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It is important to post client testimonials and listings but you want to optimize your Facebook business page to help you generate more qualified real estate leads.
In this blog post, I will be going over a good amount of information that will give you the tools you need to use Facebook for real estate agents, including:
-Why you should invest time marketing on Facebook
-How to start getting leads today
-How to create posts that create follower engagement
-How to get higher conversions with landing pages
I would like to begin by focusing on why Facebook is one of the best platforms for you to use when capturing real estate leads.
Great Reasons Why You Should Use Facebook For Real Estate Lead Acquisition
If you are already a part of an agency chances are that you already have your real estate website and the agency maintains the site for you. A website alone shouldn’t be the only way to stay in the lead generation game. If you look at some of the top-performing Realtors you will notice they are very active on Facebook. Here are some things they understand.
Facebook is very easy and visual, which will work perfectly to get the attention of prospective clients. Most everyone is familiar with how Facebook is designed to encourage users to share posts. This simple and viral activity has become a favorite pastime for millions of Facebook users.
Prospective clients are on Facebook
The most popular social media platform for today is Facebook.
Think about these facts:
-Around 70% of adults are active users of Facebook
-The average user spends almost 40 minutes a day on Facebook
-50% of people view a home online before walking through it
After seeing facts like that it just makes sense for your real estate business to be using Facebook to market. Facebook provides you with analytical data of other users who see your content. The audience insights will give you plenty of information about your business page like, like how often your followers log onto Facebook. Your regular Facebook profile does not offer those statistics. The information provided will allow you to focus on key demographics that will help you run targeted ads that will get you the best result. Now that you can see why it’s very important to have a Facebook page as a Realtor, we can cover the best ways to use this information to your advantage.
5 Strategies to Win More Real Estate Leads on Facebook
Follow these steps and your calendar will be full very soon:
1. Build A Strong Facebook Business Page
When I say build a strong Facebook Business Page I mean to fill every information section that you possibly can. The more content you have the easier it will be for potential clients to find you in search.
Many Realtors will use their personal Facebook accounts to help them get business from their friend list. Technically this goes against the Facebook Terms of Service policy. The policy dictates users having a Facebook business page to make marketing posts.
It’s best to use your personal Facebook account to engage with family, friends, and new people you add. You can invite your contacts to like your business Facebook page and then market to them from your Facebook business page once they follow you.
2. Publish High-Quality Content
You should post content that brings value and interest to your followers. You always want to be selling yourself and your service through listings or testimonials, but you must make room for posts that give without asking for something in return.
The informative and entertaining posts you make will build rapport with your followers and strengthen your business brand that will keep followers coming back for more.
After your followers have been following your posts and they start looking for a home, they will think of you because of the high-quality content they are used to seeing. Your followers won’t feel “sold to” because you have built a rapport with them already. It is a win/win.
So how do you get started?
Begin with the 80/20 rule
80% of your Facebook business page posts should be useful, relevant content, and the other 20% should be for listings and other real estate information.
Make different kinds of posts and not just the picture real estate listings. Ask yourself if your posts relate to your followers and what they may be interested in because so many others are competing for their attention.
Focus on sharing content that other top real estate agents share, like:
-Area real estate news updates
-Real estate blog posts regarding selling and buying a home, relocating, or real estate value
-DIY and How-to’s like flipping your home, spotting good investment property, and home staging
-Checklists, and infographics
Your focus should be on building relationships and positioning yourself as an expert in your followers’ area. Keep your posts short and attention-grabbing. You must think long-term and not the short sell.
Incorporate more videos
Videos are very powerful because it provides your prospective buyers an easier way to visualize a space. You have heard that a picture is worth a thousand words, well a video is worth a thousand pictures.
A top Australian real estate group used listings with videos and their prospects' interest rates went over 400% more than listings without videos. Over 70% of homeowners who were asked said they are more likely to list their home with a real estate agent who uses video marketing, but only an estimated 12% of realtors use YouTube to provide this video service.
Begin by creating more videos, uploading them to your YouTube account. You can share them to your Facebook account but it will help you more if you upload the same video to your Facebook business page as well.
You will need more video content ideas. Here are some ideas that Realtors are having great results with on Facebook:
-DIY home fails
-Renovation videos of before and after
-Drone video of areas you specialize in
-360-degree walkthrough videos
Make one to three posts daily and ramp up to around five posts. Be sure to test the engagement rates often to get an understanding of the best times to post. The stats are on your Facebook business page back office. Try not to focus too much on how many likes, comments, or shares you are seeing. Those are NOT true leads. The whole objective is to showcase the value you are providing to your followers.
Discover from your audience the optimal post times
You can create the highest quality content but if you are not posting at the optimal viewing times, your posts will be missed.
The best time of day to post on Facebook is between 1-3 p.m. and the timezone should match the same timezone as your target audience. Thursdays and Fridays are also some of the best days to post on as well. Internet research shows that 80% of Americans live in the Central and Eastern time zones. As far as best engagement times, Saturday and Sunday will bring the most engagement rates on Facebook.
That gives you a good idea of when you need to get started with your Facebook posting.
Do some thinking about the best time of the day for your audience to be browsing on Facebook. Are they super-busy parents who are juggling school and work schedules, or a retired couple shopping for a new beachfront property?
Free content is great for your followers but gated content is wonderful for both you and your followers.
3. Grow Client Base With Gated Content
You will provide value to your follower base with the content you post each day. Gated content will grow your contact list that will convert to new real estate leads.
Gated content works much like a “lead magnet” because it attracts leads but gated content has more detailed information. Visitors to your site or landing page simply trade their contact information to receive gated content from you.
