Jason Frazier, aka The Real Estate CIO, joins me on this episode to talk about why EVERY real estate agent should be using a Facebook pixel on their website. If you have no idea what a pixel is or how to use it, listen to this episode of the Onion Juice! Be aware though, once you hear what Jason Frazier has to share, you will have no excuse to start using this powerful marketing tool!
The Facebook pixel is a piece of JavaScript code for your website that enables you to measure, optimize and build audiences for your ad campaigns. Once you drive people to your website, you can use the Facebook pixel (which is created for you, in your Ads Manager on Facebook) to track what they do on your site, and then create a custom audience that you can use to retarget and remarket to this group of people so that you can increase your likelihood of a conversion. For example, you can target an ad to users who have visited your website but have never made it to the search registration page, or users who have viewed a specific neighborhood page, or even a specific property page.
Ok, so you know what a pixel is now. You might be asking “Why do I want to track this information in the first place?” The short answer: Because they have expressed interest. They are no longer “cold” leads. The hardest part of running a successful ad is targeting users who will be interested in the topic of that ad. But by running an ad to this custom audience who has already expressed an interest by visiting your website, you have a far better chance of getting the users to engage. That may be requesting a showing on that property. Or signing up for a home search of “similar homes in the area.” Or really anything else that you want to target this audience for.
There are so many things to learn in marketing that it can quickly become overwhelming. That's why Jason has developed a program called Agent Marketer Training. He breaks down complicated, multilayered systems into digestible, step-by-step building block courses suitable for any skill level. The course includes topics like culture shift ever in consumerism, why dynamic marketing is going to be the most important asset to attracting more business in this new economy, and how to provide an awesome consumer experience will take your personal brand to the next level, among other things.
Just because you are uncomfortable learning something new does not mean you can use that as an excuse to not execute. Jason says if you say “I am not able to…,” what you are really communicating is “I don’t want to.” Learning how to be an effective marketer is not complicated, despite what people think. A lot of agents tend to freak out a little when they start implementing things Jason recommends, like the Facebook pixel. He’s heard all the excuses, and still doesn’t think any of them are valid. With a willingness to learn, a good google search and maybe someone looking over your shoulder the first time, you will be well on your way to capturing leads and engaging your clients.
Our sponsors:
You can find my personal real estate coaching website here
And connect with me on ANY of the following social channels. I LOVE social!
Facebook is no longer the new frontier of marketing. It’s become an established channel many real estate agents use to obtain more (and better) leads. So, how do real estate agents capture new leads in today’s technologically advanced society? Facebook, of course! Dustin Brohm is back to share Facebook retargeting strategies to help you, the realtor, get in front of the right people with your Facebook ads.
Have you ever searched for anything on Amazon – let’s say, a pair of shoes – and then taken a break to scroll through Facebook? There’s a good chance you saw those same shoes advertised on your Facebook wall. This may be creepy, but it isn’t by chance. A Facebook pixel fired when you visited Amazon, allowing the site to retarget you. Real estate agents can do the same thing! A pixel is just a piece of JavaScript code that tracks a specific action. You can get this free snippet of code from Facebook and place it on your website code. Visitors to your site have shown intent, so it makes sense to show them an ad for your services. When you optimize your advertising for a lead conversion, you’re telling Facebook to find engaged prospects who filled out your lead form. Facebook then uses its algorithms to target your ads on the platform to the best possible prospects — those who have already filled out your contact form. This is much more effective than simply targeting prospects by their interest.
If you’re good at your job (which I’m sure you are) you likely have a list of people who recently purchased. With custom audiences you can upload that list to Facebook, and then have Facebook do some magic to find similar individuals (AKA lookalike audiences) who are looking to buy or sell a house. You can also build a custom audience based on your website or social traffic. The settings you can use are endless, so don’t get lost in all the details. Anyone who clicks on a certain page can be one audience, people who watch a percentage (20%, 50%, 75%, etc) of your videos can be another audience, and so on.
Think of Facebook ads as a way to constantly be refreshing your list of potential clients. Dustin recommends a tiered approach when setting the duration for your ad campaigns. One ad may target visitors who have landed on your site within the last 10-30 days, while another ad may target everyone who has viewed your content in the last 60 days. Not everyone is going to buy after the first interaction (in fact, this is RARE), but targeted ads over 60-120 days will help you build brand recognition that may eventually convert to business.
If you are unfamiliar with the Facebook carousel ad format, get familiar! This ad format is perfect for it’s visual appeal, making real estate the perfect candidate. The carousel ad format essentially allows the advertisers to display a series of images in a catalog type format so viewers can scroll through and view multiple images or listings. The multiple photos also mean this single ad has multiple pathways to convert.
Our sponsors:
You can find my personal real estate coaching website here
And connect with me on ANY of the following social channels. I LOVE social!
