Hey welcome back to the tom ferry podcast experience. Is this episode 120 tristan? Is that actually the case, and may i say thank you again - we are just about at 10 million downloads on our podcast and i am like i want to. I actually want to say thank you 10 million times, but that would take way too long on this show um, but we have a super important show for you. Today, it's almost more of a public service announcement.

I brought in kerry mcgee our vp of marketing we're going to get to her background in a second, so you have greater context but listen up my friend i'm going to give you three questions. Is your website uh ada compliant? Do you even know what that means? If the answer is no, your website could be in trouble. We're going to talk about that. We're also going to talk about the fact that come may 15th google's going to make a massive change to how it views your website online, meaning how searchable are you your seo? We want to get you ahead of the curve there and then the last one is: are you ready for the ios change, that's already happening and the impact that's going to have on your facebook advertising and more we're going to cover that and where listings are coming From but to do that, i'm bringing in kerry mcgee our vp of marketing carrie first time on the podcast, but we've done live stuff before we have spoken to our audience before, so maybe for the uh, the person that's listening right now, wherever they are in the World, like give give him context for your professional background prior to coming here and doing such a bang-up job.

For us sure, yeah i've been here for almost eight months, which is crazy to think it's been that long. I spent my time growing up in northwest tech companies and top companies like starbucks microsoft, expedia working in the agency side as well as in-house and spent my time prior to coming. Here i did seven years at zillow running experiential, different events, teams, as well as a lot of the partner marketing and digital marketing teams. Right so really excited to land here and a whole new set of challenges and a new group, but still in real estate, which is an industry that i love.

I love realtors. I love the challenges. I love the consumers, so i'm excited to stay in it. So you think about your your background and you know.

Certainly we could talk for days just about your experience coming here and having to like redo everything. Thank you carrie. Thank you for redoing everything um, but today's not about tomferry.com today is about our clients and what they need to prepare for. So so the first question is: hey: is your site ada compliant? Could you could you just give them a public service announcement? First of all, what does that even mean yeah, and what does it look like? How do they do it and what happens if they don't do it yeah? So it's actually becoming more and more of a hot topic, especially in states like california, where there's a lot of litigation and plaintiffs attorneys are having a heyday having people go out and weed through websites see who's a potential offender or victim right and coming after you With lawsuits and so they've seen a huge increase in lawsuits filed by plaintiffs attorneys about ada compliance specifically, so what does that mean on a website like a visual digital site? There are very easy free plugins.

We use pojo pogo, it's it's a free download that you apply to your site. It basically allows people with any type of visual disability or disability as far as how to access and navigate your site the best possible way. So it's easy to adapt font sizes change. The depth of like color backgrounds that they need to be able to consume your information, it's about eight to nine different variances that you can apply on our new site.

You'll see a little wheelchair. We've decided to be very visual about it and make sure that we protect ourselves the best that we can and also make it the best experience for every person to be able to access our data in our site. So it's an easy thing to do. You should make sure that you're looking at possible plugins - that was just one of them.

It's super easy to use. So if i were to google what are all the ada compliant plug-ins, i could get from my website. There's going to be a bunch. Why did we choose pogo versus anything? It's just really easy to use, and it's a very clean ui, so you'll see like on the top left.

Our nav is really. It follows our our mobile responsiveness, as well as our site, and we're constantly playing with like how visible does that have to be, because the compliance is just that you have it somewhere as an option for somebody to make the site ada compliant and click through. What do they need to be able to view it best? So it doesn't there's no regulation on placement. It just has to be visible and we're constantly playing with that.

So it doesn't interrupt other content. But it's a you know: it's a step of improvement that we've made with the new site right and it's. It was at the advice of our attorneys right. Don't don't be a victim to plaintiff's attorneys who have a lot of time on their hands.

So so someone might be saying well, gosh, you know my site is, you know, outsourced through my brokerage or i have a any one. You have boom town wylopo, et cetera, like they have all these different site companies safe to say that all those companies will do it for them or, if they're listening right now, should they be reaching out to the website provider, the company that they use and saying Hey, i'm in california or truthfully any state any state, any state making sure they're covered 100 100. They should be checking and ask the question like hey: are we ada compliant right and if you don't see it on your site, it's likely that you're not, and so it's just something you should make sure is in the queue for the next quarter and just for Litigation purposes you just have to be actively trying to fix it in order to protect yourself so make sure you're asking the questions and that you're researching it literally takes like a day to put that plug in it's very, very quick. But if you don't see it on your broker site or you don't see it on your own site, ask your agency or ask your partner who built it like: hey? Are we ada compliant and you'll quickly know if you are and it's a super quick fix, yeah go to tomferry.com.

