5 Tips for Getting More Leads from Your Visual Tour

“I have enough leads”…said no one ever.

 

Plain and simple, to grow your business, you must get leads.

Whether you’re a pro or just getting started, you can’t deny the importance of a full sales pipeline. And visual tours are engaging marketing tools that can direct more interested leads your way.

But regardless of how well your visual tours are performing, there’s always room for growth.

Here are 5 tips for keeping that sales funnel full by getting more leads from your visual tours.

 

1. Do the listing justice by planning ahead and being thoughtful

 

Tell a story with your visual tour by planning the flow of your photographic tour of the home. Where will you begin? Where do you need to linger? How can you best highlight the most important, saleable features of the home?

Next, prepare the space for photography. Prior to taking pictures, carefully survey each area of the home (exterior and interior). What should be adjusted to better showcase the property?

Is the lighting too bright or too dark? Do you need to move, add, or replace furniture to better stage a room? Would adding flowers to a room or turning lamps on add warmth and make it more appealing?

Considerations like these before you photograph your visual tours can significantly improve your tours’ appeal.

 

2. Create additional opportunities for prospective buyers to contact you

 

Make lead capturing easier by adding contact information and branding to your visual tours. Paradym makes it easy for you to include your phone number, fax number, email address, website link, and social media buttons to a visual tour.

Also, you could try these ideas for increasing lead-capturing opportunities:

 

• QR codes: Instantly capture leads and deliver valuable property information when a shopper snaps a picture of your QR code.

 

• Text responders: You can use software to create automated text response numbers that in turn generate more leads by capturing contact information from prospective buyers. This allows you to provide instant value to buyers by sending them a link to your tour if they text a number you provide. Also, you can add text responders to your existing print ads, online marketing, or sign riders in front of the home itself.

 

• Branded video scene: Add a personalized video of you speaking to curious home shoppers at the end of your tour and include the easiest way to contact you.

 

3. Use versatile visual tour software for a more engaging final product

 

Using a visual tour platform like Paradym can take a straightforward tour to the next level and help you generate more leads from your tours’ views. Some engaging features to look for in visual tour software are photo effects, voice narration, background music selection, clickable “hotspots,” in-tour branding, the option of adding video, and automatic posting to social media.

An engaging visual tour is a better lead generator.

 

4. Distribute your tour to many other real estate sites

 

One of the most effective ways to generate leads using your visual tour is to — wait for it — share it. Real estate distribution sites like Trulia, Realtor.com, and Zillow are great places to share your visual tour for increased exposure. Some visual tour software, like Paradym, automates the process of sending your tours to dozens of well-known real estate distribution sites to maximize your tours’ reach.

 

5. Share your tours to social media

 

For many, social media is merely a marketing afterthought. But realtors need to consider the lead generating potential of social media. After creating, polishing, and publishing visual tours to real estate distribution sites, the next step is to push them out to various social media outlets.

Here are a few tips for effective social sharing:

 

• Include social media sharing buttons on your visual tours.
  

 

• Tweet your tours: Use hashtags (#) intelligently when sharing to Twitter. Don’t fill up valuable character space with 10 different hashtags. Use one to two hashtags and make sure to leave 20 characters for your followers to share your tweet.

 

• “Tag” prospective buyers when appropriate.

 

• Engage in conversation with potential buyers by responding to their comments and initiating discussions.
  

 

Being smart about the way you create and share visual tours can go a long way toward getting the leads you need.