And finally, if you would be so kind - leave a rating and review for the Onion Juice podcast on Apple Podcasts (formerly iTunes)
Do you have a clear plan for marketing your real estate business, or are you just throwing things against the wall to see what sticks? Most of the agents I talk to inside my RoundBox coaching program are chasing shiny objects that end up distracting them from one of the three pillars (Influence, chase, and attraction). Today, I want to share a few marketing tips for real estate agents. Before I launch any marketing, I run every piece of content through these filters to determine how effective they will be. I hope these tips will resonate with you and help you produce better marketing content that will elevate your business to new levels of success!
The first filter I run any marketing material through is this: does it fit into my established plan, or am I just chasing the latest shiny object? Having a clear plan is the most important step before you do any marketing. Let me put that another way…If nothing is working, that means you have no plan. Developing a clear plan takes focus and hard work (and a good coach), but it gives you a foundation to build on. When I am planning a marketing campaign, be that a postcard, an email, a Facebook post or a YouTube video, I ALWAYS hold it up against my plan to make sure it furthers that goal instead of distracting from it.
Here’s a scenario I see often...an agent reaches out to tell me that they published a professional, engaging “New Home Buyers Guide” or similar video on Facebook, then waited for it to be liked, shared and commented on...they are still waiting, because that content is searchable, not social. It was posted in the wrong place, to the wrong audience. In a nutshell, Facebook content is social; it’s entertaining, engaging and usually pretty short. Think about how you interact with Facebook...do you watch every video all the way through? Do you read every word of those long posts? Of course not. You scroll, with the occasional pause to view a little bit of engaging content, then move on. On Youtube, However, you search for specific content, then scroll to find the most relevant content to your search. You might watch a 15-minute video because it kind of relates to your subject. Understanding the nuances of searchable vs. social content is VERY important in today’s marketing landscape! If you want to learn more, check out episode 131 with Karen Carr, where we talk about the important difference between social content and searchable content.
The content you send to your friends and family needs to look very different from the content you send to people who have never met you. If you send a warm and fluffy, homey newsletter to a client you have never met, it’s going to make them feel weird and disengage. “Why is this random realtor sharing his life goals and dreams and failures with me? I don’t even know this guy…” The content you send to new clients should be glossy, professional and contain calls to action that are proven to be effective. Once you nail that content, you have to send to them consistently. A one-off piece of content is NOT the approach you want to use, trust me!
If you are sending to people you know, the exact opposite is true. You want the content to be warm and inviting, “downhome” even. Why? Because those people know you. They know you are not perfect, and they would rather hear about your goals, struggles, and failures. Proper grammar and tasteful designs are still present, but that content is a snapshot of your life, and no one expects that to be perfect.
It’s been said that the average consumer is like a mouse when it comes to the way they respond to marketing. A mouse spends all day either looking for cheese or running from whiskers (attached to a cat, of course). In the marketing world, value is the cheese and a pushy sales pitch is the whiskers. As long as you’re providing value, people are going to be attracted to you and the message you have to share. But when you begin putting on the pressure to buy, they’re going to run away. I’ve got some thoughts about how this can apply to your real estate business, so be sure you take the time to listen.
If you ever get discouraged by the real estate market trends, pay attention. The truth is, In every market, there is a demand for something. Successful real estate agents look for where the demand is, then figure out how to stand in front of that demand. During the recession, the demand was short sales. Nobody wanted to do them, because of all the work and communication it took. I had other agents who passed along short sales to me because at that time I was communicating that I was willing to put in the work to get them done. In today’s market, the demand is trying to keep up with all the requests for houses. How is my team standing in front of this demand? We look for houses that haven't hit the market, we ask for the opportunity, and we constantly try to build likeability and trust.
Our sponsors:
You can find my personal real estate coaching websitehere
And connect with me on ANY of the following social channels. I LOVE social!
And finally, if you would be so kind - leave a rating and review for the Onion Juice podcast on Apple Podcasts (formerly iTunes)
A real estate agent’s sphere of influence is one of their most important professional assets. Handled well, this relational network can become a lead generating powerhouse, fueling your real estate business for years (even decades!). But building your sphere of influence is more than a tactic or strategy: it’s learning how to build authentic, professional relationships with real people. On this episode, I will share 7 tips you can use to connect to your sphere of influence, even when you have nothing to say!
Tip #1: Planning an event is a great way to connect with your sphere of influence, and if done correctly, gives you a reason to talk to them up to three times! You can call them to invite them, talk to them at the event, then call afterward to thank them for attending. If planning the event seems like the hard part, remember that the whole thing can be planned in under five minutes...seriously! Call a restaurant and tell them you want to host an event during happy hour. Create a special order item that is named after your business (be creative...imagine patrons and bartenders shouting out the name of your company back and forth…), then order appetizers. Done!
