HOW TO FIND AUCTION OPPORTUNITIES
The number of listings & auctions you and your office have will directly predict your income and sales. If you want to increase and better control your sales and income you need to increase the number, diversity and quality of your listings & auctions. This has been proven to be the single best predictor of your income, sales and growth from year to year. Your results are directly (over 95%) dependent on your efforts and ability to gain more and better listings & auctions.
The Home Office and your Business Consultant are 150% dedicated to your success and helping you reach your goals (be sure to check out the Auction Prospecting webinar HERE). In the spirit of providing you with new ideas and programs to help you increase your leads we will show you a simple 7 step lead prospecting plan including a compiled a list of some of the best and proven techniques perfected by the top United Country agents and auctioneers over the years.
7-STEP PROSPECTING PLAN
Step 1. Set “S.M.A.R.T” Goals
Experts say you get one lead for every 25 contacts you make. Use the “S.M.A.R.T.” goals acronym outlined below as a tool to create criteria to help improve your success and accomplishing your goals. Be prepared to ask yourself and your team a lot of questions and be sure to be as realistic as possible.
S – Specific: When setting a goal, be specific about what you want to accomplish. Think about this as the mission statement for your goal. This isn’t a detailed list of how you’re going to meet a goal, but it should include an answer to the popular ‘Who? What? When? Where? Why?’ questions.
M – Measurable: What metrics are you going to use to determine if you meet the goal? This makes a goal more tangible because it provides a way to measure progress. If it’s a project that’s going to take a few months to complete, then set some milestones by considering specific tasks to accomplish.
A – Achievable: This focuses on how important a goal is to you and what you can do to make it attainable and may require developing new skills and changing attitudes. The goal is meant to inspire motivation, not discouragement. Think about how to accomplish the goal and if you have the tools/skills needed. If you don’t currently possess those tools/skills, consider what it would take to attain them.
R – Relevant: Relevance refers focusing on something that makes sense with the broader business goals. For example, if the goal is to launch a new product, it should be something that’s in alignment with the overall business objectives. Your team may be able to launch a new consumer product, but if your company is a B2B that is not expanding into the consumer market, then the goal wouldn’t be relevant.
T – Time-Bound: Anyone can set goals, but if it lacks realistic timing, chances are you’re not going to succeed. Providing a target date for deliverables is imperative. Ask specific questions about the goal deadline and what can be accomplished within that time period. If the goal will take three months to complete, it’s useful to define what should be achieved half-way through the process. Providing time constraints also creates a sense of urgency.
Step 2. Decide Who You Want to Target
Tip – Keep It Ethical: Never direct specific solicitations to prospects who have exclusively listed their property with another company while a listing is in force. —Standards of Practice 16-2, 16-3. Be sure to take a hard “no” or “unsubscribe” seriously and discontinue all contact with the prospect immediately.
Sphere of Influence
There is no better source than those who already know and trust you – your “Sphere of Influence”. NAR statistics tell us that 64% of home sellers found their agent through a referral from a friend or family member, therefore “Sphere of Influence” prospecting should be a cornerstone of your lead generation efforts. Your SOI includes people in your personal and professional network with whom your opinion holds weight. Your SOI is a critical source of referrals and repeat business once you identify this layer of your network, you can begin to improve how you communicate with them and engage them more meaningfully. Be sure to check out the UC Sphere of Influence webinar HERE.
Grab your phone and start going into your contacts. Look at your social media followers. Add your best friends. Add that guy you just barely know, that one guy who mows your lawn and that electrician that helped you last year. Add anyone and everyone you can think of on a first name basis, and slowly build your network. Whether it's easier for you to keep a spreadsheet or write it down on paper, take stock of everyone (personal or professional) in your network.
Organize them by how important they are to you and your business—think big referral partners, clients, or investors—or just separate them by function or what 'category' they fall under in your life.
Once you have an idea of who's in your network, it's important to distinguish your network from your SOI because your sphere only includes the group of people with whom your opinion holds weight. Understand how many folks you really can keep in touch with at a time and be honest with yourself as you make those choices.
Organize them by how important they are to you and your business - or just separate them by function or what 'category' they fall under in your life. If you're going to be putting forth a special effort in keeping in touch with your sphere of influence, then you don't want to set yourself up for failure by choosing an overwhelming amount of people.
Just because some people aren't in your sphere of influence now, that doesn't mean they won't be eventually. Treat your sphere as an active part of your network that changes and grows with your business needs. While people outside your sphere of influence may not drive your professional success, it’s likely that your priorities and relationships will change so you may need to stay top of mind with them in the future. You should evaluate your network regularly to ensure you’re nurturing key relationships and building your SOI effectively. As you develop your sphere of influence, focus on building deep, long-lasting professional relationships. Those relationships will be the most impactful and personally rewarding. They’ll also be relationships you can feel good about.
Now that you’ve identified and categorized the contacts already within your SOI, you need to build and expand upon your network. The best way to do so, will be in developing segmented contact lists for specific groups or property types and creating a searchable contact database. Your database should be categorized by contact type or buyer/seller persona (i.e. land owners; trust companies; CPA’s, banks, FSBO’s; etc.) to control and tailor the amount and type of messages you send to each contact. This can be a simple spreadsheet with tabs separating out each contact type or individual spreadsheets for each type.
This is where lead farming comes in. The concept is simple: think about the images conjured when you think about the difference between hunting and farming – hunting conjures up images of a fight for survival, if you don’t hunt, you can’t eat; while farming conjures images of stability, sustainability and patience. Lead hunting plays on the volume game and law of averages. If you focus on calling as many leads or prospects as you can, one will eventually covert but it is feast of famine. Lead farming on the other hand focuses on not just finding immediate opportunities but also nurturing connections that aren’t quite ready to move. This technique allows you to take advantage of immediate opportunities while also having a steady stream of nurtured leads coming in eliminating feast and famine by offering consistency.
Tips: Do not add your entire contact databases to your SOI list. Attentively add individuals from your database that you have had follow up with and with whom you want to stay connected on a regular basis.
When you meet someone new, get to know the person or persons you’re conversing with. Always be polite but ask appropriate questions and remember you’re not selling yourself at this point. Building a relationship has nothing to do with what you do for each other right now. Listen as much as you can. Offer to send them your contact info via text, phone or email and/or ask to follow them your social media account(s). Lastly – if you encounter a new prospect, be sure to actually add them either to your contact database or SOI list.
Making New Connections
So, you ask “where can I find new contacts?” You won’t meet a lot of “new” people in your own office – you’ve got to get out there and establish relationships with people in order to grow your list. Find some potential avenues and ideas of where to look below:
In the auction industry, death, debt & divorce are widely thought of as three key sale motivators and are known as the three D’s. Sudden extreme stress situations lead to potential clients needing to find money or divest of assets quickly and often an auction could be the quickest and simplest way to get them there.
Below is a list of contacts to build relationships with for each of these motivators:
Death
Over 1 million people inherit a home every year.
