leads received and your success will skyrocket.  You don’t have your Blackberry glued to your hip, but you do have to make sure to respond to each and every lead.  The goal on our team is a response time of 15 minutes or less, that way we often catch people still on our website!
  2. Make Phone calls - If someone puts their phone number on a request form for more information on a property or neighborhood…CALL THEM!  You would be surprised at the number of times I call people and they say “Wow, you are the only agent who has actually called me back”.  It helps to have the right scripts, but often just picking up the phone will put you miles ahead of the competition.
  3. Stay in Touch - If you are using a contact management program like TopProducer then you can set up Action plans to easily stay in touch with the leads that you generate.  Make the sure that your action plans go for a minimum of 6 months because many people start their search online so putting together action plans that cover 6 months will help you to catch people who want to buy now and 6 months from now.

Take Action

If you haven’t had the quickest response time, or have lost touch with some of those leads that you got last month, it’s still not too late.  Send out some e-mails and make some calls to see who still needs help to achieve their goals in real estate.  With many exiting the industry there is a good chance that no one has been following up with those prospects so now is your time!

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