How To Reach More Fans Organically With Your Facebook Page

by justsellhomes | Dec 22, 2015 | Uncategorized

Facebook quietly released a new feature recently that is targeted towards providing marketers with better tools and increasing the value for its users. Its a tool that allows you to target regular, non-boosted posts, to a segment of your likes.

So for example, if you have 1,000 likes on your page but only 300 of them are actually from your local area, then you could target a post inviting your fans to a local event and have it only go to those who live locally! Considering Facebook only shows it to a select number of the people who like your page and then decides on how much further it will go after that, this has tremendous value to Facebook page managers in real estate.

So how does it work?

First you have to check that you have the organic targeting tool enabled. So go to your page and click on settings and in the general settings section make sure the part you can see in the image below is checked.

Now that its turned on your can write a post to go up on your website. Once you click into the box to write something you will see the targeting icon appear. This tool allows you to choose which of your fans will have that particular post show up in their NewsFeed.

It’s not as robust a targeting platform as you find in the Ads Manager but its enough to create more value in your posts to your fans. Now only those who the post will be relevant to can see it. This also means you can do several posts and target it to the right segments of your fans to make a more relevant message appear. If I’m doing a First Time Buyer Seminar maybe I target one post to the people in that age range and another post to their parents to encourage their parents to send them to the seminar.

The more relevant your message the more likely you are to get engagement.

With just the News Feed Targeting option people can still see if they come to your page or their friends engage with the post. If you want to restrict the audience even more you can go to the tab next to it and restrict the audience so that only people you pick in targeting can see it.

Test this out with your fans and see if you start getting better responses! Just keep in mind that your targeting has to include at least 20 fans so if your page only has 100 likes and you try to narrow the targeting then it won’t let you.

Have you found more success by targeting organic posts versus sending them to all your fans?

The Curse of Knowledge

by justsellhomes | Nov 23, 2015 | Uncategorized

The Curse of Knowledge in Real Estate is very real. It’s a problem that many people have and they don’t even realize it. It’s especially important when doing online marketing, like with blogging for example. Do you know what The Curse of Knowledge is?

The Curse of Knowledge is a problem that professionals have when talking to people outside of their industry, who aren’t themselves experts. It’s why when you hear a doctor or a lawyer speak to you that you often have to say “in English please”. So the terms you use every day as a professional, aren’t easily understood by those outside of the business.

Let’s look at a really basic example. You have a new listing so you go on Facebook and type in “Got a new listing today!”. Do you know who knows exactly what you’re talking about? Real Estate Agents. Of the general public, some will know from having bought and sold before, but some still won’t. They don’t use the term listing when talking about homes for sale. They say home for sale. So adapt your language to what the consumers use. Don’t use your language. You should think of it as joining the conversation thats already happening in the mind of your consumer.

You should be answering your clients needs. What a lot of people do is talk about why they are a great real estate agent. Why someone should hire them as a real estate agent. This is another form of the curse of knowledge. You are skipping steps. In your mind, someone hires a real estate agent and then buys a home. In the mind of the consumer, they want to buy a home and end up getting a real estate agent to help with that. They start with buying a home. So use your knowledge of buying a home, and help them learn about it. Give them as much of the knowledge you have as possible.

People are not normally coming to your website or your Facebook page to learn about real estate agents. They are coming to help them in the process of buying or selling a house. They want you to have the answers when they come to your site, they are pulling for you to be able to help them. That’s why they are coming there. They aren’t coming to be forced to register to view certain listings. They have questions and they want quick and easy answers. Give them a reason to stay on your site by sharing your knowledge, just make sure to use their language and not yours.

How many times has a client asked you “Hey what does “bwl” stand for in the description?” or about any of the other million acronyms that are seemingly made up? I remember when I first started in real estate, I had to ask what bwl meant the first time I saw it. Broadloom Where Laid by the way. How are consumers supposed to know that? Some consumers may not even know what broadloom is!