Contacts To Make: local or regional attorney data bases; trust companies and trust officers; area assisted living communities and nursing homes; financial / wealth management advisors; probates; county clerk’s office probate filings; estate planners; morticians & funeral homes
How to Search for Individuals: Google your county clerk’s website. Look for cases in regards to “inheritance.” Then, you’ll have access to search public data and records. You should be able to secure the name of the former property owner. At this point, you head over to YellowPages and click “Search People.” Enter the person’s name into the form. You should be able to find the address of the property that was recently inherited.
Debt
Over 23% of homes that are sold in any given year have some type of back tax to pay.
Contacts To Make: CPA’s data base; commercial lenders; bank workout / asset managers or officers; REO/foreclosure; financial advisory attorneys; bankruptcy attorneys; bankruptcy trustees
How to Search for Individuals: go to the county clerk’s website and research homes that are behind in paying their property taxes.
Divorce
31% of people going through a divorce end up selling their home and there are 1.2 million divorces in the United States a year, which means over 300,000 people sell their home within 6 months of filing.
Contacts To Make: divorce attorneys
How to Find Individuals: word of mouth
How to approach banks and attorneys: add them to a drip marketing list, send them personalized letters (samples available on the intranet HERE) inviting them to lunch or a lunch & learn seminar you set up in your office, ask for an appointment at their office
How to approach individuals: send condolences, create a personalized letter introducing yourself, your company and your offering.
Where to Find Land Owners:
go to the county assessor’s website and research land owner data for the following contacts: non-resident land owners (i.e. tax mailing in a different zip code); owners of acreage over “x” (40+ acres); owners of land or vacant lots in a specific area or area of interest (i.e.: lake or recreational area, specific farming use, adjacent to state or federal land); development properties; new sub-divisions or development projects; sub-division wrap up or final lot liquidations
How to Approach Land Owners:
Create a land owner letter (UC created samples available HERE) or postcard introducing yourself, your company and your offering; drop by neighboring land owners to introduce yourself – demonstrate to each group that you are the only real estate professional specializing in their property type with access to unique tools and are ready to help them when they’re ready to sell.
Sellers of expired listings are now really motivated and want a better, faster option. They are looking for a more proactive approach, with better marketing and may be ready to consider reducing the price on their property. They want to know who that person is and how that faster option works. In order to gain an advantage you can do something to stand out and do it immediately, the morning the listing expires. A simple phone call, email or visit introducing yourself is great, but doing or offering something to standout will work more often. Include information about how you are different and why an auction is an expedited option. Be sure to check out UC samples of expired listing letters HERE.
Where to Find Expired Listings:
Check the local MLS daily for notice of expired listings; check out services like REDX or Landvoice.com that provides a list of expired listings sorted to your criteria; talk to local sellers in your market area day to day (be sure that the listing has actually expired and be careful not to approach about the sale if currently listed with another company, just stick to leading questions)
How to Approach Expired Listings:
Do your homework - familiarize yourself with their property (pricing, terms, features and condition) as well as all competitive properties (recently sold listings and other expired listings);
Determine why their property didn’t sell – maybe it was priced too high, maybe it needs work, maybe it is in an area of low demand or maybe there was no marketing effort put in by the previous company – and develop a strategy to address these reasons prior to approaching them.
Upon first reaching out, remain empathetic. They may be suspicious, embarrassed or angry because their previous plan did not work out. Listen to their experience, ask a lot of questions about their experience, and then communicate your differences while offering them a unique approach, new excitement and hope for a better experience.
Tip: Keep in mind, if they’re not willing to address the reasons the property didn’t sell, they may not be ready for an auction yet. You should definitely keep them in your pipeline to reach back out in a few months to see how their listing is doing and if they’re ready to make some changes.
Ease their mind that this time the sale will be different by offering an entirely different sales option that:
Expedites the sale process to the one they previously used
Lessens their overall expenditures for the sale by negotiating your fee rate. As we discussed in the How Auctions Work page, in most auction situations, your commission comes from the buyer’s premium that the buyers pay at closing, while the seller pays an upfront marketing fee to keep them committed to the sale. By tailoring your pitch to offering an expired listing “no commission” but a nominal upfront marketing fee that they can see, have input on and see the results of on a consistent basis, you are offering them a favorable option to the traditional “one-and-done” approach they previously encountered.
Now more than ever FSBOs (“For Sale by Owners”) need help finding buyers and understanding the complexities of selling a property. FSBOs want to sell their properties and either do not know anyone in real estate, had a bad experience with a real estate company in the past or do not understand what value you can provide. Only 2% of properties are successfully sold FSBO without a professional.
Where to Find For Sale By Owners:
FSBO websites (forsalebyowner.com, www.craigslist.com); local newspaper or shopper; FSBO yard signs; run the county record and find the mailing address for where the taxes are sent
How to Approach FSBOs:
Most FSBO sellers won’t be ready to move until at least the third to sixth contact. This provides repeated opportunities for you to build the relationship by adding value. Each time you contact them, provide them with beneficial information like neighborhood data, a comparative market analysis, property profile information or a pre-listing presentation. Create a booklet describing the selling process and give it to them no strings attached. Let them know that you wish them luck and if they have any questions throughout the process to give you a call. Treat each contact as a chance to show your worth. Check out numerous sample FSBO letter templates on the UC intranet HERE.
If you’re using an online auction provider, offer to add their property to your online auction website at no additional charge, negotiate that they will pay you if you bring them a buyer (be sure to formalize this agreement). Sure, you will still need to advertise the property but as we discussed in the How Auctions Work section of this manual, in most auction situations, your actual commission comes from the buyer’s premium that they buyers pay, an agreement for the FSBO to pay a commission at closing will serve to recoup whatever marketing funds you spent out of pocket.
UC Strategic Partners
Attend, support, sponsor and join local Ducks Unlimited and RMEF chapters, events and meetings. No local chapter? … Start one, the Home Office can show you how! Get involved with our strategic partners, not only do they serve great causes directly relevant to your clients, they may need an experienced auction company to help conduct auctions for those causes.
Real Estate Brokers & Agents
Many listing agents will not list properties under a certain amount or too far away from their office nor do they know anything about the auction process, call or walk in and introduce yourself to these agents. Create a local auction advantage program to teach them about auctions, offer to pay a referral fee or split commissions. Be an ally or tool for them to turn to while teaching them how to “bird-dog” opportunities for you.
Partner with Local Companies
Small local banks, builders, mortgage providers, plumbers, electricians, marriage counselors, dentists, etc., etc., etc. are all looking for business just like you. They are entrepreneurs looking to grow their businesses. And most of them probably wouldn’t mind someone giving them referrals. Why not start with the YellowPages and find a business in each major category to be your recommended provider? Now, this won’t help you if you just spend 1 hour once talking with that person. Be sure to put them into your SOI, and follow up with them every month. Maybe even get coffee with them once a month. Figure out concrete ways for the two of you to work together
Community Groups & Events
Participate in local groups and events (fairs, trade shows, parades, etc.) to further increase your network and visibility. Request to borrow a booth from the Home Office if needed. Be sure to hand out marketing materials, have a business card giveaway or raffle and make your booth fun. Join the local Ducks Unlimited (DU), Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (RMEF), and Future Farmers of America (FFA) Chapter and explain our partnership. Host your own community events by inviting local property owners, other real estate professionals, banks and other members of your SOI to a lunch and learn or seminar. Ask business professionals to speak at events you set up (i.e. the director of the FSA office to speak to farmers about changes to the new farm bill, CRP, EQIP, WRP programs, etc.). You can put their presentations in your company folders with your materials, so attendees take them home. The Home Office can provide you with presentations, content, information, materials, folders and even speakers to help with such an event.
