Counter intuitive lead generation ideas
During today's discussion on how to make brokerage websites even better made me think about counter-intuitive lead generation ideas
1) Consumers want tools and free data for their home buying experience but are wary of submitting any personal contact information. Why not just explicitly state on the website - "REGISTER TO USE OUR TOOLS AND WE PROMISE NEVER TO SPAM OR CONTACT YOU, OR ABUSE YOUR PERSONAL DATA. IT'S COMPLETELY UP TO YOU WHEN YOU WANT TO INITIATE CONTACT". I would sign up to use good tools with this guarantee.
2) When the consumer wants to start contacting agents for conversation, provide tools like Meebo / Plugoo chat boxes and Jaxtr anonymizing phone callers that allow the consumer to contact agents anonymously and encourage them to make contact anonymously. Why? Interviewing and ultimately rejecting the hiring of an agent slightly tears the social fabric. Rejection causes disappointment and a me versus them / good guys/bad guys feeling. For example, I stopped getting invited to the parties of a Realtor friend I worked with before because I didn't choose her a few years ago. Anonymizing the agent bake-off process allows consumers to make a clean, quick decision by avoiding the preparatory relationship buildup that real estate agents play up to get to the close. (Am I too sensitive? Is it my heritage and habit of non-confrontation? Since something like 60-70% of consumers choose the first agent they meet, I think this issue of non-confrontation may be valid... doing the extra 2-3 interviews just adds to the rejection list).
3) Does email drip marketing work? Weekly emails for years on end? Drip marketing should occur only upon consumer buy-in. The best way to capture that buy-in is through a blog RSS subscription or alerts (email or RSS) for customized property profiles.
Amen! And here I thought email was dead.
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=73710
Seriously THis is a very important post. A terrific followup is what to do with that email address once you have it. Unfortunately, this requires non plug n play solutions and a whole lot of creativity.
These people have let us into their "home". Are we going to offer them something valuable, or waste their time?
Something I think can elaborate:
http://houseblogger.typepad.com/houseblogger/2005/07/email_marketing.html
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Tim, you have a great grasp on real estate marketing... establishing relationships with email is difficult... all the more incentive for agents to network through social networking sites where relationship building is more pro-active than drip marketing.
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