What if you could harness the power of Facebook to help you generate estate agency leads without spending a fortune on advertising!
That would be amazing right?
Well the truth is, it’s absolutely possible and in this post I’m going to show you how!
First I need to ask you a very important question…
…Do you have a Facebook page for your estate agency business?
If you don’t, you seriously need to wake up, smell the coffee and go build one (or get one built), Facebook is here to stay and it’s about time you jumped on board. Not knowing what to post is not an excuse to not have a page!
So go get one started, invite all your friends and clients past and present to like it, then come back and read the rest of this.
If you do already have a Facebook page for your estate agency, brilliant, read on.
Ok, where was I?
Oh yes, generating leads from your estate agency Facebook page. At this juncture I could go into all the different forms of advertising strategies, what you should post, when you should post etc etc, but to be honest that would take far to long for the scope of this post and is not what this is really about.
Before we move on I would just like to explain that a page “like” is not a lead. A lead is someone you can contact directly with a view to offering them your services. A page “like” is someone who might, if you’re lucky see something you post, although Facebook’s algorithms are making this less and less likely, unless you pay of course.
Now we’ve got that out of the way, let me introduce you to one of the most overlooked but one of the best ways to engage with your audience on Facebook and subsequently turn them into leads!
Facebook Messenger!
Yes, Facebook’s messenger service is currently one of the best tools you can use to turn your page likes into Estate Agency leads. It’s like live chat on your website but right there in Facebook. Something really important to note is that when people are using Facebook, that’s generally were they want to stay, so offering links away from Facebook to your estate agency website is not always the best idea. With Facebook messenger you can engage with your audience potential client without them leaving the platform thereby increasing the chance of interaction.
Best of all…
Facebook allows you to send sponsored messages (adverts) via messenger to anyone who has previously engaged with you. Think about that for a sec…
You can send adverts to anyone who’s engaged with you on Messenger, those ads will pop up wherever they are, mobile or desktop!
Is a messenger audience better than an email list?
I’m not going to state that categorically right now as email still has a place but investing in a messenger audience would be a very smart move. Consider this, email open rates are at an all time low, according to Smart Insights, estate agency (Real Estate UK) emails have an average open rate of 20.84% with click through of 1.91%, not great.
Let me break that down, for every 10 emails you send, 2 will be opened…
On top of that deliverability is also suffering and many marketing emails simply end up in junk folders never to be read.
Facebook messenger on the other hand is currently boasting open rates averaging over 88% with click though of 56% (Neil Patel) in some cases! This simply cannot be ignored, so it’s time you exercised your FMA (first movers advantage) and jumped in with both feet.
REMEMBER: The earlier you learn and use a new marketing tactic, the more likely you are to benefit from it. FMA
So how do you do use it? Read on and I’ll show you…
Step 1 – Create your CTA (call to action) button
Just under your profile banner image there is a blue button, which you can edit to fit a variety of uses. One of those uses is to turn it into a “Send Message” button. As you can see in the image below, ours is currently set to “Sign Up”, that’s because we use the button to send people to a free guide, which you guessed it, they have to sign up for. If you have a guide or something similar then this could also be a great option for you.
…for the purposes of this exercise however we want to create a “Send Message” button. If you’ve never created a button before the button will simply say “Add Button” so go ahead and click it. If you’ve already created one, hover over it and you will get the option to edit.
Once on the edit screen, navigate to the “Get in touch” section and select “Send Message” from the dropdown. On the next screen, leave “Turn on Instant Replies” to off for now and click “Add Button”. There you have it, you have now given your follower an easy way to contact you via messenger!
Step 2 – Get them to click it!
The truth is hardly anyone is going to click that button unless you incentivise them or give them a reason to do so. You can do this via your header image or via paid advertising. I’ll cover this in another post but if you are hungry to learn then search Google for “Facebook messenger destination ads”… not now, finish reading this first!
All you need to do is think of something that would interest a potential vendor/landlord enough to click on your “Send Message” button and engage with you via messenger…
…Can’t think of anything? Don’t worry I’ve got your back!
Not only do I have something that will compel your potential lead to click your “Send Message” button, but we also have something that will engage with them automatically! That’s right, no need for human interaction from your end!
As you are most probably aware many estate agents are using Instant Online Valuation tools to garner potential leads via their websites. What if you could do that via Facebook messenger? Not only would you get their contact info added to your mailing list, but they would also be added to your Facebook messenger audience for sponsored messaging, which as we have discussed is now a massive asset to your estate agency business.
Let me introduce you to…
Roboval™ the interactive Chat Bot for estate agents.
So what does Roboval™ do?
Roboval™ is a nifty little chat bot that can offer your Facebook page viewers an instant valuation right there in Facebook Messenger without the need for leaving Facebook! It’s both engaging and interactive, it gives your potential estate agency leads a reason to leave their correct contact info and finds out what the lead thinks of the valuation (too high, too low, just right) it then feeds that information right back to you. That’s extremely powerful stuff!
When the lead completes the instant valuation, they are added to your emailing list and become a member of your messenger audience. If they don’t compete the instant valuation, they are still added to your audience for retargeting with sponsored messages!
So, with Roboval™ installed to your Facebook page you are effectively creating two channels to reach your potential vendor and landlord leads. You can send them either an email follow up sequence or a sponsored messenger message, you could even do both, the choice as they say is yours.
Some important facts to remember:
- Over 1 Billion people use Facebook Messenger every month!
- Many of your prospective clients are uncomfortable providing their email address in exchange for a free download or instant valuation. When they interact with your messenger bot, they are instantly added to your messenger audience.
- You can easily re-target messenger audiences with news and offers.
- Unlike email lists where many of your messages simply end up as SPAM, Facebook messenger bots deliver messages directly to the end user in a warm and interactive way.
I almost forgot to mention, you can even use it on your website to capture leads (we do).
For more information on Roboval™ please visit the website and remember the give the demo a try!
Do you already use Facebook to generate leads, have you tried Facebook adverts, let me know in the comments!
Want to learn how to use Facebook ads to Generate instruction leads?
Take a look at our online course for Estate Agents. Learn how to create your campaign step by step. All ad copy, images and email templates included!
