#411- Mail-Right Show: How To Get Real Estate Digital Leads in 2024

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How do you get quality real estate digital leads in 2024?

#1 – Video ( Facebook, YouTube and Instagram)

#2 – Reviews

#3 – Facebook Advert

#4 – Email and text marketing

 

#5 – Google Local Service Ads

Episode Full Show Notes

[00:00:00.370] – Jonathan Denwood

Welcome back, folks, to The Mail-Right show. This is episode 411. In this episode, we’re going to be talking about how you get high-quality real estate digital leads in 2024. 2023 is coming to an end. It’s gone quickly, isn’t it, folks? Plus, my regular co-host, Robert Newman, has gone away on vacation for the month. Taking his place is my co-founder of the Mail-Right show, Adam Brown. Adam, would you like to introduce yourself to the listeners quickly?

 

[00:00:49.180] – Adam Brown

Yeah. Jonathan and I have been working together for a past… Man, are we coming up on almost two years?

 

[00:00:56.910] – Jonathan Denwood

I’ll be free.

 

[00:00:58.450] – Adam Brown

Oh, wow. I also have a marketing agency, so really familiar with videos, and photos, working with Jonathan, all the SEO, Google video reviews, and things like that as well as the program he’s got going. So thanks for having me on.

 

[00:01:15.460] – Jonathan Denwood

No problem, Adam. Adam, like I said, he really specializes in video and Facebook. He’s an idea, the website, and the SEO.

 

[00:01:28.120] – Adam Brown

Good compliment.

 

[00:01:29.460] – Jonathan Denwood

Yes, I think so. Folks, in this episode, Adam’s going to be doing this show with me and probably a couple of shows in December. Then we’re going for a break over Christmas and the New Year, but we will be back, and hopefully, Robert will be back as well from his trip. As I said, in this episode, we’re going to be discussing how to get digital leads in 2024. Let’s start off the number one thing we have hammered away during the 2023 video. Video, in all the mediums that we have been talking about, will help you attract more leads and better quality leads through Facebook, advertisement, YouTube, Instagram, or, if you’re really up on the edge, TikTok. But we’re planning to discuss videos for Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. What are your thoughts about video and utilizing video to get better-quality leads, Adam?

 

[00:02:44.940] – Adam Brown

Yeah, the video is huge. It’s pretty much the staple now online, even using static images on social media. It’s just not getting the reach that it used to, which is unfortunate for the photographers. I also do photography, but video is more my niche. It’s not a waste of time to do static images, but it is worth your time to start implementing video if you’re not already. Honestly, we should have been implementing video, not we, but everyone out there years ago, just because of how much more effective and captivating it is to reach people. Plus, it works better. It’s better for SEO. It’s just better all around. It’s so highly suggested, and it’s why we keep pounding on this with all the different workshops and stuff that we’re presenting.

 

[00:03:40.840] – Jonathan Denwood

Yeah, obviously, these are different platforms, folks, so different types of video work on them. The other thing is, most of you are either going to have a really great iPhone, or you’re going to have a good Android. Almost all modern phones now have a fabulous ability to take video. Actually, Adam had some technical problems, and he couldn’t utilize his new, average cameras. He’s recording this with me using his iPhone, and it looks like… And it looks fantastic because he’s got the lighting set up. What I mean by different types, in Facebook, we can… A lot of people don’t want to take videos of themselves, add and can develop and utilize a video library of pre-taken videos and slides. We can make some compelling videos without you being part of the video. But if you can take some video, which we can utilize the more, the better, but we can advise you. Facebook, if you’re going to utilize it for branding, it’s best if you can video yourself about the local market, about what properties, showing properties, walking through a new property, and promoting it. These are all excellent ideas. But when it comes to Facebook advertising and utilizing video, you don’t necessarily have to be in it.

 

[00:05:24.390] – Jonathan Denwood

When it comes to YouTube, that’s different because that’s more about education. Would you agree? Because I think, Adam, when it comes to YouTube, people want to know about different aspects of the area that you’re an active real estate agent in. They want to know about the schools, the parks, the immediateities in general, the market in general. It’s really very informational focus. Would you agree with that, Adam?

