Posts Tagged ‘ROI’

How Facebook Ads Can Increase Listings, Sell More Homes, and Generate More Leads

Posted on: September 22nd, 2017 by Tim Garcia

by Andy Coffaro

You’ve probably heard about or have fiddled to some degree with Facebook ads. Others of you may have steered clear until now. In either scenario, now’s a good time to review what Facebook ads are and how they can help your real estate business increase listings, sell more homes, and generate more leads.

You probably already have multiple marketing strategies in place ranging from referrals and word of mouth to print ads in the local newspaper.

These are all fantastic initiatives, and Facebook ads might be another to ad to your marketing repertoire to maximize ROI.

 

A quick note before we get to the topic at hand: PropertyMinder’s own Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Tawd Frensley, will be presenting at the Domination Summit next month. Register today for the online event to hear Tawd and other industry leaders talk about the local real estate crisis and how to adapt to what buyers and sellers really need. You’ll also get critical training on the value your website simply must provide to your clients.

Tickets to the online Domination Summer are free if you register now, and the content will be available from October 3-5 for two days. After that, it’ll be locked behind a paid wall.

Now let’s dive into how Facebook ads can help your business increase listings, sell more homes, and generate more leads.

 

How Facebook Ads Work

Facebook ads target your potential real estate clients based upon demographics, location, and information they’ve provided in their profiles.

So let’s say you want your ads to appear into front of 35-50-year-old males and females that live in San Francisco, California, and work in the tech industry. Simply check off and enter the appropriate information, set your budget, and bid for individual clicks or impressions your ad will attain. That’s it. You’re done.

 

The goal of your ads

Facebook is not Amazon.

That is to say, people go on Facebook to connect with friends, upload photos of their dogs, and see what their favorite author, band, musician, and more are up to.

Users are not on Facebook to browse or purchase products as they do on Amazon.

With that in mind, we’re not saying you shouldn’t promote your best or latest listing, but Facebook is probably a better outlet to get people to like your Facebook business page, sign up for your newsletter, enroll in your webinar, and things of that nature.

Now you’re attaining warm leads at an affordable rate.

Like the website Kissmetrics says: “They [Facebook ads] should be used to generate demand, not fulfill it.”

 

Let’s get visual

While targeting your audience is critical to the success of your ads (having them appear before a broke college student isn’t going to provide you with value), the use of images is equally important.

If you do decide to promote an open house, for example, the image that appears in user’s feed on desktop and mobile should be the absolute very best photo of the home. It should stop users from scrolling and grab their attention.

If the ad is to promote your services, use the very best headshot of yourself that promotes warmth and trust.

 

Clean copy

Once you’ve stopped folks in their scrolling tracks for a few seconds (which on social media is equivalent to a lifetime), make sure the text gives a clear and concise explanation of the photo.

If you’re promoting a house, give the location, price, and the home’s best details. If the ad features a stunning photo of your smiling face, give your readers a call to action that tells them how you’ll make their lives easier during their home selling or buying process.

Once again let’s lean on Kissmetrics and their very creative “AIDA” approach to writing Facebook ad copy:

  • (A)ttention: Draw users into the ad with an attention-grabbing headline.
  • (I)nterest: Get the user interested in your product by briefly describing the most important benefit of using it.
  • (D)esire: Create immediate desire for your product with a discount, free trial, or limited time offer.
  • (A)ction: End the ad with a call to action.

 

Where are you sending people?

We touched on this a bit earlier, but think about where you want to send people after they click on your ad. Here are just a few actions that can take place when your ad is clicked:

  • You attain a new Facebook Like
  • You drive users directly to a webpage featuring a specific home
  • You drive users to an email sign-up page
  • You drive users to a landing page you built for a specific purpose (email sign-up, free webinar, free 15-minute phone conversation, etc.).

 

Facebook ad resources

As you can probably imagine, this is only the tip of the real estate iceberg when it comes to Facebook ads. Entire books have been written about the subject, but we know how busy you are. That’s why we’ve provided all kinds of great articles below that can provide you with the comprehensive information you need to get started today.

Of course, if you ever need additional advice or help building your ads, we can certainly help with that.

 

We hope this helps!

 

More marketing advice can be found on our featured Tip Of The Week Archive page.