If you’re using insider language in your posts then they also won’t be found as easily by google. Google is going to look at the language you use and match it to what people are searching. If you only ever refer to a home for sale as a listing then someone searching homes for sale may never find yours. Use the language of the consumer, not your own. It’s the same reason I try not to use CTR, PPC, CRO, SEO, UI/UX, or a million other tech acronyms without first fully explaining them.

Know your audience and know the language that they use. Meet them on their level. Don’t assume they know your language. If you need to run it by someone outside of the industry then do that. Know start using the consumers language in your online marketing and you’ll see you will get better responses.

Intro to Facebook Ads Targeting

by justsellhomes | Oct 15, 2015 | Uncategorized

Facebook Advertising is becomingly increasingly popular with Real Estate Agents. A lot of people still do not take advantage of the biggest advantage of Facebook Ads; their targeting feature. It’s a great tool to be to leverage to boost ad performance.

So I’m going to give you a very basic introduction today to Facebook Ad Targeting. In the future I’ll provide some more in depth “How-To’s” for the more advanced users but today let’s start with a basic introduction.

On Facebook you will have to go to create an ad. When you do they are going to ask what your campaign objective is. For today we are going to simply pick “send people to your website”. When you become more advanced you will move to “Increase Conversions On your Website” but for beginners I recommend starting with just sending them to your website for now.

Once you click on send people to your website you need to submit the link of where you want to send them on your website. I do not recommend simply sending them to the home page of your website. Pick a page, or have a page built that is going to match the ad itself. By sending people to you’re homepage instead of a specific page you are going to drop the rate of people who convert into leads by a large amount.

Now you get to start targeting ads on your site. Facebook collects so much information about people its a really effective tool to target specific people. Just note that for those of us in Canada we have less targeting options than are available in the United States but the targeting here is still really strong. First thing you are going to do is target by location. Previously you could only target by cities, province, or country which made targeting specific areas hard.

In the past few months however Facebook has added the ability to either target areas by the first three characters of Postal Codes or by dropping pins on the map and choosing a radius. Let’s start by looking at Postal Code targeting.

When you are targeting by Postal Codes in bigger cities, such as Toronto, it is very useful. As you can see below, by targeting M5M it allows me to target a very specific area. If you’re a neighbourhood specialist in Toronto this becomes a great tool for spending your ad dollars to make sure it goes out to just the right people.

So if you live in an area with multiple postal codes then this tool becomes very valuable. Move out of the city where Postal Codes don’t cover as much area and some of the usefulness is lost. For example, in my hometown of Aurora the entire town is covered by the same three characters at the beginning; L4G.

So if you are trying to target a specific part of Aurora then postal code targeting is not your best tool. If you are in an area where one postal code covers a wider area than you want to target than you want to use the second location targeting option that Facebook has recently unveiled. That is the “Drop Pin” feature.

You can now click on Drop Pin on the map and then select where you want it to go.

By default Facebook will usually do your targeting with a 25 mile radius (They use imperial, not metric). If you click on where it says 25 miles you can go to custom and type in your own. So as you can see with the example above I have a 0.63 mile radius around where I dropped the pin. This allows for much more specific targeting for the neighbourhood(s) you want to target. You are able to drop multiple pins into the same map if you want to target multiple locations at once.

If you notice at the bottom of the map it says “Everyone in this location” by default. That means that anyone who has their device (be it laptop, phone, or tablet) inside that boundary can see your ad. If, for example, you are running an ad targeting sellers then you will want to click on the Everyone in this location and switch it to People who live in this location.

Now you can move on to the next step of targeting. By default Facebook will target users from 18 and up. Since most 18 year olds aren’t buying property I generally recommend raising it. What ages you target depends on your target market. If you’re targeting first time buyers you will keep it lower but if you are targeting sellers you are going to go higher because most people are in their 30s when they go to sell their home for the first time.

