It’s Not Them, It’s You: Why You Aren’t Converting More Online Real Estate Leads

Online real estate leads. This topic inflames passions, elicits energy, provokes arguments, ends marriages. Well, maybe not that last one. But the point is, online leads are highly controversial in the real estate world. Many agents will say they are not worth the money and are impossible to convert, while others have gone on to build multimillion dollar real estate companies based solely on leads from internet sources.

Who’s right? Are online real estate leads the devil that only suck in your cash, or are they a gift from heaven that shower business over you? As you might have guessed, the real answer is…neither.

 What This Article Will Cover

Whether or not you or your team are able to convert online lead sources for real estate depends on several critical factors. These factors involve hard work, self-reflection, and a specific skillset. Only after considering all of them can you decide for yourself or your business whether using various internet outlets as lead sources is the correct choice.

Before swearing off online leads forever, you should ask yourself the following four questions:

1.      Do you have the right expectations?

2.      Are you getting enough leads?

3.      Do you have the right follow up plan?

4.      When you contact someone, are you saying the right thing?

We’ll be touching on each of these in this article. The punchline is, instead of saying “online leads suck”, ask yourself if you’re putting the right pieces together in the correct way.

 The Most Valuable Real Estate Lead Sources

Real estate internet leads have been around for quite a while; somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-15 years. And almost from the beginning, they have been derided, and sometimes hated, by the majority of real estate agents and ISAs.

Back when I started out as a real estate agent in 2010, online leads referred mostly to Google SEO, Google PPC, or Craigslist. Craigslist was really big back in the day about a decade ago. Today, many agents still use Google, but Facebook is the source that has really exploded in recent years.

I would say that online lead generation really expanded around the time of the 2007-2008 crash. Agents were looking anywhere they could for new leads and new business to keep themselves afloat. Many turned to the internet and were able to develop it into a solid, predictable lead source, while others, probably most, were not and cursed online leads as a complete waste of time and money.

Now, I am not one to say that online leads are bad or shouldn’t be used. However, I do buy into the idea that the basis of any real estate company is:

·      Referrals

·      Sphere

·      Database

The people they have had contact with, or who their past or current clients have recommended them to—that’s the foundation of your business and your most valuable lead source.

 The Right Place for Internet Leads

With that said, online lead generation absolutely has a place in the real estate world. If, as a team or a solo agent, you are trying to scale your business beyond your sphere and database, then internet leads are one of a few options that you have. They are up there with cold calling, circle prospecting, networking, door knocking, billboards, etc.

In other words, leads you get from Facebook or Google are leads you have never met or had contact with, but who have expressed some type of interest in your messaging. As such, you have to have the proper expectations for these types of leads.

 Manage Your Own Expectations for Online Lead Sources

One of the primary reasons that real estate agents and ISAs come away disliking online leads is that they don’t have the right expectations for them. Just like circle prospecting and other lead sources where you are essentially making first contact with a lead who doesn’t know you, the leads you get from Facebook and Google can be difficult to generate and convert.

Here’s the problem: of the prospects who become actual leads, you will most likely only be able to convert 0.5% - 1% of them. And that is normally only after at least three to six months.

That’s not a large number. For many agents and teams who don’t understand the statistical facts, they get all excited creating their online campaign and are extremely disappointed at the low numbers of clients that result from them. If you properly manage your expectations and understand the numbers, however, it will allow you to better decide how many resources and how much time to devote towards online lead sources.

 Are You Getting Enough Leads?

Once you set your expectations right, the next factor you have to consider is the number of leads you are actually generating. This question is closely tied to properly managing your expectations, because, given that conversion rates are relatively low for online leads, you have to be generating enough to make it worth your while.

I’ve heard agents complain that they got 10 leads from an online campaign and weren’t able to even convert one of them. Well, if they were correctly managing their expectations, they wouldn’t expect to convert any sales from only 10 leads.

Think about it, if a solid conversion rate for Google PPC and Facebook real estate leads is around 1%, then you’d need to generate 100 leads before converting one. If you do even convert one of the those 10, then you’re at a whopping 10% conversion rate, which is largely unheard of.

