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How Real Estate Agents Can Use Email Newsletters to Identify Ready Buyers & Sellers · Know Like Trust for Real Estate

0:00
[SPEAKER_02]: What's the biggest shift you've seen in email marketing?
0:03
[SPEAKER_02]: I guess I would say over the last year or so.
0:05
[SPEAKER_00]: AI is kind of the thing that's taking over everything.
0:08
[SPEAKER_00]: The automation piece, I think those two are really intertwined.
0:12
[SPEAKER_01]: The AI, like Davis saying, is able to analyze consumer behavior.
0:17
[SPEAKER_01]: And now I can start incorporating even other channels of marketing, right?
0:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Instead of just dripping on somebody who is likely to purchase, it is allowing us to target more effectively.
0:31
[SPEAKER_02]: Hey everyone, I'm super excited to share today's pod with you because today I have two guests.
0:37
[SPEAKER_02]: My guests today are friends from the email and digital marketing platform constant contact, which by the way is my email service provider and I love them.
0:46
[SPEAKER_02]: Stephanie Alfonzo is the director of Vertical Innovation.
0:50
[SPEAKER_02]: She has decades of experience as a speaker, trainer, and sales coach in the real estate industry, and she's passionate about empowering real estate professionals for growth and success.
1:00
[SPEAKER_02]: She specializes in all areas of digital marketing, brand building, one of my favorite topics, and the power of networking and relationship building.
1:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Dave Shoresk is also with us.
1:09
[SPEAKER_02]: He's the director of Small Business Success and the host of the B.A.
1:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Marketer podcast, which I was also a guest on, which, oh by the way, just received three wins from the Stevie Awards and was a
1:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Dave engages with successful business owners every single day digging into what actually works when it comes to marketing, whether it's email, social, text, or adapting to AI.
1:34
[SPEAKER_02]: He takes all those lessons, cuts through the noise, and makes marketing make sense.
1:38
[SPEAKER_02]: Today we talked about why open rates don't actually matter, how to build your email database, and why your personality is so important when it comes to email marketing.
1:47
[SPEAKER_02]: Take a listen.
1:50
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm here today with two of my favorite email friends, Stephanie Alfonso and Dave Shores.
1:56
[SPEAKER_02]: So you guys have been super excited to talk about email marketing.
1:59
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a big passion of mine.
2:00
[SPEAKER_02]: You all are really the experts on it.
2:05
[SPEAKER_02]: So the first question I'm going to ask you is, you know, what's the biggest shift you've seen in email marketing?
2:11
[SPEAKER_02]: So I guess I would say over the last year or so who wants to take that?
2:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Dave, do you want to go first?
2:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, sure, because I was going to say, I'm sure we probably both have some some ideas on this.
2:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, from from my perspective, I think the the biggest things are probably from an AI in an animation standpoint, right?
2:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I mean, I think AI is kind of the thing that's taking over everything, right, in some ways.
2:35
[SPEAKER_00]: I think we could be if we were talking about, uh, I don't know, nail polish.
2:38
[SPEAKER_00]: We'd be talking about how AI is impacting nail polish, right?
2:42
[SPEAKER_00]: It's so, um, exactly, right?
2:45
[SPEAKER_00]: So
2:46
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's those two things really, I think AI opens up things in a way that just wasn't possible before.
2:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
2:55
[SPEAKER_00]: People the opportunity to do things were recognize things that they may not have recognized otherwise.
3:00
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the automation piece, I think those two are really intertwined where you can start to use those two things to help you.
3:08
[SPEAKER_00]: actually get more things done.
3:10
[SPEAKER_00]: It brings its own problems, of course, right?
3:12
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think, uh, because then you've got to be open to using those tools and then, you know, understanding bits and pieces of that.
3:19
[SPEAKER_00]: But I, but I feel like that's where tools like consequences come in, right?
3:21
[SPEAKER_00]: So, yeah, I would say those are the few big things that we can explore those more if you want, but that's where I would say the big things are right now.
3:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Before we go to you, Seth, I want to, I do want to go into the AI.
3:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, sure.
3:34
[SPEAKER_02]: So can you just kind of expand a little bit on that?
3:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, when you think about how maybe real estate agents are using AI now, which is essentially to write their content.
3:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Sure, really.
3:45
[SPEAKER_02]: They're listing descriptions, things like that.
