Best of Success! 2021
An inside look at the best
digital marketing strategies of our top members.
It’s been a challenging year, but Success members continue to inspire us with how they improve not only their own lives and businesses, but the livelihood of others. To celebrate, we’re sharing some of the best Success Stories of 2021.
This year’s picks excelled in the core aspects of growing your real estate business online, including lead generation, follow-up, and content creation. This select group of top members have proven they have what it takes to be a successful marketer. And they have the results to prove it!
Take inspiration from these Success Stories and use them to grow and expand YOUR business in 2022!
Content Marketing - George Lorimer
George has always been a leader in his market and set his major goal for 2021 to boost his sphere of influence even higher. To do this, he combined a strong “farming” process with meaningful website content, increasing both new and returning leads to his website.
George is everywhere, sending continuous mailers to his farmed area, running remarketing and retargeting campaigns through Google and Facebook, and posting weekly blogs and email campaigns. Through this consistent activity, it’s no accident that his sphere of influence has grown in the last year. For lead generation, his volume mostly comes from less-branded Google and Facebook Ads promoting his Listings, and postcard campaigns targeting sellers.
The real rubber hits the road when his leads enter the funnel. From the moment the lead lands in EngageCRM, his follow-up system is ready to drive more responses and live conversations. Multi-channel Action Plan sequences immediately go out to ensure the prospect has a meaningful experience. These include Property Hotlists specific to what they’re looking for, along with helpful website resources. Engage Call-Assist also helps George get them live on the phone. By that time, they’re already familiar with him and ready for a meaningful, productive conversation.
George employs a strong Content Marketing Strategy, posting bi-weekly blogs to share market statistics, listings updates, and local real estate advice. Dedicated Listing Landing Pages attract both new and returning visitors and boost exposure for his listings.
By establishing himself as a local expert, George has met his Sphere of Influence goals for the year by bringing in a 74% increase in traffic over the previous year!
Lead Generation & Follow-up - Heather Rothman
Many of the real estate professionals we work with at Success are new to Digital Marketing and Lead Generation. Heather was a solo agent with no online advertising experience. However, she had two powerful traits going for her: she was eager to learn how to expand her sphere through online marketing, and as Craig Proctor always emphasizes, she was not afraid to pick up the phone and make calls.
As a solo agent, YOU are the one covering the roles of the ISA (inside sales agent) and OSA (outside sales agent). You need to provide top service to your clients while maintaining a steady stream of new leads into your pipeline. It can quickly become overwhelming! Heather knew it was important to expand her team, but to do so, she had to establish an overflow of business.
Her priorities for 2021 were to build new ad campaigns with her digital marketing team at Success and become an expert at qualifying and converting her leads into business. And the strategy paid off! Heather generated over 1,787 leads and, after making 3,648 follow-up calls using Engage Call-Assist, she succeeded in significantly growing her client base. With a business overflow established, and the lead generation and follow-up systems she needs in place, she’s now in a great place to expand her team and her real estate business in 2022.
Lead Follow-Up & Qualifying - Gamini Bandara
When you’re growing your team, it’s extremely important to have good systems in place to train new people. Gamini hired two new virtual ISA’s this year and definitely had some challenges at first. New VAs rely heavily on your guidance and instructions, which is even more tricky when all training and communication is virtual. Tools like the Universal Follow-up Script and key qualifiers built right into the EngageCRM helped everyone making lead calls follow the same system. Engage also records the calls, so Gamini could listen to his virtual staff and provide feedback. And each lead was tagged to show their timing and motivation for buying and/or selling.
So far in 2021, Gamini has generated over 2,858 leads. Engage Call-Assist helps the team power through their callbacks efficiently — to date, they’ve dialed over 45,731 times and made 5,654 connected calls! As the VA moves from one call to the next, they use the Buyer and Seller follow-up scripts and mark the answers accordingly. Call audio and the VA’s detailed notes are also stored in the lead’s conversation history. When Gamini reviews his leads in EngageCRM, he can easily sift and sort those who appear to be now or future business, and adjust his communication accordingly.
