Practice patience and consistency for at least a year.
“A lot of times agents will sign up with a lead site, [stay with it] for three or four months and it doesn't work,” says Anthony Marguelas of Amalfi Estates. “I think you have to give it at least a year.” After that, if you still aren’t getting enough leads to justify the expenditure, it’s time to invest elsewhere. Rama Mehra of Asante Realty agrees: “If you have the budget and you want to go big, then do it consistently. That's when the results will start coming.”

Ask clients for reviews to establish social proof and credibility.
Just like word-of-mouth recommendations, online reviews are essential for lead generation, and build greater trust in your brand. Don’t miss an opportunity to ask your clients for reviews. “I think at this point we have over 232 reviews and we've been building our reviews on a Google business page” says Rama. “From that, believe it or not, I've actually been getting direct traffic and direct phone calls.”

Consider a virtual assistant to answer calls and manage appointments.
The uptick in one-on-one showings due to the pandemic has meant that phones and calendars are busy. It’s harder than ever to make appointments that fit into everyone’s schedules, and phone calls can easily slip through the cracks. Mike Ramos found that virtual assistants were the perfect solution to these problems. “We actually have three full-time virtual assistants that are helping us take care of all the bookings on our buyer side. And then they're also managing all the bookings on our listings too.” Whether you decide you need a personal assistant or not, keeping organized and being responsive is essential to your success. 

Qualify leads with a framework that works for you.
There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to qualifying leads. After many instances of showing properties to leads who said that they didn’t have their own agents—but in fact, did—Rama decided to require buyer-broker agreements prior to showing each home. Now, 78% of her leads sign such agreements, and she can be sure that she won’t be wasting time doing the work for another agent.

Anthony’s experience is different from Rama’s. He shifted from the LPMAMA (Location, Price, Motivation, Agent, Mortgage, Appointment) script to the ALM (Appointment, Location, Motivation) method. In his market, it made sense to focus on making appointments, regardless of whether the lead had an agent. “The hope is when they meet with you, even if they have an agent, they're going to be sold on who you are. And they may just say they have an agent because they haven't met you yet.”

With the influx in appointments, Anthony has worked on tracking each step in his lead conversion process so that he can identify areas for improvement and increase his conversion rate. “If someone's getting a ton of appointments, but they're not writing a lot of offers, we know there's a disconnect. If they're writing a lot of offers, then maybe they're not getting a lot of accepted offers. We know what that breakdown is. So we really have just retooled our entire systems because of the ALM method.” 

Thanks to Anthony Marguleas, Mike Ramos and Rama Mehra for sharing how they’ve improved their reach, qualification, engagement and conversion efforts when it comes to online leads. We appreciate you being a part of the SIde community!