Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
Linkedin is an excellent platform for lead generation right now. Linkedin has around 650 million members worldwide and is predominantly made up of the white-collar workforce, with a higher income bracket than all other social media platforms.
Linkedin has the greatest organic reach of any social media platform in 2021. This reach means that any updates, videos, or images you post to Linkedin will have the potential to reach a vast number of users without spending any money on ads. Even if you have tens of thousands of likes or followers on Facebook, you will still need to pay for adverts to get a large percentage of them to see your posts.
Linkedin is currently looking to grow its market share and become a content platform in its own right.
While it can be very powerful, it is rarely used correctly. This post will look at five simple techniques for driving real estate leads using Linkedin.
Before you start, ensure that you set up both a personal profile and a business page profile on Linkedin if possible.
Have a LinkedIn Marketing Plan
Before you get started, it is essential to have a plan. Make sure that you record all your baseline metrics in terms of Linkedin followers, average engagement rates over previous months, and most importantly, the number of leads you have generated each month.
According to Linkedin marketing expert Nathanial Bibby, businesses need to use social media to generate attention and build trust before driving sales. Without trust, companies need to create more and more awareness.
A key element of your marketing plan should be to establish how you will add quality and value to Linkedin. A great way to do this is to develop your ideal customer persona or avatar and identify your target market. Then look on relevant groups on Reddit and Facebook and see what people are talking about – what are their problems and what do they enjoy learning etc.?
Consider how you will use Linkedinas a way to generate leads with inbound and outbound marketing. With inbound marketing, you provide value to a given demographic or community; they find you because you give the answers they are looking for. Outbound marketing is more to do with self-promotion and showcasing the value in your products or services.
It can also help create a specific marketing plan for both your personal profile and your business page in real estate.
For example, you may wish to proactively target people with your personal profile to add to your network, rather than being reactive and building your network by just accepting requests.
Optimize Your Personal Linkedin Profile & Page
Before you implement your marketing plan, ensure that your personal profile is optimized. A professional headshot or a headshot that looks highly professional is usually the best idea when it comes to the best image for your profile.
To get the best chance to show up on Google for relevant search terms, choose a URL or address for your Linkedin profile containing one or more search terms. For example, include the words “real estate” if possible. You can edit your Linkedin URL in your profile settings. Go to settings, then “Name, location, and industry,” and then scroll to the bottom and click the pen icon to edit your Contact info.
In the about section of your personal profile, include keywords (also called “search terms”) that people who want to buy from you will be searching for. While people will often go to Google to search for real estate agents, more and more people are searching on Linkedin to see who is already in their network to provide the service or product they require. Moreover, optimizing your profile for search on Linkedin will cross over to Google and make you more likely to feature on the top page of results. In some cases, people have optimized their Linkedin profiles and generated more views per day than their website does. This can be especially true if you run a company with lots of employees and agents who all optimize their profile pages.
You will typically want to use a professionally designed logo rather than a headshot for your business page. While it is worth investing time and effort into optimizing your business page, people generally prefer to buy from people rather than businesses as such, and therefore a personal profile on Linkedin should be the main focus.
Social Proof
To optimize your Linkedin personal profile, you should also have testimonials/recommendations on your page.
Having multiple recommendations on your personal profile is still relatively rare on Linkedin, so it can be a key way to stand out from the crowd.
It would help if you also looked to gain as many relevant endorsements as possible.
Post Daily & Provide Value
Social media is similar to inbound marketing in that you should look to add value and attract people because they come away feeling informed or entertained after seeing your posts. By providing valuable content, you can also establish yourself as an expert and an authority in your niche.
There are three main ways to add value on any social media platform or blog:
- Entertainment
- Education
- Inspiration
Remember that Linkedin is different from many social media platforms in that the caption is posted above any images you post. With this in mind, you might need to provide a compelling caption to grab people’s attention and get them to watch your video or engage with your image.
Asking a question can be an excellent way to get people’s attention. For example – “what’s your ideal home?”, “how do you choose a family home?” or something more generic such as “what’s your sales process?”.
Video Content
Video content can perform exceptionally well on Linkedin. Video content is the least competitive format on Linkedin, compared to image and text posts – because it takes more effort to create.
Keep your videos as professional as possible. Remember that the perceived value of your service relates directly to the perceived professionalism of your advertising.
Add a transcript. Most people view videos on mute on Linkedin and Facebook.
If you post a video, bear in mind that 50% of your viewers will move on if you don’t grab their attention within the first 10 seconds. Provide some value straight away, don’t create a long introduction.
Find, Connect, Engage
Once you have defined your target audience, go out and find relevant Linkedin users. You can search for keywords in user’s profiles by using the search bar at the top of Linkedin.
Send out 200 requests. On average, around 50% will accept and connect.
A great way to find people who may be ready to buy a house is to wait for a notification that tells you someone has a new job – Linkedin will prompt you to “Say congrats.”
In this instance, you can say congratulations, and even if it is a joking way, you could add something like “if you want to find that dream home – let me know!” – so that you are front of mind, should the Linkedin user by looking for a new house. If the user has a new job, there is a good chance that they will indeed be looking for a new property.
You can also provide them with your phone number and email address, so it’s as easy as possible to get in touch.
If a prospect does, in fact, call – you need to answer the call! Answering the call is very important but often overlooked. Many calls are not answered, and people rarely leave a voicemail message. With this in mind, consider using a 24/7 phone answering service from a company such as Moneypenny. If you are serious about generating sales using Linkedin, then a professional and dedicated receptionist can ensure you never miss a call is a huge advantage.
Conclusion
Generating leads on Linkedin takes time and effort. Linkedin is a great opportunity right now, as its organic reach is so huge compared to other social media platforms. Begin by identifying your target audience and by creating a plan. Provide value and grow your network, and you can’t really go wrong!
