The Marketing Trench: Recent Episodes
Ricardo Bueno, Scott Schang, Dustin Steeve
This is a podcast for real professionals who know they need to do real work but want to do it more efficiently and effectively.
Join real estate experts, Ricardo Bueno (Marketing Technology Director, WEST), Dustin Steeve (CEO of Lighthouse Escrow), and Scott Schang (co-Owner of Buywise Mortgage & Founder of ‘FindMyWayHome.com’) as they share marketing strategies and tactics, straight from the trench.
In today's housing market, there is a significant shortage of inventory. This has made it difficult to find the perfect home for buyers. But with the use of technology, agents can now proactively manage expectations and sell every listing in a low-inventory market.
Agents can use data analytics to determine what homes are most likely to sell and which ones will take longer. They can also use predictive modeling to estimate how long it will take for a home to sell and what price point it should be listed at. Agents should also make sure that they are taking the time to show their listings on social media channels like Facebook or Instagram where they have an audience in order to attract more buyers.
In this episode we welcome Loida Velasquez of Team BC Real Estate in Southern California. We'll talk about how her team has managed to temper expectations while still winning - and selling - listings in today's market. We'll also discuss with her the challenges and strategies for dealing with seller's expectations, how to account for house upgrades when valuating, the biggest problem with sellers: 'i just need that one buyer' and The importance of Loida's confident and courageous mindset for real estate.
00:00 Introduction
0:35 Introducing Loida Velasquez
2:29 Loida's background and how she transitioned to real estate
4:21 Challenges and strategies for dealing with seller's expectations
10:06 Loida's opinion about platforms for home valuation
11:16 How to account for house upgrades when valuating
13:09 The biggest problem with sellers: 'i just need that one buyer'
14:40 Discussing 'for sale by owners' and why agents still matter
18:16 Loida's marketing strategies
21:05 Loida's 'abundance mindset' and the educational importance of her youtube channel for the real estate community
31:29 The importance of Loida's confident and courageous mindset for real estate
35:25 Roleplaying to build confidence
37:07 Loida's business growth and diversification over the years through discipline
43:06 Talking about old school techniques versus new technology
Connect with The Marketing Trench Podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Find Loida:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LoidaVelasquez/featured
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loidavelas/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/loidavelas
Website: https://www.loidavelasquez.com/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
Real estate administrators are an integral part of any real estate brokerage. They help real estate agents by performing secretarial and administrative activities. You plan the agents' appointments and make travel arrangements. You communicate with consumers, giving them information and following up on appointments and requests. You manage files, keep track of papers, and issue reports. On a daily basis, you create crucial real estate forms related to listings and update listings as appropriate.
From answering the phone to managing file systems, you satisfy the office's logistical and supply demands.
Our guest today joins us from Grimsby, Ontario, Canada, where she works as the Director of Operations at Knighton Real Estate Advisors, a Keller Williams firm.
Valerie concentrated her efforts as the DOO on developing an administrative support staff that freed up agents to do what they do best and catapulted the brokerage to the ranks of top producers in their region.
On today's episode, we'll get into Valerie's playbook for assembling the dream administrative staff you'll need to create your real estate empire.
00:00 Introduction
1:26 Introducing Valerie Simoneau
3:39 Valerie's background and how she became a director of operations
5:59 How did the company look like and how it changed after Valerie came in
10:36 The importance of watching and mirroring someone working
12:42 First tasks that were delegated to Valerie once she came in
15:04 What qualities to look for during the hiring process
19:11 The problem with seeking perfection when creating systems
21:47 Evaluating and improving systems through feedback
24:22 How to incentivize an entrepreneurial mindset among employees
29:26 Interviewing as a constant practice, even when not hiring
30:42 Setting working hours boundaries among agents and clients
39:53 Filtering and identifying redflag behavior during the hiring process
46:29 Valerie's tips for building a better relationship with an admin from her new book
Connect with The Marketing Trench Podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Valerie:
Valerie Simoneau’s Website: www.elitebosscoaching.com
Valerie’s book: https://www.amazon.com/Empire-Builders-Building-Successful-Business/dp/1631955926/
Valerie’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/val_simoneau/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
Business plans are great, but like gym memberships, we fail to make consistent use of them because we get discouraged when we don't see big results. You may have a business plan that you are initially proud of, but it is possible that you will lose some of your belief in it if it takes longer than expected to start making money.
The first thing to consider is motivation. Will you be able to maintain your motivation level? This can be difficult when you are trying to grow your company and there are so many distractions around you. It can also be difficult when the market is changing and it becomes hard to stay on top of what customers want.
If you don't believe in yourself or what you're doing, then why should anyone else? It's important that you do believe in yourself and the business plan, because if not, then you might find yourself in a position where your business plan isn't working for you, not because of the plan itself, but because you lack motivation.
On today's episode, we're going to dig into how we can manage expectations and find encouragement from incremental progress, even when we're impatient for our big goals to be materialized.
Referenced Items:
12 Week Year: https://www.amazon.com/12-Week-Year-Others-Months/dp/1118509234
Things3: (iOS) https://apps.apple.com/us/app/things-3/id904237743 /
00:00 Introduction
3:25 Scott's take on how not to get 'gym membershipped' with visual aids
12:21 The importance of indicators for keeping track of progress
15:57 Ricardo' and Dustin's take on how to keep yourself motivated through support systems
23:42 Discussing the importance of reverse engineering for reaching goals
30:05 Talking about the 12 week year and the importance of being realistic in planning
35:00 Ricardo's experience with Things 3 and delegating activities
40:55 Figuring out what you can and can't control when planning
Connect with The Marketing Trench Podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
Audience.co's personalised marketing technology, which includes robotic handwritten letters produced with a real pen, helps you develop your business faster. To get incredible outcomes and conversions, they combine the notes with precision-targeted lead creation and digital-marketing follow up.
They have a homeowner database with more than 200+ useful criteria, so your notes are distributed solely to those who are most likely to convert. They also uncover all of the homeowners' emails and LinkedIn profiles so you can conduct digital ad campaigns directly to your farm! Follow up on each letter with a powerful "digital-marketing handshake" by sending individualised emails and LinkedIn connection invitations.
Jesse Stein, Founder and CEO of Audience.co, joins The Marketing Trench to discuss how you can write great emails to your clients that have a 90% read rate and generate 5x the response of traditional direct mail.
Before you blast your farm with yet another junk mailer, listen to this episode of the Marketing Trench to see how you can mail something that will make a significant difference to your bottom line in 2022.
00:00 Introduction
1:29 Introducing Jesse, his background, and how Audience came to be
7:23 What are the marketing possibilites of handwritten notes?
11:48 Integrating handwritten notes with digital marketing strategies
15:20 Discussing listings campaigns with handwritten notes
16:32 What does a typical Audience campaign looks like?
28:12 How Audience can help to keep your marketing strategies consistent
32:43 Discussing the authenticity of scalable handwritten notes
36:05 How a scalable and customizable note can be created
40:45 How long does a campaign last and how frequently are notes sent?
Connect with The Marketing Trench Podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Jesse Stein:
Website: https://www.Audience.co
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesse-stein-3b636a107/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
As 2021 comes to an end, we want to take a look back and reflect on all that we’ve talked about on The Marketing Trench.
We’ve had a lot of highlights this past year: from significant wins to milestones in our personal lives. But there are always those moments that you’d rather forget. Scott, Ricardo and Dustin share their biggest lessons learned, experience with coaches and therapists and how much of the previous episodes has each one of us implemented
Join us live on YouTube or Facebook and remember to leave a comment. We hope to see you again soon!
00:00 Introduction
2:06 Scott's biggest lesson learned in 2021
9:42 Dustin's biggest lesson learned in 2021
17:02 Ricardo's biggest lesson learned in 2021
25:31 Experience with coaches and therapists
35:49 How much of the previous episodes has each one implemented?
44:02 2021 wins and losses
Connect with The Marketing Trench Podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
Print marketing is a great way to reach your target audience and it is often less expensive than other forms of marketing. Print media is one of the most popular types of advertising because it can be used in many different ways and it bypasses digital blockers.
You can use printed media to create:
-
Posters: posters usually have a large image with text on them, and they are meant for getting attention
-
Leaflets: leaflets are usually A5 sized pieces of paper which contain more information on the product or service that you're advertising
-
Brochures: brochures are larger than leaflets and they contain information about your business as well as about the products or services that you offer.
You can use leaflets or posters for outdoor marketing campaigns, magazines for promotional material, or business cards to give out at networking events.
The main advantage of printed media is that it allows you to have a personal connection with the people who are reading it because they can physically touch it.
On this episode, we'll be joined by Adam Greer of AG Designs in Orange County, CA.
Adam has helped many of the top selling agents in the county craft a successful print marketing strategy.
We'll discuss why print still works, what most people get wrong about it, and how his team is combining print and digital marketing to wrap an agent's farm with comprehensive marketing.
00:00 Introduction
3:05 Adam's background and how AG Design came to be
10:05 Does the print technology still works?
13:27 For what kind of agent is printing good and what is it good for?
15:39 Working with a limited budget as a new agent
22:37 Tips for crafting a killer print strategy
33:38 Can print and digital coexist?
40:19 How much should a client spend on a printing strategy?
43:41 Creating content for printing strategies and digital strategies
48:10 What's the future of printing?
Connect with The Marketing Trench Podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Adam Greer:
Website: https://www.agdesignsinc.com/index.php
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AGDesignsandMarketing/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ag-designs-272613a9/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
Lead generation is the process of attracting and converting qualified prospects to fill your sales funnel. This is a key part of any marketing strategy to generate customer interest, as well as generating revenue.
It also helps to improve your company’s brand awareness and reputation by making sure your business is front of mind when people are looking for a product or service in your niche market. Think about lead generations as a way to find new customers, not just to sell products or services.
Lead generation can be done in many ways: through advertisements, content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing and social media campaigns.
In real estate, prospecting is a marketing activity of identifying and contacting possible customers for sales of products or services. In marketing, prospecting is the process of finding people who might want what you can provide in order to sell them what you offer.
Lead follow up is the process of following up with leads in order to show interest and keep them in your funnel until they are ready to convert or purchase something from your company. Lead follow up increases your conversion rate because it decreases “drop-off” when prospects lose interest when there isn’t much contact from the company after their initial inquiry.
In this episode of The Marketing Trench, we're going to dig into the topic of building the perfect follow-up process. We'll be joined by Jason Perkins, co-founder of Bonzo, an automated follow-up software for lenders and real estate agents. We'll talk about the how and why of the tools and timing Jason's team uses to increase consumer-direct conversion rates. After this conversation, you'll understand why Bonzo comes highly recommended by both Scott and Ricardo and how Bonzo is achieving astounding conversion rates off of Facebook ads.
00:00 Introduction
1:42 Scott's experience with Bonzo and other similar technologies
4:40 Jason's background and why he created Bonzo
10:01 What a Bonzo campaign looks like?
19:11 Explaining Bonzo's cadence throughout the days
25:55 Showcasing the Bonzo dashboard and an example of campaign
35:50 What makes Bonzo stand out and what it got right about the customer experience
41:27 How Bonzo works with follow-ups
46:23 What is Bonzo University
Connect with The Marketing Trench Podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Jason Perkins:
Website: https://getbonzo.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getbonzo/?hl=en
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jperk1/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/getbonzo/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
Videos are one of the best ways to create effective content for your company. Whether it's a product review, an instructional video, or tutorial, adding videos to your content marketing can help your company in many ways.
For example, video testimonials are a great way for your company to get in touch with potential clients. Testimonials help get new users on board with your company and help get your products in the hands of new users.
The secret to creating videos that will not only captivate and engage your audience, but will convert into high quality leads and closing sales is the "3 D's" of video marketing:
- design
- data
- distribution
To engage and impact your audience, Feedstories blends the power of direct marketing, creative filmmaking, and smart storytelling.
Feedstories helps people overcome the two most serious issues with video production:
-
"I'm at a loss for words..." Nobody wants to appear or sound stupid. Most people are terrified of knowing what to say on video in a way that is fascinating and appealing to their viewers. We take you by the hand and guide you through our simple interview-style filming procedure, so you quickly forget about the camera.
-
"I'm not sure how I'm going to get it done..." There are a lot of moving components that go into making an engaging video. Finding a dependable film crew, sound technician, director, producer, writer, and editor is enough to make you abandon video entirely.
On today's episode, we'll be asking Bob what makes their videos so effective at converting, why they focus so heavily on video testimonials, and finally what projects they have in the works that Marketing Trench listeners should know about. Hint: they have a big project in the works with our in-house mad scientist, Scott Schang.
00:00 Introduction
3:13 How did Bob get started with Feed Stories and what they do
11:40 The importance of testimonials in content marketing
21:38 How Testimonials.live produce remote testimonials with past clients
28:24 Is it possible to produce high quality content in a remote setup with affordable equipment?
33:03 The risk of overproduction
36:04 Discussing short form X long form videos and attention span
42:49 What service does Find my Way Home provide and what makes them unique
Connect with The Marketing Trench Podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect witrh Feedstories:
Website: https://feedstories.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/feedstories/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2hSdGAgLPH-feD2myQE6aA
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/feedstories/about/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
If you're a mortgage lender transforming your traditional, branch-based mortgage operation into a consumer-direct online service, then today's conversation with Bill Rice of Kaleidico is for you.
Every lead generation campaign needs a four point plan of attack:
- Brand strategy: Exceptional design, development, and digital experiences.
- Web design and development.
- Content Marketing: Attract Google rankings and ultimately high-intent customers.
- Lead generation
On this week's episode of The Marketing Trench, we'll talk about building your "new branch office" (aka: your website), driving high-intent traffic to your new office, and providing them with the resources they need to trust and work with you. We'll talk about the most common flaws lending websites have, what aspects of the consumer experience with online lenders creates the most frustration, and when it might make sense for you to bring in outside professionals to help you build a compelling online, consumer-direct lending business.
00:00 Introduction
1:58 Bill's background and the creation of Kaleidico as a lead generation agency
4:54 What problem does Kaleidico solve?
7:09 Thinking of your website as a new digital branch office
13:15 Tips for making your website more personal and local
20:43 Tactics for driving high intent traffic to your website
36:26 The problem with the " speed to lead" idea
48:43 Who is Kaleidico's ideal client and how cant it help?
Connect with The Marketing Trench Podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Bill Rice:
Company Website: https://kaleidico.com/
Personal Website: https://billrice.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billrice/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/billrice
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
Databases are black boxes: you don't know who in your database is interested in selling their home until you market to everyone AND someone responds to your marketing. But what if you had a psychic who highlighted every person on your database who'd be selling their home in the next few months? What potential would that unlock for you?
Ryan Dendievel isn't a psychic, but his company, Revaluate, is using the power of supercomputing and data analysis to predict who in your database will likely be selling their home in the near future. The results speak for themselves: Revaluate saves their clients up to 25% of the time and money they're currently wasting on fruitless sales and marketing efforts.
On this episode of the Marketing Trench, we'll talk about emerging technology like "machine learning" and how real estate professionals can utilize this technology (and tools like Revaluate) to predict the future! Well… maybe not the future, but at least predict who is likely to sell in the coming months.
Here are three ways that machine learning can be applied to real estate:
- Increasing the accuracy of listing search results.
- Improving the accuracy of predicting a property’s rental price based on a set of data points.
- Identifying properties that have been falsely priced by their owners so they can be flagged and brought down to fair market value.
00:00 Introduction
1:48 Ryan's background in sales and start with Revaluate
4:22 Discussing Revaluate's "people-centric" approach and what's unique about it
8:23 What Revaluate does and the importance of keeping and analysing databases
16:12 What is machine learning and what it can do
22:21 How mortgage and loan officers can use Revaluate?
25:44 Using Revaluate for listings
28:26 Some agent's best practices to communicate and create opportunities
31:10 Where does Revaluate sit within a tech stack and how it integrates with CRMs
38:36 Revaluate demonstration integrated with Follow Up
45:31 Can Revaluate be used with small databases?
Connect with The Marketing Trench Podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ryan Dendievel:
Website: https://revaluate.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notoriousrtd/?hl=en
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryandendievel/
Clubhouse: https://clubhousedb.com/user/notoriousrtd
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
Accountability is defined by Webster's Dictionary as "an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility for one’s actions." It denotes a desire to take responsibility for our own acts and the consequences of those actions.
But does the word accountability have to have a negative connotation that causes worry and fear? Because we've learned to identify the term with discipline or assigning blame when something goes wrong, we unfortunately do. What if, rather than associating responsibility with bad consequences, we focused on strategically incorporating it into our daily work and using the experience to help us to make better, more informed desicions in the future?
Agents who consistently cash commission checks every month have mastered the art of balancing prospecting and closing. There are two reasons this balance is hard to strike.
First, prospecting is the least exciting and most draining part of the job for most agents. Nobody enjoys slammed doors or phone hangups. Second, each one of us is tempted to be singularly focused on the deals we already have with people who are (hopefully) like us. Striking the balance means we're fighting our own human nature.
Accountability gets a bad rap, but it's actually a powerful life hack. Done right, accountability gives us an edge in our fight against our own human nature. When our human nature, our internal voice, is giving us excuses not to prospect, accountability drowns out that voice with another motivating us to make those calls, knock those doors, and take pride in our metrics. When you have someone to answer to, you're going to make sure you've got something good to say.
In this week's episode of The Marketing Trench, we're talking to Michael Bennett, Head of Strategy & Growth at Auctm - a leading real estate analytics that helps top performing teams tap into higher growth. We're going to teach you how to:
- Create a culture and mindset for accountability
- Develop better, metrics-backed goals to put yourself in control of your career
- Build systems to measure & keep agents accountable
... and more!
00:00 Introduction
1:59 Michael's background and start with accountability
6:19 First approach to accountability: understanding your team performance
8:32 Working with a matrix to assess your team and figure out who needs coaching
17:23 How to confront a low performing agent?
21:27 Second approach to accountability: translating insights into coaching opportunities
22:51 Third approach to accountability: lead management
27:51 Ricardo's take on Follow Up Boss tools
29:43 Using tools to improve human-human interactions, not replace them
32:44 What makes tools attractive to real estate coaches?
36:01 What people get wrong about accountability?
Connect with The Marketing Trench Podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Michael Bennett:
Auctm: https://www.auctm.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhawaii/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MichaelHawaii
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
A virtual assistant is someone who helps you and your company or business complete busy, time consuming tasks. Virtual assistants are proving to be very successful in today's world. As our lives become busier and busier, we need the help of a virtual assistant to allow the founders and managers of your company to focus on their strengths.
It's important that you set your Virtual Assistant up for success and that you know what tasks to delegate to them.
You should delegate:
- Tasks that are time consuming and repetitive, such as social media posts.
- Administrative tasks such as responding to emails, scheduling meetings, etc.
- Researching difficult topics or questions for your business.
- Menial or tedious tasks like data entry or inputting data into a spreadsheet.
- Project management.
- Data analysis.
- Anything that is taking up too much of your time.
Today's episode is about taking a step back and really evaluating what is important for you to get done. We're going to discuss the different types of tasks you can delegate to a virtual assistant and how to find a virtual assistant that's a good fit for you. We'll also discuss the importance of setting the right expectations for yourself and your VA, and how to ensure your virtual assistant is a success. We're going to share with you examples of things that go wrong with a lot of new VAs. And in the end, we're going to arm you with some basic things that you can do in order to ensure that you never have a bad day.
00:00 Introduction
1:53 Ricardo's experience with VAs: finding a VA that matches your operating procedures
8:29 ... but also being able to be less of a "control freak"
12:34 Dustin's experience with VAs: using VAs to test new strategies
19:46 Scott's experience with VAs: figuring out what to delegate to a VA
27:51 Impact of having a VA managing your emails
31:38 Using VAs to save time and focus on tasks that only you can do
Connect with The Marketing Trench Podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
You'll need a way to connect all of your business and productivity apps if you use a lot of them. Zapier is an online platform that allows users to connect several services to build interconnected functions. You can use a "If X happens, do Y" structure to chain commands together, where X and Y can be any app. The main benefit of these automations is that they allow you to combine various actions and apps into a single Zap.
Zapier is a powerful tool that can help you automate your workflows and save you a ton of time. It's also a great way to focus on doing the important work while Zapier handles everything else.
Zapier allows you to create powerful connections between apps that have APIs, so that when one of your triggers occurs, Zapier can automatically send an action from one app to another.
This means you can do anything from adding new contacts in Salesforce right after getting an email from them, to creating a new Slack channel for your team based on who is included in the email thread.
It will make your life easier and save you tons of time!
00:00 Introduction
3:06 What is Zapier and why use it?
6:41 What are "tasks" and how many does you company needs (i.e. How much will it cost)?
10:44 Benefits of using Zapier to automate things
12:48 Will's demonstration of how to use Zapier
14:26 Step 1: choosing an app to serve as a trigger
19:49 Step 2: setting up an action
24:08 Some use cases and recipes for Zapier in real estate
37:54 Using Zapier to set reminders for yourself
42:17 Will's advice for starting with Zapier and keeping yourself motivated
Connect with The Marketing Trench Podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
This is such a common question, and I think why the answer is so elusive is that it's not always the most precise question. The tech stack does not create your origination and operations systems, it's only a set of tools that allows you to create systems for producing consistent results more efficiently than if you didn't have systems.
Almost every "tech" has a way they expect you to use it. It was built around their perception of the processes around solving the challenges that the tech solves.
My experience is that most of these tech companies try to do more than what you need them to do, and it requires that your workflows need to be adjusted to the functionality of the tech.
This is the wrong way to approach it in my opinion.
I suggest the question be modified to "Who has a tech stack that they are super happy with for (solution to a specific problem)?" - then, jump on a Zoom call and find out what their processes and systems look like.
Does their business model or operations processes match how you want your business to run?
If your processes, values, vision and systems are similar to theirs, then you know you have someone that can help you as you set up your stack.
Your tech should allow you to effortlessly (and automatically) move the consumer through the process with as little friction as possible for both the consumer and your personnel using the systems.
If you're building an origination tech stack, you need a POS, LOS & CRM. Finding the perfect tech fit for your company size, technical acumen, access to support, and your current workflow is always going to come down to personal preference once you've eliminated any tech that doesn't play well with the other tools in the process.
Join us for today's episode of the Marketing Trench as we talk all things Tech Stack and how to approach building yours!
00:00 Introduction
1:42 Why "what's the best tech stack" is the wrong question?
3:20 Can tech stacks help you make money by increasing efficiency?
6:12 Before choosing a tech stack, know your sales flow and your needs
13:13 Does using the latest technology matter?
15:36 Choosing tools that align with your values, inspire, and motivate you
28:24 Importance of seeing tools being used by other people
32:42 The problem of using the lack of technology as an excuse for not taking a risk
37:29 Understanding what you are trying to accomplish before finding the right technology
40:54 Two categories for guiding your technology choices
Connect with The Marketing Trench Podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
It's not so much what you say as it is when you say it. Of course, everyone is trying to sell you fully prepared scripts, so you'd never know. The majority of these scripts miss one crucial component: consumer intent.
Consumer-driven search and interruption marketing across different platforms is the new way to gain and retain customers. In this presentation, you will learn how you can gain more knowledge of your customers by understanding why they buy, what they want, and how to make them convert as you drive a repeat purchase. Your job is to use data and education to predict which prospects will move forward to take concrete actions.
Learn how the 5 Stages of Customer Awareness may help you create messaging that prospects genuinely want to connect with, transforming your advertising and sales process. We also go through the three stages of a customer's decision-making process and why knowing when to employ each is crucial to your company's success.
00:00 Introduction
1:36 Discussing the 5 stages of awareness
5:23 Consumer driven search and interruption marketing across different platforms
9:57 Clickbaiting isn't enough - you have to identify consumer intent
12:04 Niche content or general marketing?
16:09 How an ad should look like at each stage of awareness
25:36 Advantages of placing ads at each stage
Connect with The Marketing Trench Podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
Consumer Direct Marketing is a method of marketing that uses real people who have bought an item in the past to market other products or services. Companies can use this form of marketing as it targets your audience directly, and is more personal than traditional advertising.
Why Is ConsumerDirect Marketing Important?
Companies that do not take the time to develop effective customer direct marketing campaigns are missing out on one of their biggest opportunities for growth and revenue. The ability to connect with consumers at a personal level is what makes consumers love companies and they will go through great lengths to help those they trust, especially if it means receiving freebies or discounts. Companies that use this simple and powerful form of advertising are growing at a fantastic rate.
Consumer Direct Marketing is very easy to implement into your marketing plan as it can be done from anywhere you have access to the internet. The possibilities to reach your potential customers from all over the world are endless.
This week, we speak with Kyle Seagraves, an Ohio-based Originator who has amassed a YouTube channel with over 77,000 subscribers! Scott and Kyle will compare and contrast the similarities and differences between website blog content and YouTube video content.
If you've been attempting to figure out how to break the consumer direct code, you'll be much, much closer after this episode!
00:00 Introducing Kyle Seagraves
5:25 Kyle's beginnings on Youtube
10:20 Is content creation on Youtube saturated?
15:37 How Kyle figured out what content to create and how frequently
19:29 Creating content with ONE person in mind
22:25 How Kyle identified this ONE person for his channel
24:34 Discussing the importance of funneling your audience on Youtube
29:43 The file line between being too broad or being too specific
31:33 Importance of deeply researching and learning about your topics
37:02 Knowing your demographics and psychographics
39:52 Differences between content creation and advertising on social media
Connect with The Marketing Trench Podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Kyle Seagraves
Website: https://winthehouseyoulove.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/winthehouseyoulove
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
A memorable brand is one that stands out in a crowded marketplace and has high visibility. It's also one that provides benefits and value to its customers and creates a sense of community among its members. Remembering it is key; taking care of it is another thing entirely. The difficulty is that real estate isn't the easiest category to remember. It's so much more than housing and buying and selling homes: it's also about neighborhoods, communities, cities and towns. The names change, the faces change, but the real estate market is very much a local marketplace.
That’s why a memorable brand requires constant work and attention for those who want it to outlast its competition. Here are three steps to get you started when creating a memorable brand in real estate:
- Pick a name that’s easy to remember.
-
- While it’s true that the best names are often taken, you can stand out from the crowd by choosing a name that’s simple and easy to remember. It should be short, catchy and memorable so your prospects will recall it easily.
- If you’re on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms, you shouldn't use the same keyword phrases or hashtags as your competitors. Each brand should have its own unique lexicon in order to create a distinction that will be easily recalled by consumers. You might also consider using an abbreviation to stand out.
- Create your own lexicon for social media interactions.
- Your real estate brand could use an overhaul from time to time if it starts to feel outdated or loses its luster with consumers.
- Don’t be afraid to change your name.
Dustin talks about so much more in this episode and gets very granular about branding to help you learn what should do to build a better, stronger brand. He shares important tips and tricks that you can start to implement immediately.
This week's episode is for folks who have lost their way or who feel like they blend in too readily. Dustin will walk you through the difficult questions you have to ask yourself if you want to stand out in the minds of your prospects and individuals in your area of expertise.
00:00 Introduction
1:45 How to figure out where your brand sits and how people perceive it
4:38 The importance of knowing how to communicate your brand verbally
13:19 Know where your business comes from
26:30 How to know if you truly understand your buyer
30:16 The elements of value pyramid
35:43 Why you should gain your customer’s confidence as soon as possible
39:56 How are you going to serve your customers
44:28 Why you need to be very thorough when defining your brand
47:29 Get clear on why you’re the brand or person people should be working with
Connect with The Marketing Trench Podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
Jeff Bernheisel is an industry veteran who has helped realtors across the country for well over a decade with inventive digital marketing tactics. Prior to this, Jeff worked as project manager at 1000watt Consulting, helping to provide assistance for real estate customers across Canada on marketing/branding efforts. Jeff was Marketing Director of M Realty, an innovative Portland based real estate brokerage and Inman News, a nationwide news outlet.
Now he leverages his unique ability to sell his houses at the best prices, or he will negotiate an amazing bargain to buy a new property. And he does this with his own clientele.
Personally, I can't imagine anyone better equipped to create a killer marketing strategy to launch a new list, with his unique abilities, love for high-quality work and awareness of what is required to turn this opportunity into several more buyer/seller chances.
Listen in as Jeff takes us behind the scenes of his process during this episode of The Marketing Trench.
00:00 Introduction
1:31 Jeff's background in real estate
5:03 Importance of mentorship and being part of a team as a beginner
9:55 Bad experience with cold calling and making contracts
15:58 Jeff, the whiskey guy
18:45 Parallels between selling and the dating world: being a matchmaker
25:14 Coach advises that don't apply well
33:21 Being genuine when doing content marketing
34:22 Is cold calling worth it?
37:57 Importance of storytelling for real estate and business in general
43:21 The problem with the term "leads"
Connect with Jeff Bernheisel:
Website: https://realpdx.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbernheisel/
Email: jeff@hillshirerealtygroup.com
Connect with The Marketing Trench Podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
People are increasingly utilising their gadgets more than ever before, thanks to the development of newer and quicker technologies. It's all about transferring information from one person to another, or from a business to a consumer, as quickly as possible.
Mobile devices can scan and understand QR (Quick Response) Codes more seamlessly than ever. This has been utilised by marketers on billboards, publications, websites, and other marketing materials. QR codes may rapidly give additional information about a product or service, and the information is delivered to the user's device.
QR codes, in essence, encourage mobile phone connection and engagement. This sort of marketing approach allows firms to communicate with their customers. Users have had it with anything that is sluggish and time-consuming these days. In the world of marketing, it's all about being immediate and quick.
So is it possible to utilise QR codes in real estate? As it turns out, we all have strong feelings about this, and we don't all agree. Listen in to hear our hot views and get some ideas for how you can use them creatively in your real estate marketing efforts.
00:00 Introduction
3:09 Where should you put QR codes?
7:09 How to get people to leave Google reviews
13:40 Using QR codes throughout a home tour
20:30 Putting QR codes in TV commercials and advertisements
26:50 Using QR codes to allow people to download files
35:20 Make sure your user experience is valuable and fun
Connect with The Marketing Trench Podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
We're taking some time this week on the Marketing Trench to answer some listener questions! We regularly get a lot of great questions from you guys so we’ve decided to keep them in our back pocket and once a month do an episode answering as many as we can.
We understand that real estate isn't a one-size-fits-all industry, and that everyone's marketing and company operations are unique. On this week's episode, we'll look at some typical listener queries about automations, which platforms to utilise, and so on. We'll also discuss some real-life case studies of clients we've assisted over the last few months.
If you have any questions you’d like us to answer, head over to our YouTube Channel and drop a comment on this episode. Also, we stream live to YouTube every Friday. You can ask a question during the stream and we’ll answer it in real time.
00:00 Introduction
00:58 How do I know if I'm using the Right CRM for my company?
9:25 Are mailers a waste of money?
16:22 I want to start making videos. What tech should I use?
19:16 What's the best use of money to get started in the industry?
30:51 How do I write better listing descriptions?
31:42 Should I discount my commission to win the sale?
Connect with The Marketing Trench Podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
You're just as likely to be working with someone in a different part of the country (or the world) as you are with someone in a different part of the office in today's workplace, which is why knowing how and why remote meetings work, and how to make them work for you.
Although online meetings have become a common part of a team's daily routine, figuring out how to make them as effective as possible can be a challenge: What is the most effective virtual meeting software? And how do you make sure you've covered everything before everyone disconnects or hangs up? Don't worry if hosting a virtual meeting feels like a giant question mark. In this episode we’ll take a look at all you need to know about doing successful remote meetings.
There is a wealth of technologies available to make hosting an online meeting quicker, faster, and more collaborative; the trick is determining which of these solutions is best for your team:
- How many people need to be involved in your remote meeting?
- How can technology make online meetings more efficient?
- Setting up remote team meetings around conflicting schedules.
- Set an agenda and agree on remote meeting guidelines.
- Etiquette for online meetings.
Our guide will go through how you can upgrade your tech to get a much better quality at a great price to make sure you look as professional as possible. If you’d like to make some changes with how you and/or your team shows up in a video meeting, you can get a copy of the full guide by texting your email to 949 239 6673.
00:00 Introduction
5:25 The importance of good lighting
12:01 Learn how to frame yourself on camera
15:40 Why you should invest in a good microphone
21:27 Why you should invest in a separate higher quality camera
27:19 Why upping your video meeting quality matters
29:28 Pay attention to what's in the background
35:08 What should you do with your eyes?
38:00 Choose when you're going to start speaking, to not speak over others
38:53 Always look presentable
41:31 Check your internet speed
46:32 You still have to punctual
Connect with The Marketing Trench Podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
We're talking about cause marketing in this episode. One of the things we've discussed on this podcast before is that selling a product or a service is one thing. It's another thing entirely to connect it to something meaningful and important to you. It’s one way to set oneself apart, to go from being one of many to being one of a kind. You'll quickly distinguish yourself from your rivals if you stand for educating and community building rather than just trying to sell something.
How do you go about doing that? How can you get from being one of many to becoming one of a kind? How can you separate yourself from other persons selling commodities, products, or loans by standing for a cause and helping those who share your beliefs?
Christopher Griffith joins us in this episode. From single-family homes to large-scale commercial asset acquisitions, he has a wide variety of experience. He specialises in working with Veterans of the Armed Services and VA loans, and he has a flair for finding mortgage solutions. Christopher thinks that issues should be solved purely on the basis of his clients' requirements and motives. When it comes to Real Estate Finance, he delivers on this promise by offering the most alternatives.
00:00 Introduction
3:54 How did you build your niche community?
16:02 Why did you decide to start a facebook group?
21:50 Educate, educate, educate
28:59 How to structure your volunteer moderators to be efficient
34:03 Why you shouldn’t focus solely on how much money you’re making
37:19 Why you should be extremely selective when building your community
42:18 Put passion behind your communities and marketing
47:37 You have to be willing to help people
52:30 Don’t try to sell your product to your customer, try to help them instead
Connect with The Marketing Trench Podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Cristopher Griffith:
Website: https://vettedva.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/VettedVAProSupport/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
Have you ever had trouble coming up with the perfect words to write a blog article or an email newsletter? Do you ever find yourself gazing at a blank screen while trying to edit your agent profile or the description of your Google My Business listing? When it's time to create another listing description, do you dread it?
Natural language processing tools are used to produce AI copywriting. You must first pick what you want to write about and what kind of information you require. It could be anything from a blog article to a brief advertisement. You can then give the AI tool more instructions to follow and further refine the content it generates. AI has come a long way over the years and is really powerful. It’s able to instantly generate accurate and current content.
We're going to introduce you to Conversion.ai this week on the Marketing Trench. Our new A.I.-powered copywriting assistant is one of our favourites! It'll make writing high-converting material for all of your needs a breeze, and we think you'll love it! Conversion.ai will save you time while also making you sound intelligent. By creating sales and marketing text for your next listing presentation, ad campaign, website, listing descriptions, and more, automatically!
00:00 Introduction
3:44 How does AI copywriting work?
4:36 Templates, Templates, Templates
6:48 How accurate is AI writing
15:29 Use Case: Google My Business
22:02 Use Case: Escrow
25:37 Use Case: Marketing Copy
28:49 AI Tonality
31:59 Testimonial helper
34:54 Alternative: copy.ai
39:36 If you aren’t doing it your competitors will; the future of content marketing
Connect with The Marketing Trench Podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
You must improve your referral-worthiness if you want to boost the number of referrals you receive each month.
I'm confident that everyone who spends 5 minutes in your presence recognises you as a real person, a professional, and an authority in your industry. They're correct, by the way. You're fantastic! But, if you invest a little time and work today, I believe you may double or even quadruple your business in the following 36 months!
All you have to do now is create a marketing and content plan that attracts more of the people you want to collaborate with. So, how does that even appear? How can you build a referral engine that promotes your business 24 hours a day, 7 days a week?
In this week's edition of The Marketing Trench, we're going to talk about just that. Scott will show you what he did, how it worked, and what they're working on now to solve this challenge that he's been able to tackle over the last 10+ years.
00:00 Introduction
2:22 Why you should play the long game
9:14 Ricardo finally shows up!
9:44 Developing the short practices that contribute to the long game
11:02 Top 10 companies that own 90+ percent of mortgage related terms in search traffic
12:09 The Starfish Story
15:20 There are three clear content strategies you can rely on
15:13 Timely, current and relevant content
20:30 Winning trust over the big time services
24:25 Subject matter expertise
30:52 The Hub and Spokes Model
34:23 Video, Video, Video
41:58 Automating your lead followup
46:42 Cloning Yourself
Connect with The Marketing Trench Podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
Content marketing is a form of online marketing that involves producing, publishing, and distributing content to a specific audience. Businesses use it to draw interest and generate leads, extend their customer base, generate or increase online sales, increase brand recognition or reputation, and engage an online group of users. By producing and distributing useful free content, content marketing attracts new customers. It assists businesses in establishing long-term brand loyalty, providing customers with useful knowledge, and generating a desire to buy goods from the company in the future.
Identifying the needs of the consumer is the first step in marketing. The material can then be delivered in a variety of formats, such as news, video, white papers, e-books, infographics, email newsletters, case studies, podcasts, how-to manuals, question-and-answer posts, photographs, blogs, and so on.
Today we’re joined by Dan Stewart of Happy Grasshopper. Dan co-founded Happy Grasshopper in 2011, and it soon grew to become one of the world's leading conversational marketing and database nurturing firms. Through his conversational marketing tactics, Dan has helped over 10,000 members turn more leads, attract the best applicants, and build fruitful interactions that lead to sales at Happy Grasshopper. Dan assists sales professionals in identifying opportunities in every section of their database, enabling them and their companies to receive more than a billion dollars in commissions per year.
00:00 Introduction
2:49 Change your mindset from “get the lead” to build a relationship.
5:25 What does a day at Happy Grasshopper look like?
8:57 What does Happy Grasshopper do?
10:48 Why Chirp and how will it get you 12 transactions in a year?
16:44 Make your content interesting and helpful, not sales oriented.
23:06 Happy Grasshopper success stories.
31:11 How to craft an email that nurtures a personal relationship instead of sells a product.
43:35 The power of building relationships first.
Connect with The Marketing Trench Podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
We're talking about the difference between selling value versus selling discounts or kickbacks. As we all know, the market is now in a state of flux. Inventory is low, demand is strong, properties are selling rapidly, and the majority of sales are going to the big players. However, as the market expands, as it usually does at this time of year, smaller players in the market have more opportunities.
Though consumer discounts can seem attractive at first, tampering with price/value alignment has ramifications. You're either offering your consumers less value or decreasing the value of your product in their eyes when you preach a "pay-for-exactly-what-you-get" attitude and then lower the price.
The perceived value of your product influences your future customer's willingness to pay. Constant discounts erode this perception of value, lowering willingness to pay even more than free trials or other promotional deals.
Value selling is a sales tactic that capitalises on a customer's experience of receiving the item's or service's benefits in exchange for a purchase. In this approach, the sales dialogue focuses on how the commodity at hand can change the buyer's life, rather than the product's actual features and hard facts. Value selling also allows you to build deep and meaningful relationships that will stand the test of time.
00:00 Introduction
3:02 What to do when the competitors are offering discounts to win business
12:03 How to prevent people from shopping on price
14:09 How to start to shift your mindset from selling discounts first to selling value first
18:05 Relationship building to beat out the discount givers
20:19 Value Propositions
24:42 Know your value and the experience you bring to the table
29:01 It’s ok to be competitive in a truly competitive situation
34:23 Delivering a price point vs. delivering an experience
39:53 Always be prepared to defend your value
Connect with The Marketing Trench Podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
Today we're going to be talking about tools to help video content creators, get more out of their videos, do more with their videos and how to do things like put captions over your videos, transcribe your videos so you can post the content to a blog post and how to do things like incorporate video into some of your marketing material.
We've talked at length about the importance of video and why we think people should be using it. But the whole production aspect can be overwhelming, especially for ameteur creators. There’s great tools on the internet that help you to quickly and easily take your video and make it pop.
All of the tools on the list are insanely affordable and very accessible. You can pick and choose which services you need depending on what you're producing content for and how you're doing it to put together a toolkit of only the tools you need and nothing else.
00:00 Introduction
2:19 Loom
12:12 Warm Welcome
20:28 Testimonial 2
24:18 Descript
31:35 Veme.ly
34:45 lumen5
35:57 Vidchops
44:26 Evabot
Connect with The Marketing Trench Podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
If you're a buyer in today’s crazy market you might be feeling totally defeated and overwhelmed. It might feel like you need to be a high net worth individual or a big time investor. But you don’t have the cash on head when it feels like that’s the only way to get into the market.
How in the world can I compete? Using video to tell stories is a tried and true strategy for building trust, engagement, and separating yourself from the pack.
In this episode, we speak with Alan Christian. He is a mortgage loan professional, real estate investor and previously he was a real estate agent. Alan is the guy with the answers to your burning questions. He has been helping his clients get great loans and competing against all of the cash buyers.
Alan let’s us in on how he’s leveraging stories to be competitive in an internal all cash market. What his strategy is and giving out some great tips and takeaways for real estate agents or for other mortgage professionals.
00:00 Introduction
2:21 Who is Alan Christian?
3:41 What are you doing to make your buyers competitive in an all cash market
5:13 Does this method always work for you? Do you get pushback?
8:24 What if the highest offer is an all cash offer?
13:52 How to leverage true stories to achieve a more human approach
19:20 How do you handle the push back when you get it?
22:44 What was a time when you got a really positive reaction to what you do?
24:43 What is your conversion rate using the videos?
30:37 Why use BombBomb over all the rest of the options
48:49 Don't over think it and just be you
Connect With Alan Christian:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alanchristianmortgageteam
Website: https://www.alanchristian.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alanchristianmortgageteam/
Connect with The Marketing Trench Podcast
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
Right now the industry is in a place where we don’t know for sure if interest rates are going to keep going up, flatten out or go down. You might be getting questions from clients like, “is now a good time to buy? And, “It seems like prices are overheated, am I going to lose money?”
Today we speak with Josh Lewis. He is with Buywise Mortgage, which is also Scott's company. And Josh is one of the smartest people in the mortgage industry. He is actively paying a lot of attention to the real time data and has become a trustworthy voice in the real estate industry. He also hosts a weekly podcast on this topic and it goes really in a depth.
We're going to try to bring some of Josh's knowledge to our own show so that you can learn about this business as well. Consider what's shaping it and how to feel about it as it evolves, as you're putting your sales and marketing strategy together.
There are lots of numbers associated with buying a home—so many that even seasoned buyers will look at them all with tired eyes. But one thing about this business is that if you know what all those numbers mean and how they relate to each other, you're way ahead of the game.
00:00 Introduction
3:02 Why interest rates are not going to keep going up in 2021
9:54 Is the inflation people are worried about because the country was artificially shut down?
11:42 The market is too crazy right now. Should your clients wait to buy?
19:42 What is the buy vs. rent situation in the current market
26:05 The relationship between the value of a home and the market’s median income
29:08 Why are first time buyers having so much trouble
33:53 Where can people go to figure out their best option to buy a home in this market
40:17 Who are the experts to follow?
44:26 How high will interest rates go? How low will interest rates go?
48:22 Why you should be talking supply vs. interest rates with first time home buyers
51:45 Never pay for a mortgage
Resources:
MobilityRE: https://www.mobilityre.com/
Connect with Josh Lewis:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FindMyWayHome/featured
Email: josh@buywisemortgage.com
Connect with The Marketing Trench:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
We all know Google is the most popular search engine on the web. The majority of you are aware that YouTube is ranked second. Did you know that YouTube is the most popular search engine among people aged 35 and under? Is it possible for customers to find you on Google or YouTube?
Today we're going to be talking about building a blueprint for video marketing that you can apply in your business as a real estate agent. But this isn't just any old advertising video; these are promotional videos that showcase the people and places around them with the goal of not only showing but telling viewers what they have to offer.
Video marketing has been very effective in our industry and continues to be one of the best ways for agents to grow leads because it's a completely different beast than traditional advertising. Previously, we've talked about how effective video marketing can and has positively influenced real estate's agent ROI.
We're joined by Ginger Bell from Edumarketing.com who provides video marketing services to mortgage originators, real estate agents and other professionals who:
- Want to create videos, but don't know where to start.
- Has a passion for training, but needs help creating presentations.
- Wants to create content, but doesn't have time to write.
- Desires being known as the Guru in your industry, but has no idea how to get there.
00:00 Introduction
1:11 Who is Ginger Bell?
2:39 The importance of doing video marketing for real estate
5:50 Defining what successful video marketing looks like
9:37 Leveraging video marketing
10:42 Why video works so well
14:05 Steps to getting started making marketing videos
18:57 How to lay out and plan your content
29:12 Does every marketing video need a call to action
32:32 How to overcome being discouraged if your videos aren't performing
35:46 How to use video to make your SOPs more efficient
40:15 Creating video marketing content will put ahead of 90% of your competition
43:34 The #1 thing to consider if you're going to start creating video marketing content
Connect with Ginger Bell:
Website: https://www.edumarketing.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/mortgagevideo
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzKE3FKGkq5wlE5oLYMcECQ
Get the Edumarketing Mortgage Video Planner from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Edumarketing-Mortgage-Video-Planner-First/dp/B089M2FN9G/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
Connect with The Marketing Trench:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
So you've worked hard to create a fantastic database that's well-organized and segmented. But now the problem is that you're sitting there staring at your screen, unsure what to do with it. That's the issue we'll address in this episode. We're ecstatic to share our very first Marketing Trench guide with you.
This is where we put our collective brainpower to work to help you build some campaigns. And, as you'll see, they're completely unimpressive. And that sums up our mutual brilliance. Scott was not a member of it. So it was just Ricardo and me, and the final product will reflect that.
Your database should be one of your most reliable sources of repeat and referral revenue. When selling to others, the goal should always be to increase the person's "like and trust factor."
People do business with people they like and trust right away. The problem is that the customer is seated in front of their phone or device, with five browser tabs open, including one with you and four others. What makes you stand out? Why should they select you over some other agent who is essentially interviewing, for that same job to get the listing or to help them submit an offer on a house?
00:00 Introduction
3:50 Three Campaigns you can send to your database right now
9:21 Market update campaign
18:45 The interstate shuffle
29:18 Targeting people who trying to flee the state
33:35 Targeting people in a an in demand satte
38:46 Leveraging HomeBot
48:00 HomeBot sign up script example
Resources:
Altos Research: https://altosresearch.com/
Download the PDF: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/3campaigns
Connect with The Marketing Trench:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
Google Ads is the platform developed by Google that makes it possible for businesses to buy online advertising. Advertisers bid to display brief advertisements, service offerings, product listings, or videos to people when they are doing a Google search. It can place ads both in the results of search engines like Google Search and on non-search websites, mobile apps, and videos.
Facebook ads are advertisements that appear within the Facebook social media application. They are targeted to users based on their location, demographic, and profile information. You create ads by setting a budget and bid for each click or thousand impressions.
Today we have special guest Mark Ingles. Mark specializes in advertising on Google and Facebook. There's been news recently about big changes that Google is making to its advertising platform.They're going to make it a more private experience for consumers and is set to change the way you advertise with them. if you are in sales and marketing, and you're trying to think about where you should spend your money, Google or Facebook. We're going to talk about the differences between each and what kind of results you can expect from each.
00:00 Introduction
1:30 Google ads v. Facebook ads
4:20 Which platform is right for you
10:09 Where does YouTube fit into the ads space?
17:10 How to write copy and send the right message in your ads
22:54 Rule of thumb for where to send the people who click through
27:03 How to apply quizzes to your real estate business?
38:43 Do quizzes convert over ads with a higher production value?
41:02 Retargeting YouTube videos
42:58 what's going to happen with Facebook ads and Apple iOS?
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Mark Ingles:
Website: https://www.directlyresponsible.com
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
COVID has made it possible for a lot of people to work remotely, which means working virtually. With the sudden and abrupt change the world has gone through. It has potentially affected our comfort levels around hiring virtual assistants. In the past, many companies preferred to have in house employees as opposed to virtual assistants. However, in the last year, it’s become clear that people can get anything done while working remotely.
Hiring virtual assistants is quickly becoming a viable way to get the help you need while not hiring a full time employee. In some cases this is what works best for the person doing the hiring. Long gone are the days when hiring a virtual assistant meant hiring a freelancer for a one off project. Today, virtual assistants are hired for part-time and full-time hours becoming an integral part of your company’s team. All you need to do is decide what tasks you need to delegate and create a process around the task so that itès done properly by your virtual assistant
Pavel Stepanov joins The Marketing Trench to talk about what kind of person should hire a virtual assistant. Pavel is the CEO of Virtudesk, an online service where real estate professionals can go to hire vetted virtual assistants.
00:00 Introduction
2:56 Who is a virtual assistant for
4:57 Building a team of virtual assistants
7:18 Finding the best virtual assistant for you
10:19 Acclimating VAs to an existing culture
14:59 Who is your virtual assistant?
16:46 How to get past the doubt of hiring a VA
21:01 Part-Time Vs Full-time
27:46 What does it cost to hire a VA?
29:38 Do you need to train your VA
37:09 When to hire a VA and when to hire an employee
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
This week, we're talking about a subject that's actually a combination of two things. The first being the headline or topic; give yourself a raise. And this actually came from Steve Ramsey's idea of paying off your debt. Now, every time you pay off your debt, you give yourself a raise.
What he means by that is the amount that you pay towards your debt now stays in your bank account. And when you think about how you pay off debt, you pay off debt with post-tax dollars. The effective kind of gross income that you earn off of every time you pay off a debt is whatever the debt amount is.
To help you find a way to give yourself that raise, we're going to dive into the subject of what causes people to continually pay for services that you haven’t used in over 6 months and don’t need. And ways you can affordably outsource tasks that you need to do, but don’t have the time to do it yourself. By outsourcing you can focus your time on doing things that will build your business.
Tools & apps mentioned in this episode:
Truebill: https://www.truebill.com/
Fiverr: https://www.fiverr.com/
Design Pickle: https://designpickle.com/
Dribbble: https://dribbble.com/
99designs: https://99designs.ca/
UpWork: https://www.upwork.com/
00:00 Introduction
3:39 What's a FOMO vampire and does it affect you?
6:56 How to track subscriptions and save yourself money
10:31 Are you solving a problem or is it a FOMO vampire?
19:26 Have you thought about hiring an accountability coach?
24:16 Learn what you need to outsource
31:09 How the advances in technology affect what your outsource
32:57 Tools that are worth it & Hiring freelancers
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
The pandemic has changed the way everyone in the world does business. Real estate agents rely on in person sales tactics to build relationships and help people buy homes for their families. But most if not all of the in person lead generation strategies aren’t possible right now and we don’t know for sure when they will be possible again. Another thing to think about is how will the world be changed after the pandemic is behind us.
We talk about alternatives to open houses on today’s episode. The ability to get face to face is fundamentally different today. So we are all trying alternative methods like using email or zoom. You want to have as much human to human connection as you possibly can, but in the period of COVID, that's obviously challenged.
So what can you do to have something at least coming as proximate as possible. And if you can't have that, then how can you still communicate who you are, give people a sense of what you're about, how you can help them and ultimately, why should they care about you when you're not talking to them face to face and having a human to human connection.
00:00 Start
3:19 Matterports, 3D virtual tours and showing up online with video
9:09 Purchasing a list of phone numbers for prospecting
14:59 Twenty-four seven open house concept
18:59 Facebook lead ads
22:42 Agent Dominator
24:05 Homebot
28:05 Leveraging success case studies
30:03 Seller seminar
36:15 first time home buyer advertising campaigns
37:31 Regular YouTube lives
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
In this episode we're speaking with our friend Mike Price about websites and what they're actually good for. Mike has spent the last 25 years working with real estate professionals helping them get the most out of their digital marketing efforts. Having started and successfully run several online services catering to the real estate industry, Mike shares with us his knowledge and expertise about how to show up online to grow your real estate business, fast.
We look at marketing your business from a granular vantage point breaking down what it means to effectively market yourself. We break it down into small detailed parts and examine what each part means and how it should fit into your website. We also take a look at where in your sales funnel should your website fit in and ways to write your website’s copy to make sure you are building trust with your potential clients.
Marketing isn’t rocket science. Your website should be filled with valuable content that is being created for your clients to use and gain something from. If you make your website a one-on-one conversation with your market, you’ll instantly begin to build trust and make them want to reach out to continue the conversation in person.
[0:30] Who is Mike Price?
[4:44] What is a website actually good for?
[10:03] Examples of great real estate websites
[17:33] Content strategies for your website
[26:17] How people are finding your website
[36:52] The power of niching down
[38:20] Where does your website fit in your sales funnel?
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
The last year has been difficult for a lot of people after dealing with a string of traumatic events. And with that, if you're thinking about launching a new marketing campaign, if you're thinking about hitting the phone and dialing for dollars, if you're thinking about door knocking and your value proposition is I would like to sell your house. When is it appropriate? And when is it inappropriate?
If you're feeling uneasy in the current state of the real estate industry and not quite sure where you stand. We talk about ways to navigate through these times while keeping in touch with your network and clients and ways to continue to grow your business. If you don’t feel comfortable trying to sell to potential clients throughout the instability, it’s okay, we’ll give you some actionable tips on how to lay low and wait out the storm with the least amount of consequences to your business.
[2:45] Selling during a traumatic time
[10:14] Managing your team during hard times
[16:03] How the change in administration might affect real estate
[16:45] Do you need to address what's happening in the world as a real estate agent?
[18:36] Thoughts on leveraging your stance in business
[24:26] The possible consequences of taking a stance
[30:32] Should you wait it out?
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
Today we are going to talk about Californians fleeing California (and other states). There are questions about if this is actually a real thing that’s happening. And if it is, whether or not it's something the real estate industry can take advantage of. Because if people leave the state, they’re going to sell their homes and there’s a great opportunity emerging.
So is there? Is there a sales and marketing opportunity in flight from California or flight from the state you live in? There was a Orange County Register article that came out recently that was mapping out where people are going and why they're going. It seems that between politics, taxes and COVID there's a lot of things going on that could disrupt people's living and work situations.
Remote work people aren't tied to any one geographical place. Even if people are working and they become partially employed. It’s going to impact your ability to afford housing in an expensive state like California.
There's a lot of folks that are going to be asking questions and I think it's important that we in the real estate and mortgage business can really provide clarity to these people.
[3:26] What does the data reveal?
[5:04] Is there a Market?
[9:11] What's the best way to find people in this emerging market
[15:48] Creative ways to connect with the people who need you
[27:22] How to syndicate video on facebook
[29:13] How to come up with content ideas
[33:41] Are you willing to do what others won't
[37:28] Where are people fleeing to?
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
Today we speak with Anton Danilovich the CEO and Co-founder of TopHap, a comprehensive data and analytics platform for real estate professionals. TopHap’s AI-powered analytics platform provides buyers and sellers confidence in one of the largest decisions of their lives -- the purchase and sale of their home.
We dive deep into this powerful platform’s features to see how they can make your life easier when you're buying a new home or helping your clients buy a new home. We look at microtrends and insights that drive property values, how Tophap will save you time while researching local properties and regions, how to grow your business outside of your home territory and how Tophap can help you build trust with your clients.
Head over to https://www.tophap.com for a free 14-day trial to help you decide if this tool is right for you.
[1:37] Who Is Anton Danilovich?
[4:20] What are people saying?
[5:30] At look at Tophap
[12:29] The deeper, hidden features of Tophap
[13:37] Value analytics
[15:24] How Tophap has acquired such a robust and detailed amount of data?
[18:14] A look at the valuation module
[20:12] how can Tophap benefit investors and flippers
[23:33] How Tophap improves the service agents provide to clients
[27:45] Tophap pricing
[30:31] Who is Tophap for?
[42:11] The best feature Tophap offers
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
Are you effectively guiding your customers along their buying journey or standing in their way? Large tech companies spend mass amounts of money testing how easy people can move through their products from start to finish to make sure that there's as little friction as possible. They do this to make it as easy as possible for customers to keep coming back and buying time after time, month after month.
We ask the questions, does the real estate industry have a problem with getting in the way of their customers ability to buy? And what processes do you have in place to make your clients feel nurtured and taken care of the whole way through the journey to create an experience that feels safe and under control? We also look at ways to avoid “emotional crash” once your clients are in the process of receiving your service or product.
[2:31] Why are we asking this question
[5:13] The importance of building processes in your business
[7:31] Drafting a client persona
[19:22] Why you should pay attentions to your customer's emotional state
[29:03] A look at a customer journey template
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
COVID has forced everything into the digital world. Even though the world was already going in this direction, the pandemic put the transition into express mode speeding up the move of the real estate industry to e-commerce by a factor of 10. We are finding that most inquiries for real estate agents are coming from people who reached out through Zillow or a similar service and hearing from fewer and fewer buyers agents.
We’ll take a look at the silver linings of a seemingly stressful time for people who either are feeling uncomfortable with the speed at which the transition is taking place or who weren’t anticipating the transition at all. And we discuss whether or not buyers agents are at risk of becoming obsolete.
If you’re worried about the direction real estate is moving in, we’ll give you actionable tips that you can incorporate into your business to make sure you're ready when the industry sees the big changes happen.
[2:32] Is the transition a good thing?
[6:57] Can/will buyers agents be replaced by mass buyer tech?
[13:56] How to create value so you don't get wiped out by technology
[17:45] How did COVID contribute to these changes
[20:30] What are the possible changes in how a home is bought?
[21:08] But where are the silver linings?
[24:31] Is there anything that could slow or stop the changes from happening?
[28:13] What can you do to find the silver lining?
[37:22] How do you become a specialist as opposed to a generalist?
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
With the election coming to an end, Biden has released a statement saying that his team is considering a 4-6 week total national lockdown to deal with the COVID19 pandemic that is seeing numbers on the rise. We talk about how going into lockdown could impact the economy and more interestingly, businesses.
How we approach business planning for 2021 will depend on if the lockdown happens and how our plans might change depending one what that looks like.
Whatever happens you can bet content marketing will be a large part of 2021. People have had more exposure to social media throughout 2020 and are more active than ever. They are looking to places like YouTube and LinkedIn to get answers to their questions. If you position yourself as an expert early enough, you’ll build credibility and soon become a go to source for people and can convert them into leads.
[2:09] Is Ricardo laying out a business plan for 2021?
[7:50] How has the pandemic affected marketing in 2020?
[10:57] What marketing strategies will work in 2021?
[17:24] How self criticizing could hold you back in 2021
[19:38] Content is King in 2021
[22:30] The value of building an audience
[25:25] Create content that is most natural for you
[29:09] Marketing principles going into 2021
[33:41] Concise to the point content will convert the best
[41:07] What you should prepare for in 2021 marketing
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
A business coach is a type of consultant that provides an outside perspective for you and your business. The number one priority for a business coach is to help you address the issues you're having in your business. But that’s not to say it’s the only priority. They also set out to help you with issues of a more personal nature, like finding career fulfillment and figuring out what’s most important to you.
Business coaching can play a critical role in the success of your company — but it might not be what you expect. You’ll find that the bulk of the help they provide isn’t teaching you practical business skills. What they actually set out to do is help you in such a way that will guide you to achieve a higher state of performance, to cultivate stronger leadership qualities, learn how to build trust in a team and learn how to improve focus so that you can get things done more efficiently.
In this episode, we take a look at dissecting the role of a business coach to figure out what exactly they do, if hiring one is right for you (it is) and if/when you decide to explore hiring a business coach, how to do it to make sure you’re getting exactly what you need from the right coach.
[1:16] What do business coaches do?
[4:25] Coach vs. Therapist
[12:02] An inside look at what business coaches do
[17:44] Business coaching as an industry
[22:27] How to choose the right style of coaching that works for you
[27:17] Coaching is behavioural
[31:14] You need someone to talk to you about your worries
[33:22] Is coaching the right choice for?
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
We're going to be talking about how to leverage data, to create business opportunities. One of the big questions that we have all heard out in the field is. “I want to do texts”. “I want to do emails”. “I want to be cold calling”. “I want to be reaching the right people”. And there's a sense that there exists technology and information out there that helps you reach the right people. But what we’ve found is that when it comes to the moment when you're ready to pull the trigger and do something. You don't know where to get that information. You don't know the first thing about how to think about that kind of information. And when you do get information, it's bad. And when the information is bad, it's discouraging, and you lose your momentum.
This is where a company like Cole Realty Resource comes into play. We welcome Tyler Steenken from Cole Realty Resource to The Marketing Trench. Cole offers unlimited access to cell phones, emails, landlines and other additional household intel such as purchase date & amount, square footage, length of residence and much more. When you use a service like Cole Realty Resource you are able to announce your Just Listed/Just Sold properties to neighbors, Farm neighborhoods to stay top-of-mind and Let residents know you have buyers looking in their area.
[1:54] History of Cole Realty Resource
[7:25] Hyper local domination
[9:38] Hyper local domination case study
[14:11] Leveraging data subsets for large areas
[15:09] What data points do you need to track
[24:23] Applying the data to advertising
[26:47] Facebook marketing from state-to-state
[29:32] The shift in how you generate leads
[33:22] Why you should focus on owning one category
[35:16] Prospecting from home
*Coleinformation.com promo code 200OFF. Save 200 off the annual subscription.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
On today's episode, we're discussing how to become a better problem solver to build your business. Ricardo happened upon a book called Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen by Dan Heath. The book talks about what happens when we think ahead and try to prevent problems before they happen. It questions the behaviour of living reactively and asks the question why 'solve' crimes when we could stop them being committed? Why treat chronic diseases when they could be prevented from developing?
If you take on this mindset when running your business, you’ll avoid situations where your clients question your ability to seamlessly provide what you promised them. You’ll be able to reassure them that when specific problems come up, you have a plan for solving them because you’ve looked ahead and prepared for all possible outcomes. This is very different from panicking in the moment and causing you client to lose trust in you.
Actional tips to show your clients that you’re looking out for problems before they happen:
- Create a “lead magnet” style guide outlining steps to get started on your journey to high ROI.
- Outline common problems that come up all the time and how to solve or avoid them all together.
[1:56] What are we talking about today
[6:14] How do you market yourself to look like a problem solver
[13:27] What are you doing for your client as a problem solver
[17:31] Is problem solving the best use of your time
[24:16] Actionable tips to take this approach
[36:42] How to demonstrate that you are looking ahead for problems for you clients
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
Leadpops is the only Conversion as a Service (CaaS) platform serving the mortgage, real estate, and insurance industries. With Leadpops you can build sales funnels to convert more clicks into clients and build websites with built in sales funnels to help convert even more clicks into clients. They also offer a team of expert marketers to help run ads through Facebook, Instagram, Google, retargeting, email marketing, blogging and reputation management.
We do a deep dive into how Leadpops works and how you can use it to increase the amount of clicks and conversions you're getting. We take a look at what makes it different from other options, where you should insert this tool into your customer journey and compared to Facebook ads, how Leadpops performs and is it a better option.
We’ve been users of Leadpops for some time now and we take a quick look at the analytics and the tweaks made to increase the performance. Leadpops coupled with other tools like verse.io or similar is proven to increase your ROI if it’s set up properly and you’re able to close the sale after the lead has been qualified and has made contact.
[1:48] We aren't affiliates, we actually use this stuff
[5:19] What is Leadpops?
[10:50] Are Facebook ads better than a dedicated lead generation tool?
[12:23] How do we qualify the tools we recommend?
[15:14] How Flexible is leadpops?
[21:40] How effective is Leadpops
[29:04] Is a tool like Leadpops worth the money?
[32:50] Where should Leadpops go in the conversion process?
[34:00] vers.io alternatives
[38:25] What to do with leads that just aren't ready yet
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
The National Mortgage Insurance Corporation and Cultural Outreach released a report on next gen homebuyers. They are considered millennials between the ages of 25-39. This generation has been defined by entering the workforce around the crash of 2008 when the economy fell apart and now after a bit of recovery in the following years, the current pandemic is, again, causing financial stress for this generation.
We take a look at the insights of this report and how to market to the millennial buyers and successfully sell to this generation. Online marketing campaigns leveraging YouTube and Twitter as a way to build trust and credibility to help close the sale before your lead makes their first contact with you. We also take a look at why investing in your home is the best way to save and build capital in your later years.
[3:47] Are millennials really that bad with money?
[7:44] Next gen financial priorities
[9:17] How are millennials saving
[12:33] With so much consumer debt can the next gen buy?
[16:55] Next genès hurdles to home buyership
[24:52] Where is this generation's attention?
[34:57] Create content that will reach the market
[38:11] Phone calls over email
[40:15] how to close a Hale before meeting your lead
[49:52] Your home is your best investment
[55:02] The single woman buyer
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
This week we're going to dive into a really interesting report that our friends over at verse.io put together in collaboration with Ascend2, a research marketing company. It’s called The State of Lead Conversion In Marketing & Sales.
4 key findings of the report that we’ll take a closer look at are:
- Companies need more lead qualification data.
- Companies struggle to establish fast initial contact with leads.
- Communication capabilities matter.
- Companies are challenged to conduct effective follow up.
The goal of the report is to help companies take the lead-to-sales conversion rate from low performance to high performance. Only 12% of digital marketers can say they have high performing lead conversion even though the majority have adopted automation software, conversational marketing apps, and other methods to improve targeting, engagement and click through rates.
If you implement automation correctly and decrease the time it takes you to make first contact with a lead. You’ll be starting the lead nurturing process faster than almost half of your competition. Your leads won’t even have time to think about checking out one your competitors because you’ll be taking care of them before they’ll feel the need to.
Episode highlights:
[2:36] Study introduction
[7:21] The importance of lead scoring
[11:36] The importance of automating your lead contact process
[15:50] The problem with not following up
[18:56] Costs associated with lead conversion challenges
[24:34] Why is there uncertainty about outsourcing lead contact
[29:25] Why you should build a database
[33:51] What are people using to automate their follow UPS
[38:04] How often is direct contact made
[43:09] When do leads come in?
[46:30] Conclusion
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
Ricardo talks about his favorite tools that will help you be better and more efficient at completing tasks throughout the day at your job. We’ll talk about tools that will help you improve your advertising and marketing as well as some options for automating operating processes like scheduling events.
The Tools Ricardo will cover in the episode are:
Website design with Agent Fire and similar options
Google My Business
Canva for graphic design
Calendly For booking calls and meetings
Verse, Structurely and Gabby to efficiently follow up with leads to keep them hot
Facebook Ad Portal from LionDesk for designing Facebook ads
Momenzo for easy video creation
Vemely to easily add captions to your videos
[3:01] Do you actually need a new website? Or do you need better traffic?
[5:47] Website builders and website design tools you should use
[9:32] Creating content when you aren’t a content creator
[13:34] How to improve your website's Google ranking factor with Google My Business
[16:38] Social Media and Design
[17:09] What is Canva?
[24:56] What is Calendly?
[33:43] What are verse.io and Structurely
[40:50] Facebook Ad Portal
[44:31] What is Momenzo?
[46:23] What is Vemely?
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
Daniel Cross is the Director of Business Development at verse.io. Using a 2-way SMS, AI driven follow-up system, verse.io is the smartest way to engage and convert your inbound leads into qualified, sales-ready opportunities and is ready to help you 24/7.
Daniel joins The Marketing Trench to talk about lead contact conversion and some of the secrets and best practices to making sure you are converting as many qualified leads as possible. We also take a look at the analytics that prove automating your lead conversion increases your ROI.
We talk about why it’s better to automate your lead contact conversion, how to ensure your leads are truly qualified and the best way to leverage the tools available to you to increase your lead conversion.
[1:12] What is verse.io
[3:46] Why following up with leads sucks
[5:32] Lead source success
[14:07] Should you automate your contact and conversion process
[15:42] How much of an increase in follow up does verse.io provide
[21:41] What is a qualified lead?
[24:02] Tools From The Trench: Conversion analysis (what are the numbers?)
[32:31] Best ways to leverage verse.io and increase your lead conversion
[40:44] Why 24/7 automation is necessary
[42:23] Will your sales team actually follow up manually?
[50:21] Outro
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingtrench
Website: https://www.marketingtrench.fm/
Connect with Daniel Cross:
Website: verse.io
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-cross-sd/
Connect with Ricardo Bueno:
Website: https://www.ricardobueno.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ribeezie/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ribeezie
Connect with Scott Schang:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottschang/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottschang
Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottschang
Connect with Dustin Steeve:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinsteeve/
Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dustinsteeve/
In this episode of The Marketing Trench we talk about everything that goes into gathering reviews and how to turn those reviews into gold. Creating a positive feedback loop requires consistent attention to your clients and your process. Don’t let negative reviews stop you from growing your business!
Do you ever feel like you’re in over your head or that you’re not good enough?
That’s imposter syndrome creeping up on you. And we all experience (some to a higher degree than others).
It’s easy to fall into pits of self-doubt and self-criticism when all the world shows you are the fruits of other’s successes. We all start as students who have no idea what to do, but it’s important to remember that as much as you learn in a lifetime of experience, you will always be learning. There’s no problem with saying “I don’t know!”
In this episode, we tackle what imposter syndrome feels like and how to overcome it so that you can work towards performing as your best self.
In this episode of The Marketing Trench we’re going to work towards helping you find your selling superpower by talking about asking for the sale and doing so with confidence.
Because guess what? Oftentimes, if you don’t explicitly ask for the business, then you’re probably not going to get it.
So when do you make the ask?
How do you make the ask?
And how to we develop the confidence to earn a prospects business, time and time again?
How do you tell stories people will care about? How do you find that balance between your personal and professional life, especially when trying to tell stories online? At the end of the day, how do we really know that any of the time or effort we put into telling stories actually helps us grow our business?
Are any of these questions good questions? The right questions to be asking?
Join us as we talk with top producing agent and beloved storyteller Chris Kwon of Compass to answer these questions and more.
