Do you feel like you’re doing all of the things but you’re still struggling to get real estate leads?
Are you experiencing burnout and exhaustion, yet your commissions are looking lower than ever?
This might be why…
The reality is, a lot of agents waste dozens of hours every single week focusing on the WRONG things.
It doesn’t matter how hard you work.
If you’re not focusing on the *right* actions to get real estate leads, your pipeline will always be dry.
So if you’re ready to do real estate lead generation differently, read on to know about four shifts you need to make to get more sales rolling in.
Shift 1: Modern Marketing > Archaic Tactics
In real estate, people used to rely on traditional methods like cold calling, door knocking, and “geo-farming” to stay top of mind with potential clients and secure more real estate leads.
But the ONLY reason those methods were used is because we didn’t have any better options available at the time.
But now that we have computers that fit in our pockets, those methods no longer make sense. Yet they persist.
In his book Hook Point: How to Survive in a 3-Second World, Brendan Kane writes:
With more than 60 million messages sent out on digital platforms every day, we have an incredible amount of information being sent to us constantly…. In fact, the average person spends eleven hours a day interacting with digital media (including digital video, audio, TV, newspapers, magazines, etc.) and scrolls through 300 feet of content. People use their phones 1,500 times a week and check their email inboxes thirty times an hour. Every sixty seconds on Facebook, there are 400 new users, 317 status updates, 147,000 uploaded photos, and 54,000 shared links. Approximately 95 million photos and videos are shared on Instagram on a daily basis.
So why are real estate agents sticking to the old way of doing things?
Buckle up, because you might not like the answer.
Many of the agents who were successful in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s with those old tactics are now broker-owners teaching their agents what they learned way back when. They’re not marketers, and their lead-generation strategies are certainly not up to date.
That old way has got to go.
Today, there is so much software available that can automate the tasks you’ve been doing manually—and that technology should come before you hire another person because it’s so much more efficient.
The real estate industry is being challenged by tech companies and iBuyers. In response, agents are throwing their hands up and getting angry without actually doing anything about it.
You don’t get to choose not to adapt and then get angry when you’re replaced.
If you want to get more real estate leads, think about where your ideal clients are hanging out.
Rather than pestering them through cold messages and phone calls, show up for them through valuable content that converts them from strangers to clients.
You can read this post all about the three types of real estate content for social media you NEED to be posting to get started!
Shift 2: Niching Down > Serving Everyone
A lot of agents think that to secure more real estate leads, they need to serve anyone and everyone.
They believe that casting a wide net equates to more opportunities for sales.
But in reality, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
Your niche is NOT a geographical area.
Think about it.
You can have a neighborhood that has upsizers, downsizers, first-time buyers, and investors, all in one postal or zip code.
All of these ideal client avatars have a unique set of needs and desires.
But if you’re using the older methods of marketing—say flyers, for example—your messaging has to be incredibly broad.
All you end up doing is getting an impression for the sake of an impression.
Understanding The Life Transition
When I tell agents to niche down, I mean choosing a group of ideal clients and customizing your marketing to attract them.
You must understand the psychology of the client’s life transition.
What is the deeper reason for their move?
Once you know what’s going on in a client’s head during their real estate transaction, you can use that to create incredibly targeted messaging.
Now, you may have heard other real estate gurus say you should get in front of as many eyeballs as possible—to paint with the widest brush instead of narrowing down to a specific market. But when you do that, you only get filtered out as noise.
The Generalist Trap
The riches are in the niches, and specificity wins—every time.
You probably wouldn’t trust your family doctors to install a pacemaker in your chest. Your clients also don’t want a generalist; they want someone who specializes in what they need.
Because let’s face it, we’re at a point now where everyone seems to have a real estate license. Effective marketing means being able to articulate what’s in the back of someone’s mind better than they can—sometimes even before they can.
