Running a business requires most entrepreneurs to contact a never-ending list of prospects. The good thing is, this is something that you can delegate pretty easily—if you know how to do it right. I...
The advantage of lead generation services is that they will handle the entire hiring process. That means you will get a pool of endorsements based on your specifications, and they will arrange Skype/phone interviews.
Setting Goals and Delegating VA Tasks
1. Identifying daily/weekly goals
Start by cutting it down by daily goals and setting your target monthly revenue. Identify the number of new prospects you need to contact on a daily/weekly basis.
For example:
Daily cold prospects to contact:980 prospects / 20 business days = 49 per day
So if your daily target is 49 leads, communicate this on the day the you orient your VA, and ask them if it is doable. From there, you can test the waters by assigning your VA the task of researching, but not contacting, roughly half your target number.
2. Delegating tasks
There are a number of ways virtual assistants can help you with lead generation, depending on your business model and marketing strategy. Generally, VAs are already trained and experienced in their own field. But as with any other employees, they also need to be acclimated to the new business approach every time. The key here is to start small and ramp up the complexity of the tasks as you get to feel your VA’s capability.
Hiring a Lead Generation Expert
3. Researching leads
If you’re not quite ready for the VA to contact leads directly, then save yourself from the time-consuming task of researching them.
Then, they will use tools like search engines, social media, and LinkedIn to find these prospects. Ask your VA to find relevant leads by drawing from a specific list of companies and titles, using the “advanced search” function in LinkedIn, for example.
4. Contacting leads
Most lead generation jobs work from home individuals are equipped with good communication skills.
Give clear instructions on how to contact prospects by giving them scripts and templates or asking them to customize one. They can also jump into email marketing to introduce your company and your products/services.
A VA can be a tremendous help in developing marketing material for your campaigns.
They can create relevant blog posts; marketing materials such as posters, copy ads, eBooks, and content that you can then distribute to drive traffic and move the leads down the sales funnel.
6. Assign other tasks!
Yes—you can absolutely hand over some time consuming tasks to your virtual admin assistant. allows you to allocate more time to lead generation is valuable. They can easily cover everyday, repetitive tasks related to your business, such as social media management, answering calls/emails, or even bookkeeping.
With social media posting, they can share articles, tweets, status updates, etc so you gain more exposure in the online arena. The more engaging you become, the more likely you are to attract and retain prospects.
7. Allows you to do your CORE function
Telemarketing works, but at some point you will have to pick up the phone. Home-based lead generation jobs will allow you to work on your full potential by extracting all those activities that take up too much of your time.
Here’s how Henri Schauffler of CEO Focus works with his VAs:
“A trained telemarketing team calls a select list for participants in my free business-building seminars for small business owners. Those interested are then sent an email.
The list of “RSVPs” is sent to me daily. I mail them a USPS letter with ticket and flyer. Then I call each one personally and get them talking about their business.”
Steps on Working with Virtual Assistants Successfully
Be clear about what you want the lead generation freelancer to do.
Keep a running list of what you should delegate.
Create a job description and responsibility list for your VA.
Say what you want your VA to produce, how they should behave, tasks he/she needs to complete.
Ask your VA to help you create a Systems manual.
Hold weekly or monthly meetings with your VA.
Never hesitate to ask your VA for help or advice. Virtual assistants are excellent at helping business owners so make sure to ask and listen to what they have to say.
When you finally find the best VA to work with, enroll him or her in your vision and your goals. Make sure your virtual help is enthusiastic about what you do and is ready to roll!
Whether you are selling a property, an insurance plan, or any kind of service, you know that when you book more appointments, you generate more business. So now you ask yourself, how do I become a suc...
The use of 3D virtual tours, videos, and automation will only grow stronger in this year’s real estate market. However, the following are trends that should be on your 2019 top real estate marketing...
In this age that smart phones and tablets are integral to our daily productivity, we are constantly looking for mobile applications that can streamline or simplify any task at hand. Real estate agents...
Top 30 Real Estate Agent Tools to Boost Your Business in 2020
1. Refresh
Refresh mobile app can be very helpful for you to keep track on who’s who with your everyday interactions. It allows you to connect everything from your social networks, contacts, calendar to give you insights before each meeting.
How it works:
Refresh is one of the top real estate apps for agents if you want to know more about someone.
You can search their name to locate background info across multiple social media profiles.
