You don’t see a rockstar stand on stage and after the first song, try and sell you tickets to their next show. Musicians spend years building trust with an audience without asking for anything in return but when they do finally release that new album or round of concert tickets, there’s no shortage of people lining up to buy their stuff.
There is no shortage of real estate agents who are spamming their social media followers and email subscribers with coupons & come-ons.
But here’s the thing…
Your social media audience and email subscribers are not leads… yet. Instead of trying to convert them, why not educate and entertain them?
In this episode of Real Estate Pros, we discuss how compelling content, delivered consistently over time, will convert your social media followers and email subscribers into clients for life.
Recently, I received an email from a real estate agent who attended one of our digital marketing workshops, one month prior to this podcast being recorded.
For the sake of our story, let’s call her Rachel.
After spending a day with our team, Rachel did what many of us don’t do after a training session.
We all know the story of what happens after a workshop, conference or seminar. We get back to our office and business seems to get in the way. Our notes from said workshop or conference can sometimes take months to resurface, it at all.
But Rachel went back to her office and made it her priority to start implementing what she had learnt straight away.
Much of our workshop was centred around the importance of creating content, consistently over time, for an online audience. We are big believers that different content types work for different folks.
For some, a written blog suits them. For others, it’s video content, a podcast or live events.
After a day learning how to execute different types of video content using nothing but her smartphone, Rachel decided video was her chosen content type.
She started interviewing local business owners, local residents and people of influence in her local market. Using Facebook as her primary platform, Rachel published 3-4 videos per week. Her videos were great!
They were informative, entertaining and personable – accurately representing who Rachel is in real life.
Her videos received oustanding reach and engagement for a Brand Page on Facebook.
But four weeks into her new found love of creating content, I received an email from Rachel saying that despite the huge reach and engagement she was receiving for her content, she was frustrated that none of this had converted into a lead.
In real estate sales, we make a living on conversions. I get that. But this is a mistake that so many of us make when it comes to marketing – me included – is that we try something for a while and if it’s not bearing the fruits of dollars and cents immediately, we’re onto the next new shiny thing.
You don’t see a rockstar stand on stage and after the first song, try and sell you tickets to their next show. Musicians spend years building trust with an audience without asking for anything in return but when they do finally release that new album or round of concert tickets, there’s no shortage of people lining up to buy their stuff.
Your social media audience and email subscribers are not leads… yet.
Instead of trying to convert them, why not just educate and entertain them?
Video happens to be one of the best ways to do that – it helps people get to know you before they meet you and that is a huge advantage in business today.
If you focus on making the very best content you can, without any expectation of an immediate return, I can guarantee that your audience will reward you… eventually.
When they do decide it’s time to sell or find a property manager, they’re not calling in three or four other agents. They’re not reading online agent review sites and they’re not questioning your fees. Because you have invested the time and effort to create content they actually want – instead of what we typically do in real estate which is create marketing that people tolerate.
Remember, your social media audience and email subscribers are not leads yet.
But if you continue to create compelling content without the expectation of an immediate return, they’ll be your clients for life.
Good luck.
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If you enjoyed this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, please head over to iTunes, leave us a review and subscribe. If you have any feedback for us on how we can improve, we would love to hear from you because this show is all about helping you, the real estate pro. Please email us at info@stepps.com.au.
