Property management – as it is known – or as it was known in Australia for the last 50 years is undergoing a massive shift – and the trends discussed here open the door for property management holding companies that take advantage of these trends to consolidate power across Australia and multiple states.

Also taking advantage of these trends will allow real estate companies to remain competitive, thrive and dominate in their area.

Everything I speak about I have witnessed in working with, and speaking with real estate agents in the real world – so this is not some “armchair academia” type piece – so I apologise in advance if it is a bit more informal – I believe if you adapt these changes in your holding company or your property management company you will see a sharp increase in closed property managements and retention of your current rent roll.

So… let’s get straight to it – ACTIONable points based on trends.

Tenants do not want to speak to you (Property Management AI)

Based on in-field research not only do tenants not wish to speak to their property manager directly – but they report much higher satisfaction scores from dealing with an AI based rental system like Rental Heroes vs. dealing directly with their property manager.

Think about it – in these days of instant – on-demand services – tenants expect to be able to open an app and report any property issues with a few presses of a button – take a photo of their issue – answer any relevant questions – and then await a time and date for when a tradesperson will come to fix the issue (or if any other information is required).

Not only is this a win for the tenant but it is also a win for the property management company – who will no longer need to handle tenant complaints/issues and deal with potential interpersonal conflicts.

And even finding a tradesperson to fix an issue is once again something that can be done automatically or by a centralised/white-label service – so if 90% of your property manager’s time is being spent handling tenant issues than that is an issue and a massive opportunity for streamlining costs.

2) Following Through and Being Honest is not a Differentiator (Property Managers ➝I nvestment Acceleration Specialists)

It is very rare to see landlords thrilled with their property management company. While it is not politically correct to say this – most investors see their property manager as a sort of “tax” that they have to pay to receive their investment income – sort of like a gas bill.

Of course property manager do much more than this – they have to find a tenant and get paperwork signed – but once everything is setup things go on auto pilot – and especially if you have a multi year tenant lease many investors can look at a property management fee as one big expense without a lot of upside.

For most property management companies their point of difference is literally “we do our job” – as this screenshot below illustrates:

A typical property management company whose point of difference is that they “follow through” (as opposed to… not following through and doing anything?) – and they communicate “factual information” (which I guess is better than lying to everyone).

On a serious note most property management companies offer bare bones service and are only used because they’re in the area so to speak – which as we’ve learnt from trend #1 is going to be less and less of a competitive advantage as time goes on.

The solution to this is to start offering investors MORE – more value – and the best way to do this is to rebrand the “property manager” to an “investment acceleration specialist” – your team must be repositioned from the “people that collect the rent and call pest control/tradespeople when issues come up for an investor’s tenants” to investment specialists that advise an investor on how to maximise their income –

Because let’s be honest – when all is said and done – all that matters to an investor at the end of the year is how much money they put in their pocket from the investments that a property management company manages – everything else is wondow dressing.

You would think property management companies would spend some time figuring out how to help the investor achieve this – but you’d be wrong.

Calling competitor’s investor clients and simply asking if their property manager has ever spoken to them about rental increase strategies/tax minimisation/legal compliance and fine avoidance – and offering a trial or refund guarantee for a service makes easy pickings for any property management company that is willing to put in the work to easily grow and dominate (especially when this sales effort can be systematised) [link to REAA].

3) You Don’t Need to Tell me Where the Bathroom Is (Contact-less Inspections)

Sure – you might say – tenant issues can be handled through a centralised white label service but the property manager is still required to do property inspections for new tenants.

That will always be required – right?

Well – actually, no.

There are all ready a number of software and hardware solutions to automate property inspections – and these will actually be a win-win for the tenant and the property management company.

Firstly – we all ready know that forcing potential tenants to inspect properties at a time convenient to the property manager all ready scares away many high quality potential tenants (surprise, surprise – the best tenants actually have things to do at 1pm on a Wednesday when the property management company forces applicants to inspect – or whatever it is) – which leads to issues down the line.

The other option is flexible inspections – which means most property managers are running around showing properties and filling their calendar up (and cursing no shows) – an expense that simply cannot be maintained moving forward.

By the way – as someone who was looking for a property earlier these inspections are never fun for the tenant either – after running 15 minutes late due to traffic I called the property manager who was meant to show me the property – only to not be able to reach them, followed by being told that the inspection cannot go ahead because the property manager had to rush off to the next inspection – as someone who pays my rent on time and stays in a property for multiple years – I chose not to deal with that company because I am petty (and they lost another potential tenant to select from).

So – what’s the solution?

One doesn’t need a crystal ball to see the future because most of what I am talking about all ready exists.

In fact if you want to know what property managers are going to be doing 5 years in the future just look at what AirBnB owners are doing right now in the USA and other countires.

Hardware like the Igloo lockbox along with a key GPS tracking system allows you to grant one time PIN codes to people inspecting a property – and having the key attached to a GPS tracker means no one can take it away and duplicate it (you want to have every precaution – and I tend to always err on the side of caution).

Since you will only be granting the one time PIN code to potential inspectors who would ideally – share their details with you the chance of something happening is very minor – you can also install a motion detection camera at the front door if necessary.

By the way this isn’t some futuristic tech pipe dream – doing a personal calculation based on the items I’ve mentioned (and I have provided the links above) comes to the following:
1) Igloo lockbox – $179USD
2) Key GPS (optional) – $40
3) Motion dection camera (optional) – $179 (Nest camera from Google which will give you time stamps and video of people coming and going)

For a total of under $400 you have a system that can be installed in any property which removes the headaches of in person inspections – makes life easier for the tenant (believe me – the tenant does not want to inspect a property that they are looking to potentially live in long term with someone standing over them telling them obvious things like “this is the bathroom” and other un-necessary information) – much less doing it with 4 other strangers who are inspecting the property as well.

P.S. At the time of writing Kogan has a sale on motion detection cameras for as low as $38 – which drops the whole package down to under $260 for one property

However the amount of people inspecting the property can also drop dramatically and save effort for everyone with of course…

4) The 3D Virtual Tour

3D Virtual tours are here – and they’re not reserved for film makers – the equipment required to create a virtual tour is dropping significantly – in fact if you have a centralised office you can bring tenants in and give them virtual tours using a 3d headset (isn’t the future amazing?).

Again even writing this sounds like something out of the future – but all of these things are not only available now – but are also very competitively priced.

The Virtual tour has a number of benefits – as potential tenants will be much more engaged in properties where they can look around in first person rather than looking at photos from the side – especially because every tenant knows photos are taken to make the property look as attractive as possible and may not always represent the true spatial dimensions (especially with the selection of certain lenses that make rooms look bigger than they really are) – a virtual tour (or 360 photo) eliminates this.

By the way you don’t have to worry about buying 360 equipment – because with services like Snappr – you can login and schedule a photographer to come in and take all the 360 photos you want – and it’ll only cost you around $179 per property (sometimes less) – and Snappr is available anywhere in Australia as an on demand service.

The most popular real estate directoreis/platforms like Domain all ready have 360 photos allowed – and I want to stress the “contact-less” nature of this. Because you can get the photos taken by a photographer who you can grant a one time pin to – using the Igloo lockbox (in the previous point) – and it’ll save time for everyone as you will only get tenants that are 100% serious about moving in – since after a 360 tour the physical inspection is most of the time a mere formality.

Along with a digital signature service like Docusign – you could have everything signed and ready pending a physical inspection for move in – and make everyone’s lives easier… the new tenant could even have some of their items to move in on the first inspection.

5) The BDM Property Manager Hybrid

In the future there will be no “property manager”. The idea of someone whose job is solely to show people around properties, attend to tenant issues, shortlist applicants and chase up rents will not exist.

The reason for this is – as stated before – most of these jobs will either be outsourced to AI software like Rental Heroes (for issue management) – with inspections being replaced by hardware/software solutions – and any other remaining issues outsourced to a centralised white label property management service.

However even though many of the traditional jobs that the property manager does now will become extinct this is not to say the job itself will no longer exist – it will – however it will simply evolve to a Property Management/BDM hybrid.

There are all ready “Property Management BDMs” out there – or property managers who also have the dual responsibility of developing business now – however this will become standard in the future. Any property manager that does not possess BDM skills will find it more and more difficult to find a position in any real estate agency that is looking to streamline its services.

While many of the tenant facing services will be white labelled – the investor facing services will need to be doubled down on. The one with the gold makes the rules and the investor – who will have more and more options for the management of their property – will expect more in the future (tenants will always just want a place to live without anything breaking down etc.)

The Property Manager BDM will be responsible for closing and retaining current business (many property management companies lose approximately 10% of their managements every 6-12 months – a management retention campaign could be the best investment you ever make in your business – since a 500 managed property rent roll would lose 50 managements a year – so plugging up that hole would be extremely valuable).

As far as Business Development goes however this will not involve making continous calls to investors and turning a real estate agency into a call centre – rather this will involve talking to investors and learning how to bring value to those investors – in the form of tax minimisation, legal protection and asset maximisation strategies – and engaging in conversations with investors in assisting them in these elements.

The property management company that can retrain their property managers into Property Manager BDM’s will thrive – my REAA package includes the first step to doing this – lowering your retention rate and also setting up a foundational proven system to grow your rent roll on auto pilot (without acquisiton).

Well that’s it for the trends – the reality is that while technology is evolving rapidly it does take a lot of time for traditional “status quo” industries to catch up – for now managements may seem safe but the market is poised for a huge disruption by a player that can reposition itself from simple “rent collector” to “investment acceleration specialist” company with a trained property management BDM staff and scale nationwide with a centralised support team and contact less inspections (which by the way will make all the COVID avoidant people very happy).

The question is not will it happen – but rather will you be positioned to ride the new wave or will you be one of the company that is acquired and gobbled up.

By implementing this strategy, you’re going to be able to increase your appointment rate—especially if you feel that your current system isn’t working right. I bet that you will be able to increase your appointment rate by at least 400%. And even more importantly, prospective property investors or sellers are going to be excited to work with you and see you as their number one choice. 

Let’s start by looking at the most common mistakes real estate agencies make when creating a cold-call appointment booking system.

Mistake #1 – Not rejecting themselves early & using email software

Your email list is powerful. In fact, email remains a powerful medium to generate sales. We all know that. But what you might not know, is that mass marketing email software is useless in the current market. Here I’m referring to programs like MailChimp, Aweber, or several other mass marketing email software packages. 

Let me explain why I recommend that you throw all of the stuff out. Firstly, nobody is opening up email newsletters in 2021 anymore. The reality is that there’s already too much information floating around on the internet. 

However, your biggest problem isn’t that people are ignoring your email campaigns. The problem is that most people—even your happiest customers—aren’t able to see your email campaigns.  

I’ll prove it to you, and this is something you can try out for yourself. If you create a Gmail account, you will see at the top of your window a tab called promotions. Do you know what that is? When you send mail through popular email marketing software such as MailChimp or Aweber, it leaves a digital trail. If Gmail gets even a whiff of that digital signature, that email is stored under the promotions tab. Which means your prospects will never see it.

 What normal person would click on that promotions tab to read all their spam email or access old email newsletters? It seems to me that only a crazy person would do that—not exactly the kind of customer you want. 

Mass marketing email software is ineffective in 2021. What you want to do instead, is send an email to your entire prospect list from the email address of the staff member who’s about to call on the phone—using that staff member’s email signature. What do you write in that email? Tell them the truth: that you’re about to call them because you want them to become your customer. The important thing is to give them the option to opt out of being contacted by providing a link.  

Just be upfront. Hey, we’re about to phone you and give you a sales pitch. We want to talk about what it would take to make you our newest client. But if you don’t want to hear from us, please press this button. 

In this way, the customer can opt out of hearing a sales pitch before you even make a call. So when your sales staff phones them, they’re not going to be rejected outright. Which makes it much easier to make cold calls—and takes away the biggest obstacle people have for calling up someone they don’t know. 

This is a way for prospects to give you tacit approval to reach out to them and basically see if you can do business (especially when combined with the strategy from the next section). This is also going to get buy-in from your sales staff, especially your property management team. And believe me, you’ll hear fewer excuses from them like: Our investors don’t want to hear from us; they don’t want to hear our sales pitch; or they don’t want us to bother them. 

Since the customers have already given their tacit approval, your staff will have less reason to complain. Which will lower your staff turnover. Who do you think is going to burn out faster—the staff member who phones prospects who are already willing to enter into a conversation, or the one who faces repeated rejections over the phone? 

Allowing prospects to opt out of being called, is an easy solution to a difficult problem. On the cold emails I send out, I have three unsubscribe links and I get a 10% unsubscribe rate on those emails—which isn’t bad at all. How do I handle those people who opt out of receiving a call? I keep my word. They will never hear from me again. 

In summary, get rejected earlier. It will lower your turnover rate.

Mistake #2 – Narcissistic Marketing

I’m going to tell you something you probably already know. You’re not the only real estate agent in town. You’re also not the only property manager in town. Here’s something else you probably already suspect: nobody reads your blog posts. 

I know SEO. Check out some of the case studies I feature on my website. In one particular case, I generated $71,000 worth of additional organic traffic for a customer. Trust me when I say that most real estate agents don’t get the right information about their content strategy. The problem is that most real estate agents use SEO agencies that know little to nothing about real estate or how that industry works. 

