Today's episode of this weekend Marketing is a super special episode. Think of it as the Greatest Hits album whereby we have scanned through all the amazing interviews with expert guests throughout the entire year to find those exact moments of Brilliance talking about open houses, talking about social media and video and brand and growth and how to generate more listings so that you can listen to the greatest hits of all the interviews, all the moments shared by our expert guest. Throughout the ENT ire past year of this week in marketing, you are in for a special treat. So welcome to this week in Marketing! I'm your host Jason Pantana and today I'm more of an MC As you're going to be going through a collection of amazing moments to talk about how to scale up your marketing and get yourself absolutely loaded and ready for an amazing 2024.

We're going forward. Not backwards. Nobody's going backwards. We're moving forward and we're going to work on what we know is producing results in your business.

Thank you so much for watching! If you're new to the Channel please make sure to subscribe and there's little bell icon that if you tap it right next to that subscribe button, it will give you alerts whenever new episodes like this get published so you can take action immediately without further. Ado Let's dive into the Greatest Hits. Do you think We never answered the question? that chat GPT and AI tools will remove the need for creating content because it will create the content on demand based upon search. Let's address that first.

it enhances existing content. It's a multiplier. Bill Gates says the technology multiplies what's there. You have to start with the seed.

so if you have relationships, if you've sold houses, if you have a bio, if you have a track record, chat GPT will multiply that. But if you're a brand new agent and you have nothing that that see that's called um synthetic content. When you start from nothing, you can't start from nothing. It you know you multiply Zero by 100.

you still have zero. Yeah, so we agree. I'm not I'm not afraid of these AI tools because all they do is multiply the advantage. The rich get richer.

okay and and I agree with you. it's a tool to be leveraged. Next point of debate: if you delve into Quora and Reddit and Tik Tok and other platforms, there's a lot of people talking about how no, no, no, you don't want to use chat GPT to create content for your website because Google can detect it and it goes against their spam. It goes.

I There was a comment in an SEO Journal article that said um content automatically generated with AI writing tools is considered spam by the search engines or by Google in particular. what's your comment to that? I've known Danny Sullivan for over 20 years and he basically replaced Matt cuts and he's very clearly said that it's completely okay to use AI tools and we've been using tools since day one with the search engines. All this is is just another variation of tools that we've seen forever. So it is not bad to use these tools.

but if you use it and this what Google said forever and I believe them because I I've been speaking at conferences together with them and have meals with them I believe that if you using AI tools to try to fool Google as opposed to to try to give the user a better experience and you will get nailed. And there are many ways the search agents can detect you. Number two is the greatest of all time marketing channel. It's email.

We're seeing agents crush it with email and a lot of folks are leveraging email and they're Outsourcing it or it's canned and it's not getting the level of response that canned. campy stupid. you don't read the emails. Yeah, and and that's a disservice to the people who subscribe to your email list.

I mean if somebody's willing to say yes M me they expect some level of quality and so the types of emails that are having the greatest effect are one. The Weekly Newsletter A lot of you are sending it out monthly. it's not often enough you've got to cut through the noise. People are getting lots of emails every day and so if you want to be, if you want to cut through the noise, it needs to be more of your newsletters.

And those newsletters are I'm G To make this comment though, so think about your favorite News Channel or your not so favorite News Channel They email you two to three times a day and in many cases you have an app that has a pop-up notification for something that's relevant to you. So for me, like Bloomberg is like the only News Channel I have yeah and I want to know what's going on in the Asian markets I want to know what's going on in Fintech and bing bing bing bing bing. It's interesting to me. so I want that? So so we have people that are sending emails monthly and I would argue probably getting little to no response.

you're saying weekly I could make the argument for some of our clients daily I could too daily If you have something valuable that they're interested in, that's the key and so that then goes back to your content if you're making videos. If you're making content, having content is like having money. right? When you have money all of a sudden you think about where can I put that money. How can I utilize that money? Contents like that and one of the ways it can be utilized is by putting it into your emails like like Matt Curtis One of our his email is literally crushing it to an over 50,000 person email list.

He's sending three emails a week and he's getting listings from it. He's getting buyers from it because those emails are crushing. So I would say in 2024, you ought to look really closely at your newsletter minimum weekly. But if I mean hey, a really good thought exercise is.

How good and useful does this have to be in order that I can send it every day and people don't hate me for it because you also have to remember, like every video you publish, every email you send, you are incrementally building your brand. Yes, and so operating from a plan and not just winging, it is an important consideration. But as far as the opportunistic channels, yeah, your email is Huge. Y And do you realize that people check their emails every day and it's generally the first bit they check the most.

The average person checks their inbox before they go to social media? Exactly. So I think we should create a Weekly Newsletter Which is, you know? here's what's going on in Cincinnati But I think you should also do one on Friday called the Weekend I Love it. So what have folks who have been not paying attention to postcards and magazines and physical mail? what have they been missing out on? Yeah, I mean I Ultimately believe in omnipresent marketing, right? So that's my fancy way of saying like I Think you should be everywhere I Think you should be on social I Think you should be in email I Think you should be in the mailbox I Actually think the mailbox is being ignored right now and there's an opportunity I Think the stats show it if you look up the stats I Think the average person is getting two pieces of direct mail a day versus the person getting a 100 plus emails a day. So there's a lot of noise right on the digital space and because marketers when we see something that works, we all run there and it creates a bunch of noise and it's harder to cut through.

The reason why I think Print is really successful right now is because Print can still capitalize on something really key for especially real estate agents. Referrals are the number one source that you should be driving in your business is my belief and Print marketing allows you to connect more emotionally with your database than digital marketing does and it was interesting. The US Postal Service uh did a a research study with Temple University and they were trying to understand the difference between digital marketing and print marketing and one of the biggest things they found is that print marketing has a better ad recall than digital marketing and it makes sense if you think about it because you're seeing ads all the time the amount of emails you get so you're more likely to be able to recall the print piece in your mailbox. But what I thought was more interesting about the study was that people had a deeper emotional response when they did this.

uh, study and they literally tracked not only where people's eyes went, they actually put sensors on people. They actually were tracking how they actually responded. And they found that people responded even more emotionally or got more emotionally tied to the print advertisement than the digital advertisement. And why I point that out is because I think in referral-based marketing, it's what it's about getting people to know like can trust you.

It's about building an emotional connection with your audience. so they see you as a person. They see you as that person they trust. and I think you're missing out on an opportunity to do that if you don't have a piece of print Marketing in your drip program.

So there's one thing I did in my business over the past few well over the past year that that's been a complete Game Changer So I mentioned I've been doing listing videos I think when people talk about YouTube they're leaving like the most powerful video out which is the listing video I Believe every seller, no matter what, the price point deserves a well produced with welcome to 123 Main Street Let's head inside and the I list like very BAS Bas Homes three bedroom, two bath basic $500,000 home that's not going to stop any type of scroll so I was like well wonder if people Googling they're not Googling three-bedroom homes in Queen Creek Arizona they may be Googling Best neighborhoods to Live in What's it like to live Queen Creek Arizona Things to Do in Queen Creek Arizona So I started my lising videos now with Lifestyle First Video marketing and if you ask your buyers, they may care more about the lifestyle that their home provides than how many bedrooms it has or what type of kitchen counters that home has. So now my videos are starting with imagine living in a neighborhood where you feel like you've stepped back in time, where the neighbors know each other and you can walk to dinner and and walk to coffee. and I'm starting at the local restaurant and doing drone of the community garden and halfway through the video people are like man I want to live in this community and I haven't even seen the house yet And then we head to the home and the strategy behind that is now. Let's say that neighborhood is called Agritopia in Gilbert Arizona That video is up.

It's a listing video, but it's highlighting the neighborhood. So in two years, two years someone could be Googling Agritopia Gilbert Arizona or Best Neighborhoods to Live In Gilbert Arizona My listing video just comes up and it's still relevant two years later because they're getting an idea of the lifestyle that that home provides. If it was only the house, why would you want to watch that that is so spoton? I'm thinking of what I could add to it and I have nothing to add to it because it's so spot on. Talk about how you're doing the research and this is a theme I'm hearing throughout our conversation.

you want to understand what are consumers in your Marketplace Googling What are they searching on YouTube What are they looking for that appeals to their lifestyle preferences? How do you conduct that research Because that research is Paramount it seems in guiding the kinds of videos you're producing, how do you conduct your research well? There's so many great resources for that of course to Buddy which could show you what you should tag your videos with or answer the public or just a simple Google search what comes up. But also, we talk to clients all the time. We know what they care about, we know what they're searching for. My pros and cons of living in: Queen Creek Arizona Video is one of my most successful videos and it's just me talking about the town because people are researching I Heard over 52% of buyers start their research on YouTube and you have to mark your listings to somebody that's never been to your town.

We just assume we can take a few photos through, throw them up on MLS and that's going to share the story. It's not your, your sellers deserve marketing and nobody is selling for fun right now on this market. And if you aren't doing video marketing for your listings, you're taking a shortcut for your sellers no matter what the price point. because I'm seeing the success I'm seeing our Instagram reels get showings I'm seeing people see the video on YouTube or Facebook and schedule showing and buy the home because the reality is not.

every single buyer is actively on MLS every day searching for a home. so we should be getting our listings in front of people that aren't you know going to find it on MLS I Want to have a conversation about what's happening in the world of data privacy and I wonder if you could share with the audience what you're seeing? And I'm thinking about the app tracking transparency framework I'm thinking about sort of the Embargo on thirdparty data and third party cookies, and that might go over a lot of people's heads because they're just trying to run their businesses. But how would you explain what's happening in that context? Yeah, so you have to be extraordinarily careful when in doubt. Uh, never reach out to a cold homeowner.

So the name of the game is, you need to warm up that homeowner. So that piece of outbound marketing whether it's a phone call and remember, you have to be in alignment with state laws. whether it's an email, whether you're door knocking, whether any form of outbound must be to an audience that you've warmed up first, and it's a more difficult environment for sure, since iOS 14 came out a couple of years ago on iPhone What that was was it made Facebook and Instagram ad Impressions way less targeted because it made it so the apps on iPhone couldn't share data. Uh, cross app and it just made Facebook and Instagram Impressions less targeted.

So so a lot of Realtors and other small businesses were using Facebook and Instagram and some still do, but those are less targeted and so now folks are moving toward other forms of marketing. But the name of the game is restraint. and if you don't have something to give of real value to that homeowner, then don't reach out. What are some of the common mistakes that you've been noticing in terms of other agents use of postcard marketing? Well, th those are two different plans you just laid out so sure are.

If you're going to do postcards around every one of your just listed or just sold then you have to plan that out. Is it a coming soon? Is it an invitation to the open house? It is. Is it a soul postcard right? I Mean those can be one-offs that you have a system in place to mail. Um, I'm as as a coach I have been hammering my agents on opportunity around every deal they have.

like don't don't be a one and done and then go over to the next one, be one and leverage at least two more deals from that transaction. So that's very targeted marketing, right? Print marketing, Now, if you're going to truly be a geographic farmer, you have to. It's the art and the science. And folks.

it starts with the science. You have to plan it out. You have to get all your numbers from your title company, You need to know how much it's going to cost cost you every month, and you need to make a minimum commitment. Like if you're really excited about it and you want to do it and you tell me you only have a two month budget, I'm gonna tell you we're not doing it, we're not doing it.

It's it's a waste I'd rather you go out there and knock doors or throw an event. Um, but if you're in it for the long haul and you see an opportunity because you've sold more homes in this particular neighborhood than anywhere else and people already call you naturally, then you want to leverage that and the ideal plan for Geographic farming is you have at least a six Monon budget and you have a 12 month plan and I want to know from your Vantage points in a setting like Instagram where it's a scroll based platform with the conversations happening in the DMS Tik Tok is exclusively for the most part scroll based. Uh, Facebook and Linkedin are comment based but Instagram has the comments and the DMS but it is a scroll platform whereas YouTube is a search-based platform. Where am I going with this? I'm bringing it back right now.

Is there Is there a recommendation in terms of what makes sense with being too call to action focused in your Instagram videos? Katie I want your V your take on that I Don't love the call to action of the if you're looking to buy or sell DM me now I will have that very very rarely. probably one in every 20 to 50 videos like it's it's not. It's not common at all. Um, you know my my call to action is normally some sort of call to conversation or call to comment right? And so if I'm talking about some sort of news that's happening in Houston that it would be you know what are your thoughts on this? Have you encountered this? You know that type of comment as opposed to here are some news in Houston And if you're looking to buy or sell because of this news, then call me that that just wouldn't wouldn't land very well.

I Love that Ken Who is your content attracting into your sales funnel? So originally it was all people moving to Orlando That was it. and so it was all like listing tours and moving two videos. And then I realized I wasn't getting any seller leads like at all. Like 95% of our YouTube probably even more than that darn near 100% were buyers.

and so when I started switching to the the local based content, the news-based content all of a sudden our subscriber base started changing. Our viewers started changing and so I do these lives every Thursday night at 7 and one of the first things I always say I was like Hey and it's really to help the algorithm more than anything but I'm like hey, let us know down below where are you guys watching from today and it used to be 100% of it was outside of Orlando Now it's 5050 and so we're starting to get more seller leads. We're starting to get more. Hey I Bought with my cousin three years ago, but I've been following you on YouTube ever since Now we want to work with you and so it's been a really cool kind of kind of switch for us.

What would you say to an agent right now who's like okay, I'm feeling like I'm on the hamster wheel of social media right now I'm trying to sell houses I'm trying to make videos I'm trying to be a good agent on social and Market myself. Where do I begin to get myself streamlined and operationalized with my content creation across my marketing I My suggestion would be like just pick the one thing that you deal with all the time. like if you're big on Instagram like forget about Google my business and like if you're just not on that platform, don't get overwhelmed by it. like stick with what you know and where you're comfortable.

and if Instagram is where it is, create content for Instagram just go all in on it and eventually you'll find wow that piece I could probably you like your brain will eventually help you realize that you can start to multi-purpose it I think when we feel like we have to make a make a real for for Facebook make it make a tikt make an Instagram real, make it like we wind up feeling like well, how am I going to get any other work done I see what you mean now about connecting the dots That you said earlier in this conversation where it's like I'm just gonna focus on Instagram I'm freeing myself up to be focused on Instagram but then you're also I'm assuming sending postcards to your farm and you're like, you know what? Why am I Why am I doing two things when I can do one thing that can feed both Correct? Yes, Correct. So anytime I take a video I make sure that I have like four or five um, cover photos like you know here and like these. you know all these little things so that I'm like okay, I'm in the same place in the same outfit I'm going to use these somehow and you can have yourself there with this cute picture on a postcard this ISS Want to know what I'm thinking about mortgage rates or you can really start to multi-purpose but I think it's wrapping around that that time block and that time block is scheduled I mean that's something we haven't talked about yet is having a Time block of scheduling solely specifically for for that content creation. Does Google Local Guides all by itself work? Or would you advise that there's other like I don't know social media or other marketing components to make sure your brand is recognizable and discoverable.

