If you are in the real estate business you already know the importance of lead generation. Getting quality leads is the key to real estate marketing success. Most of you might be familiar with launching campaigns and marketing your projects through social media & search engines. But have you come to a point where you are investing a lot of money into digital activities but yet you are not receiving enough quality leads? If yes, then it’s time to check the major pitfalls in your digital marketing strategy.
For your better understanding, we have categorized the 16 common mistakes under four different phases starting from initial planning & research and then moving on to execution, lead management, result analysis and iterations. Here is a list of 16 possible glitches that can happen to any marketer who is into real estate lead generation.
With more than a decade of experience in real estate marketing and working for some of the reputed brands in India, our team at Webdura have identified these major mistakes that realtors make during the process of lead generation. We have observed that even the top companies make trivial mistakes that can severely impact their sales results. As real estate is a business that involves a huge amount of investment, it is better to understand the digital marketing mistakes early and improve your sales.
Let us now learn about each in detail.
The first and foremost mistake that can hamper the effectiveness of your lead generation is lack of proper research and planning. Market research is a must-do before you kick off any kind of marketing activity for your projects. Start by doing a thorough study about the existing real estate market and the prevailing trends. We highly recommend you to conduct a detailed competitor study as it will give you an idea about their marketing methods and their specialities. Competitor analysis will help you identify the areas where your business is lacking and know where you are standing.
You cannot successfully market a product without knowing its key features. For example, if you want to sell a house to a customer you should be aware of its location, size, amenities and other important features. Without a clear knowledge of these you will not be able to pique the interest of the customer. So as a marketer, make sure that you have an end-to-end understanding of the projects that you are trying to sell.
If you think that online marketing is all about launching ads and showing it to millions of users, no it is not. It involves careful study about the audience you are planning to address. Successful marketing happens when you are showing the ad to the right customer. You should be aware of the demographics, the interests and intent of customers that you are targeting. It helps you to create custom messaging and copies that appeal to them. For example, if you are targeting local customers from middle class families you could think about writing copies in the local language.
We have seen many marketers fail to generate leads solely because of lack of proper messaging. Whenever you create ad copies or landing pages you need to focus on the user’s pain points. Also Call To Actions (CTAs) are highly relevant in online marketing as it compels the users to take the next action in the sales process. Examples of CTAs are Book Now, Enquire Now, Call , etc. Always find out your target audience and create copies that are tailor-made to address their needs. We have noticed that personalized messaging style is more effective for lead generation.
Not making the most of remarketing activity is one of the major mistakes that can happen during lead generation. Finding a home and buying property is a long and tiring process as it involves a lot of research and comparison from the user’s side. You cannot expect a prospect to make a decision right away when they see your ad. In order to create a good impression on your user’s mind, you have to constantly engage with them through remarketing campaigns. Here the messaging is critical as you are addressing an audience who is already familiar with your brand. So in order to nurture the existing leads in an effective way you need to launch custom remarketing campaigns compelling them to take the next action.
We have noticed a few instances where marketers make too many changes in the ad campaigns which prevents the campaign from exiting the learning phase. In most of the marketing platforms there will be a learning phase while activating a new campaign or after editing an existing campaign. In the learning phase the delivery system still has a lot to learn about the campaign, so when we repeatedly edit the campaigns the learning phase will be extended and it will affect the campaign performance adversely. Manual edits or optimizations result in campaigns to re-enter the learning phase so it is better to avoid frequent edits or over optimization.
We all know that people click on your ads if your campaign looks enticing. But what if the users are directed to a poorly maintained website or landing page afterwards? Chances are more that the user may leave your site in a few seconds without reading the details. So if you want to get more leads you must focus on creating a good quality website with fast loading speed. Create catchy headlines and easy to read content coupled with eye-catching images. In short, an attractive campaign will be successful only if the customers are led to an attractive website or landing page that talks about your product or service.
Ref : https://www.seoptimer.com/www.makaan.com
Ref : https://app.neilpatel.com/en/seo_analyzer/site_audit?domain=makaan.com&locId=2840&lang=en
Nowadays for most of the businesses, social media has become a major platform to attract new customers. Having a social media handle is crucial to popularise your brand among users around the world. If you are having a real estate business, then make sure that you start your own accounts in popular channels like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can share engaging posts and videos to catch the attention of users. Social media presence is also considered as an important aspect to verify the credibility of a brand. So if you are not giving enough attention to keep your social media pages active then better you start right away.
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a highly cost-effective way of generating quality leads through search engines. It is an area of marketing which is often overlooked by real estate marketers. If your website is not SEO optimized then people are unlikely to find your website during a search. For example, when a user is searching “apartments in Kochi” in Google, the page with the highest search ranking will pop up first. To improve your website’s search ranking you have to carefully include the right keywords, backlinks and maintain good quality content. Publishing informative and high quality blog articles is a good way of attracting more leads. If you haven’t paid attention to SEO then it’s high time you start focusing on it. If you like to know more about the concept of SEO and its importance in lead generation, feel free to reach out to us.
Ref: https://moz.com/domain-analysis?site=99acres.com
While managing online ad campaigns people tend to focus too much on the optimization part that they tend to forget other important areas such as the website. Campaign optimization should not be the sole focus while doing online marketing. You should pay attention to the website and its features to ensure maximum user experience for your page visitors. You can also refer to the websites of your competitors and do a comparison and optimize the website accordingly.
According to Hubspot, 75% of sales managers say that using a CRM helps to drive and increase sales.
If you keep your customers waiting for long or if you missed calling them back at the promised time it is more likely that they will lose interest in your service. The best solution for this is having a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. A Sales CRM system is one of the most effective tools to manage leads in real estate. Many realtors are not still aware of the importance of having a sales CRM for business growth. A CRM helps to optimize the daily tasks for sales professionals and ensure that the customer queries are answered on time. It lets sales people manage their time and efforts effectively to generate more leads. Introducing a CRM also increases customer satisfaction which in turn results in more sales closures. Some of the popular CRMs you can consider are Hubspot, Zoho CRM, Leadsquared, etc.
While you are busy setting up new campaigns you should also gather feedback from the sales team regarding the quality of the leads you received. If you do not analyse the feedback and make necessary changes you might continue to make the same mistakes again and again. Not getting the desired results after spending money on the campaigns is not a good sign. So we recommend you to collect timely feedback on performance of each campaign before launching new campaigns. It helps you to learn what your customers prefer and what type of messaging work well for effective lead generation.
Real estate marketing is about building trust and cordial relationships with your target customers. You need to be persistent in your marketing efforts even after receiving a qualified lead. Instead of leaving it to the sales team completely, as a marketer you should implement remarketing activities to encourage the customer to move to the next step in the sales process. As real estate involves high value products, selling does not happen at one go. You need to be patient and constantly be in touch with the prospects reassuring them about your brand’s genuinity and service excellence. This is where marketing automation comes in handy. You can set up a monthly or weekly email to convey information about existing offers, home loan rates, new project launch, price deals & much more. If you are not performing lead nurturing in your business yet, we recommend you to start off right away.
Relying on a single marketing strategy is a big mistake when it comes to online lead generation. Rather than trying just one marketing method you must be open to try varied marketing approaches for your brand. For example, in real estate marketing you can launch theme based campaigns focusing on different aspects like location, project features, pricing or seasonal offers. If you keep running the same type of campaign throughout, the results will start coming down after a certain period of time. So it’s always better to have a backup plan if you fail in one campaign strategy. Diversifying your marketing strategy will help you reach out to more customers and to have stability in results.
Success in digital marketing depends on your ability to test the performance of your activities and learn from it. Finding time to learn new tactics and strategies is crucial to excel in marketing. Lead generation is proven to be most successful when you adapt your strategies to the changing trends & user behaviours. You can use the A/B split testing method to know which landing pages convert better, and which copy captures your target audience or which CTAs work better. Also experiment with layout changes, design, UX, content, and advertising channels until you find the right mix that captures more number of qualified leads.
Just as we say that it’s not good to put all your eggs in one basket, it’s not good to rely on a single marketing channel for lead generation. The real estate market is a crowded place and inorder to stand out among the many you have to leverage on multiple marketing channels. Using a cross channel marketing approach helps to double your conversion rate as compared to using a single marketing channel. It is ideal to consider a mix of inbound and outbound marketing activities for your real estate business. Multi channel marketing enables you to seamlessly engage with your target audience and create a lasting impression on their mind. Some of the popular channels that realtors use for marketing are Facebook, Google, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, etc.
For example, Tik Tok was a major medium used by many people for personal branding and business growth, but after the Tik Tok ban in India, the ones who depended on Tik Tok alone were badly affected. On the other hand, those who kept their presence in other platforms like Tik Tok, Youtube, Instagram and Facebook were unaffected
These are some of the most common pitfalls that real estate marketers tend to make during the lead generation process. We believe that this article was helpful and informative for you.
Are you facing any challenges in lead generation? Let us know in the comments.
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