If you can’t make online lead sources like Facebook and Google work for you, then it may be because your campaigns simply aren’t producing enough leads. That means that it may be time to go back to the drawing board and look at all the components of your ads. Try adjusting the following:

·      Type of Facebook ad

·      The copy you’re using

·      The picture in the ad

·      The landing page your ad leads to

·      The keywords you’re targeting

·      The people you’re targeting 

·      Your ad spend

In other words, if you’re not generating enough leads to make converting sales a realistic possibility, you have to look at why you’re not capturing those leads.

 Real Estate Lead Conversion Process

Okay, so once you’ve set realistic expectations and have developed campaigns that are consistently generating an adequate number of leads, now the fun part begins. And by fun part, I mean hard part.

We calculated some numbers over here at Power ISA and determined that it takes on average about 16 touches and 60 days to get a response from 50% of the leads you generate with an online campaign.

Yep, you read that correctly. You have to reach out via call or text message 16 times to even get a response from half of your new internet leads from a Facebook ad or Google PPC campaign. That’s a lot of time and effort.

The question becomes, do you as an agent have the time and discipline to make that kind of commitment to converting new leads?

The truth is, unless you have a dedicated ISA or even a team of ISAs, it can be very hard to fully take advantage of the all the new leads you are generating. As you know, speed is everything. You have to respond fast, within minutes.

But as a real estate agent, you are busy and have an extremely chaotic schedule—you’re showing houses, meeting with clients, negotiating, closing deals. Where’s the time for the kind of follow up game needed to convert online leads?

Some agents block out time each day to dedicate towards lead generating. That’s great, but internet leads come in at all times of day, even into the night. How are you going to respond to those? You need a conversion plan and have to stick to that plan.

So, before writing off online sources entirely, ask yourself if you are organized and dedicating enough time towards actually following up with the leads you generate.

 Are You Saying the Right Thing?

Now it’s time for the really fun (hard) part: talking to the leads you’ve generated. You’ve got online leads from a campaign and you’ve made a plan that lets you have enough touches and follow up with them as needed.

Why aren’t you converting?

Well, the sad truth is that you may not be saying the right thing to those leads. If every other part of your process is solid and functioning like a well-oiled business generating machine, but you aren’t actually getting any new business, then the break in the chain is probably the conversations you are having with potential clients.

This is a skill problem.

That’s right, talking to and converting leads on the phone is a skill that has to be learned, cultivated, and constantly developed. If you have a high contact rate but low conversion rate, then that skill may be somewhat lacking.

Understand that consumers today are absolutely inundated and bombarded with people wanting their attention and their money from every angle. There is a constant stream of ads, information, products, services, asks, etc. delivered 24/7 via our smart phones, tablets, and computers. In order to convert more real estate leads, you have to stand out.

And you don’t stand out by approaching your calls like a customer service representative or just by blurting out your team’s success stats. You need an angle and a pitch on every call.

·      Listen on the call and figure out what it is they want or what problem they are solving

·      Educate the lead on how to win a home in the current market, whether it’s a buyer’s or seller’s

·      Explain to them how to get the best financing and deal on their new home

·      Have a concise, refined, and tested value statement

In other words, give the lead a reason to take your call, to meet with you, to work with you. You have to capture their attention and explain how you are the one who is going to help them solve the problem they are trying to solve.

 Conclusion: Change Your Mindset

Okay, let’s bring this all back home. The bottom line is that most real estate agents have the wrong mindset when it comes to online leads. Essentially, what you have to do is change your thinking from “these leads suck” to “Am I correctly implementing the different pieces that make generating and converting internet leads possible?”

It’s a process and each part of the process is a skill. Entire businesses are built around generating and converting online real estate leads. It is definitely possible. You just have to manage your expectations, put the pieces in place, refine those pieces, and then adequately present the value you bring to the table.

You don’t have to do it alone. At Power ISA we provide your business with a team of ISAs trained specifically to convert the leads you generate.

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