Lead funnels are a great way to help improve your estate agency marketing success. Lead funnels give you a simple way to understand the journey new clients take when getting to know your brand. By implementing lead funnels in your estate agency marketing you can drive new business all the way from awareness to advocacy.
We have put together a brief introduction to lead funnels below to help you understand the lead funnel concept, along with 4 blueprints for you to learn and consider implementing. Our aim is simple. To help you learn and implement marketing that really works!
To understand the funnel you must learn about the 4 main stages clients go through. Potential clients typically start off knowing very little about your estate agency, through their journey, they learn about you, hopefully moving to a lead and eventually a client.
If you do a really good job they may recommend your service to their friends and use your service again in the future. This is the main aim of your estate agency marketing, to get them to love your brand and move them through each stage.
We use the term funnel to describe them because typically you have more people at the top and the aim is to send them down to the next stage.
Estate agents have always used funnels to nurture valuation leads. However, leading estate agents are using funnels across their organisation to improve their digital marketing success and beat the competition.
The Main Funnel Stages
If you are unfamiliar with digital marketing funnels the diagram below shows the four basic stages:
Your Audience Stages
The four stages above show us your objectives. However, a better technique is to think about the people in each stage and your relationship with them. The funnel is the same, but in this case, the aim is to build your relationship with them to move them through each stage:
As you probably know from your estate agency background leads rarely go on a linear journey, and each takes their own amount of time to move through each stage.
Our job in marketing is to try to guide them through the various stages using a combination of touch points as quickly as possible. These touch points can be both online and offline.
Your Lead funnels can change over time as you learn what works. We encourage you to start small and then experiment with new approaches as you become better at it.
Don’t let fear stop you from trying. Set a budget and measure results and you will be fine.
Below are the 4 stages in more detail
Stage 1: Strangers
We typically all start off as strangers. With strangers, it is all about providing interesting things of value. No one likes to meet someone who just talks about themselves all the time.
With strangers, the aim is simply to get them to enjoy reading your content and become aware of you.
Stage 2: Acquaintances
Now they are aware of you they can be considered acquaintances. The trouble is at this stage you are unlikely to know who they are so cannot have a conversation. After all, that’s what we want right?
With this group, the aim is to provide a reason to exchange their personal details for something of value. That might be an E-book on selling tips, to join a local market newsletter or get an instant valuation for example.
Stage 3: Friends
With friends, they now know who you are and you have some way of identifying them. They have hopefully enjoyed reading your content and recognise your expertise in selling and renting property.
With this group, it is about conversion. Hopefully, they have built up knowledge of you and your brand so you can be more direct about your approach.
If they don’t convert then you can always consider sending them back to stage 1 or 2 and demonstrate more value until they are ready to take action. In property, this could be months of course.
Stage 4: Family
It is well-known that estate agency is a referral based business. Often the most overlooked funnel stage is family. Your family is people who are actively engaged with your estate agency. Usually vendors and landlords but it helps to consider buyers and tenants as well.
With this group, your aim should be to delight them with a great customer experience. Examples include sending helpful tips and personal guides, frequently communicating and offering a personal service to name but a few.
This group can be used to generate online reviews, testimonials and referrals to their friends and family. It is odd when they provide so much value why most estate agents are so focused on stages 1 and 2.
Hopefully, by now you are excited about the potential of your estate agent digital marketing funnels. To learn more, check out our resources below:
Our Promise To You
Our aim is to give you some simple templates to learn from, along with software support and advice on implementing them in your business. We can also provide you with an email marketing platform which helps you automate many of the stages required for success.
Check out the funnel blueprints we have created to help you get started:
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