I know like you know the day we launched it was the first thing that caught my eye. Besides the beautiful color and the you know the beautiful changes. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, but it was like. Oh i'm like what's that and i clicked on it. I'm like. Oh okay for hearing impaired.

I was like that actually makes a lot of sense and i didn't even know about the ada compliance. I just said that just feels like we're forward thinking that we're we're taking care of the widest variety of people that are out there like make sure we're doing it the right way. So now, i'm thinking, thank you and thanks to our attorney um. So that's one.

What are you like? Have you heard any uh horror stories yet to kind of put a little fear of god in them and just in case they don't take action? No, i mean the fines can be upwards of like 250 000, depending on your state, depending on the litigation. So i i haven't heard of any horror stories, but it definitely is the next thing it was privacy. It was antitrust, it was all the other things, and now it's this, because state by state they're, starting to implement more litigate or more policy around requiring it and plaintiff's attorneys are jumping on board. So i would just protect yourself.

So this is one of those moments that uh very rarely, i would say, hey. You should share this podcast. Normally i say: well you like it. We make a comment, but i would probably take this right now and send it to like your 10 closest friends in the real estate industry, especially if they are like you, they're, crushing their business and because some will say i'm just a small real estate team or I'm just i'm an individual real estate agent.

Like do i need to do this. The answer is yes, yes, and many of you are much larger than a small business right. So i would just remember that, like you're low-hanging fruit - and you probably don't have the protection, so i i would definitely share it with friends yeah, it's so easy to fix. Yeah love it and to be ahead of the curve.

So so that was really the first thing again. I remember i said kind of public service announcement podcast, because i want you to have this information, so you can be ahead of the curve, the next one's, the one that i was actually more nervous about. So google is always changing the new changes for people to be effective on their website, walk them through tactically, first of all, what is the change and then what do they need to do to get ahead of the curve? Yeah, it's going to get it's going to sound, very techy, so i'm going to try and be very basic um core web vitals. People have heard it if you've had any um.

What is core webcast? It's your load, speed! It's the interactivity on your site and it's basically the content engagement. The stability, the visual stability of your site is what a core web vital is according to google and they have free coreweb, vital reports. You can actually go to support.google search core web vital report and it'll, give you and take you through the steps of actually downloading the report for your site. So you can know right away how it's performing as long as you have the ability to verify.

Even if you weren't the agency who created it so first do that know what that is: support, support.google.com and just it gives you a browser just to the topic that you want to search and if you put coreweb vitals uh report, it'll it'll pop you up the First thing is run a report and it takes you through that, so it's super easy and free, but you should know what that is the reason it's more important than ever hold on. I can actually see people doing that on everyone else's sites. Also, can they do that? You have to be able to verify. So you have to know the information for your google account, so don't nerd out on everybody else's site, just focus on yours yeah.

I actually i actually tried to do it on our site without having all the verification log in from my team, and i had to go back and get it. So i'm just it's it's. It is protected um. So once you do the report, the reason it matters now they've always had different algorithms for search.

Of course, what they're doing with the vitals is basically saying site, speed and download, speed and load speed matters to the experience that the customer has on your site. Yes, it's not just do you have the best content that comes up as far as seo. They are starting to up level the importance of the experience which a lot of it is load, time and visibility of your site. So that's coming into play more in the algorithm and it's effective end of may mid-may.

They keep moving the date. I've seen two different ones today, but they announced it last year giving everybody a heads up. It was quiet if you're not a developer and you're, not working on a major site. It was a pretty quiet announcement, but it is here and is definitely starting and by end of august.

The algorithm will be completely refreshed to include this when this happens normally, so so, let's just assume that that someone's listening this right now and it's september of 2021 and they're like damn. I wish i would have listened this in the very beginning. What happens when google changes their algorithm lots of things happen, and sometimes it's really subtle, and for some people this could be subtle just depending on how you rank, but if you're in a tight market with a lot of competitors in your space. This is more than a tiebreaker and it'll start out as a tiebreaker is what every like, if you read all the reports and the summaries on what this is, if you have uh the same quality of searchable content like best real estate agent in minneapolis, and you Have the best content and you go to head to head with your competitor or an agent in your market if their site performs better and they have a higher report, they're going to get that search term they're actually going to get the traffic because they have the Performance and the stability with the page experience along with the seo to get that customer.

So it does matter, and it's going to matter more and more as time goes on. I've seen it over the decades, where decades maybe decade and a half in fairness, where every time they do this i'll get people i used to rank number one. I was on the first page. I was number one behind zillow, realtor and trulia, and now i'm not even on the first page like it's very real, it is and it happens it sneaks up on you yeah.