2. Zillow Premier Agent
Zillow is a lead generation app used widely by real estate professionals making it by far the largest real estate website in the USA. It is said that In order to be competitive, you NEED to be on Zillow. It’s the go-to resource for more than 70 million buyers and sellers each month.
You can also “claim” listings you created that were uploaded to Zillow straight from your MLS.
When a buyer encounters your listing from Zillow or Trulia, you have a much greater chance of receiving their inquiry since your name appears exclusively on your listings.
A virtual assistant for real estate can also market your properties in Zillow, among other online listing sites like Craigslist, Backpage, Kijiji.
3. QCards
This real estate software creates and mails marketing postcards right from your iPhone or iPad to help you attract more leads and local listing opportunities.
How it works:
Use photos and select contacts from your phone, or let QCards generate a nearby mailing list for you.
RPR Mobile delivers the data and reporting found on the RPR website, directly to your phone. It is one of the best apps for realtors, as the system is 100% covered by your NAR member dues.
How it works:
Realtors can use their location to search both on and off market properties, while also knowing:
Mortgage
Historical and distressed data
Flood zones
school info and more
You can then create one of 5 different property and neighborhood reports, each branded with your photo, logo and contact details.
5. Contactually
This is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) app that helps you manage your relationships, your contacts and leads.
How it works:
Automated follow up reminders.
Advanced automation and pipeline management.
A letter grade to tell you how well you’re doing with your follow up.
6. Animoto
Animoto is highly popular among real estate agents who always aim to provide superb presentation of their properties. The great thing is that you can right from your smartphone.
How it works:
Create high-quality, HD video slideshows on mobile or the web version.
Background music is provided.
This app will help your marketing stand out – be sure to hire virtual staff to make all your presentations professional and more appealing.
7. Vert
This handy app makes conversions simple – basic version is free, and Pro is $2.99.
How it works:
Tap on the measurement and then swipe to convert metrics, such as size, weight, length, or currency.
8. Placester
This one is an IDX Website Builder for real estate. Placester uses WordPress, and you can get a fully featured website from it for as low as $69/year.
Placester pulls listing data from your MLS, so your visitors can search for properties on your site.
If you’re looking a properly maintained website where you can customize step-by-step, a web designer real estate assistant can create one for you by following your desired specifics.
9. Open Home Pro
This app is a top choice among agents for open houses and broker opens – you can manage the contact info of your walk-ins!
How it works:
Select contact options and automatically follow up with new leads in your next marketing campaign.
10. Scannable
Scannable is the newest app from Evernote, and makes saving and sharing scans easy.
How it works:
This app immediately identifies business cards, receipts, and other paper items it’s pointed at. So just aim the camera and it will detect the document edges and then capture it.
11. DocuSign
DocuSign is the world’s most trusted Electronic Signature/Transaction Management software. It offers the best platform for getting documents signed and deals tamed.
How it works:
Agents can keep track of all documents in a transaction from agency disclosure to contracts.
Brokers can set up advanced approval processes and workflows to be as hands off, or hands on.
12. Hootsuite
Hootsuite social media publisher allows you to manage all of your social network accounts in one spot.
How it works:
Schedule status updates in advance and respond to followers.
You can choose to upgrade for analytics and other features to integrate your marketing strategies.
13. Adobe Photoshop Express
How it works:
Photoshop does the basic image editing like cropping, rotating, red eye and blemish removal.
It also makes it easy to correct contrast, white balance, exposure, and also apply filter.
14. Dotloop
This app is another Transaction Management Software that lets you easily create, capture and store all the paperwork required to close even the most complex deals.
Create custom templates, send documents out for e-signature, and track, collaborate, and store documents for review and compliance.
Dotloop helps simplify the paperwork, faxing, and in-person signings in your deals.
15. MagicPlan
Take a photo and use MagicPlan to showcase your current properties or wow your potential clients.
How it works:
Create custom 3D floor plans – this app records room dimensions and produces floor plans in multiple formats.
16. Box
Box is the ideal app for realtors who are looking for more security and control.
How it works:
View, download, edit and annotate files, and then securely send those files to anyone, anywhere.
You can also mark a folder for offline viewing.
17. Showing Suite
Showing Suite Software lets you finally toss the pile of notes—showings, email addresses, phone numbers and lockbox codes—in the recycling bin where they belong.
How it works:
The app integrates and automates showing schedules, buyer agent feedback, and any notes that you want to store along with your listing.
It also syncs with your Supra EKey or Sentrilock lockbox software.
