How Successful Agents Use LinkedIn

If you work in real estate, then you probably know all the ins and outs of Facebook lead generation. Whether forming groups, running ads, or doing regular Facebook Lives, this platform has taken center stage for many agents’ and companies’ digital real estate marketing. In addition to Facebook, you might tweet to your followers and maybe post some videos on YouTube.

But are you taking advantage of LinkedIn? 

In this article, we’re going over the methods and tactics we utilize at PowerISA to turn LinkedIn into a consistent source for three, four, five, even six new clients a week. We’ll lay out what’s most important for LinkedIn, how you can start using it TODAY, and the strategies for developing it into a highly productive lead generation source, all without having to pay for ads or even Sales Navigator.

• The best ways to optimize your LinkedIn profile
• How to successfully add connections and direct message
• What type of content you need and how to develop it

PowerISA’s LinkedIn Real Estate Journey 

Before we dive in how you can use LinkedIn for real estate marketing, I just want to hammer home the fact that it won’t happen overnight. This fact is true of all social media platforms. Yes, at PowerISA we are adding multiple new clients every week from LinkedIn, but our strategies are long term, and it took us about six months to get to that point. 

This isn’t a quick fix or “get rich quick” scheme. I don’t know anything about those. What we’re talking about is optimizing and creating in a way that helps you provide the most value to possible new clients and, maybe more importantly, successfully show them you can create that value using the platform. For that, it takes work and a whole lot of commitment and dedication. 

But you got this. 

How to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile?

Prior to creating content or reaching out to new connections via direct messaging, you have to beef up your profile. I’m talking about your personal LinkedIn page, not your business page if you have one or a group. There are four main components of the profile page, and you should focus on improving each one of them. 

1. At the top of your profile page you should have a simple, clean-looking, professional headshot. You can also add your company’s logo as the header image. Always use a high resolution image file so it looks professional.
2. Next up is the headline section. Here you can add a catchy, concise sentence under your name that gets to the point of what you’re all about. For example, mine reads “I help real estate agents and loan officers get more live transfers and appointments.” It’s important to remember that this is what will come up as the meta description in search results. In other words, if people type in your name and your LinkedIn profile returns as one of the hits, they’ll see the text in your headline section on Google. 
3. Now we get to the meat of the page, the About section. This is where you go into what you do and how you do it: Why should people be interested in your business? Why should they talk to you? What results can you produce? What results have you produced for previous clients? Be clear, concise, and include some concrete numbers. Additionally, this is the section where you show connections how to get in contact with you and consume your content outside of LinkedIn. Post a link to your website or landing page, as well as to other social media sites. 
4. Lastly, take advantage of the Featured section. This is where you can include testimonials from happy clients who have worked with you or used your product in the past. Not very many people take advantage of this section on their profiles, but it is a great opportunity to share some social proof. 

Once you have these sections set up and looking awesome, the next step to really optimize your LinkedIn profile is to be active on the platform. We’ll dive more into this shortly, but a key to having a great profile is to have recent posts, white pages, videos, and any other type of content. Doing so makes your page look more reputable and helps you develop trust with your connections. 

Adding Connections on LinkedIn

Okay, so you’ve set up your profile, it’s looking great, and you’ve got links to your website, other social media platforms, and any other media that you communicate and share content through. Now you have to start adding connections so that people can see your beautiful page. 

What’s important to emphasize here is that there aren’t really any shortcuts. There are automation tools out there, like LinkedIn Sales Navigator, but I would recommend holding off on using those in the beginning. 

At PowerISA, we’ve found that it is better to build up your connections organically, at least at the start. Tools might get you a lot of connections, but the question is, how valuable are those connections to you? Sometimes not very. The reason for that is you haven’t put in the time and effort to build up that trust. So, more often than not, you’re going to get a lot of negative responses and end up wasting your time.

By using manual outreach and optimization, on the other hand, you’re connecting with people who are more likely to be receptive to your message. Furthermore, taking this route is also more cost effective, because you are not paying for tools or ads or anything else; it’s purely organic. Reach out to suggested connections, friends, friends of friends, search for people in your area, or apply any other method or criteria you develop. 

Whatever process you use, the key is to constantly add new connections every day.

How to Message New LinkedIn Connections

The sales team and I at PowerISA stick to a simple message when we reach out to new connections on LinkedIn. Keep your messaging:

• Concise
• Basic
• Relevant
• Interesting 

Essentially, we say something along the lines of this: 

“Hey, my name is Gus (or other sales person), I’m a small business owner, and I want to expand my connections in the real estate space, so I’d like to connect.” 

The majority of people are going to be open to connecting with you because that’s a very neutral message. Then, if they look at your *newly* optimized profile and see that you help other people with a similar problem as the one they have, whether it is buying and selling houses in the case of a real estate agent, or helping set appointments in the case of PowerISA, then they will be even more receptive to your message. 

Our very next message after the initial connection is a pitch of our services:

“Hey Mr. Lead, I’d love to tell you about what we do. We are an ISA company and people hire us to set appointments and make live transfers of inbound leads. We just set X number of appointments last month for this client and we would love to do the same for you.”

Craft it to your audience, make it interesting and relevant, and, if possible, quantify the value you can offer them. Don’t be afraid to push the sale early, because what you are offering is valuable to the person you’re talking to. If you’re reluctant to push the sale early, it’s probably because you don’t believe in the value you are providing or don’t know how to present it well enough yet. 

Plus, if you are regularly creating content, then, once a person is a connection, the sales pitch message should not be the first time they are seeing or interacting with you. This brings us to our next section.

Content Is King

As soon as you’ve connected with someone on LinkedIn and engaged them through direct messaging, the algorithm will start showing them your content. In order to build trust with your connections and establish yourself as an expert, you need to commit to creating high quality, relevant content on a consistent basis. 

Post about what you know, what you are interested in (as it relates to your work), and what you think will add value to potential and current clients alike. Here are ideas for what to share on LinkedIn for real estate agents:

• Results your company achieves 
• Challenges you face as a real estate agent 
• Recent successes 
• Questions you’ve gotten from clients or colleagues
• Special offers 
• New technology or tools you’re using 
• Current events and how they’re related to the industry 
• Almost anything else you can think of! 

The basic idea is to find something you like that is also relevant, fun, and helpful to people, and then create videos, articles, or any other type of content around that. When all else fails, look at what other industry leaders are doing or even what influencers in other industries are doing. Use that as inspiration and give your own flavor to it. 

I understand that content is the most difficult part of everything we’ve talked about. It’s creating something, being interesting, and doing so on a regular basis. But, trust me, it is more than worth it. If you put in the time to build organic traffic, you will bring in leads, set appointments, and save your business a lot of money over paid sources. 

I also want to note here that all the content does not have to be unique to LinkedIn. You can share your Facebook Lives, blog posts, and any other business content that you post on Facebook on LinkedIn as well. 

The Three Pillars for LinkedIn Real Estate Marketing 

To recap, you have to optimize your profile so it is professional, informative, and interesting. Make connections and message people every single day. At the same time, regularly create and post content. The third step will make it so that the connections who consume it feel like they know you. That way, when you do message them or give them the sales pitch, they are more likely to trust you and be receptive to what you have to say. 

You’ve got this. Make a plan and stick to it as best as you can. If you do that, then you will create a consistent, productive, cost effective, and organic source for new leads.