Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
As a small business owner, you need to be a lot of things to make your business go—but you don't have to be a marketer alone. Join host Dave Charest, Director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact, and Kelsi Carter, Brand Production Coordinator, as they explore what it really takes to market your business. Even if marketing's not your thing! You'll hear from small business leaders just like you along with industry experts as they share their stories, challenges, and best advice to get real results. This is the Be a Marketer podcast! New episodes every Thursday!
Today on episode 72, you'll hear from a dance teacher turned real estate marketing guru. This is the Be a Marketer podcast.
Dave Charest:My name is Dave Charest, director of small business success at Constant Contact. And I help small business owners like you make sense of online marketing. And on this podcast, we'll explore what it really takes to market your business even if marketing's not your thing. No jargon, no hype, just real stories to inspire you and practical advice you can act on. So remember, friend, you can be a marketer.
Dave Charest:And at Constant Contact, we're here to help. Well, hello, friend, and thanks for joining us for another episode of the Be A Marketer podcast. As always, grateful to have you here and grateful for your attention and also grateful to have the one and only Kelsey Carter with us. Hello, Kelsey.
Kelsi Carter:Hello, Dave. So grateful to be here.
Dave Charest:What can you tell us about our guest today?
Kelsi Carter:Today's guest is Stephanie Alfonso, the senior director of vertical innovation with Constant Contact. That means she's focused on how Constant Contact can best serve a particular industry with our tools, integrations, and partnerships. A lot of her work today is actually focused on the real estate industry where she spent over 10 years developing her expertise educating agents on the ins and outs of digital marketing.
Dave Charest:So we had a great conversation here where we talked about how the NAR lawsuit settlement changes the game for buyers' agents. The one simple thing you can do right now to grow your real estate business, and top marketing challenges for agents and how to overcome them. Why is Stephanie so passionate about helping real estate agents succeed? Well, let's go to her as she explains her connections to the industry.
Lucy Hall:I was raised by a mortgage lender and a real estate agent. So it was something I was a kid that was, you know, in the back seat of her mom's car, and she had the MLS book. I'm aging myself at this point. But book? Right.
Lucy Hall:Exactly. They call us book. Oh my goodness. And so it was always something that was a part of my life. And so when my worlds got to collide, where I got to have the opportunity and work with a real estate tech company and focus on educating real estate agents on how to become better marketers.
Lucy Hall:It was really awesome. I just felt like so many of my worlds got to come together with education, with business, with real estate, with marketing. And it was truly where I found my sweet spot. Like, I get chills even talking about it because I was like, I love this. I love watching people.
Lucy Hall:I have their light bulbs turned on going, okay. I can do that. And this can help my business to grow.
Dave Charest:I love that. One of
Lucy Hall:the things too that I just wanna mention that might be obvious to some, but real estate agents are small business owners. Yeah. Right? Like, I think it's like the stats, like, 89% of all real estate business is considered small business. And so transitioning from being involved in running small business to then coaching and training and getting my hands wet with training agents in their business and their marketing, and then to Constant Contact Now, where our focus is empowering, right, helping the small stand tall and bringing all that together.
Lucy Hall:It's just been an awesome journey so far.
Dave Charest:Yeah. Well, tell me a little bit about that then. Right? Like, why are you excited to bring your expertise to Constant Contact?
Lucy Hall:Oh, okay. So this is what's so awesome. It's a dream for me to come to Constant Contact under this umbrella because Constant Contact obviously, we are a well respected company for, again, working with small businesses and helping them to achieve marketing success the same kind of marketing success that a big business would have. But also, we are a company that focuses on the most important cornerstone of small business, which is relationship building, communication. How are we going to make sure that we are staying in front of our audience on a consistent basis?
Lucy Hall:So going back to real estate, when we think about real estate agents, that is the entirety of their business. 86% of their business is coming from their sphere of influence. 86%. I had some stats that I was looking at earlier from NAR and talking about just how little business comes from open houses, how little business is coming from paid online leads. 86% is coming from their sphere.
Lucy Hall:So we really drill down to what's actually going to make a difference in a real estate agent success. It's exactly what Constant Contact focuses on. So for me to come over here and be able to say, hey, everyone, listen, especially in light of all the changes that real estate's going through. And that's a whole other episode that we need to call and buyers commissions, you know, being changed and everything that's going down right now. Agents will say to me, what's the most important thing?
Lucy Hall:You need to be showing your value. You need to be communicating. You need to be making sure that, again, 86% of your business is coming from your sphere. Yet, there was another step that came from NAR that agents are only retaining 13% repeat referral business. So think about this, Dave.
