Author: Emmanuel Lao

#5 VSL (Video Sales Letter)

If you’re not familiar with a VSL, it’s simply a 15-20 minute video specifically designed to educate your service. This video is designed to outline what makes you different and the benefits of working with you.

Now, the way you use a VSL strategy is really based on the specific problem that a potential prospect is suffering and you want to educate them on it.

And we’ve found that they’re very effective if you’re planning to do video ads.

However, the key to making them work is based on the unique value that you’re able to provide on the VSL itself. One way we do this is by thinking of something that the general public believes to be true but knows it’s not.

#4 Pillar Post

This is a really effective strategy if you’re using the Google Ads search network for example.

Now the way that these works are really based on the value that you provide in written content.

What you have to understand with lead generation platforms like Google Ads search network is that the people that are searching are specifically searching for something unique and they want the answer.

So for example, if someone’s looking for “How to get approved for a home as a first-time home buyer?”, then Google will present the most probable search result to that answer.

And if we know this then we simply just need to create high-value content that actually provides a solution to the search intent.

#3 Facebook Group

This strategy is simple and straightforward.

You see, the average lead wants to learn and educate themselves on their own time. At the same time, they also don’t want to be pitched to.

But if you create a Facebook Community specifically dedicated to teaching and empowering this lead, the more likely it is that they are to join because it’s beneficial to them since they won’t get sold to and they can look at the stuff at their own time.

So the way this lead gen strategy would work is to launch a Facebook advertising on a free group that solves a specific problem. The key here is to make this Facebook ad a Facebook lead ad so you can capture the information.

And then once the information is captured you could then redirect them to the Facebook group.

#2 Open House Listings

Another straightforward strategy is to generate leads through open houses. 

And this one’s very easy to set up if you have a listing. All you need to do is simply create a Facebook lead ad of the listing and you capture the information prior to sending them to view the listing information.

#1 Use a Lead Magnet

Using a lead magnet has by far, been the most effective lead generation strategy for us. 

A lead magnet is no more than a fancy way of saying a PDF guide or a checklist or a document that is of massive value to your potential client. 

The key with the lead magnet though is that you always have to be thinking one step ahead of the intent of your lead.

So here’s a great example:

If your target audience is older homeowners that are considering state planning for their parents, then the lead magnet shouldn’t be about real estate planning for their parents. 

Instead, you would need to think a level beyond that. 

And this could be something as easy as a 10-step checklist for outdoor activities to do with your 80-year-old mom or dad.

You see, lead magnets work really well when you think lower level intent and nurture them once you have the lead’s contact information.

But the key here is to provide value.

As for the setup, this is just like the Facebook Group and the open house which is a Facebook lead ad to capture the lead and then send them the asset.

Depending where you’re starting from in your real estate career for example if you haven’t got your license yet then I think this would be a really great starting point for you. This is the anticipation step and the idea behind it is we want to start creating some excitement for things to come.

So start putting it out there on your social media and texting your close family and friends that you’re in the process of getting your real estate license. Just tease it to them and let them know that you’re planning to get it in X time and if anyone in your sphere has some questions or is looking to buy or sell in the next few months. You’ve now easily created a brand-new lead.

Step One – Sign Up With A Brokerage

A lot of agents go crazy trying to find the perfect brokerage for them, weighing out pros and cons, however after doing the repetitions my advice on this one would be to just pick one because, at the end of the day, you’re likely going to be switching. It may not be in the next month or few months but it will inevitably happen.

Also, your first transaction is not going to come from the brokerage so it doesn’t really matter which brokerage you decided to work with. You just need a place to hang your license so that you can do some business.

Step Two – Do An Audit Of Your Contacts

This is where we’re going to start to get our nails dirty and the way that you’re going to audit it is like this. You’re going to create a table on a piece of paper or you can use Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel and this table is going to be made up of five columns.

