How To Use Real Estate Testimonials To Generate Leads – Inc PDF Guide

Acquiring and effectively utilizing real estate testimonials should be a cornerstone in your real estate business.
Used strategically testimonials can generate 62% more revenue.
I’m encouraging you to obtain 2 more real estate testimonials in the next week. Below you’ll find tips and help for fully optimizing your testimonials and reviews.

Having a system in place to gather your real estate testimonials and optimizing them is easier than you may think.
Read on for tips and ideas that can help you in gathering and optimizing your real estate testimonials.
Be sure to get your “How To Maximize Real Estate Testimonials For Lead Generation” PDF Guide below
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HOW TO MAXIMIZE REAL ESTATE TESTIMONIALS FOR LEAD GENERATION

1. PRIORITY ONE: PLACE ALL YOUR REAL ESTATE TESTIMONIALS ON YOUR WEBSITE
Be sure you gather all of your testimonials and reviews from Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Zillow, Yelp and any other places people have left testimonials and place them on your website.
You can simply copy the testimonials from whatever platform they’re on and place them in an area on your site that is very easy to find.
Make it easy for someone who has landed on your site to find and read your testimonials.
You may want to consider having some of your best testimonials on the main page of your website and creating a link that says “Read what others have said about (your name)” at the end of those couple testimonials.
When placing some of your testimonials on your main page be sure to have them toward the top of your page for maximum effectiveness.
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2. HOW TO ACQUIRE REAL ESTATE TESTIMONIALS
Ask every single client with whom you’ve done a transaction for a testimonial. Ask soon after you close or after you’ve delivered their closing gift.
If time has passed, even a few years, it’s never too late to ask for a testimonial.
IT CAN BE AS SIMPLE AS SENDING THEM A TEXT, AN EMAIL OR ASKING THEM ON THE PHONE
If you send them a text or an email you can make it simple verbiage such as:
“Hello (their name), it was such a pleasure representing you. (You can add something personal to them here if you’d like). Would you mind writing a testimonial on my services…it can be as short or long as you’d like. You can text it, email it or however else you’d like to send it over. Thank you so much!”
You can also change it to this:
“Hello (their name), it was such a pleasure representing you. If you were pleased with my representation and services would you mind writing a testimonial? It can be as short or as long as you’d like. You can text it, email it or however else you’d like to send it over. Thank you!”
You can also send this as a group message or email to both the husband and wife.
Another way to ask for a testimonial is to send them a text or an email and direct them to your Facebook business page and ask them for a review.
Or, you can give them multiple options to leave a review – on Yelp, LinkedIn, Google or a software tool such as Boast.
Sending a questionnaire or creating one using SurveyMonkey’s free platform is another way to get a testimonial.
Within the questionnaire you can ask for a testimony or have an open ended question that asks *How was your experience with my (services, team…whatever you’d like to place in here).*
3. REAL ESTATE TESTIMONIAL TEMPLATES
A good idea is to have your verbiage already in place before asking for a testimonial. This way you don’t have to think about how you’re going to ask and what you’re going to say when asking.
You’ll find ideas and email templates here to help guide you on creating your own testimonial templates.
If you’re interested in creating surveys this Forbe’s article “12 Questions That Lead To High Quality Testimonials” is an excellent resource.
4. USE AVAILABLE TECHNOLOGY AND TOOLS

Keep this simple and easy. Don’t reinvent the wheel.
Utilizing the below tools should help you create a systemized, easy way to consistently gather testimonials.
♦ Email (this is a very simple way to ask). Use a few different templates you’ve created when asking for a testimonial or review.
♦ Your mobile phone (text). Simply send a text asking for one.
♦ Facebook. You can ask them to leave a testimony/review on your business Facebook page and tranfer the review to your real estate website.
♦ LinkedIn. This is a popular platform for business professionals. LinkedIn makes it very easy for people to leave reviews and feedback on your profile. You can transfer what individuals say about you to your website.
♦ Yelp. People can rate you on a starring system from 1-5. They can also leave a full review. You can link your Yelp business profile directly to your real estate website.
♦ SurveyMonkey. Use this free online platform to ask your client’s for feedback and make it easy for them to leave a testimony within the questionnaire. You can transfer the testimony to your website.
You may want to check your ability to remove negative reviews, false reviews, derogatory reviews on social media platforms.
Some review platforms may not allow removals or there may be a difficult process to remove a false review.
Be discerning and think ahead if you use certain tools.
5. DO’S AND DON’TS WHEN FORMATTING REAL ESTATE TESTIMONIALS
• Remove dates and don’t include dates. I see some agents websites with testimonials and the testimonials are 2+ years old. Some only a year old but if you’re not continually obtaining new testimonials (consistently) don’t include dates.
Some people wonder why you don’t have recent testimonials and it brings up questions. It could simply be you haven’t updated or obtained recent testimonials – and has nothing to do with your service you provide, however, just leave the dates off.
• Do include quote marks. You want the quote to stand out.
• Do highlight, bold certain words and phrases within the testimonial for emphasis of key remarks. You want these to stand out.
• Consider listing their profession. This allows for people to relate to them. If you’re targeting a particular professional demographic people can see you help others in their same profession.
• Consider adding photos of the individual or property. However, keep in mind this is an additional step for you. Gathering photos may not be an area in which you want to invest your time.
6. HOW TO OPTIMIZE YOUR TESTIMONIAL WEBSITE PAGE FOR LEAD CONVERSION
Okay, now you have your testimonials on your website and you want to make it easy for someone reading your testimonials to contact you.
In the groundbreaking book “Don’t Make Me Think” Krug explains how Amazon built their multi-billion dollar company on the premise, don’t make your reader, your end user *think.*
Make it as easy and enticing as possible for them to contact you.
Don’t make them hunt for your phone number or your email address.
Have easy, simple CTA’s (Call To Actions) and make it as simple as possible for someone to contact you, to request a CMA, to subscribe to your IDX feed and/or subscribe to your Real Estate E-Zine.
Share individual real estate testimonials on social media with your phone number – Get Your SOI CALLING YOU!
CREATING EASY CALLS TO ACTION ON YOUR WEBSITE TESTIMONIAL PAGE

→ Have your phone number and email address large and very easy to locate on your testimonial page. Make them stand out.
→ State “Call, text or email me for a complimentary home price evaluation” and list your contact information next to this verbiage
→ Create a link on your testimonial page to your CMA request form on your website
→ Create a link to your IDX search feature on your website
→ Have a seller and buyer brochure download available. Request an email and phone number for them. The serious leads often provide their phone numbers.
→ Make it easy for them to find and subscribe to your Real Estate E-Zine
I challenge you to get at least 2 new testimonials this week.
Use these ideas and find some ways to add to your list of testimonials.
Make it a habit to acquire and optimize your testimonials, you’ll generate additional leads resulting in more closings!
Be sure to get your testimonial e-Guide below “How To Optimize Real Estate Testimonials For Sales Conversions”
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