Tip #2: Another tip you can leverage is to create a survey, then call your clients. If I did this, here are the three questions I would ask - 1. If you were looking for a house, where would you go? 2. If you were to refer an agent, who would you call? 3. Do you know anyone looking to buy or sell a house?
Tip #3: Have you ever thought about calling your clients and asking them if they would like to receive “Home Sold” alerts? It’s a great way to stay connected to your sphere of influence and provides useful information. This also allows you to make sure your email database is up to date. Once they agree, you can automate this process to send them emails every time a house in their neighborhood sells.
Tip #4: Everyone loves the idea of being a VIP, right? Reach out to your clients and ask them if they are on Facebook. Once you have found their profiles, add them to a private VIP group. This Facebook group is designed to cater to them and make them feel appreciated. One idea you can use is to buy a Starbucks gift card, then take a picture of it and post it in the feed. Tell the VIP’s it’s first come, first serve until the card is all used up. You can also post pictures of useful items that your clients may need that they can reserve! If any of you do this, I would love to hear what creative ideas you come up with to serve your clients!
Tip #5: You all know, I am a huge fan of newsletters! If you don’t have the resources to produce a paper one you send via snail mail, an E-Newsletter is a great alternative! Besides a reason to update your email list, you should call your clients and ask if they want to start receiving it!
Tip #6: This tip may not work for everyone, just depending on your comfort level...Call or text your clients and tell them that the market in your area is up, and you need listings! Ask them if they are looking to sell, or if they know someone who is. It’s straightforward but effective!
Tip #7: One of the ways I build likability and trust is the I Love Madison podcast. It’s a fun show that highlights all the great things about Madison, the city where I live and work. My hope is that people will get to know me through that show, and remember me when they need a real estate agent. I recently found out that only about 5% of my sphere of influence from my real estate business even knows the I Love Madison podcast exists! If you are a media company that happens to sell real estate, call your sphere and tell them about it! Ask them to follow your social media, listen to your podcast or watch your YouTube channel!
Our sponsors:
You can find my personal real estate coaching website here
And connect with me on ANY of the following social channels. I LOVE social!
And finally, if you would be so kind - leave a rating and review for the Onion Juice podcast on Apple Podcasts (formerly iTunes)
When was the last time you got a piece of real mail that you really enjoyed reading? Today on the Onion Juice, Michael Krisa from Service For Life!® joins me to talk about the power of the mailbox, specifically, a custom newsletter that they produce for me to keep me connected to my “power list” of past clients, friends, family and potential new clients. This newsletter is so important to me, it’s one of the top three strategies I focus on to attract business!
Real estate newsletters to past and prospective clients can be a fantastic and inexpensive way to build and maintain strong client relationships. I learned this from a mentor in the real estate business back in 2002, which resulted in the creation of my own newsletter I titled “The Mathweg Minute.” After the first year of creating and sending it to my list, I realized I did not have the time to produce great content as often I would have liked. That’s when I found Service For Life!®.
I used to produce every newsletter, which meant writing every block of content and planning extra content that I thought would help build trust and likability. Service For Life!® intentionally creates a newsletter with a “down-home look” my list raves about. It’s not the shiny, corporate direct mail that everybody immediately tosses in the trash. I include real estate information, of course, but Service For Life!® strategically includes “How-To” articles, trivia, tips, and humor to motivate the highest readership and encourage sharing. it’s NOT all about real estate, and that’s one of its success secrets…
The more you can communicate with your “power list,” the more successful you will be at attracting business! Michael says it’s “all about the touch points.” Loosely defined, a touchpoint is a place or point that a customer touches, or interacts, with your brand. When people read my newsletter, I hope that it comes across as warm, genuine and heartfelt, because that is exactly how I want to attract new clients. Imagine the business you could attract if a past client hands a well-crafted newsletter to a friend, and shares a positive story about you at the same time...the value of that interaction will far exceed the commission you make on it.
Raise your hand if you didn’t know there was a difference between marketing and advertising...Michael says marketing is the science of getting people to do something, while advertising just means you have a lot of money to burn. Each of the newsletters that Service For Life!® produces for me includes several call-to-action sections that encourage people to connect with me. I can set up a number with pre-recorded information about a property I am listing, offer tips like “5 ways to prepare to sell your house” and even a touch point that starts by asking something like “Would you like to know what your neighbor's house sold for?” These are all powerful hooks that are included, and the best part is, I don’t have to write them myself!
Our sponsors:
You can find my personal real estate coaching website here
And connect with me on ANY of the following social channels. I LOVE social!
And finally, if you would be so kind - leave a rating and review for the Onion Juice podcast on Apple Podcasts (formerly iTunes)