The Secret to Effective Real Estate Lead Targeting

Today, we’re going to tackle one very important question:

Who are you talking to?

Sure, you know you need to get leads… but do you really know who you’re reaching out to? Here are some key questions you can ask yourself to figure out some basic shared characteristics of your ideal client:

How old are they?
Where do they live?
What is their average income?
What’s the best way to connect?
What types of outreach will they respond to?

What you’re digging into is real estate marketing demographics. Demographics, or statistical data relating to the population and particular groups within it, are a critically important element of any successful marketing campaign. Understanding not just what type of consumer you’re trying to attract, but details about what makes them tick will help you:

a) make sure you’re reaching the right people and
b) convert more leads into clients

…because there’s nothing worse than spending your hard-earned marketing dollars on unqualified leads!

So how do you identify your core lead demographics? The easiest way to get started is to utilize websites and reports from companies that analyze consumer data to build a target real estate lead profile. As they say – knowledge is power, so the more accurate resources you can find to help you create lead profiles, the better. To get started, check out:

Published Real Estate Consumer Reports:

Start by reviewing the National Association of Realtors buyer and seller profiles. NAR polls thousands of homebuyers and sellers and aggregates responses into various charts, graphs and analytical data sets to show consumer trends. For a small fee (or a quick google search, shhhh!), these reports can be yours.

While this data is useful in helping you to understand buyers and sellers as a whole, it may not be detailed enough to target consumers in your specific geographic area - especially if you live in a city with a high concentration of a specific subset of people, like a military community. However, it can help you identify niche marketing opportunities. For example, if you want to target first-time homebuyers and you see in the NAR buyer profile that the average age of first-time homebuyers is 31, then you know what age demographic you should be targeting with your marketing materials.

City or Zip Code Data Analysis:

How do you dig deeper and get hyper-local data? Check out CityData.com – a well-known data aggregation site. The site provides detailed population stats on a city-by-city basis. There are dozens of these out there – just do a quick search online.

Your Own Insights:

As you work with clients, the mental notes you take with regards to specific frustrations or preferences they have should give you some insights into the types of individuals you’d like to work with in the future. These insights can also be extremely valuable in coming up with a good marketing pitch (e.g. what makes you different?). We’ll show you how to incorporate your own insights into your lead targeting in today’s freebie.

I’ll be posting another article next week focused on the best ways to connect with the millennial generation, a group that makes up a large percentage of today’s real estate lead demographic. Subscribe to our blog to receive email notifications when new content is posted.