 

Helpful Facebook Ad Articles from Around the Web

 

High-Level Overview from Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/business/learn/facebook-ads-basics

 

Deep Dive into Advertising on Facebook

https://blog.kissmetrics.com/deep-dive-facebook-advertising/

 

How to Generate 100 Real Estate Seller Leads with Facebook Ads in 2 weeks

https://www.jasonfox.me/real-estate-seller-leads-with-facebook-ads/

 

The Ultimate Real Estate Facebook Marketing Playbook

http://curaytor.com/blog/The-Ultimate-Real-Estate-Facebook-Marketing-Playbook/19221

 

The Facebook ad all real estate agents should be running to get ‘likes’

https://www.inman.com/next/the-facebook-ad-all-real-estate-agents-should-be-running-to-get-likes/

 

Why Facebook Ads are a Gold Mine for Real Estate

http://blog.homespotter.com/2016/07/20/why-facebook-ads-for-real-estate/

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5 Tips for Writing the Best Email Headlines Ever

Posted on: June 21st, 2017 by Tim Garcia

by Andy Coffaro

PropertyMinderMarketing

 

You’re probably aware that one of the best ways to nurture your leads is through engaging, compelling, and enlightening email newsletters. There are best practices you should employ when sending them out, including using fun and casual language and providing one-click unsubscribe links at the bottom.

There’s only one major problem here: If your leads never open your email in the first place, then all the best practices in the world won’t matter.

The bottom line is this: When it comes to email marketing, there is nothing more important than the subject line.

A bad email subject line is like a busted doorknob. There might be all kinds of awesomeness on the other side, but it’s irrelevant if the door is never opened.

To make sure your leads walk through that door and open your emails, here are five tips and best practices you can start using today.

Remember this: More email opens equals more customers taking action, which equals a better ROI.

It’s a Mobile-First World So Keep it Short

Just how there’s a high likelihood you open emails on your phone or tablet, so too are your leads. This is even truer on the weekends when they’re likely using mobile devices while out looking at homes.

Recent studies have shown that 40% of emails are opened first on mobile devices. This is why you’ll want to use short email subject lines, otherwise it’ll get cut off on your lead’s mobile device and won’t make sense.

The basic rule of thumb is to use 50 characters or fewer. I personally use this free character count tool to make sure I don’t go over the 50-character mark.

 

Get Personal

Everyone likes hearing the sound of her or his own name when it comes to marketing, so why not use that to your advantage?

In the same way you might use the first names of your homebuyers and sellers to help build rapport in person, plug the name(s) of your lead(s) into email subject lines to attain more opens.

 

8 is Great, but 7 is Heaven

Have you ever noticed that the email subject lines you get or articles you read online often have an odd number in them? We’re talking things like “7 Ways to Lose That Gut” or “5 Wedding Locations That Won’t Break the Bank.”

Turns out the use of odd numbers that employ numerals (i.e. “7” versus “seven”) make it easier for humans to remember the items in that list.

There’s a ton of psychology behind this theory, and we bet you’ll start to notice this strategy when you read content online from now on.

It works. So make it work for you.

 

Tell Them What’s on the Other Side of the Door

Let’s think about our door analogy again.

Imagine knowing that on the other side of a door is a pot of gold, or a puppy, or a hammock and ice-cold cocktail.

Now what if you had zero clues as to what was on the other side? Would you be as compelled to turn that knob clockwise?

You have to give you leads something to get excited about, and your email subject line is the perfect place to do it.

Have a new and exciting promotion coming up? Tease it. Is there a new home on the market where previously inventory had been a ghost town? Let them know. Simply trying to wish a lead a happy birthday? Say so in the subject line.

Be direct, use concise language, and most importantly give your leads a reason to walk through that door to see what’s on the other side.

 

A/B Split Testing

Now that you’re using the four tips listed above, how do you know what is and isn’t working? How can you tell if email subject lines of 30 characters works better than 50? Do your readers enjoy emails that give them a comprehensive list of 11 tips, or do they prefer something a bit more digestible like 5 best practices?

There’s only one way to find out: A/B split testing.

If you aren’t familiar with A/B split testing, it’s actually really simple. Let’s say your email list has 1,000 leads in it. You write a first email subject line (A) using best practices, and then an additional one (B). These can be vastly different, or maybe you just move the lead’s name to the front of the email subject line versus the end. It’s entirely up to you.

100 people receive email subject line A. At the same time, 100 others receive email subject line B. After a set amount of time – let’s say one hour for our example – whichever email subject line was opened the most, that’s the one that the other 800 people will get.

A/B split testing is an absolute no-brainer and should be an integral part of your email marketing.

Email marketing is one of the best ways to engage your leads, built authority and trust, and even to send folks to your website. By utilizing these five best practices for email subject lines, you’ll increase the percentage of leads that get to your awesome content on the other side of that door.

 

More marketing advice can be found on our featured Tip Of The Week Archive webpages.

 

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