Building up a business in the Mortgage/Real Estate industry can seem like a daunting task. Even impossible at times. The vast majority of competition in the market place can cause you to take a negative approach to building your business, or even a lackadaisical one.
Until NOW…
When it comes down to it, there’s 3 major factors to focus on when you are trying to generate more leads and grow your business. Connecting with people you know/warm marketing, having an engaging and interesting social media presence, and targeting a specific location or community, should be the focus. Today we are going to cover each of these areas to help you better connect and generate more leads!
Warm Market
If you’ve dived into the marketing world, you may have heard of the term “warm marketing”. If not, warm marketing is basically reaching out to someone who you’ve had previous contact with, as well as friends, or family members. This group of people is also known as your “sphere of influence”. Basically, anyone that knows your name. Some avoid working this group in fear of being too pushy or losing friendships in trying to influence them to do business. It doesn’t have to be this way if you go about it the right way.
Here’s your first step – Start building a list of everyone in your sphere of influence with names, addresses and email. This list ideally needs to be input into a CRM, but if you have to use a spreadsheet, make sure you segment out this group in this fashion…
- Family and Friends
- Business partners/associates
- Clients
You need to treat this list like GOLD! Because essentially that is what it is. How you manage, communicate and provide value to this sphere of influence will greatly determine your success. The key is having a strong marketing plan and strategy that will enable you to accomplish the above 3. Manage, communicate, & provide value.
As part of your strategy, here are some tips you can incorporate that have proven to be very effective.
- Send a personalized newsletter in the mail. – No one get’s a personalized mail piece from people they know these days. If you think about it, an email newsletter has a far greater chance of getting lost in the mix, or lost all together, decreasing your chance of open rate, read rate and conversion. However, when you send it to your sphere in the mail, there’s a great chance they will open it, read through it, and comment back to you on it. Here’s the other secret…once it’s in their hand, they’re less likely to get distracted by a computer screen with all the other attention suckers pulling at their brains. Try it and see for yourself. It works! It’s called the “Blue Ocean Marketing Strategy” – go where no one else is going.
(If you want to a really good newsletter template that works, give me a call, I’m happy to discuss this with you.) - Go to lunch with highly influential people in your sphere. – By spending time with people you know who have a large influence and voice to their own warm market, you’ll position yourself to be leveraged into their sphere. Build the right relationship and foster those relationships with these individuals and you’re sure to get referrals.
- Do client appreciations events and invite everyone! – Everyone in your sphere is a client or potential client. Putting on appreciation events is not only a great way to say “Thank You” – but it utilizes the power of RECIPROCITY. It’s a real power, and taps into the psychological effect that when you do something for someone that has value, they are emotionally inclined to want to give something in return. This is where asking for referrals later on doesn’t come as being pushy or salesy, it’s a given.
If you just did these 3 things really well, it would serve you year after year. There are many more things that we know we could list here, but keeping it simple, yet valuable is the ticket. The top 3 above also allows you to really connect with people, and that my friends is where success is found.
Social Media Presence
Did you know that about 90% of businesses that have a dedicated social media platform as part of their marketing strategy, report an INCREASE in their market exposure?! More than half of small businesses also reported having the highest increase in sales when they invested their time into their social media marketing.
Studies have also shown that customers would purchase from businesses with an active Facebook page rather than without. All of these statistics lead to the conclusion that one of the most important things for growth in your business is to highly invest in your social media platforms!
Don’t let your competitors serge above you just because they’re a step ahead with social media. It’s easy to get on board and build a brand of loyal followers! Like with anything else, it takes consistency and good communication skills.
-Post good content everyday. Keep it short, sweet, and to the point.
-ALWAYS respond to comments sincerely and be personable. Don’t sound like an automatic and boring response.
-Try sending direct message to potential clients, or people who recently liked or shared something you’ve posted.
-Boost your SEO efforts. Optimize keywords in your blog or post descriptions that connect you to consumers searches in the community. Use hashtags on Instagram and Twitter.
-Have a photo, video, gif, or something visual with every single post. Almost every study shows that just content alone on a post gets hardly any attention. Catch readers eyes with something captivating to draw them into the content.
-Feature someone with a strong following onto your page and have them share the post onto their social media.
There’s plenty of ways to build a strong following and grow your social media presence. Even if you are just getting started, if you are consistent with these tips, you’ll see the fruits of your efforts.
“The difference between those who succeed and those who fail, lies in their habits.”
Farm a Zip Code/Targeting a Large Neighborhood
“Farming” means growing something. So when you hear the term”farming a subdivision”, you are planting seeds of future business and marketing to them as best you can to reap future rewards. The best way to get started, as with anything, is to set up a game plan!
Go deeper than just targeting a specific audience. Other than just knowing where they live, get to know WHO they are. Is this area you’re targeting full of young families, baby boomers, retirees? If its a mix find the best way to market to both of them! It doesn’t matter if you grow these relationships through blogging, social media, or directly calling them- building these friendships and connections are the only sustainable way to grow.
Remember, you’re aiming to be the FACE of the community in this industry. It takes more effort than just sending out newsletters, postcards, and flyers. Face to face connections is what is proven to make you stand out among the rest. Some ideas to connect with your community could be...
-Planning a Fall Festival, or a big seasonal event. Invite food trucks or a popular restaurant to cater. Plan out fun games and music!
-Have a Community BBQ, bring in bouncy houses, face painting, and invite other vendors or businesses.
-Put on a community rummage or garage sale
These are just a few ideas, but start brainstorming and put on something creative and fun for the community to get involved in!
Another thing to remember when you are “farming” a certain area, is that everyone loves facts and statistics. Home owners love to know how their home looks in the current market. Get yourself known as the local expert of these market reports. Send out advertisements with a link or a few stats to drive them to your website/page. Post on your social media platforms the best listings in that area, market updates, and full reports that keep the community in the loop!
This is one of the main ways to generate leads and connect with your community organically.
We know a lot of these points require you to go the extra mile. But THAT is what ultimately separates you from everyone else in this competitive market. 95% of people will stay in that nice comfort zone and go about things the “traditional way”. But those 5 percenters are the ones who branch out of their circle, meet new faces, and are always going above and beyond what’s expected of them!
Use warm marketing to your advantage and connect with people you already know. Make friends with mutual friends and become the known brand to all of them. Build an engaging social media presence and communicate on all your platforms as best you can! Make a game plan today to farm a zip code you want to target. Get to know WHO they are and what they like best.
Hope you liked today’s Monday Minute. Tell us what you think in the comments!
Until next time!
http://hardcorecloser.com/2017/03/10-ways-to-generate-mortgage-leads-quickly-from-social-media/
https://www.zillow.com/advice-thread/Getting-leads-as-loan-officer/548949/
https://www.inman.com/2016/02/25/21-ways-generate-real-estate-leads-can-handle-2016/
http://www.jasonleehq.com/7-warm-market-prospecting-tips/