5 ways to generate real estate leads online with Keller Williams

The benefits of utilizing digital marketing to diversify from traditional marketing methods are becoming more prevalent each day as technology continues to evolve the real estate marketplace. It’s important to understand, strategize, and implement various digital marketing techniques to effectively expand your reach online and attract others to your business. 

Generating real estate leads online with Keller Williams involves tapping into digital platforms and utilizing various digital marketing tools. From KW Command to social media networks, planning and executing lead generation strategies will help you engage and convert potential online leads to clients.

The internet presents a fantastic opportunity to get potential real estate leads interested in your listings. Read on for five different lead generation tactics using digital channels and Keller William’s Command streamlined product stack.

What Is KW Command?

KW Command is a platform for agents who are part of Keller Williams and is a one-stop-shop for running a real estate business. At its very core, KW Command is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform and a robust technology suite from agent websites, Facebook Ads, and social media. Rather than provide you with leads, the company has created a system to allow you to generate your own leads.

While Command was released back in 2019, Keller Williams is continuously improving the real estate platform and changing how their agents market their business by adding more features and enhancing the tools. Most recently, in October 2020, Keller Williams added 25 additional features to assist realtors with their real estate business.

For many agents, emailing out a monthly newsletter to multiple clients involves a lot of manual labor and can become a long and inefficient process. Struggling with keeping up with the latest digital tools wastes time that can be better spent expanding your book of business and connecting with clients. Using the KW Command platform simplifies having all sorts of online marketing capabilities in a centralized place instead of using multiple different programs to get the same work done. 

Generating Real Estate Leads Online

KW Command has a lot of ways for agents to market real estate listings and generate potential leads. While all functions are within KW Command, it is still important to understand each digital marketing tool’s basics to use it properly.

KW Command may be powered by artificial intelligence to mine data and present meaningful insights. Still, it is up to the agent to comprehend and execute lead generation tactics to nurture the leads captured by the system. Agents must sharpen their competitive edge and optimize their digital marketing strategy on a regular basis to improve not only the quantity but also the quality of inbound leads.

KW Command Agent Website

As a Keller Williams agent, it is important to set an agent website as it is part of your overall brand. Since the website is integrated with the KW Command platform, it makes it easy to track interactions, instantly follow up with clients, and see what listings your visitors are interested in.

Agent websites also have search engine optimization (SEO) capabilities, so your website exponentially increases the quantity and quality of web traffic through organic search results. This means that you are more likely to attract online visitors searching on Google or Bing, who are interested in your real estate business.

While most agents rely on getting their leads via referrals or business from repeat clients, establishing your name and increasing brand recognition online is helpful in the long run. Nowadays, customers are looking up services and reading reviews/testimonials online. According to the National Association of REALTORS Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, in 2017, 52% of buyers found the home they ultimately purchased on the internet. 

The internet has become a crucial tool in the real estate home search process, so real estate agents that do not have an online presence miss out on a big chunk of potential business. Therefore, it is very important to have a personalized and engaging website to further capture these online real estate leads. Add testimonials from happy clients and a resource or an FAQ section for your visitors to educate them on the real estate buying or selling process.

KW Command Facebook Ads

KW Command has the feature to launch advertising campaigns on the social media network Facebook to capture real estate leads. But when using KW Command to run social media ads on Facebook, there is an option of using Facebook’s lead generation forms to gather leads. This is much more efficient than having online visitors fill out their contact information, as Facebook uses the contact information that the visitor has already added to their Facebook account.

Since people with Facebook accounts spend approximately 38 minutes per day on the social network in 2020, it is crucial to utilize Facebook’s advertising platform to capture leads. Now is especially a great time to launch campaigns and advertise on Facebook Ads, as the average price decreased by approximately 6% in 2019. However, there was also an approximate 37% increase in ad impressions. These percentages mean that you can reach more people with less money and make the most out of your dollars.

Facebook Ads are especially relevant for realtors in the luxury residential real estate market, targeting high net-worth individuals. Approximately 74% of high-income earners are Facebook users. This percentage even surpasses the professional social network LinkedIn, where approximately 49% of LinkedIn users are making a salary of more than $75,000 a year. 

Depending on who you are trying to market towards, you can ensure your social network advertisements are being shown to the right audience by specifying certain details such as location, demographic, homeownership status, and other targeting options.

A great example of a Facebook ad campaign is running an open house advertisement. Consider running an ad to reach your local demographic. By using the demographic option and segmenting your audience, you can target Facebook users who live near the area and can attend the open house. This opens up people that you would have never been able to reach before.

KW Command Landing Pages

Landing pages are a web page created specifically for marketing or advertising purposes. As a standalone page that is not a part of your agent website, the goal is to have a call to action – which could be to click on a real estate listing or a form to capture contact information.

After a prospect clicks a link in an advertisement, email, or anywhere else on the internet, they are taken to a landing page for conversion. Since the landing page’s focus is on the increased conversion rates of your advertising campaigns, the overall point is to convert visitors into warm leads that can be nurtured through the pipeline. 

KW Command’s landing pages are used for advertising a specific listing, and the content on the landing page is populated using drag and drop widgets for easy customization. You can edit the landing page by adding other widgets that can add a map of the neighborhood along with neighborhood statistics, a video walkthrough of the property, your contact information, a form to collect contact information, and much more.

Having a contact form on a landing page with the goal of having website visitors to send their name, phone number, and email address are crucial for lead generation purposes. These types of landing pages can be used to build up a list of prospective customers for a particular real estate listing. When someone fills out the contact form with their details, you are immediately notified and can follow up with the lead as they are clearly interested in learning more about the specific property. 

