If 2020 has taught us one big lesson, it is that we must adapt or risk falling behind. We need not look any further than the Real Estate industry to find relevant examples of these adaptations. While the current pandemic has motivated many agents to become better, faster, and stronger, many have been slow to adapt, and are falling further behind.
Let’s face facts—there has always been a gap between good and great agents. The ability to adapt to changes in the industry has always been crippling to those who are not fans of change. The difference now is that change has become the norm, and the ability to adapt is more critical than ever before. It is not the new normal, it is the new abnormal.
As the gap widens, consider how you can make sure you fall solidly in the “great agent” category.
Time for a Paradigm Shift
Good agents have always focused on finding and following up on more leads. But in this time of uncertainty, leads can be less reliable and even more unpredictable than ever before. Perhaps pre-pandemic, your conversion rates were 3%, and now they have dropped to 1%. Can you make up this difference by finding 3x more leads? Maybe.
However, doubling down on a lead generation strategy that worked a year ago is not adapting to the current market and times. Real Estate professionals who are thriving now are looking at lead generation in a whole new light and allowing the paradigm to shift.
Instead of doubling down on an old, dusty strategy that may have worked 15 years ago, great agents will focus on finding qualified leads and turning those leads into showings using modern-day solutions.
How Can You Advance from Good to Great?
Now that you have opened your mind to the paradigm shift needed to succeed, the next big question is how you can ensure that you end up in the “great agent” category. Here are my best tips for adapting to the new abnormal:
Make Facebook Ads Great Again
You will hear many agents say, “Facebook ads don’t work for lead generation anymore.” While it is true that the landscape of Facebook ads has changed, it is not true that they do not work. If you want Facebook ads to work for you, you need to rethink how you are using them.
The special ads category has thrown a wrench into the old Facebook ads strategy. Now you need to be savvier about who you are reaching with your ads. This means you need your CRM and follow up systems dialed in. But the good news is once you get those systems up and running, then the retargeting aspect can, and will, work like clockwork.
If you are just getting started, start small with a $10 per day budget and experiment. Your goal is to get your leads down to $5 or less. That means after 30 days, you will have about 60 leads. Extrapolating that over one year, and you have more than 720 new leads. If you convert even at 1%, that’s an additional 7 closings, for a total cost of $3,650 (or $521.43 per closing).
Create Custom Content
This one may be a bit obvious, but if you are not creating your own unique content, then you will not be a great real estate agent. Your buyers and sellers are looking for more than someone to drive them around to listings. They want to know that they are working with a Real Estate expert.
Create content that is valuable and checks your audience’s boxes. For example, create a 6-minute video (or series of videos) about the best home improvements you can make to sell your home. People who watch 95% of your video are much warmer leads than someone who clicks on a link to sign up for a free home evaluation. Next, you should go and retarget those who consume your stellar content.
Nurture Your Leads
Great agents know how to nurture their leads until those prospects are ready to close.
Continuing with the example above, once you know which people in your custom audience are interested in making home improvements, you know that the group is at least thinking about selling their home. So, you can start sharing seller success stories, Real Estate market guides, and listings in their neighborhoods.
The key to nurturing is to get prospects to believe you are someone that they would like to have a conversation with. You want them to seek out your content and click on your videos when they come across their feed.
After a lead has seen enough of your content, they will be ready to get on a phone call with you and you will be ready to close the deal while having the confidence of being a great agent!
Anthony Mann, President of A Social Strategy, has helped hundreds of Real Estate teams grow their business by providing qualified appointments. Anthony is so confident in his program that he allows you to only pay for appointments that you are happy with. He has been featured in FOX, NBC, Thrive Global. Click here to learn about his Agency for Life™ System: https://zeroretainer.com/