5 Easy Steps To Capture Real Estate Leads Online Without Being Techy

“Ultimately, the business that can spend the most to acquire a customer wins.” —Dan Kennedy

I'm amazed by how many people still not adopting technology to make it work for them instead of them working on it.

Many people think that technology gets harder and harder every time and that's something that keeps them from even trying new software that will enhance their workflow.

I agree technology gets more complex every day but that's a good thing because the more complex it gets the easier and user-friendly it becomes.

Take a look at amazon.com their technology is incredibly advanced and they are innovating new ways to deliver your orders as fast as possible and at the lowest cost possible. They are working on delivering packages on drones!

They have very advanced technology and because of that, we are able to buy stuff from all around the world with a click of a button.

The good news is that you don't have to be a geek in order to take advantage of all the opportunities technology provides and create a very powerful system that will allow you to capture leads with a click of a button too.

That's why in this post, I'm going to share with you the 5 easy steps to capture real estate leads online without being tech savvy. If you know how to log in your computer, log in your social media profiles, log in your email then you are good to go.

This blog is a bit long but it will be worth reading. Stick to it until the end. You'll become a total different person.

1. TARGETING (Who do you want to do business with?)

Who are they? 

How do they look? 

What's their age? 

Gender? 

Where do they live?

What TV shows or YouTube channels do they watch? 

Are they married? Divorced? Engaged? 

Do they have children? If so, how many?

Where do they work?

What's their income?

Are they homeowners?

Are you interested in a specific zip code or city?

What events do they attend?

Where do they hang out?

What other interests do they have?

I know, it's a whole lot of questions right?

Well, this step is one of the most important because if we don't identify the right people, all your efforts will be in vain.

As I explained in my previous post "The #1 Mistake Everyone Does When Advertising Real Estate"

Every person has different needs, wants and desires. We can't approach them with the same message. "I buy houses" is too broad.

You need to create the right message (Solving a problem) and put it in front of the right people (people facing that specific problem) That's what I call TARGETING

Real Estate is all about solving problems and people have totally different problems when it comes to properties.

Some people lost their jobs, so they have a mortgage problem. "I buy houses" doesn't help too much in this situation.

Some people owe property taxes. Some other people got divorced, some people inherited a property that they can't maintain.

Some people don't have money for repairs and some others are facing foreclosure.

The first step is all about stereotyping people! Yes. It may sound weird but it's true. Stereotyping people works.

Let me tell you a quick story...

When I used to work selling cable and internet services for a company at the local retail stores, after pitching 300 people a day I discovered that people between the ages of 40 +  that worked at construction jobs, that drink beer (because I couldn't avoid looking at their shopping cart) that dress dirty clothes, flip flops or worn boots were very typical to buy cable and internet.

Not only that! they were asking for DVR service and also were interested in sports and premium movie channels.

The other type of people that could potentially become clients were men between the ages of 30 - 50  with family (typically with kids playing around the store and discussing the prices with his wife)

They were interested in the news and kids channels.

It was always the same! Always the same kind of people. (End of the story)

When it comes to real estate you already have a natural intuition of who is most likely to have a mortgage problem based on their shopping behaviors or credit score or even by zip codes in your city. You can stereotype people that have taxes problems. You can notice what characteristics divorcing couples have in common.

Pay attention to how they look, where they live, their age, what kind of cars they drive, where they work, etc, etc. 

This will allow you to put the right message to the right people. People that are ready to pull the trigger when they are presented with a great opportunity they can't refuse. Hopefully, the person presenting this opportunity is you!

Facebook is a tool that has been underestimated. Many people think is only to waste time. On the contrary, Facebook used in the right way can save you a lot of time and headaches.

Did you know that using the backside of Facebook, Instagram and YouTube you have the ability to hyper-target people by all the characteristics we just discussed by clicking a few buttons right here and there?

Yep! If you have tried using Facebook ads before and they didn't work it was because you were missing this very important step and probably you were using the BOOST post button.

When you hit the BOOST post button you are missing a huge % of targeting capabilities, which result in expensive ads and poor performance.

So! Stereotype and TARGET, TARGET, TARGET. 

And what's next?...

2. THE AD (What's the right message to show?)

Since we are focusing on creating a system to capture real estate leads online, we are going to create ads on the three most powerful social platforms at the moment. Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

I'm not encouraging you to stop using what has been working for you in the past, In fact, we can replicate what has been working for you offline and plug it in online.

I just want you to feel comfortable leveraging these powerful tools.

So now that we have a clear picture of who we want to TARGET (People with a specific problem, living in this zip code, homeowner, etc.) We are going to create the perfect message that's going to resonate instantly with them.

NOTE: We need to Keep it simple and very clear. We don't want to overwhelm the audience. 

Many people try to pitch a whole lot of things in the same advertising. Stop!

Only create one AD for each specific problem.

You are going to create an AD for divorcing couples, another one for people facing foreclosure, another one for people who lost their jobs and they have no way to pay the mortgage, another one for people that own distressed properties, etc.

Every person has a different interest, so our goal is to match our message with their pains and motivations.

One quick tip!

Always use video in your ads. Facebook is going to reward you by showing your ads more than those who use images. Video entertain more and gets way more engagement. 

Facebook's goal is to keep most people on their platform as much time as they can and video is the way they do it.

By using video on your ads will result and lower ads costs and more results.

Just stick to using video when creating ads.

Another very important step when creating an AD is the actual COPY (The text above the ad) That's what we call the "persuasive writing".

It has to be direct, clear and to the point.

Here are the 4 components for a great AD copy:

Grab Attention:

Call them out! "Hey, __specific city__" or ATTENTION! homeowners if you live in this zip code...

Use a relevant quote to start the conversation.

Use a crazy factor or statistic like, Did you know that this % of people face foreclosure but they didn't know how to stop it? Well my name is ________

Ask questions relevant to their pains or desires like: Are you behind payments because you lost your job and you don't know what to do?

Do you owe more taxes than your property is worth?

Is your house in ruins and you don't have money for repairs?

Stuff like that.

Peak Interest:

What's in it for them? People are not going to take action if they don't see value for them. Address the benefits they are going to get as a result of working with you. 

Why do they want to work with you in the first place?

You need to alleviate pain and solve a problem they have.

Use words like faster, better, affordable, painless, hassle-free, risk-free, without having to deal with this or that.

Call To Action:

A clear way to get access to what they want. Avoid distraction and avoid adding unnecessary steps in between.

A clear instruction. Tell them exactly what you want them to do in order to claim your offer.

"The only thing you need to do is click here"

Light A Fire:

As you already know people procrastinate a lot. They don't take action immediately unless they have a strong reason why.

If they are going to be foreclosed within 5 days I bet you they are desperate. Their whole life, credit history, and financial status are at risk!

But its always good to light some extra fire at our side as well to make them take action so you can capture the lead.

At the end of the copy tell them why they need to act now!

Make them feel fear of loss or fear of missing out.

Now that who have crafted the perfect advertisement for the perfect people then what?

3. CAPTURE TIME (The funnel)

Another huge mistake that a lot of people do when creating ads on social media or when using any other type of advertising, is the fact that they redirect people to their websites. 

This is the second reason why they don't get results and end up wasting a lot of money.

Here's why...

A website has a lot of distractions. It has the ABOUT US page, the CONTACT US page, the GALLERY page, etc, etc.

There are a bunch of options to click on and the visitors get distracted very easily.

A website was not designed to sell. Think about a website as a digital brochure where you showcase all the things you do.

A website was the cool thing to have some years ago and even when still important to have one nowadays, the true fact is that websites don't sell and they are not optimized to turn visitors into deals.

That's why you need to create a FUNNEL, an online funnel.

Whats a funnel?

A funnel is nothing more than a sequence of online pages specifically designed to take visitors in the front end and guide them through step by step until they become a lead that could potentially be a profitable deal in the back end.

The first part of the funnel is called "The landing page or squeeze page". In this first page, there's nothing more than the promise you offered in the ad you ran.

The goal of this page is only to capture people's contact information such as name, email and phone number.

You can include a video explaining more in-depth the problem you are going to solve for them.

The landing page has to be simple and straight forward.

Here are some important things that you have to integrate into the landing page to make it a super leads capturing machine that works for you 24/7.

1. CONNECT TO AN AUTORESPONDER SOFTWARE

This is not that complicated. Don't get scared.

The only reason why we want to link this software to the landing page is to store every single lead that comes in through your funnel.

This is your leads database.

Why do we want to store this information? Because this way you own this audience. You paid to advertise in order to get people's attention, so your job is to capture them before they leave. 

Heres another cool thing. You can use this new audience you just captured and upload it to Facebook, Instagram and Youtube and run new ADS for a lower cost because you are using your own audience.

You can set up an automatic follow-up sequence of emails to your list and much more.

2. TRACKING CODES (Facebook Pixel and Google Tag)

Let's be real. Not everybody that visit your landing page is going to turn in to a lead. Many people will bounce right away, which is a bad thing but it will always happen anyway.

The good news is that there's a solution to this.

Facebook and Google have developed TRACKING CODES that once installed in your funnel they can literally "TRACK" visitors activity in your funnel.

So you will know exactly if they bounce out of the landing page if they become a lead if they purchase something if they claimed the offer, etc.

If people decide to leave your funnel without turning into a lead, this tracking codes will store their activity and you will have access to it to retarget them with new ads to bring them back to the funnel and turn them into leads.

Have you ever tried to buy something online but for some reason you didn't buy and right away within a few seconds ADS featuring the same products were all over the internet harassing you on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Google?

That's called retargeting! And it's so freaking effective! 

How would that benefit you as a Real Estate Investor?

"The fortune is in the follow up"

4. DELIVER (Your End Goal)

What's your goal?

To schedule appointments? To have a phone call? Getting people to email you or message you? To bring them to a live event?

How do you make your money at the end of the day? What do they need to do in order for you to help them?

By simply answering these questions you can modify your funnel to guide leads to where you want them to be to close the deal.

This last step is called the THANK YOU page and is on this page where you deliver your promise and give them instructions to establish your first contact.

You can embed a calendar to schedule a time with you or give them access to a document. You can deliver e-tickets for an event or you can literally do whatever you need.

One tip here! Once you have collected leads is crucial that you contact those leads within 5 to 10 minutes. We found out that people tend to take action within that time rage. If you wait longer, it will be harder to get them back on track.

Fast is the name of the game here.

5. FOLLOW UP (Until You Close The Deal)

This step is very straight forward.

You already know that the fortune in the follow-up and that people procrastinate.

That's why we need to set up systems in place to follow up with the leads.

This is why is so important to capture people's contact info.

With this in hand, we can send to the leads automated emails, text messages, and voice drops providing value or whatever you need in order to close the deal.

BONUS SECTION:

In order to have this set up you need...

For ADS and targeting (Very easy to set up):

Facebook business page

Facebook AD account

Instagram account

YouTube Channel

Google AD account

For FUNNEL creation: (Many options available)

LeadPages

InstaPage

ClickFunnels

WordPress with Thrive Themes

For the autoresponder: (Many options available)

MailChimp

AWeber

GetResponse

InfusionSoft

To automate the process:

Zappier

Twilio

Thanks for sticking to the end of the post. I know it was a bunch of information but I wanted to cover as much as I could.

I hope you enjoyed it but most importantly, that you found it helpful.

Sincerely

Mario

:)