The first one is labeled family, then household, then-current living situation, then estimated finances, and lastly next step. The goal of this exercise is we want to try to identify some commonalities with the people within our sphere. For example, if we see a lot of people in our sphere that are renters then it would behoove us to try to serve those people and get them into their first home because they’re the low-hanging fruit

Step Three – Post An Ask

This is going to go to your sphere so it can go to your Facebook, you can set out a mass text or if you have a bunch of emails you can just create this email and then BCC everyone in your address book and this email is going to ask a simple question. Based on who you identified in step two, The ask is as simple as, “are you looking to ______ in the next 12 months? “

Now, if you’ve done this correctly your sphere will respond to this question and you’ll find that a lot of the people that you presumed were having this issue will actually make themselves known to you and comment back.

Step Four – Shake The Tree

Once you’ve executed this, then the next step is we want to try to shake the tree a little bit more and see if we can try to create some referrals. So wait a week and then you’re going to post another ask.

Again based on the group or community that you identified in step two we’re going to ask our sphere the same question but we’re going to ask it slightly differently. The ask is going to look like this. “Do you know anyone that is looking to _______ in the next 12 months?”

It’s a very simple question but you’d be surprised how many of the people within your sphere likely know someone that has the intent to do the thing that you’re saying that you do. And then voila you now have at least a handful of people that are looking for some help in real estate and you positioned yourself as a potential problem solver to their problem. Now depending on how big your sphere is, this leads us to step five.

Step 5 – Nurture Your Clients

The majority of people you engage with are likely going to be not now clients so you’re going to have to nurture them. When you’re starting off, you’re not trying to spend any money right now on any additional costs like a CRM since you need to get a return on your investment as quickly as possible, so we’re going to bootstrap this process of nurturing.

The bootstrap process of nurturing is no more than creating a reminder for yourself and sticking to that reminder. So find a place where I can see a daily reminder of things to do. I personally use it to do a list and create a recurring event but it’s as easy as just taking out your calendar and putting a post-it note on a calendar date. What I would essentially do here is I would tv take the little post-it note and write down the person’s name 12 times on 12 post-it notes and paste this post-it note on a day every single month.

This will be a reminder to me that on this day I need to reach out to this person and check in with them. You are either going to call text or email and you’re simply going to ask a question. This is a very simple check-in just to check on their well-being because at the end of the day we are not trying to pitch we are trying to serve and this is one of the easiest ways to show that we care

So how can you use this information? 

It’s by understanding context. There are 2 types of clients – the now and the not now. However, there’s a kicker, we need to take ownership of creating the qualified lead that will turn into a client. We can’t expect some magic 1-click marketing ad or campaign to do it, because it just doesn’t work way.

Step 1 – Ask A Better Question

Instead of asking, “how can I get qualified leads?”, ask “How can I bring in new leads daily? When I’m talking about bringing in new leads, I’m not saying 1-2, I’m saying 20-30. If this sounds completely obnoxious to you, then think about the agents doing this decades ago. They were grinding 100 dials or 50 door knocks. Not one or two.

These same rules apply, we’ve found that we’ve been able to do this at scale using Facebook Ads. The secret to it is to find a way to get your cost per lead as cheap as possible so it becomes affordable to buy leads.

Step 2 – Start A Conversation

Now that you have these leads coming in regularly, what can you do to start a conversation?

It is key to not pitch. No one likes to be pitched to without permission so don’t pick up the phone and dial with the intent to pitch. Instead, ask a question to start a conversation and build an actual relationship.

Step 3 – Nurture

Spend time on nurturing your leads. Drip value to them on a regular basis and understand wh

The transformation that all businesses go through can be broken down into four main stages. 

Stage One – The Business of One

This is the startup phase. In the business of one, this is usually typically you or maybe you and a partner and essentially you’re doing everything. It’s you or you and a partner doing some of the marketing, and then you and a partner doing some of the sales, and then maybe you or your partner maybe doing some of the fulfillment. With all of this, you and your workload get full very quickly because you inevitably end up wearing many hats. 

Stage Two – The One Big Team

When you have one big team, it’s really you slowly scaling up the business. At this point, you’re maybe just hiring an admin person or a VA or an assistant and somewhat you’re able to lessen the load of everything that you need to do.  Everyone’s doing a little bit of the marketing, a little bit of the sales, and a little bit of the fulfillment. You’re getting some help, but at the end of the day, everyone is still doing a little bit of everything. 

