Ebooks are a tried-and-true way to generate more leads! Make a real estate ebook today with this beginner’s guide (even if you hate writing)!
If you listen closely to the whispers of the internet, you might hear a few marketing “experts” reading eulogies for the humble real estate ebook:
We loved them…
They served us well…
And now they’re dead.
Except that’s not exactly true.
Granted: Using a real estate ebook to generate leads is now considered “old school”. But I say:
WHO CARES?
What’s more important to you? Having the latest shiny marketing gadget?
Or having marketing that WORKS?
And I’m here to tell you: When real estate ebooks are paired with landing pages and smart Facebook advertising…
Real Estate Ebooks Still Work
Ebooks have a lot of advantages:
They make you and your business appear more trustworthy, move your prospect toward buying through education instead of pushy sales tactics, and most importantly…
They are an tried-and-true lead generation tool that you don’t have to tinker with.
You “set it and forget it.”
Come up with helpful advice that people want, create a real estate ebook, and market the book with ads and a landing page.
Boom.
Leads roll in, and — after setting it up — there is NO work or ongoing maintenance.
Yes, really.
If you’re not generating the leads you want, maybe it’s time to make your first ebook.
Ready to make a real estate ebook?
I’ll show you how right now. Step-by-step. (I’ll even show you what to do if you absolutely hate writing).
Let’s do it.
CHOOSE A KEYWORD FOCUS FOR YOUR REAL ESTATE EBOOK
Writing an e-book is not all that different from creating a blog post. You start by picking a focused keyword or phrase, something specific it will be about.
The main difference is that if you’re going to go through all the effort of making a book, you want it to be about something that won’t be outdated in a few weeks or months.
So the “top summer brunch spots in your area” might make a good blog post, but it’s probably not a great e-book idea.
A classic example of a real estate lead generation ebook is the:
First-Time Home Buyers’ Guide
Nothing wrong with that one. That still works for some agents.
The problem with that one is: If a real estate agent is offering an ebook at all, that’s probably going to be it. It’s not exactly unique, and lots of other sites offer that.
Here are some ebook topics you may not have considered before:
EXAMPLE REAL ESTATE EBOOK TOPICS AND TITLES
- Going FSBO: How to Sell a Home Without an Agent [Give some helpful advice, close the book with a chapter about “When and Why To Use an Agent Instead”, and a call to action that leads back to your site]
- How To Find Cheap Houses
- Complete Guide to Buying a Home In _______________ (Specific Neighborhood)
- The 10 Things Real Estate Agents Hope You Don’t Ask When You Buy Your Home [give a trust-building “insider’s look” into the agent’s world while offering helpful advice]
- Are You Getting Screwed? What You Need To Know About Closing Costs and Broker Fees Before You Buy
- Don’t Do It. Why You Should Keep Renting, and How To Know When You’re Really Ready To Buy [Catchy, surprising title. But it’s really just a new angle on a guide that helps first-time buyers work through the buying process]
- The 2018 Guide to Neighborhoods in _________ (your market). [This one you could update once a year, and make it fresh with very little effort]
- The Ultimate Guide to Buying a Foreclosure
- Single-Level Dream Homes: The Complete Guide to Moving On After the Kids Move Out
If one of these jumped out at you, great! Use it.
Or scribble down any other ideas you may have had while reading this list.
Pick a topic and go to the next step.
OUTLINE YOUR REAL ESTATE EBOOK
This. Really. Isn’t. Hard.
I promise.
Just open up a word processor, write your title at the top, and then write 5-10 important things you want to say about that topic (with maybe a few notes about the content that you’ll add later.)
Let’s use an example:
“The Complete Guide to Buying a Home in Albuquerque’s Northeast Heights”
INTRO: Why the northeast heights (quick overview: close to the mountain, outdoor trails, parks, etc. Good school districts. Variety of restaurants…)
1. Best Schools in the City (best public schools, grab info from greatschools.org, private school options)
2. Restaurants & Night Life (Fine dining, casual, bbq, pizza (LOTS of pizza) micro-breweries, etc.)
3. Health & Fitness (lots of gym locations, 5 minute drive (or less) to foothills trails, mountain biking, hiking, bike trails along main roads, near golf courses, great parks…)
4. Daily Life (tons of convenient grocery store locations, from Whole Foods to Albertson’s, convenient Starbucks locations, less congested at peak traffic times, easy access to main roads)
5. Less Crime (get stats from police dept., compare to other parts of city)
6. Mature Neighborhoods (Older homes, older average age, higher average income)
7. Before You Put In An Offer (put data about homes, prices, etc. here.)
CLOSE: Call to action. Point people to IDX pages on my site where they can browse homes, let website calls to action on my site push them to contact me.
Okay.
I literally just wrote that outline in 10 minutes.
You know your area inside and out. All you do is sit down and categorize everything you’d tell a prospect about an area in person.
If I can do it in 10 minutes, so can you.
“WRITE” YOUR REAL ESTATE EBOOK (and what to do if you hate writing)
Use a word processor or presentation software (like Powerpoint or Keynote).
Insert the outline you just wrote and start filling it up with content, and save the document as a PDF.
It really is that easy.
Need high-quality stock photos? Try: BigStockPhoto.com
Or if you want to save money, you can download high quality stock photos here: Real Estate Agency Free Stock Photos
(Only available for annual/lifetime store access members, you need to login to see the post.)
Here are few stock photo samples that you can download:
IF YOU HATE WRITING:
Take a look at this ebook:
(If you’re reading this article and your only thought is: “Holy moly. I don’t want to do any of this.” Download the ebook and jump ahead in this article to the resources for setting up landing pages and ad campaigns.)
What you’ll notice is that there’s a lot of useful information in that ebook… But there’s not a lot of “writing.”
If you can communicate your point with fewer words and good images, by all means:
Do it.
Because remember: Your prospect is NOT downloading the ebook because they want something to read.
They’re downloading your ebook because they want help solving a problem.
So just because it’s a “ebook” doesn’t mean you’re writing the next Moby Dick.
Just get your helpful info down as simply and clearly as possible, use some catchy images, and save the document as a PDF.
You’re done.
And whether you chose to create a “neighborhood guide” or a guide to foreclosures, the process of creating an ebook is exactly the same.
Pick a topic, make an outline, fill up the outline, and save as a PDF.
Easy.
The entire process will take you no more than a few hours, but the lead generating rewards will last for months or even years.
NEXT STEPS: PROMOTE YOUR REAL ESTATE EBOOK
So you’ve got an ebook. Now what?
First, you’ll want to create a landing page that offers your shiny new ebook as a free download in exchange for the prospect’s contact info.
Then, you’ll want to create a Facebook ad campaign that brings targeted traffic to your landing page.
It’s not as complicated as it sounds, and we’ve already covered how to do those things in other blog posts and videos.
Check out these resources and get started:
Get Seller Leads With Facebook Lead Ads
If you’re looking for a complete solution without doing all the work, you can get our Real Estate Authority Kit:
