Looking for Lead Gen Strategies for 2024? Steal This Events-Based System

Back in the day I would do the bridal expos in my local market and get 200-300 lead sign-ups at my booth. The process is easier and less expensive than you may think. 

If you’re looking for new lead gen strategies for 2024, you may want to consider an events-based lead generation strategy to complement your other efforts. Here’s the details:

Overview:

I like bridal expos because you’re getting in front of a lot of people at one time. The expo that I marketed at would typically get about 1000-1200 attendees in a 5 hour period. 

In addition, you’re getting in front of people that have a statistically higher likelihood of buying or selling real estate in the near future. After all, change of life often means change of real estate. So, there’s a couple efficiency factors working together in your favor.

The Gameplan:

The process is simple, and I’ll lay it out in step-by-step fashion below:

Find a bridal expo (or similar event) in your local market. Make contact, inquire about costs, and book a booth or table if the rates are reasonable enough. 

Costs may have changed a bit, but back when I was doing these events the cost for a small booth was somewhere in the $500-$600 range, and as you’ll see below, that’s relatively affordable, all things considered. 

Next, find a lender (or other industry partner) with whom to share the costs and work together to get leads at the expo. Most lenders or industry partners will be eager to deepen a relationship with an agent in the hopes of earning/solidifying their business relationship, and the prospect of getting directly in front of 100’s of homebuyers and sellers is also appealing. After the event I would scan all of the leads and share them with the lender. 

Next, find a raffle gift. This is your hook to connect with people at the event to start a conversation. I would call a spa and massage business and tell them I’m going to be at a bridal expo in front of 100’s of people, and would they consider donating a raffle gift (usually it was a $100 value massage, facial, or similar) as it could be great exposure for their business. I would typically raffle off the gift after the event and notify the winner then.

One of the keys is there is a synergy between a bridal expo and a spa gift, for the attendee demographic, and the key is to have something to offer that people at your event would get excited about.

Before the event, I had a simple banner printed up at the local print shop (the bridal expo expected everyone to have some sort of banner or signage, and they provided the banner dimensions for the booth I reserved). I would also take business cards, a decorative bowl that I filed with mints, pens and sign-up forms, and that was it. Easy-peasy. You don’t have to make it a huge production to connect, have great conversations, and get leads to fill out the sign-up form. 

At The Event

At the event, I would usually show up an hour before to get set-up. Because I traveled light, I would be done setting up in about fifteen minutes and that gave me time to walk around, check out my competition, and hobnob with other vendors (who also may have a need to buy or sell real estate in the near future).

Once the event starts people start to meander through the expo center. At the particular event where I marketed it was almost stimulation overload for attendees, with cake makers, photography, DJs, etc. all vying for attendee’s attention, and oftentimes with more elaborate booths and more razzle dazzle than I had. 

The key for me was to call people over to my booth. As they walked by I would make eye contact and say “Hey, we’re raffling a free massage and spa treatment! Interested?” Usually it would be a small group and they would all look at each other and say “why not”, and come over and fill out the sign-up form. Simple as that.

And being assertive in that manner is a big key. If you just let people walk past your booth in the hopes they’ll stop on their own volition, you’ll spend five hours at the event and walk out with maybe ten leads. A fate you’ll likely want to avoid.

So, I would be the busker and call people in, and at the table the ideal situation was to have two personnel (lender and their assistant, for example) helping people get signed up. They would hand out forms and pens, answer questions. 

Sometimes it would be so crowded we would have four or five people filling out forms on the table and another two or three people behind the crowd filling out forms on a clipboard. And once one party is filling out the forms, you begin to get a crowd and it makes it easier to pull over more people as they walk by. After all, having people lined up at your booth is social proof at its purest. 

This would be rinse and repeat for pretty much the entire five-hour period. Of course there are breaks and the last hour is decidedly a little less energetic than earlier. And it does make the day go by more quickly being so active and engaged in the lead connecting process. 

This Form is Money

This is the exact form that I used. It is money because 80-90% of people filled out at least some of the form, if not all, perhaps in the hopes that it may increase their odds of winning the raffle gift. 

The form also sets you up to prioritize who to follow up with and when, and the prospect can also indicate what is important to them, all of which helps with conversions. 

The Fortune is Truly in the Follow-up

I think where most other agents go wrong is they figure they’ll have a handful of conversations and pick up 2 or 3 clients at the event. 

For me, the goal was to get mass leads so I can pop them in my database and follow up and follow through over time. That’s where the bulk of the business came from, and I could usually get 3-5 transactions per event. But this was over time. Remember, these are bridal leads - oftentimes their wedding was in 4 or 5 months, and they would be planning to buy or sell sometime after that. 

And that’s really important to note: if you’re looking for “now” business (f there is such a thing), this isn’t the place for it. Frankly, if you don’t have a solid nurture system or some process that includes email marketing and making attempts to connect over the duration, this strategy may also not be for you. 

However, if you’re the type of agent that can fill a database, work it and pull out the business successfully and consistently over time, then (a) you’re doing the best you can for yourself to succeed in real estate, and (b) this strategy or similar can certainly work for you. 

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

While these events have a lot of energy and it can be fun socializing and meeting new people, it also makes for a long day standing on your feet and being (mostly) continuously engaged. There is definitely some mental and physical fatigue as you approach the latter hours of the event. 

Plus in my market one of the events typically overlapped with the NFL playoffs and, sadly, I had to miss many a great game. Somehow I never quite got much sympathy for that one. 

Nevertheless I always came out of these events feeling pretty good about my haul of leads and my future pipeline. 

In Closing

This is a simple, straightforward system. You don’t have to spend a ton of money, relatively speaking and it has a high ROI payback factor. The leads are convertible, Many are first-time home buyers and are eager to speak with a real estate expert that wants to help them. Again, making this system work calls for being assertive and engaging at the events, and then having a follow-up and follow-through process, sometimes over 3,6 or even 12 months. 

Hopefully you find this explanation clear, helpful, and easy enough to implement. Happy hunting if you’re thinking of trying this system!

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