I heard something on TikTok the other day, and it really stuck with me. As a real estate agent, you’re not in the business of making sales; you’re in the lead generation business. The more leads you generate, the more sales you’re going to make. That’s why you need a real estate funnel that will allow you to generate leads and build relationships with people even when they’re not ready to enter the market yet.
If you’re ready to start turning your online following into raving fans, here is the 3-part real estate funnel to help you go from online acquaintance to their favorite agent.
What is a Real Estate Funnel?
Before we get started, let’s answer the question, what is a real estate funnel? In marketing, a sales funnel is the process that a potential client follows in order to become a paying client or consumer.
In real estate, this funnel will look slightly different, but it’s still the same process of moving a client through a journey to get them to hire you as their agent.
What is the Breakdown of the Real Estate Funnel?
So, what is the breakdown of a real estate funnel?
The top of the funnel is going to be the awareness portion. This section of the funnel is the largest area, and it’s where most of your leads are going to start. During the awareness phase, you want to make them aware of who you are and the areas that you service.
The middle of the funnel is where your buyers will start showing interest and considering you as an agent. When a client’s journey has them in the middle of the funnel, you’ll want to show them how you’re different from other agents. Now is the perfect time to consider your ideal client’s various problems and how you solve those problems.
The bottom of the funnel is when a potential clients have reached the moment of action. During this part of the funnel, they’re going to be actively interviewing agents, and they’re ready to enter the real estate market.
As you’re building your real estate marketing plan, keep these three phases of a client’s journey in mind.
Now that you understand the funnel’s journey, let’s talk about the different types of content you’re going to share for each funnel stage.
Top of the Funnel
At the top of the funnel, your goal is to make as many people aware of your brand as possible. During this phase, you’re going to want to cast a large net over your service areas. To get your name out there, your primary focus should be on your local content.
Whether you’re sharing it on your website or social media, as a real estate agent, showcasing your local expertise is going to be vital to getting your name out there.
Local content ideas to help you get started will include:
- Things to do in your city
- Reasons why people love living there
- Spotlight restaurants, bars, and cafes
- Sharing upcoming events
How to Generate Leads using the Top of the Real Estate Funnel
A great way to capture leads at the top of the funnel is to create a calendar showcasing all the local events coming up or share a community guide.
In the community guide, you’ll want to share market information, information about the school district, highlight the top neighborhoods, and some of your favorite restaurants.
The leads you generate in this phase of the funnel will take the longest to convert because often they’re coming in cold. Plan to nurture these leads for a minimum of 12 months before you start to see them move into the second phase of the funnel.
Middle of the Funnel
Once you’ve made potential clients aware of who you are, now you’ll want to focus on the consideration aspect of the real estate funnel.
This middle part of the funnel is where you share tips, tricks, and roadmaps to help guide them through the buying and selling process.
During this phase of the funnel, you want to focus on genuine content that will make them feel comfortable using you as a real estate agent. As your leads are entering the middle phase of the funnel, this is when you want to start focusing on their buying and selling timeline so you can successfully fill your pipeline.
The type of content you’ll want to share in the consideration phase will be what you typically think of when it comes to real estate content, such as:
- How much you need for a down payment
- Your minimum credit score to qualify for a mortgage
- How to get your home ready for the market
- Home maintenance tips
- Design ideas
How to Generate Leads in the Middle of the Funnel
The middle part of the funnel is where your leads are coming in warm, and you’re working to make them hot. To generate leads here, focus on real estate opt-ins such as top renovations to increase their home’s value, a buyer or seller guide, or a timeline to prepare for a move.
Since these leads are warm and thinking about the housing market, you need to have a solid follow-up plan to take them to the funnel’s next phase. When you see leads engaging with this type of content, that’s your queue to find out what their timeline is and check-in accordingly.
Bottom of the Funnel
The bottom of the funnel is where your leads and prospects are actively seeking a real estate agent or searching for a new home. Your goal here is to set the listing appointment or the buyer’s appointment.
When it comes to building out a marketing plan, most agents focus on this phase of the funnel because everyone wants someone who is ready to buy and sell now.
But we both know that you’re smarter than that!
If you’ve taken the time to cultivate a genuine relationship, when your leads and prospects get to this phase of the funnel, you’re going to be the only person they call.
Some ideas of the type of content you’re going to want to share here includes:
- Current Listings
- Your marketing plan to get their home sold
- How you help clients win the listing in a competitive market
How to Generate Leads in the Bottom of the Funnel
If you’ve worked the top two areas of the real estate funnel correctly by consistently marketing yourself, you shouldn’t have to actively seek out leads for this portion of the funnel; they should be reaching out to you on social media or through your email list when they’re ready for the real estate market.
However, there will be times when you luck into leads that you didn’t have to nurture for months or even years.
The best way to generate hot leads is by getting referrals. By being a great real estate agent and creating lifelong relationships with your past clients, and consistently sharing content online with your friends and family, they’ll be happy to send referrals your way of people they know.
Another great way to look for hot leads online is through community groups on Facebook and the Nextdoor app. Local’s pop into groups or post to the online forum asking for information all the time – and it’s not uncommon to see someone request an agent. If you’re active in those groups, you’ll quickly be able to snag a lead before others start posting.
How to Use a Real Estate Funnel to Generate Leads
Now that you know what to focus on with each step of the funnel, let’s talk about generating leads to start filling the funnel and your pipeline.
There are a few different ways to generate leads using the funnel we just went through. To know where you put the majority of your focus, you need to take a look to see where the majority of your current leads and online traffic are coming from.
Social Media Traffic
If most of the traffic you’re getting is from your social media sites, you’ll want to focus on moving your followers into your email database. You want to drive traffic from your social media platforms to your email database because you own your database; you don’t own your social media profile.
The best way to do this is by creating landing pages and promoting your opt-ins. The landing page should be a single-page website that only promotes the opt-in. You don’t want visitors to fall down a rabbit hole looking at other things. The goal is to collect their contact information and move on.
Website Traffic
If you’re getting a lot of traffic from your website, then you may want to consider pushing more content to your website by optimizing your content with the right keywords and focusing on SEO. Here you’ll want to have pop-ups, sidebars, or internal links encouraging visitors to grab the opt-in that you’re promoting.
To get started with SEO, you’ll want to base your content calendar on the top searches in your area. Finding what the locals are searching for doesn’t have to be hard; check out Neil Patel’s UberSuggest tool to get started. I love this tool because you can use the keyword analyzer to find what keywords are being searched the most and get content ideas.
Creating Your Real Estate Funnel
Now that you know the real estate funnel stages getting started making your own doesn’t have to be hard.
By becoming a member of Grow. Nurture. Sell. you’ll get everything you need to put this exact funnel into play and start growing your real estate business in as little as 60 minutes per week.
As a member of Grow. Nurture. Sell., you’ll be able to create the top of the funnel content using the video, conversation, and graphic prompts to showcase yourself, vendors you support, and the local community.
Generate leads using the daily social posts provided and move those leads into your database by customizing one of the opt-ins. You don’t even have to worry about creating a landing page or a follow-up campaign; everything you need is already provided – all you have to do is customize with your branding.
Now that you’ve generated the lead and used the tools provided to nurture your leads through the consideration phase, you’ll be able to start converting more sales.