I will often target based on relationship status as well depending on my niche and price points. In a lot of areas in the Greater Toronto Area for example, single people will have a harder time buying anything but a condo. So I’ll target the ads to people in a relationship, engaged or married. If I was trying to target single buyers I would do a separate ad specifically tailored to single people to help them learn about the process of buying a place on their own.

You have a lot of other options for targeting as well. On the above photo you can see on the right side it says “Potential Reach: 16,000 people”, that means that there are 16,000 people who meet the criteria I’ve chosen with my ads. I generally have found that the lower that number is the more effective my ads are. I’d rather run several ads to smaller groups than one ad to larger groups. The more specific you can make your ads to an audience the better your ads should perform.

When you click on “More Demographics” one of the other great tools can be Job Titles. So if you have a major employer in your area you can now target people who work there specifically. How much better do you think your ad will perform if, for instance if you were in Oshawa, your ads would perform if you could tailor ads to people who worked at GM with a relevant ad that could hit a coord specific to people who worked there.

For beginners this is a good start for targeting. When you are looking at the meter on the ride side you should try to get that below 40,000 people you are targeting. I’ve found too that the more specific your audience the lower the cost ends up being as well so it can also save you some money too by being more specific.

Stay tuned for future posts where I’ll go more in depth on Facebook Ads and the different ways to structure them.

Tech Touchdown: Docusign vs. Repree

by justsellhomes | Sep 2, 2015 | Uncategorized

This is a blog post I’ve been meaning to write for a little while now and after a big discussion in a Real Estate Facebook group I pushed it up the priority list to write. It’s a look at Docusign and Repree and see which is better for your business.

Full Disclosure: I became a certified Docusign trainer when I worked for one of the big real estate brands and recently Repree gave me a demo account as well so I could become familiar with their system too.

I’ve also been given a demo of the Dotloop system recently with their head of training and tested out Dealtap. If there is enough demand for a comparison against Dotloop or Dealtap as well please let me know in the comments. Dotloop doesn’t yet have much of a presence here in Canada. I don’t know any Canadian agents currently on the system. That’s not to say they don’t operate here, I’m sure they do, I just haven’t spoken to any personally.

So let’s take a look at DocuSign vs Repree.

Ease of Use for Sending Offers

Docusign – I personally find Docusign for easy to use although I’m a little more on the “techy” side compared to the average consumer. As soon as you log in its very easy to upload a document, pick who to send it to, and have it sent. If you logged in and wanted to send something to be signed to multiple parties you could be logged in and have it out in under 10 minutes no problem. 5 minutes for the tech savvy bunch.

Repree – It’s pretty user friendly as well. When you first log in it does give you a quick tutorial on the main dashboard. It allows you to set it up quickly. If you just logged in today and wanted to create a new transaction from scratch it shouldn’t take too much longer than Docusign but it would take you longer I’d imagine. That’s not because its harder to use necessarily but the setup is a little different and Docusign has a set up that allows it be done quicker.

Slight Advantage: Docusign. It’s a simpler start up to get to the sending offers part and can be done quicker in my opinion but its only a slight advantage here for Docusign.

Ease of Use for Counter Offers

Docusign – Let me tell you a story that will accurately sum up Docusign and counter offers. When I took the course to become a certified trainer the Docusign Representative even said “It’s not really meant for that, it’s better to do negotiations outside of Docusign and then send final version through for signatures”. However, with that being said, its not that hard to do it, it’s just not as easy as it could be. Many will simply export the document to a program such as PDF Expert, make the edits, and then bring it back into Docusign. That process is still easier than printing it out, signing it on paper, then scanning it back onto the computer. They do have the ability to do some markups within Docusign but most regular users of Docusign I’ve spoken to bring it out of the program and edit elsewhere and then bring it back in because the outside programs are better to use.

