| BUSINESS TIPS 3 KEYS TO EFFECTIVE LEAD GENERATION |
| Successful real estate people are all experts in lead generation. The good news is, it doesn’t take a lot of time to get good at lead generation. Decide that’s your goal, take the necessary actions, and you can start being more successful immediately. Top professionals say there are three keys to effective lead generation. Use them, and you’ll no longer depend on others or, worse, pay for leads. Focus on working on the things that lead to a paycheck. There are lots of things that can take up lots of time in real estate—previewing properties, working on your website, posting on social media, taking classes, etc. These things all have a place in your work, but they shouldn’t get in the way of the activities that lead to a paycheck—namely, making phone calls and setting up appointments with buyers and sellers. Discipline yourself to do your lead gen work consistently and effectively. Lead generation is about making calls, sending out emails and mailings, staying in touch with your sphere of referral partners, knocking on doors, setting up appointments, and similar tasks. That’s where success lies. Yes, these things can be tedious, but the more you do them, the better you get at them and the less tedious they become. Your efforts also become more effective, so if you do them consistently, your success is practically guaranteed! Be willing to do what others (and you!) would rather not do. Successful professionals say you should do lead generation a minimum of 2 hours a day, 5 days a week. If you have to, start slow and build up to the 2 hours. Practice what you’ll say and use scripts if you don’t get appointments with your own pitch. And don’t let anyone or anything interfere with your lead gen time. As we mentioned above, these are things most people would rather not do every day. The key is to stay motivated. Remember why you’re doing these activities—it’s because they’re the obvious path to success and it’s right in front of you. The fact is successful people aren’t doing something special. They’re just expert lead generators—and that’s something you can be too! |
| TECHNOLOGY TAKING THE MYSTERY OUT OF DIGITAL MARKETING METRICS |
| Digital marketing efforts are a significant part of marketing today. Digital marketing metrics show you how those efforts are working. Understanding these metrics will tell you how you can make your digital presence more effective. Here are the metrics commonly used. Websites Unique visitors. The number of unique individuals who visited your web page. Bounce rate. The percentage of visitors who leave the site after viewing only one page. Measures whether or not your homepage is engaging. Search engine ranking. Monitor your site’s ranking on search engine results pages—SERPs. Assess your relevant keywords for search engine optimization—SEO. Page load time. Slow loads increase bounce rate and hurt your ranking on SERPs. Regularly test your page load speed, especially after you make updates. Site metrics can be viewed on Google Analytics (GA), or your web developer may be able to give you metrics on website performance. Social media Engagement. Tracks the level of engagement—likes, comments, shares—your post receives, the most important metric to assess your content and growth. Shows you what content gets more engagement from your audience. Don’t forget to engage with those who are engaging with you on social platforms. Reach. How many unique accounts viewed your content. Impressions. How many times your content was seen in aggregate. Impressions measure the total number of times the content was seen, versus reach, which measures unique views. Followers. Shows you the net increases in followers and unfollows over time. Use the professional dashboard on each platform to track your social media metrics. Take screenshots or write down performance metrics every month. Newsletters Open rate. Out of the total number of emails delivered, the percentage of people who opened them. Click rate. Among those who opened the email, the percentage of those who clicked links within it. Hard bounce. Usually, it means an email sent to an address that doesn’t exist. Soft bounce. An email that wasn’t deliverable because of a temporary issue, such as a full inbox or a server problem. Your newsletter provider may give you these metrics as part of their service. Digital advertising Metrics that Google and Meta give you can be quite complex and aren’t limited to the common terms detailed here. Cost per click (CPC), aka pay per click (PPC). Measures how much you’re paying for each click on your ad. Divide the total cost of a campaign by the number of clicks it received. For example, if a $5,000 campaign got 20,000 clicks, the CPC would be $0.25. Cost per lead (CPL). Measures how much you’re paying for each new lead, which is an individual who has expressed interest in your product. Divide your total advertising spend by your total new leads. Cost per mille (CPM). The cost for every 1,000 impressions the ad receives. Conversion rate. The percentage of site visitors who take a desired action, such as filling out a contact form, or asking for more information. You can also use it to measure how many of the leads that you received you turned into clients. If you’re paying someone to handle your digital advertising, they should be able to provide you with campaign results. |
| MARKET TIP 5 REASONS BUYERS SHOULD JUMP IN NOW |
| The real estate market is shifting. Here’s why buyers should take advantage of those changes and get into the market right now. The inventory of homes for sale is growing. Conditions vary from market to market, but nationally the months’ supply of homes for sale has grown. We aren’t back to historic norms, but there are more homes to choose from now, so buyers have a much better chance of finding the home that meets their needs and fulfills their dreams. There are more new homes on the market. Because the inventory of pre-owned homes has been tight, builders have been working hard to grow the supply of new homes. The NAR and the U.S. Census Bureau report that one in three homes on the market are newly built. Understanding what’s needed in today’s market, many builders have also turned their attention to smaller, more affordable homes. Less competition from other buyers. Most buyers with school age children are no longer in the market, and demand overall is just not as strong as it was. With more inventory available, that means buyers should be able to avoid bidding wars. Home price gains are moderating. Prices are still edging up, but not as fast. Supply is growing and demand is easing, but prices aren’t falling, they’re just rising at a more normal rate. Buyers who keep waiting could face more competition. Forecasts call for more buyers to enter the market. As inventories continue to increase, buyers are expected to flood into the market next spring. |
The Jim Passi Team at Citywide Home Loans proudly serves Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Georgia and Flordia. If you are looking to buy a home or refinance, we have you covered. Apply Now to get started.