18. BizKinetic Real Estate
How it works:
Manage your sales and marketing efforts by coordinating leads, follow-ups, contacts and client requests.
You can also sync your tasks and calendar, and set up mail templates
19. IFTTT
IFTTT stands for “If This Then That” which aims to automate tasks between Internet-connected services. The app has more than 160 channels for you to create connections between.
How it works:
Set up configurations such as:
If you want new comments on your blog to send you a text message.
You want to backup each new contact you add to your phone in a Google spreadsheet.
Or maybe even log how much time you spend at home or the office.
20. Real Scout
Another Lead Nurturing app is the Real Scout.
How it works:
This app scours your MLS for new listings that match any of up to 400 criteria your leads select such as the following and automatically sends them the listings in an email:
waterfront location
high ceilings
number of bedrooms etc..
It will also make the generated emails look like they came directly from you.
21. Todoist
This real estate tool can save you time hunting email through your inbox.
How it works:
When you are logged in your email account, you can add any email as a follow up task.
When you select a particular task, the app brings up the email originally referenced in the task.
This lead generation system offers agents a customizable home value estimator that you can use on your IDX website or Facebook ads.
It also provides lead follow up via built in drip campaigns and instant lead notification
23. Deductr 2
When it comes to tax time, Deductr 2 is an app that will aid you in tracking tax deductions.
How it works:
Use the app to add business income and expenses, log receipts, even track mileage using your phone’s GPS.
When tax time comes, use the Deductr website to create a profit and loss report, tax summary, mileage summary, etc.
24. Citymaps
This Custom Mapping App answers the never-ending client question “Where are the best ________in this neighborhood?”
How it works:
With Citymaps, you can send your clients custom maps of a neighborhood tailored to their interests.
This real estate software also helps plan locations for retail stores and other commercial listings.
25. Videolicious
How it works:
First record yourself talking into the camera.
Then, add any photos or videos over the top as b-roll.
Next, add background music and cinematic filters to your photos and video footage.
The completed videos can be saved, emailed and shared via social media channels like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
26. Matterport
If you have read our previous article Real Estate Marketing Trends, we mentioned Matterport as one of the most trending apps for real estate agents that create 3D Virtual Tours.
Ask your photographer about Matterport or look for a 3D tour company in your area.
27. Buffer
The Buffer app provides a great interface for managing multiple social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn.
How it works:
Schedule what you want to share and when you want the posts to be shared.
Don’t forget to engage with any replies or comments that come in.
28. Mojo Dialer
This auto dialer app is intended for all For Sale By Owner (FSBO) cold callers to build up momentum and get appointments.
How it works:
Mojo Dialer integrates with your FSBO lists and dials numbers automatically while pulling up pertinent information on your screen.
29. Lastpass
Secure your different passwords hassle-free. Lastpass is a powerful cross platform password manager that enables you to access and manage passwords wherever you are, and syncs those passwords between your devices.
How it works:
For iOS 8 users, Lastpass integrates directly into Safari as an extension.
If you access password-protected sites regularly, you might choose their premium service ($12 annual fee).
30. BombBomb
“Video Email” BombBomb app lets you record and send video for delivering a personal message. It also gives you metrics to track who is viewing your content.
Interested in real estate marketing but not sure where to start? Check out our real estate virtual assistant services and see how our highly qualified and trained VAs can assist in your everyday tasks and objectives. CALL 1-866-596-9041.
We would love to hear if these tips worked for you! If you have questions or any Real Estate related success stories, please leave a comment below.
“Let’s make you an appointment.” This assertive one-liner often starts most sales transactions in the entire business world. Selling would even be more effective when you set appointments and sp...
Outsourcing appointment setter jobs free up a lot of time for your internal sales representative to exert more effort in closing sales and making strategies to support your company.
2. Expanding the sales force
Virtual appointment setters are not just telemarketers. They are an extension of a business sales team. He or she can develop a customized script that focuses on the client’s products and services. These VAs can also do a research as to what types of companies should be contacted, and connect with the key decision makers.
3. Cost-effective solution
Your in-house cold-calling tasks will require management either from you or from a supervisor, which can only add up cost to the company.
Working with an outsourcing company that provides appointment setters telemarketing services is indeed a cost-effective solution. They can manage their own virtual team (such as your appointment setter) so you don’t have to worry and manage additional staff.
4. A way to promote your business
Marketing yourself and your business and getting noticed in the market is a no-easy task because of thousands of competitions.