Repree – Repree does a great job of making it easy to make and send counter offers. Right from within the app itself you can strike out terms of the offer you want to change, fill in a replacement and then tag it to get signed and initialed. Its very easy to do. Anyone should be able to use this part of the app effortlessly. I did encounter one issue with counter offers which I’ll discuss in the Work Flow comparison below.

Advantage: Repree – While Docusign still works well for agents it wasn’t specifically built for Real Estate. Repree was built with Real Estate in mind and handles the job much more seamlessly. Counter Offers is definitely a spot where Repree shines ahead of Docusign.

Work Flow

Docusign – This is a major strength of Docusign. I love the way you can set up workflows. It’s very easy to set it up so that you can input buyers, then when they are done signing it automatically goes to the listing agent who can then input his clients email addresses and then it flips it to the sellers. If anyone makes changes during the process it goes back to the top and goes through the workflow again. When its all done everyone gets a copy and you can set it up so that once an agreement is finalized it also gets sent automatically to your deals secretary or admin staff.

It also ensures that everyone signs and initials every spot that has been set by the agent who created the offer at the beginning. When the buyer agent doesn’t know the sellers emails (ie. 99.9% of the time I’m guessing) you can set it to allow them to input their clients emails and then it proceeds to the sellers. Very simple.

Repree – Repree also does a good job with their work flow. You can select from your list of contacts or you can put in new names while creating the workflow. Here is one drawback I did find while working with Repree though, when I, acting as a hypothetical buyer agent, sent an offer to my clients and they signed it, the offer was then sent to the listing agent. The agent then can input their clients emails, tells them where to sign, and then can make changes to the document. After the listing agent is done the offer gets sent to their clients. However, if the listing agent decided to strike out a term, put in a new one, and have their clients initial it, it doesn’t go back to the top of the workflow. It continues and says its a completed document. So the buyer agent would have to take the deal, re-upload it, get their client to sign it, and send it through the process again to get a finalized deal.

Advantage: Docusign – The fact that when you make changes to Docusign it sends it back to the top of the workflow automatically is a huge advantage. It’s an inconvenience with Repree when you have to then restart the workflow process to deal with changes made to an offer. It’s also a good feature in Docusign that the agent creating the offer is the one setting where both the buyers and sellers initial.

With Repree, when you are leaving it up to the listing agent to choose where to initial and sign they may not be as familiar with how the program works and could easily make mistakes. While its a solvable problem the goal is to create as seamless a situation as possible and a listing agent unfamiliar with Repree may need to spend some time asking for help on how to do it properly. I personally favour the method where the person creating the offer enters who signs and initials and where from the beginning.

Forms

Docusign – Docusign integrates directly with webforms. So if you’re using webforms this is a big advantage to you. Its simple and to the point. Everything you’ve already created in webforms in terms of templates can still be used. Not much to talk about here.

Repree – Instead of integrating with webforms Repree aims to replace the need for webforms. It has the forms directly built into the system for your convenience and use. They are updated regularly so you have the most up to date forms.

Advantage: Tie. This, in my opinion, comes down to personal opinion of individual agents. I’ve spoken to some agents who have used Webforms for so long and have it set up exactly how they want that they don’t want to bother learning a new system again . So a platform that doesn’t integrate with webforms is a deal breaker. For others they like the convenience of the built in forms into the Repree system. So neither side has a distinct advantage over the other, it just comes down to your personal preference.

Transaction Management

Docusign – The transaction management side is actually a separate entity from the regular Docusign product. So you have to also sign up for the transaction room side of it. It’s a very solid program that helps you manage the transaction. You can invite the right people into each room to allow them access to the documents they need. You can easily store records of all the paperwork. It’s a good product.

One really nice feature of Docusign Transaction Rooms as well is the ability to fax out of it. So if you’re working with a dinosaur and they still only want to deal with faxes then you can have it go from Docusign to their fax machine, they can print it out, sign it and make any changes they need to then fax it back into Docusign. Then it continues with the workflow from there.