It's not like you know, it's not a cliff, it doesn't come and then everything changes it can be subtle and then over time it actually will start ramping up and having a bigger impact. A lot like the facebook, the apple ios, which we're gon na get to in a minute yeah, so so again, public service announcement. What do they need to do to really get tactical and make sure that their site is ready for what google's doing next yeah? I mean the number google's using is 75, so you have to rank in the top 75 percent as far as your web vitals and so do the report or, if you're, not the person savvy to do this, but you have a website. That brings you a lot of traffic.

You should be looking into this with your provider, your agency or whoever's managing your site, for you that's step one. If it's, you then do the report to go ahead and verify what it. Where are you ranking red red green? It tells you where you are on all of the web vitals and then make sure you're taking the steps like for us. It was we didn't just revamp our website.

We actually decided to relaunch a new website because we had so many overlaid, um, plugins and apis and things over time that were slowing down our site right that we decided to abandon all those pages and start over. So we could have the highest chance at the fastest speed the fastest load times to put us in the best position. Yes, so that was how that was how we made that decision, yeah, so web vitals to determine speed right and then maybe a correction in the way the site is actually architected like it does matter like how how interactive it is, but that's pretty basic. It's do people go to your information and get what they need through the click or the link that you provided so the bar on that's not incredibly high, but it has to work and then the q a is on google.support.com if you type in um the core Web vitals one more time because they were someone's, probably taking notes right now, just we'll put it on the screen too.

Yes, um, it's it's support.google.com, there's a browser, q, a for all the google support and if you type in core web vitals q, a there's a page experience link. That's in there. I think it's, the first or second one that'll come up. That will give you the q, a of what do i need to know what does it matter? It gets pretty technical, but there's three or four questions in there that are helpful to understand what is it and why does it matter but see? I can literally see our agents because of just the the way their marketing minds work that they're gon na be like on a listing appointment, saying, look you're, probably talking to multiple agents, but, first of all, if your agent's website is an ada right like i see People like in our world, like they're, like every competitive advantage, of course, you're doing the right thing, because it's the right thing for your business and for your website.

But it's also a way to separate yourself from the competition to show how web savvy you are so speed is number one. Seventy-Five percent or higher is the green zone for the total web files. Yep you wan na, be that seventy-five percent plus and then what else from a from an seo standpoint, what's gon na set them apart and make them more searchable, findable better on google, it's i mean content is still king, like you have to be able to have The right content direct people to for the search, so if it's uh visible it links clearly there's enough data. You know, google, if you only have a few words on your site, about something they want enough to bring people in.

So you want to make sure that you're really following like there's a ton of seo best policies out there right, but you want to still have the content. Have it rank high that with the speed the core web vitals algorithm? Those are just a couple of things that go into it, but they are definitely prioritizing that with the actual content. So what do we say to the client? That's listening right now who again and i'm not i'm not busting anybody's chops, i'm just calling for what it is. My broker provides me a site that i can't put content on or the company the the site that i bought or lease for lead generation puts lots of listings and content there, but i might be limited in terms of blogging, vlogging, whatever right, putting up photos, etc.

That aren't just here's a home for sale. What what do we do for that client and then let's talk about the person that you know is already on their way. Yeah i mean it's really, i think important, to understand. Like what content do you want to put out there? What audience are you trying to attract? Yes, do you want to be the number one search for a home, a specific home type or a type of realtor? If you want to be the number one search for best realtor in my area or lowest commission like whatever it might be, you know family, single-family, home expert in my area or high-end luxury expert.

Whatever the search terms are, there are so many free tools and we can provide a list of them, but you can literally google, like how do i know where i rank in seo, know where you are and then the most important thing is have the data and Then start iterating and testing and changing like maybe you do a couple, long forms and a short form, blog post that drives to that specific. Make yourself the expert in that not just in video but in content, and that will drive your seo and over time you can see it perform in your market so for everyone watching right now, if you're hearing this and you're like, i understand all those words, but How do i actually like, i want to see it yeah go to tomferry.com click on the blog and you're, going to see long form, content you're going to see video with all of the text? Why do we do video and the text? Um tagging matters right, like you, you right now like there's. Definitely a lot of um ai out there that's helping with search and discovery of like video and digital, like text copy, but the best way to ensure your seo search terms and success is to have text that is really discoverable by the algorithms of zillow or google. I keep saying, though, of google to identify your site.

You need both and right now. Video is not enough, so we tag everything right, you think about keywords and tags. If you don't tag the video with the five things you want it to represent or pop up, it's not not that it's not useless, it still works for you, but the tags and those content are the things that prompt the algorithm to discover or serve you up. First, so it's important that you are tagging and you're, putting all of your keywords in um that are appropriate for the content you're driving to right.

So i know we're kind of nerding out on this, and i want to. I want to go back to more of the the you know: public service announcement, but if you're watching or listening right now, whatever platform you're on yeah, just you know under under my page type, in jason, pantana and like seo. Yes and he's got some great, very good tactical, deep dive of all of this stuff that, like the the joke, is like if my 93 year old mother-in-law can listen to it and say yeah. That makes sense then, like all of us, can do it.

So so, back on this speed is one content's another, and ever i mean we've been talking like you got to put content on your site for what feels like a hundred years. Can you give us more examples? You're talking about tagging in relationship to video and text content, but, like give me give me some examples of content that i want on my site. That's going to make me more searchable, more findable by google. Okay, i'm going to give you an example that happened to us and it happened to an event and we were so excited to launch a new event series and somehow, in the communication and development of the promotional materials.

Of that we didn't say what type of event it was. We didn't say it was a real estate agent, like for agents or real estate. We just said in event, two level up learn about x, yeah, well, we're trying to target real estate agents we're trying to rank in real estate training, real estate events. Yes, we didn't have any copy on our registration page or announcement that that's what type of event it was.

It was just assumed because you're going to thomas you're going to tom ferry right, so it was a re-education of. We have to assume that what google looks for is people are searching, they're not going to search for level up. That's going to be rare, they're going to search for real estate, training on getting listings or real estate. Events on listing webinars or listing events offers accepted in a multiple offer situation right, and we saw it right away right, like you, can see quickly that you're actually like you're, not converting, because people aren't discovering the page or your ads are not working, because it's not Discoverable there, so that was like a quick learn of you have to be specific, with the amount of content you put in there and assume that google doesn't know what's in your head or what you're trying to do.

You have to be as specific as possible with what people would search for. You have to put your your brain there. So, a couple weeks ago on the podcast, i talked about um here's, the 10 trends as it relates to video and then tris - and i were talking about in that podcast tube buddy, which tubebuddy everybody knows now, because you're a tom ferry follower. You know that you can go to tubebuddy and say basically show me all the things that the keywords that, where there's no video created the only other thing i know of like that, would be like google analytics right when you actually go into google ad manager and Say tell me what people are searching for, so i can create content for that specifically right, you can see the number one search in your area right and then you can figure out okay what's out there and how do i beat it or is there a gap? So, yes, you can 100 make sure that you go in and tailor your content to what people are searching for, but you you need the resources to do that.

Right, like this is a lot. This takes a lot of time yeah, and so you need to make sure that you find the right partners or that you make the time to do it. I agree, i agree it's you know what i mean it just. It gets harder and harder and harder and harder, which is why we see the disparity between the super successful and the people that are struggling and and like just the ada compliant thing is going to put a lot of people into a tithy.

And i i wish for no one a lawsuit or someone coming after you, but if i'm in the state of california like it happens, it happens right, it happens more than you probably know so so site speed is one 75 percent segment is content. What's the third thing we can do uh to just protect them to get them ahead of the curve for all things, google changes um. Those are the big ones that are coming. The other thing that we keep talking about is google, my business, your reviews matter content.

Also matters right: the website link that is provided there links you to your website that we're talking about for content and speed, but you know having pictures of just your lovely face on your your broker site or your broker. Google, my business think of think creatively of the content you can put there that people would click into like recently sold homes asking price of x specialized. You know recent buyer happy with and it's a quick testimonial like think of the content. You can put there not just on your website, but there's a reason that there's an entire content marquee on google, my business right.

It must matter to google, and so i always advise like a lot of times i'll go to sites and there's one picture of just the the key agent or the team lead yeah and - and we don't need tons of pictures of you know all 20 of you In front of the building, no, what about your buyers? What about your sellers? What are you doing and, like you can put some data on graphics? You can put videos there so um or links to videos, so i think it's like use that carousel wisely. It's just another thing: if reviews matter it's part of the algorithm, but the content also matters, and i think the thing that so first of all, i love that, because you know you and i have been hyping up - google business pages and like we did a survey Where we had, like 40 of our clients, had a google business page, which means 60 did not, and i'm like. Can i remind you that zillow and realtor and all these other companies built their advertising engine model on a site called google? So if you're in the business and don't have your your google business page done, please get it done today, but the second part of that is you've got to keep putting up new content there and one one of the content strategies we've talked about is just reviews. Yes, so so i had 36 people in dallas over a few weekends uh last, like the last 45 days, all top clients, all top team leaders - and we were talking about this sort of defending your position against all things that are changing and one of the plays That came out of there that i actually just heard about yesterday in a follow-up sort of mastermind.

You know brainstorming session a huge sent out to monica carr. She basically went to where her zillow reviews are right on zillow and she did individual. She didn't actually do what her marketing person did individual copy and paste of the exact language that the review was from tom and kathy ferry to kerry, mcgee their real estate professional, and then she modified in the copy and paste what the review should actually be. You know it was so great to work with carrie mcgee at banana real estate, who helped us buy a home on windermere island you're, like all of the key words if you're following along here, all the keywords that google wants to see to say.

Oh real estate professional bought assault and bought or sold a home in this location, yada yada, and then she basically took it re-wrote the review slightly to make sure all the keywords inside there and then sent the individual email to each one of the customers: hey zillow's, Making some changes with their reviews. Would you take two seconds and please copy and paste this on my google business page and here's? What's great, you don't send out a thousand at once. You don't send 500 once you send two to three a day and guess what all of a sudden two to three a day, new reviews. So can you speak to that or maybe a different example of how do they keep updating content on their google business page? And, what's the impact of that we've said this a couple times consistency, you can't just do it once, because it matters that it's frequent and that they're like we're.

Looking at our reviews, we need to make sure that we're getting them frequently because it can't be a year ago that we had reviews right um, and so i think frequency like get into the rhythm of doing it often follow up with everybody talk about why it's So important for your business um and i think people love to be highlighted right, like people love to be the person on your site, who's like oh, my gosh agent, jim johnson, was amazing. I'd work with him 50 more times, so encourage people like hey. This helps me grow my business, but i want to share your story so think about how what is it that that person? What is the actual like motivation for that potential customer and take like tailor your message to be that, but really it's that there's no. There is no magic way.

We've had lots of chats. We've had lots of feedback like i've asked everyone. Have you found a magical way to replicate all of your reviews on zillow and put them on google and everybody's like i have not please share when you do yeah, it is manual um. So i think just one time it's one at a time yep and it's being specific understanding like it can't be vague.

It can't be general can't be best agent ever that's not what people search for right, i've actually seen and i'm not going to say one of them, because this guy would then get you know a gazillion people going to his little page, but one of my clients Actually took uh, he took uh his last name and put review in front of it, so review blank right, their name review blank and when you click on that link, you open it up and there's a zillow tab and there's a google tab and it says thank You so much for allowing us to help you with the purchase of your home. You know it's like custom, you know like yep, it doesn't say their name right, but it's custom right like thank you so much for list. If you take the time to just review us on either site that you're more comfortable with and guess what just like that now, every time they close a transaction and they did 500 transactions last year, those people are getting that automatically every time. So he's operationalized reviews and i think the lesson for everybody here is once a month.

You need to have a kpi. That says i need to add x, number of reviews every single month to my google google, my business page and make it like a anything else. You'd be tracking and measuring, and this group, like the network right like your network, it's so easy to talk to people like what's working right, what's motivating people right now, what do they care about? There's tons of great tips on that, but make it a regular part of your business because it matters it will save you money, you're, not gon na you're, not you're, no longer gon na be able to buy ads and presence in the way that we always have So having these reviews and having the credibility in the content is really important: yeah all right, well, you're, going right into hello, tim cook and the iphone and all the new changes on the ios. So can you speak to this because again, this again remember my friends as a public service announcements, you're hearing my, i really want you to hear this voice.

Not my hey. Come on. Let's get fired up boys um talk about the changes, because i think facebook's gon na be in trouble. They are, they know like definitely like what you're hearing it's a challenge.

Let's say challenge instead of trouble, because who knows what they'll come up with from a negotiation standpoint or what types of hacks they'll put together to make this work, and they are definitely working hard to protect this ad revenue um, but definitely the ios 14.5, which is Out as of monday, the 26th it's gon na take time like that, nobody knows how quickly but like for us. We quickly went in to say impact-wise how much of our traffic comes from mobile. What percentage of that is on ios and an overwhelmingly large number uh-oh yeah? We have a, we have we got ta get our stuff together i mean we haven't, we've been talking about it for a while and making some making some changes in what we're testing. As far as advertising and investing you know in our database like what can we own right um? So that's definitely been a big play and a focus for us.

But as far as i don't want you to go into all that stuff, because we're going to talk about that on a future podcast, but i've got a whole show prepared for you on this, but so so maybe back up for a second. What is uh? What is tim cook and apple doing just so we're clear yeah, so there is. This is specific for for facebook right now, but it's part of the ios update, so part of that update is basically giving consumers. We are all consumers in some way the option to allow advertising.

I think that i wrote down the words because i popping up on my phone constantly right now. So do you want to give facebook the ability to track you across apps and websites by other companies? Yes, yes or no, how would you answer that question right now for the person listening? How would you like do you want now? I could argue that in some cases i want it because facebook and instagram are constantly feeding me things that i like yeah, you with me so hey i, like these shoes, you, like these shoes, we're going to show you these shoes also, like i actually wanted it. It impacts how i buy, but it also impacts how i buy it impacts how you buy and it impacts how often you're asked if you want to buy, and some people have a high level of frustration and annoyance for sure, and others are like give me more Of the best handbag that's coming tomorrow, i want those shoes right like that's what they're, not thinking. Oh, it's serving me up ads constantly about you know realtors or homes in my market, so it's gon na.

We don't know what the impact is to be. I mean the assumption is: there's going to be some impact because there is an entire demographic or group of people who probably don't want all those ads, and now it's easier than ever to say no thank you yeah and as soon as you say that you're not Going to be served up any of those retargeting ads right, those are gone. This is almost like uh, the revolution that happened five six years ago and was like: do you want to pay for the app for 99 cents and get no ads, or do you want? The free one that's going to feed you out all the time so so. Why is why, in your opinion, is apple and tim cook? Why are they doing this? It feels like such a direct attack on facebook.

It does um and it could be. You know, everybody's assumption is they're coming out with their own ad platform. That must be the case and there's been indicators of that, but it could also be as google claims across all of their updates like this is about customer experience and it's like the big guys making the decisions to actually go all in and protecting that, because they've Heard it over and over again what about my privacy? I want to know what my family and friends are doing. I want to share my latest vacation photos right, but i don't want to be served up ads.

That's not why i'm there? How can i have an ad free version right, and so this is giving people basically that option um, and so you could argue either way, but it certainly feels um that apple's making a play. If you were facebook, what would you do besides the obvious figure out? Every possible hack, because we're talking about like 99 of their revenue, yeah, think about that guys like what i don't know what the number was, but it's bazillions right and 99 is suddenly. This is no different from all the things we talked about with our clients like there's, always a competitor in your marketplace. That's about to do something that could really impact your business and that's why the things we're talking about today like more psa style, but it's it's always something to be mindful of.

If you were, if you were facebook, what would you do what they're doing right? Finding every possible way to continue to grow revenue like this revenue is how they make the world run at facebook right so they're trying to figure out how to protect that and two ways. Two things would happen. You could sit on it and say: okay, people will continue to pay because you they're not going to be able to find this audience anywhere else. The reality is, that's not true.

We've got google we've got youtube, we've got lots of things coming up and so like what they're doing is they're trying to find every possible way to say the new norm is x. They're going to have to, i think, adjust some of the pricing they have out there, because the volume and the cost, depending on the impact of this, is going to be pretty out of scale from what we're all used to right. But they could lean into you're. Going to get higher quality because people said i'm interested in ads right so automatically the quality of your potential leads, go up and you're going to have to pay more.

For that we'll see it's an option. Yeah, but we'll see yeah we'll see. Okay, all right! This has been really good. I'm first of all, thank you so much for sharing all this stuff, and now i'm going to i'm gon na, go a totally different direction.

So carrie again just high level right, ada compliant get your site ready and we talked about facebook and ios. Is there a move that agent should be making before we close the loop on this? Is there a move in your opinion that our client should be making with facebook? Today that's going to get them ready for what's to come right now with facebook, i would say, keep doing what you're doing but keep a very close eye. Know your data know where your fall off is coming every day if you're optimizing the same and you're setting up your ads the same and you're starting to see decline over time. I would recognize that it's likely due to this there's no way right now to tell exactly what the percentage of impact is going to be but know your data now.

So in two three weeks, a month from now, two months from now, you can quickly say: okay, we ran this ad, it had this. You know we had this level of performance and impressions. Two months later we run the same ad and it's completely fallen off. What happened know where you started and where you are and just keep an eye on your cpas, because those are going to continue, i think, to rise um.

So that's one know your data yeah and the other is keep diversifying like really lean into google understand what you can get out of just spending the time. You know updating your google, my business and understanding what those improvements they're making and then look at other platforms. I think you have to start looking at. I mean ot, hyper, hyper geo, local ott, hulu and others is that going to be an affordable option in the near future? Um.

So just keep thinking about how you broaden your digital net and keep the organic stuff that you can control and own at your top of your game, which you're teaming me up for my next point, but i'm going to throw two things at you. I go back to six seven years ago, um when, when facebook ads were, people were running out and they were literally like i've got like 500 leads, but i've only sold one house and my response was you have 500 cell phone and email addresses to add to Your database and nurture and then, if you look at the uh, the survey we did with boomtown a couple years ago, they basically said the size of your email database as it correlated to how much volume you were doing in sales. It's bonkers. So the thing i'd be telling everybody is as you're if you're thinking about maybe defending your position as facebook, maybe from an average advertising standpoint, it's just going to go up in terms of cost right.

It's going back to email marketing and connecting with all the people that are already inside your database, like that's where i think people are missing the boat like we're so busy trying to get the next new lead that we're not really paying attention to all the relationships And connections and people you've already established some level of trust with. So you know we want the new leads, but this is really where the opportunity is. It is done well done. Well, right, don't spam your audience just because you want to make sure that they hear from you all the time right.

What is the cta you're asking them to do, um, depending on what tools you're using or what partners segmenting your audience based on, like only only keep going, you know, think of your cadence that people engage with you frequently with people who haven't opened an email in A year and a half right, like you, treat them differently, so i would just encourage people like take a strategic approach to your email. Yeah, don't don't overuse it because it can actually hurt you in the long run for performance, but it's definitely something that takes as much strategic thought as your paid media spend. Don't abandon it. It's part of your org, it's part of your media mix.

It's part of your organic mix, yeah, there's so like if they went back in time on youtube. I remember uh talking about uh multi-channel multi-optic, like approach like okay, your email, facebook, twitter, instagram, direct mail phone calls text like that whole media mix and - and i remember when we first produced it uh, someone on my team was like - i can't believe, you're actually sharing Everything that we do as a company to build, like all of our competitors are gon na figure. It out. My response was well, hopefully they'll figure it out, but we'll keep innovating and adjusting.

But if you haven't, if you haven't looked at everything that is available to you and again, i just mentioned just a few like all the social platforms, google and other you know other ad platforms, zillow realtor, trulia home light, like you have to be everywhere and then Figure out what is your sweet spot and make sure you've got multiple lines in the water, not just one line of the water aka. Your database, which i'm going to talk to you about in a second but you've got to have more otherwise you're. Just your brand. Just it's too disruptable yeah.

It is right and it is disruptable. They are all dependent on each other right people always say my paid's, not working. I'm going to lean in organic. My organization's not working, i'm really into paid we've tested it like pulling pulling one part of of that house away like one card and not everything falls, but you see a dramatic impact because it's not just the email, that's working, it's all of the other mix and All the other advertising that you're doing that boosts everything else, and so it's really hard to articulate like what one impact will be, but you can play with that.

If you don't have the specific numbers of the data you can figure out like what is the mix, but more is always better than nothing. I agree. I agree. Okay, i'm going a totally different direction play this out with me.

I've been looking at a whole bunch of these property data sites and getting into the weeds on their their data around homes and specifically in the u.s. So for my friends around the world, the numbers will apply the same, but i'm giving you u.s data just for context. So right now, there's 138 million homes in the us, which is just a bonkers number, and we just did this week in housing and the one thing we noticed: there's not enough homes available for people like the the decade over decade, home building literally went straight up And then dropped off like dropped, it really was. It really was so it's like people talk about the housing bubble, i'm like it's, not a housing bubble.

It is literally a shortage of homes because we've got more people and everybody's living longer. So, anyway, side note: you got 138 million properties. We know there's about 21 22 million of those that are sfrs single family residents that are that are non-owner occupied investment properties but they're homes. Nonetheless, then you've got duplex and starbucks is four pluses.

Let's, let's just call that it's like in the name of like are in the range of like 30 million properties, but regardless you can sell those too. So there's 138 million homes in in the u.s. The data that we're showing is about an average of a million properties a month are showing the signals. The signs beyond death divorce default, like the obvious stuff, but a thousand other signals, hey they're, going to loans, loan depot and they're, not low, nebo lowe's, or something like that.

They're trying to fix up their house like that's a sign or they're. You know uh they they got pregnant they're, now shopping for baby stuff, like that's a sign, so think about a thousand different data points and a million properties a month or, let's just call it 12 million houses right. So, in the last 12 months, 12 million properties around the us had these signals, and we had six and a half million properties listed last year, we're on pace to have maybe seven million listed this year. The argument that i'm making right now to my clients is if you look at 12 into 138.

It's about eight percent of every property right now in the u.s is thinking about over the next 12 months, thinking about selling their house. So here we are in this market, where inventory is so tight. The the argument that i'm making with my clients is to literally grab your phone right now and then open up your your app where it shows all of your contacts scroll to the very bottom or just hit the pound. Sign and you'll see the number and that's the number of people you have inside your phone.

So in my case i look at it as like, almost like seven thousand, so i've got seven thousand people on my phone. You probably don't, though, i've asked some real estate clients they're, like i have fifteen thousand people on my phone, but the median seems to be around a thousand right, so add a thousand. What does that mean? That means there's 80 listings in your phone right now think about what i just said. If you have a thousand people in your phone, there's 80 listings in your phone, so i go back to peter raider the event we did blueprint and peter's a long time.

Coaching live big shout out to peter and literally peter, is you know on a zoom session with me with a couple thousand people from all over the world and he's like tom can ask you a question: i'm really struggling to get listings. What do you recommend - and i literally did the exercise - go to your phone? How many people - and i made everybody on zoom - remember like all the the comments, a bazillion contacts. I said peter i'm going to make you a bet. I got 10 000 bucks says you can't call every single.

I think you have 1900 people in this database. Okay, and i'm like. I want you to call every single person between this date and this table today is the eight weeks in to that competition. So he and i spoke this morning - i said: could you give me some optics on what you've done so far? So peter has failed, miserably he's not going to make the 10 grand and he doesn't care.

He doesn't care at all. There's a hook to this ready watch this, my friends, here's his actual numbers as of this morning, as i'm recording. This he's talked to 631 people of the nearly 2 000 in his database 631 and get this he's booked 28 listing appointments. That's insane! These are people that already know him, like him, trust him.

This was like his. He said it's my dog groomer, it's it's a tom ferry agent that i knew that i just oh, i'm gon na call that person just check in see how they're doing, and he actually got a couple agent, agent referrals, which don't count in the 28.. Those were just bonus ones, josh rubin said i'm like a 1.2 million dollar buyer like it was just nuts because he's making the phone calls he's shaking the tree. So here's my point: he got from this just staying on the numbers.

631 people. He spoke to 28 listing appointments. 12 he's already taken. Two are in research phase, which we've talked about before, which are they want to do something in 2022 right, hey when we finally or when this happens, then we want to make the move.

Three people ghosted him. He said gone dark, i'm like oh, they ghosted you, it happens right, one person said need to find a house and then we'll put the home in the market. So it's not listed for sale. 10 of them are in process, meaning carpet paint, get it cleaned up.

Get it ready to go whatever the timing is that they want to do, and some of them are like hey, we'll meet with you next week, the following week, etc. The bottom line is this: he and i are chatting this morning and he literally said to me for the first time in my real estate career, i'm on pace to do a million dollars in gross commission income. That's crazy and he said because we were talking over the phone, we were going old school, we weren't on zoom and he was like you. You can't imagine how big of a smile i have my face right now and i'm like pete i've known you forever, like i've watched this guy, go through the the typical ups and downs of of every person's square.

My career kerry square. Your group, we all have ups, we all have downs. It's just part of the deal as long as the as long as it's going high and right, it's all good and, and his certainly is. I asked him: what was the difference that made the difference? He goes.

You finally just challenged me to just get on the damn phone and call the people i know, and he goes and yes, there are long conversations and there's no magic script. You know it goes. Hey carrie haven't seen you in forever. How are you that's all he's doing that could go anywhere and literally people were like? Oh my god, we're totally busy we're this.

How are you doing and then he said, and every single person says how's real estate market? What's going on what's happening with home prices like every single person, and he said it is the easiest thing i've ever done. Does it take time? Am i busy selling houses? You know? No one has the time and yet 631 calls conversations 28 listing appointments and my argument for you kind of wrapping up this little podcast. Another public service announcement is listen to me very carefully. If you don't call your database, it's 100 fine matter of fact, i think zillow realtor, redfin, homelight and every other portal on the planet would prefer that you don't call your database that way.

They can get your customer to go to their website and they can sell that lead to somebody else. Are you listening to me? You couldn't believe it. I said this or i did it on. You were like you are nuts i'm dead serious.

I know you are yeah. Why am i nuts carrie? Why am i nuts, because i'm telling people like if, if you're, not going to call your database, if you're going to spend money to try and generate more leads and not call the people that already know you like you and trust you? I say you got to do both. Why am i nuts you're, not nuts, it's absolutely what they should be doing what's nuts? Is that you're not doing it right, because what is coming is somebody else will take that lead and it's going to be easier for them to take it. So, like you have to protect your database right, protect your relationships, no, like trust, so i'm going to make a comment as we wrap this up.

I made a prediction. Remember i mentioned these rock star team leaders that came in and spent a couple days with me and dallas masterminding and super fun big shout out to all of them. I said to them in the opening statement of our mastermind in the next two to three years. Fifty percent of every transaction done in your country will have a referral fee associated to it.

Fifty percent so think about it. Relocation, agent, agent, referral fees, usaa, zillow, realtor, truly a redfin right on down the line. I mean every mortgage company everybody's doing it, i'm not saying it's bad right, i'm saying if you're not calling your database don't complain when half your income potentially goes away for the same amount of work because you didn't make the phone calls so public service announcement get Your website right pay attention to what google's doing right super important. Obviously, ios changes facebook and make your damn calls said with absolute love.

Do you see the smile on my face if you're only listening? Do you hear the smile on my face all right? So that's it carrie. Thank you! So much for being on the show right, very technical, very important, the ada compliance thing. It's a no-brainer yeah. It is, and it should be, like instant action for people like if they didn't hear anything else.

They just got that like winner winner chicken dinner, so thank you for everything you do thanks for being on the show and hey share this make a comment. Let me know how you feel. Let me know what else you want us to cover on this show like not that we're ever running out of things to talk about, but we always want to know from you whether it's here or you go to my instagram stories or wherever you want connect with Us, let us know we're here, to serve all right. Take care guys, see you soon.

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