Milk Runs
Plan daily stops at different coffee shops, restaurants, gas stations, barber shops, other businesses, customers’ homes, etc. each week and repeat it every few months just to say hello. This networking will keep you top-of-mind as their auctioneer. Distribute marketing materials as the reason for your stop by and to stimulate conversation.
Your customers are your most valuable asset in more ways than one. Not only do they create revenue, but they can also help you with your marketing and sales. Every customer you connect with has the potential to be your personal “brand ambassador”, and ultimately a source of sales revenue. Even better, they do this work without demanding a paycheck or health benefits.
Create an Internal Customer Referral Program:
According to NAR, 64% of sellers listed with someone they were referred to through friends or family. One simple way to get your SOI to promote you is to incentivize them for doing so. This shouldn’t be confused with a referral fee but you can definitely show you’re your love with gift cards and appreciation gifts. Let all of your past sellers and your current SOI know that when you get a referral from them, you will send out a special gift.
Ask for Testimonials
84% of consumers trust people more than companies. Seller testimonials are a great way to inspire confidence and trust for potential new leads. By soliciting and posting seller testimonials, you can broadcast that trust to potential buyers & sellers. Add these testimonials everywhere – in your newsletter, on your website, on a postcard or mailer, in your eblasts & letters and anywhere else you’re soliciting leads.
Maintain Relationships
You have to maintain relationship with your former sellers so they remember you when a friend or family member needs your services. You must also have a systematic way to maintain these relationships. Be sure to add past sellers to your newsletter list, send them holiday cards with branded refrigerator magnets, pens and other goodies. Check in on them every once and awhile with a phone call and simply ask them if they have any referrals. You’d be surprised at how many referrals you can get by just asking if they know anyone else needing your help.
Personally visit, call or email the closest 20 properties for every auction you list. Introduce yourself, tell them about the sale, invite them to attend the auction (live or online), ask if they know anyone looking for that type of property and leave your card and a brochure, postcard or flyer for the sale. After the sale, add them to your drip marketing or newsletter list and send them a just sold mailer and personal letter inviting them to call when they’re ready to sell. Not only will they see the success their neighbor had at their auction but they may help find you the buyer for the current auction you’re working on.
Step 3. Decide the Best Method and Best Time to Reach People
Now that you have developed a few different contact lists, we need to discuss the best and easiest ways to market to these lists to maximize your time and add additional quality leads to your Sphere of Influence.
Direct Marketing
As technology consumes so much of consumer’s time, relevant direct mail is still highly valued and stands out amongst the overabundance of emails and social media. Well planned and consistent mailing campaigns will produce immediate, mid and long term results in growing your client base. Targeted mailing campaigns once a quarter is most effective unless a time-specific mailing campaign for an auction, event or promotion comes up. On average you will receive a 2-4% response rate immediately (year 1), and another 2-3% response from the same mailing over the next 2-3 years.
Why Mailings Work
Keeps your name, company and unique services in front of potential clients and “top of mind” when they do decide to sell or buy.
Positions you as the best choice by promoting the unique elements of your teams and your United Country® national advertising differentiated program.
Drives continuous property listing and buyer leads
The best source of contact with absentee (out of area) owners
Superior focus and returns versus newspaper ads
Offers an attractive return on investment
What to Mail
Just Listed/Just Sold Postcards – This is the #1 rated technique by top UC offices and shows off your local sales and marketing power. When you list or sell a specific property type, mail a postcard to others who own similar properties. Do radius mailings to the closest addresses (through the UC Postcard Program, UC Purchased Names Program or USPS “Every Door Direct” Program) to let neighboring property owners know of new and just sold properties.
Letters: Many top UC listing agents & auctioneer exclusively use physical letters as their sole listing technique. Dozens of letter templates, ready to use, are available Bullseye HERE and HERE. Simply add your name and mail, or customize them as much as you like. A straight forward, honest letter explaining what’s new in your office, what’s new at United Country, how the market is doing, your points of difference and asking for listings works. Sent once every six months to your circle of influence and target property owners will position you as a primary source when your clients decide to sell or buy. Remember 54% of clients do not know their realtor or auctioneer yet. Commit to sending 2+ per day and you will always have your phone ringing with new listing clients or for better results send specific letters to your target mailing lists 2-4 times per year.
Company Newsletters: Did you create a digital newsletter? Print it out and mail it as well! If you don’t know where to start, we recommend you include recent sales in the area (whether or not it is your sales data), send info on upcoming events, provide tips and then email the links in the form of a newsletter. Feel free to check the UC Blog for articles you can use HERE (note: there are many auction articles!).
Brochures & Flyers: UC has created numerous brochures available on Bullseye. You will find auction centric institutional collateral, editable “benefits of UC” brochures, and customizable brochures and flyers all on Bullseye.
Pop over to your free Canva account to create even more brochures and flyers tailored to your office.
Postcards: Postcards can still be a valuable method for real estate lead generation. The best way to use them is as a tool for following up with a different touch.
Farming Postcards – concentrating your marketing to one specific niche will allow you to gain maximum front of mind presence.
Digital Marketing
Search Engine Ads
Open up a browser and search for anything on Google. Notice how the first thing you see are a bunch of paid ads listed? Even if you are a savvy searcher and bypass these ads to get to the organic content, if you ignore these ads in your web marketing, you are ignoring the idea of how these ads actually work. WordStream research has shown that people click on promoted ads over organic listings in a 2:1 ratio, but only when those ads offer a value. Pay Per Click offers a great way to give your SEO efforts a boost in the rankings and is worth considering. You will still need to manage keywords effectively and structure your ads in an optimized way because you’ll get very little space to make your company stand out. Start with the header, your header should have the words “real estate” and/or “auction” and contain the value proposition you want to lead with. You should make sure your domain URL aligns with the ad as well. Lastly, you get a short meta description. This needs to emphasize what you can/will do for those searching.
Google Business and Maps
Go back to your Google search, see what comes up when you scroll past the ads? You get the Google business listings pulled from Google maps. If you’re not already registered with Google business, stop what you’re doing and go do it now. It is fast and free and the only way you’ll get listed on Google maps. Be sure your Google business listing is completely filled in with details like contact info, business hours, website, phone, etc. Avoid duplicate phone numbers, websites, etc. as this will only confuse potential leads. You’ll get to add keywords that define your business type, upload photos that show your services in the best light and begin to generate as many positive reviews as possible which will further boost your credibility.