Lucy Hall:If I was in business for 10 years and I served a 100 clients. Right? Out of those a 100 clients for the past decade of work for me, if only 13% of them are coming back to me, that's an issue. What's happening? Because that same study that was done showed that 90% of folks that are using a real estate agent said that they would use their agent again, yet only 13% are.
Lucy Hall:Mhmm. I call that the leaky bucket. You're getting all this business in. You're spending so much time getting new business and doing a great job. And then it's all falling out.
Lucy Hall:What's happening? You're not staying in consistent communication. Right? There's so much noise out there and with social media and this and that. And then there's a lot of misinformation that's going around.
Lucy Hall:Again, right now, what's going on with the NAR lawsuit and the fallout with the buyer's commission? People are wondering, do I even need to use a buyer's agent? What's going on? Is it worth me spending 1,000 of dollars in a buyer's agent? And I try to empower agents to say, right, hey, it's your job to make sure that you are staying in front, that you are providing value from the time I buy a home to the time I buy my 2nd home 5 years later, that you're gonna be the person I think of when that time comes.
Dave Charest:Yeah.
Lucy Hall:And that's where constant contact comes in. We fill we plug all the holes of that leak.
Dave Charest:So we're we're gonna get into some of the specific ways we can start thinking about doing that, particularly with Constant Contact. But 2 things, before we get there. 1, NAR, for those who may not recognize the term, what does that stand for?
Lucy Hall:That's the National Association of Realtors.
Dave Charest:Okay. Thank you. And then
Lucy Hall:Largest private association in the world.
Dave Charest:So let's talk about some of the marketing stuff. So we've talked about some things like why it's so important, of course. But I guess let's talk about specifically why is digital marketing so important to real estate agents?
Lucy Hall:Yeah. Digital marketing, this is your communication to people online, whether it's their inbox, whether it's social media. This is the way for you to be able to communicate to a broad audience. Real estate is not the same as it was, obviously, 30, 40 years ago where, you know, we're putting ads in the paper and everyone's just using their neighbor. Nowadays, everything's online.
Lucy Hall:So it's evolved since I started coaching. 10 years ago, even I would ask people like, hey, how many of you have social media? And it was about like half the room. You know, how many of you consistent on social media? It was like, Nobody.
Lucy Hall:So it's evolving. But this is the way for you to plug up that leaky bucket. You can't be in front of people all the time. Nowadays, there are so many more agents living on your street than there was before. And this is where agents really need to lean in.
Lucy Hall:Listen, there's nothing like face to face communication. And I still encourage agents to get out there, get involved with your community, do live events, all of that. But if you're really going to plug that leaky bucket, you've gotta make sure that you are in my inbox once a week, that you are on social media 1 to 3 times a week. Right? That you are making sure that you have that strong presence.
Lucy Hall:Because let's face it, everyone lives right here, right? They're on their phones, they're on socials. You know, Facebook, 70% of Facebook users are on their on Facebook 6 to 10 times a day. And the average time spent between 13 20 minutes each visit. So it's all about reach, and it's all about sharing your value prop.
Lucy Hall:And right now, more than ever, it is so important.
Dave Charest:Yeah. So I think this also comes into when you start thinking about if you have this consistent communication, it's when changes come around too. Like, you're able to help people navigate those changes. And so I guess I'm curious too because you've mentioned a couple of times we don't have to get deep into it, but I'd I'd love to understand a little bit. You mentioned, like, the NAR settlement.
Dave Charest:Right? So what is that all about? Help me understand, like, what that settlement means to agents moving forward.
Lucy Hall:Yeah. So what the NAR lawsuit settlement did was it changed the game when it came to commission transparency. It used to be that a buyer's commission was something that was in MLS. Right? And that was something it's always been something that can be negotiated.
Lucy Hall:But now it's changed to where buyer's commission is not stated in MLS. And it is something that now a buyer's agent is having to get a buyer's agreement on hand. And you're basically saying to the buyer, hey, you're agreeing to pay me this. Now, whether that comes from the seller, wherever that comes from, as far as negotiations, you know, that's up for grabs. But here's the thing.
Lucy Hall:The biggest issue without really going down the rabbit hole of all the nitty gritty of the fallout and what this means, what's happening is I might be in the world and listening and following everything that's happening. And agents might be every broker meeting they're at, everything they're doing, it's saturated with this information. But our audience, our sphere, the people we're going to sell to, they don't know what's happening. They might hear buzz and they're thinking like, oh, I don't need to use a buyer's agent or what? I don't wanna pay a buyer's agent.
Lucy Hall:And listen, I can tell you this first. You know, I was at a birthday party with my daughter last week. Speaking to my friend, she was listing her home multimillion dollar home. She wasn't using a listing agent. She wasn't gonna use a realtor.
Lucy Hall:And, you know, for me, of course, it's nails on a chalkboard.
Dave Charest:Yeah. And I
Lucy Hall:was telling this story on a webinar that I did last week, and I could see all the agents like, oh my gosh. And she's telling me like, I could do this myself. You know, she purchased another home and, you know, she didn't use an agent. She's able to take care of it all herself. And so as I'm seeing everybody's faces when I'm telling the story on the webinar, I said, listen, it is your job, my friends, right, agents, this is your job to make sure that she knows why she needs an agent.
Lucy Hall:Why that representation is so important. Like we wouldn't step into a courtroom without an attorney.
Dave Charest:Right.
Lucy Hall:How can we go into the largest transaction of our lives without that representation? Again, it goes back to communication. Does everyone that follows you on social media know who you are, what you do, what you specialize in, and what your value is? Because if you did that appropriately, 90% of buyers are using an agent right now. That shouldn't change.
Lucy Hall:We need to make sure that we're reinforcing that even more so than ever. I'd like to see it go up. I'd like to see it become 98% of people are using a buyer's agent because with the follow-up of all of this, hey, maybe that's a good thing. Maybe buyer's agents are finally going to start really leaning into being that thought leader, putting out that value prop. And again, the way to do that is social media, is email.
Lucy Hall:I mean, golly, a once a week newsletter or a once a week email? How easy is that? Yeah. You're right. Conceptually, hey, that's no problem.
Lucy Hall:But agents don't do it. Right. And if we really got down to the brass tacks, I tell agents all the time, hey, if you do one thing that you take away from my class today, send an email to your spirit once a week, same time, every week, forever and ever, watch your business grow.
Dave Charest:Yeah. You tell
Lucy Hall:me what it looks like 6 months from now because if you start educating me, education is your superpower Yeah. Right, to increase sales.
Dave Charest:Well, so a couple of things here. Right? Like, so the education piece of it, absolutely. Like, I think that's a big miss because, like, I know as just a consume a home buyer. Right?
Dave Charest:Like, most people, I think, are probably like me. Like, it's not something you're gonna do, like, every other day. Right? Sure. There are people in real estate and make those transactions all the time.
Dave Charest:That's a different audience. Right? But, like, when you think of your general person, right, like, I mean, I'm coming up on 10 years in my home now, but, like, it's not a transaction I do all the time. Right? It's not, like, something that I understand the ins and outs of how it works.
Dave Charest:And so when I'm getting to that place where I'm like, hey. I wanna buy a home while I start doing that research. Right? Like, what do I need to know? And I don't know what I don't know.
Dave Charest:And if I can find someone that offers me the answers, right, and is in my local community, right, there's such a higher degree that I'm gonna, oh, go to that person, right, to ask, like, hey. Alright. So, like, you're offering me these things. You're guiding me through what this process because let's be frank. Like, this is a scary process too.
Dave Charest:This is likely the biggest purchase I'm ever gonna make. Right? Like and so there's a lot of legalities. There's a lot of steps to kinda walk through. How does this work that like, if you can help me through that, I'm gonna be more you know, move more toward that way of yeah.
Dave Charest:Okay. Like, I'm you're building that relationship with me. You're helping me understand what it is that I need to know. And if there's a connection there, to your point, relationships. I mean, I think we got lucky when we bought our first home.
Dave Charest:Like, we randomly met a guy to go see a house, and we hit it off right away. And and he helped us and really did guide us through this whole process. I mean, we ended up going to his wedding. Right? It was like we you know, we became, like, really close.
Dave Charest:It was like, oh, okay. Well, right. You know? And so it really is all about that. And I so I think now you mentioned also this idea of just keeping in communication beyond just, like, the period of the transaction.
Dave Charest:Right? You're sending something once a week. Like, I mean, I I think I get something once a month from my mortgage lender, actually. Right? Which is kinda cool because I had a good experience with them, and it's not like he's just giving me updates on, like, in the community, what is the value of my home worth?
Dave Charest:Right? Like, things like that that like, okay. Cool. I don't always open them. I don't always look at them.
Dave Charest:But you know what? When I'm gonna sell my house, like and then I'm gonna go through that process. Right? Like, I'm gonna you know, that's the person I'm gonna think out and reach out to, right, and think about. And I think the same is from the agent perspective that, you know, I think of, you know, Ricky Carruth, who we talked on this podcast before.
Dave Charest:And he big component of the weekly email. And what he's doing in that interim time is just letting people know what's going on in the market. Right? And the big thing I got from that with him was that, like, yeah, he's just providing value in that newsletter. He's not asking for anything.
Dave Charest:But he's closing a 100 deals a year without doing any prospecting because he's built that list over time. It isn't keeping people informed. Right? And it's really that simple. Right?
Dave Charest:Again, theoretically. But then there's the, okay, okay, with the other things that I have to do, I have to find the time to make for that. And I think what we've learned over the years in talking to people just in general is you have to make the time to do that. So my question to you would be, like, what would be some of the other challenges that agents are facing these days when it just comes to marketing? And, like, what are some of the things that they should be aware of and maybe that we need to be aware of to help them think of overcoming those challenges?
Lucy Hall:Yeah. So great question. And to your point, time. Right? Yeah.
Lucy Hall:My acronym is TIE, time, interest, and expertise. They don't have the time. Quite frankly, they didn't get into real estate because they wanted to be a marketer, so they don't really have the interest in it. And they don't have the expertise. They might be a rock star agent, know everything about the industry, about their community, but marketing, not their forte.
Lucy Hall:And that goes for, as you know, for so many small business owners. So that's the challenge. They don't have the time. They don't have the interest. They don't have the expertise.
Lucy Hall:Back in the day, what was really popular was all of these kind of done for you, canned content. Doesn't matter what you're putting out as long as you're putting something out. But now it's really grown to where there's so much competition now to position yourself as a thought leader that that's just not enough. Right? We need to make sure that we're providing quality content and that we're truly expressing our brand Because we don't wanna be forgettable, of course.
Lucy Hall:But think about this. I love that you had brought up, you know, you haven't purchased a home in 10 years. It's not really something you thought about. But you already told me that your lender keeps in touch with you, that you went to your realtor's wedding. Like, that's awesome.
Lucy Hall:Because think about this. Let's say you decided right now, maybe. Right? The buyer continuum is about 2 years. So from the time you think of buying a home to the time you actually do, it's about 24 months.
Lucy Hall:So along that road, something's gonna happen, Dave. In that buyer continuum, you're going to get a promotion. You're going to get a job change. You're going to have a child. You're going to become an empty nester.
Lucy Hall:You're going to retire. Something's going to happen in that 2 years. And that's when you're going to decide that you're going to make the move. The job of your realtor is to make sure or your lender is to make sure that when that happens, they don't know when it is. Right.
Lucy Hall:That they're gonna think of you.
Dave Charest:Yeah.
Lucy Hall:So I always talk about, listen, you need to make sure that that consistent communication, right, consistency is the key to all success in most areas of life. Right? That when it happens, because I'm consistent, I know that I'm gonna be the one that kept in touch. I know that I'm gonna be the one that's showing them the value of why you're gonna use a buyer's agent, even though you've heard buzz on this channel or on TikTok or whatever that maybe you think you don't. I'm gonna dispel that information and I'm gonna keep my relationship with you.
Lucy Hall:So we know the value. We understand that we need to do it. Listen, most agents all understand the why. The challenge is the time, the interest, or the expertise. So then we have tools like Constant Contact.
Lucy Hall:And this is where, again, I get chills because I get so fired up and excited about this because Constant Contact allows for you to have aspects of done for you, which is amazing because now we have AI technology. So we're solving blank page syndrome. We're solving the issue of time of, Hey, I can whip up an email with AI in seconds. I can tell it what I want to talk about and it literally will create it for me. And then it also saves and especially with automation and workflows.
Lucy Hall:If a buyer lead comes in to my system and I have a workflow set up, this goes out. If a seller lead comes in, this goes out or whatever. I mean, there's so much automation. We're solving blank page. We're able with AI to create not just even emails.
Lucy Hall:You can set campaigns. Right? I'm having an open house. 2 weeks before the open house, I can start my campaign. A week after the open house, I can finish my campaign because agents really are not great about follow-up again because we're busy.
Lucy Hall:And with AI, you can set a campaign, tell it what you want. It'll send out the email. It'll send out the social post. It'll send out the SMS if they're opted in. It's incredible.
Lucy Hall:So when you think about it and I say, hey, agents, when you're looking at what's gonna make a difference in your business, if you could do one thing better, what would it be? Oh, I would probably do better with my marketing. Oh, I would make it so that when I drive into my neighborhood, I don't see 3 for sale signs with a different agent and it's not me. And I've been in this neighborhood for 15 years. We're like, okay, what would help you do that?
Lucy Hall:And contact solves for all of it. Right? And most agents are juggling like between 47 different vendors. Brokers, it's even more than that. And think about how much you can streamline if you just really focus on, I'm gonna focus this year, 2024 and into 2025.
Lucy Hall:My focus is going to be nurturing my relationships, growing my list, because that's what it's all about. Right? Your sphere is your list. If all agents focused on was I'm just gonna focus on growing my list, growing my list, growing my list, all the business that I get from that, and then nurturing that list so I never have to buy a lead ever again. Right?
Lucy Hall:Ricky Cruz talks about that. That's the key to success, consistency, communication, and just being remembered, not being forgettable.
Dave Charest:Yeah.
Lucy Hall:And I think that's really the cornerstone of real estate and Constant Contact. So it's beautiful.
Dave Charest:So you mentioned a couple of things. I wanna jump off of just okay. So that list or so I love that you have the 2 fold punch there. Right? It's like building a list but nurturing it.
Dave Charest:Right? Because, like, if you're building a list and not sending anything to it, well, who cares?
Lucy Hall:Right. Yeah. You got the time.
Dave Charest:Yeah. And it and it's gotta be one of those things where it's not just coming out of the blue. Right? That's that consistency piece that time and time again, the number one thing I think is being consistent. If you continually showing up, does something to people because they're seeing you there.
Dave Charest:That right? It builds that trust because they know you're consistent. They know you're doing it. Right? Right.
Dave Charest:But I guess my question to you would be then, like, okay. So how do you start building that list? Like, what are some of the ways that agents can start thinking about doing that?
Lucy Hall:Yeah. So that's a great question. And honestly, one that I get a lot of, especially with newer agents. So newer agents, they're tasked with like, okay. I've got my core people, but how do I really start growing this?
Lucy Hall:And there's a lot of different ways. Number 1, open houses. Open houses is a great way, especially for newer agents, that they are making sure that everyone that's coming into that open house, that they're collecting that information and they're putting it in one place. And I really wanna stress that keeping it in one place. Because a lot of times I'll speak with agents and they're like, okay, well, I've got some people in my Gmail and I've got some people in my notebook over here.
Lucy Hall:And I've got some people in this CRM that I keeping all in one place. Also, social media. This is a great way to start building our audience. LinkedIn. I'm a big fan of LinkedIn.
Lucy Hall:Social media should be used as a way to build your list. This is your broadest audience. We need to turn followers. We need to turn likes into people that are now in our list. So even I know Constant Contact, we talk about the party principle, right, where we've got social media's the big party.
Lucy Hall:Everybody and anybody can follow us. Then we start going down that funnel. We've got our email. This is where all the magic happens. Social media should be funneling and feeding that list growth.
Dave Charest:Yeah.
Lucy Hall:And then of course, SMS, you know, that's our small that's our like kind of core 100 that are opting in and that are okay getting a text from us. So social media, big one, growing your list. Doing live events. Meaning maybe you host a holiday party once a year. Maybe you are involved with your chamber.
Lucy Hall:Maybe you are involved with your HOA. Maybe you are, you know, your kids soccer coach. You know, just getting involved is also, again, another great way of building that list, meeting those people, sending these different opportunities out to become part of my, you know, subscription or whatever are really, really great ways to do that. It baffles me sometimes when I meet agents that aren't focused on that. They're not focused on networking and really expanding their reach.
Lucy Hall:And the other thing I wanna talk about is referrals and reviews. Referrals and reviews and my presentation that I teach at associations, I literally have a slide that says, this is my soapbox. I want people to understand like, hey, I'm about to preach for a second. This is my soapbox because it is so crucial when we're thinking about, again, 86% of our business coming from our sphere. Right?
Lucy Hall:And repeat referral business is crucial that we don't ask for referrals on a consistent basis. Right? We need to make sure I tell agents all the time, please make sure you have some kind of email campaign that goes out once a quarter asking for a referral. They'll come. And that's great list growth opportunities because if somebody sends out that email and they refer somebody, again, that's more list growth.
Lucy Hall:Reviews. Asking for reviews is so important into your credibility and your street cred. Right? I won't even go to a restaurant without looking at reviews. You think I'm gonna spend 1,000 and 1,000 of dollars on an agent without looking at their reviews and getting that trust and credibility?
Lucy Hall:Also, reviews gives you higher rankings on search engines and Zillow and realtor.com and Redfin and all of that. Again, other ways to build list growth, drive traffic to your website, which is the front door to your business. You know, a lot of agents don't understand the value of driving traffic to your website. If we had a brick and mortar store, all of our marketing would be geared towards driving people to that front door. Right?
Lucy Hall:So we wanna drive people to the front door of our website, capture them, make sure that's going into Constant Contact so you can stay in front of them for life.
Dave Charest:Yeah. Yeah. You know, when you start thinking about referrals for one thing, I think this is another thing that is really important too when you because what we're trying to do is create the shortcuts in people's brains, right, a lot of times. Right? Because we're there.
Dave Charest:We're top of mind. Right? And so, again, when somebody needs you, they're gonna think of you first. But that's the other piece that people often forget. Right?
Dave Charest:Is that or when somebody says, hey. I'm looking to buy a house. Do you know anybody? Like, who should I right? Like, somebody's asking questions.
Dave Charest:So, again, that's even when you want somebody to go, oh, absolutely. You should go talk to Steve. Steve was great. He helped us out. You should go talk to him.
Dave Charest:Right? Like, those are the things like, those are the reasons we're doing that. You mentioned too I mean, I I think in many ways, when you're thinking about social, when you're thinking about email, all of this stuff is content, right, in many ways. And so I guess maybe talk a little bit about how do people lean into, I guess, their strengths. Right?
Dave Charest:Because, like, you don't have to do everything. Right? But I think you do have to find the thing that allows you so I guess what I'm saying is, like, is it video? Is it or I guess, how do people start thinking about, like, what do they do to start to build their own brand, right, and get people to understand who they are? Right?
Dave Charest:And maybe we'll talk a little bit about how AI comes into that too because I think there's something when you talk about the
Lucy Hall:Yeah. Yeah. Emotional intelligence, AI, artificial intelligence. We all gotta come together somehow.
Dave Charest:Right? Yeah.
Lucy Hall:I love that. And this is one of my favorite subjects to talk about because we're more than just real estate agents. We're people. Zig Ziglar said it best. People do business with people they like, they know, and they trust.
Dave Charest:Yeah.
Lucy Hall:So we need to be intentional about getting people to like, know, and trust us. So that means putting out content that's not just buy with me, sell with me, I love your referrals. Buy with me, sell with me, I love your referrals. I want people to know who I am. You know, I'm a mom.
Lucy Hall:I'm a mom of grown kids. I was a dance teacher. Right? So if I saw somebody posting they're putting their daughter in ballet lessons for the first time online, I'm gonna connect with that. So I want to encourage agents to share a piece of who they are.
Lucy Hall:Maybe they're into boating or fishing or crafting or video games or ballroom dancing or pickleball or whatever it might be. It's so great for agents to be able to share that as a way to connect with people. And then also maybe they have a niche market. Maybe they specialize in 55 and up communities, or they're that luxury expert in Miami, or they're their condo queen, or they work with farmland or whatever it is. If I go to an agent's social media, and if I don't know within seconds who they are and what they're about and what they specialize in, we're missing the mark.
Lucy Hall:We've got to make sure listen. I had a client of mine in South Florida. She and her husband, avid ballroom dancers. I didn't just make that up. Always posting about the ballroom dancing events and competitions they would go to.
Lucy Hall:And Dave, I kid you not. I think a 100% of their business comes from ballroom dancers. Right? Right? They're connecting with people that they have common interests with.
Lucy Hall:Also, if you think about it too, you know, I help care for my grandmother who is in a memory care facility. And so that's a big part of our lives and our families. And it's funny how, when you're in those moments or you're in that time of life or you're caring for somebody like this, that you start to recognize other niche markets. Agents who are specializing in helping families through transitions to memory care facilities, and they have to sell a home and all of that. I wanna know about that.
Lucy Hall:That's something that would really resonate to me in my time of life right now or especially to my mom, being able to connect with an agent who specializes in those type of affairs. So, again, it's business for the realtor. It's not just buy with me, sell with me. It's this is who I am and this is how I can help you. Right?
Lucy Hall:Value prop. How can this agent help me other than just because I can throw my house for sale by owner. I can spend a couple $100 and throw it in Zillow. No big deal. So much more than that.
Lucy Hall:Right? And so that's where that content creation comes in. So like you had mentioned, AI comes into this to help us because agents are like, I'm not a great writer.
Dave Charest:You know
Lucy Hall:what I mean? I might specialize in the 55 and O community and I'm great here, but I'm not a big video person. You know, all these people are becoming these influencers on social media. That's not really my thing. It doesn't have to be.
Lucy Hall:Find your niche and dominate it.
Dave Charest:Yeah.
Lucy Hall:Maybe AI tools can help you to just give some ideas. Right? Oh, gosh. I wanna express to people like, alright, I know interest rates are still kinda high and inventory is still kinda low, but it's still the right time to buy. Let me share with you why.
