3 Reasons Why Your Real Estate Lead Conversion Is Terrible (And How To Fix It)

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Today’s “In The Lead” show is all about real estate lead conversion. There are so many options when it comes to picking a real estate CRM and ‘autoresponder formulas.’ It can be hard to figure out what actually will work.

So today, I break down someone’s question. And show you exactly how we at Easy Agent Pro are turning ad dollars into leads.

Aydin from New Home In Turkey asked:

I’d like to ask how real estate leads can be converted using autoresponders. How do you plan the autoresponder? Who do the emails go to? How does this fit into an overall marketing / lead conversion plan?

This is a great question. Let’s break it down:

Let’s break this down…

Lead conversion really depends on one thing: 

Where did the lead come from?

Are these Zillow Leads? Blog leads? Website Leads? FSBO Leads? Paid Ad Leads?

After you know where they are coming from, you have to then figure out how much trust they have in you.

For example:

Someone who put their contact information into a page from an ad DOES NOT TRUST YOU.

They don’t want to talk with you. They don’t want to buy from you.

They’ve simply given you the opportunity to start a relationship with them. Let’s explore exactly how you can use marketing automation to have that relationship turn into a profitable one.

Step 1) Segment Your Leads

When it comes to converting your leads with an autoresponder, you really need to figure out what the ‘core’ desire of your audience is.

A lot of us think we know this.

You think they want a free home valuation; or a free consult; or a download; or whatever.

But what you have to do is ask these people what their actual desire is. Your first year in business should be about compiling answers to the following questions from all of your leads.

Don’t generalize the answers. Read the words they are using and pain points they are describing.

Here are the questions:

1. Why did you start looking for a real estate agent?
2. What are your goals for buying/selling?
3. How does/did my company help you move towards those goals?
4. What was the hardest part in finding an agent?
5. Why did you choose our company?
6. What could we do better?

This simple survey will get you speaking their language. You need these responses to then segment your leads.

For example: 

You’ll find that there are certain categories of leads. If you’re dealing with sellers, there will be luxury sellers and first-time sellers. These are dramatically different people and need to be treated differently.

So, step 1 in getting your real estate lead conversion to improve is figuring out, in their own words, what these individuals actually want.

Then, if it’s a sales process, your sales team can.

Or, if it’s a longer lead conversion process where they opted in your website for free content, you can craft a followup schedule that addresses their questions and pain points specifically.

———> CAUTION <———

Don’t skip this part. You’ll want to copy/paste the responses you get from this questionnaire into your sales and marketing emails. If you skip this part, you’ll miss out on having your clients/prospect literally write your headlines and followup emails for you.

It’s so tempting to ‘assume’ you know what they want. Don’t. Ask them.

Step 2) The Perfect Autoresponder Formula

After you’ve seen how your audience answers this question, it’s time to start writing emails for them to get.

Now, I am a firm believer that automation comes after you’ve proven it works manually. Automation can only work if your messaging and tone are 100% correct. And you’re giving proper value in every email.

Here’s what I recommend for the perfect autoresponder (Keep in mind you’ll be writing these for each unique situation. Buyer, sellers, luxury sellers, etc all get their own autoresponder).

Autoresponder Segment:

1. Address The Problem: 
   1. The first email in your autoresponder to leads should attempt to give value while addressing the problem. Here is where you literally copy/paste the problems you’ve gathered from the survey process. And put them into your first email.
      You should not have to write much in this first email because your clients have already told you everything they were concerned about. At the end of this email, tease the next email you’ll be sending and hint that it helps solve their problem.
2. Agitate Their Situation:
   1. This email gives a little thing they can do today to make progress towards their goal. But also makes them realize the problem they’re in even more. For example: 
      “Here’s a quick tip we have to increase your homes value by 5%: [INSERT TIP ON STAGING OR SOMETHING]. This has been proven to increase the value of the homes we list by 5%.”
      Then, you want to expand upon their initial problem again. You want to show them that even if they do this home improvement tip, they’ll still struggle to sell their house because there are many other variables involved.
3. Give Hard Solution:
   1. This email basically gives the farm away. You are going to break down step-by-step the entire process that’s required to solve their problem. In real estate, this is outlining every step of the transaction.
      Be sure to go into excruciating details here.
4. Give Easy Solution:
   1. Finally, you want to wrap up this short autoresponder with a call to action saying: “You know all that stuff I told you about yesterday, well guess what? I’ll do it all for you.”
      You can really get some higher conversions with this email if you can throw in extra value. For example, you can add that you’ll give a free home staging for a limited time. Or that you’ll set up a special Facebook Ad Campaign for their house.
      There are lots of ‘little’ value added things you can throw in to get a great response rate.

This autoresponder is a great way to warm-up ’email only’ leads to become full leads. And it’s also a good thing to keep in mind if you’re writing long-term lead conversion content for clients that aren’t buying/selling for another 6+ months.

Listen to the video if you want my sales conversion funnel. 🙂

Step 3) Bridge The Content & Advertising Gap

Finally, you have to understand this:

Email is only one pillar of the marketing funnel.

It’s one way to reach out to people. You need to build trust with leads before they convert. And you cannot always do that via email.

So, I suggest bridging autoresponders with paid ads and content marketing.

I would run paid traffic to a converting page. And install a Facebook retargeting pixel on the Thank You page.

Then I would follow those leads around on Facebook with ads that have ‘trust building’ content.

Meanwhile, I’d send the autoresponder above. And have an inside sales team reach out to the client.

Also, I’d really focus on keywords. People are going to be Googling for solutions. You want them finding you on Google.

When it comes to mastering The Conversion Code, you really need to focus on the entire marketing funnel…not just email copywriting.

Quote Of The Day:

“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.” – Bill Gates

When it comes to being effective in real estate, don’t take the shortcuts. You need to establish a clear route to success before automation.

What do you think about real estate lead conversion?

Do you use autoresponders? How do you follow up with new leads?

Let me know in the comments below so we can continue our real estate lead conversion conversation!