Convert Website Visitors Into Actionable Leads
Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is enhancing the way agents do business. Here’s how one real estate duo uses it to reach prospects and fine tune their marketing strategies.
Chaz Tyler and his wife and business partner, Chinyelu “Chi-Chi,” were eager for “next-generation” ways to reach prospects. “We purchased leads from a variety of sources in the past but often those leads were already washed through a variety of websites,” says the sales associate at Creegan Property Group in Maitland. “It was challenging to reach [potential homebuyers and sellers] before they got bombarded with marketing from other agents.” What’s more, the Tylers grew skeptical about the data they were getting from those sources.
Last October, they started using a platform called Marketop that analyzes browser behavior of more than 275 million American consumers. Powered by artificial intelligence (AI), the platform mines for data that pinpoints who is actively searching for their customers’ product or service. Once that information is known, their customers are armed with the knowledge they need to reach viable leads instead of blindly pursuing everyone.
One Marketop case study showed that a Denver real estate brokerage received 334 viable leads resulting in 13 signed buyer contracts (with more pending) after just 21 days of using the platform. Although the Tylers haven’t closed any sales directly as a result of Marketop, they say it gets them in front of thousands of potential customers without a middleman. “Marketop allows us to be one of the first voices they hear. Getting into the conversation earlier helps us educate and empower people to choose their real estate goals.”
Here are the top ways they use Marketop:
1. CONVERT WEB TRAFFIC INTO CONTACTS.
Marketop collects identifying data on everyone who visits the Tylers’ website—without forcing registration. To take advantage of this feature, they simply placed the platform’s Web-ID pixel code (an HTML code snippet) in their website’s header code. Then, when a visitor appears, the platform cross-references or “matches back” the individual to information in its consumer database. This identifies the name, email, phone number and address of otherwise anonymous prospects, turning them into qualified marketing leads. “This information is valuable to us because we can get a wide variety of legitimate contact info, which would cost significantly more in other market solutions,” Tyler says, adding that Marketop has different price points depending on the needs of the customer.
He stressed the importance of having a marketing strategy in place before signing on to any type of analytics platform. “Getting leads consistently can be hard to handle without a plan. It’s also important to be genuine in your interactions.”
2. GAIN CONSUMER INSIGHT.
AI leads are superior, Tyler says, because digital consumers reveal an incredible amount of information online. Marketop’s pixel code also gathers insight about how people interact with their website, how they landed (i.e., from an ad, social media post, email, search engine or referral from another site), how they browse, the type of ads they click on, etc. “I can use Marketop’s data to understand people’s needs oftentimes before they know what they are,” says Tyler, who worked in IT for 18 years before launching his real estate career. “These leads come in raw and unfiltered at various stages in the real estate process. Some take lots of handholding but we work hard to prepare our clients for challenges while keeping their objectives in mind.”
3. TARGETED MARKETING.
The upside of using an AI-powered lead generation platform is that it allows agents to market in a more targeted yet covert way, Tyler says. “As these leads are interacting in different places, our ads are popping up and appearing where [potential buyers and sellers] go to the most. When they click on our ads or the blog for ideas, we can start those conversations and build relationships. This [allows me] to have conversations that I may not have with leads from the big box websites. They feel like they discovered us but we were able to market to them in a way that doesn’t feel salesy.”
4. TIE IT INTO SOCIAL MEDIA.
When leads come in from Marketop, Tyler goes to Facebook and creates custom audiences for marketing campaigns to specifically target those leads.
“The goal is to provide valuable information that reaches potential buyers and sellers before they engage with the big box real estate marketing sites.”
The only drawback Tyler experienced is that Marketop “takes a lot of trial and error before you see results.” He notes, “You have to be willing to experiment and make adjustments as you go along. The plus side is that it’s changed my perception of what a lead is and how I approach my digital marketing. The earlier we can help people understand the process and distinguish ourselves among [the competition] the better.”
Leslie C. Stone is a Vero Beach-based freelance writer.
AI/Predictive Analytics Platforms
1. Cole Information—coleinformation.com
2. Marketop—marketop.io
3. Quantarium—quantarium.com
4. Remine—remine.com
Watch, Listen & Learn
Florida Realtors® Take 5 Videos
floridarealtors.org/videosforlearning
Maximizing Lead Generation With Jason Pantana–#TomFerryShow
tomferry.com/blog/tomferryshow-episode-217/
Tim and Julie Harris–Podcast: 23 Proactive Lead Generation Rules
bit.ly/lead-generation-rules
Great Idea Consider taking a free Facebook Blueprint course that can help you get the most out of Facebook marketing platforms. Find it here: facebook.com/business/learn
5 Ways Predictive Analytics Can Enhance Marketing
1. Effectively qualify leads. Eliminate the painstaking task of manually sifting through all leads because you can instantly identify those with the most potential to buy or sell.
2. Better understanding of prospects. Identify the touchpoints most important in a prospect’s decision-making process and what motivates them.
3. Transform property searches. Recognize the consumer’s preferences and narrow properties based on those results.
4. Better campaigns. Once you know what makes people tick, you can tailor your message to specific types of individuals or segments with personalized emails, ads, push notifications and determine what works and what doesn’t.
5. Gain a competitive edge. Use your findings to reach the right prospects with the right message at the right time.