What’s your lead generation strategy? If you’ve not heard of this marketing process, you could struggle to grow your customer base and you might not stand out from the competition.
What is lead generation?
Lead generation is a marketing process where interest in your CRE business is created and nurtured to push potential customers on the path to buying from your company.
A lead is a person who is already interested in your CRE business in some way. For example, they may have visited your website, met you at an event, taken advantage of an offer or even applied for a job with your company.
As such, lead generation requires marketers to focus on finding and building relationships with customers, instead of relying on cold calls, mass mailings and unpersonalized advertising campaigns.
Lead generation is also a major concern for most businesses. Two-thirds of companies say generating traffic and leads is their biggest marketing challenge and 74% say converting leads into customers is their top priority.
How can CRE agents use lead generation?
There are many different lead generation strategies. One core method is to use an offer to entice a user to visit a landing page on your website.
A landing page is a standalone web page distinct from your main website. It should be designed solely to capture a lead. The user usually needs to fill in an online form with their contact information in exchange for accessing your offer.
There are many different types of offers you could use. A free consultation, fact sheet, how-to guide, infographic, whitepaper or even a contest are all powerful methods to generate leads for your CRE business.
Here are some other ideas to generate leads for your CRE business:
- Mine your existing contact list and try to segment contacts based on their interests and the other user information you have available.
- Research leads using LinkedIn’s people search to find prospects in your region. You can send direct messages to individuals. Also, check out Linkedin’s Sales Navigator tool, which is another way to engage with brokers, investors, and tenants.
- Revamp your website to engage and convert visitors by including lead generation forms and clear CTAs (Call To Actions). For example, you could offer visitors a simple way to subscribe to your blog.
- You may want to focus on your content marketing. Some 93% of B2B companies claiming content marketing – such as writing a blog and other online content – generates more leads than conventional marketing methods.
- Your blog is a vital tool to generate leads. But you have to make sure you’re writing something people actually want to read. So, make sure you give plenty of useful advice and cover topics local businesses care about.
- Use Google AdWords or other advertising methods to promote your Commercial Real Estate online. You may also want to advertise on LinkedIn, Facebook and other social media channels.
- Participate in events and conferences to expose your business to a wider network of potential leads. Also, make sure you get an attendee list so you can continue to nurture relationships with leads after the event.
- You could also join a local chamber of commerce or another business network to boost your presence in your business community. This will also help you keep tabs on any new companies entering your market.
- Reach out to your existing network and ask for referrals to generate further interest in your business. You may also want to connect with former colleagues.
How can lead generation help CRE agents?
In this highly competitive industry, lead generation can make or break your CRE business.
Once you have generated leads, you can use this information to convert your leads into customers and, eventually transform them into brand advocates for your business.
As such, lead generation is a vital step to both your marketing and sales efforts to help build your brand, capture the interest of potential customers and stakeholders and ultimately close the deal.