Professional virtual assistance companies have trained people to be experts in cold calling. They even have gained more experience and knowledge than regular employees because of the diversity of client base that they handle.
This information can allow a business to look at what areas need to be altered to increase the effectiveness of its overall sales strategy.
5. Generating and nurturing leads
There are different stages of the buyer’s journey that require different approaches. Having a proper nurturing system in place can tremendously help in nurturing leads and converting them into cutomers/clients.
An appointment setter VA can create a list of warm and cold leads (top/bottom of the sales funnel) and hand them over to sales department for follow-up.
If you don’t have the resources to run full-funnel marketing, you may need to outsource to a virtual assistant who can generate some highly-qualified leads to jumpstart your revenue.
6. Data and analysis
As mentioned, a lead list must be developed to prioritize the most interested prospects. A qualified list will more likely to succeed with setting an appointment that will result in a closed deal.
To do this, a virtual assistant can gather and analyze the relevant data to determine the right people who are responsive in a company’s product or service, as well as those who are the appropriate decision-makers.
7. Dedicated skills
Statistically, an appointment scheduler is much better at setting up qualified sales appointments than sales representatives who prefer the limelight of presenting, negotiating and closing deals.
8. Avoid what you dislike
In numerous surveys, salespeople say cold calling is their number one dislike. Some say they plain hate it and avoid it at all cost. If this is you, then it’s definitely time to outsource rather than lose a sales lead.
9. Perform other tasks on the side
Sales appointment setting virtual assistants can also be invaluable in surveying your customer base, introducing new products and performing data base marketing.
10. Easy to track
Appointment scheduling services provide a trackable and much improved ROI over traditional sales approaches.
11. Taking it a notch-higher
Top 2% of companies are doing the new paradigm of separating prospecting and appointment setting from selling.
12. Building client/customer loyalty
Appointment setting VA companies are better able to call on the most profitable leads—those most likely to buy from you soon.
Ready to hire your Appointment Setter Virtual Assistant? Virtual Assistant Talent can help! CALL US at 1-866-596-9041 and see how our highly qualified and trained VAs can assist in your everyday tasks and objectives.
We would love to hear if these tips worked for you! If you have questions or any Real Estate related success stories, please leave a comment below.
When it comes to insuring your health, house, car, and assets, a mistake can affect you financially. It might even be TOO LATE by the time you need your insurance coverage. And because it’s necessar...
The road to top real estate agent or realtor status involves long sleepless nights, working on weekends, and endless prospecting. But, it’s becoming a growing trend to outsource an assistant to help...
Real estate agents live the fast and busy life. Most mornings are spent checking through e-mails and phone messages while eating breakfast. You need to organize your day and every transaction, but you must likewise be efficient with your finances.
The smart move is to hire a real estate virtual assistant over an in-office employee. She is an entrepreneur like you, being an independent contractor doing a variety of tasks. Thus, she takes care of her own business expenses.
With a VA, you don’t need to pay for social security benefits, health, dental. and unemployment insurances.
3. No vacation, holiday, sick pay
Moreover, you don’t have to think about any labor laws and be obliged to provide them vacation and sick leaves, or even overtime fees! The VA takes care of all this because he or she can work virtually, and can manage his or her time efficiently.
Matlin, a Realtor for more than 20 years, made the decision to employ a virtual assistant. She said that with real estate increasingly moving online, she needed help keeping up with new social media platforms.
“The business is changing, and I wanted a fresh look,” Matlin said.
She needed someone with specialized skills and knowledge of social media, and how Matlin could use those tools to stay in touch with clients and her sphere of influence – Facebook, LinkedIn and her personal web page. She also needed help writing and sending a monthly electronic newsletter to her database.
4. No payroll taxes and paperwork
Hiring real estate virtual assistant services is truly one of the greatest investments you can make. Outsourced assistants can pay their own local taxes.
5. No extra office space or equipment costs
Unlike in-office employees that you have to provide office equipment such as computer, office supplies, and electricity.
6. No administrative costs
And on top of that, you don’t have to plan, arrange, and spend a single dime on company outings and recreations.
7. Increase level of productivity
A real estate VA’s primary purpose is to organize time so you can focus on the functions that matter more to your business. Instead of handling incoming calls and paperwork, you can focus on preparing for your appointments and meetings.
You can divert emails to the work from home real estate assistant. He or she can oversee all communication so you do not have to spend valuable time to these basic tasks like attending to inquiries, taking messages, setting appointments and taking notes of important details.