Let me go back to the telephone for a second. The one thing your real estate agents and property managers probably don’t want to hear when they pick up the telephone is the following: “Your pitch sounds great. In fact, we are looking to sell our home/we’re not happy with our current property manager. Why don’t you send us an email? We’ll look it over and talk later.” 

What does the agent do? They send an email explaining why they’re the most amazing real estate agent in the world, and then they beg the customer to pick them. Which turns into more follow up phone calls and more emails—which is about the least fun part of being a real estate agent. Who wants to be the guy who has to make all those calls and send all those emails? It’s no wonder staff turnover in real estate agencies is so high. 

The issue is that when they pick up the phone, they give no additional value to the prospect except pitching a commercial to them. Switching from narcissistic marketing to value added marketing is the greatest gift that you can give yourself, your company and your agency’s income. 

If you look at real estate agency websites, they look almost identical. From their websites you would think that all agencies are the same. But from my conversations with real estate agents, I found that every real estate agency is unique. Every real estate agency has a different approach and methodology. Some only do auctions. Some don’t do auctions at all. Some focus on the interior decorating to position a home—while others literally manage and do entire renovations on homes.  

Let me ask you this: in the last 5, 10 or 15 years of operation, did your agency pick up a thing or two about selling or managing properties? Have you learned anything about getting results for your customers? Did you learn anything about sales—about facilitating faster sales times, achieving higher property values, and going through the process with less paperwork and stress? As a property management, did you learn to lower vacancy rates, achieve higher rental yields, and lower maintenance costs for your clients? 

Now, answer this question: Do you think the insights you picked up over the years of  serving customers could benefit your future customers? Of course they could! And do you think your future customers would appreciate learning about your insights? Absolutely! So why don’t you create a piece of content—especially a video—around one of those insights? 

You could then send a link to that video content to a customer who asks to be contacted by email—instead of your normal sales pitch. This is highly effective. Why? Firstly, because people will actually watch your video. Nobody’s reading sales pitches or blog posts anymore. 

Secondly, video content will position you as an expert in your field. It will also give you the benefit of the celebrity effect. When people see someone on video, subconsciously they start to see that person as someone important—even though almost anybody can make a video these days. 

Video is a great way to get someone on your wavelength and bring them over to your point of view. It will make them more inclined to work with you. You’re going to give them insights, and you’re going to change their focus to the solutions you’re able to provide them. 

And finally, sending out content emails will save you time. It will save you from having to repeat the same information in every sale appointment because it will already have been covered by the video content you sent out. Which means that you can put more of your focus on meeting your prospects’ unique needs. You will close more deals, faster, and easier. 

When you get into the habit of creating high quality content, people are going to look forward to hearing from you. Your sales team is going to have a much better time engaging with prospects—and they will actively buy into the process. 

Which means you’re ready for the next step.

Mistake #3 – Failing to check the pulse

I’ve got an uncomfortable truth for you: Your prospects will lie to you. Most people lie to themselves on a consistent basis. It’s just the way the world works. Prospects will lie to you for various reasons. Maybe they’re afraid to tell you how desperate they are to find an agent and sell their property as quickly as possible—or how horrible their current property manager is and how much they want to get rid of them. 

Why would they lie to you? Because they’re afraid you may use that information against them—even though you need the right information to solve their problem quickly. 

Some prospects are going to be very friendly—but no deal is forthcoming. Other prospects are going to be gruff and closed off, but they’re dying to make a deal happen. 

Most real estate agents have no idea where they stand with their prospects because they don’t check the proverbial pulse. How do you read a customer’s actual intentions? With a little-known tool called “read receipts.” 

Do you know what a prospect does after you get off the phone with them and you send them video content? Do they open the email? Do they watch the video? Do they watch the video once, twice, three times? Do you even know how to find out? 

Let’s look at the problem of getting buy-in from your property management team or your sales team. Perhaps they complain that it’s a waste of time to call prospects because they’re just not interested. Wouldn’t it be useful to show them a report that some people clicked on the video you sent out once, twice, or even three times? (I’ve had prospects click on a video 13 times or more.) Wouldn’t such a report be useful for your sales and property management team to do follow up?

What’s more, could you think what a lovely conversation they could have with the prospect—asking them what they thought about the video? Or how would you like to go into a sales appointment or an appointment with an investor knowing they’ve watched a whole bunch of content? Do you think it’s going to be easier to win over the prospect and make a deal happen? 

If you follow this approach, you’ll stand out from every other property manager and sales agent in the market. I can guarantee they’re going to see you in a different light. At they very least, they’re going to remember you. If you create a sequence of highly valuable content that you send prospects, they will remember to keep the appointments you make with them.  

So check the pulse. Turn your real estate agency into an on-demand appointment generating machine. Turn your staff into a group of people who enjoy their jobs and are sold on what they do—because they’re not annoying people with commercials anymore.

Mistake #4 – Bad Data and whistles

Now I’m going to mention a topic that’s really boring: the organisation of your data. Part of my technical background is custom designing CRM systems. Over the years, I’ve used every CRM under the sun: HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho, you name it. Unfortunately, most are more trouble than they’re worth. 

Now, CRM systems are valuable in theory. They’re useful out of the box—until you need to adjust the software to suit your specific needs. This usually means that you have to send an email to customer support, wait two or three days for their response—only to be redirected to a 200 page manual to fix the program yourself. Does that sound familiar? What’s worse is that by that time your data is already trapped in the software and you can’t get it out. Which is not a good position to find yourself in.

I’m not going to tell you how to organise your data, but I can give you advice on software that will make your organisational work easier. When it comes to generating appointments over the phone, I like to go with a lean, mean piece of software. Preferably software without all the bells, whistles and distractions of these large CRM packages. What you need is a tool to sift through your data to extract the gold nuggets before you enter that data into your CRM.

What would I recommend? If there’s one tool that everybody on your staff already know, it’s Excel. But Excel lacks a lot of the database functionality of a CRM. So what if I told you that there is a tool that combines the functionality of Excel with the benefits of a database like a CRM—without all the bloat? A tool that is also fully customisable out of the box? Wouldn’t that be cool?

There is a piece of software which combines all of these features, and it’s called Airtable. Airtable is really easy to set up and to customise to your heart’s content. What’s more, they already have real estate solutions for you to use. In my experience, you can set someone up on an Airtable and get them using it proficiently in five minutes or less. 

There’s a saying that the best CRM is the CRM you actually use. Well, I use Airtable every single day and I love it. 

Mistake #5 – The Big Blue Cancel Button (Scheduling Software)

Online calendars and scheduling software is nothing new. What is new is all the creative ways you can use these tools to get buy-in from your prospects when you book appointments—so that they actually keep their appointments. 

Let me share the strategy that gets me one to five appointments with top real estate agents every hour with ease. I will also show you how to apply this strategy to your own real estate agency.