Stage Three – A Team of Teams

When you’re at stage three what starts to happen is things start to get a little bit more organized. You now have one team handling strictly fulfillment, one team handling strictly sales, and then one team handling strictly marketing. 

Stage Four – A Business of Businesses

Essentially, in this stage of the business of businesses, each little silo of your business is now selling one product or one service. Each silo has its own marketing, sales, and fulfillment. 

And maybe that’s selling one thing or solving one problem, then you may have another one solving another problem or providing a completely different service, and so on and so forth. Okay, so let’s talk about some real-world examples of the four stages of the business. 

Take Amazon for instance. It started off with Jeff Bezos, and it was just him and his garage selling books. It evolved into maybe him hiring a few assistants, stage two, to help do the fulfillment of those books and creating the website and really kind of managing that whole system and process. And then stage three is where he started to silo some of the responsibilities of who’s going to be responsible for sending out the books, who’s going to be responsible for marketing, who’s going to be responsible for the upkeep of the upset, and so on and so forth. The fourth stage is really what we see now and what Amazon has evolved into. It’s a business of businesses. 

It’s a business of e-commerce where they’re not only selling books, but they’re now selling products within the website. They’re selling another business, which is hosting services for websites so that’s the AWS system or the cloud system. They also have another business Alexa. That’s a whole other business of businesses that each one of these silos has its own marketing, sales, and fulfillment departments. 

Using Tesla as the next example. Elon Musk started off with one big team with him and a few people that created a prototype for the Model S. And then when it went to scale, then they started siloing everybody between marketing, sales, and fulfillment. They then started to scale, even more, and they grew to a business of businesses where it’s now selling products for the Model S, the Model Y, the cyber truck, the model three, and so on and so forth. 

Another example that maybe you’re familiar with is Ryan Ceram, superstar coach, and real estate agent. He started off by selling real estate himself. Then he started to develop a team, and then once he was able to develop that team, he started siloing the responsibilities. He became a business of businesses, where he’s now selling real estate and also selling his coaching services and really all of the other things that he’s doing, like his media empire. All right, now let’s bring this full circle, and let’s tie this back to you because I know this information is a bit overwhelming.

The journey prospective customers take to make a purchase is referred to in marketing as a sales funnel. This is where the two agents made huge distinctions in their marketing approach. The second agent understands that consumers have different levels of awareness on each part of the sales funnel. While the other one thinks all leads are the same.

#1 Top of the Funnel – The problem aware

#2 Middle of the Funnel – The solution aware 

#3 Bottom of the Funnel – The product or service aware

The majority of agents, including agent number 1, frequently assume that all generated leads, regardless of the source, will be at the bottom of the funnel. But to their dismay, it isn’t or they may get leads from the bottom of the funnel but they’re very expensive or very difficult to convert. So, they end up getting disappointed and think all leads are too expensive or garbage.

The agent with a 3-5 yearly transaction strategy was trying to target the executors of the estate. This is where the property owner already died and the property in charge is in a rush to find someone to help liquidate the asset. The problem with this is, there are a ton of variables thrown into the mix. For example, dealing with siblings, if there is no will, or if they need to get an attorney involved. In short, they’re trying to touch the bottom part of the funnel. The intent was higher but it also costs a lot to target this part of the funnel. That’s because costs increase as you move down the funnel, and costs decrease as you move up.

If you’re trying to build a scalable business with this type of lead, it is extremely expensive. This is why Zillow leads cost a lot. This type of lead is at the bottom of the funnel, thus intent is higher, and trying to hit them with an advertisement will normally cost more. 

The other agent, with 40-50 yearly transactions, focuses on leads at the top of the funnel. The leads they’re trying to get have lower intent, but they have a process behind this strategy. It was to capture the lead and implant themselves as the solution before the bad thing happens. They made sure that if a lead was not problem aware yet, they educated them on becoming problem aware. Or if they were already problem aware, they made them solution aware long before the finish line was coming for a loved one. That simply drives them to be the first in mind in the decision-making process when the lead is finally looking for an agent for help.