HOW TO GENERATE REAL ESTATE LEADS WITH LINKEDIN (2024)

LinkedIn is an untapped lead goldmine for real estate agents. It is so much more than a platform to host your resume or one to connect with people in your network.

When used the right way, it can help you reach the right audience that will contribute to the successful growth of your real estate business.

We’ve summarized how you can easily use LinkedIn to build a valuable network, position yourself as an industry expert/thought leader and generate quality leads in this guide. Following the steps outlined in this guide will help you make the best out of LinkedIn as a real estate agent.

Why should you use LinkedIn as a real estate agent?

1.Unlike other social media, LinkedIn is designed for Business. LinkedIn is primarily focused on professional networking and career development so all of its tools are designed to help you reach and connect with people that truly matter to your business.

Also, LinkedIn has a high lead conversion rate. According to a study by HubSpot,LinkedIn’s lead conversion rateis 277% better than Facebook or Twitter.

Furthermore, Easyagentpro.com reports thatLinkedIn’s demographicsare ideal to find homebuyers and sellers. For example, 77% of LinkedIn users are 30 years old or older, nearly half earn over $75,000 a year, and half are college graduates. This is the perfect representation of those typically wanting to purchase, sell, or rent a home, and therefore, a great lead generation source for real estate agents.

This is not saying you shouldn’t use any other social platform for marketing of your business, you should if they fit in your marketing plan. Don’t ignore LinkedIn though, because even if your leads find you on other social platforms, there is a very good chance they’ll check you up on LinkedIn. It is no surprise that many individuals and businesses seek your LinkedIn page these days to evaluate your professional standing.

2.You can easily connect with and reach high net-worth people. One major marketing and lead generation problem for realtors is reaching high net-worth clients that can afford their properties. The realtor that has this kind of clients in their network is usually the one that performs the best. This problem is worse if you’re a new real estate agent. With LinkedIn’s advanced business tools (such as a targeted search system, InMail etc) it has become easier to find, connect with and pitch your services to these valuable clients. For example, as a sales agent, you can find real estate investors that are potential clients with LinkedIn search tool. Just search for people with “real estate investor” in their profile then filter the search result to get a more refined result. You can filter by location, company the people work for, their school, their connection with you etc. Using the same search tool, you can reach CEOs, Managing Directors etc. This can’t be so easily done on other social media platforms.

3.LinkedIn help you get higher engagement when compared to other platforms like Facebook. With LinkedIn, you don’t only get engagement from your connections, you also get from their own connections. For example, if one of your 1st connections comments on your post, LinkedIn will show that post to their network and inform the network that they commented on your post. This way, you become visible and get engagement from people that were initially beyond your reach. IBM once commented and liked my post, as a result of that the post got more than 11,000 views in its first 24 hours of publish.

As you can see in the image below, the original author of the post isn’t my 1st connection, I was only shown the post because one of my 1st connections liked it.

4.LinkedIn actively tries to connect you with relevant people and businesses. LinkedIn’s advanced algorithm actively tries to connect you with people and businesses you’ll find valuable. You’ll actively get network suggestions from your industry, events suggestions based on your interest, groups, newsletter, etc.

How to generate quality real estate leads with LinkedIn

Create a well optimized personal and/or company profile: As mentioned earlier, LinkedIn is fast becoming the social platform used to measure your professional standing. If this is true, it is important for you to optimize your LinkedIn personal and company profile in such a way that it attracts your ideal clients.

Follow the following best practices to optimize your LinkedIn profile.

• Upload a clear photograph. This photograph might be a formal headshot or a personal one that gives a hint to who you are as a person. Regardless of the one you chose to go with, the photograph should be clear enough for people to identify you. If you’re going the personal photograph route, you can ask some friends if the photograph is appropriate.
• Write a catchy headline. After your profile picture, your headline is the most prominent part of your profile. It shows up on your posts, comments and other type of engagements. When writing your headline, you should aim to communicate 2 major things with it; who you help and how you help them. For example, as a residential property sales agent, you can write something like “I connect home seekers with houses they love”. You should keep it in mind that the character limit for your headline is 220. So, make your headline short but meaningful enough that it resonates with your target audience.
• Update your correct business contact information and create a personalized LinkedIn URL. Things like your business email, phone number etc should be up to date. I’ll suggest you use your name for your URL as it will be easy to remember and share with your associates. It also gives you a professional image when you have your custom LinkedIn URL. My custom LinkedIn URL is linkedin.com/in/dayooyinlola
• Update your summary. Your summary presents you the opportunity to expand on your headline. Go into details about how you help your target audience eliminate their real estate problems and achieve their goals. Remember to add a call to action to your summary. Simply asking people to connect with you or send you a message can go a long way. You can offer them a lead magnet if they perform your recommended action, something like a how to buy a home guide.
• Update your experience. Nobody wants to work with someone that doesn’t have enough experience, especially for an investment as big as real estate. Your experience section is where you get the chance to inform your target audience about how you’ve helped others in the past. Write your experience convincingly while making sure everything written is true and not fabricated.
• Show off your Awards and Honors. If you’ve received any award in your line of profession, make sure you include them in your profile’s awards and honors section. They are essentially a proof to your business claims.
• Ask your past clients for recommendations. Recommendations are gold on LinkedIn. They are clearly visible to anyone that visits your profile. Instead of you trying to convince your potential clients to connect with you, recommendations get it done for you. They are essentially your past clients telling your new and prospective clients how you’ve helped them achieve their goals. They’re like the important reviews you check before buying anything on Amazon, but for LinkedIn.