My focus isn’t on overcoming a prospect’s objections to booking an appointment. Rather, I focus on making it as easy as possible for the prospect to cancel an appointment I already booked with them. Then I use the power of my follow-up sequence (I call it the “power sequence”) to get buy-in from the prospect so that they look forward to engaging with me in future.

I find that it’s easier to book appointments with prospects if they feel that they can easily change their mind and back out. This also helps you to separate those prospects who are truly interested, from those that aren’t. Which means it’s a win-win for both of you.

If you think about it, an appointment is really nothing more than a tentative callback. When your property management team makes sales calls, all they’re doing is getting buy-in from prospects for tentative callback times. Then it’s the job of your amazing video content and your power sequencing to lock in those appointments. This is how you get a team who may not all be sales superstars—especially on the property management side—to easily book appointments and have those conversations.

On the practical side, don’t send the client an invite link to book an appointment for themselves—book it on their behalf. Here I recommend Calendly scheduling software. Anybody can be easily trained to use their system. You don’t want your staff spending all their time booking and confirming appointments. Let Calendly do that work for you.

In my appointment booking emails, I include an automatically generated big, blue Cancel Button to make it easy for prospects to back out of an appointment. I also include a link at the bottom of every email which allows prospects to easily reschedule or cancel the appointment. Which makes them feel a lot more relaxed.

A callback appointment doesn’t have to be for 45 minutes. All you need is an 18 minute callback time. I can guarantee you that once a prospect goes through your power sequence (which includes the video content that you’ve developed), they will want to make a lot more time to spend with you.

Do you see the potential for this system to book more appointments and rapidly scale your agency?

Mistake #6 – Lacking Beautiful Positioning Forms

Many agencies have a form on their websites the prospects can fill in to request an appraisal. Then, once they have a meeting with your agents, they fill in a physical form while the agent asks them a bunch of questions.

But is it really a good use of your prospect’s valuable time to make them fill in two separate forms? Couldn’t the prospect fill in the same information prior to the appointment—and allow you the time to use that information to prepare for the meeting with them?

Welcome to “beautiful positioning forms.” I have an example here which I use on my own website—a form that has helped me scale my business from charging between $1,000-$1,500 to $5,000 a landing page. 

You can tell your scheduling software to send this form to the prospect automatically once their appointment is booked. Your property managers shouldn’t be emailing these forms, these forms are sent out automatically.

The key is to use the process of the prospect filling out this form, as just another way for you to position yourself as the number one choice for property management services in your area. How do you do that? By asking the right questions on the form—questions that illustrate how you’re the perfect agency to meet your prospect’s goals. 

For example, you could ask them about their current property manager. You could find out how much rent they are collecting on the property—much rent could potentially be collected from the property through rental optimization. This question makes them consider whether they could be getting more rent. It also puts the idea in their head that your agency might be able to help them achieve those higher numbers. 

You’re not making promises you cannot keep. Rather, you’re positioning yourself as somebody that’s asking the right questions. You’re a company that understands what the prospect is trying to achieve. You’re working with the prospect to achieve their goals. 

On the other hand, if you put an expensive-looking form in front of the customer to fill out, is it going to convince them to work with you, or make them wonder whether they can afford your services? Can you spot the difference? 

Remember, the pre-appointment form is not just about getting information, it’s about positioning yourself in your client’s estimation. This will further shape their opinion of you before you walk into that sales meeting or pick up the phone. I’m obsessed with the word “positioning” and use it regularly in my everyday conversation. 

This is because the way you’re perceived by your prospect prior to the appointment is going to determine the likelihood of you closing a sale.

Conclusion

The common denominator I see in all the top producing real estate agents I speak to, is that they’re willing to invest aggressively and proactively into their own self-development and education. That’s why I would like to congratulate you on finishing this article. You’re investing in your own personal growth, learning, and also your agency’s growth. 

If you can see yourself implementing the system I’ve outlined in this article, I would love to have a further conversation with you. 

If what I’m writing here makes sense to you, why don’t you contact me? Please use the “Book a Consultation” link below to schedule a tentative callback. Choose a time that will work for you and let me know if you’d prefer a phone call or a zoom call. I only need 18 minutes of your time to see if we can do business together. 

If you don’t want to make use of this opportunity, that’s fine by me. At the very least, I hope this article sparked your imagination and gave you ideas which you can implement in your own business.

I just recently cleaned my letterbox, which was well overdue. There were lots of letters, especially from real estate agents. I work with real estate agents, so I thought I should make a video about it!

The thing with letterbox drops, is that the principles that apply online, apply offline as well. Many of the same principles apply with the letterbox drops, apply with Facebook advertising and your online landing pages as well. They just have a different medium. 

With that said, it helps when you research what your competitors are doing! This can be difficult as some of them aren’t in your area. So, I thought it would be interesting to see who is doing it right and who is doing it wrong. So, let’s talk about the principles and start rating them!

Principle 1: Open Your Window to the Soul- For A Reason- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Showing Yourself

Some people reveal too little (moving somewhere with family), too much (which bores the prospect), or nothing at all (being a professional of 25 years). These strategies don’t work very well.

Introduce yourself as a real estate agent. Tell people who you are and include photos! With a photo usually comes a bio, which is very important. It creates a connection between the prospect and yourself. People don’t want to look at pictures of buildings. 

How do you write about yourself? What do you write? Well, I will show you some examples of how to do it correctly and how to do it incorrectly. 

The Generic Insight- Forgettable

The generic insight is where people will make themselves look like a 2D cutout. One example is with Carmen Briggs. The letterbox says, “Your local agent, Carmen Briggs, is passionate about people and helping them to achieve their dreams. Selling a property in the Inner Western suburbs of Brisbane for over fourteen years has not only given Carmen intricate knowledge of the area and its changing market dynamics, but also an extensive and loyal client database… exceeds their expectations…. personal commitment.” 

She is the agent I would choose to use, even though she doesn’t have a good bio.  So just because the bio is off, doesn’t mean they will be terrible. The bio is just a great way of presenting yourself. 

One way to check what you’re saying is to ask yourself if it has relevance. If you say you’re passionate, well, is that relevant? Would you really say that you’re not passionate? Everyone would also say they’re committed to customer excellence. Therefore you’re not positioning yourself different from others in any way by saying these things. Some things mean nothing and can be copied and pasted on any website. It’s forgettable, and when people read it, they zone out.

The Irrelevant Insight

An example of this is, “Steven stepped out of his civil engineering career in 2015 and joined his wife, Kathleen luck, in their small family business. He wanted to create a better work life balance for his family and support Kathleen in the growth of their real estate business, situated in Brisbane’s inner West suburb of The Gap.”

This bio is better than the original one I showed because he reveals personal things about himself. This is great, but the problem is, a lot of the stuff is irrelevant. For example, being in civil engineering doesn’t have anything to do with real estate, and he’s basically saying he dropped out. So, not the best way to start.