The real estate Virtual Assistant becomes your work filter so the path toward your day’s objectives will be cleared. Ultimately, you will notice that you are able to be more punctual in your meetings and accomplish more activities in one day.
8. “On-call” basis work
Pay only for “time on task” or by project. Unlike having an in-office employee that you have to keep busy, virtual assistants can work anytime upon your request. This gives you more flexibility in terms of budgeting and delegating tasks.
9. Extra staff during seasonal or peak activity time
Unlike the VAs, you must hire and train any additional in-office staff needed during peak seasons.
10. Fast turnaround time
And because a fully trained real estate VA works by the hour and is monitored by a time tracking software, you can expect a fast turnaround time in terms of output or call quotas.
Amy Kite, a Realtor with Keller Williams Premier Properties in Lincolnshire, knew she needed to hiring an assistant.
“I was too busy to handle everything,” Kite said. “I was losing leads, and I could tell that business was slipping through my fingers. I should have gotten my first assistant sooner.”
Her real estate VA, Denise, has helped accomplish just that by helping Kite prospect, schedule appointments with prospective clients, close transactions and maintain client relationships.
11. Weekend and evening assistance available
It’s difficult or expensive to hire admin staff for weekend and evening work—another thing that you can appreciate a virtual assistant for because again, #8 and #9-he or she can work upon your request.
12. Increase sales conversion
In real estate, lead generation such as prospecting is an important function. However, generating leads takes time and requires effort. Experienced VAs can call and follow-up prospects through online and traditional methods.
13. Improve quality of work
Real estate virtual assistants are not just your average “assistant”. They have varied skills. For example, almost all of the VAs in the Philippines are degree holders and have acquired higher training and certification in their respective core competencies.
14. Specialized skills available
As mentioned, virtual executive assistants are not limited to a single skill or talent.
Are you looking to organize your listings of properties, contacts and clients? He or she can help manage or create a CRM program for you and can regularly update it so you can lead prospects into a sale.
Do you need a presentation to an important client? There are VAs who are savvy in MS Office programs and can create professional looking Power Point presentation slides for your proposals.
They can also prepare well-organized and detailed spreadsheets for your financial projections.
Do you need more content for your real estate website? A VA can write relevant and keyword-optimized content for your page so that you can attract more visitors.
Need someone to manage and maintain your website? A web designer/programmer VA is perfect for you.
15. Reduce Stress
Last and probably one of the major reasons for outsourcing services to a real estate virtual assistant, is to open up more time for yourself and your family.
By taking some time off to recharge, you will come back better and more productive. Thus, having a real estate virtual assistant on-board is a valuable asset by making you enjoy a luxury many often overlook: time.
Do you have any questions about virtual office assistant services? Call us at 1-866-596-9041 and see how our highly qualified and trained VAs can assist in your everyday tasks and objectives.
We would love to hear if these tips worked for you! If you have questions or any Real Estate related success stories, please leave a comment below.
The first quarter of 2017 has come and every real estate agent and investor is grinding to achieve a successful real estate business this year. The ultimate goal of course is to implement your marketi...
6 Real Estate Marketing Trends and How a VA Can Assist You
1. Marketing Automation and List Building System
In 2017, more real estate agents will adapt marketing automation because it saves a lot of time and money, especially when you are busy with closing deals, communicating to clients or taking care of your family.
However, often times, real estate professionals don’t know how to do it, or don’t have the resources to pay for real estate marketing automation software.
What a Real Estate VA Can Do:
MLS & CRM Management – Real Estate Virtual Assistants (REVA) are experienced and familiar in maintaining top database systems like Salesforce, InfusionSoft, Top Producer, E-Edge, etc. When a new lead comes in, you don’t have to spend time transferring it to your CRM because the REVA will do it for you.
Database and Property Software Management – For Property Management Firms, the virtual assistant will update your database to make sure you have complete tenant info such as payment transactions.
List Building and Prospect Management – For Real Estate Investors, the VA can perform lead generation tasks according to your preferences (Probates, FSBOs, Foreclosures, etc.)
In this way, the leads are automatically contacted and added to your ongoing marketing strategy system.
Creating meaningful targeting ad campaigns take extra work but you will definitely love the results. First thing to do is to segment your audience based on whether they are buyers, sellers, investors and other sub-categories. The trick here is to maintain that your ads are not flagged down when you post in sites like Craigslist.
