![Facebook Special Ad Categories for Real Estate[Webinar Replay]](https://justsellhomes.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Untitled-design-99-1080x675.png)
Have you been impacted by Facebooks new Special Ad Categories as a real estate agent?
It’s impacting your ads, causing rejections, and generally is a pain.
We filmed a webinar so you can learn how to navigate the new rules and what your options are. Check it out below.
If you’d like to join our weekly email you where we share things we’re learning mentioned at the end you can click here to sign up for $10/month.
In this Over a Pint, Andrew is joined by special guest, Sepy Bazzazi from Realty Ninja to talk all things marketing in real estate!
Sepy offers a special deal for their new marketing blueprint program. Watch this episode, and if you’re interested, the info about it is listed below:
Dojo – The Blueprint for Real Estate Marketing Mastery: realtyninja.com/dojo
DISCOUNT CODE for 20% OFF: OVERAPINT
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Contact Sepy here:
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: instagram.com/realtyninja
Facebook: facebook.com/realtyninja
Twitter: twitter.com/realtyninja
Website: realtyninja.com
Got any topics you’d like us to cover in a future episode or a guest you’d like us to sit down with? Let us know in the comments below! You can also reach us on Facebook and Instagram.
One of the strongest tools you can wield as a real estate agent is your Google My Business (GMB). This digital more-than-just-a-business-card can significantly increase your visibility and provide the most up-to-date information about your business. If you want to be well-shown across Google’s search results as well as Google maps, you’ll definitely want to follow this step by step guide.
If you are a real estate agent that owns their own business or you belong to a brokerage, you are able to claim and optimize your Google My Business profile. By following the steps below, in less than two hours you’ll have a GMB profile that will be featured in a box on both mobile and desktop results of your name as well as related SEO terms such as “real estate agent near me”. You’ll also be featured on Google Maps as a local result of these searches as well!
Step One: Check The Status Of Your Current GMB Profile
Google your name and see if anything comes up. If you already have a GMB profile, the featured box will appear. If you made a profile from before and it’s outdated that’s okay! It’s far more important to work off the current profile you have rather than creating a second one as having two profiles will cause confusion among both existing and prospective clients.
Step Two: Claim Or Create Your GMB Profile
If you already have a GMB profile, look for a link that says “Own this business?”. Google occasionally changes this wording so it might not be those exact words. You will want to click on that link and proceed from there on completing your profile.
If you do not have an existing GMB profile, you will need to go to business.google.com and create your profile from there. Whether you’re starting from scratch or building from an old profile, it’s important to put in an email that is not your personal email address. As this will be an account that will likely be shared with your team, you will want to put an email address that you will feel comfortable sharing with employees.
Step Three: Follow Google’s Prompts
Google will prompt you for basic business information such as your name, address and phone number. In order to make your profile as strong as it can be, make sure you include the terms “Real Estate Agent” or “Realtor” following your name. This will ensure that the GMB algorithm puts you in front of people who are looking for your services.
There will come a point where Google will ask you to choose a categories that define and describe your business. Do not be tempted to click on as many as you can think of, pick ones that are directly related to your business. Two good examples are “real estate consultant” and “real estate agent”.
Step Four: Verify Your GMB Profile
Once you have completed populating your profile, Google will send a postcard to the address you listed on your GMB profile. This postcard is important as it has a unique verification code where you will be able to finally verify your business. Sometimes, Google allows you to verify through a text, call, email or Google Search Console. These options may or may not be available depending on Google’s updates. Be prepared to wait a couple of weeks before your business information is fully visible and verified.
Step Five: Optimize Your Profile
While you are waiting for your GMB profile to be fully verified, this is the perfect time to provide as much information to Google about your business so that you can present it in the best way possible to searchers. Some examples of important business information you can provide are the services you provide (think “Home Valuation Support” or “Buyer’s Consultation”) as well as business hours. Make sure your business hours are up to date as this will increase searcher trust of your GMB profile. Another great way to optimize your profile and garner trust is by adding photos and videos related to your business. These photos should be high quality and not stock photos. The more photos and videos you put of your work the more likely searchers will click through to your website. Finally, if you are claiming an existing profile, it’s possible you may already have reviews on your profile. If that’s the case, reply to each and every review you get. This demonstrates that you are easily accessible, you care about feedback and that you are always looking to improve.
