#210 Mail-Right Show Internal Show We Discuss Google Business Pages

We have a great discussion connected on why if you are a real estate agent you should be setting-up and using every-day your Google Business Page. Its a totally FREE Google service that will allow you to compete with the big guys like Zillow in your local market. Its quite amazing however so many agents don’t understand and don’t use Google Business pages please don’t be one of these agents listen to the show and then set-up and use your GBP!

Jonathon: Welcome back folks to the Mail Rights Show. This is episode 210. This is going to be an internal discussion between me and my great cohost Robert Newman. We’re going to be discussing the Google business page. Why you should still have your own website and what we think about some of these home discounts is that have been entering the market. Robert’s got some thoughts about that. Robert seems very relaxed. He’s been to Las Vegas. He has actually won at cards, what more can a man asks for? This is what I would like today. So Robert, would you like to introduce yourself to the new listeners and views?

Robert: I’d love to. So first of all, for those of you who are joining us for the first time today, please do us a favor and like or comment either the video or the podcast that you are listening to. We work really hard at this, especially John and your comments and your likes are the support that we need. The next thing I’d like to say is, I’m the founder of Inbound REM. Inbound REM started off as a blog and now there is a service company attached to it, which is Inbound REM Inc. Inbound REM Inc. is a SEO WordPress websites that you own. Thank you so much John for the amazing introduction. I really appreciate it.

Jonathon: Thanks no problem. We are going to talk some more. We had a great guest last week and I thought it was a fantastic discussion. I’m going to have him back sometime in the New Year and we covered a lot of territory. Didn’t we Robert? Around Google business page, I think it was important to do that because I think it’s a key part in the arsenal of technology that agent can use to really compete with the big guys. So we agreed that in the first half of this show, it covers some of the areas to kind of recap. Where should we start with this Robot?

Robert: What I’d like to do is I would like to see, I would like you to kind of take the ball and remit, if you recall what we discussed, like in general category kind of ways. What did we discuss about Google my business page? I’d love for you to refresh everybody’s memory and then I will kind of jump in and home down here and there, some of the stuff that you’re covering.

Jonathon: Well I think Google just haven’t been very effective, which isn’t that surprising when you’ve worked with Google for a while. They’re trying to do a better job about, actually getting out the message of how they’ve revamped Google business page. How they’ve made it more powerful and how they’ve really linked in to local search, especially a business that has a definite Geo area of influence. Really setting up this Google page, you will come up with the map package because it’s cold when you don’t get it on all searches. But when it’s a Geo base service that the person’s looking for? They will get a Google map and if you set up your Google page correctly, you’ll be one of those people in the first top of the list before you have to press the little button that says show more.

Jonathon: You’ll be one of those top three people that show up for that search and that is really important, isn’t it Robert? I think the [inaudible 00:03:53] thing that Brendan really pointed out that was so powerful is that, the post section to get fed, it doesn’t have to be unique content. I didn’t actually know that I and it’s powerful. The [inaudible 00:04:11] the videos and how you can get around if like, say you’re based in Dallas and you don’t have a precise Geo market in Dallas, you’re covering the whole Dallas but your office, your dress that you’ve given to Google. So it tends to give you only the people near to your office by taking videos and photos on your phone connected to the properties.

Jonathon: You got open houses where you’re selling properties. You’re buying properties for client. Totally taking photos and videos and then uploading them to Google, you can get around that slight restriction. That was mind blowing to me Robert. It’s a game changer. It’s fundamentally so important and it’s really been linked to everything we’ve been preaching over the months on this show, isn’t it Robert? 

Robert: Yes. I agree with you and I just want to kind of throw in while you took a pause there. For the members of our audience, who are joining us for this episode and missed the last one. When we start using words like Geo or hyper-local what Google has done is they’ve separated search. That just means that they’ve created categories in search. And they look at your phone because they can look at the location of where you are at when you’re doing a search. Then if you put in keywords that they personally think relate to local searches, they give up a different set of search results, which is what John is referring to when he’s talking about the map package. Literally a box that’s separated from all other search results, that has a map on it and starts off with three search results on the top.