What a Real Estate VA Can Do:
Posting Ads – The virtual assistant will create and manage ad postings online and make sure your ads are not taken down.
Update Property Listing – He or she can also update your listings to include only recent properties that are available for rent, lease or for sale. Task them to tag or remove those properties that are no longer available in the market.
Listing Coordination – For investors, a REVA can manage accurate and timely updates of your property information. They can also assist in finding agents or brokers where you list your properties either for lease or for sale.
Online Marketing – Additionally, the VA will use the following sites to market your properties online: Craigslist, Backpage, Kijiji, Zillow, Trulia etc.
This approach will help you get more leads and conversions from your targeted ads. Remember that once your prospects are tagged properly, you can then launch customized ad campaigns to attract them.
3. Real Estate Agents/Investors Will Do More Personalized Content Marketing
This year, you’ll discover more that personalized content is one of the most effective real estate marketing ideas to generate organic traffic to your website. Agents and investors need to focus more on user experience and create custom CMA reports and presentations for clients.
Target audience factors to consider:
Types of clients: First-time homebuyers, upsizing, downsizing, relocation, investors
Hyper local areas: zip codes, neighborhoods and subdivisions
Types of homes: condos, lofts, townhouses, duplexes, lakefronts, estates
Timing of the transaction: Moving now, moving soon, moving next year
What a Real Estate VA Can Do:
Website and Social Media Updates – virtual content specialists can post relevant updates in your social media channels to increase engagement and update property listings on your website.
Create Graphics and Marketing Materials – they can also provide you visually enticing images and graphics for flyers, brochures, leaflets and ads.
4. Website Live Chat and Customer Support
According to Forbes, online live chat support is going to be huge this year in the real estate industry. A live chat platform on your website means clients can visit your site and not only browse your properties but also have the opportunity for a person to person interaction.
Virtual real estate services include chat support agents that can answer questions in real time and provide further details people want to know about your business.
Phone/Chat/Email Support and Customer Service – Virtual assistants will answer incoming calls from prospective tenants and will also handle maintenance calls from active tenants.
Handle Inbound Calls – VAs can act as receptionists taking inbound calls. They will also answer phone inquiries and reply to emails.
Appointment Setting / Follow-up calls – The executive assistants can also follow up with leads or with your prospective buyers and renters. They will also make outgoing calls for rent collection and payment reminders.
Cold calling for Real Estate Agents and Brokers, Investors – Got an existing list of persons to contact? Real estate assistants can pitch them for your properties that are up for grabs.
Meeting Set-up and Calendar Management – A dedicated assistant will set up your meetings and manage your calendar to ensure you are never overbooked and on schedule.
5. Virtual Open Houses and 3D listings
In real estate, virtual reality tours are becoming a more convenient option than the actual visit. This gives way for the buyers or renters to look at lots of houses quickly in their initial research phase.
One trending platform now is the Matterport 3D Tours that allows you to digitize your listings, helping buyers see a realistic 360-degree view of each of your properties.
What a Real Estate VA Can Do:
Create Marketing Materials – Outsource virtual assistant to help you out with creating a virtual tour for your properties. He can also edit your existing videos or create other marketing materials such as flyers, brochures, leaflets and ads.
Online Marketing and Website Update – as soon as you have your virtual open house ready, the VA can then promote it online such as in listing directories and include it in your website as an additional feature.
6. Mobile and Video Strategy
In this age of ‘on-the-go lifestyle’, more people conduct search and purchase right on their mobile phones. This can be one of your real estate marketing strategies where your content and ads can be optimized for better user experience.
Create/Edit Video – VAs can use a service like Listing Videos from Vscreen and add 3D animation, professional narration and custom branding. This will help give consumers something extra, and keep their attention longer.
Create Mobile-responsive Website Update – a tech VA can upgrade your website to include mobile functionality and improve user experience.
Need help implementing these strategies for your business in 2017? Take a look at our real estate virtual assistant services and see how our efficient VAs can assist you in your everyday tasks and objectives. CALL 1-866-596-9041.
We would love to hear if these tips worked for you! If you have questions or any Real Estate related success stories, please leave a comment below.
Making use of the professional audience on LinkedIn is not just for business owners or C-level executives anymore. A lot of real estate agents and realtors are taking advantage of it and are seeing re...
As one of the biggest decisions people make in their lives, buying a house will involve a great deal of trust confidence between two parties.