Other Search Engines
Despite Google’s 80% market share, other search engines are definitely worth your time with ranks. Bing, for example, is primarily used by people in an older age bracket (55-64) with a household income over $100,000. They also search 22% longer than other search engine users.
SEO and Keywords
Targeted Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and keywords are key to any web based marketing. You want to pick the keywords active buyers/sellers are using and target high volume words. To help you get started, you can use Wordstream’s free keyword planner tool to see a list of top 10 search terms for your niche and check out the numerous webinars UC has created to assist with your SEO & monitoring Google Analytics HERE and HERE.
There’s no other tool that allows you to stay in touch with your existing clients and potential leads, drive sales, and improve your customer loyalty, all at the same time. According to HubSpot, 91% of people check their email daily, email marketing scores higher conversion rates than organic searches and social media combined and email delivers a $42 return on investment for every $1 spent! (You don’t want to stop there, though. Immediately upload those emails into Facebook or Google and gain additional, helpful affinity data in a hurry about your list!) So how can you cash in on your email marketing campaigns?
HubSpot also reports that your email marketing database degrades by about 22.5% every year. Your contact’s email addresses change as they move, change jobs and opt-out of your email communication. With this in mind, you need to keep your emails moving by constantly updating your existing contacts and adding fresh contacts. Luckily, we have created an easy guide for you to do just that:
Make Sure Your Subscribers Opt-In – For spamming and privacy reasons, there are laws and fines in place so businesses can’t just start email people out of the blue. To avoid this, you don’t want to just add every email address you’ve acquired in your career to your email list. You want them to opt-in. This can be as easy as asking if they want to join your email list to receive newsletters and notifications from you and adding an opt-in link to your email footer. Also be sure to include an unsubscribe link on all your emails to comply with anti-spam laws.
Use An Email Service Provider (ESP) – If you ever send more than 100 emails at a time, you will definitely need to look into an email service provider to avoid your client’s hosting sites designating you as a spammer resulting in all of your emails ending up in the dreaded spam filter rather than being seen by your contacts. There are tons of ESP’s out there to choose from, each with their own merits. We’ve had luck with Mail Chimp, Constant Contact and Bomb Bomb, but you may find another favorite. Look for ESPs offering easy mail creation features like customizable templates, drag and drop editing tools to add text photos and videos, optimization capabilities, easy contact upload tools, and analytics and tracking options.
Segment Your Email List in Line with Your Contact Database Buyer/Seller Personas – Most email service providers provide the ability to add your contacts into respective categories. This will help you send specific messages to each of your personas with the click of a button. By providing valuable content to each group that they’ll actually open and want to read, you will stay top of mind and become the authority they turn to when it’s time to act.
Be Consistent. Keep with a regular delivery schedule for each segmented list. This will allow your subscribers to learn when to expect your emails. Be sure not to send too many emails daily or you could risk unsubscribes.
Focus On Only One Call To Action. Don’t confuse your subscribers, give them one task at a time to follow through with (only one like us on Facebook or check out my blog or check out our new auction, etc.).
Make Your Subject Line Stand Out. When it comes to open rates, your subject line is everything. Don’t use the same subject lines you see in your own email box daily, get creative to get clicks!
Write Good Content. If your subscribers are happy with your content, they are more likely to open future emails and less likely to hit the unsubscribe button. Make your content what they want to click through by adding links to resources, blogs, directly to your upcoming auction, or training opportunities. Keep the information short and informative and don’t send emails just for the sake of sending an email. The higher the value of every email you create, the more loyal your subscribers will become. Need some ideas?
Newsletters - Develop a newsletter and send it consistently once a quarter. It keeps your name fresh with your contacts. It does not need to promote a property. We recommend you include recent sales in the area (whether or not it is your sales data), send info on upcoming events, provide tips and then email the links in the form of a newsletter. Use your blog articles or check the UC blog for articles HERE. If you do not have time to customize a newsletter, simply forward on the UC Quarterly Newsletter email you receive from the Home Office.
Virtual Postcards - The free virtual postcards in Bulls Eye are powerful listing (and selling) tools. Send virtual postcards of just listed or just sold properties to your SOI in addition to your contact databases. This will show potential future listing clients the type of marketing you do while you look for new buyers. To access the virtual postcards; in BE select the listing you wish to send; on the far right side of the listing page, select the “Virtual Postcard” button.
Promote Content From Your Website – new blog posts, podcast episodes (check out the Sale Ring Podcast and feel free to re-post anywhere you’d like!), newly listed & upcoming auctions or free resources that are only available to your contacts should all be promoted to your email subscribers first.
Send Targeted Emails to Your Website Visitors – When visitors are logged onto your website, track their behavior with Google Analytics then send them follow up emails about what they were looking at.
Market Watch Alerts – Send out alerts to new information in your field or neck of the woods. Follow your State and the National Auctioneers Association, your state Realtors board and NAR, any community pages or other associations your contacts may follow on Facebook for up-to-date industry news.
Monthly or Quarterly Roundups – Send roundups of your best auctions and company news to show off your success.
Use Your Analytics. Check your open and click through rates of your best performing emails to determine what the subscribers of each segment click on the most. This will help you perfect the new content you create and your subscribers will be more likely to engage.
Use the Templates. Rather than creating a new email from scratch every time you want to communicate with each segment, create a pre-made template appealing to each. This will save you so much time in the long run and you can typically drag and drop new elements to include.
Think About The Mobile Users. 2% of consumers use a smartphone to check their email. Fortunately, most ESPs have an easy mobile view option for you to see how your email will look to these users before you send the email. Just keep in mind that mobile screens are smaller and long subject lines won’t be viewable on mobile devices nor will smaller font sizes. Photos and videos will need to be kept smaller to reduce load times (Android & Outlook automatically turn off images by default as well so make sure your email looks ok without them. Click HERE for a tutorial on how to take your photos to the next level.
A blog is really two things. One, simply a platform. And two, it is a promise to readers, who expect that the blog should have actual content with elements of value that is targeted to their needs. Picture blogging like a newspaper. Readers don’t just look at a newspaper as newsprint that is delivered on their driveway every morning. They look at it as valuable information about where they live and the things that they do. When you put a clear system in place along with great content, your blog becomes a magnet for potential buyers and sellers. Lucky for you UC has already made blogging a part of your office website. To see how to update and maintain your UC blog click HERE.
Benefits of Blogging:
More Traffic to Your Site
More Visibility in Search Results - Websites that have blogs have 400 times more pages showing up in search results. People who are looking for these topics find your articles.
More Engagement on Social Media - Every blog article you create should be shared on your social media channels. Keep the highlights of each blog article and tease it out on social channels that ultimately links back to the blog content on your website. The more blog articles you create, and the different points of view you can cultivate from those articles, the more content you will have to share on social media.
Shows Your Expertise - Ads tell. Blog posts show. Instead of telling potential clients how great you are, show them you’re good at what you do. This establishes you as an expert in their minds. If you continue to deliver consistently helpful and relevant content, they will follow you. You are now top of mind when they’re ready to buy or sell.
