How to Increase Database Engagement?

Generating leads in 2024 is not that hard. Heck, within Real Geeks, you have several avenues for this: the EstateIQ widget to capture seller leads, the Ad Concierge service to get plenty of PPC buyer leads, and dozens of organic features like SEO-optimized listing pages and social media tools.

What's hard is getting those leads in your database to engage with you and move closer to a transaction.

Let's face it – these leads are probably not just in your CRM. They're in the CRM of at least a couple more agents, who are as hungry as you are for their business.

So how do we make our content stand out, so that these buyers and sellers choose you for their next transaction?

Greg Harrelson breaks this down in his latest coaching call. If you want to listen to the full call, and if you want access to all of his live coaching sessions, join his private community for Real Geeks users at www.RGMastery.com, for just $200/month and no commitments.

DRIVE YOUR DATABASE

Sometimes we're so focused on the content we're sending our database that we forget about the next step we want them to take.

Whatever you send to your leads should lead them back to your website.

Now, sometimes you might feel like it doesn't make sense for a message to include a link back to your site. 

A great way to navigate this is to have a page on your website that has a library of video content about the real estate industry.

The videos should be generic enough that they can apply to many topics, but provide enough value that they get to know you and your expertise better.

Some examples include: 

• A video where you walk them through the buying process of buying a house.
• A video where you walk them through the process of selling a house. 
• A video where you walk them through the 5 key aspects of hosting a great Open House.

See how these videos are evergreen (they stay relevant as time goes on)?

And they still give you a great chance to showcase your knowledge, your personality, and your energy when talking about your subject matter.

This page should not be an "orphan" page on your website. It should live within the site, allowing them to easily click on the sidebar or the top menu to check out other pages.

All of this makes them extend their time spent on your website, which then increases the likelihood of Google recommending your website in the search results.

EMAIL NURTURE SEQUENCES

Every agent has some sort of nurturing automation. Greg wants to point out something:

The cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all content that's part of most agent's automation sequences doesn't work anymore.

We've spoken about this at length before, but the sequences that work now are:

1. short (two steps, max)
2. extremely personalized (many sequences for many different audiences)

And, we can also add:

1. unique to match your tone

What this means is that, to stand out, your message needs to be different. If you want to add gifs, add gifs. If you want to be funny, do it. If you want to add images with statistics to make your emails stand out, go ahead.

Your market is saturated with agents. You need to be different to stand out.

Everything that showcases your personality will go very far in helping your leads make a decision, because in their mind, that's the key aspect that differentiates you from other agents. 

So make videos. Make jokes. Take pictures of you outside an open house.

Show them why working with you would be either way more fun, or way more effective than working with another broker.

Forget about long-lasting, generic drip campaigns. Opt for short, relevant, valuable emails that are very personalized and unique to you.

MONITOR YOUR DATABASE

Failure to plan is planning to fail. And failure to track renders planning useless.

When you open up your CRM every morning, you should have a general idea of where your leads are sitting in terms of their engagement, and by extension, how close they are to a transaction.

You should have memorized who's been engaging a lot lately and you know you need to be calling, and who seems to be slipping through the cracks and you should probably send them something relevant soon.

Of course, the larger your database is, the harder it will be to know this. But at the very least, you should have a good idea of the people who are very active, and those who you know are interested but need something more relevant to move forward.

All of this is only possible if you're tracking your database.

The best way to do this is through Advanced Search Filters. Everyone in your database can be categorized by level of engagement.

If they've saved several properties over the past 7 days, you know they're hot. And your plan should be to call all of these hot leads every morning.

If they've saved properties over the last month, they probably need something more relevant to engage. Your goal should be to send them something more tailored to their preferences.

If they haven't engaged in several months, your plan should be to kick off a workflow (or a couple of them) with different strategies so that you can gauge where they're at.

TEXT, TEXT, TEXT

Greg believes this is the easiest, most powerful way to build engagement with a lead:

Sending them a text with the link to a property on your site, with a message that says something like: "Hey John, what do you think about the kitchen on this one?".

Simple, right? And yet, it generates phenomenal engagement.

Because, even if you're sending the same text to 10 different people who you know are looking at homes in that area, they feel like you've taken the time to send them something specific that they'll love (and you have!).

This works especially well with leads who you know are looking at a couple of neighborhoods but are struggling to make a decision and move forward.

And if you want to make it a bit more generic to send it to more people, here's a template that Greg loves, that generates over 40% engagement:

Send your buyers a link to a new property, with the message of "Hey I saw this and thought of you. What do you think of the price here?".

Even if they're not looking at that neighborhood, you can start a conversation on budget, or the qualities of the house, or anything related to their specific search. 

The point is, this text is a great conversation starter.

HAVE A DAILY GOAL

We talk about daily routines all the time. But if what you're looking for is higher engagement, you should focus on having daily goals.

"I'm going to send 10 personalized texts."

"I'm going to send 100 emails with a new sequence."

"I'm going to call 5 people."

To this, Greg adds: "Make sure that you end every communication with an offer to help them." And he clarifies that this doesn't need to be a hard sales pitch, but a soft offer to move things forward.

It can be as simple as saying: "And hey, if you're thinking about selling, just give me a call and I'm happy to send you more details on your home and how you can add some value to increase your selling price."

Greg uses this one all the time with a lot of success. It's not aggressive, it's generous, and it's up to them to take the next step.

Final Thoughts

A database that's engaged is an audience. And that's what's valuable.

Your goal as an agent is to take all those strangers you have on your CRM and make them engage with your content so you can start building a relationship and they can become a member of your audience.

And then, get those acquaintances who are engaging a little, and get them to engage a lot. Those become your inner circle, who will receive personalized messages and calls from you, and they will be your future clients.

So remember to show them who you are early on, because this is what's going to move them to engage with your content more than with some other agent's.

And, if you want more help with this from Greg himself, join his exclusive community at www.RGMastery.com.