3:48
[SPEAKER_02]: How can they incorporate that into email?
3:50
[SPEAKER_02]: And what does that mean?
3:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
3:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, so I'll position it like this.
3:54
[SPEAKER_00]: So like, obviously, there's the generative piece of it, right?
3:58
[SPEAKER_00]: A. I can come in.
3:59
[SPEAKER_00]: It can help you create those things myself as like I would consider myself a writer and a content creator right like I'm not necessarily too concerned with it from a content creation standpoint, although I have found it very helpful from a derivative content.
4:15
[SPEAKER_00]: place, right?
4:15
[SPEAKER_00]: So if I'm if I have a point of view or something and I'm writing something and then hey, I need to make this work for LinkedIn, for example, or do something like that.
4:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it saves you a ton of time in what you're doing across channels, right?
4:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Thinking about how to use your ideas and then make it work on different channels.
4:31
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's one piece of it.
4:33
[SPEAKER_00]: But I actually think the
4:38
[SPEAKER_00]: One, it can help you, you know, just cross-challenge, just even thinking about your strategy and your campaigns and what you're going to do from that perspective and when in the timings and the types of messages to send in each of those things, but I think the bigger piece is what it allows you to do with the data.
4:54
[SPEAKER_00]: The way AI can process the information that you have.
4:59
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think, I don't even think we're fully there yet.
5:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I know a constant contact we kind of see this as the future of where things can go in many instances, right?
5:07
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's like, imagine being able to say like, these are your highly engaged people, or this is the next best message to send to this person based on kind of what we're seeing here, and you're using a kind of element of the AI and the predictive analytics, for example, to really find those patterns that, let's be frank, like none of us have the time to just sit down and take a look at.
5:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, and so that gets really exciting to me because it's like, oh, wow, like, if AI can be working in the background doing it's thing and let's say I log on and it says like, hey, Dave, maybe you should try this because seems like a good time to do that.
5:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, right, like all of a sudden, now you're uncovering opportunities that could lead to something that, you know, you just wouldn't have uncovered otherwise, because just don't have the time to do it.
5:54
[SPEAKER_00]: So that to me, the AI component is like, I think we're getting towards there and as we get more there, that's where I think things become really interesting.
6:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, so when is constant contact going to get there because I think that is fascinating.
6:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
6:08
[SPEAKER_02]: It would just make life so much easier if, you know, the meme in the background was said, you know, hey, like this person's really active and clicking on all of your stuff and that's it.
6:22
[SPEAKER_02]: And even better, like I've noticed there, they've been looking on, you know, at other things as well that are related.
6:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Now's the time to reach out and have a safe session.
6:31
[SPEAKER_00]: So I can't give hard dates because people on the product side would kill me if I did.
6:37
[SPEAKER_00]: That's true.
6:37
[SPEAKER_00]: That's true.
6:38
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think in some ways, we're getting closer to that.
6:40
[SPEAKER_00]: So I mean, just even thinking of, we have things like dynamic segmentation, for example.
6:46
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's still some manual piece and what you do after the segment is created.
6:50
[SPEAKER_00]: But you can, to this point, you can figure out who are your most engaged people, who are your least engaged people.
6:56
[SPEAKER_00]: And you can have
6:57
[SPEAKER_00]: those list created for you so that at least then you have a segment to go towards and you know, treat a little bit differently.
7:04
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think things like that happen and then you, you know, marry that with some automation and those types of things.
7:09
[SPEAKER_00]: But the pieces where you start to enrich the data, those were things that were slowly kind of folding into the process.
7:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And so TBD on the exact release on that, but that's where we'd love to see things happen.
7:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh my god, I'm so excited about that.
7:23
[SPEAKER_02]: I do love the new dynamic segments.
7:25
[SPEAKER_02]: I have set.
7:27
[SPEAKER_02]: Like super cool, right?
7:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Like just, and then you can use your own criteria to start to create those two, right?
7:33
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's, again, just a good way to use, again, the information you're getting and the signals that you're getting to then do something with them, right?
7:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
7:42
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I think when I'm thinking about, if I'm a real estate agent and you have this dynamic segmentation already set up, I mean, stuff knows where I'm going here, right?
7:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Like you can tell
7:56
[SPEAKER_02]: buyers, for example, when they're clicking on your listings, when they're clicking on other listings, what they're looking at, it's just great intel to marry with maybe, you know, if you've got real scout or your MLS integration, to really understand where these people are looking what they're interested in so that you can
8:15
[SPEAKER_02]: He up the next conversation in some of the next questions.
8:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Stuff you want to add on to that?
8:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think the AI, like Davis saying, is able to analyze consumer behavior, right?
8:28
[SPEAKER_01]: And we want to know, practically, OK, if I have 1,500 people in my database, who's most likely to sell in the next six months, right?
8:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Based on what they're doing, what they're opening, what they're clicking on, who
8:41
[SPEAKER_01]: the people that are, you know, searching 1, 2, 3 main street, they're clicking on 1, 2, 3 main street.
8:48
[SPEAKER_01]: And now I can start incorporating even other channels of marketing, right?
8:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Instead of just dripping on somebody who is likely to purchase, maybe now I put them in a text campaign.
9:00
[SPEAKER_01]: As a mass market, it's got 98% open rate, right?
9:03
[SPEAKER_01]: So if I know that I have these highly engaged email leaders, well now let me put them into like a VIP upper echelon mode of communication with SMS and then start giving them those updates on that particular property or whatever it might be.
9:20
[SPEAKER_01]: So you know AI of course, realtors, most folks are utilizing it again for content creation
9:30
[SPEAKER_01]: kind of stepping front and center.
9:31
[SPEAKER_01]: It is allowing us to target more effectively.
9:36
[SPEAKER_01]: And that is something that agents are kind of like you're questioning like their ears are parked like yeah that's the kind of stuff we want to do.
9:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah and really it's on us now to kind of give that education on how it can be done and how these tools are making EVs.
9:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, so that really kind of leads to my next question.
9:51
[SPEAKER_02]: So let's talk about content, right?
9:52
[SPEAKER_02]: So again, I'm putting my real estate agent hat on and I'm saying that makes a whole lot of sense.
9:59
[SPEAKER_02]: Like I would love to know who's getting ready to sell.
10:01
[SPEAKER_02]: So the question is, what kind of content is going to give me that kind of information, that kind of dynamic information?
10:12
[SPEAKER_02]: So when you think about,
10:14
[SPEAKER_02]: In email newsletter, for example, that you're sending out on a monthly basis as a real estate agent, and you want to really try to understand where people are at in the buying and selling journey.
10:24
[SPEAKER_02]: What type of content makes sense in order to train the system to really understand what the likelihood of them buying or selling is?
10:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, so first, you know, putting out content that obviously is going to peak the interest of a seller, you know, content that it's going to be, you know, maybe you're putting out something in your newsletter about, you know, prepping your home to get ready to list, or people that are thinking about putting their house on the market for sell by owner, things like that, right, are going to first and foremost be able to tell me aren't who's engaged with this kind of content that I'm going to want to connect with, right.
11:03
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I think it's really important that agents start utilizing surveys and survey their audience kind of on a frequent basis.
11:10
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you'd be amazed by putting out a survey in your newsletter of, hey, are you thinking about selling your home in the next six months, right?
11:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, it sounds so simple, but yet agents aren't really doing it very often.
11:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
11:24
[SPEAKER_01]: And then coupling that with different types of lead magnets and all of that is giving you insight onto your database.
11:32
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, your database is your number one asset in your business.
11:35
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that if we start putting stuff out there, allowing, you know, multi channels to be able to capture information from folks.
11:44
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's going to be really important to be able to hone in on that, you know, and of course coupled with just your traditional content that would be, I mean, seriously, I would tell agents put it in put it in your chat GPT what kind of content would a potential seller be interested in.
12:01
[SPEAKER_01]: So you're going to put some there, right?
12:03
[SPEAKER_01]: What would they be interested in?
12:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
12:05
[SPEAKER_01]: And it'll give you some great ideas.
12:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Take those prompts, put it in your constant contact.
12:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Let it craft an email for you.
12:11
[SPEAKER_01]: And then make sure you have a call to action.
12:13
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's another missing piece.
12:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, AI, like in constant contact, we'll create a call to action for you, or at least give you some suggestions.
12:21
[SPEAKER_01]: But that's an important thing that a lot of real estate pros are not really leveraging is or putting out content.