 

[00:06:04.600] – Adam Brown

Yeah. And yet our household, my wife and kids, watch a lot of YouTube for entertainment purposes. We don’t have cable, for instance. We were trying to think of using it for entertainment reasons, which really if what we’re sharing on YouTube as real estate agents or whatever industry we’re in, if it’s not entertaining and it’s just spewing out all this information without having some fun, it’s just not going to be as effective either. Yes, totally agree. But also keep the fun aspect as you’re being resourceful and providing information to people.

 

[00:06:43.390] – Jonathan Denwood

Yes, absolutely. I see exactly where you’re coming from, Adam. You can’t be too dry and it doesn’t necessarily have to be too… Don’t end up like me, folks. But he doesn’t want to be too long either. But if you could do a monthly video about what the market is like in your area, show some of the properties, talk about the different areas, the different types of property. We’ve discussed finding the niche, if you can, that will help resonate your videos to the right target and offering a resource and talking about that resource during the video, having some lead magnet and having a landing page that they can go to to get that lead magnet, and having a link in the video, that’s important as well, folks. Now, when it comes to Instagram, what’s the situation? Because you’ve got the different type of reels and you’ve got the different types of advertisement on Instagram. What’s your thoughts about this, Adam?

 

[00:07:53.800] – Adam Brown

Yeah. Like you said, you have the Reels, which is more of that vertical portrait way of holding your camera, your phone, for instance, and their stories, which is going to use the same format for that placement. And then you could do posts still. Facebook, for instance, when you do a post, it’s turning it into a reel. So if they’re owned by the same company, so that makes sense. And just as a little pro tip too, YouTube has the YouTube shorts. So if you’re already doing the portrait format up and down with your phone and it’s quality enough and it’s resourceful enough and it’s entertaining, if you can make it short and sweet and make it look pretty decent with your phone, which I think you can, I know you can actually, you can also post those onto YouTube as well. So you’re getting more bang for your buck with the time and effort you’re putting into creating these videos. So definitely check that out too.

 

[00:08:56.030] – Jonathan Denwood

Yeah, it’s really important, folks, that you just have a plan of action where you have one or two hours a week and you knock up a few of these videos and you keep at it. Because for branding purposes, the more you get in front of your target audience, the more trust and an management you will build up, which will make your other paid advertisement or your other attempts to get good quality leads a lot more easier. On to the next video, reviews. Now, I think reviews in general, getting really good reviews, get them on your website, utilize them on your Google Local Business Area page, getting them on your Zillow, the free Zillow resource that they offer you. But just generally getting reviews is one area that a lot of real estate agents fell on. I think it’s one of the key factors that really will determine how effective your digital lead generation is compared to other people, your ability to have a system and get reviews. What’s your views on this, Adam?

 

[00:10:22.830] – Adam Brown

Yeah, I feel like you and I hammer out reviews and try to reinforce that because it’s super important. It’s really good for SEO. Google loves it. Like Jonathan said, dito to all of that and integrating it into your website as well. It’s huge. It’s necessary. Reviews are basically today’s word of mouth without talking to somebody. When we buy stuff, whether it’s a home or some electronic device, we are looking for reviews. What are people saying about it? I don’t know about you, but when I see it’s got four to five stars, that’s when I start to look a little bit more versus if it’s a little less expensive and doesn’t have four stars, I probably won’t look at that one just because of the reviews. They’re powerful and they’re really important.

 

[00:11:13.730] – Jonathan Denwood

Having them linked to a social media platform and then utilize them on your landing page or your paid advertisement is really going to increase the effectiveness of your paid advertisement. We specialize in Facebook and Google, local adverts platform, and having reviews and having those reviews generated by a social media platform and then utilizing them is really important. Just writing a review, getting a written review and putting it on your website helps. But a lot of people will dismiss it as well. If it’s linked to actual social media platform, gives it more credence and it will really make a difference to how effective your outreach, especially through paid advertisement, and it just makes a big difference. Now, with Mailright, I just want to plug the Mailright platform, it’s a CRM, it’s a social media platform, and we’ve got a really easy, usable CRM in build. Plus, it does text messaging and email and text strip campaigns. But we also got a really fantastic in Build review platform that you can send out a request asking for reviews in batches, and that really saves time. We’ve known people utilize it and it makes the whole process of getting these reviews and getting it more systematic, a lot easier.