Robert: If you click see more, it does the standard nine search results, once you click on the see more. The search packets are a little bit more flexible and your search packets may work or look a little differently than what I’ve described. But that is basically the way that they work. In terms of the key words that you would use, the reason that we were talking about this to you, who hopefully are a real estate professional if you’re listening to this show. It’s because a keyword that you need would be like real estate agent, best real estate agent near me or best real estate agents in the area. Or how do I list my home in Los Angeles County? All of those are hyper-local searches. As a matter of fact, I’ve noticed on my own Google business profile that the number one keyword driving traffic into my local profile right now is real estate marketing companies.

Robert: I don’t know this for sure, hyper-local is not my specialty, but what I believe is that Google has started to say, if you’re on a phone and you’re mobile where we believe that you’re mobile. And you do a search in Los Angeles County, that has to do with the service, we’re going to serve up to you the best service company according to the hyper-local designations So the service company that has the best reviews and service company that has the most citations and we’re going to give that to you as part of your search packet on your phone.

Robert: I think they’ve separated out search from PCs to telephone. My belief is that more and more search quite literally is going mobile. That’s what my statistics seem to prove to me. What does that mean to you as the end consumer? That really just means that as a real estate agent, since most of your audience is actually local and in the area that you’re in and a healthy handful, will be doing searches that relate to you on their phone while they’re out taking care of business.

Robert: That absolutely means that, this does show these topics, they’re really important for your business. Sorry for the long diatribe turn go ahead and take it back.

Jonathon: No, I think of all the feeds we’ve discussed, also there’s been some knockings of Facebook lately because they’ve had to apply some more restrictions. I think he’s been much about nothing when it comes to that, really. Using video and doing open houses, all the things that we’ve been going on about during the months. I think his is so fundamentally important that if you don’t claim your Google business page and you don’t listen to these couple of episodes and really get it set up, you’re bonkers. If you’re really trying to build up, you don’t do this and you call yourself a real estate agent, you’re just bonkers basically.

Jonathon: You really got to listen to these episodes and get on with it. One of the problems though, is like what I said at the beginning of this conversation, Robert, is that Google to some extent, haven’t been really that great publicizing the power of their service. They all going around communities doing kind of meet-ups and handing out a lot of free stuff. I know they’ve been around the Reno area the past month, doing kind of meet-ups with business organizations. And doing more kind of guerilla marketing them. Another problem is actually the mythology of climbing your Google business page.

Jonathon: The decision gets away from allowing people to actually following up and claiming it, because it was being abused. So there, they’ve got this system that you’ve got to provide what they consider real address but Brendan did point out that you can use a post office address and it does work. But it does break the terms and conditions. So you’re going to have to make a business judgment about that. They’re really looking for a real address and then they send you this bloody card and it’s so easy to miss the card. It gets mixed up with all the junk mail that’s sent to you. Then the system, for getting them to resend the card, isn’t that straight forward? So, that’s why I feel a lot of people when, they don’t know about here and this process of climbing, isn’t it Robert?

Robert: It is. So guys, thank you John for the recap. I appreciate it. I agree with you about the difficulties of using the Google my business page. I agree with you about the postcard that they send. I’m going to devilishly like tail on at the end it. Despite those challenges and difficulties, I’m going to change my recommendation from something that you should do, to something that you have to do. As a real estate agent, this is the cheapest and even with that John was mentioning. This is the cheapest, most effective way that I know of to market your business on Google at least. There is a lot of power here, and there are ways to leverage this power and ways you should leverage this profile that we didn’t talk about when we did our show. This is why John and I decided that we would reopen this show with a talk. We’re going to get deep into that, but unless I’m mistaken, we’re pretty close to having to go to break.

Jonathon: Well, we can go off in three four minutes.

Robert: Okay, then let me take it away. The main thing that we didn’t talk discuss is actually something called Google campaign URL builder. It is a tool that you get out of analytics. If for some reason you take all this advice and you start to build up your Google my business profile, there will always come a time in which a question will exist about, is this working for you or not? The easiest way to identify, I try to keep all these talks simple. We make the assumption that the people that we’re dealing with are novices or they wouldn’t be even listening to our show. If you can figure out what a Google campaign URL builder is, it’s just a tracking URL that you can throw into your Google my business profile, which essentially allows you to aim your traffic at any page on a website that you want.