As a real estate agent, you want to reassure them you know what your talking about and have the experience to handle this important deal of their lives. Potential buyers will likely look you up online.
Mark Hawkins of Residential Leasing Group Inc says prospects use social media to research his company, as they do for potential tenants. In this step, your goal is to become one of the best realtor LinkedIn profiles out there.
Your profile page must have all the details of your experience and your specialties to help establish trust with a homebuyer and strengthen the relationship.
Bonus Tip:Make sure your profile data is100% Complete. Fill out all of the sections and reorder them from the most important information. The more you provide, the easier it will be to find you via LinkedIn search.
2. Powerful and Attractive Profile
First, pay attention to the most popular keywords related to real estate. For example, the fact that “real estate” is the most searched for is a hint that it needs to be somewhere in your headline.
Sure, you may do “home sales” but generally if you are a “realtor” or “real estate agent”, it’s best to put those terms first. Optimize your profile well and make it useful to a viewer so you could appear in more searches and get more visits to your website.
Bonus Tip:To help you in getting real estate leads, treat your LinkedIn profile URL as an online business card. So, if you are a realtor, broker, or agent, customize it to align with your business.
One reason why real estate agents use LinkedIn is to let people know right off the bat that they are legit and accredited.
Here’s how to make your company page stand out among other competitors:
Add in every detail about your business
Outline your experience in real estate
Website URL
Links to other social accounts
Areas you specialize in (like selling certain types of homes or working within a criteria)
Realtor certifications
Once you are done with the critical company info, create a professional-looking banner image for your Company Page header. If you don’t have or don’t know how to create one, you can select from virtual assistant services to develop one for you.
Regardless of how you get it, the important thing is it is high quality and showcases your business accolades. Here’s an example from Realty ONE Group:
Anything that makes your business look like the cream of the crop
An award or recognition in your marketplace or brokerage firm
Informative visual content that you can add in your LinkedIn page:
Site/home photos
Video documentary/recording
Illustrations
Infographics
Slideshare presentations
Bonus Tip:Build your image showing that you are a tuned-in, experienced, hard-working real estate professional.
4. Create a Separate Showcase Page
You can create one or more Showcase Pages for posting real estate listings on LinkedIn; or to promote your offers, blog posts, referral programs, and other business information you want your audience to know.
Bonus Tip:The Company Page serves as your other real estate website while the Showcase Page is to your dedicated landing page, like your personal blog or “about me” page.
Here’s an example of one of Google’s Showcase Pages, Think with Google, which includes numerous posts linking back to its website:
Image source: Think with Google LinkedIn showcase page
5. Find and Connect with Real Estate Leads
How to get real estate leads on LinkedIn:
Start by connecting with your old contacts, network of realtors and brokers, alumni, clients, organization members and friends.
Once connected, you can then connect with their connections and so on.
Use the search feature to find people that will fit your criteria.
Agent at Re/Max, Phil Lepage, says he found new clients and reconnected with colleagues using LinkedIn.
“These Individuals have been a great source of referrals as well as becoming my own clients when the time came for their real estate needs,” he said.
Bonus tip:Add connections from your existing email contact list or by importing a .csv file. Once you’ve imported these contacts, you can start connecting with them!
If you have multiple contact lists, a real estate virtual assistant can upload them all in your LinkedIn database and connect with them afterwards.
If you have multiple contact lists, a real estate virtual assistant can upload them all in your LinkedIn database and connect with them afterwards.
6. Stay Top of Mind by Posting Updates
Publish a significant amount of interesting content. Realtors are on LinkedIn often to get valuable information and see the latest market trends.
Picture LinkedIn as some kind of a black tie social media gathering—it’s more on the formal side—as most of your connections are from business relationships. So make your postings appeal to their professional interests.
What To Post/Share on LinkedIn
Housing market trends and updates
Financial or investment news and tips
Construction projects in the community
Local employment opportunities
Helpful information on the neighborhood
Marketing ideas in the real estate industry
Update to celebrating a finished project (if you are working with one) or closing a deal
Post a variety of content:
links to blogs
curated pieces
video/podcast interviews
opinion pieces
related articles
Once you get this posting routine going, publish each piece on your Company Page. People love great content and it’s an effective way to keep you top of mind with them.
Bonus Tip:Post frequently (3-4 per week) so you get more chances of profile views as well. View the status updates of other real estate members, liking and commenting the ones you find interesting.
