At the most fundamental level, the goal of advertising is to drive a potential customer to take a specific action. For real estate agents, you ultimately want a new client to start their buying or selling process.
The reality is that even the most well-worded marketing and advertising material will fall short of producing amazing results if it lacks one important element. That element is a strong call-to-action statement.
Regardless of whether you are crafting an email, writing a letter or preparing other forms of written promotional materials, you can fill up most of the space with compelling reasons to act now. The market is hot. You have an interested buyer.
Demand is skyrocketing in the area. However, you should not assume that a potential client will take the step that you want them to take. Instead, you need to invite that person to act through a call-to-action statement, or a CTA.
What Makes Good Real Estate Call to Action Phrases?
When you think about a call-to-action, you may think about a statement like, “Call me today,” or “Reach out soon.” While these short statements do invite the reader to take a specific step, they fall short of being as effective as they could be.
The reality is that a good real estate call-to-action achieves three important goals. A closer look at these goals will help you to structure your promotional material in a way that spurs the reader into action.
Creates Urgency
Your goal is to get your target audience to connect with you immediately. After all, if they put your letter or postcard down right now, there is a chance that they may not look at it for weeks or ever again. To trigger a sense of urgency, you need to ask the reader to take action right now. More than that, you have to offer a valid reason why action is needed now.
For example, by calling now, the potential customer could receive details on current listings. The market is hot right now, so the individual does not want to miss out on a great opportunity by delaying.
Provides Value
When a potential customer reads marketing material, he or she will focus on one important question. What is in it for me? When your call-to-action is, “Call me today,” you are not answering that important question for the reader. The reader should not have to make assumptions or guesses.
Material with an effective call-to-action clearly states how the reader will benefit by taking a specific step. For example, by clicking a link today, the reader may be able to search for the latest listings in the area or request a comparative market analysis on their home.
Real Estate Call to Action Phrases Should be Simple and Deliver
An effective call-to-action statement is concise. It quickly states what action you want the individual to take and what they will achieve by doing so. It can be tricky to add value and to create urgency while also keeping the call-to-action concise.
Often, the bulk of the content in a real estate postcard, email or letter will build up to the reader taking action. It states the reasons why the individual should take action, and the call-to-action drives those points homes in a clear way with a short, simple statement.
While it is easy to state what a call-to-action is and how to structure it, it is much more challenging to craft an effective call-to-action that produces results. Real estate agents often use their own variation of specific call-to-action statements to inspire their target audience to take action.
After you get familiar with some of the more common calls-to-action statements, you can tailor them to suit your specific needs. What are some of the effective call-to-action statements that other real estate agents have used?
Free Download
Do you have specific information that you want to share with your target audience? This should be information that is beneficial to them. At the same time, it should highlight your expertise in a way that relates to them.
For example, if you are targeting homebuyers, you may offer a free download for a homebuyer’s guide or a brochure on the local buyer’s market. If you are targeting sellers, you may offer a guide filled with staging tips, information on downsizing or relocation steps.
If you have carefully prepared an effective free download, you are offering material that is of true value to your target audience. As a result, your download can be viewed as a service. Because of this, it may build rapport with prospective clients before they reach out to you. It establishes you as an expert in your field. More than that, the download could be printed out or saved for later.
You are essentially giving the potential client a reason to hang onto your marketing material and to remember your name as a result. Not only does a free download provide valuable information for potential buyers and sellers, they also allow you to capture email and other contact info.
Subscribe to our Mailing List
A call-to-action mailing list subscription asks a potential client to opt-in to receive your marketing materials going forward. By doing so, he or she is requesting to stay in touch and to receive valuable information like market updates, downloads, valuation resources and more.
Because the individual is asking to receive your promotional material, you transition away from spamming an individual and toward building rapport and trust with individuals who are interested in your services. When you set up a subscription mailing list, avoid bombarding individuals with emails too frequently. This could cause them to opt-out.
A mailing list subscription displays a level of respect for your potential clients. Essentially, you are asking about their preference to receive more information from you. It also helps you to differentiate between the tire kickers and the folks who have a serious interest in moving forward. Because this builds your mailing list, it offers ongoing benefits to you going forward.
Free Home Valuation
Whether or not a homeowner is interested in selling soon, the individual may be interested in monitoring the value of his or her home. This may simply be for curiosity’s sake, or it may be because the individual is waiting for the ideal time to sell.
Often, a seller wants to recoup a specific amount of equity from the sale of a home, so monitoring a change in value is essential. While a homeowner may estimate a property’s value by paying attention to the local market, you are offering to provide more concrete data.
An automated seller valuation postcard is easy to send out. You can choose from templates offered on Wise Pelican to take the hassle out of designing an effective postcard.
This type of mailer displays you as an expert. It offers a value-added service that is meaningful to a homeowner. It also can help you develop your brand image and to present yourself as a leader in the local real estate market.
Sign Up for Custom Property Search Updates
Many people spend months monitoring local listings before they decide to finally act on plans to buy or sell a home. Buyers look at listings to see what type of home they can afford to buy and to look for specific properties that they may be interested in.
Sellers monitor listings to keep tabs on local values. They may also be looking for their next home. When you offer to send custom property listings directly to their inbox, you are eliminating the middle step of manually searching for listings that meet their needs. You are providing a potential client with meaningful, timely information.
Property search updates allow you to stay in close contact with potential buyers and sellers. This meets their current needs. It also helps you to establish name recognition. Because your contact information may be hitting their inbox every week, you are making it easy for them to get in contact with you for questions, to request a home tour and to address other needs.
Summary
You can see that each call-to-action described here serves a different purpose and has unique benefits to you and to your potential clients. With this in mind, a well-rounded marketing campaign may utilize a series of emails and direct mailers with a combination of these action statements.
Now is the perfect time to start fine-tuning your marketing campaign with effective real estate call to action phrases.