Lucy Hall:Put that in AI. Our AI tools can really help frame all of that, that you think, Oh my goodness, I could have never worded it like that. Let me read over it because I'm a human, right? We should have some human in there. Maybe it can add a little bit of flavor.
Lucy Hall:That sounds like something I would say maybe. And then that's it. Right? It gives you that foundation to really fill in the gaps where you're weak so you have time to lean into where you're really strong.
Dave Charest:Yeah. I think that's really important to mention with the AI, particularly in you know, I think there are different things. Right? Like so, like, there are a lot of things where particularly like this where it is coming down to, like, someone's expertise and it's coming down to someone's personality too. Right?
Dave Charest:Like, how do we connect with them as a human that the AI helps you get to a place that's faster than you would have gotten there on your own, but I do think it's important in those situations where it's not like, hey. I'm selling this thing, which can be a little
Lucy Hall:bit different. Right.
Dave Charest:Where you do need to add your own personality into it. Right? Like so don't just take that and copy and paste. Right? But, like, think about, like, what does that mean for how you insert yourself into it?
Dave Charest:But I love the time savings on the front end of that in terms of even getting to some place where you could say, like, react to it. Right? To make it go right.
Lucy Hall:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Dave Charest:And I also wanna mention, you know, I think of you know, I have a couple of friends that are agents, and, you know, one of the things that they're doing and, you know, I'm just below New Hampshire here in in Massachusetts, and, you know, they focus on that area. But a lot of times, what they'll do is they'll make videos about their experiences at, like, local businesses within the area with which they sell. Right? So they're really selling the area. Like, here are the great things to do in this, and I think that's a great way to even think about it.
Dave Charest:Like, what are the types of things that you would do? Well, sell the area that you're in. Right? Like, people are thinking about maybe moving to that area or should they stay in that like, oh, and or you're exposing them and, I mean, you're supporting other local businesses at the same time, which again helps with the community. And if you can build relationships with those people, again, you've you're broadening that that sphere that you have.
Dave Charest:So I love all of that. Are there any particular things from your perspective that agents should not be doing?
Lucy Hall:Man, you know, I don't get asked that a whole lot. What should I not be doing? Well, you should not be doing nothing. I can say that. Right?
Dave Charest:There you go. Yeah.
Lucy Hall:You can't just sit back and wait for the business to come to you. That's for sure. You've gotta be active. And you need to really stop going all over the place with feeling like you have to boil the whole ocean. Right?
Lucy Hall:Find one thing today. And in my classes, I talk a lot. All right. We've talked about a whole lot of things here today. Let's make a goal that we're gonna make our goal.
Lucy Hall:All right. I'm gonna focus on it. I'm gonna send an email to my sphere once a week. Every Wednesday, I'm gonna have an email that goes out to my sphere at 9 am for the rest of all eternity. Right?
Lucy Hall:And I'm gonna focus on posting on social media twice a week. I'm gonna stick with that. Right? And then these small little wins are gonna help. So going back to your question of what not to do, don't do nothing.
Lucy Hall:Don't get overwhelmed. And then we get paralysis by analysis. And then we just throw up our hands, take things in small bites. Also, don't compare yourself to a point where you debilitate your own superpowers. I think that imitation is a form of flattery.
Lucy Hall:I think it's great to look at other agents and see what they're doing and get inspired by all of that. There's so many amazing active ages that are also coaching, but also don't compare yourself to somebody who maybe their strength is podcasting or doing video of themselves. Maybe that's their thing. Maybe that's not yours. Going back to a community.
Lucy Hall:I know an agent that I was working with that she was just did not like to be on camera. She was a rock star. She would put other people on camera. Again, she'd go to that local business. Hey.
Lucy Hall:This is my favorite restaurant. My husband and I, we come here every Friday. I would love to interview you and have you talk about new brews you have on tap every Friday or whatever it might be. She didn't have to be on camera. She was highlighting his business.
Lucy Hall:Well, guess what? He also had a whole lot more followers than she did on her social media. You know, then he shared it. Then she gets new followers. She's building her list.
Lucy Hall:She wasn't on camera one time or showcasing, you know, the beautiful area or the things to do. It doesn't always have to be you. And I'll give you just a quick little story of how powerful this is. So I live in Florida and we are actually have been for several years now and we're ready to make the move to the Denver area. So my husband and I have been watching videos on YouTube of the Denver area.
Lucy Hall:Because we were looking at which neighborhoods and this and that. And that's what we were searching. Well, guess what? We have an agent in Denver now because we found him on YouTube because he made great videos about Denver neighborhoods. That's it.