12:26
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, they're getting clicks and seeing, you know, able to see who's opening a whatnot.
12:30
[SPEAKER_01]: But how about like a direct call to action?
12:32
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, allowing that to be your heat indicator from your own database.
12:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
12:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, Dave, your thoughts on that.
12:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, a couple of things I'll add here.
12:41
[SPEAKER_00]: I think, well, one, I think it's really important for us.
12:44
[SPEAKER_00]: I often come at this from not real estate specific lens, but really more of which is to general business lens.
12:50
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think it applies here as well.
12:51
[SPEAKER_00]: I think think about including the types of content that help you start to figure out who people are, right?
12:57
[SPEAKER_00]: If you don't know that out of the gate.
12:59
[SPEAKER_00]: And so what I mean is, we talked about dynamic segments earlier, but there's also like click segmentation.
13:04
[SPEAKER_00]: So that means if you put in a, you know, a guide to selling your home and somebody's clicking on that, you can put those people into a list of people that are interested in selling.
13:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
13:15
[SPEAKER_00]: And so now you now you know, oh, these are the types of messages I may want to hit these people up with because this is what they're interested in.
13:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And then even thinking about what is the automation you have on the backside of that list too, right?
13:26
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you're selling, then you've got a bunch of messages that are set up to go to them right to bring them down that path.
13:32
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the other thing is because we are in this place where AI is, you know, able to create this content.
13:38
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's good and gets you to a place, but also don't miss out on the opportunity to be more personal in these events.
13:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
13:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't make them just feel promotional or a little bit.
13:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
13:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's a listing.
13:51
[SPEAKER_00]: right?
13:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Because then it's really easy to ignore.
13:54
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think we would all agree on this, particularly a big event like buying or selling a home, you want to have those personal connections with people.
14:03
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to feel comfortable, right?
14:04
[SPEAKER_00]: This is what the real estate industry is all about many instances.
14:08
[SPEAKER_00]: And so
14:10
[SPEAKER_00]: make sure that you are putting your personality, that when you are receiving these emails from people, make sure that you're, it should feel like I'm getting a letter from a friend, you know, be joked about email, being email friends here.
14:22
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, I wouldn't be fun if we were just sending little messages just to each other.
14:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
14:26
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
14:26
[SPEAKER_03]: Hey, Chris.
14:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
14:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Good.
14:28
[SPEAKER_00]: What are you doing today?
14:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, exactly, right, but in many ways, right, you, you, you should want your content to feel like that because I mean apropos of the title of this podcast right we do business with people we know like and trust and how can I get to know you like you and trust you if you're not showing me who you are right and so I think that's really important.
14:49
[SPEAKER_01]: I love that, oops, sorry, go ahead.
14:51
[SPEAKER_01]: I was just going to say, I love that you brought that up, Dave, because that's what I have personally seen so many of the folks that are putting really, really engaging content out there.
15:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Engaging content is always going to look personal.
15:04
[SPEAKER_01]: It's always going to be something that's different, not just by with me, so with me, I love your referrals.
15:10
[SPEAKER_01]: I have an agent here in the Denver area.
15:14
[SPEAKER_01]: who looks like the main character from the Netflix show you.
15:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you guys familiar with anyone?
15:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah.
15:21
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, well, he's a serial killer.
15:23
[SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of a creepy show.
15:25
[SPEAKER_01]: But he looks just like him.
15:26
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, this is my realtor.
15:28
[SPEAKER_01]: OK, his name is Sam Newman.
15:30
[SPEAKER_01]: He's been taught in check it out.
15:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, so he did a video for a listing.
15:35
[SPEAKER_01]: where he played off of this whole character that everyone tells him he looks like and he created a list like a video tour of the property talking about this property like it was the object of his affection, right?
15:48
[SPEAKER_01]: He's women and that the show it was like hello you.
15:52
[SPEAKER_01]: I was so good.
15:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, the local news picked it up and they were interviewing him about this.
15:59
[SPEAKER_01]: He did email campaigns on the social media campaigns on this.
16:03
[SPEAKER_01]: All of this based on him looking like this psychopathic serial killer.
16:09
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's the hottest show and Netflix right now.
16:12
[SPEAKER_01]: So he was just like, all right, everyone tells me I look like this guy, Joel Goldberg, I'm going to just play into it.