 

[00:12:57.190] – Jonathan Denwood

I think it’s one of the gems of our Mailwright system, really. Would you agree with that, Adam?

 

[00:13:02.070] – Adam Brown

Yeah, I think it’s such a great way and it’s user-friendly and it’s got a little bit of a… What would you call it? So if reviews come in that are under a seven or something, right? They go through a process so they’re not immediately posted onto the website, right?

 

[00:13:22.620] – Jonathan Denwood

We ask for a mini survey from people and you can see it. It’s like 1-10. It just asks them… Obviously, if you ask for them to write out a full review straight away, you’re going to get a lot of resistance. It just seems quickly, they click it and then they ask, Can you give a rating of 1-10 stars about your experience? You can set it at five or whatever limit. If it only gives you five or below, it will take them to the screen asking, Can we have a chat? Can you give me more feedback? If it’s five or above, depending where you set it to, it will then ask for a quick review and then it will take them to either Google or Facebook and they can leave a quick review there, then we find this system just really helps agents get a lot more reviews. We’ve got some more great points to tell you about and point out to you, but we’re going to go for our break now, folks. We’ll be back in a few moments.

 

[00:14:37.710] – Adam Brown

Do you want quality leads from homeowners and buyers right in your own neighborhood? Then you need mail write. It is a powerful but easy to use online marketing system that uses Facebook to generate real estate leads at a fraction of the cost you’d pay from our competition. We stand behind our work with a no-question-asked, 30-day, money-back guarantee. So don’t delay, get started today. Go to mail-right. Com.

 

[00:15:01.760] – Jonathan Denwood

Welcome back, folks. It’s strange to do this without Adam, but I think, Roblox, I should say. But Adam’s doing a sterling job. Let’s talk about Facebook adverts. I think about almost a year ago, Facebook was facing a challenge because they were dealing with the new position that Apple had brought out, and they made it much harder for Facebook to get the information they need that enables them to make their efforts really effective. But the good news is, folks, that basically using artificial intelligence, Facebook threw an army of their developers and a load of money, basically, because they had to deal with this because it was affecting the results people were getting from Facebook. Now they’re getting better results than ever, the reports I’m getting, and Facebook has just come back. I think for a real estate agent, combining video, which we mentioned in the first part of the show, is really important. What’s your feelings about this, Adam?

 

[00:16:27.300] – Adam Brown

Yeah, I think with Facebook in particular, it’s good to run some test ads and do different formats of the video, and also do carousels and static images. That way you can test and make sure the money is going into the placements that are the most effective, and so you’re not losing as much money, but also gaining more quality leads through being more strategic with your advertising on there.

 

[00:16:59.200] – Jonathan Denwood

Yeah, it’s really important, though, because with the mail write system, you’ve got two choices: you’ve got the DIY element of WordPress where you get a fantastic website which you can brand and that’s yours, and IDX integration as well, plus the suite of all the tools, the CRM, the Drip, email, the text messaging, that all comes in a DIY package at one of the best prices out there. But if you don’t, you can then do your own Facebook adverts and run your own campaigns. But we also offer a concierge service where Adam and our team can manage the campaigns for you. So you’ve got options with us. That’s the basic choice. Our platform is really powerful because most people go wrong, and I want to see if you agree with this, Adam, is they run their campaigns a bit too short and also they don’t have the consistent follow-through because with Facebook adverts, people are at different journeys on their house purchasing or selling journey, and it’s a disruption platform. So videos, they think, I want that information or I want to know about that property. Then you send them to the landing page, you get their name, email, and phone number, and then our system will email them over a month and text message them.

 

[00:18:37.250] – Jonathan Denwood

Then after the month, it puts them on another list, which then they will be sent a monthly type newsletter. It just keeps them in your sphere of influence because they’re all at different stages of, like I said, the buying or selling journey, aren’t they? What do you reckon, Adam?

 

[00:18:59.030] – Adam Brown

Yeah, I think you nailed it. So obviously, test them to create different placement formats and sizes. I think people don’t spend enough money on it. I would definitely put at least $50 if you’re trying to get any significant results and you want their AI and algorithms to really try to pull what you’re trying to do. When you put five or ten bucks, it’s just not really going to be super effective. So you will get into it what you’re putting into it, which is good and bad depending on your budget and what you want to spend. The other thing is people don’t run it long enough, and so you can’t run it for two days and be done. Although I have had clients say, stop, wehave enough people. We’re good, which is always a great problem when you spend eight bucks if that’s the case. That just doesn’t happen too often. Run it for a good week, maybe even two weeks, once you know which are performing better from the tests that you’re doing. That’s a couple of quick tips. We could really spend hours talking about this.

