How to Nurture Your Real Estate Leads Using Content

Choosing the Best Real Estate Content for Each Stage of the Sales Funnel

Are you having a hard time keeping your real estate internet leads engaged throughout their entire home search process? You’re not alone – real estate marketing has such a long sales cycle that many realtors find themselves struggling to keep from losing prospects’ attention before they convert.

Typical home buyers search for 10 weeks before purchasing a home, according to NAR’s 2014 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers.

While that is the standard purchasing delay, realtors often experience gaps of as much as 3 years between the time when contacts first registered on their website and when they were ready to move forward on a property sale.

This extended lead time gives you plenty of time to introduce clients to all the services your real estate agency can provide, but it also increases the likelihood that other realtors will step in and divert your leads.

That’s why it is critical that you learn how to nurture your real estate leads using content – when you provide prospects with the appropriate content for each stage of the sales funnel, you can keep your leads engaged and hold their interest all the way through their property purchase. This helps ensure that your real estate prospects turn to you, not your competitors, when they are finally ready to purchase their home.

Choosing the Best Real Estate Content for Each Stage of the Sales Funnel

Lead nurturing is all about building a relationship with prospects, gaining their trust by providing them with useful, relevant information at the right time.

There is a certain path and pace that internet leads for real estate agents typically take through the sales funnel; by providing prospects with the content that best suits their stage of the sales funnel you can maximize their engagement.

Top of the Real Estate Marketing Sales Funnel: Awareness Stage

The real estate sales funnel begins with the awareness stage, where prospects first learn about you and what you can offer.

Position yourself as the local real estate authority by providing a wide range of information on local neighborhoods, properties, buyer and seller issues, real estate concerns, etc.  You can establish yourself as the go-to source for real estate information in the awareness stage of the sales funnel using the following real estate content marketing strategies:

• Real Estate Blog
  An interesting, informative real estate blog is the ideal place to begin nurturing your leads. Present your information in a personable, relatable way and set yourself apart by focusing on local features and neighborhoods
• Real Estate Email Newsletter
  An email newsletter is an easy way to nurture your real estate leads. Provide short, informative articles, how-to guides, and useful information that will keep leads interested.
• Social Marketing Strategies
  Social marketing posts are the perfect way to build engagement with your real estate leads. For the best results, go beyond standard posts and tweets to run discussion groups, answer questions, and interact with prospects about home renovations, the purchasing process, and other real estate related issues.
• Video Posts
  Now that Millennials are beginning to purchase real estate, videos are quickly becoming the preferred method of absorbing real estate knowledge. Run a video series on home selling tips and features on local neighborhoods, property walk-throughs, etc. Your on-screen presence will help build trust and recognition with leads before you actually meet them in person.

Middle of the Real Estate Marketing Sales Funnel: Consideration Stage

You’ve made sure that your internet real estate leads are aware of you; now they’re considering what you have to offer and comparing your expertise and personality to other agents to find the best fit. Prove your worth and interest to leads with continuous, coordinated real estate content marketing strategies that keep you top of mind without becoming intrusive or annoying.

• Automated Drip Campaigns
  Employ your email management or marketing automation tools to set up automatic campaigns that guide prospects along the sales funnel. Each action that real estate web leads take (subscribing to an email newsletter, downloading an e-book, etc.) triggers another invitation or offer. These automated campaigns are a great way to remain top of mind without an additional investment of time on your part.
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• Customized Landing Pages
  Keep prospects’ interest with customized landing pages that provide information on topics relevant to their real estate concerns. Include a strong CTA (call to action) to move leads down the sales funnel by encouraging them to download how-to guides, neighborhood information, mortgage demystifications, and other content of value.

Bottom of the Real Estate Marketing Sales Funnel: Decision Stage

This is the moment all your lead nurturing efforts have been working towards. Add an extra push when prospects are ready to purchase their home to ensure your efforts are successful and your leads convert to signed clients.

• Property Listing Announcements
  Prospective clients want to know that you are consistently signing prospects and closing sales. Showcase your listings by regularly posting announcements for Open Houses, New Listings, Just Sold, etc.
• Buying and Selling Guides
  Encourage leads to take that final step to sign with you by providing educational guides that take them through the purchase/selling process painlessly. Provide buyer-seller checklists, staging guides, negotiation tactics, and more.

For help enacting these real estate content marketing strategies, turn to the dedicated marketers at For Sale Marketing. We can provide you with everything you need to nurture leads and make your content marketing strategies successful, from a responsive real estate website to social media marketing, along with powerful automated marketing tools to ensure your lead nurturing strategies succeed.

Contact For Sale Marketing today at 954-779-2801 for more tips on nurturing real estate leads along with expert content marketing strategies to boost your lead conversion rate!