Lead Segmentation is a rare action among real estate professionals. Typically we think buyers are looking for information or looking to purchase immediately. All buyers go down the same linear timeline with three segmented areas: Information – Engagement – Decision (buy/sell). Each timeline is different in length and speed from one segment to the next. What agents often do is misalign the leads with content.
In order to give agents a better understanding of what to do during each segment, I will be going in depth into each one over the next few posts.
Information
When someone wants information they are typically given nice emails with calls to action (CTA’s). This is okay, but it often times means that the lead is directed from the information they seek to the buy/sell segment. This completely skips a step in the lead timeline. This often times leaves the lead seeking information from multiple sources – meaning several different agents.
Imagine the lead in a hot air balloon. With each piece of information you can either increase the hot air into the balloon or release some of the air from the balloon. When leads are at this stage, they are looking for general information, not specific information. If you provide them with specific information they will add more hot air to the balloon. Then they will look for an agent who is either more understanding of the lead segmentation process or simply a more seasoned one. Always remember the even the right response to the right person at the wrong time is the absolute wrong response.
At this stage the objective is to determine what type of lead they are. Have they been information seeking for quite some time or are they ready to make the move to the engagement phase. For each you should have a system to monitor and react to the lead.
Signs: Leads at this stage are looking for an overview of the market, either what they can buy or what they can sell for. Often times you may get a lead that is looking for specific information and as per our objective, they are now in the engagement phase. If you market to these leads with jut information, you may risk the chance of losing them. Use your engagement material for engaging leads.
Action: The best method of reaching leads during the information segment is to create content that gives them the steps of home purchasing, or what goes into listing a home. Be extremely broad with information and localized to a general area such as Tucson, not the Sam Hughes section of Tucson. Remember that having the content about specific areas will be needed in the next segment. Broad information can be anything from buying you second home in Tucson to First steps after the foreclosure. The best part about this segment is that your brokerage often provides this type of information and it takes minimal time to create branded content for leads in this segment.
To cut down on losing leads to other sources of information, simply create a marketing piece that has multiple CTA’s. Have one CTA ask if the information was what the lead was looking for, have another ask if they had any specific questions. Have a third for contacting you if they have found the perfect home. These CTA’s can be built into your existing CRM and used to segment your leads based on their choices. These are also blatant CTA.
Another way to gauge the lead is to have passive CTA’s on each piece. Having information about neighborhoods is an example of passive CTA’s. What happens when they click a few of these areas is they are narrowing there search. As they narrow the search they will begin looking for answers in the next step – Engagement.
Key to Remember: Leads at this stage are only looking for information, they are not even looking for targeted information. Often times they know they are going to have to act, they are just looking for a starting point. Marketing pieces at this stage should have both Blatant CTA’s like did this information help and do you have any specific questions. As well as passive CTA’s like View Sam Hughes Home Here or Central Tucson Homes For Sale.
For more specific ways to build your information based content contact Chris Webb of Lance & Company today.
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