 

[00:20:10.290] – Jonathan Denwood

Next week, Sean would probably do a deeper dive about Facebook. The main thing is a lot of people give too much information on their Facebook effort. You need to be in what I call with Facebook, the go delox area. You give enough information to intrigue them, so to click on the effort and go to the landing page. If you give them too little, there’s no reason for them to click the effort. But on the other end, if you give them too much information, they won’t click either because they got everything they wanted. That’s why. Now, if you do want us to run your Facebook effort, we got a great concierge service and it’s $250 a month, so it’s not outrageous, folks. Then we recommend that most areas you need a 250 budget to start off with, so that’s 500 bucks. We run one or two campaigns a month for you. You do have to sign up for six months, though, because it does take their upfront cost. We have to interview you, find out. It’s a customized service to some extent. We’ve got a library of different campaigns that work, but we do customize for each clientele.

 

[00:21:32.860] – Jonathan Denwood

We need you to sign up for six months, but it’s not an outrageous amount of money. We find that people get fabulous results from it. Or if you want to, you can sign up for the MailRide platform on its own, which starts at around $150 or slightly underneath. You can do all this on our platform yourself, so you’ve got great choices. Email and text marketing. I think the money is in the list, as they say. It comes from a lot of the leading individuals that started talking about digital marketing, is that building up your email list and then emailing those people and keeping your email list, your database up to date and relevant, text messaging is powerful, but we suggest that when you run a campaign, you can text people, but you do it like you send two email and you send one text message, and you do that for the first 30 days, and then you just put them on the email list afterwards. That’s what we recommend. I think email has been proven. When social media ads came out, and it’s great social media, but a lot of so-called guru was saying the email was finished.

 

[00:23:06.530] – Jonathan Denwood

That’s turned out to be totally untrue, hasn’t it?

 

[00:23:10.350] – Adam Brown

Yeah, it’s still effective. It’s still necessary. If you’re saying faxes, maybe that’s true, it’s faxing. But email is fax. I thought it was a fax. Yeah, right? What is a fax, though? And so-.

 

[00:23:25.160] – Jonathan Denwood

I bet when you say that to your family, they just look blank at you.

 

[00:23:29.380] – Adam Brown

I could- I know, I’m sorry. -like, I wouldn’t even know what that is.

 

[00:23:31.580] – Jonathan Denwood

We don’t even know in what fact what you’re talking about.

 

[00:23:34.630] – Adam Brown

Yeah, a facsimile. And the good thing is if you aren’t good at following up the mail-write program with the email text strip campaigns, basically really helps you out with that. So it’s always good. I mean, the sooner you can follow up, the better. But it is set up in a way that there’s multiple, multiple touches through that first week. So you’re top of mind, tip of tongue, and you’re going to find out if they’re interested or can you put them in the pipeline inside the CRM? So it’s great because you could put notes on there and things like that, that of the process and conversations and things just to keep you fresh next time you go in there.

 

[00:24:18.580] – Jonathan Denwood

Yeah.

 

[00:24:18.910] – Adam Brown

We can.

 

[00:24:19.680] – Jonathan Denwood

Like I said, we’ve got a full… You can build a full email text campaign, 30 days or plus. Plus, we’ve got a landing page builder that’s really easy, but it’s flexible and you can build great landing pages. Plus, we provide some digital lead magnet resources, or you can upload your own, plus the review platform plus the social media, Canada. Because a lot of people, one of the key things, folks, is to get a result on social media, you’ve really got to publish a lot of social media content. And most agents, it’s feast or famine, either you’ve got no time at all. The other key to social media is every month posts a lot of content. Well, you can pre-populate and we help you there. We supply to all our clients a calendar worth of one post a day to Facebook and other platforms. We provide that for you charge and you can add to it. It just puts your social media on steroids, basically. The last thing, before we wrap this up, Adam, is Google Local Service Ads. We want to point out, if you go to the MailRoy YouTube channel, we’ve got about four or five really great videos about Google Local Service Ads.