These five steps are a great starter guide to maximizing your GMB profile. If you want to learn more about additional tools that you can use as a real estate agent to amplify your GMB profile, please reach out to us here. We’d love to provide a deeper dive on claiming and optimizing your Google My Business profile.
“Images help build relationships. You need to have a balance between being a superhero and being relatable.”
For this Over A Pint, Andrew heads outside of the real estate industry and sits down with John DeMato, a branded lifestyle, portrait photographer and virtual photographer. John works with speakers, trainers, experts of all different kinds, and business owners looking to create an emotional connection with their audience through “persuasive visual storytelling.”
John talks about creating a balance between content that positions the client as the authority in the space of their expertise. A combination of powerful images, whether in person or online, and mixing that with a look behind-the-scenes. Showing your day-to-day and process into becoming that industry authority.
When the pandemic hit, John quickly pivoted to virtual photography while he was sick with the virus.
Below, Andrew and John discuss photography during COVID, John’s professional journey up to now, and more.
The idea came to me while I was sick with COVID and feeling terrible. I watched a national speaker association event for the New York City chapter online, which I’m a photography sponsor for. It was during that event that I thought I could feel useful again and do something. So I grabbed my camera, and while I’m slumped in the chair, I started snapping away. Pleasantly surprised at how the images turned out, I shot the rest of the two-hour program and posted about it on social the following day, tagging all speakers and participants. The responses were so positive that I knew I was on to something! But mainly, I was just happy to feel useful and more like myself again.
So, once upon a time, I worked in the television industry, and I was ready to jump out of a window from the monotony of doing the same thing for nine years. I didn’t know what I was doing with my career, and I didn’t want to own a business, but I ultimately concluded that I wasn’t doing something that was lighting me up inside and fulfilling me creatively.
I started my venture as a headshot photographer, but again it didn’t satisfy me creatively. So I started searching for other options, and I found every photographer that inspired me and tried to emulate them. However, I had no clients, to begin with, except for one. My one client was someone I met about four years ago. She met me at an event that I was photographing and hired me to take some photos to promote her book. During that conversation and during that shoot, I realized I could package this idea and gear it towards experts who have a lot of intellectual property that needs to be promoted.
Over these past four years, various iterations and refinements have happened to my business, mainly how I create the experience for my clients and maximize the value of a session.
Watch the video above to find out more!
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Want to connect with John? Visit his website here.
You can also catch this episode on Youtube or listen to the podcast here!
Got any topics you’d like us to cover in a future episode or a guest you’d like us to sit down with? Let us know in the comments below! You can also reach us on Facebook and Instagram.
“If you want your employees to deliver remarkable experiences, you have to expose them to what a remarkable experience looks like.”
In this episode of Over a Pint, Andrew sits down with Joey Coleman, author of Never Lose a Customer Again, to discuss client relationships and elite customer service.
Starting as a Criminal Defence Lawyer, Joey gained an in-depth understanding of why humans do what they do and how we can influence them to do what we’d like them to do.
Joey then went on to be a business consultant, teaching students at the postgraduate level, running a promotional products company and an ad agency, and being a full-time speaker, writer and consultant on all things customer and employee experience.
Joey has an innate interest in human beings and the experiences that we create for people, whether that’s in a courtroom, pitching an ad or selling a home, the experiences that we create dramatically influence how people feel about us, how they think about us and how they talk about us. Using these factors, Joey has pieced together his experience and interactions over the years in a variety of different careers to create a formula and methodology for creating remarkable experiences that keep your customers coming back for more.
Automaton is not bad or good. From a business owner’s point of view, or from a salesperson point of view or a real estate agent point of view, there are some real benefits to automation. It allows you to serve more people in a shorter amount of time or at the same time. The problem is when automation does two things, it diminishes personalization or eliminates personalization. When automation is not done transparently, you can make your customer or your prospect or your lead feel less than personally connected to you, which will have a long-term detrimental effect on your business, on your operations, on your goals, on whatever you’re trying to accomplish.
