Real Estate is a cut-throat business. The promising future it offers makes many choose it as a career. With all those people looking for their share of the market, competition is quite fierce. Real estate agents find themselves in dire need to find new and novel ways to stand out. Social media seems like a promising avenue and LinkedIn is where professionals discuss business. LinkedIn for real estate has been a point of interest for more tech-savvy agents but have a hard time figuring out what to do and how to do it. How do you find real estate leads on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is the ultimate source for checking in on people and seeing what they are up to professionally. This is where people expand their professional careers, education, experiences, skills, etc.: The encyclopedia of resumes and a place to show your efficiency. You can contribute to the community and make a name for yourself. That all seems like a lot but do not worry, we have got your back. In this article, we will go through the various methods to convert your LinkedIn audience into leads.
Why Every Single Agent Should Be on LinkedIn
They say LinkedIn and you hear just another social media platform. But why is LinkedIn mentioned so much in business? What is all that fuss about? How does LinkedIn differ from Facebook and why add another task to your already full plate? Well, there must be something special about LinkedIn. In fact, according to Hubspot, LinkedIn is 277% more effective in lead generation than Facebook and Twitter. Most of the benefits related to LinkedIn do exist on other platforms but there are some unique aspects to LinkedIn:
Expand Your Network to the MAX
Everyone you know who is qualified to buy or sell and is on LinkedIn should be connected to you, especially those who are actively doing business. LinkedIn is where people look up to others professionally. Ever wanted to see what one of your old coworkers is up to on LinkedIn? Apart from other people who might have found you somewhere else and checked your profile, your old friends and everyone who knows you in person could need your services. The idea is to make yourself easily accessible to those who might be interested and pave the way for real estate leads on LinkedIn.
Show off Your Expertise
You can show off your expertise everywhere but what makes LinkedIn special is that it is mainly used by professionals. Professionals like to get to know other professionals and help each other. They also can introduce each other to those who are looking for certain services. Developing a strong presence on LinkedIn keeps you on top of professionals’ minds in your community and increases awareness around your brand.
How to Get Real Estate Leads on LinkedIn
Now, let’s get to the sweet part. Leads, what you are looking for in your business. LinkedIn, despite all its professionalism, is still a social medium. There are tested and proven methods that can help you find real estate leads on LinkedIn and make your efforts count. Methods tech-savvy agents have been using for a long time and now you can learn too.
Endorsements and Recommendations
One of the features unique to LinkedIn is where you can ask your co-workers, managers, and clients to write you a recommendation. This recommendation will show up on your profile is practically what you call a testimonial in real estate. The difference here is that you’re not limited to your clients to tell express their satisfaction and appreciation for the job you did.
Recommendations will also show how the person writing it is related to you (co-worker, client, etc.) and gives others a clear idea of how it is to be working with you. Not unlike a product review, you read before buying it. Make sure you ask those who have been happy working for you for a recommendation. To do so:
Go to the person’s profile and click on more.
Then click on Request a recommendation.
Then Select how you know the person and also your position at the time.
In the next step, you can write a message asking the other person for a recommendation. There is already a message, but it is recommended that you write your own personalized message for better results. People do not like it when you send them generic messages.
Create Eye-catching and Informative Content
The online world is full of content but not all of is great content. What you are aiming at is creating content that stands out:
- Your audience looks for it
- It targets and solves problems
- Is based on data
- Appeals to locals and your neighborhood
- Is presented in an eye-catching way
This is the only way the content will work. Resharing what others have been sharing is not a bad idea but coming up with meaningful content that is based on certain needs will generate the most response. Many agents think the content should create an instant response and generate leads upon delivery. That’s not true. You do not create content to sell. You create content to appear professional and build an audience base that will turn into leads.
Content Creation is Hard and Time-consuming
The benefits of content marketing cannot be emphasized enough. In fact, content marketing is one of the best ways to generate real estate leads on LinkedIn but the problem is creating content is not easy. It needs time and resources. Real estate agents already have so much on their plates. The good news is they do not have to take on the task themselves. roomvu offers content creation for real estate agents that is based on facts and practical factors in the market:
There are many different kinds of content designed for real estate agents based on their audience and their own sales background:
2021 will be the year of videos just like 2020. That’s why roomvu focuses on videos as the main form of real estate marketing. They are easy to watch and share and are highly customizable. Choose your branding color:
and add your own intro and outro.