Build your network. Now that you’ve optimized your profile, it’ s time to connect with leads and potential business partners. You should try to get local connections first. This is because as a realtor, your services are going to be most relevant to people in your locality.

Connect and interact with HR personnel of companies in your locality; they might be able to refer their new staffs that need properties to you. Real estate investors can employ your services to buy and sell properties. Out-of-town real estate professionals in your network can also refer leads and clients to you, as long as you demonstrate the level of expertise they require.

The aim is for you to expand your network so it includes your leads and potential business partners. And with LinkedIn, you’re just a single search away from these people.

Join groups. LinkedIn has groups you can join to further extend your professional network. Groups are a great resource for networking, events, industry insights, and more. Another major advantage of groups is that you can directly message people in the same group as you, which is usually impossible unless you’re a 1st connection with them or you’re using LinkedIn InMail.

You can search for groups by name, industry, or keywords. Simply type in a targeted search key in the search bar, as shown below for “New York real estate.” Then click on the groups filter to restrict the search results to groups only. You will find groups to join for networking, marketing tips and referrals.

It is important to mention that most LinkedIn groups require you to request to join and some only let you join based on your professional qualifications, so make sure to fully optimize your profile and make credible connections before you request to join the groups that interest you.

Publish useful contents. Take out some time to create and publish contents that will resonate with your target audience and help them solve whatever real estate related problem they might have. This will help establish you as a thought leader; someone with industry knowledge that they can come to for assured insight and solutions to their concerns and issues. The type of contents you can publish on LinkedIn include photos, videos, articles, surveys, studies etc. You can also share other people’s content that you find informative and engaging on your page, don’t be limited by how much content you can create for the platform.

With LinkedIn articles, you can publish original long-form contents and share them with your connections and followers. A major advantage of LinkedIn article is that it is visible to people outside of LinkedIn. Your articles have the chance of getting shown on Google search results if they are well optimized and meets users’ search query request.

If you have the “creator mode” on for your profile, you can create a newsletter that your followers can subscribe to. They get email and app notifications whenever you publish new articles. That way, you virtually always stay connected to them.

Build and manage a professional reputation. Real estate represents one of the biggest investments many will make. So, it is only natural for them to thoroughly research the agent they deal with when they want to get a property. As a real estate agent, you need to establish trust and thought leadership in your niche because what people see about you through your social platforms (especially LinkedIn) will either strengthen or weaken their relationship with you. People need to be assured that you have the knowledge and experience needed to help them acquire one of their biggest investments. Make sure your profile upholds your professional reputation and experience so people will be rest assured that you are capable of handling their real estate business.

Ask for recommendations. Recommendations are big on LinkedIn. They have a special section on your profile and gets boldly highlighted (especially on mobile). Ask your past clients for recommendations. Leads might just contact you because they see that you’ve helped others successfully achieve the same goals they have, with regards to real estate.

Consider Sponsored posts and LinkedIn Premium. LinkedIn premium and sponsored posts can help you easily reach people that aren’t connected to you on the platform. They’re not cheap though. You just have to evaluate your return on investment (ROI) if you decide to go for them.

Sponsored posts on LinkedIn work pretty much like on Facebook. You create a post and pay LinkedIn to promote it for you so it can reach a wider network of audience. A good strategy for sponsored post is to promote posts that are already doing well organically.

Some prominent features of LinkedIn premium include:

InMail Credits: This can be used to directly contact people that aren’t part of your connection. These can be leads, industry leaders, potential partners etc. According to LinkedIn, InMails are 2.6x more effective than emails alone.

Who viewed your profile: If you have LinkedIn premium, you get access to the database of people who view your profile. This is quite important if you’re trying to get leads from the platform. For example, if you notice that a lead that you just sent a property brief checked out your profile, that could be a cue for you to quickly follow up with them.

Unlimited search: You can essentially explore all businesses without any limit. This provides you the opportunity to gather a list of leads, potential partners etc.

Final thoughts

LinkedIn can be an excellent resource for generating organic and paid real estate leads for you. All you have to do is follow some proven best practices on the platform. These include building your professional network, identifying your target audience, posting contents and engaging with other people’s. If you follow the practices we highlighted in the body of this guide, you’ll be able to build your professional real estate brand on LinkedIn and acquire quality leads in no time.

Do you think there’s anything we’ve left out? Or you want to reach us to discuss further how you can build a professional real estate brand that attracts clients on LinkedIn, don’t hesitate to reach us or just leave a comment in the comment section below. Our crack team of professional real estate digital marketing experts and creative designers are ready to help you attract and retain your best clients.