Categories: General

3 Lead Follow-Up Options for Real Estate Agents

No matter how many high quality leads you generate through content marketing; without proper lead follow-up and nurturing, it is very likely that your leads will fall through the cracks – ready to be snatched up by other agents in your local market.

There are many things holding real estate agents back from properly nurturing their leads, some of the most common are:

Too Many Leads

Spring and summer are the most active months when it comes to real estate. What this means is that you’re more likely to generate a lot of leads during this time period than any other during the year. What this also means is that you’re more likely to have a lot of leads to follow-up with during this season – probably too much for you to handle.

Time Consuming

If you’re creating valuable content that answers customer’s questions, then you will be getting a lot of organic traffic to your website. This traffic will generate two types of leads:

Highly interested leads who want their problem solved NOW
Interested leads who want to find out about your services and integrity before committing.

Regardless of the type of lead, your duty is to follow up with each and every one of them. Obviously, the first type of lead is ready while the other (and usually the most common) type of lead needs more nurturing and content to help them choose you as the agent of their choice.

This is time-consuming for busy real estate agents.

Leads Have Little Patience

When leads reach out to you for questions, whether through your website’s contact form or by commenting on your blog post or through social media, they expect prompt response.

If they don’t get it; they’ll go somewhere else. And that somewhere else is definitely your competition.

In order to manage and convert your leads effectively, there are three (3) options which busy real estate agents can choose from. Even though, each of them has their pros and cons, you will definitely realize a return on investment.

Option 1: Hire a Personal Assistant

Whether you’re working in a real estate agency or you’re riding solo; hiring a personal assistant can make a lot of difference in how you respond and follow-up with leads during both peak and off peak periods.

Pros

– Assistants can handle basic inquiries and schedule meetings

– Assistants can monitor all social media handles and emails (acknowledging inquiries and responding appropriately.)

– Assistants can be brought on as interns, which is quite affordable.

Cons

– You will have to train your assistants very well before letting them handle your inquiries

– Your assistants are most likely not going to be working 24/7 which means you will miss replying to some urgent inquiries

– Your assistants might not be able to answer complex real estate questions

Option 2: Follow the DIY route

By following the Do It Yourself route; you stand a better chance of getting a good grip on your follow-up responses because most times, nobody can handle your clients as much as you can do.

Pros

– Self-management ensures high quality follow-ups

– It offers the benefit of providing in-depth market information to leads which will show your expertise

– By dealing directly with clients, you can quickly build trust and rapport; both of which is necessary before closing a deal – especially for leads who don’t want to jump into commitments.

Cons

– Following up with leads from multiple lead sources is time-consuming.

– Because most real estate agents don’t have the time to come up with personalized messages, they resort to using canned message templates that will turn leads off instantly.

– Lead follow-up and nurturing takes time and dedication if you want to convert as many as possible. What this usually causes is neglect in other part of your business.

Option 3: Outsource

Outsourcing your content marketing, lead generation and lead nurturing needs to an established real estate content marketing agency is probably the best option for you regardless if you’re working alone or with an agency.

Pros

– You will have enough free time to manage other parts of your business

– A real estate content marketing agency has experts and professionals who know about the industry well enough to provide valuable information to your leads

– By creating a content strategy, you can engage and nurture leads until they are ready to commit.

Cons

– Depending on your needs, they might be quite expensive although you will get a very high ROI.

Bottom Line

Lead nurturing and timely follow-up are the key ingredients needed in converting leads. Lead nurturing needs content that engages, educates and pushes your leads through your real estate marketing sales funnel until they’re ready to contact you.