Join LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn groups are a great opportunity for networking and getting deep insights into the market. However, many of the LinkedIn groups are closed and you can’t join them without requesting to join. Search for and join the groups that fit your market and industry. Once you join the groups make sure you contribute to the group by sharing valuable information and answering its members’ questions. Remember that pitching yourself and your business will not work on LinkedIn groups. People are not there to be sold to.
The more you contribute to the group and help others, the more others will like and trust you. If people need more information and have further questions offer your help in person but never offer it without being asked. If you help others enough and introduce yourself as an expert, you can expand your network and may get some real estate leads on LinkedIn.
Content Creation Should Be Consistent on LinkedIn
Just like any other social media, your presence on LinkedIn should be consistent. It means you need to have a pattern in how you appear on LinkedIn so that your audience feels your presence all the time and does not feel your absence. However, just like creating quality content, being consistent is also another challenge for real estate agents who are already busy with their own business life. Roomvu has thought of this issue as well and now offers its content calendar. The automated system that shares the content you have picked on time on LinkedIn:
The only thing you need to do is to connect your LinkedIn Account
And choose your hashtags
And choose your target cities and neighborhoods
This is all the effort you have to exert. Leave the rest to the roomvu calendar. Upon the set time, videos will be shared and you will get noticed with your own branding. Want to make your content even more personal? No worries. Roomvu does that too!
If you are feeling confident enough (you should) you can order an on-camera market update for extra efficiency. Get in front of the camera and connect to your audience on a deeper level. Let them see you when you are giving them the content they need.
Use LinkedIn Ads
LinkedIn offers lead generation ads that allow users to target specific people based on different metrics to make the ads more accurate and targeted. According to Hubspot, LinkedIn users get 9% conversion to their website traffic through ads which is an impressive number. Considering these stats, and the professional nature of the platform, ads seem like a sensible bet to further increase your traffic and generate real estate leads on LinkedIn.
Keep Track of Your Performance
Your efforts on LinkedIn need to be constantly monitored and improved. The content you share may not get enough engagement in the beginning but as you go along you have to see what content performs better compared to others. The number of likes, comments, and shares shows how well a piece of content is doing. Pay close attention to these stats and always keep in mind that engagement is the most important element you on LinkedIn.
If you feel you do not have time to do the analysis, do not worry. Roomvu will take care of that too. On the roomvu dashboard, there is a dedicated section that monitors the performance of your content on LinkedIn and lets you repost content that performs better.
Become the Source of Real Estate News
One of the key actions real estate agents can take to come across as someone who knows the market well and can be trusted is to keep your audience posted about the new trends and developments. Share what’s happening in the market and the effect of events on the market in the present and future. Show your audience you know the market and know how to help people with real estate.
Get LinkedIn Premium
LinkedIn premium offers many features for users to find talent, get hired, and find leads. Have a look at the benefits the premium version offers for sales and real estate leads on LinkedIn.
Get Local and Focus on Neighborhoods
Talking nationwide or even city-wide may appeal to those who analyze business and market but not your end-users, the actual people who are thinking about buying or selling a home. They need more local content that focuses on neighborhoods. Provide deep insights into different neighborhoods. This way you will prove your knowledge and experience and provide what your audience is looking for. It is not just the home they want to know about. The area around the property, the neighborhood, its amenities, and facilities are sometimes even more important than the property itself for the homebuyers. It will also show home sellers that you know how to present a property to sell it.
Real Estate Leads on LinkedIn: Takeaways
LinkedIn is where professionals are. Therefore, it is one of the first places people look up professionals when they need certain services. Your presence on LinkedIn is a must. However, just being present on the platform is not enough. You need to reach those in your farming area, offer compelling content, and offer help. This demonstrates you are the one they need.
The great thing about LinkedIn is that the content shared on the platform is (mainly) professional. In contrast to Facebook and Instagram which are saturated with content most of it unrelated to business, on LinkedIn non-professional content is unwelcome and your professional content has a better chance of reaching your audience. Make sure you keep your content marketing efforts consistent, valuable, and easy for your audience and enjoy the high conversion rate LinkedIn offers.