Social Media Status Updates with KW Command

But there is more to social media platforms than merely paying for ads. You can use KW Command to post for free on Facebook and Twitter. While there is a limit of characters used in posts (Facebook’s post limit being 2,200 characters and Twitter’s post limit being 280 characters), you can also allow photos or videos to showcase your space.

On KW Command, the Social Posts tab is where you can view your social media posts that are live, in the queue to be scheduled, or in the drafts category. You can also filter posts based on social media channels such as Facebook or Twitter and view a social media content calendar with a breakdown of when your social media posts will be posted. 

Scheduling posts through KW Command makes it easy to be more active on social media networks, as you can write posts weeks in advance. You never have to miss seasonal greetings or any important holidays ever again! Celebrate fun holidays such as National Donut Day (on the first Friday of every June), or share a funny joke for National Tell a Joke Day (on August 16).

Since the highest traffic occurs around noon on Wednesday and Thursday on Facebook, consider posting on those times as it can impact the engagement of your social media status updates and posts. Of course, engagement levels differ depending on your followers, so test to see when your audience is engaging with your content by reviewing your social media analytics.

By consistently posting on social media and sharing great content, you can raise and increase brand awareness. When someone engages with your content, whether by commenting on sharing your posts, these actions can soon translate into warm leads as your audience gets to know you and your business. Some real estate content ideas for Facebook posts include photographs from your listings with engaging copy, educational videos about the buyer and seller process, and live tour walkthroughs of the property. 

According to a report from the National Association of REALTORS’ ® Real Estate in a Digital Age Report, association members found that the highest quality of real estate leads came from social media at approximately 47%. But considering that in the same report, about 76% of female REALTORS® and about 73% of male REALTORS® use social media for professional use, there is still a big chunk of agents that do not utilize social media for their business.

Facebook has more than simply posting status updates and ad campaigns. With features such as Facebook Live or Snapchat, utilize the tools these programs have to offer to its fullest potential. If you have a unique property, consider hosting a live stream virtual open house for more exposure. 

The great aspect of Facebook Live is that you can also communicate with buyers in real-time while you host. These features are a great way to nurture prospective leads, so tap into the network and challenge yourself to post and share new content every day on social media.

Advertising Another Agent’s Listing Online

Make sure you get permission to advertise another agent’s listing, whether it be Facebook or other social media channels. Let the other agent know where the real estate listing will be posted online, so they are aware and can also share the social media post with their audience. 

The more people you reach with the advertisement online, the higher potential you will be able to make a deal. Usually, real estate agents like having extra exposure for a real estate listing and probably will not reject your advertising offer. But it is always good practice to ask in advance because some brokerages have exclusive rights in place and prefer not to have their listings randomly posted online.

When you do get permission, it is crucial to prominently show the other agent’s name and real estate brokerage agency. You should not pass the listing off as if it is your own to avoid misleading your followers.

Become a Thought Leader

Realtors can struggle to point out specific unique values that differentiate themselves from other agents in highly competitive marketplaces. The reason a buyer or seller wants to work with you instead of another person is your unique value proposition. This can include the amount of experience you have in real estate, your responsiveness when talking to clients, or simply your negotiating tactics to get your clients the best deal. 

It’s important to convey this message online often as personable content gets leads. But ultimately, strive to become a Thought Leader in your local real estate submarket. As a person whose expertise is widely sought after, the leads will come directly to you. By bolstering your digital marketing with happy clients’ testimonials or social media status updates with tidbits of real estate information, you can slowly establish credibility as an expert in real estate over time. 

Especially for millennials, about 70% of consumers check online reviews before picking up the phone and talking to an agent. One of the best decisions for lead generation in real estate is to launch a real estate blog. It requires time and dedication but blogging is a great inbound lead generation tactic to show off your expertise to the public. Not only does this raise the SEO of your website, but it will make you look more trustworthy.

Create content that benefits prospective leads as well as your past clients because the typical realtor earns about 15% of their business from repeat customers. Share your success stories and actively promote yourself. Show real proof that lends to your credibility, and this will encourage prospective leads to believe in your skills and become clients. It is more valuable to build a brand that people trust, so they come to you and your business.

Since residential real estate is traditionally a sales-driven industry, agents can be tunnel-visioned and more focused on chasing short term sales than long term brand marketing strategies. This happens because the time and commitment of writing a blog or creating social media content can be difficult. Building a brand takes a long time, and not seeing an immediate pay off is hard for agents to continue. But investing in your brand will help you stand out from other agents, as you are actively selling your personal strengths. 

Customers are people, and people make decisions based on how they perceive others. Your unique value stems from who you are and your experiences selling real estate, so play up your strengths.

Key Takeaways

At the core, the business of real estate is all about relationships. The nature of the business has not changed, but rather there are new digital tools to communicate and advertise to nurture these relationships online.

Since real estate prospects don’t magically appear in your email inbox, you need to put into motion a lead-generating strategy that helps you improve and increase your online reach. Diversifying your marketing techniques across multiple digital channels from social media to a web landing page can help you generate more real estate leads. Explore the possibility of tapping into more social networks besides Facebook to expand your exposure.

Keller Williams’ proprietary platform Command can get you on the right track to attracting real estate leads and converting them into clients. By establishing a digital persona, you can cultivate an interest in your brand and business, which ultimately sets you apart from the rest of the competition. Since technology is constantly evolving, it is crucial to keep looking for new ways to innovate your current online lead generation strategy.