If we use automation to increase our response time, I think automation can be incredibly useful. In terms of transparency, a chatbot should immediately identify itself as a chatbot and a robot, so there’s no illusion of what’s happening, and the customer can accurately manage their expectations. It’s also essential to have a human checking in on conversations and responding before the individual escalates out of it.
Combining automation with personalization is the key!
The research shows that websites with a personal spirit, a personal voice, convert exponentially better than those who are “professional.” Your website should become a character of yourself and accurately capture your spirit. Also, your team should have a bio page on the website that includes their photo and a description of what they do professionally as well as some highlights of what they do personally.
Sharing this type of information allows the viewer to make a personal and emotional connection to your business. The more personal information we share with our prospects and with our customers, the more connection we’ll be able to create.
Well, if your team doesn’t know what excellent service looks like, they won’t be able to provide it.
The biggest problem with getting employees to deliver remarkable customer experiences is twofold. Number one, they’ve never had a remarkable customer experience. Number two, the experience they’re having as an employee of that organization is anything but remarkable. If you want your employees to take care of your customers, you have to take care of your employees. If you want your employees to deliver remarkable experiences, you have to expose them to what a remarkable experience looks like. It’s that simple, but it’s not easy.
If the item has your logo on it, it’s not a gift. It’s a promotional product. It’s a marketing tool. I’m not against promotional products. I’m not against marketing tools, but let’s stop diluting ourselves to think that it’s a gift.
Instead, I like the idea of giving a present that is so thoughtful. That is so carefully conceived that it lets the recipient know that you were paying attention. Even when they thought you weren’t paying attention, you’ve observed something. You’ve investigated something. You’ve paid attention to know that something would really move the dial.
So many entrepreneurs, in my experience, flood their new customers with information. Recently working with a coaching client, we found that in the first 30 days, they sent 78 pieces of content, and their target market felt overwhelmed.
It’s important to look at the communications you’re having and give your audience time to breathe between communications.
Reviews and feedback are two separate, yet similar things. Often, businesses confuse whether it’s more important to go after the review or go after the feedback. I would say it’s first and foremost important to go after the feedback because the feedback is a real-time evaluator on how you’re doing on delivering a great experience to your customers.
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Joey’s book is called ‘Never Lose a Customer Again,’ and it’s available in hardcover and as an e-book. Joey also has a podcast where he discusses all things customer relationships and experience.
You can also visit joeycoleman.com to connect with Joey or download a free starter kit to show you how to implement remarkable experiences in your business.
Got any topics you’d like us to cover in a future episode or a guest you’d like us to sit down with? Let us know in the comments below! You can also reach us on Facebook and Instagram.
Many REALTORS run ad campaigns to get online leads and make this one simple mistake that can cost them a lot of money in the long run.
When a person opts to receive something of value from you, whether it’s information on a listing, a free home valuation, a buying/selling guide, etc.… they want something from you to become an online lead.
The majority of real estate agents, if they even have a thank you page, say, “Thanks, we’ll be in touch” or some equally dull language that ends the process right there.
Guess what? This is just the START of your relationship with this person. Don’t just leave them sitting there alone after they expressed interest. Keep being awesome.
You can set the tone for your relationship going forward, tell them what to expect, show off your personality, and have a little fun with it even!
Side Note: Personality is the most significant thing missing from 99% of real estate marketing. I’ve been in the real estate industry long enough, and I know you guys have it, so show it off!
“You double-dipped the chip. You took a chip, had a bite, then dipped it again”.
The Double Dip Offer allows you to offer them something of value related to what they just did.
As I mentioned in this post about real estate seller ads, I only call it a Double Dip Offer because I’m a big Seinfeld fan.
George Costanza is arguably the best sitcom character of all time. The 🐐 if you will.
Here’s how it works. Let’s pretend the person opted-in on an ad about getting a list of homes for sale that matches their criteria. Right there, you have a couple key pieces of information.
