Driving Leads and Growing Lists for Real Estate Agents

[Caitlin_M]

This article was revised and shortened from the original version by Stephanie French, published on the Constant Contact Blog.

Buying a home can be an exciting yet emotional experience for buyers. I experienced almost every feeling out there when I bought my apartment a few years ago. When I was ready to find my first apartment, I looked for an agent to assist me. The one who followed up with me immediately was the one I went with. I expressed that I was a first-time buyer and based on the information I provided when signing up, she knew exactly what I was looking for.

Email marketing is one of many keys to have hanging off of your real estate keychain. It’s an essential part of the lead nurturing process. But first, let’s discuss how to find those leads using list growth tools.

📣 Purchased or scraped lists cannot be uploaded into your Constant Contact account as these violate our Email Permission Policy and can result in your account being shut down. But not to worry, we have a wide range of tools for you to organically grow your list and collect new leads.

But first, how do you drive leads to sign up? If you’ve signed up to receive emails from a business or organization, there is a reason why you did so. This is the same approach for leads. Why should they receive emails from you? 

Give them the goods

Offer something free to accompany them during the home-buying process, like a listicle (“10 Things to Remember When Buying a Home”) or a video your former clients found interesting. 

Make them feel special

No one wants to refresh listing websites all the time. Let potential leads know of your connections or insights and prompt them to sign up for fast notifications of new properties on the market.

Get to know your leads

A sign-up form shouldn’t resemble an application. Collect the most important information without being too invasive. You’ll have plenty of time to get to know them better. We suggest:

• First Name
• Last Name
• Email Address
• Phone Number
• Budget
• Desired area of purchase

Ready to grow your list? Take a look at our keyring of list growth tools:

• Lead Generation Landing Page - A simple and quick way to collect lead information and share a bit about yourself. Hint: include the landing page link in your email signature!
• Facebook and Instagram ads - Did you know real estate agents who use our social ads tool report an average of 44 leads per ad? 
• Inline and popup forms - Keep visitors on your website while having them sign up for your mailing list
• List builder apps - Reduce the risk of not being able to read email addresses on a sign-up sheet and have prospects enter their information on a tablet
• Text-to-join - If your prospective leads are like me, they’ll most likely have their phone within arms reach while touring a property
• Integrations with other sources - If you use sites like Zillow, quickly sync your leads and bring them right into your account using Zapier.

Of course, there are plenty of other ways to find new leads outside of online marketing. Think about referrals, reviews, and community presentations!

Don't close the door

Now that you've collected leads, continue to nurture them. Put out the welcome mat by sending a welcome email, thanking them for showing interest and assuring them you're here to help. If you've collected information on the area where they're looking to purchase a home or property, send listings with the most important information upfront. If they click on the listing, this will show in your email reporting and you can follow up with a phone call to answer questions or schedule a viewing.

Unlock new leads today!

Now that you have learned some new techniques for driving leads, you're ready to grow your list. Building a list is not just about adding names; it's about creating new connections and strengthening relationships, turning leads into clients. If you’ve already experienced success with bringing in new leads, let us know what’s worked for you in the comments!