Generates Leads - Blogging generates 3 times more leads than more traditional methods of marketing like local newspaper ads or billboards.
Encourages Buyers/Sellers to Act Now - A blog is great way to take people out of the indecisive zone to just do it. And because you’ve already written the article, you don’t have to give the same answers over and over again. Many potential clients find exactly what they’re looking for by reading the blog.
Works for You When You Can’t - Having a blog can free up hours in your day. It’s there answering questions and connecting with potential clients. The more blog articles you have up on your website, the more effectively you can use your work time.
It Keeps Generating Traffic - If you answer a person’s question you’ve helped that one person. But when you have a blog, you’re helping hundreds or thousands with just one blog article. Plus it keeps helping people year after year. As long as you maintain your blog by adding new content and apply SEO strategies to stay visible in searches, your blog delivers traffic to you year after year.
Blogging is Cost-Effective - Compared to other marketing methods, blogging costs around 67% less and the benefits of it increase over time in a snowball effect.
Top Blog Writing Tips:
Write About What Matters To Ideal Clients - Focus on what matters to your clients, not what matters to your company. Produce timeless content on behalf of ideal clients that has a long shelf life and pulls ideal prospects along for the journey. Create blog posts that answer the most interesting questions from people you engage with. Check your blog comments section, social media replies or even common questions asked over the phone to gather ideas of what topics people would most like to read about.
Give Away Your Knowledge - Don’t be afraid to showcase what you know. Too many bloggers hold back the good stuff out of fear of giving away the “secret sauce.” There is no secret sauce in a world where everyone has high speed Internet access at all times. Share the knowledge you have, rather than keeping it tucked away for a rainy day.
Be True To Your Voice - Stay true to yourself and your voice. People don’t care to follow sites so much as they care to follow people. You don’t have to focus on being too professional or using big words to impress others. Write for yourself first & foremost. Ignore the fact that anyone else will read what you write; just focus on your thoughts, ideas, opinions and figure out how to put those into words. Readers will resonate with your individual voice and you will find it simpler and more enjoyable to write by being you.
Make It Worth Referencing – The purpose of a blog is to add value for customers, not to hard sell. Think of yourself as a subject matter expert and use the space to establish expertise in your industry. Question every post with “would anyone want to “cite/link to” this for any reason? Don’t rely on your research, but make sure each post has an original lesson or actionable item, making it “citable” on the web.
Build An Amazing Call-To-Action - Don’t rely on people to do the work to find your website or social networks. Finish your blog post with some kind of call to action to sign up for an email list or follow you on Twitter.
Write catchy headlines - No matter how great your content is, it won’t matter unless you have an amazing headline. People have a split second to decide if they should click on your post, and your headline will make them decide. The headline is also essential in making it easy and desirable for people to share your post. Keep your headlines simple, powerful, useful and bold.
Keep It Short - Working out the best length for your blog posts can be tricky. Keep it in the 1–2 minutes read-time length. You generally need about 300 words minimum to get indexed by search engines, but otherwise the length of your post is up to what you think feels best. Present a single idea, one at a time, and let others build upon it.
Focus On Quality Over Quantity - There is no evidence that producing more frequent articles that are less in-depth translates to more traffic, and ultimately more sales. Instead, focus on producing the very best in-depth articles that are better than anything else out on the internet in that vertical.
Be Consistent - To make your blog successful, consistency is king. Choose a frequency that you know you can deliver on and stick with it. Blogs fail when the author writes a few blogs, doesn't stick with the frequency and closes it down. If your goal is to have a successful blog that highlights your thought leadership, consistency will help you build a reader base.
Give It Time – Plan to invest in blogging for a long time before you see a return. The web is a big, noisy place and unless you’re willing to invest more over a greater period of time than others, you’ll find success nearly impossible. If you’re seeking short-term ROI, or a quick path to recognition, blogging is the wrong path. But if you can stick it out and constantly learn, iterate, and improve, you can achieve something remarkable.
Update Your Top-Performing Content - Once you’ve launched your blog, the job's not over. Continually update the content for your top-performing articles. Someone may visit your oldest post and see that it’s completely outdated. If it's a good blog, whether it’s old or new, you want to ensure that it's generating traffic and not going to waste.
Promote What You Write Outside Of The Blog Itself – While this may be the last tip on the list, this is perhaps the most important tip. You’ve got to get people to know your blog is there. Start by thinking of what you have to say and then all the ways you can say it. Take small nuggets of information from each blog article and repurpose them by creating different types “teaser” posts to post to your social media networks and company newsletters then link those posts back to the full blog article. For example, if this bullet point was a blog article, I might create the following snippet to use on my social channels “Writing about What Matters to Ideal Clients” (#1 on this list) and include the information for that point with a link back to the full blog article. I could also create an interesting graphic or infographic that simply says “The 12 Tricks to Writing Blogs” that links back to the full blog article. We recommend looking into sites like Canva (click HERE for a Canva tutorial from UC) which will give you the ability to create customized posts with a large selection of graphics, photos, text, shapes, icons and more all in one tool. The sky is the limit.
Hunting for content? Feel free to check the UC Blog for articles you can use HERE (note: there are many auction articles!).
An effective social media strategy can set you up with a pipeline to bring in new leads, nurture prospective ones and follow up with past clients. While social media takes time to build a quality foundation, once established, it will be one of your greatest after-hours sale conversion tools. When it comes to social media, you can really do some creative things and get conversations started. In fact, the best way to look at social media for your business is as a conversation supported by online tools (networks) like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Check UC’s introduction to social media webinars HERE and HERE to get you started and read on for some basic rules and tips for all of your social media networks.
Basic Rules For ALL Social Media Networks:
Make sure your accounts are consistent with your company – choose a color and font palette and stick to it across all of your content to build brand awareness.
Your writing style should be coherent and reflect your company voice
Keep your profile professional – be aware of how you will be pictured by prospective clients when you post/share
Always use high resolution photos at every stage of the process.
Use keywords and tags in your posts
Avoid overselling. Social media is a long-term play.
Give your audience value and awareness
Include your address, hours and service information on all networks and be sure they remain consistent
Source your content. Don’t just take someone else’s work, use their work to your advantage by linking back to it. Did you read an interesting article about online auctions? Link to the article and add your personal commentary or insights about the article to your post.
Content:
Ok, we have the basic rules down, now what about content? You should you should absolutely post about your upcoming and successful auctions but that cannot be all that you ever post. Your long term play is in being the industry expert. Add your voice to industry news and information that interests you and/or your audience; discuss your involvement with local businesses and events; reuse or repurpose your blog articles; promote your client testimonials; talk about different offerings from UC strategic partnerships; offer DIY and how to tips; host Q&A sessions and contests; add holiday messages.
Vary the Ways You Present Your Content: Don’t just post paragraphs of information. Get creative with videos, infographics and visuals. Look into tools to help you customize your social media posts to make your page both more professional and help cater your message to your target audiences. Create short property videos with VideoFizz (tutorial HERE); a virtual tour with Matterport (tutorial HERE); create infographics and other visual aids full of graphics, photos, text, shapes, icons and more with Canva (tutorial HERE); use sites like io and Unsplash for free stock photos to use. Want some examples? Take a look at and download UC created templates and examples HERE.
