Capture and convert real estate leads with the industry’s most effective and efficient form of marketing: online reviews.
Internet marketing expert Evans Putman recently discussed how to tap into the power of positive reviews on a podcast interview with Pat Hiban.
Read on for Putman’s suggestions on getting and utilizing online reviews for lead generation and conversion. To learn the details on his process for maximizing the potential of online reviews, listen to the podcast below.
How to ask for online real estate reviews
As with getting real estate referrals, conservative approaches work best for getting reviews. When it comes to asking clients for reviews, you need to be tactful. For best results, only explicitly ask for reviews on two separate occasions.
The first time to ask clients for a review is just after closing. The average client will be in a good mood and will be more than happy to agree to a review when asked in this setting.
To ensure clients remember to write the reviews they promise, reach out a second time following closing via email. Again, ask for their review and thank them for allowing you to be their real estate agent. If you’re trying to build up reviews on one site in particular, go ahead and link to it.
Selecting reviews to capture and convert real estate leads
Once you’ve managed to obtain a solid supply of positive online reviews, select some of the best ones to include on your website. The best reviews for capturing leads have at least one of the following qualities:
- Relatability: Relatable reviews tend to be powerful reviews. Reviews that include some background information on clients pull people in and generate genuine interest.
- Specificity: Reviews that address specific objections are also great because they often help with conversion. For instance, a review detailing how you sold a former FSBO home for more than expected could convince other FSBO sellers to give you a shot.
- Authenticity: The most effective online real estate reviews don’t contain industry-specific language. The majority of your clients probably aren’t familiar with most real estate terminology, so don’t highlight reviews that sound like they were written by an agent.
Power up reviews to convert real estate leads with ease
Once you’ve found a few great reviews to highlight on your website, it’s time to power them up to increase your ability to convert leads with ease. There are two things in particular that can be done to power up online real estate reviews.
First, try to get pictures from clients to include with each review. If you take pictures at closing, post these pictures with the reviews on your website.
Second, to ensure readers catch the important points of each review, use bold font to make key items stand out. For instance, if a seller mentions how you sold her home above asking price, that information should absolutely be in bold.
For more information on ways to capture and convert real estate leads with online reviews, listen to the complete podcast interview with Evans Putman.
Pat Hiban is the author of the NYT bestselling book “6 steps to 7 figures: A Real Estate Professional’s Guide to Building Wealth and Creating Your Destiny,” the founder of online real estate sales training site Rebus University, and the host of Pat Hiban Interviews Real Estate Rockstars, an agent-to-agent real estate podcast with Hiban Digital in Baltimore, Maryland. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter.
