Social media is a powerful marketing tool that allows you to convert online audiences into real-life customers. Through a strong strategy and quality content, you can position yourself and your team as experienced industry leaders and build a sense of trust with potential clients.

But first let’s take a reality check. In a business with a long customer lifecycle such as real estate, it can take generating leads months, or even years, to convert to paying customers. Buying and selling a home is not something that people do every day or even every year, it’s a highly emotional decision.

Client nurture and rapport building will play a huge role in convincing people to do business with you, so don’t expect a social media campaign to transform your business. Just like any marketing campaign your social media channels should strengthen and support your prospecting efforts – not replace them.

For this reason, if you take the approach that social media should be used purely for lead generation then you will miss out on the value in building an engaged social media following, such as being top of mind with potential clients, showcasing your expertise and breaking down trust barriers.

Here are a few ways you can optimize your content and strategy to help generate leads for your business:

Create social proof

Share content that shows how you do business and how well you do it. A great way to do this is to let your customers speak for you, include case studies and testimonials or highlight high profile clients you have worked with.

Consider showcasing key results, such as setting an industry record, holding a significant market share, winning awards or retaining a high volume of repeat or referral clients. This kind of social proof will allow you to build credibility with your audience and show your expertise.

Remember to stick to the 80:20 rule when it comes to content that self-promotes. People can switch off quickly if they think you are trying to sell them something, so ensure around 80% of your content provides value to your audience and only 20% is promotional.

Show your expertise 

It’s possible to send a strong message without sounding like you’re boasting or bragging. This is called the ‘show don’t tell’ principle. Show your audience your expertise and skill by creating high value content that will spark user’s attention.

This content should be informative and educational and teach them something they don’t know, to build loyalty and trust.

For example, you could create a regular report on the local real estate market, share your expertise about the local area or your skills as a negotiator.

Ask for the sale 

This is a basic principle of sales that I’m sure you’ve all heard of. Ask for the sale by adding a call to action to your promotional posts. Add a link to your website or a clear and easy way for potential clients to reach you on your social media profiles.

Re-target warm leads 

Re-targeting is a powerful marketing tactic where a business shows ads to an interested audience to convert these leads to paying customers. On platforms such as Facebook and Instagram you can show ads to people who have visited your website, even down to specific pages they have visited. You can also upload your database of contacts such as email addresses and mobile numbers and target ads to these people too.

If you’ve already gone to the effort of making first contact with someone don’t let them slip through the cracks and never hear from you again! Move them down the sales pipeline with a retargeting ad.

Set up ad funnels 

Unless you are an experienced Facebook Marketer, this is not something I suggest you do alone as you may end up costing yourself a lot of money.

An ad funnel is a series of ads that nurtures the customer from the awareness to the conversion phase. There are many different funnels you can set up, but at a basic level your sequence could look something like this:

  • Phase One: Brand Awareness – Your targeting should be broad to try and attract as many people as possible who could do business with you. The objective is to establish awareness of your brand and/or a need for the service you offer. A video ad could work quite well at this level.
  • Phase Two: Consideration Phase – At this point, you want to identify who might be considering the services you or your competitors offer in the next few months. This could be facilitated by a retargeting ad to people who’ve engaged positively with your first ad, such as someone who has watched your video for more than 30 seconds or clicked the link in your first ad.
  • Phase Three: Conversion Phase – The objective here is to convert the audience to a lead, obtain their contact details or prompt them to contact you. This could be done with another ad or it could be done via email if you’ve captured their email address in an earlier phase.

This is just a basic overview of what an ad funnel might look like for your business, however various factors such as market turnover, number of competitors in the marketplace may influence the number of touchpoints in your campaign. Keep in mind it will take time to crack your ad funnel and get some leads coming in.

Need help with your digital marketing?

Chronicle Republic Communications is a boutique Sydney marketing consultancy for real estate, property and interiors professionals. We specialise in social media, content marketing, email marketing, blogging, search engine optimisation, social media advertising and much more!

If you are looking for social media for real estate, property or interior design our digital marketing experts can help you bring your brand’s story to life.

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