Another example is saying “I like basketball”, which is also irrelevant. Although it’s a nice gesture to reveal things about yourself, there’s not much to be said there. People won’t say, “that’s great. I want to use you as a real estate agent,” after simply hearing that. Again, It’s irrelevant.

The Shoot Yourself In The Foot Insight 

This is where you say things that make it better for you not to have said anything at all. In this next example, she has a photo which is great, but then she describes herself as a mum, driver, chef, tutor, cleaner, nurse, family planner, financial controller, and one of Brisbane’s most refreshing real estate agents. 

As you can see, most of these have nothing to do with real estate. They come with lots of questions. I would take out a cleaner, because is that really what you want people to think of you? I would take out the driver, because what does that mean? We all drive cars. I would also take out a nurse. Does that mean you’ve been a nurse and just started doing real estate? Maybe this means you tried different things and aren’t reliable. Overall, this is a shoot yourself in the foot example where you’re bringing people in but then turning people away with what you say.

The Conversion Implication Insight – Ray White Example

This is the gold copywriting standard of how to write about yourself. This example is from Ray White and her team of copywriters.

“Bridgette’s fascination and appreciation for real estate was established many years ago, having had a father who was a builder and a property developer. Bridgette fully understands the stresses in buying and selling houses, having bought, sold and renovated many of her own properties prior to her entry into the real estate industry. When you couple her local market knowledge with family values, integrity, and her proven track record as a real estate agent professional, Bridgette has to be your first choice.”

The wording is beautiful and amazing. You find out things about Bridgette that have meaning and implication with it. It shows that she has experience through herself and her father. This is pertinent to the value she provides. 

By saying, “Bridgette fully understands the stresses in buying and selling houses”, she again speaks to the prospect by showing how much experience she has. When you talk about yourself in this way, you’re telling a story and sending a message to the reader. You’re showing your value. This is a perfect example because this is what will get people to call you.

Principle 2: A Picture Tells a Thousand Words. What do your photos say about you?

You Want to Show Your Window to the Soul. 

Look into the camera. Our eyes are so essential and say many things. We also connect with people this way. For example, in this picture she is looking at the baby and not the camera. When you aren’t looking at the camera, it makes it seem like you are hiding something.

Avoid the “Combat Stance”.

How you stand is so important. In this example, one of the guys is holding his hand around his private area, like he’s defending a soccer goal. Don’t do a soccer stance! You want to have an open stance. Also, don’t put your hands in your pockets like this other man. This makes it seem like you are uninterested. 

Move to the side, smile and stay relaxed. Confidence is attractive! The lighting is also important. Find a photographer who understands lighting and visual cues!

Bonus Tip: Generic and Irrelevant Stand Ins

This is where you have a photo of something that doesn’t matter. It has nothing to do with the website or content itself. For example, this photo of a house and a dog. This is a fantastic brochure, but the photo is generic. I see this on so many real estate websites. 

Some also put photos of the insides and outsides of homes. Both of these are forgettable and add no value. The top conversion optimization experts know how important people are in this situation, that’s why car commercials and insurance commercials have pictures of actual people. 

Use Your Family.

This may sound bad, but families comprise the largest target market of property purchases. 

So, create photos of you and your family. A great example is the post by Remy Duriieux below. Whenever you go on a family outing, take pictures and upload them! This builds trust, similarity, and a connection. They say, “Oh, you have a family, I do too.” You’re much better off using a picture of you and your family in your bio. This makes you a real person to your prospects.

Principle 3: Be More than Just a Pretty Face- Pretty vs. Conversion Optimized Design.

Whenever people go to make websites or pamphlets, they focus on making it look pretty. This is great, but there is a difference between making something that’s pretty and something optimized for conversions. These are two separate skill sets. If I had to choose one, I would choose the one optimized and written very well. When your copy, layout and focus points are out of whack, it can break you.

Layout Hierarchy.

Make Certain Things Bigger. 

For example, your awards! When you make your recent property sales bigger, you’re not achieving much. You’re supposed to sell properties. No one is impressed (unless you sold it over a reserve, within a quick turnaround, or set a record for the suburb of the street). 

Below you see some serious accomplishments that should be made bigger. For example, “Agent of the year for The Gap”, “No 1 sales consultant residential” and the other awards are small. These are huge achievements and should be put in a prominent position. This usually happens because women are encouraged to be humble, but this is not a good strategy if you are advertising.

Make Certain Things Smaller. 

For example, sections for selection of recent property sales. People expect you to sell properties! This is not important. No one will be impressed by this. 

Remove Some Things. 

Remove what doesn’t add to your cause and things that work against you. Example: how many offers were on a property. If you only had 2 two offers, and put that on the letter, this wouldn’t give many people confidence in you. Putting that you had 3 inspections and only 700 views is also not impressive! I would completely remove this section.

Focal Points. 

What are your eyes drawn to first, whether with a letter or on the internet? Your eyes go to whatever is highlighted. So put focus on impressive numbers rather than their titles! 

Understand what you want to bring attention to. If you’re writing a long block of text, highlight what’s important, for example, the 21 offers made, and 83 buyer inspections in 24 hours from the example above. Make them red and bold as a vocal point. Also highlight years of experience. The property is not what matters, it’s the results you achieve with it.

Overall, your brochure can look pretty, have the perfect color scheme and still fail you. You need to make achievements bigger, past property sales smaller, remove unimportant numbers of inspections and offers, and draw eyes to what’s important.

Principle 4: Go Narrow and Flood —The Importance of Consistency.

If I look at letterbox drops, the one thing you’ll note is consistency. Everyone has sent me one letter. Ray White has sent me three items in a relatively short period of time. 

Why is this important? You need to narrow your focus and go into one area/suburb and flood it with a ton of repeating messages. This creates a more focused budget. Going off a smaller area brings more success than trying to reach everyone.

This concept also applies to facebook. People think it’s a one time thing- you pay facebook and leads come. Sometimes you have to wait- 7 times.

Most advertisers do the same thing- pay for one advertisement and wonder why they aren’t getting results. The truth is people have to see things multiple times for it to click and for them to remember it. 

This is what I do with my clients- even if someone books something with me, I send a ton of content before the appointment. The reason is I’m positioning myself in the appointment so they know who I am. Also send emails, which is another thing I do. They tell me they’ve never had someone email them so much – but they end up watching my videos.

Principle 5: Don’t Insult a Customer’s Intelligence.

“Obligation Free Appraisal”, “Free Appointment”, “Free Appraisal”

Putting this on a letterbox drop is sleazy. What does this mean anyways? If they come into your office, are they obligated to do business with you? 

No one charges to book an appraisal. It’s expected to be free. No one will be excited to meet with this real estate agent for saying this. 