Uh, that's I love that question I don't think I think it's tough to find one thing that works by itself and I know we talk superpower I Think that Google Local Guides cements your brand in people's minds or might be a first point of entry for people into your story. Uh, but generally, um, I While I have received calls directly like directly from Google Local guides, usually it ends up being from some of these other videos and they say yeah, I've seen your picture picture I saw you here and I just wanted to talk to you or set a meeting. So I think it's a great ancillary or great support system for all the other things that we're putting out there. Yeah, I could see I Guess what I would see is like imagine somebody found you on Tik Tok or whatever or YouTube and then they happen to be checking out a coffee shop and they went to go look it up on Google to make sure they wanted to go in and they see.

oh it's y of Austin he's been here which then also to use your words, cements your hyper local relevance in that exact area of town. Do you see that you tend to sell houses approximate to where you do reviews and where you do photos and videos and participate as a local guide? That's a question that my coach is gonna ask me in the future. Darn it. or a good question to give you an out.

Are you so widespread with where you participate as a local guy that it would be hard to part like. hard to correlate that uh, you know I'm I don't know if there's a correlation I love that stat and that's something something that I should focus on for 2023. I Think Well So here's my theory. My theory is that I had a a suspicion that all things Google will eventually merge years ago, right? And so they had Google my business, then they had Google Maps and then they had all these the YouTube uh YouTube app and now it's all kind of coming together.

So I thought well if I really go in on Google local guides, eventually it's going to be uh, uh, strengthen my search results. Overall, Yeah, cuz I CU you're of Austin is a local guide right everywhere. ianus Austin on YouTube and your Ian of Austin on Tik Tok and your Ian of Austin in your Google business profile. So literally you're Ian of Austin That's it.

Uh, what's the advice you would give to agents right now just looking to level up thinking about video, thinking about marketing, thinking about their team, thinking about anything we've alluded to today? Let's say there, where you were three or four years ago. how would you advise them? Okay, well, there might be a few here, so bring it on the the first one. We kind of talked about it earlier. Um, and it's A and it's a saying.

It's a phrase that I really, really love and it's We've all heard that content is King but everyone should be aware that consistency is Queen. Um, and we all know who runs the marriage in in A in a traditional marriage setup. So um, I think consistency is extremely important. I have the the approach where it's very rare that I will not try something for at least 12 months before I make a business decision if it was worth it or not.

Um, second on that. I think a lot of Agents have an issue asking for help and that that help can be in the format of someone within your brokerage. It could be a peer. It could be an agent that has been doing business for a shorter amount of time you than you.

But asking for help has really gotten me to a point in my career where I can look back and now offer that same help to newer agents as well. So asking for help in the format of even mentorship uh, getting coaching I think is a huge, um, huge asset and something that has definitely taken our business to the next level. If you look at at any professional athlete, any professional, anything in the world that is, you know at the top of their game. They all have one thing in common at least and it's they have someone else that's telling them how to be better.

I Love that man, it's great stuff. Um, one more Let Me: let me get a couple more Jason Bring it on man. bring it on. Show yours! um I Think a lot of us get in the mindset of overthinking things and I am extremely guilty of that.

But don't overthink the process in the format of doing video. Don't overthink how much you need to script. Don't overthink how perfect your lines need to be. Don't overthink how best gear or whatever the best gear that you need like.

We all have a real great phone and can film there. Just don't overthink overthinking I think I just made that up good I Feel like that might have been. Feel like that I feel like that I Feel like that's like a coffee mug. Like don't overthink overthinking.

It's great. That is pretty good I Like that it is. It is pretty good. It is good.

Okay, you have been incredible man. I Know there was I took a lot of value from today's conversation and I can only imagine everybody else did too. I Have two questions for the audience: One, what was your biggest takeaway from today's episode I want to hear it in the comments or read it in the comments and two, what does authenticity mean to you when it comes to your marketing? What does that look like? Until next week. This is this week in marketing.

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