Social Media Automation: Having a consistent posting schedule across your networks is essential but can be extremely time consuming. There are free tools and online resources like Buffer and Hootsuite to help automate your social media posts allowing you to prepare content ahead of time and keep your posting on a regular schedule.
Social Media Networks:
Now you’re ready to dive in. But what specific sites/channels/networks will work best for you? Well that’s a tricky question, all networks have different advantages, typical audience demographics and uses. You may want to start small with one and add to it overtime or dive right into all of them and decide which one is generating the activity. Take a look at the differences and uses for each network to help you decide where your audience is likely to be:
There are over 1.5 Billion active Facebook users and 63% of those users use Facebook as their source for news spending an average of 40 minutes a day on the site. In addition, Facebook has built in features like booking appointments, customer reviews, Facebook live video and photo and video upload tools that are easy to use. If you don’t already have a Facebook page for your business, click HERE for an easy set up guide. Facebook Live – going “Live” from an open house or short property tour, during a live auction or even a quick update of what you’ve been up to from your desk is a great way to generate likes, exposure and interest. Facebook will notify your followers when you are live and promote the recording for a fair amount of time after it ends. Let’s not forget about Facebook Ads which will allow you to drill down and directly target leads based on age, income, location, hobbies, or even a series of behaviors that indicate a lead is ready to buy or sell.
Top 10 tips to utilize your FB business page:
Provide Relevant info about your business – company description, phone number, email address, website, address, & business hours
Choose a cover image – make a good first impression, keep it relevant to your business, choose colorful images
Make the profile image stand out - use your company logo, a business headshot, etc.
Keep the conversations going – answer as many questions as you can and chat with the commenters on your posts – keeps audience engaged and gives the feeling real people are behind the page
Engage your audience – it’s not all about the likes! The number of users engaging with your page is the metric that matters. You will increase likes subsequently if you strive to maintain a dialogue with the followers. Ask them questions, post quality content that will get not only likes but shares too.
Be visual – studies show followers identify more and share more posts with images and video than plain text posts
Be Diverse – make your follower’s time more interesting by posting different articles, polls, videos images and whatever you can think of. Try to surprise or entertain your audience each time you post.
Stay Specific – followers don’t want to read a wall of text, they want concise accurate and clear information leading back to source information
Don’t post too much – social media experts say the optimal number of posts in a single day is 2-4. Get to know your audience and post attention grabbing content. Don’t spam your follower’s news feeds or they will unfollow your page.
Be interesting – keep them informed and entertained but ensure your content makes sense to the purpose of your business.
How Often You Should Post on Facebook: Up to 4x a day
Best Time to Post on Facebook: Wednesday between 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM (Local Time)
What to Post on Facebook: Focus on quality not quantity
According to HubSpot, LinkedIn has 300 million users and is 277% more effective at generating leads than both Facebook and Twitter with a 2.74 conversion rate. LinkedIn is less about feel good content and more about business related conversations through engagement and impressions. It is the perfect platform to illustrate your expertise by posting informative market information, blog articles and relevant news about your market. Don’t be afraid to add your two cents about the articles you may link or to speak on your successes. Be sure to link your personal and business LinkedIn pages and add other agents/auctioneers to your page so they and their followers can also follow your page.
How Often You Should Post on LinkedIn: 2-3 x per week
Best Time to Post on LinkedIn: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday between 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM (Local Time)
What to Post on LinkedIn: focus on formal & technical content around your business & industry
YouTube
YouTube is owned by Google and is the second largest search engine in the world and has over 1 Billion unique visitors each month. People rarely have time to read a 3,000 word blog post or even a quick email message but they’re using YouTube to find out about services in their area. If you haven’t started a YouTube page, click HERE to get started, it’s free and all you need is a Google account to get started. You won’t need expensive camera equipment either, you can use your smartphone capture & post videos. To increase engagement and decrease production time, be sure to keep your videos fairly short (around 90 seconds max) and informative. Video an open house or short property tour, a live auction or your personal take on a recent industry article you read (make sure to give credit to your sources as well). According to Filmora, you’ll grow your YouTube network faster if you create a specific posting schedule, make that schedule commonly known (in your profile), don’t overcommit, focus on quality (don’t abandon YouTube because you can’t post weekly, or post junky videos just to get something uploaded) and create a bank of videos so they’re ready to upload on your schedule. Lastly, be sure to link your YouTube videos to your other social media channels!
How Often You Should Post on YouTube: Once a week
Best Time to Post on YouTube: Thursday & Friday between 12:00 – 4:00 PM Eastern or Weekends between 9:00 – 11:00 AM Eastern.
What to Post on YouTube: Focus on quality videos vs. quantity
Instagram is one of the largest social media networks (with over 1 Billion users) but has yet to truly be used by the real estate industry. On the surface, Instagram may seem like little more than a place for selfies and snapshots. In reality, it is a virtually untapped goldmine for businesses of all shapes and sizes. 60% of Instagram users log in at least once daily. It’s the second most logged in social media site for daily use after Facebook. That said, Instagram’s simplicity can be deceptive. There seems to be no way around live posting one at a time on Instagram. You literally have to take out your phone, take a photo, type a message, edit the photo then post it. We have a little cheat for you though! Look at the previously mentioned Hootsuite ap. Hootsuite recently partnered with Instagram to allow for scheduled posts. With Hootsuite, you can manage large volumes of content, multiple team members and multiple Instagram (and other social media) accounts with ease and security. One of the biggest challenges companies have with Instagram is the proper use of hashtags (#). Hashtags are what make your Instagram content discoverable. Users discover content by searching hashtags on their own or tapping through related posts for a particular tag. Hash tags to think about are community and industry specific (#auction; #real estate; #Kansas City), branded hashtags (#UnitedCountry) and general hashtags (#country life, #love; #beautiful). While you’re allowed up to 30 hashtags, using too may can look spammy and less reliable. Based on top performing posts typically between 2-5 hashtags are the perfect amount to include on business posts. Another tip - make sure you’ve switched your account to an Instagram business profile. This allows you to add additional information like your industry, location, phone number and email address as part of your Instagram bio. Something else to keep in mind about Instagram is that they don’t allow URL’s in your posts. To get around that, be sure to use your hashtags and a clear call to action in your post for your followers to visit the website listed in your bio.
How Often You Should Post on Instagram: 1-3 x per day
Best Time to Post on Instagram: weekdays 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM Central or Weekends 11:00 AM Central.
