LinkedIn is probably not what comes to mind as the go-to social media network when thinking of real estate lead gen – Zillow, Facebook, or MLS likely come to mind. However, LinkedIn is able to connect with a segment of the market that none of these other platforms can, for sales teams in the real estate industry involved in relocation, investment, and referral-based business. And while it is important to be clear about the function of Linked Helper, it is an all-purpose LinkedIn automation app and not a real estate one.
Why Real Estate Sales Teams Use LinkedIn for Lead Generation
People looking at real estate on the residential side are not on LinkedIn to purchase, but that is precisely why LinkedIn would be more effective for another group of real estate professionals. People responsible for handling the process of relocation for a company, the Human Resources Directors, and mobility managers can easily be reached via LinkedIn. They can be identified based on their position and employer. Property investors, such as the principals of family offices, private equity analysts, and fund managers whose portfolios consist of real estate assets can all be found on LinkedIn due to their professional profile there. Referral partners, including lawyers, financial advisors, and accountants who send referrals on a regular basis, as well as other agents in the area looking to exchange referral business, use LinkedIn for professional networking.
What Linked Helper Is and How It Aids Real Estate Sales
Linked Helper is an automated LinkedIn application operating within its own anti-detect browser framework, simulating clicks and keystrokes in the same way that humans do, rather than interacting with the LinkedIn API. For a real estate sales group, the value lies in quantity and regularity, whereby connecting, following up, and profiling can be done in relation to the three customer bases outlined above on a level of speed that a single agent simply cannot achieve manually. It should also be mentioned that Linked Helper has absolutely nothing to do with real estate on its own, and cannot differentiate between a family office principal and a vice president of software.
Setting Up Linked Helper for a Real Estate Sales Team
One thing that usually catches teams out when assessing desktop LinkedIn automation software is that once the laptop being used to execute the campaign is switched off, the process will automatically be interrupted. By installing Linked Helper on a VPS, however, the whole process can run without interruption – a consideration that applies for teams, not individual agents, because the prospecting process should not hinge on one individual computer being on all the time. Linked Helper installed on a remote machine can be managed via any browser from another machine or tablet. As far as installation goes, individual LinkedIn profiles have to be linked to their own proxies, and team accounts should be set up with role-specific access for larger groups of agents..
Building Targeted Lists of Real Estate Prospects on LinkedIn
Each of the above four groups of people should have their own lists rather than being lumped together into a common pool. If you are working on your relocation audience, then the filtering of LinkedIn or Sales Navigator results would be according to HR and mobility positions at firms that are known to relocate or expand in that location. The investor-focused list would use filters based on firm type and position, such as real estate private equity, family office, acquisitions, and sometimes with a geographical filter. The referral partner list will focus on attorneys, CPAs, and financial advisors in the same metro area, while the agent referral list will focus on agents in other markets where there is regular relocation business.
Automating Connection Requests and Follow-up Messages for Prospects
Research conducted on LinkedIn outreach techniques by real estate shows that one can base his sequences on the following principle: most of the time, the first conversation is initiated on the second or third message, not the first one. Therefore, it is better to develop an email sequence of several steps with reply detection included than to send just one connection invitation and wait. It is always useful to warm up before inviting someone: it is good to view his profile and engage in discussion about his recent publication; the message should have a variation in it as well because on the team there might be several people reaching out to the same prospects.
Personalizing LinkedIn Communication for Different Real Estate Buyer Profiles
Every group needs its own message rationale; translating the same pitch into different languages will not work. Relocation contact will react to a message about facilitating employee moves or speeding up corporate housing process, not just any kind of real estate pitch. Investor will react to information about asset class or data on market, not just an invitation to the exciting opportunity that awaits you. Referral partner reacts to relationship building – celebrating your latest achievement and offering something useful – rather than just an invitation for business. Personalization tools that include profiles of both contact and his company will do wonders here, but a message rationale has to be formulated for every segment individually.
Managing Linked Helper Campaigns Within a Real Estate Sales Team
Organization is as important as volume for a team. By conducting different campaigns for each salesperson and for each audience segment, tagging leads by source and stage in the sales funnel, and importing conversation history into a CRM system will help prevent mistakes and ensure the handoff of warm leads from prospecting-oriented team members to the agents closing them goes smoothly. It is possible with Linked Helper's CRM integration and team workspace feature set, but only if the team tags and runs different campaigns.
Best Practices and Common Mistakes When Using Linked Helper in Real Estate Sales
The profile credibility is important even before the process of automation begins, as there are studies proving that LinkedIn profiles emphasizing credentials and participation in the community, like volunteering, tend to receive much more views compared to others, and the prospects viewing an agent's profile before responding will notice it being weak. The most popular mistake among real estate professionals is trying to use LinkedIn automation with regard to the residential buyer/seller segment, which doesn't even use the platform for finding real estate. It is the relocation, investment, and referral partner audiences that make LinkedIn marketing useful. Campaigns associated with a particular agent's PC rather than a VPS server lead to unnecessary downtimes of the whole team. Finally, omitting the multi-touch sequence and sending a generic message as a response ignores the simple fact that most responses come after the second or third touch.
