How I Sold 83 Homes in 8 Months
Posted: Saturday, September 27, 2008
by Andrew Higgins
ANSR, Inc.
I sold 83 houses over an 8 month stretch recently and I've now taught hundreds of other agents around the world how to do the same thing using my proven two step strategy.
I was thrilled to be asked by BrokerAgentNews.com to tell my story.
Here's some background.
Try asking the average Real Estate agent what they think of using the Internet to drive leads into their business and they'll likely express that it flat out doesn't work.
I used to feel the same way myself.
The problem is that Real Estate agents aren't Internet Marketers. Most of us just don't "get" the Internet yet.
The reality is though (according to NAR) that the vast majority of home shoppers now start their home search on the Internet.
Why then do the vast majority of agents still waste their hard earned money on traditional advertising methods that don't include the Internet?
Why the disconnect?
To succeed with online leads you need to focus on generating and managing leads with an effective automated system that builds relationships with potential clients.
If an agent fails to do that then the Internet simply won't work for them.
Does it work?
The verifiable facts are that I stopped doing open houses, stopped doing print mail, stopped chasing listings and canceled all marketing expenses of any kind about 18 months ago because I rely solely on a predictable, scientific approach to Internet leads that I generate myself.
Does this mean I'm paying through the nose for online leads?
Actually it's just the opposite. I'm not paying for my leads, but that's another article that will come later.
Are some agents just lucky? Is it the market they are in? Is their website just ranked well on Google?
The answer to all those questions is "no", and here's proof. I've taught hundreds of other agents these straight forward ideas and those that use the system are seeing the same fantastic results I'm seeing in their markets located all over the world.
Here are the two steps to the system:
1. Generate up to 1,000 or more leads for free in any market every month using Pay Per Click advertising.
2. Harness the power of Permission Marketing via phone contact and simple automated email campaigns.
In this short article I can't hope to communicate all the details of this system, but there is a free book that can be downloaded from 838system.com that spells out the entire system in true step by step detail.
Let's go through both of my key steps briefly.
Step 1: Generate Leads using Pay Per Click (PPC)
Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising is the $8 million+ per day income generating engine that fuels much of Google.com's success. It's called Google's "Adwords" program. By now most people have seen these ads.
They are the little ads that run on the right hand side of the page when you do a Google search. These same ads are also sprinkled all over the web. You've seen the "ads by Goooooogle" tag line that appears near a series of small ads on millions of sites.
The best leads we generate are with Google's Adwords program.
It's important to note here that one of the features of Google's PPC program is that the user gets to define the geographical region that their ad will run in. This is an important feature considering the Real Estate business model is based regionally.
For example, a user can set up an Adwords campaign in such a way that only customers living in their region of the world will ever see the ad.
Each time one of those ads gets clicked the advertiser pays. The advertiser doesn't pay until an ad gets clicked though. Getting clicks is fairly easy, but turning those clicks into buyers is where having a good follow up system comes into play.
The problem that most agents run into is at this point. Most Real Estate agents get lured into building what I call a "big pretty" website and then they try running PPC traffic to that website. The fact is that model doesn't work. Instead a good follow up system starts with a good "squeeze page" or "landing page". This is where the customer is sent when they click one of our PPC ads. This simple web page has only one purpose and it is to get the lead to give up their contact information. This includes their name, email and phone.Designing a page that performs this task is pretty straight forward for nearly any web designer.
Step 2: Use permission marketing to build a relationship
Once an agent has a prospects contact information the clock starts ticking. The faster the prospect is contacted the greater the odds are that a deal will be done with the prospect.
Ideally no more than a few minutes pass before phone contact is initiated with a new prospect. Some agents that are applying this system even turn off all PPC advertising campaigns at night because they aren't able to follow up immediately with incoming leads in the middle of the night. Turning the ads on and off is easy. This can even be scheduled in a Google Adwords account. The fact is that every minute counts when dealing with incoming leads. Waiting a day or two to respond will cause conversion rates to plummet. When I get a new lead I drop everything to contact them because I know that if I happen to catch a prospect when they are actually online doing home research then I've caught them in a great mood for a good conversation about home shopping. I've even built a system that notifies me on my cell phone when a new lead comes in. That's how precious those first few moments are.Once a prospect has volunteered their email address an automated email campaign can be initiated. This email campaign helps facilitate the forming of a true relationship between agent and client. Using asimple tool called an "email auto-responder" instant messages are sent to each new prospect. Next, a series of preset messages at predetermined intervals automatically begin "pinging" the prospects until they become clients.
It's a truly automated system that places every new lead automatically at the beginning of a sequence of messages with a few days passing between each new mailing. It's very inexpensive and fairly simple to set up an auto-responder campaign. I prefer to use the auto-responder services of aweber.com. They are a great company that really understands email marketing and all the issues that go with it. Interested in more details? Check out the free book I've written that details every aspect of my approach to generating and closing Internet based PPC leads.
Download it free at http://www.83Homes8Months.com
Andrew Higgins 1-888-ANSR-888 http://www.838System.com
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