I’ve been working in the commercial real estate marketing game for a long time. There are three main mistakes I see brokers and agents making again and again.
#1 No transitional call to action. Listen up! Not everyone wants to schedule a consultation today. Offering a freebie is a great way to keep-in-touch and establish trust with the “just looking” buyers.
Offering a freebie in exchange for contact information is the one thing that will build your warm list fast. When you have a freebie (eBook, checklist, video, podcast, online course, webinar, etc.) that you can drive traffic to, you have a lead magnet.
Maximize your freebie by driving traffic to it for easy lead generation. For example, you can buy an eblast or ads in an e-newsletter, magazine, or website that showcases your freebie. Freebies are a great way to make leads come to you. Be sure to advertise in places where your target market frequents. If you specialize in multifamily, consider finding a multifamily investor newsletter (or similar) to maximize your return-on-investment. Spend money where you’ll have the best bang for your buck.
Create a landing page with a form and picture of the freebie. Ask visitors to, “fill out the form to receive [ Freebie ].” Make the form either redirect to a page where they can download the item or setup an automated email that sends it immediately. Your lead receives your freebie and you have their contact information! Hello, warm list!
#2 No sales funnel. Once someone has opted into your list (via freebie or other), you need to be in contact with them consistently. You don’t HAVE to get fancy with a welcome sequence just yet, but you should be sending them weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly email correspondence. This will keep your audience engaged and will keep you top-of-mind when they are ready to purchase a new investment property or move to a new location. No idea what to write? Check out Newsletter Hero’s 100+ email prompts to help be consistent.
Consistency is hard, but be sure to practice it, even if that means you start with short content. When you get started on a regular newsletter or email campaign, consistency will keep you thinking about ways to improve efficiency. You’ll eventually hire contractors and/or writers, and the process will eventually become second nature.
Don’t let perfection scare you away. Getting started is key, your mastery will come later.
#3 Focusing so much on cold calls they miss warm leads all together. This absolutely kills me because warm leads are much more likely to convert by almost tenfold. Warm leads close rates are at 15% and cold leads close rates are 1%. In recent studies, 94% of calls from unknown numbers were redirected to voicemail, making cold calling less effective than ever before.
My suggestion is simple. There’s ten times more money in a warm list than a cold one.
But if you insist on cold calling, direct them to download your freebie instead of asking for a return call. It’s a lot easier to call someone up and tell them you want to send them a free eBook, no strings attached. People are much more likely to fill out a form to download a freebie than they are to engage with you directly, so don’t lose out on warming up cold leads.
If you’re wondering how you can get a freebie for your sales funnel, consider our website design package. It comes with pre-written ebook of your choice to use as a lead magnet! No need to write anything yourself, it’s all done. We’ll design it in your branding, put your logo and contact information for you.
Offering freebie lead magnets with our website design is yet another way I’m taking the “broke” out of commercial real estate brokerage.
