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Whether you are a new or an experienced real estate agent, prospecting is the most challenging aspect of a property business.
In our regular trainings with the team, one of the topics that we covered is how to prospect for consistent income in our real estate business.
This is especially important to real estate agents as we do not have a basic salary. Having a prospecting system that generates consistent income will ensure smooth cash flow.
In this article, let me share the methods of prospecting that you can use to create your own system.
Methods of Prospecting
There are many methods of prospecting for a real estate salesperson. Apart from the traditional methods, a lot of emphases is now placed on digital marketing.
I will touch on both the digital methods as well as the traditional methods and how we can apply them in our real estate business.
Digital Marketing
1) Social Media Marketing
Social media is fast becoming a huge part of digital marketing. Some of the more popular social media platforms include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tik Tok etc. Each of these platforms reaches out to different demographics of the audience.
Social media is a good platform for building our brand and engage with our customers.
More property agents are now using social media to promote their brands and engage with customers.
It is also cost-effective as we are able to target a specific group of audiences.
There are many courses in the market that focus on how to use social media for marketing. A good understanding of how these work can greatly improve our marketing efforts and provide a good source of leads.
2) Video Marketing
Video marketing has taken the digital marketing world by storm.
In fact, video marketing is one of the big winners for 2020. The covid-19 pandemic has forced many of us at home and online. Video is one of the most popular ways people consume content on the internet,
So what are the types of videos a real estate salesperson can create?
Home tour videos are popular with property agents. More property agents are doing property tours to showcase the property they are marketing.
Another type of video that one can consider for our real estate business includes live and behind-the-scenes videos.
A live video snippet of us doing property wealth planning consultations with clients or presenting the unit to a potential buyer is interesting and engaging.
We can also do behind the scene videos. These might include the preparation work in getting the unit ready for showing, the work done in recording a video etc.
A tutorial video is another idea. We can choose a real estate-related topic and record a video on it. The topics can be evergreen topics or one which is trending at that moment.
This kind of video will appeal to audiences who prefer to watch than read a lengthy article.
Video marketing is hot and it's here to stay. To stay in the game, it's important to start engaging in video marketing.
3) Website Marketing (Content Marketing)
The website is a good place to introduce our brand and educate consumers on how our knowledge and services can help them solve a problem.
It is also a good leads generation tool. People who come to our website generally means they are interested to find out about our service. They are thus our potential clients.
The essence of website marketing is how to be ranked on top when people key in their searches in search engines. That is done using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is the practice of increasing the quality and quantity of website traffic through organic (also known as non-paid) search engine results.
Most of our online traffic is driven by search engines. While paid online advertisement and social media platforms can also drive traffic to our website, organic results appear more credible and receive more clicks than paid ads.
If we produce a good piece of content with the right keywords, it can rank highly on search engines. Traffic to our website will snowball over time. This is done without spending any marketing dollars.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
SEM is the practice of getting website traffic from both organic and paid searches. This includes SEO and PPC (Pay-per-click).
With PPC, we bid on specific keywords. When someone type in the keyword, our page will appear. The ranking of the page usually depends on how much we have bidded. If our bid is the highest, our page will appear on top.
The difference between SEO and SEM is speed. It takes a much longer time for SEO to generate results, especially if the website is new.
However, if you focus on SEM, PPC can get you almost immediate results. That said, traffic to your website will stop once you stop spending money on PPC.
On the other hand, traffic from SEO will multiply as time goes and especially when the keywords your page ranked for is already on the first page.
4) Email Marketing
Email marketing has been around for a long time.
While this is not the newest technology, email marketing allows us to do personalize and automated marketing. It is also a low-cost marketing tool.
Emails are sent to the individual's mailbox. This allows targeted marketing to the specific segment of customers a property agent wants to reach.
There is also no constrain on the number of words or types of multimedia we can use within a mail. This allows us to include more details about the product or service we are marketing.
A well-planned sequence of emails is useful in building a long-lasting relationship and trust with clients, resulting in them ultimately engaging our services.
5) Whatsapp Business Marketing
In the digital world, Whatsapp has become the preferred communication medium for many.
Whatsapp Business Marketing is getting popular with many real estate agents. We are able to update our business profile and catalog so potential clients understand our products and services even before we speak to them.
This increases our presence in the digital world.
Traditional Methods of Prospecting
1) Door-To-Door Canvassing
Door-to-door canvassing has always been one of the most effective ways to get leads. However, this method of prospecting can only work for HDB or landed properties.
To make door-to-door canvassing more efficient, property agents can target HDB properties that are reaching their 5 years Minimum-Occupation-Period (MOP).
As this group of homeowners will likely be sitting on profits, they might be inclined to see how they can upgrade their property.
If you are working in a landed GTA, door-to-door canvassing should be a part of your prospecting system.
Face-to-face meetings with homeowners allow them to know you personally.
Chances are the more they see you, the more they will remember you when they want to sell their properties!
2) Flyers
Flyers are also widely used by many property agents as our prospecting tool.
Due to the restriction on condominiums, flyers are mainly used for HDB and landed properties.
For this prospecting method to work, there should be a system where flyers should be distributed regularly rather than a one-off.
This is because homeowners will remember you as their estate specialist if they see your flyers regularly.
Another tip is to stick to the design format of your flyers. This includes the color scheme and layout etc. Only the content is updated.
This will help homeowners to remember your flyers, and you!
3) Direct mailers
Direct mailers are a preferred prospecting method for condominiums as they reach out directly to the owners of the property.
It can be done in 2 ways.
We can purchase the details of the property owners and send the mailers directly to them (do take note of the PDPA rules).
Alternatively, we can mail them directly to the condominium addresses.
Just like flyers, this has to be done regularly for homeowners to remember you when they need your service!
4) Circle of Influence (COI)
Circle of Influence (COI) refers to the people we know.
Real estate is a need for everyone. People upgrade when they need a bigger space or a better lifestyle. There are also people who downgrade their property when their needs change.
People buy property for investment too. That is why we do Property Wealth Planning consultations.
COI is a huge pool of leads. To convert them into our clients, we have to actively reach out to them.
Besides contacting them directly, we can make use of social media to engage and remind them of our presence.
Conclusion
Prospecting should be in the bloodstream of all real estate agents.
As can be seen, there are so many ways to prospect for customers. It is important for real estate agents to identify the methods that work for them and established a system for prospecting.
Having a systematic way of prospecting will enable constant leads and thus consistent income.
If you would like to have a chat on how we can work together, drop me a whatsapp or schedule an appointment using the link below.
I believe my experience will be able to help you in achieving your goals in this industry.
See you soon!
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About The Author
Vivian joined the real estate industry in 2002.
Having been in the real estate business for almost 2 decades, she knows the rewards and challenges that a real estate agent face.
While the real estate career offers lucrative income and flexible work hours, it also presents many challenges - financial insecurity as we do not have basic pay, time management as we juggle work, children and family all at one time.
Only those who have walked the same journey will understand.
Vivian would now like to pay it forward by mentoring fellow agents, especially women who want to build a real estate career.
It is her vision to see women achieving their dreams, and live their lives with purpose and passion through a successful real estate career.
Call Vivian at 98577714 to embark on this journey.