Effective lead generation depends on targeting the right people at the right time.
In the past, the ability of Facebook ads to laser target those people offered a lot of bang for an agent’s marketing buck. But you know what they say about “all good things,” right?
So, now what? What alternatives are out there to help you generate real estate leads in 2020?
What if we told you that a certain social media platform reaches 83 percent of American women age 24 to 54 and that 43 percent of them plan on buying a home within the next five years?
Women are the primary decision makers in a household – so that ticks the “right people” box, and their plans to definitely purchase a home sometime in the near future fulfills the “right time” caveat.
The folks at Pinterest call these women “Deciders” and claim that their platform reaches more of them than “Instagram, Snap and Twitter.”
Yes, it can be time consuming
If you’ve never thought about how to generate Pinterest real estate leads, the first thing you’ll notice is that it’s a bit more labor intensive than other online marketing methods. Once you scale that learning curve, however, you’ll be cranking out pins like a pro.
Speaking of “pins,” here’s a quick walk-through of Pinterest lingo for newbies to the platform.
- Pin – these are the photos that people post on Pinterest.
- Board – Each Pinterest user typically ends up with lots of pins and categorizes them in an area of their page known as a “board.” Real estate agents, for instance, may make neighborhood boards, such as “Sunny Knolls.” On the Sunny Knolls board, he or she would pin photos of that cute little diner on B Street, holiday-lit homes in the neighborhood, photos of the area’s amazing park and more.
- Pin It Button – Pinterest’s bookmarking button.
Why Pinterest?
“Within just a few weeks of using Pinterest, this Realtor has well over 250 visitors from Pinterest every single day,” Tyler Zey reported here on Easy Agent Pro.
Talk is cheap, though, right? So, check out the chart he included with those words:
Tyler also does a brilliant walk-through of how to create pins and post them, and how to generate Pinterest real estate leads with those posts. You’ll find that here.
Tips to optimize your Pinterest content
One of the biggest mistakes we see agents make is not optimizing their content on Pinterest. Without optimization, you won’t be seen.
The three areas to concentrate your optimization efforts include:
- Your pins
- The titles of your boards
- The descriptions of your boards
How to generate Pinterest real estate leads – Use local real estate keywords
If it seems like everything real estate marketing-related centers on being hyper-local, you’re right.
It’s no different on Pinterest. Unless you sell real estate nationwide or worldwide, you need to concentrate all of your optimization efforts on generating local traffic.
Earlier we mentioned neighborhood boards and these are probably the best place to start when you’re new to Pinterest.
Pay close attention when naming your boards. Take a look at this agent’s boards for an example of what not to do. He does a bang-up job on some of the titles while others are treated as throwaways.
For example, “Apex, NC” does nothing to help potential leads find his board about real estate in Apex, NC. The board “Tips for Selling a Home” has lots of good information, but the title is far too generic.
Keep it consumer-oriented
No, it’s not ok to pepper your Pinterest feed with agent-centric content, such as the Florida agent who has not one, not two, but THREE boards about her team. Then, her neighborhood boards, which are filled with listings instead of valuable information, also contain pins about her team.
Consumers really, honestly, definitely don’t care about your team. Especially on a visual platform such as Pinterest, it’s a turn-off to be bombarded with salesy, self-absorbed content. When thinking about how to generate Pinterest real estate leads, be sure to focus on your audience, not yourself.
Keep it professional
Create an additional profile for your personal pins. Please. Imagine landing on this Miami agent’s Pinterest feed and finding not one board related to real estate but several on hair, nails, makeup and clothing.
Pinterest users are shoppers, planners and dreamers. Target them with yummy photography and valuable information. Get inspiration on how to build an amazing Pinterest real estate board from:
- The Boutique Real Estate Group
- Chris Cortazzo, Inc (but please get some local keywords into your board names)
- Dave Perry-Miller Real Estate (good stuff here but they need to dump the branding in the board names and use local terms instead).
Want to learn more about real estate focused lead-gen? Visit our Pinterest page for even more tips you can use to grow your business!
Ready to get started? Here’s a more in-depth look at how to make Pinterest work for you when you’re in real estate: