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by Christina Ethridge 2 Comments

What’s the perfect Facebook ad strategy when you don’t have any listings to sell?


Featured Download: The Facebook Page Setup Checklist – specifically for real estate agents – get your Facebook page setup to capture real estate leads.


So, what do you do, what ads do you run on Facebook when you don’t have any listings to sell?

Today, I’m going to talk to you about basically the perfect Facebook ad strategy and this whether you have any listings to sell or not but this is especially if you don’t have listings to sell right now what should your ad strategy look like, what should it be.

I’m going to tell you several things. First of all why this is so, what you should be doing and I’m going to walk you through the seven steps so today is going to be meaty, it’s going to be juicy and I’ve got lots of stuff to show you.

And of course if you want the outline of the seven steps, then go ahead and comment here and let me know. Then go check Messenger because #RIBBIT, our Messenger bot, will send it to you.

In the meantime, I’m Christina with Leads and Leverage and I help real estate agents, specifically, create more time, make more money and enjoy the journey.

That is the whole point of every day of our lives whether we’re working, whether we’re living, whatever we’re doing  the point is that we need to enjoy the journey, enjoy the process and I’ll tell you, there’s a whole lot in real estate being taught and promoted and it’s really not that fun. So let’s enjoy this journey- let’s make more time, let’s make more money and do it.

Are you ready for this? If so, please comment here and let me if you want that outline.

The real estate market is slowing down. There’s all kinds of people talking about “we are in another bubble,” “we’re this”, “we’re that” and “oh my goodness companies that buy houses are going to take over the market,” etc. All of this “alarmist” stuff is happening and I look at all of that and I just go “that’s been happening for the last twenty-three years that I have been in real estate.” Same thing, same time, it’s just a different medium that they’re delivering this all in.

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How Can You Leverage Facebook and Facebook Ads

But what we are going to talk about is what can you, how can you leverage Facebook and Facebook ads so that regardless of whether you listings to sell or open houses or whatever, you’re still leveraging this wonderful, wonderful tool that’s being made available for free to us.

Of course you have to pay for ads but the tool itself is free and there are free things you can do that we will talk about in another show.

So alright are we ready for this? I’ve got all kinds of stuff for you today because this is kind of a big, juicy one and it’s one where you’re like I don’t understand how the ads interact, how they help and we’re going to through this today.

Alright, so first of all, I gotta tell you, I’ve had this “seven Facebook ads that you should be running. I did an article for either Inman or our website three or so years ago, and I named these ads. Some of them are named by Facebook things and others I named them and you’re going to see other people out there trying to sell the “seven Facebook ads you should be running.” They’re my name and they actually just physically copied it from me and when I listen to their stuff, it’s really funny because they have no idea who, what, when, why, how so I’m going to go ahead and tell you that. Let’s just get it out there so you know okay?

Here’s why I think this is important to teach you this- first of all, the article wasn’t enough, the training wasn’t enough, and second of all, back in May or June when Facebook opened up all of the ads that pages are running, so now, when you go to a page, if you scroll down on the left hand side, you are going to see an “Info and Ads” button that you can actually look and see what ads that page is running and where they are running them to/.

Now what you don’t see is any behind the scenes, you don’t see who they are targeting, you only know the country, you don’t see how long they’ve been running it, and you don’t see if it works or not. You don’t see any other strategies surrounding it.

You sort of can if you understand the process, but, here’s the thing- when that came about, of course I went out and looked at all of my major competition or even my peripheral competition and that’s when I found people who were like, they are still cheating, by the way, I talked to you about the gurus that cheat last week, speaking of, I went back to that page and they had stopped running ads but I looked back and they’ve got video ads running to Bangladesh and India and I can’t remember the third one.

They are just trying to get video views to make their videos look popular. That’s it. That’s it and they think that’s acceptable and they are teaching you how to do Facebook- and they aren’t even doing it themselves, imagine that!

Anyway so I went through and I was looking at my friend’s pages, people in my mastermind, and I was looking over their different stuff and I was like “wow, I cannot believe the number of people with pretty decent sized business that are trying to move to the next step that aren’t running ads. I’m like they’re only running ads when they have something to sell. That is bad, that is like bad, bad, bad!

So, why is that bad? Why is that bad? Because, number one, you have nothing running that you can actually be testing what’s going on in the algorithm, what your people are liking, what your targets are liking, testing your targets, testing your engagement.

When you don’t run ads and you suddenly start running ads again that sends up red light warnings to Facebook and if you are suddenly doing that they are like WHOA.

That’s when they start rejecting your ads because you don’t have any consistency in running it so there’s this Facebook reputation with Facebook itself that you got to keep in mind but also if you’re not running ads all along, you are not actually developing any type of relationship with your peeps, with the people in your audiences so you need to be running ads all along.

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The Facebook Funnel

So we’re going to walk through this okay so the very first thing that I want to walk through is to remind you about the Facebook funnel. You have to remember this in everything you do. You have to remember this. This is important. We don’t want to just like piecemeal stuff together.  We want to keep our focus on the funnel and through the funnel so our Facebook funnel strategy is to build an audience first, then it’s to build our list, preferably from this audience. Now you could circumvent this but it’s going to cost you more money, more time and they’re not going to be as engaged.They’re not going to be as targeted or engaged so you want to build an audience, build your list, nurture all of it, and that’s where you get your clients from. I know this is very simplified but I need you to understand this,

It’s just not run an ad and get an appointment. That’s not what it is, It’s not  just run an ad and get an appointment.

If you do not have the audience or the list that’s highly targeted, this is not going to work and you are going to get frustrated. If you do have an audience and a list that are targeted and you are nurturing them and you run an ad for an appointment it’s going to work. So we need to understand that. You really, really, really need to understand this, okay?

This is paramount. This is what we harp on over and over and over again inside Leads and Leverage because it is that important. You MUST understand this is how the strategy works on Facebook, for social media, for anything. I’m talking anything even in person. Unless they’re part of your audience, you can’t nurture them. You have to get them into your audience and then get them into your list okay?

So that’s the first thing. You have to understand this.

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The Facebook Ad Strategy

Now, we are going to walk through the Facebook ad strategy, and I’m going to actually walk you through what each step actually means. What I mean by that is each step actually touches engage, audience, list, nurture. It touches on each one of these so I’m going to try and show you all of these steps.

You should always, always have a least one ad running at all times and you need to make sure it is not an opt-in ad.

Why?

Well because you need to build and sustain a good ad relationship with Facebook. If you are not running an ad that keeps you in good graces with Facebook that doesn’t drive people off Facebook, that doesn’t require them to do anything to get anything. If you’re not doing that everything else that you are doing is going to cost you more time and more money and potentially close down your Facebook ad account so you have to be aware of this, okay?

So the worst thing that you can do is only run ads when you have something for sale. Now whether that is a digital course so it wouldn’t be Realtors but a digital course or a physical product or a home listing the worst thing you can do you is only run ads when you have something for sale.

You need to be running ads all the time so what do you do?

I want you to do me a favor and put in the comments here and tell me do you struggle with trying to figure out what kind of ad to run? Is that your struggle or is your struggle who to target? So let me know is it what kind of ad to run or is it who to target? Let me know in the comments here.

This week I have been customizing and tailoring my videos exactly after what you guys are asking to learn about. If you are in the Facebook for Agents Real Estate group or in the membership, today’s topic is the number one thing that you guys have asked me to talk about and to teach you so I’m going to do that. Alright,so what kind and who to target so let me know here in the comments.

The targeting is real easy initially, and I’ll tell you a little about that in the beginning because it’s actually easier than you think initially but the thing is for those of you asking who to target, that’s the easy part. The hard part is knowing what to say, when to say it, how to say it and moving them through the process so I’m going to walk you through this.

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Ad Strategy Step #1 Post Engagement Ads

It is post engagement ads. Now, what are post engagement ads? Post engagement ads very specifically they are a campaign objective in Facebook if you will called post engagement.

You are going to put a post on your page and you are going to pull it into this ad and the goal is just to get engagement on that post. Whether it’s a like, whether it’s a comment whether it’s a share, whether it’s somebody clicking and watching if it’s a video it doesn’t matter.

Your single solitary goal on post engagement ads is engagement. It’s literally getting somebody to click like, click through, comment or click share. That is your goal.

Why?

Because you need engagement on your page flat out plain and simple. Facebook needs to see that your ads are interesting to people, that they’re going to engage with them. You need to be doing post engagement ads flat out, plain and simple.

What’s a post engagement ad? Do you have something on your page or a post on your page that has been really popular on your page? Go over to ad manager and turn that into a post engagement ad and push it out.

If you have something funny like yesterday was National Dog Day so there are a ton of funny dog videos out there. Guess what? You could go and take one of those funny dog videos, things like that and go either make your own or just share it on your page.  

Now, Facebook has taken away the ability to actually run those shares as ads so you are going to have to get creative in this endeavour. Take pictures of your own dog, ask people to share their own dogs. That’s obviously for National Dog Day but this is the point of a post engagement ad.

It is not a sale
It is not a promotion
It is not an open house
It is not a listing.
It is not a call me
It is not anything related to “do business with me!”

Not at all, not at all. This is solely, solely so that you can build a relationship of trust with Facebook and with the people on Facebook. This is important, okay?

Now if you are a beginner and you’re just starting out at running ads or you don’t have a very successful ad strategy, you need to run these types of ads to cold traffic. What do I mean by cold traffic? Well, here’s what you need to do.

We actually started this inside of our members group before the demographics changed inside of Facebook and before the targeting changes inside of Facebook because again, when I learn something from somebody who has done millions of dollars in ads, I’m going to share it with you.

And so, I have a couple of people that I’m in close relationship with and who have flat out said “you guys, you need to stop running to the homeowner demographic.” I was like “whoa, whoa, wait, what?”

You need to stop running to all of the interests. You need to stop running your ads to these heavily targeted narrowed stuff because Facebook wants to be able to do the job for you. Their ad algorithm is so good that if you narrow it down like that, that is why your ad costs are becoming so expensive.

So what do you need to do? You need to create a pin-drop audience of people who live in your area and if you do pin-drops, you can do multiple pin-drops.

You need to do a pin-drop audience period!!  

Not homeowner demographic, not interests, not income, nothing. Pin-drop audience which means your ads better darn well know how to reach their pain points absolutely so that’s why when you say who to target, who to target is easy. It’s what you say and how you say it and where you are taking them on the journey, that is where the power is in ads.

So your post engagement ads, if you are a beginner, they need to be just to a cold pin-drop audience, cold, meaning they don’t like your page, they aren’t in your email list, they haven’t visited your website, they’re not a warm audience at all. They’re a cold audience okay?

If you are advanced and you’ve been doing this for a while and you have a warm audience of over ten-thousand people in your warm audience and if you don’t know what I’m talking about, this is all inside the membership.

I can’t go into all of this right here but we have the blueprint that talks about all the different audiences that we teach, etc. so for those of you who do know this if you are advanced and your warm audience is at least ten-thousand or more, you need to run the exact same thing but to a separate ad-set to that warm audience okay?

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Ad Strategy Step #2 Page Like Ads

So the first one is a post engagement ad and yes in this order. The second ad you should be running are page like ads. Page like ads, yes. If you are a beginner, run it to your cold pin-drop audience.

If you are advanced and you have a warm audience of over ten-thousand, run a second version of this ad to your warm audience but exclude your current page likes, so you don’t run it to your page likes again.

Alright so basically, almost simultaneously, you will be running post engagement ads and page like ads, both at the same time.

Sometimes some of you will start with page like ads first, then post engagement ads, and some of you will want to start with post engagement ads first, then page like ads, regardless, both of these types of ads do not take people off of Facebook. They keep people on Facebook and Facebook likes that and all they require is that somebody click one thing.

It’s a super easy action for them to take. That’s what you want. You need that and page like ads build your audience so let me get back to this.

Number one post engagement ads create engagement plus they build your audience. Number two, page like ads build your audience, okay? That’s one and two.

Please ask questions in the comments because I will do a Q&A at the end of this for you today. This is more like a training “webinar” today except you didn’t have to opt-in to anything and it’s free.

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Ad Strategy Step #3 Nurture Ads

Alright, number three- these are nurture ads. What are nurture ads? Nurture ads are the things that are fun like “Happy Birthday” ads or holiday ads. These things and you will run them as post engagement ad but they’re nurture ads.

These things, number one, get a lot of engagement for your page. They really help your Facebook ad account reputation and you can run them if you are a beginner. You can run these to a cold pin-drop audience but if you are advanced and you have a warm audience of at least ten-thousand, run them to your warm audience.

Now, do not run nurture ads, which is number three until you are comfortably running and sustaining your post engagement and your page like ads. Period, plain and simple. Do not be bouncing around.

If you cannot sustain post engagement ads and page like ads don’t run anything else.

You need those going and sustaining. Nurture ads usually are short, except for the birthday ad, they are very short-term things. For example for a holiday you would only run an ad for four days but it’s to get people to engage with your page to keep engaging, to keep nurturing your audience. You’re nurturing your audience, yeah, you are nurturing your audience.

It’s kind of like sending out football schedules or recipe cards except actually these people get to pick what they engage with and it’s more. It’s going to reach them everywhere because like well they are in the bathroom on their phone, they are going to use it. Well they’re standing in line on their phone and they are going to see it. While they are waiting in line at a drive-thru, they are gonna see it way more. You’re going to get way more of this.

Now, so you have one, post engagement ads, two, page like ads, three, nurture ads. Do not run nurture ads unless you are running and sustaining post engagement ads. That is important, okay?

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Ad Strategy Step #4 Opt-in Ads

Number four, and this is the fun one, opt-in ads! This is where you would also run your listings. If you have listings, you would run these ads. You could also run if you don’t have listings, you can also run IDX ads.

Now I teach that as ways that IDX ads are things that drive people to respond and opt-in and look at listings, okay? They are not just “homes for sale” ads. They are way better than that. You can also run your home value ads. You can run ads that have a download.

Some of you have probably seen some of my ads. Right now one of my biggest ones running is my Facebook page checklist so that’s a big one. I’m also going to be turning this video, these steps into a download for people so that’s an opt-in ad because it gets them to opt-in, right?

If you are a beginner, and you want to run opt-in ads, again, this is the fourth one on the list, this is not the first one but this is the fourth one, run it to a cold pin-drop audience. If you are intermediate, you’re just kind of getting going, run it to if you have a warm audience of over ten-thousand, then run it to your warm audience as well.

Now, this is where the first step of advanced comes in. Advanced marketers will run it to a hot audience. What do I mean by a hot audience?

Well, you use re-targeting and run it in context.

If people have been on your website looking at homes for sale, then you would want to take that audience and run various “homes for sale” ads to them. If they have been on your website looking at neighborhood pages then you would take that audience and run “hey, check out the homes in this neighborhood!” If they have been on your website looking at articles that you’ve written about “how to sell your house” or “how to prep your house” or “how to stage your house” then you would run a home value ad to them.

This is where the bigger audiences and advanced re-targeting pixeling comes into play,

This is why so many of what we do, we do this- ad to appointment- we do this, and then we go “why isn’t this working?” Well, because we haven’t moved anybody anywhere yet. They don’t know why they should trust you. Well, they shouldn’t because they don’t know you. You are just one of five hundred other Realtors in the market running home value ads or home search ads or talking about how number one you are or whatever. Be different and actually be something that’s going to get into their “psyche” if you will.

 

That was four so number one was post engagement ads, number two is page like ads, number three is nurture ads and number four is opt-in ads.

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Ad Strategy Step #5 Content Ads

Number five is content ads. What do I mean by content ads? Well, like a video or a blog post and no I do not mean like a sales pitch crap video that you are doing about how awesome you are or why they should live in your town and use you to buy or sell. I’m talking about a video or a blog post where you have answered a question or solved a problem or given them value that does not say “use my services!”

We have to get over that! That is not how people decide who they are going to use. They decide who they are going to use based on the value, based on how they feel about you and how do you get them to feel really good about you? You give them value!

So when you are doing video or blog posts and things like that, be valuable. Don’t be boring! Infuse your personality.

This video right here I run these as content ads. You can drive them off Facebook or keep them on Facebook. I actually run these as ads like after I’ve already done this and maybe you are watching this. Maybe you clicked on an ad and you saw this. So not you guys that are live with me right now but everybody in replay this is a content ad. I’m giving value so people will go through and click on this. That’s what I would run as a ad.

If you are a beginner do not do these. It’s not that you can’t or are incapable of doing it. It’s just that you don’t have an audience that’s actually going to listen well to it.

If you are an intermediate you want to run this to your warm audience. Again, warm audience is over ten-thousand. If you are advanced you want to run this in context to your hot people.

So I have certain ads of these that are going to a cold audience. The cold audience really responds much better to two minute or less videos, fast videos that drive them like a step in between to that content ad.

For those of you that have been part of my video view audience, my page engagement, my page likes, my website, my email list, I run these directly to you you guys so that you can see them so that you can get your value  so that you can take next steps. That is what a hot audience means, okay? So I’m running it in context.

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Ad Strategy Step #6 Journey Ads

Number six are journey ads. Customer journey ads. So this is what you want to do. You want to retarget people to move them along in the process. Should you do this if you are a beginner? No, not yet. Should you do this if you are intermediate? No, not yet. You’ve got way many other ads to run first but if you are advanced you need to run this in context.  

What do I mean by “journey? Okay, here’s an example- say you are running cold ads our as post engagement ads or something like that. Let me go back up to this, let’s say you are running ads out to your cold audience, so post engagement or page like ads. Let’s say then that you put some stuff on your page, and people have clicked through and gone to your website. So the first step, always remember the strategy, the first step is to get them to be part of your audience, the second step is to get them to be a part of your list, and this third step is to nurture but within the nurture realm you want to move them along.

How do you move them along? Did they click an ad to download something from you? What was that download? Let’s say that download is a step by step how to prep your home for sale if your home is older than 1974. Isn’t that the lead paint year? Something like that? This would only work in very specific markets that have a lot of homes older than 1974.

So let’s say they downloaded the lead paint disclosure and I’m pretty sure I’m off on that date. I used to remember all of these dates but I think I might be off on that date 1974, 1978, something like that.

Anyway they download that brochure how to walk it through how to prep your home so what would the next ad be to do?

Well, I would them another ad and say “here’s the lead paint disclosure that you’re going to have to disclosure to people because your home was built before 1974 and this is what you’re going to have to do if you want to sell.

The next thing “here’s what the lenders are going to require from buyers if you want to sell. So, like the lead paint, if they are doing a VA loan, a FHA loan, again, this is the journey, right? They are telling you the home is older then 1974, right, and you’re saying “here’s what’s required by law,” then “here’s what the lendersare going to require,” “here’s how you do it and here’s resources.” That is a journey ad. Each one of those are different ads- you are journeying people through the process.

In other words, you are giving them all the answers but in steps and helping them. You are trying to say “okay well they don’t really want the document that talks about the laws but maybe since they have already done the first opt-in but maybe they want the document on “here’s what you physically have to do. Here’s how much money you are going to have to put into it to do it.” It’s not as much as they think usually unless their house is really a pit.

But here’s what it’s going to be “if you put the work in, this what it will cost you.” “If you don’t put the work in, this is what it will cost you.”

I just need to segue here briefly…..I’m in a Dave Ramsey group because we follow Dave Ramsey’s baby steps and principles and somebody brought something up and I’m actually going to do a separate video on this but somebody brought something up that their Realtor was trying to get them to paint and replace the kitchen counters. And so they wanted feedback, there were like five hundred comments on this post, right. Do you know how many comments were “get another realtor?” Because everyone was saying “well the Realtor’s job is to sell your house regardless.” No, it’s not! No, it’s not. It’s your job.

Here’s the thing. That’s what people think. That’s what people genuinely think. They think they shouldn’t have to be culpable or be responsible for the product that they are putting on the market. So you need to teach people. You need to teach people this. You need to teach them. There were so many people who were like “do a housing allowance” or “people want to do their own stuff,” and I’m like “no, no, no, you actually lose more money.” If you’ve got a thousand dollars go freakin’ do the work. If you don’t have any money you are kind of like you can’t.

So to teach and I’m thinking to myself and I didn’t even respond in this thread because it was like four hundred comments, and nobody’s going to  listen, but you can do this in videos, teach people in videos, teach them how much money that they are losing.

Do you know, it doesn’t matter what the market is. Every single house we’ve sold we have sold at higher than the market price? Why? Because I freaking know what to do to get people to want to buy my house. I know it’s about absolute cleaning. I know it’s about painting, fresh paint. I know it’s about making sure everything look spotless and all the little things that they use….door handles, knobs and switches are all perfect. I also know it’s about a few updates you do need to make. I know this and as an agent, I have a seven-house success doing that. No, I’ve never flipped. This is just our personal residences that we have sold.  

So this is what you need to teach people and this is how you teach them and this is why you do it because that thread that I’m talking about. I mean there were over four hundred comments and I don’t know how many there are now. This was over the weekend because people believe that your job is to sell their S-H-I you know what.

In other words they expect you to be a miracle worker when they bring a piece of you-know-what to the market. Right? How do you teach them that no, it starts with them. You cannot help them overcome crap. They have to. How do you teach them?

Well you get your face on a camera and you teach them. Tell them, show them the loss of cost, the opportunity loss, the actual loss of money that if you give a $5,000 concession you are actually losing $15,000-$20,000 off the price.

Not the $5,000, seriously, because so many people who would have bought it at the higher price are not willing to do the work even if you give them a concession. So they are not also willing to live in a state of flux so you need to make sure you are teaching people these things. They don’t understand, they don’t understand. What they hear is “buyers like to do what they want anyways” and I’m like no, as somebody who understands human psychology, at least in this regard, a buyer wants to see a perfect, beautiful house and they’ll pay for it. They absolutely will so you need to teach people this okay?

So that’s what a journey ad is. That’s what the series are. Teach them if you know where they are looking and they’re buyers and they’re looking at buyer stuff on your website or they have opted in to buyer stuff in your email list or they are commenting on buyers posts, then you need to be running ads to that specific audience related to that. Does that makes sense? Hopefully this will help you through this process.

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Ad Strategy Step #7 Event Ads

Number seven are event ads. This is where you are going to run your open houses. It’s where you are going to run your open houses, your listings, just listed, your appreciation events, etc. This goes to your warm and hot audiences, period. It does not go to cold audiences.

Now, you can run just listed ads to your cold audiences, but you are going to get a way higher like thousands of percent higher response rate and your ad costs are going to plummet because you are running it to people who are interested in what you’ve been doing.

That’s where you get those people to actually show up at your open houses, to respond on your open houses ads and show up. This is how.

You bring them through this process okay so remember your strategy is to build your audience, build your list, nurture all of it to bring them through the process.

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Recap of The Facebook Ad Strategies

Now, let me go over these real quick. These are the Facebook ad strategies. These are the stages of the strategy that each one targets.

So the first one, which is engagement ads, it engages and builds your audience, right? Build your audience.

The second one, which is page like ads, it builds your audience, alright.

The third one, which is nurture ads, you’re nurturing.  It builds your audience because people are going to respond and you’re going to invite them. It also nurtures your audience. It also nurtures your list and your website visitors if you are running these as advanced.

Number four are opt-in ads. Those build your list. They build your list just flat out, straight up. They build your list.

Number five, content ads. They nurture plus they build your audience plus they build your list.

Number six is journey ads because you are nurturing plus you’re going to build your list because people will opt-in to the different things that you are doing.

And number seven are events ads. They nurture, they build your list and they build your audience.

So all of this, you have a primary focus for each one, but it doesn’t just do that one focus.

I’m actually going to do in another video is to show you guys my exact goals for this month, my beginning, my starting points, my end results, exactly what’s happened and also my number one goal. I had one goal for this whole entire thing. Well, actually I had two goals but I’ll share all that on the video.  

This is all related to ads and your presence on Facebook and audience. I’m doing the exact same thing I’m teaching you. I have a strategy. I’m building my audience and you are now a part of my audience.

Sorry you’re part of my audience. You watch my video, you are a part of my audience, right? I’m taking this audience, and when I give you guys opt-ins, a lot of you comment and you opt-in to mini chat. Now mini chat is not my list, that’s Messenger, that’s #RIBBIT, that’s not my list. It’s kind of a nebulous in between because I don’t actually own that.

But when I’m giving you things that ask for your email so I give you more value and those of you who are responding, “yeah, I want this next deeper step” you are becoming part of my list. My list gets more than my audience. I work my list. By nurturing, I’m nurturing all of this. I’m emailing my list and telling them to come watch these videos. I’m messaging you to have you come watch these videos because I’m nurturing you, right? I’m nurturing you, giving you value.

You need to focus on what you are doing through your ads. You need to make sure that you are giving value because whether they use you or not, they feel valued. They can take what you are doing, and either pick a different real estate agent and yes, it’s okay. It’s okay if they use someone else. It’s okay. Get over it. It’s okay because they are going to. You don’t control your market.

But here’s the thing- you help the industry and I know you are like “how does that help me?” It does, because when you are actually teaching other people that there are valuable and wonderful real estate agents out there, someone else is doing the same thing, and that person is going to come to you. That’s how it works. It’s like “karma,” if you will. It’s the same thing. It’s nebulous, it’s not trackable, it’s just something that’s just kind of out there but yes, it works.

You need to make sure that everything that you are doing is giving value so that they can move forward without you. Will they? Maybe. Maybe they will. Some will. Some just can’t plain sell right now, some aren’t ready to sell right now but the ones that are and they know “yeah, this person gave me value. I want to use that person.” That’s what you are going for.

So when you are doing all these ads, you are not only trying to maintain a relationship with Facebook, you are trying to build and maintain a relationship with your audience and your list and that’s what this process is.

Again, comment here and I will send you the full seven steps via Messenger that I just walked through with you. If you are watching this on Youtube or IGTV or Twitch if you look in the description I will put the link to this original video in the description so you can actually get these notes as well.

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Q & A

Davis and Company said

SO applicable to every profession!

Absolutely! Absolutely it is! 

Isabella asks

warm audiences that you are referring to.

Warm audiences. Yes you build your warm audience in Ads Manager. It is your website visitors, it is your email list, it is your page engagement audience, it’s your video view audience, your page likes. That’s a warm audience.  

Julie wants to know

how big should your pin-drop audience be?

How big of an area do you want to work? Your pin-drop audience should be where you want to work. That’s it. If you are in L.A. and your pin drop audience is all of L.A., you are lying. You are just thinking in scarcity and that’s just bad, that’s just bad.

That is a fixed mindset, get out of it, go into a growth mindset. Where do you actually want to work? How far do you actually want to drive?

If you have four listing appointments in a day, where can you drive to? Like seriously you need to be thinking about that. If you are in the Hollywood Hills you are not going to want to be driving an hour and a half or two hours each way for a single listing appointment. You won’t be able to put in two or three listing appointments in a day when you do that or three or four. You won’t be able to do that.

You want to be really focused in your market. You want to be able to resonate with your market. Your ads need to speak to your market. I’m sorry but people who live in the Santa Monica area they don’t have the same needs and desires as people who live in Riverside. Like, I realize those are two different counties, but still, you get my point.

They are so far apart but so many of you that live in big areas like that go “I want it all!” And you get nothing and you can’t figure out why. That’s why. You need to focus it in so your pin drop audience should be as big of an area that you want to work.

For example, I live in North Idaho. Half the Realtors here, a third of the Realtors here also have their Washington licenses. Now our brokerage does and we have agents at our brokerage that have a Washington license but I’m not going to do Washington also. I don’t want to learn all the Washington laws. I don’t want to drive over there. I don’t care if it’s a twenty-five minute drive. I don’t care.

I only want to want to work in Coeur d’Alene, Hayden and Post Falls. That’s it. I don’t even want to go outside of that. I don’t even want to do land out there. I don’t want to drive out on the roads. I don’t.  My dad was like “I’ll do it all” and I’m like “that’s awesome. I won’t.” I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to be in my car constantly. I didn’t want to run out to show a listing that I had. I didn’t want to run out and have to have a forty-minute drive each way to show a listing to someone who may not be my person.

So I wanted to be able to actually service the listings that I had so I was very, very focused to only to Coeur d’Alene, Hayden and Post Falls. That’s it.

You need to stay where you want to work and be real with yourself. Don’t be like “I’m desperate, I need a closing!” Be real. Because if you are wasting an hour or an hour and a half each way, you don’t have time for stuff that’s in your local market like you literally do not have time to get the leads and to work with the leads that are in the area that you want so refer those out.

It’s really easy. You’ll make money on it so refer it out. Spend your time on where you want to be.

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How Can I Help You?

If you have any other questions, please comment here. Let me know.

I love talking with you. I love helping you and I love it when you engage and tell me your questions and what you need from me. You are awesome.

Thank you so much for being with me Have an amazing day!        

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Featured Download

The Facebook Page Setup Checklist – specifically for real estate agents – get your Facebook page setup to capture real estate leads.


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Filed Under: Facebook Tagged With: Done, facebook ads, facebook for real estate agents

by Christina Ethridge Leave a Comment

Discover the 6 ways to tell if that guru/expert/vendor on stage (or on Facebook) is legit or if they’re cheating.


Featured Download: The Facebook Page Setup Checklist – specifically for real estate agents – get your Facebook page setup to capture real estate leads.


So how do you know when a “guru” is cheating?

Today I’m going to share six ways for you to use so you can tell if that “guru,” that expert, that vendor that’s on stage or on Facebook is legit or if they are cheating.

And here’s the thing. I’ve used this for a long time and I have found vendors and “guru’s” that are selling to us as real estate agents they’re cheating.

I’ll show you what I mean- recently, actually, let me introduce myself. I’m Christina with Leads and Leverage and I help real estate agents create more time, make more money and enjoy the journey. And, as always, if you guys want the six ways and all the other stuff I send go ahead and comment here and let me know!

Now, as soon as you comment, you need to hop over to Messenger and let #RIBBIT know you actually want the notes. I noticed that a lot of you aren’t actually getting or some of you are not actually getting it because you aren’t going over to Messenger and taking the next step so in order for #RIBBIT to send you the notes for today, he has to have your permission and you gotta go over and say what he says to say.

SO MANY voices out there! I know, right! And it was really funny because as I’m writing out “what are the steps?” and “what am I gonna do?” I’m like, “you know what this sounds like? This sounds like what we used to be taught in real estate and that was to answer people’s questions about Realtors and how to pick the right ones” and I was giggling, going “yeah, it kinda sounds like that!”

That’s not what this is because I want you to use all of these ways on me and if I don’t fall in line and if I don’t get that “good feeling for you” then guess what? You shouldn’t be listening to me.

Here’s what happened. Recently, when Facebook decided to make available for all eyes to see, all of the ads that a business page is running and if you don’t know what I’m talking about, I can actually do tomorrow’s video on the info and ads tab that is now available on everybody’s business page.

So now everybody can see any ads that you run so recently when Facebook decided to make that available for all eyes to see like the day they made it available, out of curiosity, I went to the big “guru” pages.

You know the ones. I’m not going to name any names in this video, however, they are the ones that are at all of the big real estate events, speaking from the stage, the ones that are always vendors at the expos, the ones hosting their own events, the ones that have tens of thousands of you guys in their Facebook groups, the ones everyone seems to respect and follow and listen to.

I went to their pages. I wanted to see what ads they’re running. I want to see what this option is going to give me. Is this legit? Is it not? Is it going to work for me to look at other people’s ads? I’m going to do a video on that for you on how to leverage that.

But here’s the thing. Imagine my surprise and ultimately my frustration when I found that at least one of those “big guru’s” and I’m talking “BIG guru’s” was cheating their success. I will go into detail and explain what I mean. I was baffled. I was frustrated and then I became really angry.

WHY?

Not because they’re big but because they are influencing you and they are cheating their success and their efforts and yet they are teaching you how to become successful.

In other words, they are teaching you how to use Facebook for your lead generation and they’re not doing it themselves and they’re actually cheating. I’m going to show you. I’m not going to show you screenshots. I did take screenshots and I checked yesterday.

They no longer are running those ads because everybody could see what they were doing and if anybody who had any gumption, they would look at that and just go “what the heck?”

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Are They Legit Or Are They Cheating?

So today I’m going to both share with you what I found, not who I found it on but what I found.  Then I’m going to show you six ways to tell if that “guru,” that expert, that vendor on stage or on Facebook is legit or if they are cheating.

Quote Barry says “I always check every guru at www.ripoffreport.com.”

The problem with that is that a lot of them are not on there because they are not actually ripping people off. They are lying to you about their results.

Let me explain so tell me. Have you ever wondered who to listen to? Who to follow? Have you felt that something was “off” about someone that everyone else seemed to really admire?

Without sharing who because I do not want any names in this, without sharing who that person or expert is or was, were you ever able to factually determine what that “off” feeling was for you.

Would you share that below? Were you ever able to determine why there was just something not right and you just stopped listening to that person?

Remember don’t disparage anyone because I will delete those comments. Don’t say names. Just share if you were ever able to legitimize that “something is off” feeling or if you just let it go.

Then, on that, how do you do your research now?

How do you know if someone is legit?
How do you determine if someone is helping you or just helping themselves?

Barry shared that he used www.ripoffreport.com.

What do you use? Is there a process that you use or follow?  Another member says “gut instincts.” Yeah that’s interesting, using “gut instincts” but there are sometimes where you just don’t know because you have no interaction with them.

So that’s what I want to talk about today. Today I’m giving away my six tips on how to tell if someone is legit or if what they are teaching you is legit.

Today I’m going to be giving away MY six tips, six tips that I use, kind of a mental checklist that I use and process that I go through to check and see is this person legit, if they’re someone who’s legit or if what they are teaching me or you is something that I could listen to and I could trust because there are a billion voices not just in the real estate industry but outside the real estate industry.

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So how do you know? How do you know?

Now the steps or these tips. They are not foolproof. I can’t guarantee foolproof but they are a definite, solid foundation to make a judgement on, to base this judgement on.

If you are watching this on Facebook just comment here and let me know if you would like me to send you over the notes. Then of course, you have to immediately respond to #RIBBIT in Messenger because he can’t send them to you unless you tell him to and he tells you exactly what to say to get them and you have to say exactly what he says in the same way because that’s how he knows what to send you.

If you are watching this on YouTube, IGTV or Twitch, you’ll find the link to this original broadcast in the description so click through, come over and get the notes.

Are you ready to dive in?

Today, I’m going to walk you through the six ways to tell if that guru/expert/vendor on stage or on Facebook is legit or if they are cheating you.

So as I told you in the beginning, I went to the info and ads section of several dozen big and well-known real estate “gurus” and vendors.This was right when Facebook opened up all ads for ad-transparency, right?

What I found was a bit shocking to say the least. There were things that I’m going to actually teach you what I found that’s unrelated to this but they are very important to know. We will talk about that in another show.

Here’s what I found- two in particular, very big. One was running video ads and what this info and ad tab tells you is you can see every single ad that that business page is running and you can see what countries those ads are running to.

So this very big real estate whatever, was running video ads which is normal. I run video ads after I have do Facebook Lives. I run these out as ads, absolutely but I run my ads to the United States and Canada which is where most of you are. I’ve got some in Australia and New Zealand but for the most part I run my ads to the U.S. and Canada.

Well, they were running 100% exclusively pushing video ads to India. Now do you know why they would push video ads to India? English video ads related to United States real estate transactions. I mean, I watched the video. I checked to make sure.

Why would they do this? Do you know why they are doing that?

They’re doing that to appear so that the video appears to have thousands upon thousands of video views which “legitimizes” their video in the eyes of  agents in the U.S. because all they see is the number of video views. That’s why they do it. It’s go give it more views than it actually got. In other words, to fake pump up what they do.

Running page like ads, everybody should be running page like ads but when your page like ads are run to Third World countries like India that are not English-speaking. Yes that’s their second language but that’s not who they are targeting. Their business is for U.S. and Canada and North American real estate agents, here’s the thing, they are running these ads to build up their page likes.

There was a Facebook expert who is on many stages outside of the real estate industry. They had bought their page likes. They had bought their page likes. They were running page like ads in India and 95% of their page likes were from Third World countries but on the surface it looked like they had a lot of page likes so it looked like maybe they were legitimate, right?

When you have all this and remember some of you are in these groups and you’re trusting them because some of them are affiliated with big franchises.

It’s not the franchise itself but some of the people who are running some of these things are affiliated with some of these big franchises so this is where even checking reputation and testimonials and stuff like that and reviews….those might be good but what they are actually doing is cheating and they’re trying to teach you… they’re not doing what they are teaching you to do.

But it looks like they are on the surface because they have the video views and because they have the page likes. This is where it becomes a problem.

So here’s six ways plus a bonus way for you to really kind of check and see if these people are legit, beyond checking review sites, beyond “Ripoff,” because they are thousands of people who love some of these companies or businesses or whatever they are. They do. They love them but they are still cheating.

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#1 Check For A “Meteoric Rise”

You want to check for a “meteoric rise.” How old is their Facebook business page? How old is their business? That’s a thing. How fast are they rising? What I have found is a few things. If the rise is crazy, like tens of thousands in a year or less, it’s not legit. It’s not legit so you want to check for a meteoric rise.

That’s not always available to see and some of them have been around for several years so it won’t apply but watch that.

One that I’m specifically thinking of, not a real estate specific person but they bought all of their page likes and they rose so fast that people on the surface, big companies on the surface thought that this person was legit and they were not. They were not, okay?

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#2 Are They A Speaker But Not A Doer

 Are they on stages, or whatever, on video speaking about it? Do they have proof that they are actually doing it? Are they a speaker, not a doer?

#3 Is What They Are Teaching You Duplicatable?

So for example, in what I was telling you about before, it will benefit you in no way to go run video ads to India to get 1/100th of a cent video views in your local market.

It will not help you. It will not help you because that’s not building a video view audience. It’s not understanding the steps. That is literally just to try and get “video view” numbers up. That’s it.

That’s like deciding to go and buy a 2019 Mercedes, whatever the big, expensive Mercedes there is, you’ll have to lease it because can’t freakin’ afford the thing and you want to “look the part” but you aren’t the part. Not a good thing to do.

Is what they are teaching duplicatable and “tweakable” or does it require only specific software that they sell? That’s number three.

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#4 Their Page Like Audience

Now, there are tools out there that people can get access to, legit tools and you’re not going to want to pay for them. That’s cool.

Page like audiences where I can actually look and see where their page likes are from and actually that’s not as available anymore because of the changes that have gone through Facebook but here’s the thing. Here’s how you can tell.

I can tell where their page likes are from. If it’s an American company or Canadian company, North American company and 95% of their page likes are from Third World countries, cheap countries where they bought page likes from, then that’s not a legit company. They are not legit. They do not know how to do what they are trying to teach you to do.

So here’s how you can check their page likes audiences. You are probably friends on Facebook with a whole lot of real estate agents around the country, around the U.S. and Canada right so is their page like audience are there a lot of friends in that page like audience if it’s a real estate vendor, guru or trainer?  Are a lot of your friends also liking that page?

I have found this. There have been companies and businesses that attempt to steal or whatever.

They join my membership and try to steal everything and then they try to sell it on their own page and you look at their page likes and they have like 600 – 1,000 thousand page likes and then they stopped growing and not a single one of those page likes is a connection of mine and I’m connected with a lot of you guys, right?

So not a single one is someone who’s in real estate- that’s a pretty big indicator that it’s not a legit site, that they are literally just trying to cheat you, okay?

Again, if you want this list, comment here and let me know you want it, then go over to Messenger and talk to #RIBBIT and respond to him so he knows which list to send you.

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#5 Where Are They Running Their Ads?

Go to that info in ads tab and look at the countries that they are running their ads to. Are there questionable countries?

So if it is a business that is there to help real estate agents in North America and they are running their ads to India or China or countries that don’t work the same way, they are going for cheap likes, video views, etc.

They are not actually going for helping you. They are going just for the look of it.

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#6 Does Their Page And Website Reflect What They Teach?

Quick Tip
What are they posting on their page?
Is there interaction and engagement?
Is it all sales pitches?

I cannot tell you how many pages I’ve gone too and they do videos. There’s one out there right now that they are literally taking my verbiage, my stuff and creating their own videos and it’s so obvious that they have no idea what they are talking about.

They are just parroting out stuff and, because of what’s on their page alone is they’re not getting engagement, and it’s not actually helping anybody. It’s all just sales pitches or they don’t understand what they are doing.

So when you are looking at somebody, does their Facebook page and their website reflect what they teach? Are they posting? Is there interaction and engagement or is it all sales pitches?

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Bonus Tip #7

Now, bonus tip number seven, this was often before we had Facebook, before we had all of this. This was the number one thing that I looked at before I would listen to somebody. Like seriously- every time I went to conferences, this is what I wanted to know absolute, foremost and done.

Have they ever been a successful real estate agent and/or are they building, running and working their own business currently? Those two things or are they an employee selling a product?

So unless they had been an actual successful and when I say successful, I mean I needed them to be doing more than me, more than what I was doing.

Now if you are doing ten or twenty transactions a year somebody who is doing twenty to forty transactions a year, yeah they could be somebody you listen to but you are really going for people who have done a minimum or doing consistently over five, ten years, more than 100-150 transactions a year. That’s what you are looking for.

You aren’t looking for temporary big wishes. You’re not looking for someone who is just successful with REO’s for two or three years and that it’s. You are looking for long-term success, real success.

Have they ever been a real estate agent and/or are they building, running and working their own business? I watch people on stage and they are teaching and promoting stuff and they are “just” a teacher.

What I mean by that is, there’s nothing wrong with being a teacher or a trainer, heck, I am one, however, if they are teaching you how to lead generate and they’ve never lead generated themselves, do they really understand what they’re teaching?

Do they understand the nuances? Are they just trying to sell a product? Are they an employee selling you products?

So here’s one of the things that I always had. It’s very interesting, whenever you go to, you know, continuing ed stuff, a lot of those teachers; they are teaching a power point presentation or a keynote presentation that they’ve attended once. Yes, this is legit.

I was a certified teacher with Reebok, a teacher-trainer and all I had to do was go and attend the training once. Literally and then I had to teach their class.

So here’s the thing, That’s why I didn’t ever really teach more because most every single thing that I saw made is like “that doesn’t work. Why are they teaching that? They need to be doing it this way!” And you couldn’t modify stuff.

So are they just teaching the things for all the designations or are they actually using it? Do they know what they are doing? And I know this is controversial what I’m saying but I don’t care because it’s true.

I don’t know how many of you have come to me and said “ oh my gosh, I was in a Facebook training and they said do this.

Just last night one of my members actually said this “my broker is telling me to stop doing what I’m doing.” And I’m like “wait, what you’ve been doing so many years that has made you the top agent in your brokerage for the last several years? They are telling you to stop doing that?

Why?” Because the broker has become a ‘guru’ of teaching how to do a certain kind of leads but they are not doing it. They are not actually succeeding at it.

You have to be aware of this if you are going to learn from someone. You need to make sure that they have done the same thing and it doesn’t have to be in the same industry. You’re running and building your business! If you are listening to somebody who’s never had to build a business before you shouldn’t be. It’s really that simple.

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Let’s Recap These Again

Let’s run through these again- so number one, watch for a “meteoric, uncharacteristic rise.” If they have not been in the business for long enough to have actually had that increase on their page, on their website, etc. or the numbers that they’re talking about then be wary okay?

Number two – Are they a speaker not a doer? And that kind of relates to the bonus that I talked about. Are they more of a speaker or a trainer or are they actually doing this stuff?

So I did. Everything I’m teaching you, the strategies I’ve done for the last twenty-three years in our real estate business and now I’ve done it for the last five years for Leads and Leverage.

Literally, I am teaching you exactly what I do. To build and I’ve had other businesses so that’s what I’m doing. If they are a speaker and not a doer, take it all with a big heaping grain of salt, big huge amount of salt okay?

Number three is what they’re teaching you duplicatable and tweakable or does it require only specific software that they sell? Yes, I recommend different softwares and different platforms but I do not sell one. Doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing to sell it but if what they are teaching you cannot be done on something else than what they are selling it’s questionable.

Number four, page like audiences. Check their page like audiences! Do you have friends of yours that are on Facebook, that are in their page like audience or are there zero? Like do they have several thousand page likes or tens of thousands of page likes and you don’t know a single page like? Because usually, what it shows you that such-and-such amount of your friends also like this page, right?

If they don’t have any of those, I would run. I would run because it means they have bought their page likes and they’re not legit.

Number five, where are they running their ads to? What countries? If it’s not your country, if it’s not a country that makes sense so it makes sense that people would run ads to the U.S., to Canada, even to New Zealand, Australia, a couple of other places if they’re in this market because our markets are somewhat similar.

How we do real estate is somewhat similar but if they are running to India or China or Thailand or these places where it’s very, very cheap page likes or video views or things like that, I would go running from them.

Number six- does their page or their website reflect what they are teaching? Does it really? What are they posting? Is there interaction and engagement? Is it all sales-pitches? Are they going deep enough with you?

If they’re doing videos like the one I was talking about that keeps copying me, my verbiage and everything, that person does it so superficially, so shallowy, it’s obvious to me that all they are doing is reading the list and doing it. They’re not going deeper. They’re not giving personal examples.They aren’t showing what’s going on so this is a big deal.

And the final bonus one number seven – have they ever been a successful real estate agent or are they building their own business or are they just an employee selling a product?

Here’s why I say this. I cannot tell you the number of agents who have not succeeded at real estate that have suddenly become social media “guru’s.” I’m serious. So it’s like “oh really so you are a social media guru? How? And where?” And I hate the word “guru” but they aren’t an expert. They’ve never done it. They’ve never actually applied what they are teaching to anything.

So be very, very careful with that especially if they are teaching you how to run a real estate business. If they can’t do it themselves and now I’m not talking about people who have done it and don’t like it.  I don’t actually like working with buyers and sellers.

I like working with all of you but we have generated over four-thousand transactions, over the twenty years I was active in the real estate business, four-thousand transactions, that’s not too shabby but I didn’t love it. I didn’t love it.

This, with you all of you, I love. I love helping you. I love empowering you and that’s why when we started our brokerage, that was the thing that really got me.

I didn’t want to be a babysitter at all but I really want to help and empower agents because so many of you don’t realize that you are your own boss,  that your broker doesn’t control you, that vendors don’t control you, that you don’t have to let the market control you so make sure that whoever you are listening to has been successful, if not in real estate, then that they have their own business that they are successful in.

So a name that I’m going to say on here that I like and respect and admire, who has never been in real estate before but she does have her own business and over the years she has proven it through her history, through everything is Katie Lance.

She knows the market. She understands it. No she’s never actually been a real estate agent and she doesn’t actually have the “in the trenches, how to get started in real estate, etc.” but she does know how to start a business and run it and make it successful.

So that’s what I’m talking about. They don’t have to be in real estate but who are they? Are they just selling a product or a service as an employee or do they have an vested interest in succeeding in their own business.

Two very different things and you’re building a business. You need someone who has gone before you who has that expertise that you can listen to and follow.

Julie says 

you have a copycat?
 Oh, I have several, yes, several using my own wording, taking my video topics, etc. It’s actually kind of amusing but they can’t catch up to me so that’s good!

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What Was Most Useful For You?

Alright, so, as always, this is the number one thing that I really need you to do for me- I need you to tell me what was most useful for you today? What was most useful? Did I miss something that you do to figure out if someone’s legit or not?

I know a couple of people shared ripoffreport or that checked reviews, etc. but what if they don’t have reviews? Like I don’t think there are any reviews for Leads and Leverage out there because I don’t use the reviews on the Facebook page because here’s the thing.

There are spammers out there that go around and do one-star reviews on pages so I just turned it off. I didn’t have any reviews. I’ve never ever had it turned on so I don’t have reviews for you to check but I wanted to give you a way you could check without that.

If it’s a new company or a new business or a new vendor that is not a bad thing. You just want to check and see if they’re legit and like I said all of these seven ways will help you.

So what was most useful for you? What was most useful for you that stood out to you that you feel would help you today and also what do you feel like was missing? Where did I miss on this?

If you want today’s checklist, comment here and let me know, Then go check Messenger and respond to #RIBBIT. Say the word that he wants you to say because then he knows what to give to you.

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Q & A

Pam is asking 

how do you handle copycats?
Well, Pam, there’s a couple of things.

How do I handle copycats? I ignore them. I literally keep doing what I’m doing and here’s why- number one, they’re not me. They can never be me.

They do not know what I know. They don’t know my experiences. They don’t know what I’m teaching and when I look at it, I just start laughing. When I watch one of their videos, I’m like “they don’t know what they are talking about!”

Now you don’t know that they don’t know what they are talking about but what I can do is put out there, not their name, not their stuff but I can put out there what you do need to know so that you know that they don’t know what they are talking about. That’s like inception, wan’t it? So that’s how you handle it.

It’s the same thing like when we had retail stores, you get something in the store, someone else gets it. Same thing with real estate- you start doing a marketing piece and then people try to copy it but they don’t know the strategy. They don’t know everything that’s behind it.

Nine years ago when we started our own brokerage we got a very unique logo made. We had a very unique sign made. Nobody had the color or the style that we had and it’s funny because we traveled for a year and a half and when I came back and I was driving around and going “dang it if everybody doesn’t have literally many of them had the similar type of logo now as our brokerage and they have similar colors.

So people are incapable of figuring out stuff for themselves. They think that well if I just copy what I see on the surface, then I’ll be as successful or whatever and that’s not true. It’s not true. It’s not the logo. It’s not the sign.

Well now, we don’t stand out anymore in that way but that’s okay because we have a multi thousand person email list and snail mail list. That’s where we get our business from.

Here’s the thing. You just don’t have to worry about them. You just ignore them. You ignore them and keep moving on because they are where you were. They are where you were.

They might have a temporary rise but you keep holding on, you keep serving, you keep giving, you keep doing what you know works. Don’t let them distract you.

Edie says

what’s the difference between posts and info and ads?
 Well, posts are what’s on their page and info and ads is a tab that you go to that shows ads they are paying to run. That’s the difference.

Sally says

the age old adage- ‘if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.’
Absolutely!

Julie says

aren’t we all training our own competition as we grow our businesses?
Yes and no. I gotta tell you what I have found over the years which is why initially when I got into real estate, second-generation Realtor, I got in and everything I did to help grow my Dad at the time was people tried to copy it. They were trying to figure out what was going on and we were really secretive.

But then here’s what I realized and I should have remembered this from our stores that they don’t understand all the other pieces. They see one piece and they go for it. They see a sign. They see a logo. They see a direct mail piece and they think that’s what is going on but they don’t understand the strategy that’s going on behind it.

Also, here’s the real kicker of the truth, okay? I would literally lay out every single thing I was doing, give every single piece of what I was doing when I started speaking, etc. I would share everything and do you know how many people actually implemented what we were doing? Zero. Out of thousands because they weren’t willing to put in the time and work.

See, success is boring. Success is doing all of the boring crap that nobody else wants to do. It’s doing all the same stuff, every single day, day in and day out that nobody else wants to do.

I am doing these weekday daily live shows with you because I know what it’s going to do for you, I know what it’s going to do for me, for my business and I want to change the industry.

The way that I can do that is to be consistent and to be live. The other people can copy my topics all they want but they are not going to be willing to be live with you at 10 am, every single weekday for who knows how long? They’re not willing to put in that work. They want it easier, faster, different.

Same thing with you- you are doing a direct mail campaign. Nobody else is going to keep doing the same thing. They’re not going to want to put in the  work and the dedication. They are just not.

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What Else Do You Want Help With?

So again, I’m giving away my six tips. Just comment here if you want it and if you are watching this on YouTube, IGTV or Twitch if you look in the description the link to this original video will be there.

If you have a topic or a concern or a question that you want me to talk about in another live #RIBBIT show let me know in the comments below!

Tell me. Tell me and share with me! I’ve got one person that asked “I want to know the tools that you use everyday.” And I was like “okay, I’ll share the ones that increased my productivity and make me more money.”

I also have another three part, three little video thing that I’m going to be doing with you which is basically a “business growth system in a box” and it’s an expansion of what I was interviewed on another show and they called it a “business growth system in a box” and I went “you’re right.

It is so I’m going to teach that to you because there’s three steps, three major steps. We’re going to do videos on that too.

What else do you want me to help you with? What else do you want me to walk you through? I will do that! Alright so comment below and let me know.

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Featured Download:

The Facebook Page Setup Checklist – specifically for real estate agents – get your Facebook page setup to capture real estate leads.


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Filed Under: Facebook Tagged With: Done, facebook for real estate agents

by Christina Ethridge Leave a Comment

Do You Need More Likes on Your Facebook Page? Find out what the 2 things real estate agents should NEVER do and why they should never do them

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Featured Download: The Facebook Page Setup Checklist – specifically for real estate agents – get your Facebook page setup to capture real estate leads.


Many agents fail to realize they are chasing the wrong metrics on their Facebook business page.

So if you’ve created your real estate Facebook business page you’re probably thinking now what?

Oh yes!

Now let’s get some likes! Let me see … “I can ask a few of my friends, some of my family and every single real estate agent I can find.

Next think I’ll do is I’m going to give and take some ‘Facebook love.’ I’ll like their page and they like mine. That will help me! That will help them!”

This is exactly how every single real estate agent acts on Facebook. Every – Single – One.

Surprise, surprise. This is not exclusive to real estate agents. It’s in every single industry. After you’ve asked every single one of your colleagues and after you’ve “shared your Facebook love” in every Facebook group you can find, what next?

Oh yeah!  You get a message from someone offering you 1,000 likes for $50. What a bargain!

Let’s do it! And then you go and  join a “like exchange” group. It’s free! That’s even better. Let’s all go like each other’s pages!

Just. Stop.

You are literally ruining your Facebook page. RUINING it. If you’ve done (or are doing) any of these things, you have absolutely set yourself up for failure with your page.

Is it any wonder real estate agents are not generating any leads from Facebook? When they go into it with that attitude and way of thinking that “likes” are important and that “who knows, maybe everyone who likes my page might know someone who could use my services.”

They go into it with that mindset that is incongruous with actually generating any leads.

Please.

You’ll get better results putting a classified ad of a home for sale in Remotesville, New Mexico in the “pets available” section of the New York Times. Seriously.

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Never Do These Two Things

If you want your Facebook page to actually generate leads for you, to really be valuable to you, you will never do these two things:

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Never Ask Your Colleagues to Like Your Page

* You will never ask your colleagues to like your page. In fact, you’ll guard your page religiously and make sure never to promote it in groups (or anywhere for that matter) that are not comprised of your targeted niche. It’ll bother you when other agents “like” your page.

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Never Buy Likes

* You will never “buy” likes. Never not ever.  I’m not talking about Facebook ads. I’m talking about those opportunities where you can pay $50 for 1,000 likes. Things like that.

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Want to know the “why”?

Here it is, but it’ll mean something to you only if you want to generate leads on Facebook. If you’d rather just be part of the party and never close a sale, this information isn’t for you.

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Here are three big reasons that fake likes cost you money.

Lots of it. All of the untargeted, non-niched likes you have negatively affect your page.

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#1 You’ll Capture Fake Likes

First of all, when your goal is to capture a lead, you’ll hit that goal head on — meaning while simultaneously capturing the “like” you’ll also capture the email. All of these fake likes (and yes, they are FAKE, even if they are real people) are not interested in your services and will not take the time to give you their email address.

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You should be running a minimum of 2:1

For  every 20 likes on your page, you should easily be picking up 10 email addresses — that they willingly give you! I’ve got clients running 1:0.8, meaning for every 10 likes they get, they are getting eight quality email addresses.

That’s one reason. It’s a major one if you know the power of effective email marketing. But then, many of the “bigwig experts” in our industry are lamenting that email is dead.

If you believe that, I’ve got a waterfront property in Iowa to sell you. Do you agree with them? Have you tested it? Have you given it a true effort (and not with the canned email crap you get in your CRM)?

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#2 Last Actor Algorithm

Another reason? Are you completely unaware of the whole hullabaloo going around about how “no one” sees your page posts in their feed? Hmm? The algorithm is called Last Actor (it is not EdgeRank and never has been — that is an industry-made-up term, not a Facebook-created term and it’s no longer in play).

What is Last Actor? It means that when I, as an individual, on my personal profile, interact with people or pages,

Facebook keeps track of this. Facebook wants to keep showing me what I’m interested in. So Facebook keeps track of the last 50 interactions I’ve had, and runs its algorithm according to my tastes. Which means if I haven’t interacted with your page in my last 50 interactions, I won’t see updates from your page.

Now, you may be thinking, that’s OK! Those people who have liked my page and haven’t interacted with me don’t need to see my updates. My page still looks good because of the likes, right?

Nope.

There is another algorithm when it comes to pages. Facebook distributes a page post to a small amount of its page likes. Usually around 1 to 5 percent. If (or when) any of those likes engage in some way (like, comment, share, click through) with that post, Facebook increases the percent of your page likes that post is distributed to.

If no one engages, Facebook reduces the initial “test” percent.

It’s bad when your likes don’t engage with your posts. Really bad.

 If you’ve got any amount of untargeted, non-niche likes on your page you can bet they won’t be interacting with you. 

They aren’t interested in what you are giving them. When they don’t interact Facebook decides that your content is worthless and doesn’t distribute your content any further.

Not a good place to be in.

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#3 Boosting Your Posts in a Shotgun Approach

Oh, but I know what you are thinking! I’ll just boost my posts! And that leads me to the third reason. Are you willing to pay money to boost your posts in a shotgun approach? You are? Great. Spend your $5 or $10. Waste your money.

Your boost will hit, maybe, another 5 to 10 percent of your likes. Again, it’s like running a classified ad in a newspaper. You are throwing out money and hoping it will stick to someone.

Anyone.

 The absolute beauty about Facebook is how insanely targeted you can market your business. It’s incredibly cheap and yet it’s highly targeted and offers an amazing return on investment if you haven’t screwed it up. 

If you know what you are doing you can make sure your ads target only people who are likely to use your services.

If you keep buying or acquiring likes that are irrelevant to you your ability to target will completely disappear.

Seriously.

Think about it this way: If you could spend $50 to bring in 100-125 qualified leads, would you?

You’d still have to nurture those leads as some are farther out than others. Or you could spend $50 to boost your posts and bring in zero leads.

Yes, I said zero.

When you are advertising randomly, the results are dreadful at best.

So here it is. You have to make your choice.
Do you follow the herd and do what the herd is doing?
Or do you do what will make your page effective.
Do you do what will bring in leads to your real estate business?
Do you stand out from the crowd?
Be a sheeple or a steeple, the choice is yours.

What other tips do you have for social media marketing and Facebook marketing for real estate agents?

As new real estate startups might slow, which are most promising in your view?

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Featured Download:

The Facebook Page Setup Checklist – specifically for real estate agents – get your Facebook page setup to capture real estate leads.


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Filed Under: Facebook Tagged With: Done, facebook for real estate agents, facebook page setup, facebook strategy

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