Are your lead generation efforts producing the results you want? If not, it’s time to take a look at your strategies and determine where and how you might be falling short. There are many common pitfalls capable of impairing your efforts. Learning what they are and how to avoid them can translate into more leads, better quality leads, and best of all, new clients.
1. No Call to Action
The action you want prospects to take might seem obvious, but skipping a call to action, or writing a poor one, is a number-one lead generation mistake. Your job is to provide not only information about your services but also a compelling reason to take the next step. It is dangerous to assume that your audience will know what the next step is or why it should take that step. And with so many others vying for your prospects’ business, why should they bother trying to figure it out on their own? It is your job to tell your prospects what you want them to do and inspire them to do it right away. Keep your call to action simple and clear but make sure it’s persuasive enough to get your audience to act. Often, offering something for free helps. For example, you might offer a free consultation, gift, home buying/purchasing report or neighborhood profile.
2. Repeating What Others Say
Believe it or not, your prospects hear and see a lot of the same messages day in and day out, and after seeing so many ads that claim a particular real estate agent is professional, experienced, knowledgeable and committed to customer service, how much attention do you think you will get if you focus on the same things? While these qualities are important in an agent, use your lead generation efforts to turn the screw a bit and demonstrate that you are different in some way. Use your ads, posts, tweets and website to stand out from the crowd, say something different and give your prospects a reason to believe you’re the right agent for their needs.
3. Talking Too Much
Many agents want to tell their prospects all about them, and this is only natural. If you are proud of your achievements, it’s logical to think that sharing them will make a prospect more interested in you. To have a better chance of securing a new client, however, walk away from every meeting or conversation knowing more about your prospect than he’s learned about you.
If possible, research each prospect a bit before you talk with her, or at least gather a bit of information via email or a contact form. This way, you can start with some basic information on which you can build during your conversation. Then, ask well-crafted questions that get your prospect to open up about her needs, desires, goals and expectations. If you listen well and take notes, you can use what you learn to pinpoint the specific ways your services can benefit your prospect rather than just sharing a list of services.
4. Focusing Too Much on Social Media Numbers
If you see the competition with thousands of followers, you might feel an urgency to catch up. But focusing too much on social media numbers is an all-too-common mistake. Engagement matters so much more than how many followers or fans you have. Remember the Social in social media.
Your lead generation efforts will be more successful if you focus more on developing relationships than keeping score. This means not just posting content, but also seeking and answering comments, showing that you care, taking an interest in others and posting relevant comments on others’ pages. In addition, sharing content that others provide can prove beneficial as well. Not only does it give your followers the benefit of other perspectives, but it can also expand your reach. If you share another professional’s content, he will be much more likely to do the same for you. And remember, you don’t have to share the competition’s content. Making connections with people in related industries can lead to business-building referrals.
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