Instead talk about what they’ll receive in the appraisal. Provide a personalized marketing strategy (based on your experience of selling 500+ properties in your area). If you do facebook advertising, provide a custom demographic report as part of the appraisal appointment. Show them the audience you will target on facebook.

Principle 6: Men Lie, Women Lie, Numbers Don’t – Using and Positioning Numbers to Increase Conversion

Decide Which Number You Want to Display

People trust numbers because it’s harder to refute. This shows you are trustworthy. People are very skeptical these days, so be specific. Saying “our customers trust us” won’t make people trust you.

Zac Tully Example

The example below is very popular with new agents because they have to prove themselves. 

Saying, “83 buyer expectations in 24 hours, 21 offers made, 6,885 views online, 50+ buyers still looking for a family home in Ashgrove” on your letterbox drop is a very smart move. 

Use great numbers of buyer inspections, offers made, and views online. Use numbers that are believable. These numbers show that he’s good at selling real estate. 

Another example is showing the most recent sale and showing the amount of views his property got compared to average on the site. This shows how much traffic he drove from facebook to the property. 

Don’t Use Numbers Against You

Don’t use low numbers. This will just work against you. Remove numbers not adding to the cause. For example, “3 open homes, 2 offers, and 19 inspections”. This is not impressive and brings you down more than helping you.

7. Ray White’s Secret Weapon – All the Powers Combined

Be Different

Most of the letterbox drops are saying, “look at me, pick me. I can sell your home.” What Ray white does is offer a report, which gets a high retention rate and makes it real. People will not toss it out.

Easy To Do

The great thing about the reports is it shows recent sales, which aren’t all sold by Ray White. So even agents starting out can make a report like this.

Hyper Localized

 Ashgrove is a very small suburb, it’s not North Brisbane or Brisbane, it’s one suburb. A property report for your suburb is unique and hard to get. It’s not something they’ll be able to find at the book shop, that’s for sure.

Numbers

The “Houses and units sold last quarter” section don’t all have to do with Ray White in ashgrove. So, you don’t have to use your own numbers. The numbers build a case by showing median sale price. This is great because it’s not just saying, “look at me”, it’s giving numbers. It’s giving solid evidence.

Great Copywriting

Also write a bio and show what you can give, like the one below. It gives testimonials. In this case, a great copywriter is vital. Also, don’t be afraid to toot your own horn. You are advertising and need to show what you can do. 

8. Summary

Think About Your Value 

All of these concepts apply to any online marketing you do, whether it’s emails, facebook or phone calls. People want to know statistics about their own suburb. So, use the statistics for the concentrated area. You also need to understand how to communicate and know the value you provide. This is why localizing your work is so important. It helps increase your value.

Use A Follow Up Strategy 

This is like what I’ll be doing. I’ll be sending this out to real estate agents and making sure they watch it. Check your own letterbox drops and all marketing materials. Advertising is very important.

Shift Your Strategy Towards Value

All the value you create will be useful for your online strategy, letterbox drop and follow up strategy. It’s easier to follow up when you have something to follow up with.

I want to be completely transparent about my strategy. I hope you’ve gotten some value from this. This will give you a better eye for good and bad advertising and you can use it in many of your own advertising strategies.

Many real estate agencies are advertising on social media. However just because a major real estate agency uses Facebook ads does not mean that they are doing it correctly.

And this is not a guess – I’ve been speaking and auditing Facebook websites and speaking to real agents in Australia and seeing the results they have been coming up with. Many don’t even know how much leads they are receiving because their traditional agencies is pushing stats like views or impressions etc. – after speaking face to face with real estate agents in Australia I have come up with and the truth is after researching and speaking to not only agents but successful advertisers I have come up with cutting edge research – not available anywhere else – where I can show you what is – and what isn’t working when it comes to getting appraisal appointment leads on Facebook in Australia.

By the time you finish watching this blog you will learn the mistakes that 99% of real estate agencies make when they start advertising online – which will help you save tens of thousands of dollars and learn information that even the top Facebook agencies don’t know about when it comes to filling your pipeline with leads.

In the first section I will talk about the biggest mistakes real estate agencies make when advertising on Facebook and in the second section I will give you the full blueprint of not only how to advertise and fill your selling pipeline with leads but also show you how the top 1% of real estate agents are all ready doing this with a real case study.

1. Spy on your Competitors, just don’t assume they know what they’re doing (or that what’s good for the geese is good for the gander)

Facebook’s ad transparency initiative means you are now able to see what ads your competitors are running now and in the past – across Facebook and Instagram.

Do you think if you were looking to start advertising on Facebook it might be a good idea to check out what others have been doing – and what’s worked and what hasn’t worked for them?

Just go to any company’s Facebook page and scroll down to the ‘Page Transparency’ section – click ‘See All’ then scroll down and click ‘Ad Library’ – voila – you know have the Facebook advertising blueprint for some of the biggest real estate companies in Australia.

This means you can go to the Facebook page of realestate.com.au – who spends hundreds of thousands on Facebook every year – and find out exactly what ads are working for them right now – or you can go to the biggest real estate agency in your city and see what ads they are running.

Before you start copying or getting inspiration from other real estate company’s ads please keep the following two points in mind:

• Realestate.com.au is not even a real estate agency so their Facebook strategy is going to be completely different to yours – it’s a great place to find ideas but you must understand they have completely different goals – which is not getting property appraisal appointments – which is what you want.
• Just because a successful real estate agency has a Facebook campaign does not mean that they’re successful because of their Facebook campaign. This is a mistake I see a lot of real estate agents make where they’ll come to me and say “Well we want to be like this company and this is their website” – and I say “Their website is horrible – it’s terrible.”

Most of the time when I research this “big and successful” real estate agency I find out the reason for their success usually has to do with their consistent and unrelenting client follow up strategy or some other reason – but in many cases it’s not because of their Facebook campaign.

Some of the biggest real estate agencies that I’ve spoken to have had Facebook campaigns where they didn’t even know how many leads they were getting, the lead acquisition system was completely broken and their advertising agency was pushing numbers on them like “Total Impressions” which means nothing.

2. Stop Treating Facebook Like a Magazine (Because it’s 2021)

News flash – Facebook is not a magazine – yet advertisers are still obsessed with treating it like one. What do I mean?

Well let me ask you this – if you were advertising in the year 2050 in a magazine and you had the option to advertise in a magazine – but you could have a video play on the futuristic paper or have a still image – what would you choose if you had a choice? -and they said to you —

What do you think would grab a user’s attention more? A video – or a still photo?

And what if you were told that both a video and a still photo cost the exact same?

What would you choose?

Now what if you were told that it would cost you $1 for every person that viewed your video and $7 for every person that viewed your still, boring photo.

What sounds like a better investment?

If you think you’d be crazy to not use video – then yeah – you’d be right. And that’s exactly what most companies are doing.