Lucy Hall:I watched these videos without even realizing he was a realtor for many episodes. I was just like, this guy's great. I love his videos. And then of course, I ended up calling him. We went to Denver.
Lucy Hall:We met up with him. You know, we're great friends now. And of course, we will use him.
Dave Charest:Yeah.
Lucy Hall:But again, it wasn't about just buy with me, sell with me. It was his niche. He did video. Maybe you've got a niche somewhere else, but I know I went off on a little bit of a tangent because I get excited about this stuff.
Dave Charest:No. This is great. I wanted to come back to just to put a button on it a bit, a little cherry on top, if you will. But I think you mentioned something about social and comparison and stuff like that, and I think it's really important to adopt the mantra of use social to connect, not compare. Right?
Dave Charest:Because that's where you get into trouble. Because you do. You see all of these people that have, like, tons of followers, and they're doing all of these things. And it feels like people are engaging. And and the reality is that may be happening, but that's not what you need to focus on.
Dave Charest:You need to focus on connecting with the people that are important to your business and what it is that you're doing. And if you stay there, eventually, that will grow. Like, everybody kinda starts at a place. Right? And Yeah.
Dave Charest:Those smaller numbers can be just as beneficial to you as those larger ones. Mhmm. So focus on that connection piece of it.
Lucy Hall:Love it.
Dave Charest:Earlier, we talked a little bit about SMS, and we you were talking about that party principle, of course. And I think that, you know, as you look at that SMS list is really like the VIP party. Right? Because they've given you access to them in a way that because, again, to your point, right, someone sends you a text message, they're gonna look at that phone right away, and they're gonna see that message. And so what would you say is an opportunity for s for agents when it comes to text marketing, SMS marketing, that type of stuff?
Lucy Hall:Yeah. So I think SMS marketing is great for reminders, for timely events. Right? There's an open house this weekend. I'm doing a client appreciation, you know, happy hour.
Lucy Hall:This is going on in Tampa right now. Timely events. Right? So it's not necessarily where you're going to wanna market your decorating tip of the month. That's where you wanna put it in your newsletter or put it on social media.
Lucy Hall:But this is gonna be for timely, more personal things. Right? Maybe it's an invite only. Maybe it's something that, you know, it's not something I'm gonna broadcast to 10,000 people. It's gonna be something I broadcast maybe 50.
Lucy Hall:Again, so timely, more personal, more relevant to the now type of content.
Dave Charest:Yeah. What's the number one thing you want agents to understand about being successful with marketing?
Lucy Hall:Consistency. Consistency, authenticity, and a relentless pursuit of educating the people that you know and love around you. Educating the people that are in your community relentlessly. Making sure that I never have a conversation again with somebody who truly was kind of like, I have no idea why I would need a buyer's agent. I could do this myself.
Lucy Hall:I want that to never be a conversation. I want people to think of their realtor when it comes to the biggest transaction of most people's lives that they would never do it without the assistance of the professional. So, yeah, I want them to be consistent. Consistency is the key to success.
Dave Charest:Well, friend, let's recap some items from that discussion. Number 1, start a weekly newsletter. Time and time again, the importance of a consistently sent newsletter comes up as a top means to keep your business top of mind. As a real estate agent, you've got the opportunity to engage your contacts by sharing your expertise and keeping them up to date on what's happening in the market. This consistent act allows you to be top of mind for when someone is taking that step to buy or sell a home.
Dave Charest:Number 2, embrace automation. Now think about how you can share your expertise, build a relationship, and move a lead to the next stages by building a workflow that educates based on what your contact is trying to do. Maybe they're a first time home buyer. Maybe they're selling their home. Maybe they're thinking about buying a second home or rental property.
Dave Charest:You can create a series of emails that speaks to those specific scenarios, then guide your contact on what they need to know and how to engage with you to take the next steps. Number 3, ask for referrals and reviews on a regular basis. Set up an automated email that you send to contacts on a quarterly basis. Ask for referrals. Who do your contacts know?
Dave Charest:Who may be looking to buy or sell? Also, make sure to ask for reviews from satisfied clients. Those reviews can help with search results and winning new business. Here's your action item for today. Make a plan.
Dave Charest:Steph recommends setting a goal of sending an email to your sphere once a week. On social, commit to posting something helpful twice a week. Figure out what types of information you're going to share, and, of course, put time in your calendar dedicated to completing those items. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Be a Marketer podcast. Please take a moment to leave us a review.
Dave Charest:Just go to rate this podcast.com/bam. Your honest feedback will help other small business marketers like yourself find the show. That's rate this podcast.com/bam. Well, friend, I hope you enjoy the rest of your day and continued success to you and your business.