On the thank you page or even the thank you screen of a Facebook Lead Ad Form you can say “Your list of homes will be in your inbox
shortly,” then follow it up with “Do you need to sell your current home to buy your next one? Click below to find out what you would get if you were to sell your current home.” then change the button from “View Website” to “Order Custom Home Valuation Report,” then it just forwards them to your home value landing page.
They opt-in to that landing page? Send them to a page about downloading a guide on how to prepare their home for sale. They opt-in to that? Send them to another piece of value.
Overwhelm them with great value. Show how much you’re willing to do for them for free, imagine if they hired you!
Run out of ideas of things to have them opt-in to again? Send them to client testimonials or the search listings pages of your website and let them take it from there.
Double, triple, even quadruple dip. Just go elbow deep right into that dip.
Every time someone opts in to become an online lead, it shows how much better of a lead they are and gives you even more information about them when you follow up.
Pro Tip: If you’re sending them something and it’s going to arrive in their inbox automatically, set it to delay sending. If the form you’re asking them to fill out would take 5 minutes, have the email arrive 7 minutes later, so they don’t leave the page to check the new mail.
On top of that, you can double down on the double-dip (Wait, does that count as quadrupling down? I don’t know, math isn’t an exact science) and run Facebook ads to people who made it that far to get the double-dip offer if they don’t opt-in.
You can treat your Facebook ads like a drip campaign, just like you can with email. It’s just a little more complicated to set up, but once you do, it’s a beautiful thing.
Am I weird for thinking a Facebook ad is a beautiful thing? Nope, I think it’s normal. It IS a beautiful thing.
I’m going to come clean; I didn’t come up with the Godfather. Not my idea at all. It comes from one of the top Facebook advertisers out there at generating online leads, Nicholas Kusmich. One of those online marketing experts who actually knows what he’s talking about.
He introduced me to the idea of the Godfather offer. Why is it called the Godfather offer? Pretty sure he’s a fan of that movie. I’m sensing a trend here.
What does everyone want to know about the leads they’re generating? It’s simple. They want to know who is looking to buy or sell in the next 30-90 days. Those hot leads that are ready to go.
Those leads that make you believe again. That make the sunshine a little brighter and you high five Karen in your office because you just found that beautiful, ready to go customer and don’t care about the fact that Karen keeps stealing your coffee pods.
Instead of calling them all and trying to find that little slice of heaven, have them put their own hands up. We do that with the Godfather offer by making them an offer they can’t refuse.
If someone was thinking of selling their home very soon, what could you offer them that would make them put their hand up and be like “YES! I want that! LET” S DO THIS!!! AAHHHHH!!!”
Here’s how it works; they opt-in to your “what’s my home worth” campaign, or another similar offer to become an online lead, and you say:
“Thank you. Your home value report will be in your inbox in about 10 minutes, thanks to the magic of email automation!”
“Are you planning on selling your home soon? We have a special offer just for you!
If you book a call with our team about selling your home by clicking below we’ll give you everything you see here to get your home sold faster:
Here’s the beauty of the Godfather Offer, for the most part, you do not need to offer any more than you already offer every single client. You just need to write it all down and show them how much they’re getting.
You can certainly offer more, and there’s no reason you can’t. We’ve seen everything from cash back, reduced commission, and anything else you can think of. It’s your business. Just think about everything you can realistically offer, then offer it.
My personal recommendation is to run it at the beginning with the things you’re already offering everyone.
We’ve seen opt-in rates on those between 2-19% – the 2%, and the entire Godfather offer was just “HD Photos.”
That means that anywhere from 2-19% of the leads could potentially put up their hand and say “Yes, I’ll take that offer! Let’s talk about listing our home!”
The thank-you page is such a powerful tool that so many overlook. Whether its a double-dip offer or the more direct godfather offer, use the page to provide even more value to your potential customers.
Make sure to repeat the offers in your follow up email and retargeted Facebook ads. This way, you can make sure they see it!
Thanks for reading this post!
Do you want to start getting better results from your online marketing? If you book a 15-minute call with me about how we can do it, I’ll even waive your entire set up fee. That’s right. I’m Godfather offering this blog post 🤯.
Is that like an Inception level Godfather offer?
Ok, enough movie references. Get out there and just sell homes!