In fact the biteable.com research found that the cost per click on a video ad was $1.19 vs. $7.11 for a static image.

But Facebook doesn’t just have video ads – they have Gallery ads and Instant Experience ads – they make such an effort to give you creativity and stand out – but of course most media agencies whoa are used to advertising in magazines still don’t get it.

“But we don’t have the budget for a commercial” – you may be thinking.

Sure – but do you have 4 images you can put together into a slide show? There are online tools you could use to put this together in as little as 30 minutes – no big Hollywood budget required.

And this is coming from someone who specialised in video production and has been responsible for many commercials – and I can tell you – it’s not necessary.

But how do we use video ads specifically for getting more appraisal appointments – well we’re going to get to that!

3. Stop Giving “Fake” Value – Start Giving “Real” Localised Value

Since we know that nobody on Facebook cares about your business and only wants what’s relevant to them many companies make the mistake of creating “reports”. You’ve seen these – the 5 tips to sell your home in 2021. The 5 tips on how to manage your property in 2021. Whatever it is.

Long story short – not only do people not care about your business – they also don’t care about reports. The market is flooded right now with information products – especially in the real estate field – and there is a flood and over saturation of this type of content.

Also creating generic reports like this is lessening the value that you can give to your prospects – you need to create content that plays to your competitive advantage.

And what is your competitive advantage? Well if you’re a real estate agency – many real estate agents say they are the “Local experts” – and that’s what your value should demonstrate – not only is this better for the prospect but by doing this you position yourself as the No. 1 choice in your area – not just a great real estate agent.

For example – did you just sell a property in your area that set a record for the highest price, perhaps you’re more of a hands on agent and you did some renovation for your client prior to the sale in the area you serve. Maybe you’re a property manager and were able to significantly increase one of your client’s rental yields – sellers are looking to hear information like this – especially if it’s in the area where they are selling.

And later on in the ‘Blueprint’ section of this blog I’m going to show you exactly how an agent has applied this exact strategy successfully – so stay tuned!

4. Behold the Power of the Emoji

Plain text is boring – and as an advertiser you want to ensure your ads stand out and capture the user’s attention right? How else can you ensure your value proposition is read and connects with your audience?

The problem is unlike others – whose friends are actually interested in what they have to say – very few people are interested in what a company has to say about themselves.

When creating your Facebook ad you want to create engaging content that people will read – but at the same time you know that no one is looking to read an ad when they land – much less a long one.

So when you have a message that’s longer than the typical 6 word Facebook post – on a platform where no one is looking for you to come in and state your piece – how do you ensure that it actually gets read – and stands out?

Well what if I was to tell you that you could do this using a technique that most people on Facebook don’t even use – which is free to use – makes your message be 50% more visible and won’t cost you a cent extra?

Well – here it is. Behold the power of the Emoji!

People LOVE emojis – they can break up your text. What looks better a bunch of bullet points like this?

Or a bunch of bullet points like this?

You can use emojis to make your text powerful and because they’re so rare and so few advertisers use them (because they don’t know about them) – much less people that use Facebook. Emojis – combined with powerful copy targeted at the right prospect will PULL the person into your copy.

You can find a list of all the supported emojis on Facebook using this link

There are emojis for every need – and I’ll go through how to use emojis for real estate ads specifically on Facebook after this!

5. Don’t Buck the Zuck (Please the Facebook Lord – and Keep People on Facebook)

Mark Zuckerberg is the guy who runs Facebook – and if you want to be successful on Facebook you have to understand Mark’s philosophy on how advertising should work on his platform, how the advertising platform works on a technical level – and understand -how- Mark Zuckerberg’s goals and work within those.

This is what separates those who know how to post an ad on Facebook – and those who make millions of dollars year after year exclusively from Facebook advertising and dominate the competition in their industry – -and I’m going to break down these- – let’s break each one down.Segment your engaged audiences – Mark’s goal with all aspects of his Facebook platform is to ensure that the end user is served with the most relevant content – and that the user keeps scrolling. The longer a Facebook user scrolls on his phone – the more ads Mark Zuckerberg can serve that user – the more that user will come back again and again.

Tracking and Segmenting

Mr. Zuckerberg has created one of the most sophisticated systems to track how engaged a user of his product is with the content his system serves.

We’re not just talking about whether someone clicked on your ad – we’re talking about, did they hover their mouse over your ad, did they click on ‘Read More’. Do you have a video ad?

Well you can see how many people watched it for 5 seconds, for 15 seconds, for 30 seconds – and we can even segment those audiences and say “Let’s show everyone who watched the ad for longer than 30 seconds… another ad!”

Not only do you have access to all this tracking information – but you can build audiences around how engaged prospects were with your ad – and re-target those audiences. For example let’s retarget everyone that wathed 15 seconds or more of your video ad but didn’t get in contact.

This is why it’s so important to start advertising earlier rather than later on Facebook – because even if your campaign is a complete failure – you’re still getting data and are able to build custom audiences of people that at least decided to give your ad a little bit of attention – and then retarget those audiences!

Ad Variations – Utilise Facebook’s AI Machine

You must understand the Facebook AI machine. Facebook doesn’t have ‘editors’ per se – like a magazine – who decide – on a human level what should be shown and what shouldn’t. Instead what is shown on Facebook is determined by the “algorithm” – and those that understand how to work within the algorithm – and give it what it needs are rewarded and win – those that work against it lose tens of thousands of dollars and are run off Facebook.

So what is the secret?

I’m going to tell you now – the secret is – you need to give the algorithm as much data points as possible so it can work with you to optimise your relevancy score. What do I mean? I mean if you have an ad – you can create 5 text variations – and 5 image variations – and combine all the different combinations into 25 separate ads and then let the algorithm do the rest!

Most people just create one ad – sit back and then see it fail and then create another ad and try that. You want to avoid this.

Keep them on Facebook – Messenger Ads

The final way to not buck the Zuck – is to keep people on Facebook and avoid external links! Most ads you see are trying to navigate users away from Facebook to a landing page – however you don’t need to let people leave Facebook to get their details and start a conversation and sell your service – especially if you’re a real estate agent.

Facebook incentivises and rewards advertisers who create ads that keep users on the Facebook platform instead of navigating away from it – and this makes sense of course – the longer people stay on Facebook the better.

But it’s not just a benefit for Facebook – using tools such as ad to Messenger and Lead Ads you can increase the amount of leads you receive by removing the friction that a landing page creates. This is because instead of getting the user to type in all their details – their name, phone number etc. you can have Facebook pre-populate this information for you – and the less your prospect has to work the more likely you are to receive more information.

Oh – and if you get someone to get in contact with you through a Messenger ad you don’t just get their name or email – you get their life! You can do all kinds of research on the prospect before you even reach out to them – this is all valuable information for follow up – so take advantage of this!

