The lead generation tactics that have yielded the greatest returns for real estate agents' businesses—even doubling their clientele—are shared.

Showing gratitude to customers, whether through fancy events, online giveaways, or other marketing tools, is crucial for real estate professionals to maintain their business ties. In Las Vegas, practitioners recently convened at Keller Williams Realty's Family Reunion 2025 event to share ideas for expanding their influence. Here are some conclusions.

1. Use Online Giveaways To Generate New Leads

Since 2018, Laura Gillott, GRI, CEO of The Gillott Home Team at Keller Williams in Lebanon, Georgia, has used Facebook to advertise weekly online prizes and competitions in an effort to grow her clientele. Yeti coolers, Stanley trophy-shaped glasses, or VIP box seats to local racetrack events are possible prizes.

Participants must interact with the Facebook announcement post and fill out a Google form to register for the drawing in order to enter one of Gillott's freebies. In addition to inquiries regarding participants' real estate interests (such as purchasing a home or an investment property), the form offers a link to sign up for a class on home buying, selling, or investing or to subscribe to Gillott's real estate newsletter.

Gillot, for instance, held a Mother's Day giveaway with a $1,000 gift basket filled with items like gift cards for cleaning supplies, a vehicle wash, a catered breakfast, and more. She first bought the things at an auction held by the local Boys and Girls Club. In just five days, Gillott's freebie generated approximately 533 registrations, 34 CMA requests, 20 recommendations, 110 newsletter signups, and roughly 100 class signups. That one freebie paid off three months later: Gillott's team added 116 new leads to their database, scheduled eight meetings, showed properties to five customers, listed and sold one property, and more.

2. Convert YouTube Views To Customers

Will Sawyer, an agent at Greenville, South Carolina's Keller Williams Greenville Upstate, attributes $612,000 in gross commission income to YouTube as a source of leads. Sawyer's YouTube channel focuses on local relocation purchasers, especially empty nesters and retirees. He shares interesting videos explaining why people are moving from California to the Carolinas or things he wishes he had known before going to Greenville.

Sawyer's YouTube channel generated over fifty new leads for him in January alone.

To guarantee expert quality, Sawyer collaborates with his listing photographer and videographer to create his movies. Every Friday, he regularly uploads a brand-new video that lasts between eight and thirteen minutes. He turns these recordings into 30- to 60-second YouTube shorts that he can share on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media sites.

He asks viewers to visit his website, subscribe to his YouTube channel, or get in touch with him for additional information about the Greenville real estate market in the first forty-five seconds of each video. Sawyer has about 35,000 members in his Facebook group in addition to his YouTube account. Additionally, he sends out a newsletter to potential clients every week or every two weeks that contains client testimonials, new listings, local news, and homes that have recently closed.

3. Create Exceptional Client Appreciation Events

At Keller Williams Advisors in Cincinnati, Danny Baron, founder of The Baron Group, organizes lavish client appreciation parties that attract thousands of attendees. The gatherings, which he organizes four times a year, together individuals from his wide-ranging network, generating grateful opportunities and maintaining his prominence in his business. Baron once invited 3,000 of his clients to a Cincinnati Reds baseball game, for instance. He collaborates with contractors and vendors to assist cover the event expenses.

From hand-delivering invites to posting pictures on social media following the event, every event generates a variety of client touch points. For every occasion, Baron employs a professional photographer and filmmaker.

Since beginning his real estate career, Baron's primary marketing strategy has been client appreciation events. He invited 175 people to his business launch party before he had even sold a single house. One hundred of those guests, six years later, are still in touch with Baron as former clients.

4. Encourage "Raving Fans" To Provide Reliable Referrals

The "Raving Fan" gift box concept was developed by Seychelle Van Poole, team director of Van Poole Properties Group at Keller Williams Realty in Dallas, to express gratitude to customers who recommend her or provide online reviews of her work. Every quarter, Van Poole's team distributes up to 150 boxes to important vendors and business partners, out-of-town referring agents, local referring customers, and everyone who leaves a nice online review.

"We want to say more than just 'thank you,' because a referral demonstrates a level of trust," Van Poole says. To keep them sending referrals, "we also want to stay in front of them."

The "Raving Fan" gift boxes are stuffed with products from nearby companies, like Italian restaurant supplies and menu recipes. According to Van Poole, she makes an effort to buy goods for her gift boxes when local companies are going through slow periods. Her gift boxes range in price from $20 to $25, including shipping and wrapping. The boxes contain a pamphlet with a market update for people wishing to move, as well as a branded card that reminds them that more presents come with more referrals.

5. Make Face Time In Your Neighborhood

When he began his real estate career in 2013, Disen Cai, the founder of the Disen Cai Real Estate Group at Keller Williams Peninsula Estates in Burlingame, California, had no clients. In order to gain face time with potential customers, he chose to concentrate on door-knocking and open houses, a strategy that has proven successful for his company.

For four years, Cai would knock on doors in a particular rural neighborhood, which included 1,200 homes valued at roughly $1.5 million and was the location of his high school. Instead of making a forceful sales pitch, he positioned himself as a real estate resource providing a service. An older woman asked him to drive her to a hairdresser every Wednesday after one of their interactions, and he did it for four years. Her family requested him to sell her house after she died.

In order to stay prominent in the community, Cai has also leaned toward attracting clients at open houses. He would spread 20 to 30 open house signs across the area before each open house. "Every time we have an open house, it gives the impression that we are in control," he explains. "And when establishing relationships, it helps to meet in person."