Typical Lead Generation Strategies

Based on the Industry Marketing Report from Ad-ology®, agents plan to allocate their marketing budgets to the following activities:

Database and direct marketing (mail, email, transpromo)…………………………….17.6%

Sales collateral and literature………………………………………………………………………16.6%

Trade shows and conferences………………………………………………………………………9.8%

Social media and viral, word-of-mouth (e.g. blogs, internet communities)………9.1%

Search (SEO, SEM)………………………………………………………………………………………..8.1%

Online advertising………………………………………………………………………………………..7.6%

Telemarketing and lead qualification……………………………………………………………7.3%

Other………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…6.6%

Print……………………………………………………………………………………………………………6%

Experiential marketing events…………………………………………………………..…………4.9%

Packaging, merchandising and display………………………………………………………….1.6%

Television…………………………………………………………………………………………………….1.5%

Outdoor…………………………………………………………………………………………………….0.7%

Radio…………………………………………………………………………………………...……………0.6%

Alternative channels (mobile, place-based, entertainment)…………………………0.6%

As you can see from the report above, agents are using several mediums to deliver their messages and prospect for new clients.  How do you think this has been working out for the average agent?  Our research says, not so well.  As with anything, there are agents all over that are having great success with all of these methods. But that is not what we are interested in with this book.  We are looking for the absolute best methods out there.  We are interested in fast results, a return on all marketing investments and then managing all the leads that are generated.

So, if you are like the average agent, our research says that one of your biggest priorities for the upcoming year is setting clear goals and improving marketing spend.  What we found most interesting was that when the agents listed the lead generation activities that really worked, they were:

·     Repeat business

·     Open houses

·     FSBO expired listings

·     Networking

·     Signage

·     Telemarketing

·     Internet and websites

What’s really interesting on this is that the lead generation strategies that real estate agents said worked is more of a list of the activities that are the easiest when it comes to lead generation.  I have a hard time buying that the most effective prospecting technique is truly repeat business.  Is that more of a function of agents relying on repeat business or a function that they are actively marketing to repeat clients. From our research it shows the latter is true.

In all of the research that we conducted through surveys of current clients, we found that the most effective lead generation technique for each agent was the one that they placed the highest focus on.  So, if an agent was committed to generating Internet leads, that in turn was the most effective technique for that agent.

Knowing this, doesn’t it make sense to find the most economical solution for lead generation marketing?  That’s what we set out to prove in the Truth About Real Estate Lead Generation. We wanted to show that any marketing activity could be effective if there was a focus placed on it and the agent worked on improving conversion from this lead source.