What to Post on Instagram: High quality photos, short descriptions and hashtags
Pinterest isn’t just for crafts and hobbies. The site sends more traffic to websites than Facebook and Twitter combined and nearly 30% of users have an annual 6 figure income. While we’ve lumped Pinterest into a category of social media networks, the sooner you see and start to use Pinterest as more of a search engine that provides results based on images and pictures rather than words, the sooner you’ll begin converting leads. To get started, create an account and convert it to a business profile. This allows you to access your traffic, clicks, charts and graphs and includes demographic data which is important in getting a full understanding of your clients and narrowing your future marketing efforts. Be sure to add keywords to your name to make your profile more searchable and build your bio to include your email, website and phone number (ala: I help home buyers find their dream home & homeowners sell for more. Thinking of buying or selling? Call or text me anytime! 555-555-5555). Upload a photo of yourself, don’t use a property photo or business logo. No one is going to feel a deep personal connection to an old listing photo or business logo. Next up – create 15 boards about your specialties or niches. Your boards are your specialties on Pinterest. So all of your photos should be something that your ideal client would be interested in and searching for. By doing this, you’re going to attract your ideal client to your Pinterest account and give them plenty of content to keep them around. Use that Canva account we talked about previously to help you create beautiful pins and schedule out pins with your Hootsuite account. Build your following. Go back to your Sphere of Influence list and start searching and following them on Pinterest. Typically they will feel compelled to follow you back and once they start re-pinning your content, their followers will see your content and begin following you as well.
How Often You Should Post on Pinterest: 3-30 pins x per day
Best Time to Post on Pinterest: 8:00 – 11:00 PM Local Time
What to Post on Pinterest: High quality photos & information
Twitter ranks as one of the leading social networks with 328 million monthly active users and approximately 6,000 tweets every second. If you don’t already have a Twitter account, set one up using this simple guide from UC. Your posts, or “tweets” as Twitter calls them, are limited to a 140 character limit and you can also upload photos and short videos but the way to win on Twitter is very different from your Facebook and Instagram strategy. The key to Twitter is not with sponsored or paid ads, you will be generating organic leads through direct communication with each member of your audience one at a time. This can be time consuming but Twitter has special tools built in to help filter out the noise and monitor your preferred followers.
Use the following steps to build and maintain your Twitter lead strategy:
Create a Content Calendar – although you may be tempted to dive right into tweeting, you need to take some time to develop a set calendar and strategy to clarify the content you’ll be tweeting. Tools like that incredible Hootsuite account we’ve been mentioning will help you automate your tweets.
Content is King - As with the other social media networks, content is king on Twitter. Use the 80/20 rule to ensure your posts are helpful and interesting. 80% should be local news, tips, how to articles and business recommendations. 20% promotional posts like new auctions, open houses and special offers.
Create Twitter Lists – As previously mentioned, the key to Twitter is direct communication with your audience. That means you’re going to need to get in there and join the conversations. Setting up a Twitter list helps you follow thousands of relevant leads and influencers so you can filter the noise to see what your important connections are up to. To create lists, go to the gear icon drop down menu & click “create list”, name the list and provide a description, designation the list as either public or private and save the list. Use the person icon drop down on someone’s profile and choose add or remove from lists.
Basic Etiquette - Be sure to always respond, follow back and re-tweet when someone follows or mentions you.
Engage – Twitter as an interactive, conversational platform. If you were talking with a friend on the sidewalk and someone walked right up to you and pitched themselves with no hello or introductions, then walked away, what is your impression of them? Use Twitter the same way you would for other conversations. Don’t go straight for the sell, romance your leads and the sell will come. From liking, commenting and re-tweeting, to hosting group chats, there are a ton of ways to engage your audience but remember to keep it relevant and value driven. Providing leads with insights and unique value will generate valuable feedback on your content, gain new followers and create a sense of community with your leads.
Use Visual Content – Tweets with photos, images and videos get 18% more clicks, 89% more favorites & 150% more retweets than text only tweets.
Ask Questions – People love talking and sharing their opinions and they love polls. Add a few polls to questions to your Twitter content calendar and you can count on a boost in engagement.
Keep it Personal – People are always going to prefer to interact with a human. Show your human side by posting behind the scenes updates, events and celebrations. Be yourself and use your personal style and voice, when you reach your ultimate goal of meeting them in person, you want your online and in-person personas to match their expectations.
How Often You Should Post on Twitter: A minimum of 5x per week
Best Time to Post on Twitter: Monday & Thursday between 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM Eastern
What to Post on Twitter: Focus on quality information and starting conversations
Looking for more advanced social media information? Check out the United Country webinar page HERE for additional social media training like building look alike audiences, video use in social media and more!
Step 4. Set a Regular Lead Prospecting Schedule
Simply clicking refresh on your social media, reading a few articles and then taking a break or waking up wondering what you are going to do for lead generation will never equate any amount of new lead generation. You need to develop a plan you can implement into your daily life to be successful and that plan comes down to two simple elements: choosing the right activities and sticking to your plan.
There are so many things competing for your time and attention that you can end up running around all day and never actually accomplish anything. When selecting what activities will fill your time, you should focus on your “Heads Down” time (AKA: do not disturb time, golden hour, power hours, etc.). During this time you should do the following activities: calling, emailing, mailing, texting, social messaging (not browsing social media!), writing notes, following up, door knocking, posting ads and videos, etc.
On the flip side, you can work hard all day and never see any results of that work. When planning your activities, remember that nothing happens in prospecting without consistency, in order to stay consistent you need to focus on your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). KPIs are trackable items that will show you where you are successfully spending your time and what areas you need to work on to get conversions. Make a list with attainable KPI targets like 5-10 daily face to face conversations; 5-10 phone calls daily; 5 daily texts and social media messages; 2-5 daily social media posts, 1 weekly Facebook live video; 1 monthly newsletter, etc., then strive to consistently hit these targets.
While with any sales position, every day can be different. You should try to keep your morning tasks the same every day of the week while allowing for flexibility in the afternoons and evenings. The amount of time it takes to complete tasks varies widely from person to person. Take a day or two to evaluate how long it takes you personally to complete specific tasks and give yourself plenty of time. Below are some key areas of your day you should focus on by building in blocks of time to arrange your personal daily schedule. These time blocks may need to be rearranged day to day and some blocks may need more of your time from day to day, but each block should be incorporated into every day of the week.
Morning Routine - begin your daily schedule with your typical morning at home, if you wake up and partake in fitness/wellness, then personal hygiene, then breakfast and off to the office, build that into your daily schedule. Build in your normal chores as well, need to take kids to school or feed livestock/horses? Add it in.
Admin Time – use this time to address paperwork, administrative calls, important emails, etc.
Heads Down Time – you will fill this time with completing the KPI list you created above.
Creative Time – this is where you’ll use your creative site to create new videos, ads, letters, social content, etc.
Learning Time – take some time in your day to educate yourself, whether it’s attending a webinar, researching market trends, or learning about innovative ways to use your technology.
Appointment Time – time to go to your listing appointments, showings, meetings, etc.
Meal Times – this seems obvious but you need to eat.
Flex Time – anything you want that is work related.
Events – this could be anything from a live training event to a social event with friends and family.
Off Time – take time to turn off and unwind everyday – no business at all no matter what.
Evening Routine – same as with your morning routine, you should try and keep this as consistent as possible. Schedule in any of your normal evening chores and tasks and try to set yourself a specific bedtime.