Repree – Repree aims to be more than just a digital signature platform. It wants to help you better manage your business. You can create To Do checklists to follow every time you get a new listing. Your clients can be notified of progress being made on the marketing of the property. It all happens within the Repree platform. Documents from the transaction can all be stored here so its good for keeping copies. They do not have the ability to include faxing in and out of Repree however. With Repree you can manage almost everything about the transaction from the moment the listing agreement is signed until they’ve moved into their new house.

Advantage: Repree – Unless you find the ability to fax in and out very important the advantage goes to Repree. Personally I’d rather make the push to fax never being used again so its not really an issue in my opinion. Repree does a good job of helping you stay on task and get everything done on every listing efficiently. One of the best way to manage your time is to create better systems to manage your time.

Conclusion

After having tried both Docusign and Repree I found them to be two very different platforms. To unequivocally say that one is better than the other would be impossible. I think based on the features available it depends on what each person values. So you have to take a look through the article and decide for yourself which features seem like the most useful to you and your business.

I think in general terms if you are looking for more of a digital management platform you should seriously look at Repree as the better option for you. If you are just looking for straight signatures then the improved workflow experience of Docusign may make it a better option. With that being said a very simple tweak to the Repree system of having it so that when edits are made by the listing agent and signed by the seller that it gets sent back to the top of the routing order before being marked as completed would probably push their system back on top for that side of it in my opinion.

(For the “Buy Local” crowd, Repree is Canadian, Docusign is not.)

With technology companies they can move quickly with new features so in my opinion this article is accurate as of September 1st, 2015. Things can change quickly. If they do I’ll try to write a follow up.

Do you agree with what I’ve said in the article? Have additional input you’d like to share? Let me know in the comments below!

Video is NOT Just For Listing Videos

by justsellhomes | Aug 12, 2015 | Uncategorized

I often ask Real Estate Agents if they are using video in their business. Most generally give me one of three answers.

1. No, I’m not at all.
2. No, but I know I should and plan on doing it eventually.
3. Yes, I do video tours of all my listings.

There are certainly other answers I’ve received but for the most part, that covers the majority of responses to that question. However, none of them are actually the answer I’m hoping to hear.

Side Note: If you say you are doing video tours of all your listings and your video tours are slideshows of pictures set to elevator music, you are in fact NOT doing video.

Video has so much more potential than just for listings. With the quality of smart phone cameras now its so easy to produce video content and send it off. The biggest misconception about video is that it has to be for the masses. Video probably has even more potential for one to one communication now than anything else.

Let’s give an example, your client has been in bidding wars and keeps losing out. Well they finally got the house they wanted and won the bidding war. However, you are not able to be with them to convey the news. You could go the lazy route and email/text them saying “Congratulations, you got the house!”, you could pick up the phone and call them, or you could use video. You can either do real time video with something like Skype or FaceTime. You could also send a recorded video saying “Hi Guys! I wanted to let you know you guys got the house! Congratulations!”. Now they can see the excitement in your voice and the expression on your face.

That is going to build a much stronger relationship with them. Video, especially one to one video, is about getting people to Know, Like, and Trust you as much as possible. When people know, like, and trust you they are way more likely

It has so many possibilities, you can use it to boost Lead Conversion, Build Relationships with Clients and other Professionals, sending updates on the market, and more.

So much gets lost through text or even just hearing your voice. Having video on your side is going to do wonders for your business. The trick is to actually step up and do it consistently. It’s no big secret. It’s just getting your act together and actually doing it.

If you truly embrace everything that video has to offer and give it a chance then I can guarantee it will have a positive ROI for you. The question is, are you willing?

Some Tools that Could Help:

Skype – For Real Time Video

BombBomb – For Emailing Videos and Tracking It.

YouTube Capture – App for iPhone that makes it easy to shoot videos, do simple editing and uploading to YouTube.