 

[00:25:51.170] – Jonathan Denwood

Do you want to tell the listeners quickly what they are, basically?

 

[00:25:56.220] – Adam Brown

Yeah. There are ads on Google that hit your immediate area, and it’s created through your business account and the information you provide on your profile. So it’s super important that you fill that out correctly. Like Jonathan said, we have several videos that can explain and walk you through that, or you could just get a hold of us through the website. They’re good leads, they’re good leads. They’re not inexpensive. But again, you’re getting what you’re paying for. I think, Jonathan, I would say they’re better than Zillow leads, right?

 

[00:26:33.040] – Jonathan Denwood

Well, basically, Google is competing with Zillow. Basically, when you do a search for a local service in Google, folks, you will see the top three, and they will be linked to a MacPAC, as this is the SEO term they call it. And those free placements, not all the time. It depends if they’ve got anybody advertising on the platform, but in most areas, they’re paid placement. And you want to be one of those… Basically, it’s very similar to Zillow Premier in the way it works. They have a bid. If you’re the highest bid, your advert will show. They match searches when people are doing a search in Google, and they know, especially when somebody’s using a mobile device where they are located, so they match the search. These typically cost between $50 to $70 per lead. The great thing is that if you think the quality of the lead is totally rubbish, you can actually make a claim, and you can claim that money back off Google. Zillow doesn’t do that very well. We find they’re much higher quality. But the key to this is you do have to pick up the phone. If Google senses that you’re not, they will back off sending these leads to you.

 

[00:28:18.480] – Jonathan Denwood

And second, you’ve got to set up your Google business profile, claim it, and fill it in. We do have a service where we can assist you to do this. If you do sign up for the mail right for the year, we’ll set it up for you for free. If you don’t want to sign up, there is a charge, but we will help you set it all up for you and advise you. But it’s more expensive than Facebook advertising folks, but the quality of the lead, they’re much further on their journey, their buying or selling journey, than what a Facebook lead is. But you can be lucky with a Facebook lead, you can show up at the right moment. But in general, they’ve got a much broader intent of either purchasing or selling. With the Google Local Service Ads, they tend to be much further on their buying or selling journey. Their intent is much later on in the process. That’s why you have to pay that price to get them. It’s very similar to Zillow. But as we all know, the quality of Zillow premium efforts, unless you pay for their screening services, which is an extra cost, i.

 

[00:29:48.350] – Jonathan Denwood

E, they get a virtual, they get offshore VC actually to rent out the prospect. That’s all the extra cost that Zillow charges you. It gets very expensive very quickly. I think Google Local Service Ads is much better than you. You need a little bit of help. The brutal truth, folks, is almost 80% of real estate agents don’t set up their Google Local page correctly or don’t claim it at all. It’s just bonkers, basically. It’s time to wrap it up. We’re at the half-hour mark. We’ll be back next week, and we’ll probably talk about Facebook in a bit more depth or use video equipment. For the next two weeks, if Adam’s up for it, we could do two shows before the Christmas and New Year break. In one of them, we talk about Facebook advertising in a bit more detail. In the second, before we went for a break, we talked about video equipment because Adam knows everything about that. What do you reckon, Adam? Do you think it’s been a good show?

 

[00:30:57.690] – Adam Brown

It’s been a great show, and I guess what? If all you have is an iPhone, I just recorded on my own iPhone, so you could do it.

 

[00:31:05.550] – Jonathan Denwood

I’m going to tell you, Adam.

 

[00:31:07.840] – Adam Brown

It doesn’t look too bad, huh?

 

[00:31:10.070] – Jonathan Denwood

Well, you’ve got all the lights in, Adam.

 

[00:31:13.750] – Adam Brown

Lighting helps, and onthe honestly, you could spend like 30 bucks and have enough lighting. Let’s talk about that, too, right? There are some more just for you to maximize your reach and make it look good for pretty inexpensive.

 

[00:31:27.620] – Jonathan Denwood

Hopefully, you’ve enjoyed it, give us some feedback, folks. We’d love you to go to the Mailwright, leave a comment on the Mailwright YouTube channel, and give us some feedback. We will be back next week with another, giving you some real value and insights. See you soon, folks. Bye.