You cannot do that if you’re painting with a broad brush. Make no mistake—if you’re still trying to use vague, nonsensical taglines, at some point you will disappear. You will become irrelevant.
Your Client Is The Hero
Most real estate advertising falls flat because agents lean on “I’m number one!” messaging.
They focus their attention on themselves—instead of their potential clients—because they can’t actually create marketing that will truly strike a chord with people.
But people don’t care about you. They care about themselves.
Hearing you talk about how great you are or how many awards you’ve won doesn’t solve your ideal client’s problem—that they’re terrified they won’t be able to find a house before their move-out date or that their marriage won’t actually survive the time it takes to find the said house.
Shift 3: Connection > Perfection
You can’t just hide behind a pretty logo anymore, especially in real estate. This is a human-to-human business, so it’s important that people get to know, like, and trust you.
People create comfort with other human beings, and guess what?
That DOESN’T happen by being perfect.
Perfection is boring, and it makes other people feel inadequate. People build connections through vulnerability and stories. We have to break down barriers to trust.
Become The Approachable Celebrity
One of the best ways to build familiarity and trust is to present as what I call “the approachable celebrity”.
Let me explain…
There are two types of celebrities.
One is very approachable; the other is not.
If you saw Brad Pitt walking down the street, you probably wouldn’t feel comfortable walking up to him and giving him a high five.
But there are certain influencers that most people would have no problem approaching to say hello. Yes, they’re “celebrities,” but people feel like they already know them because they’ve been following their story on their social media accounts and feel like they’re part of their lives.
It’s like when an actor breaks the fourth wall in a movie and talks to the audience. That’s approachability, and it’s what you need to build with your ideal audience.
You might think that to attract more real estate leads, you need to create an image of perfection, letting everyone know about how you’re the top real estate agent around.
But people don’t care about that. What they do care about is that you care about and understand them.
That’s part of what you can demonstrate with psychologically driven marketing content.
Shift 4: Emotion > Numbers
Too many agents focus on numbers and stats rather than creating an emotional connection with their ideal client avatar.
They think they can just pump out market stats and real estate infographics and bring in tons of real estate leads.
You need to understand the emotions your client is experiencing that are fueling the move.
Let’s say you’re serving “upsizers.” These are mostly young families and people who have outgrown their first space.
You need to show that you truly understand their pains, problems, fears, and desires.
There is the emotion of letting go of the first home they bought, the house that their kids were born in.
But there’s also the frustration of fighting every day because they’re tripping over the kids’ toys, and everyone is sharing the same bathroom. And, of course, there are the financial worries that come along with moving into a bigger home.
Most agents come at these situations purely from a numbers standpoint.
And as a result, the clients don’t feel understood. Even worse, they feel like they’re just another deal or transaction for that agent. In fact, I advise you to take the words transaction and deal out of your marketing copy altogether.
Speak In The Language Of Your Ideal Client
A sale is a transaction or deal for you—not for the client. Don’t decide for the client what a sale is for them.
Instead, do your research and find out what language your audience is using. Speak to them in their words and language, not yours.
So if you’re a real estate agent struggling to get real estate leads, remember…
You’re likely focusing on the wrong things.
You might be spending hours and hours on archaic, old-school marketing techniques like cold-calling and manual prospecting…
When you should instead be focusing on a real estate content marketing strategy that gets clients coming to YOU.
You might be trying to cast a wide net and serve as many people as possible…
When instead, you should hone in and solve a specific problem for a specific person.
You might be focusing exclusively on numbers and stats…
When instead you need to cultivate an EMOTIONAL connection with your clients.
Or you might even be falling into the trap that you need to show up as polished and perfect, when you really need to be embracing authenticity and vulnerability.
Not only will these mishaps leave your real estate lead pipeline dry, but they’ll also even repel clients.
Instead, use The Listings Lab Method to fill your calendar with appointments – all without fake or sleazy sales techniques.
Get all of the details for free by downloading The Listings Lab Method Guide here.
