The Evolution of CRE Agents and Lead Generation on Social Platforms
COFFEE IS FOR CLOSERS!
Glengarry Glen Ross was spot on for that time, cold call, cold call, cold call. When asking many CRE Agents about how they choose to market themselves, many say they focus on cold calling and that they don’t see the value in utilizing social platforms. However, the modern-day CRE agent has so many more options to generate leads that it’s almost overwhelming.
With so many new social platforms, email and CRMs tools, referrals, cold calling, and blog writing is making it almost too daunting to figure which is best for you to utilize.
Sales agents often forget about long-term lead generation, and how social platforms can impact them. The long history of outbound lead generation has proven to be successful but like any marketing tactics it’s designed to create relationships for the long term, that can easily be done on social platforms and create blogs and a good email campaign. The evolution of any business is critical to its success and CRE is quickly evolving thanks to social networks and APPS. Most brokerages have their social platforms, email marketing campaigns, and sometimes blogs, which are all good except many companies are not showing their agents how powerful of communication tools these have become, and how they can exponentially increase their leads.
I am a firm believer in an agent creating their own identity in the marketplace, and social marketing helps to create that personal. Cold calling everyone if your community can be difficult, plus many other agents are making the same calls to the same people, SET YOURSELF APART, create your own identity on platforms and make yourself a valuable asset to your community.
The goal is to be the first person they think about when they have a real estate question. Building a following is going to take time and persistence but in the end, it can be very well worth your efforts, create business pages on all social platforms and be sure your profile has all of your critical information, what you do, where you do it and of course make it easy for them to contact you, also, be sure your contact information is front and center on all marketing. I recommend doing at least two social media posts per week; either market updates, current listings, and occasionally something more personal like a photo with your pet (it makes you relatable). Follow up with an email blast out to everyone in your CRM at least once per month, again, bring something about the market that is of value to them. Finally, if you are going to publish a blog, make sure that you maintain a focus on it, ensuring every piece brings value to the reader.
When working on your social networks, you want to remember the algorithms each platform uses and work to generate as much exposure as possible, check (every couple of weeks, as the algorithms are constantly changing) to see when is the best time to post and make sure you comment, like and respond to other people.
Cold Calling still has its place, and I am a firm believer in it, but I believe that the way CRE is evolving you need to broaden your marketing, bring leads into you instead of focusing on your bound only. The APP Clubhouse has been growing like crazy and is essentially a podcast around a specific topic and it is already full of real estate conversations, people talking to one another about their markets and what is and isn’t working. Glenngary Glen Ross was a great movie for 1992, but CRE is evolving quickly…don’t get left behind!
Blog Post by: Joe Killinger, jkillinger@cbicommercial.com