6. Put Yourself Last, But Do Put Yourself – and Give the Deets

Many companies start their advertising talking about themselves and (obviously) – how great they are. They go about this in different ways but more or less the message is always similar – we are amazing – you should definitely work with us – we will do the best job possible.

The problem is there’s nothing you can really say in this regard – about your company that will be taken seriously or be welcomed. People on Facebook are not looking to learn more about your business.

But no matter what you say – or what value you can give outside of saying “We’re awesome” – you are going to have to say who you are – because that’s going to show as your profile when you post an ad – so when you do mention yourself you need to do these two things to avoid the most common mistake real estate agents make.

Firstly – put your phone number in the ad! Facebook has no policy against having your phone number in the ad itself – forget about your big flashy logo and instead include a phone number.

And – secondly when you do mention yourself make sure you include a photo of the actual agent or person inside your company. Make it personal. I see a lot of ads by real estate agencies where they have a photo of some building and then their logo in the bottom right hand corner – listen nobody cares about your logo or a building or house – unless it benefits them.

However if you are going to include info about yourself then make sure you give a direct mobile number at least – so people know how to call a REAL person.

Again – I want to stress this – nobody is impressed by big logos or big brands saying how big and important they are on Facebook. You’re pretty much the company equivalent of the guy who posts on Facebook to say how he has too many friends and he’s about to unfriend some – it comes off as douchy and does not fit the culture of what Facebook is.

Keep in mind I’m talking about leads – some may say this is not the best way to build a “brand” but you’re not on Facebook to build a brand – you’re on Facebook to get leads and position yourself afterwards.

Now I’m going to show you how to put all these tacts in the next section.

Practical Case Study: Behind the Scenes of a Successful Facebook Ad Strategy – How the 1% of Real Estate Agents Do it Differently

So now – hearing what works and what doesn’t is great. But let’s actually go behind the scenes of an agent who is putting all of these strategies together and is making a killing on Facebook.

Anyway let’s go through the anatomy of a successful ad.

Let’s look at 2 ad variations so we can figure out why they work:

Ad Variation #1:

Now why is this ad so great? Let’s see how it conforms to the model that we discussed:

Emoji Time

You can see the finger used for the bullet points. This is eye catching and creates a more friendlier and casual outlook – much more than these big blocks of text that nobody is going to read.

Also you’ll notice that there’s really no big block of text. The ad is getting straight to the point – with a real estate agent you don’t need to have a ten page story – people get the idea – you sell homes.

Real Localised Value

Here the agent Remy is showing the prospect what was achieved with a home that was just sold and offering to show them the price if they click ‘Learn More’. You’ll also see there’s a street name and a suburb name – now imagine if you live in this area – this agent has positioned himself perfectly, very quickly with numbered statistics – which is always important – he didn’t start with “I’m a great agent that’s focused on results” – he gave numbers – and numbers on a very specific piece of property.

Now the value here comes in because imagine you live in this area and you see this property sold on Cambridge Street – you’re going to say “Oh, I know that street – that’s just up the road right? I’m curious how much that property sold for – sure let me know.”

This is localised value – people want to know what homes sell for. He didn’t give out a report like “How to sell properties for more” or anything else – he’s giving unique knowledge that only he has – there’s no one who is looking to sell their home who is not curious about how much other homes are selling for – and this is very fresh information.

Notice the agent says “just sold” – in other words this information is probably not even in the public registrar yet. It’s fresh!

Facebook is not a Magazine Concept

Not using Facebook as a magazine – in this case this agent Remy could have just used a single photo but he didn’t – because Facebook is NOT a magazine. You’ll notice he used an image gallery ad – and he uses an identical ad but uses a video instead – here is the ad with the video:

Now you’ll notice in this ad the creative and even the images used are exactly the same – the only difference is that in this case rather than using an image gallery ad Remy has taken the gallery and used a simple video program to create a video that cycles through the images – by the way – lots of tools online to do this – it’s not that hard – you don’t need a professional sales team.

The reason this is smart on Remy’s part is that he is feeding the Facebook algorithm with different variations of his ad and allowing the algorithm to determine which ad to use and when to optimise his results – which in this case is to get people to start a conversation by clicking ‘Learn More’.

Putting yourself last

You’ll notice in the video at the very end Remy puts his personal details including his mobile number – and he does this in the second to last ad on the Gallery. This is a great way to get those direct calls – I can imagine myself saying “You know what let me call this agent direct and ask him how much that price is” – and once your ad has opened up that conversation your Facebook ad campaign has done its job – now it’s your ob as an agent to either book an appointment, call back or start a follow up sequence.

By the way I can tell you that with this type of ad you’re going to get enquiries from people who may not be looking to sell their home for another 6 months – you may even get enquiries from just curious people – but you’re going to be casting the largest possible net.

When you start an ad – as a real estate agent with something like “Look at how amazing we are, we can sell your home, we are the local experts” or whatever generic thing you want to say the only enquiries you’re going to get are people who are looking to sell their home right now – if someone is looking to sell their home later they may raise their eyebrow and consider you in the future – the old “awareness” and “top of mind” that many advertisers talk about – but I’m sure you’d rather be creating contact with these people and having a follow up strategy – because there’s no better way to stay top of mind then actually speaking to someone and calling them back.

Click to Messenger Ad

Finally I want to stress – and this is not shown in my demonstrations but this ad is a ‘Click to Messenger Ads’ – which means that when someone clicks on ‘Learn More’ they start a conversation with the company through Messenger and are taken through a multi step questionnaire to qualify themselves as a valuable lead.

If you are a real estate agent – stop using landing pages. An ad to messenger allows you to get all the information you need from a client and also allows the client to autatomically fill in details like their phone number and email with one click – eliminating friction in your lead generation process.

Also you can see when your prospect has read your message and you can easily follow them up with new information as necessary and keep yourself top of mind – but really you should be getting on the phone with the prospect as soon as possible!

Summary

In this blog I went over the most common mistakes that you see real estate agencies making – along with how to fix those problems – and finally we ended with a real case study of an agent that is getting extremely good results from Facebook – and I know this from first hand knowledge.

This blog should be the blue print for your online strategy when it comes to generating seller leads on Facebook. While the strategies outlined in this blog work great for appraisal appointments the same principles apply for property management leads – just remember – real localised value is the key!

My hope is that I’ve given you some ideas, inspiration and confidence to try this yourself – and remember take action on these concepts. Go and advertise on Facebook. Even if you spend just $1,000 – there’s no minimum ad spend on Facebook.

You can get started for as little as $50 – all though don’t expect big results for that – but the moral of the story is take action because every month you don’t advertise on Facebook is another month you are losing data with what works and what doesn’t work – as well as another month you fail to build a custom audience of your future customers.