Reach Global Buyers With Dazzling Digital Campaigns

Let’s face it: Acquiring leads can be expensive. What’s more, you aren’t always getting your money’s worth when you pay a third party because many of the top real estate search engines sell the same lead to multiple brokers. “As a result, prospective buyers get calls from tons of [agents] all over the area,” says Zach Katkin, director of marketing for the Bonita Springs-based Southwest Florida R.E. Group at MVP Realty Associates.

Since joining the team last year, Katkin, who owned and subsequently sold his own digital marketing agency, has spearheaded the brokerage’s initiative to drive its own leads and reach global buyers.

The team’s unique use of digital marketing and internal technology allows them to reach clients all over the world, Katkin says, adding that they are currently targeting Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and France and “testing” in India, Vietnam and Sweden. Within a month of launching, they saw “just shy of 50 new contacts from Canada alone.” He adds, “Those were call-ins and website contact form submissions, with about 1,500 visitors on the website and over 20,000 searches. We also notice a lot of searches out of Canada during the summer, and we think it’s a great way to stay busy in months that might be historically slower in our area.”

Thanks in part to their digital campaign, a team member recently helped one of the highest-profile CEOs in Europe find a home in the Quail West golf and country club community. “We’ve customized our service to also offer a concierge, so our agent assisted him with vehicles as well. He purchased a new Range Rover,
a Bentley and a golf cart. He’s become more than a client—he’s now a friend.”

In addition to the connections their campaign has generated, Katkin says the team has grown from 10 agents to more than 40. “We also have a support staff of 10 that includes me and a specialist for international outreach to accommodate the buyers we’re seeing, particularly from Europe.”

While Katkin did this for the brokerage, there’s no reason individual teams or agents couldn’t do the same. Here are Katkin’s tips for developing a digital campaign to generate global leads:

1. Hire a digital marketing specialist.

Hiring a company or a Google AdWords or SEO specialist could cost thousands of dollars—before you even figure out what other tools you may need, Katkin says. “The setup costs are expensive to implement. The team is essentially paying me for my time as an employee, and I handle everything for them.”

2. Begin with the basics.

Your website is the single most important tool you need, Katkin says. Getting it right and keeping it updated is essential. “The tool you use makes a huge difference in how easy or difficult it will be to implement your campaigns.” His group uses BoomTown, an IDX website provider for lead generation designed around teams. “BoomTown works fantastically from a CRM and measurement perspective.”

3. Optimize for SEO.

Katkin bases his campaigns on the most likely searches people considering purchasing real estate in Southwest Florida will do. Search engine optimization (SEO) content includes keywords and phrases that place the group’s website higher in the search engines, such as “moving to Florida” and “where to move to Florida,” etc. “Google AdWords has also helped us drive traffic to our website. If a prospect is in Germany, for example, you can target Google.de [the German version of Google] and feature ads in German that send people to a page on your website based on what they’re searching. You’re basically telling Google that if in this country, this country, or this country people search for property in Florida, you want them to see your ad in their native language, click on it and land on your web page. It’s extremely effective.”

Katkin notes that since transitioning to Google AdWords, revenue has more than doubled. “We will more than double revenue again for 2020.”

4. Set up analytics.

Katkin is a fan of Google Analytics (GA), a free web analytics service that tracks and reports website traffic. “Nothing is as comprehensive,” he says. GA shows you how many people are coming to your website, where they’re coming from and what they’re searching for. “Over the last six months, we had 162 countries send traffic to our website. Canada, the U.K., the Netherlands, India and Finland are sending a couple hundred people to our website each month. We can also look at historical numbers. For example, we’ve seen that about 83,000 people search for Florida property or Florida real estate for sale every month.”

5. Treat each lead as a potential client.

International leads are handled on a case-by-case basis based on their language and desired locale, Katkin says. “This helps us map leads and funnel them to the perfect agent to handle their needs. Every day, we drive a certain number of leads based on a particular region, and each agent gets three lead days per month. If today is your lead day, we will run ads based on your locale in Lee County, and you will get probably 10 leads. This makes it easier for the end customer, who is connected with an agent to qualify them,” he says.

If a lead is further along in the buying process, BoomTown offers an automated system to continually serve them properties in the region they want until they’re ready to decide. Everyone who lives full-time in a foreign country and contacts one of the team’s agents is placed in an individual email campaign based on their unique needs. “We will contact them throughout the year using our website/CRM and automated marketing platforms. Our tools allow us to notify our clients the second something comes on the market.”

6. Position your brokerage as a go-to expert.

“Concentrate on the region and talk about communities, potential problems, offer feedback, answer questions and become a resource center through blog posts, page content and special sections,” Katkin says. “This also helps people find you.” If a buyer is looking for new communities in Estero, for example, and you feature content targeted to new communities in Estero, you are much more likely to get picked up in the search engines.

“We’re lucky to be in a state that does a great job of branding itself to get the word out about how amazing Florida is for business and homeownership,” Katkin says. “We also piggyback off the efforts of economic development corporations (EDCs) and visitor bureaus.” #

Leslie C. Stone is a Vero Beach-based freelance writer.