How You Can Generate FREE Real Estate Leads Every Month on Autopilot
I recently read on a car forum how a branded dealership was picking up leads on a daily basis, with a completely automated strategy.
It is an incredibly simple, and uses nothing particularly innovative; which is why I was really frustrated with myself for not using this sooner with my own work.
The more I thought about this method, it really is something realtors and estate agents should all be using to pick up new leads. Especially when you consider it only needs to be set up once, which takes less than five minutes.
In the example I read, a salesman for a large German car manufacturer was picking up potential clients through anyone that discussed buying their brand of car on Twitter.
These leads were being sent directly to his email, every time someone used specific phrases in their tweets.
He was then able to contact them quickly and directly to see if he could possibly answer questions or help them with their new car search; all in an incredibly friendly and informal way.
This method uses IFTTT.com. Perhaps you have heard of ‘If This Then That’ before. I certainly had; although being truthful, it was something I had not used in a while. For those of you not familiar, IFTTT is an incredible and free platform for generating leads from social media.
How does IFTTT work?
Basically If This Then That will notify you, or perform your chosen action if a certain occurrences that you specify, takes place.
Here are just a few examples of some possibilities.
Once you sign up to the service, you can request that when a number of actions are performed by others, you are then alerted or affected in some way.
One example is that you can request your mobile screensaver to be automatically updated every time that NASA updates their image of the day.
Or perhaps request that any Facebook photographs you are tagged in, are saved directly to your phone.
As seen in the image above, you can even be notified of price decreases from certain products and brands.
There are some fascinating possibilities here, and considering this service is free; it is understandable why it is so popular.
So what exactly did the car salesman set up?
You can create your own ‘Recipes’ within IFTTT. You simply click ‘My Recipes’ at the top of the page. Then select ‘Create a Recipe’.
You are then given the options to create your ‘This’ and ‘That’ elements. So if a certain trigger happens, then you can specify what would you want the desired outcome to be.
In this example, that was someone writing a certain set of phrases in Twitter such as “buy new BMW” as one possible ‘This’.
The outcome of the ‘That’ was that he would receive an instant notification via email, that someone had posted a tweet with that phrase.
He could then follow up that notification immediately and attempt to help that person on Twitter, and turn them into a car buying customer.
Just think that lead could have come from someone tweeting that their car had broken down, or they were looking for a new vehicle. Imagine getting a follow up tweet with an offer to help. That really is a fantastic level of customer care, and very likely unexpected.
Obviously not every comment will be a potential lead; however it does open up some real possibilities here.
Unfortunately this tactic does not work on Facebook at present.
Currently IFTTT will only allow you to be notified of your own Facebook page activity; which makes it significantly less useful than the possibilities for Twitter.
However the Twitter possibility certainly provides us with an opportunity that I will delve into now.
How does this apply to Real Estate?
Let me guide you through exactly how you can use this to generate potential homebuyer leads.
Consider the area you live in, in this example I am going to use the Expropria office location of Washington Village, UK. I can get IFTTT to let me know immediately if anyone tweets something along these lines:
- Moving to Washington village
- Move to Washington village
- Relocate to Washington village
- Live in Washington village
- Buy in Washington village
- Buy near Washington village
- Houses in Washington village
- Home for sale Washington village
- Houses to rent Washington village
- Buying in Washington village
- Selling in Washington village
You get the picture I’m sure.
If someone was to tweet something similar to one of the above phrases, then the chances are they could be in need of a real estate agent. You can now be the first point of contact to help them on their journey.
Now being realistic, the number of people discussing phrases like these on twitter are likely to be minimal, that is a given. However each one would provide an opportunity of a very warm lead.
If you consider how little time this will take you to set this up, it really is a no brainer. IFTTT will email you the link of the tweet for you to interact and offer your services directly.
So here’s what you need to do.
When you have selected twitter as your ‘This’, you have the option to select from a number of triggers. You are looking to select ‘New tweet from search’.
You are then given the option to enter the search criteria that you will be notified about. When you enter this, it is important to think of the language your audience may be typing. This could well change due to geographic locations, so alter this to fit your local audience.
Within the ‘search for’ area, you need to enter the phrases you wish to be notified of, however there is a specific way to type this.
You should include the search terms in quotation marks, with a command of OR (in capitals) between each one. So let’s say I wish to use the phrases move to, buying and moving to; all related to Washington. Then I would enter:
“move to” OR “moving to” OR “buying” AND “Washington”
Now I have only used three different search terms in this example. However you can add considerably more. In fact, include any terms that you feel would be relevant to providing you with a lead.
This could look something like:
“move to” OR “moving to” OR “live in” OR “buying in” OR “selling in” OR “renting in” OR “homes for sale” OR “house to rent” OR “relocate to” AND “Washington”
As you can see you could make that chain significantly longer to suit your search needs; as well as increasing the potential scope for those phrases to be matched to a tweet.
Once you have created this search criteria, simply click on ‘Create Trigger’ and select ‘Mail’ as your action channel in the That field.
The last remaining step is for you to create the action. You simply enter the Subject line that will be included in each email you receive. Make this something that will grab your attention, as after all you really want to act upon this information and follow up swiftly; before someone else does.
You then simply select ‘Create Action’. Before completion you get the opportunity to check over the email address you have supplied, and the notification criteria that you have entered. All that remains is for you to click ‘Create Recipe’.
Now every time a match to your search terms is made, you will receive an email with a link to that tweet. The rest is up to you.
Understandably not everyone will need your assistance, and it may depend on the context of their tweet. However the visibility and opportunity is there for you, completely on autopilot.
This really is one of the easiest lead generation methods there is, especially when you consider there is zero cost and very little time involved.
Let’s round this up
Another really positive feature of this strategy is that you can reach out to a potential lead with this method; and they may not need your help right away. However you have made the initial contact, and given them a reference point for the future.
If for example it is someone discussing “excited to be moving to Washington next year”. Then by reaching out now, you have given them a first port of call for when they are ready to move.
Just because they are not a customer of yours right now, does not mean to say they won’t be further down the line. Especially if in your response to them, you come across as genuine and helpful.
We all know that timing is everything.
I have tried to guide you through this process step by step, but it really is that simple.
If you haven’t used IFTTT before then sign up for free.
If you are worried that you can’t use this method because you don’t have an active twitter account, then create one. This is a very simply 5 minute process.
There really are no obstacles standing in your way to making this happen. If you can invest the initial 5 minutes of time to set this up; then you will generate leads on autopilot.
If you put this into action then let me know how it goes; or if you have used this method before, what were the results?
Please leave a comment as I would love to hear from you with your success stories.
Thank you as ever for reading,
Alan, founder of expropria.com
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