How do you tell stories people will care about? How do you find that balance between your personal and professional life, especially when trying to tell stories online? At the end of the day, how do we really know that any of the time or effort we put into telling stories actually helps us grow our business?
Are any of these questions good questions? The right questions to be asking?
Join us as we talk with top producing agent and beloved storyteller Chris Kwon of Compass to answer these questions and more.
Restrictions in some areas are starting to ease. Still, some consumers will continue to practice social distancing and it’s important to meet them where they are. If they want to keep things virtual, no problem.
Every agent out there needs to find a way to continue serving their clients through virtual showings, online open houses, etc.
So on this episode of the Marketing Trench we’re talking with digital marketing expert Brad Filliponi, founder of BoxBrownie.com, about how you can put your best foot forward to showcase your properties online, drive more views, and close more sales!
When you watch a compelling video, you feel like you know the person on the other side of the camera. Heck, sometimes you spend large amounts of time browsing videos created by your favorite people.
Video is powerful because it tells a story. When used properly in marketing, it successfully builds your know, like, and trust factor with a person.
The goal is to reach potential home buyers and sellers in order to build that connection so that they contact you before reaching out to another agent on Zillow.
In this week's episode of the Marketing Trench we talk with Jeb Smith from Coldwell Banker about how he's leveraging video while under quarantine to build a powerful trust asset that's going to generate customers for tomorrow!
Overwhelmed. Lost. Frustrated. This is what it feels like to become lost inside your business.
This is what happens when:
- You get lost in the necessary day to day operations
- You get lost wasting time feeling like your scatter because you lack systems in place
- You get lost in the fog of un-motivation (Or is it “de-motivation”?)
- You get lost in the anxiety and worry of declining sales
Even if you’ve been in the business for a while, at one point or other, all sales professionals get lost like this. So much so that it has a name.
It’s called working IN your business instead of working ON your business.
In this episode of the Marketing Trench we share some strategies for working ON your business so that you can come out on top when the market rebounds!
The content you create today, is going to build your “know, like, and trust” factor with people who will become consumers further down the line.
And right now, while we’re dealing with COVID-19, good content (facts, helpful resources, etc.) has never been more important.
Buyers (and sellers) are looking for information and guidance. And unfortunately, the web is riddled with bad information and improper guidance.
So this week, we’re talking about how to create helpful content, whether it’s original content or curated content. And a great example of that in action, is Scott’s Forbearance Report that he published in a weekend.
The content you create today, is going to build your “know, like, and trust” factor with people who will become consumers further down the line.
And right now, while we’re dealing with COVID-19, good content (facts, helpful resources, etc.) has never been more important.
Buyers (and sellers) are looking for information and guidance. And unfortunately, the web is riddled with bad information and improper guidance.
So this week, we’re talking about how to create helpful content, whether it’s original content or curated content. And a great example of that in action, is Scott’s Forbearance Report that he published in a weekend.
We're wrestling at a point where people are sort of wrestling between "no, this isn't really happening" and acceptance.
"Ok, this is happening ... what the heck do I do now?"
In this episode we dive into:
- How to get your mindset right
- How keep up your positivity (for your own well being and that of your clients)
- And how to tap into your unique superpower to continue to connect with your community
Right now, nothing is normal.
A lot of companies are taking the health of the community seriously, and real estate agents are no exception.
In this special episode, we talk about:
- How to get in the right mindset in light of everything that’s going on right now
- Staying safe and practicing self-care so that you can serve your clients well
- Strategies and tactics to help you meet with clients (and potential clients) remotely
… and more!
Right now, nothing is normal.
A lot of companies are taking the health of the community seriously, and real estate agents are no exception.
In this special episode, we talk about:
- How to get in the right mindset in light of everything that’s going on right now
- Staying safe and practicing self-care so that you can serve your clients well
- Strategies and tactics to help you meet with clients (and potential clients) remotely
… and more!
In the previous episode, Dustin talked about how they’d gone about selecting their CRM and figuring out how to put it to best use.
But here’s the problem … Marketing isn’t a “one-size-fits-all” strategy. You can’t market to the masses and still be personalized.
In this episode, we talk about how to think about your CRM strategy and move from Customer Relationship Manager to Customer Relationship Assistant.
In other words, how do you use your CRM to automate, while still being personalized? And how does automation help in the trust building process?
Choosing a CRM is hard (for most people).
Which one do we choose? Which one has “the best features”?
What if the team doesn’t use it, should we just custom build our own?
In this episode, we’re going to walk you through how this podcast motivated me (Dustin) to build a CRM and the steps I took to decide how we should build it.
This episode is useful for modeling for people who don’t have a CRM (and want one) how they should think about putting one together.
It's easy to get caught in the trap of thinking, "well that worked for THEM, so it HAS TO WORK for me!"
So today's episode is a reminder for everyone ...
DO NOT try to mold yourself into something that you were never meant to become.
There's no one right way to do things.
It's ok to try new things, new strategies, and break out of your comfort zone, yes.
But it's better to adopt a practice of critical analysis through trial and error while staying true to who you are.
If you hate cold calling, don't cold call.
If you hate door-knocking, don't door-knock.
If we put all of your clients from the past two years into one room, what would be true of 75% of them?
That’s the question that begins us down a path of identifying your “flame.” We’ll talk about the steps on that path and how you can fuel your flame because the more you glow, the more your business will grow.
As you listen in, ask yourself: Am I doing what someone else told me to do ... just because (or because it worked for them)? How can I build success on who I am?
For some people, the thought of creating a business plan makes them gag.
Do you really need a 10-page document to tell you how to run and operate your business? Is that too much structure?
I (Ricardo) argue that the value of a business plan is that you can reverse engineer your numbers, set a rigid plan, and follow it to success. It's your north star guiding you on where you need to be in order to hit your revenue goals month-over-month and year-over-year.
On the other hand, do they provide too much structure that don't allow for creativity and serendipity? Can you simply keep your eye on the horizon, identify your strengths, try lots of things, and leave yourself open to serendipity (Scott's position). In other words, fail fast, fail forward, and achieve high levels of success?
We think both models can work. It just depends on the type of person you are:
Type: 1 - Grinder
Type: 2 - Experimenter
When we’re starting out, we want to know the best tools to use.
What website provider should I use? What CRM should I use? What social media platforms should I invest my time (and budget) into?
What happens next is we usually get caught up in “analysis paralysis.”
Don’t get me wrong: it makes sense to invest in the right tools from the very beginning, especially if you want your business to get off to a good start.
Here’s the thing, you can’t build a system so perfect you no longer need good habits. Jumping off of Ricardo’s experience with Hello Fresh, we dive into how we blow time and money on tools and whether we should buy the tool we have our eye on. We ask the question: “Is it a me problem or is it a tool problem?”
We’ve all heard the statistic that 80% of one’s business comes from 20% of one’s clients, but few truly appreciate the power of that insight. On this episode, we dig into ideas for putting the Pareto Principle to work for us in a way that will make us more efficient and effective in our marketing spend.
“New year, new me, I’m going to CRUSH IT!”
This is the time of year when motivation levels run high, and everyone's dreaming BIG, setting goals, and making resolutions. Both personal and professional.
We’re going to dig into why all three of us are super skeptical of people who come to us, fired up, hot like the hare. The gold nugget we pull out: it’s not about lead sources or process, it’s about the people around you and the purpose inside you.
It’s not easy to make the decision to spend big money but once we do make that decision, it’s hard to walk away from the unproductive thing we spent big money on.
Today we dig into the topic of spending marketing money with the goal of maturing from “pay and pray” to “research and development.” You’ll walk away from this episode with valuable questions to make you confident you’re not throwing good money after bad.
In todays' episode we talk about:
- Why you need to think about the experience that you're creating for your clients
- Why you need to think about the lifetime value of a customer
- The shorter your mindset, the higher your operational costs are going to be
... and more.
A mortgage lead is not a loan. And a real estate lead is not exactly a ready-to-go buyer or seller.
It's an opportunity.
To build a relationship. Shorten the trust gap. And eventually, convert a prospect into a client.
But you still have to put in the work.
In this episode we talk about:
- Setting proper expectations when it comes to managing online leads
- Setting expectations with the tools that you're paying for
- Getting in the right mindset why you need to play the long-game
- Having empathy for the consumer and understanding the process from their point of view
... and more!
It's easy to get distracted in this business because it's a sales based business.
Start with who you are, what you love, and who you serve.
This is a great episode if you are someone who is treated like a commodity, you want to stand out, and you don’t get traction from coaches who come at you with questions like “what’s your unique sales proposition?”
We dig deep into our thoughts on the best strategies for identifying who you are as a person and how that should inform the sales and marketing systems you’re building around you to help you run your business.
Listen in as we talk about:
- Why you shouldn't start with technology, but rather, start by identifying who you are
- Technology doesn't change who you are/what you do, it AMPLIFIES what you're already doing
- How to avoid the real estate product sizzle and focus instead on the outcomes you want to achieve
- How to focus on things that are the "highest and best use of your time"
... and more!
The problem with most real estate professionals database is that they don't have one.
Your email contacts list doesn't count as a database. Neither do the contacts in your phone.
And don't pretend that the Google spreadsheet you’ve ignored is your database.
We’re not here to judge: we’ve been there and, truth be told, we’re still improving our own databases.
In this episode, we unearth some insights into what makes a database good and how you can set reasonable, actionable expectations as you start your database-building journey.
"Past Clients" should be one of your highest converting lead sources at the end of every year. And yet, we often don't market to them as well as we could (or should) be.
We all have past clients, we know we should be getting business from our past clients, and yet… we don’t.
Why? Why is staying in-touch with (and getting business from) our past clients so hard? Those are the questions we’ll be digging into on this episode of The Marketing Trench.
In this inaugural episode of The Marketing Trench, we dig into the subject of the Four Control Framework for Real Estate Success- a framework we use in structuring our own sales and marketing efforts.
In a changing market, the single most important thing you can do is focus on the areas of your business that you have 100% control over.
Things like:
- Your Reputation
- Your Relationships
- Your Prospects
- Your Past Clients
These are the building blocks of a success career in real estate. Listen in as we share WHY we've identified these areas and how they fit together to make your marketing and sales coherent and powerful.