Robert: My suggestion is to turn your about page into a landing page. In other words, you write a nice word about yourself and then you put a call to action such as contact me, call me all of the above on that page. Direct to traffic there. Put a strong call to action on your about page. Make sure that you have social proof on your about page. That’s reviews of people who’ve used your services. If you’re lucky and you’ve worked hard at this, your Google my business profile will also have reviews. So what I’m giving you here is a fast down and dirty guerrilla marketing tactic to try to actually generate business off Google my business, which is what I’m all about. Let’s get down and talk about how we’re going to get you money.

Jonathon: It’s the area that I’ve always admired about you actually Robert, because some of these markets in conversations online and some of these gurus, it’s great stuff, but it tends to get lost in the weeds, the fundamental things get that phone call and get better leads. Is it?

Robert: Yes, it is. It always is. And not to get lost in the sauce with marketing methodology, it’s just to, always make sure that you are trying to leverage your website and everything so that you get phone calls. Unfortunately for all of us it’s gotten more complicated as time has gone on. And I’m the first to admit it’s not been an easier process. It’s a more complicated process. But the good news is, sorry, go ahead John. My bad;

Jonathon: No, it’s just that, I’m looking at the time and what I would like is to cover in the first half and then go. It’s the one area that you disagreed with our guest last week and I agree with you, is not utilize Google’s additional service of setting up a website for you. Would you like to comment on that Robert?

Robert: Yes, so inside the Google my business profile, they’re saying that they’re going to set up a website and they’re going to give you a few landing pages. You should never do that on Google my business. What you should do if you wanted to really, is, put an offer there that direct somebody back to your website. You probably are going to have to create a graphic that has the URL. Because I don’t think you can place URL on these web pages, which means that they are how fast at best in terms of marketing tool. And for the most part you don’t want to steal the vendor of your actual website. I don’t agree with using this small tool to create a remote website to drive traffic back to your primary website. That is a strategy I don’t think it’s going to be effective for 99% of all real estate agents. So I’m going to tell you don’t do it.

Jonathon: I think the other thing we got to point out and I’m sure that listeners and viewers, you wouldn’t do this. But you are dealing with a rather bureaucratic organization, if you’ve ever had to deal with Google. And they got strict terms of conditions. For some reason, somehow you do something that breaks Google’s terms and conditions, they will just take away your business page. They will just take away these webpages and building on that. Just like I’m a great fan of Facebook, but I wouldn’t build a business on Facebook. I’d utilize its audience and the tools it offers. I certain wouldn’t want to build a business solely reliant on Facebook. It’s actually totally similar to Google. What you’ve been thinking about that Robert?

Robert: I think that you’re right.

Jonathon: I love you Robert. We’re going to go for a break. When we come back we’d be discussing some of these wholesale discounts and what Robert thinks about all this. We’ll be back in a few moments’ folks.

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Jonathon: We’re coming back. Robert looks a little bit puzzled. He just given me some additional information in the show break and I can offer him much knowledge on that. But we’re coming back folks. Now, Robert what’s your thoughts about these discounters and this whole, why things have been going over the [inaudible 17:47]? It’s been one of the dominant stories in 2019 really, isn’t it Robert?

Robert: So audience if you’re in real estate, you’ve got to giving some thought to the fact that Redfin KW, Zillow and others too, not just those guys. They are actually jumping into the retail, the residential real estate retail game online. Now they’ve all got different models. Discounting service prices, bidding like auction style, and like home sales are all online, everything is online. And everybody that I talked to, like in terms of my masterminds and my groups, this is a predominating conversation.

Robert: Everybody is having this conversation right now. It’s always coming up everywhere that I’m going because I don’t do a lot of digital media consumption unless it relates to real estate. And Inman is talking about it. So everybody’s talking about it that is focused on real estate. And here’s the funny thing, John and I talked about it and we have the same, well not 100% the same, but pretty similar dialogue, which is the answer, the solution to this is.