Here are some examples of gated content for Realtors which include, eBooks, PDF’s and whitepapers on topics like:
-Purchasing a home
-Selling a home
-Relocating to your city
-Guide to living in your city
-Area and neighborhood reports from schools, crime, traffic, etc.
You can use gated content as a regular post if you like or create a Facebook ad with it. Either way, gated content is strong.
4. Going The Next Level With Real Estate Facebook Ads
Let me make a very bold statement. Every Realtor in the country should be utilizing Facebook ads to target and reach their potential clients.
After you have a good practice of what I’ve mentioned so far, keep the following tips in mind:
Use the Carousel ad format so your followers can scroll through several different photos and listings in the same ad.
There are slow times in the real estate industry but be sure to invest most during the peak months of the year. A good example of this is a home in San Francisco may net over $15,000 more if it is marketed during mid-late April.
After saving money during the slower times of the year, you can invest more in Facebook Ads to get yourself in front of the potential buyers and sellers during the most important peak times to reach a wider audience.
Target a custom audience and market
Facebook will target your ads when you upload a CSV file. They focus specifically based on your contacts’ information.
This will keep you connected with clients who you have worked with in the past and just might work with you again in the future. They may even refer your services to another Facebook contact.
Use a lookalike audience to test
Once you have uploaded your client contact list, Facebook will be able to create a “lookalike audience” that will be very similar to your real target audience.
Facebook sorts through your contacts and will make comparisons to users in the Facebook database with the same age, locations, and incomes.
Once Facebook gets similar connections in the “lookalike audience”, your ads will be sent to them. This allows you to market outside your typical audience and get more contacts because of the similar connections with your current customers.
Target newly married or engaged couples
New young married or engaged couples are a great demographic to target as buyers. They are in a major life-changing time and looking to invest in a new home together or upgrade their home.
It is a fact that almost 40% of married couples purchased their very first home before they were married two years, according to a study by Coldwell Banker.
On the other side of the coin, you can target relationship statuses that will pull up divorcees. This demographic fits into seller leads and will collect in the grouping because their relationship status shows separated or divorced.
Target by behavior
Facebook will use its data and even a third-party source to collect information on people who are likely to move. Those potential movers just might need real estate agent services. They will be listed under a new mover or likely to move.
You can add on more demographic data
You can laser focus demographic data like age, income, and zip codes that you want to work in to target potential buyers and sellers. In the search, you can go to Locations, Age, and Detailed Targeting.
Install Facebook Pixel
Have you ever browsed online and then a short time saw a Facebook ad that featured the same product or service you searched for? It can evoke a strange feeling but rest assured it’s not voodoo or even someone stalking you. It’s the power of pixels.
When someone takes a specific action online, a piece of JavaScript code tracks the action. A pixel is a piece of JavaScript code and they are used to target ads based on those specific actions online.
Facebook provides this pixel code and you can add it to your website code on a specific page or landing page. For example, when one of your visitors fills out a contact form on your website where the pixel is placed, Facebook will target your ads to the engaged potential client.
When the ad is targeted to the best match it performs better for your conversions than an ad targeted towards someone who is not familiar with you.
Another great way to increase conversion rates is by driving traffic to unique landing pages.
5. Build a Unique Real Estate Landing Page Experience
Your conversions will suffer if every ad or gated content sends your followers to your website. The reason for this is most websites are very busy with a lot of information to take in at once. There’s information like your business, rental openings, homes for sale, links to make appointments, and many other things.
Individual landing pages make things much more focused and simple.
Landing pages are one page with one goal
When someone gets to your landing page, there should be a very clear message of what visitors are supposed to do.
The landing page uses in real estate include:
-Facebook Ad traffic. Traffic from your ads will help you have higher conversions and a better (ROI) return on investment if your traffic is directed to landing pages that are specific to your marketing campaign.
-Content that is gated. When you direct your followers to a landing page, they will need to provide their specific contact information before they can receive free content.
-Add subscribers to your list. Your landing page can be used to get followers to sign up for email blasts, a regular newsletter, or mass text alerts. Your followers will appreciate hearing about updates and new properties as soon as they are available.
-Property landing page. Every single property listing you have should showcase its landing page. A single landing page will keep followers focused and informed on each listing.
-Home appraisals. When you target people who are thinking about moving or selling their home with landing pages, they will give you their contact information to receive a free home evaluation. They want to know the value of their home on the current market.
Do you have experience setting up a landing page? Maybe you are wondering how to make our current landing page better?
If you decide to set up a landing page or optimize your current landing page, here are a few things to remember:
-Use just one call to action and one goal in mind. Don’t give your visitors too many choices. Keep your landing page simple and clean. For example, if you want your visitors to book a showing, the only link you should have is one that will allow them to do exactly that. Too many links or multiple options will overwhelm your visitor and could keep them from taking any action.
-Entice your audience with the right images and words. What is your audience looking for the most? Use the images and words that match what your target audience is looking for.
Remember the lead capture form
Keep the lead capture form as minimal as possible. You will capture the most leads by requiring the least amount of information. For example, a first name, last name, email, and phone number are very effective. You can add that information to your CRM and nurture it accordingly.
Remember the highest converting landing pages are the simplest. If you are not creating your landing pages, we can help you with this. We create laser-focused and responsive, high-converting landing pages that will get you results.
Use Facebook to Get More Real Estate Leads
Now is a good time to put all I’ve covered with you to good use. Be sure to create a Facebook business page if you have not already. Think of some great content ideas you can post to your real estate business page that will act as magnets for attracting some leads. Remember to drive every potential lead to a unique landing page.
Follow all of these steps I’ve mentioned to help you get results. If you are looking for some help in putting a system like this in place be sure to contact me for a free marketing consultation.
The sooner you get a laser-focused landing page campaign running the better for your real estate business.
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