The power of this follow-up system speaks for itself — Gamini has signed over 40 new clients this year!
Team-Building & Recruiting - Bertrand Dussault
2021 was a big year for Équipe (Team) Dussault. Not only did they generate over 5,586 leads, they also launched their own Brokerage. And when Bertrand came to Success with a need for a Large Team website with Recruiting content, we were happy to help.
One of the key challenges in recruiting is systematizing your process. To attract great people, pay attention to how you present yourself online. Are you offering prospective recruits better opportunities? Are you making clear statements about the benefits of joining your team?
Here are some specific systems and content Bertrand is using to attract and assess new recruits:
- Recruiting Webinar Events
- DISC Personality Test
- The Team System Benefits
- Recruiting Pop-Ups
- Interview Videos
- Personalized Agent Sites
With the help of this content to attract new agents, Équipe Dussault doubled in size this year!
Quebec is a bilingual province, and it’s important that Bertrand’s website meets the needs of its French-speaking population. With his team’s help to provide additional customized content, we worked together to adapt our existing French platform to showcase their listings and the many benefits of their Team System.
Lead Generation & Text Marketing - Geri Scheckner
Over 20 years, Geri has established herself as an expert in South Florida real estate. This year, thanks to some well-crafted Facebook and Google Ads, she generated over 3,575 leads. Geri is also an expert in connecting with people on the phone, making dozens of calls every day. With the help of her business partner (and son) Michael, she leverages her EngageCRM automation and sorting technology to ensure she’s spending her time wisely by calling the leads who are ready to talk.
A big part of Geri’s follow-up strategy this year has been Text Message Marketing to re-engage her leads. Targeting specific segments in her database (such as buyers looking for Pool Homes, Luxury Homes, or Off-Market Homes), she sends relevant and precise information via text to encourage leads to come back to the website or start a conversation. Her leads appreciate the information she provides, and by responding to the people who are genuinely engaged, Geri is much more likely to continue the conversation with a live phone call. What’s better than getting on the phone with a lead who’s happy to talk?
Geri’s top text message subjects include:
- Links to Hotlists of homes specific to leads’ criteria (pool homes, luxury, waterfront, etc.)
- How to find lower Mortgage Rates
- Coming Soon Property Alerts
- Specific programs for Buyers (e.g. home inspection, pest inspection)
- New Homes on the Market Alerts
Using the EngageCRM Conversation Engine, Geri sent over 20,726 targeted text messages with a 10% response rate. Returning visitors to her website grew by 75%, with more prospects using her as their preferred resource for real estate information. And the increased engagement has helped Geri double her business in 2021!
Return On Ad Spend (ROAS) - Lee Colby
As a Digital Marketing Partner, it’s gratifying to see clients grow their business through the ads we run for them. 2021 was a tremendous year for Lee and his team — they generated over 4,300 leads!
Two of the big contributors were online campaigns through Google and Facebook. Lee’s Google campaigns targeted local buyers and sellers, offering unique property hotlists for Off-Market Home Deals and Waterfront Properties, both of which were in high demand this year. These campaigns brought 26,400 unique visitors to his website.
Leads and website visits are great, of course, but don’t take your eyes off the goal of turning them into deals. Real Estate is tricky for advertisers because the sales cycle is long and most of the leads generated are future business. Consistent (and persistent) follow-up is the key to converting leads and getting a return on your ad spend. Lee and his team use EngageCRM to make this easy.
Along with this targeted follow-up, Lee added all website visitors to Remarketing campaigns for ongoing brand awareness. Remarketing helps you “be everywhere,” and functions as a kind of follow-up even for prospects that haven’t yet identified themselves to you. Over 1,000 visitors returned to Lee’s website from these campaigns alone, an impressive number of buyers and sellers using ColbyTeam.com as their resource for real estate information.
All this work has paid off — sales are up and Lee’s team is growing! And his return on ad spend was HUGE — income generated from Google Ads was $308,150 and $152,745 from Facebook (ROAS 1750% and 1251% respectively).
Wishing you every Success
for 2022!
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