7. Join or Create LinkedIn Real Estate Groups
Reach local community members and promote your business by joining real estate oriented groups. LinkedIn Groups is one of the best sources for social selling.
Be part of those that are full of potential customers rather than competitors. Once you become a member of these LinkedIn communities, check out the members to see if they fit the criteria you typically look for in clients.
Most of the time their profiles will give you insights into their personal lives, including if they’re in the market for a new home or ready to sell. Speak directly with these leads, answer their questions, and demonstrate your real estate expertise.
Attracting Leads through Asking and Answering Questions
Ask questions – You never know when you might need a person’s help with a deal, or vice-versa.
Express your personal and company brand – It is important to answer a question from your own perspective.
Be helpful – Provide sincere and valuable information.
Bonus Tip:Give a unique voice on things that can help people remember you, making you a resource person for future questions they may have.
8. Private Messaging and Email Campaigns
Always send a personalized message when you find people of interest. The key to earning their trust is being genuine and honest. You can say something like…
You are always looking to connect with locals
You are intrigued about their own business or background
You have known or have heard of them from a conference or event
Ask who their ideal referrals are and you would be happy to send them their way
Ask them to keep you in mind if they or people they know need your help
Bonus Tip:LinkedIn is a relationship platform so take at least three interactions before asking for something, like a referral. It shows a lack of a relationship and research when you make offers to people who clearly don’t need them.
9. Ask for Appropriate Recommendations
LinkedIn offers a built-in referral machine with its Recommendations feature.
Make sure to be specific about what you want to be included in your recommendations section.
It helps if you provide an outline or Q&A so that it would be easier for the author. This also increases your chances of receiving more recommendations.
10. Be an Authority on Real Estate
As discussed in #3, LinkedIn provides rich media options and the Pulse platform for you to share content and become a punlished authority on real estate in your network.
Increase your exposure to new and existing audience by posting images of exciting projects, PDF or Slideshare reports and whitepapers, link to downloadable files and other resources, as well as popular articles that could reach thousands of people.
11. Maintain a Professional Image
Many real estate agents and realtors use social media sites like Facebook and Pinterest to market their businesses and engage with customers.
There should be a strict line between professional and personal when it comes to controlling your brand reputation.
Personal issues and discussions should remain in social and casual sites like Facebook.
LinkedIn is a professional network, not a chat room for your friends.
One real estate agent reported he had little success with Facebook advertising as most people on there are not ready to buy a house. LinkedIn users on the other hand have an average household income of around $100,000, making it a more lucrative network for such purchases.
Limit Your Time on LinkedIn
Don’t spend all of your hours doing these strategies on your LinkedIn account and other social networks. The ultimate goal is to be getting leads, appointments, and getting face-to-face interaction with your prospects.
A virtual assistant (VA) can do all of the 11 LinkedIn tricks mentioned and all you need to do is spend a few minutes everyday to communicate and interact, then get out. It’s that simple.
Remember, social networks are used to open doors but your focus should be talking to leads and closing deals!
Amplify your LinkedIn marketing strategy and join our upcoming FREE Webinar Training!
For Business Owners: Marketing on Linkedin.com for Business Owners (including Real Estate Agents/Investors, Entrepreneurs, & any small business owners) Wednesday, March 15 at 8AM-9AM PST (11AM-12PM EST) https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8103839782577416449
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A real estate agent assistant is a cost-effective solution to add support to your business, giving you the time to focus on more important things like assisting your clients, managing your finances, generating more income that leads to more profit.
As an investor, one should understand the importance of delegating tasks. Soon you will need someone to assist you with specific projects as your business grows.
“I’ve used virtual assistants over the years on Craigslist. Most people spend their time getting around the Craigslist spam filters but my VA found potential leads that just need to be contacted. So, my virtual assistant spend months calling on properties that were listed for rent. The idea was that many of these listings were from mom and pop landlords who owned rental properties and would be interested in buying more.”
–Ken Corsini, biggerpockets.com
“Having an assistant is one of the best investments you’ll make as a realty entrepreneur. A good assistant will help you to generate much more money than you are paying (bringing you a rate of return that would make any investor jealous). I would never have experienced all of the benefits if I had been stuck trying to do it all myself (and failing)”
-Alan Brymer, reiclub.com
Just imagine having more free time for yourself, friends and family because you know your property investment business is running well and efficiently. Not to mention your website drawing more traffic thus, leading to lots of enquiries. After all, you want to run your business, not have it run you.