Robert: So what’s happening in real estate is somebody has finally figured out how to commoditize the sales process. Which by the way, in every other industry across history, like when we’ve been in an industrialized nation, this always happen; People figured out how to commoditize the car buying process and all sorts of people have creative ways to do it online. Carvana has a whole car silo. No matter what the product is or how expensive it is or how important the decision is surrounding making it. People will figure out a way to commoditize the buying process. And in every single case it has never been an industry disrupter, never. It’s just a first for real estate. And why is that important for us as a marketing company? Because we actually think we have the solution.

Robert: We have the answer, even if you were worried about it. Even we did think it was going to be a game changer, we were here to tell you, we think we have the answer for you. So everybody grab those pens, grab those pencils, get ready for this. All right, you ready John? So guys, here it is hyper-local. Okay, what we want to do is turn you into an inbound marketer. If you have a brand that is focused around your reputation and your knowledge of a specific area, the people who are not interested in commoditizing their buying or selling process, which I promise you, will be 70 to 80% of all homeowners and the number in the first time home buyers will probably be in the like 90% category.

Robert: Who in the fricking world, it’s buying a home for the first time, is going to be able to comfortable at a computer and go, yes, I’m going to buy a $500,000 home on a picture. Excellent, look a great fucking idea; let’s do that, nobody! This topic is driving me crazy, it’s like head desk. Every time somebody’s; we’ve been talking about the answer on this show for like a year. I’ve been on the show together, John and I create videos, create a brand, put it on a website, do all this, go back to all of our episodes and I promise you. If you listen to every single one of our shows, you will quickly realize we’ve basically given you strategy that breaks down every single individual visual area of digital marketing that affects hyper-local as a real estate agent.

Robert: You can usually hear us talking to like, sometimes not every time, but sometimes world renowned experts and huge real estate brokers and they’re all agreeing with us, all of them, every single one. Anybody that knows anything about real estate, anybody that’s been in the industry, anybody that has a big team, they’re all agreeing. So if you’re a new agent, you have the biggest advantage of the whole entire world. You have not already spent $400,000 on marketing and it’s hard for you to pivot. You get to start fresh; you get to choose your strategy now. And yes, it’s frustrating and scary and all those things. I feel you. I really do. But you know what? You also have an opportunity to do it right from the first time.

Robert: Put your money where it’s going to matter. And in this particular case, I strongly believe that’s hyper-local. Build a Google my business profile for free. Don’t spend any money when you’re ready to build a website, do so with one that you own. And until you’re ready to do that buy a cheap-y from someplace, somebody that doesn’t break the budget, okay? I’m not saying that, John’s websites are cheap, but he’s an inexpensive option in comparison to others. Maybe check out–.

Jonathon:     I mean, that’s why we can work together really, Robert. It’s a totally different sector than what you’re aiming for. So either the type of clients that I’m looking for and this is truthful. I’ll going to hope Robert won’t be too peeved off here, but I’m going to go off the topic a little bit surprised. Surprise! Robert. I’ve heard some people say that what I am up to with Mail Right.

Robert: Sure.

Jonathon: I’ve got to be truthful. Basically, I’ve used the podcast and I’ve used the past18 months, two years to actually learn something about the industry, which I wanted to build a product in. And I knew nothing about real estate, absolutely nothing. I’ve used it as a kind of associate degree to kind of learn about the industry. I build an initial product that did work. It wasn’t really the product that I want you to build in the end, but I didn’t know, what really we’re the needs and wants of our target audience. I’ve used a similar path in my other business and I have another business folks that’s profitable, that subsidize is all this. Basically I used the same thing there. I’ve gotten enough podcast that’d be money for over four years and I build my network, my tribe by using that podcast.

Jonathon: I thought I would do the same with mail-right. So I’ve used Mail-Right the podcast to build a tribe. And with Robert’s help, it’s increased enormously over the coming months. I’m sure this month we will have a record month. I’ve learned a numerous amount from Robert and the guests that come on the show and I’ve been building out Mail Right to left the stage where I think it actually does offer tremendous value and we’ve being testing it and we found in the, over the past couple of months, and I’ll feel like I’ve got to a stage where it will be the kind of project that I envisioned when I started this road. Really Robert, does that make any sense Robert?

Robert: Yes, it does. So what I heard you say is that you started off with a vision that you thought was, we’ll actually start off with an idea and you created an idea. You started getting feedback from industry experts and from your own intuition, you realize that you wanted to refine it and improve it. And that’s what you’ve been on the road to doing. I’ve, I felt the same way about the stuff that we’ve done with building a WordPress website platform. I feel you deeply and I know that you’ve been making a lot of improvements and a lot of inroads. If those of our listeners, we try not to plug anything too hard, but in terms of a more budget conscious but awesome solution Mail-Right might be a thing.

Jonathon: So that’s why we’ve been a bit easygoing about different products in that because there is no one product that can meet every agent’s needs because very agent is at different stages of their career and their budget and their need aren’t they, Robert?

Robert: They really are. And in addition to all of that, guys, I’ve worked with John now for nearly a year. He’s not too terrible to talk to and he is very respectful, not to me, of course, but he will be to you, I promise.

Jonathon: But, just to wrap up the show. Robert. I think what you said, I span off a bit about Mail-Right. Well, I think I can be given a little latitude because I don’t push it too much do I? I totally agree what you said so passionately in the beginning of this second half of the show, is that in some ways I feel the agent that doesn’t really offer any value has got something to worry about. I think if really you’re just a phone number and you don’t listen to any podcasts, you don’t listen to the Mail-Right show or any of the other great podcasts out there or you don’t keep up with the latest news or interesting in improving your skills that might benefit your clients. You probably have got something to worry about but if you really do want to offer some value and I think really knowledgeable local focus, real estate agent does offer some real value. I don’t think at the present moment you’ve got much to worry about.

Robert: I’m going to put a spin on this as we wind down the last few minutes of the show. So guys in the United States, real estate agents and real estate professionals, they’re one of the few professions that you can still make a million dollars at the highest end and not have a college degree. And when you start talking about the other extremely highly paid professionals such as lawyers and doctors and things like that, these are people that can start off and get their own offices and then build up their specialty. And then they make their million dollars. But usually along that road, they rack up 250,000 to $500,000 in debt. They spend eight years in school. Once they start an office, they get a crash course and running their own business because they have advertising employees and a million other things that nobody thinks about. After they do all of that, they then, can finally have a profession that makes them 500,000, $2 million a year.

Robert: Real estate agents have, even right now in today’s market, an easier road than that. It’s not easy. I’m not saying that it is, but it’s easier than these other professions for the least of which is you don’t have to go to school for eight years. You can tackle your chosen career and refine your skill set for those eight years, and at the end of the eight years, you’re going to be somebody who really knows what they’re doing, hopefully. So you’ve got this great, magnificent opportunity in the form of real estate. And to think that you shouldn’t have to understand digital marketing, all it’s happening right now is you’re going to get, you’re cutting the wheat from the chief, and I really hate saying this, but all the people that are looking lose, who are committed to the, to the profession, who aren’t going to look at it as a profession.

Robert: Yes, the changes that are happening in the industry are going to suck. And I’m sorry; I’m not trying to be a dick. I am however saying for of you who are determined, who are willing to treat this like a business, you’re got to go into digital. You’re going to listen to guys like John and me. You’re going to educate yourself; you’re going to discover that these changes that are happening are actually to your benefit because a lot of these people that aren’t serious are going to get shaken out of the real estate business.

Robert: And that’s going to leave professionals. And when they’re there and they’ve got a strong local brand and everybody’s upping their game. And they’re distributing a lot more and a lot higher quality information via online; the whole profession is going to be impacted positively. People are going to change the way that they view real estate agents and the real estate profession in general. And I personally think by, that’s a little overdue.

Jonathon: I thought I had too as well because I think that was a great point in the show. Hopefully you got some great value from the show. Robert’s been passionate. I think we’ve covered [inaudible  really excited from last week show. I’ve been thinking about it a great deal. I’d just wanted Robert’s take about it. I think the opportunities are really there, folks. If you really take this seriously, the opportunities to build a lifestyle for yourself and your family are still there, folk. And will be for the foreseeable future. You just need the right technology and the right attitude.

Jonathon: We will be back next week. We’ve got a guest next week. I’m pretty sure about that and hopefully we’ll have some other guest in June, September, or we have some great internal discussions we will back next week, folks. Bye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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