Lastly, designate a specific time to actually evaluate and build your schedule. Whether that time is every night or on Sundays or the last Tuesday of every month, designate a time to build your schedule out for the next day, or week or month. Write that schedule down and put it on your calendar or into the calendar ap on your phone and turn on the notifications.
There will be days when you just don’t want to do it, it happens to everyone. When it does just remember that while you cannot control buyers, sellers or the market, you can control your effort. Your effort will pay off and what you do now will benefit future you greatly. Be forgiving to yourself, if you need a day off or didn’t quite hit your KPIs for the day, just know it happens but don’t let it happen again tomorrow or you’ll fall off track and may have to start your consistency efforts over from square one. Likewise, don’t get too busy to maintain your schedule. If you stop prospecting because you’re busy, you will have no deals to turn to when things slow down.
Step 5. Determine Your Approach
Once you’ve began attracting leads. You need to make sure you’re still “leading” them with a clear path of conversion from “unknown” to “contact” to “warm lead” to “client” to “past client”. This entire process is called your conversion funnel.
- Unknown to Contact conversion happens when someone responds to your general marketing pieces.
- Contact to Warm Lead conversion is the first step to making a sale. You’ve targeted a specific person to get them interested in your services and they’re qualified and openly talking with you.
- Warm Lead to Client conversion happens when you go under contract with your warm lead. Check out the Auction Listing Strategies section of this manual to what to do once you’ve converted a lead to a client.
- Client to Past Client conversion happens after the sale of the property. You want to maintain contact with your past clients for their testimonial, referrals and future repeat business.
Step 6. Track Your Efforts
Use a system to track success. Look for patterns: Which niches or methods are most responsive? What time of day works best? How does your success rate compare to the norm for your area? Tracking lets you see exactly what works and what doesn’t allowing you to adapt your program accordingly and focus your time and marketing efforts on what really works.
Analytics can show you who is visiting your website, where they came from and how long they’re staying on each page. Looking up your analytics will show you which of your tactics are getting the most response and how they’re converting into leads. Google Analytics is what most use and it’s amazingly easy to use and set up, even for beginners. Google Analytics works by compiling data from your users and other sources and will give you a detailed report on your traffic, bounce rates, backlinks, pay-per-click campaigns and many other aspects.
When you link your Google AdWords account to Google Analytics, all the data generated by your AdWords account will automatically be included in your Analytics reports. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for pretty much any other pay-per-click traffic source. If you don’t take special care to tag these traffic sources, they will show up as “organic” (lumped with your SEO traffic) in Analytics. How do you remedy this? Use the Google URL builder tool and create custom URL tags for your PPC accounts. With this tool, you can create tags that, when appended to your ads, will transfer important information to Google Analytics. This information includes source (i.e. Google, Yahoo!), medium (i.e., CPC or organic), term (keyword), content (ad group), and campaign name.
Another important tracking element is the use of Goal Funnels in Google Analytics. This allow you not only to track conversions for ALL of your traffic sources (PPC and otherwise) but also to review the entire conversion path that a visitor took before they became a customer. Goals are easy to set up. All you need is the URL of the “confirmation page” of your conversion process. From the Overview page of Analytics, click on “Edit” for your website’s profile and scroll down to the Goals section. Choose to “Edit Settings” to create a new Goal. If you find that there are already Goals set up, verify that they are correct (i.e., is the Goal URL correct?) and providing data.
All major ad networks and channels (Facebook Ads, Google AdWords, Bing Ads, Instagram, etc.) provide a conversion tracking tool. These tools let you see whether your paid campaigns are actually working. You’ll get insight on sign-ups, downloads, clicks and more. Using your Hootsuite subscription will even lump all of these networks together and show you the information in simple to read formats including charts and graphs.
61% of local business web searches turn into a phone call. But where did they get your number? The best way to track your call in volume is to use call tracking. With call tracking, you’ll make a different phone number (or extension number) for each of your marketing formats and track the incoming calls using software a call tracking company (or sometimes your phone company) provides in an itemized report. A lead that sees your information on Facebook will have a different number to call than one that saw your info on a postcard.
Similar to call tracking methods, for each direct mailer include a different phone number (or extension number) AND create a unique URL using the designated domain to track visitors. You do not need a separate sites for each domain, just a landing page that links back to your “main” site.
Now that you have a grasp on how your marketing is performing, you need to utilize those numbers to track your actual lead conversion rates. Your lead conversion rates measure the percentage of your leads that end up converting to opportunities. To do this you need a couple data points:
- Marketing or advertising expenses
- The # of leads generated
- The # of leads who became a client or customer
- Bonus: $ Commissions earned per client (more on this later)
Take the number of leads generated and divide by the number of clients gained for a month. So if you generated 500 leads in one month and 25 of them became clients, this is a 5% conversion rate.
(# of clients or customers) ÷ (# of leads you generated) = (% of conversions).
You can use this formula to calculate your overall lead conversion rate as well as for individual marketing networks to determine which networks generate the most conversions.
First off, don’t get too distracted by cost per lead (CPL). Social engagement, click-throughs and other metrics divert attention from your total Return on Investment (ROI) which is what should direct your marketing budget and determine the amount of time committed to various marketing outlets. Following one simple ROI formula and staying focused on factors that matter most can help you better identify which lead gen sources provide you the most profit.
Let’s look at the math:
An auctioneer is spending $1,200 per year on Facebook Ads, which they can track directly to $4,000 in commissions. They’re also spending $9,600 per year on their postcard mailing campaigns, which they can track directly to $50,000 in commissions.
Facebook is cheaper than mailing postcards, but how does their ROI compare?
Facebook: ($4,000 – $1,200) / $1,200 = 2.33
Postcards: ($50,000 – $9,600) / $9,600 = 4.21
(gain from investment – cost of investment) ÷ cost of investment = Y
The resulting number is a multiple of the return the investment produces in which 1 = 100%. (An ROI of less than 1 means you lost money.)
(Y) x 100 = ROI%
So while Facebook is profitable and less expensive than mailing postcards, it has a significantly lower ROI at 200% vs the 400% ROI on postcards so Facebook is generating less results per dollar spent. Based on the ROI, the auctioneer might consider moving the money they’re spending on Facebook into Postcards to generate an even higher ROI.
Conversion time should also play a significant role. After all, the faster a lead source is able to convert into a commissionable sale, the more valuable it becomes.
For example, using the ROI numbers above postcard mailings with an ROI of 400% may be worth more than Facebook ads with an ROI of 200%, but if the leads from Facebook tend to convert to sales in half the time, the shorter payback period would allow the auctioneer to run additional ads on Facebook while postcard mailings have yet to pay out a single return.
To calculate your total office lead conversion time, take the total amount of days between creation and conversion for all leads that were converted, and then divide by the total number of leads converted. So if you had 10 leads that got converted in one month, and the total sum of days between when each was created and each was converted was 500 days, then your lead conversion time would be 500 / 10 = 50 days.
(# Days it took to convert) ÷ (# of leads converted) = (conversion time).
Step 7. Do It Every Day
No excuses, no exceptions.