16:17
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm going to work this into my real estate stuff and like,
16:22
[SPEAKER_01]: So many people engaged with it, right?
16:24
[SPEAKER_01]: I am sure that, you know, he got so much more engagement.
16:27
[SPEAKER_01]: I could actually find out numbers from him soon.
16:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Then he would, if it was just your typical virtual tour, saying, come on guys, take a look at the Mountain Views, you know?
16:36
[SPEAKER_01]: So to your point, Dave, I'm with you.
16:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Personal is always better.
16:40
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll talk about later.
16:41
[SPEAKER_01]: The 80, 20 role, 80% personal, 20% who you are and who you serve in a business capacity.
16:47
[SPEAKER_01]: But, you know, just anything we can do to build
16:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I love that.
16:53
[SPEAKER_02]: And so that was actually going to, I wanted to actually, you guys said, wait really well, I wanted to get into that balance between personal and promotional.
17:00
[SPEAKER_02]: And I really want to understand, I mean, because I tried to impart this on clients and, and.
17:06
[SPEAKER_02]: How do we actually let our personalities shine through online when we're not necessarily doing video, right?
17:13
[SPEAKER_02]: Like when it is in an email campaign, it's mostly written.
17:17
[SPEAKER_02]: You can put video in there for sure.
17:18
[SPEAKER_02]: But in terms of actual content and written word, how do we put our...
17:25
[SPEAKER_02]: personalities, actually, how do they like we let them shine?
17:28
[SPEAKER_02]: You know?
17:29
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'll start with this one real quick, David, I'll let you chime in to with just a personal experience.
17:37
[SPEAKER_01]: So I was sending an email out and in the subject line hadn't this isn't like best practices folks, but I'm just telling you something personal.
17:47
[SPEAKER_01]: In the subject line, I put in the beginning lyrics of ice, ice baby.
17:51
[SPEAKER_01]: I literally put in my
17:56
[SPEAKER_01]: That's it.
17:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Had nothing to do with my email, but do you know people open that and do you know how many people responded to me with like the next lyrics of Ice Ice Baby?
18:06
[SPEAKER_01]: And yes, this was a professional email, yes, this was business related.
18:11
[SPEAKER_01]: And we got, you know, to the bones of what we needed to talk about.
18:15
[SPEAKER_01]: But it was just like, almost a test.
18:18
[SPEAKER_01]: That's my personality.
18:19
[SPEAKER_01]: I wanted to see who would respond, you know, I made jokes about like, all right, I can tell who was, you know, born in the 70s and the 80s, you know, who were teenagers at the time.
18:29
[SPEAKER_01]: But it was, I got so much engagement from it.
18:31
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's just me, that's personal.
18:34
[SPEAKER_01]: I would have been so disappointed to see if I really like AB tested it, right?
18:41
[SPEAKER_01]: And so if I just put something very professional in that subject line, I'm sure I would have gotten far less engagement.
18:47
[SPEAKER_01]: So even from the very beginning in your subject line, people like humor, people want to know that how is this going to stand out from all the other, you know, things that I see in my inbox.
18:57
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's just my personal story on letting your personality shine through even if it's very professional.
19:05
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'll add to that that just, I think the first and foremost, I think you need to think of whatever email that you're sending, think about it as if you're sending that email to one person.
19:18
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's a big differentiator in the sense of like, oh, I'm writing this email to someone in terms of how you're presenting your content to people because
19:27
[SPEAKER_00]: reality is that person receiving it is not saying hey everyone I'm going to open my email let's gather around.
19:34
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like I'm sorry.
19:35
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's not like hey guys right now like you're writing to one person right so the person is going to be reading that.
19:40
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think the more you can focus your content as if you're talking one-on-one with someone I think that's important.
19:46
[SPEAKER_00]: But to your point of I get it right a lot of times people aren't comfortable writing people aren't comfortable
19:53
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think what it is is finding how you are comfortable, right?
19:57
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you're comfortable sitting down with a friend and having them, maybe having a conversation with them, record that.
20:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
20:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Record that, transcribe it.
20:07
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we have all these tools.
20:08
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a great place for chatGPD to come in, right?
20:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Or AI to come in here to say, All right, here are my thoughts on this question.
20:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Somebody asked me, now can you just take what I said?
20:18
[SPEAKER_00]: And actually make it feel a little more, you know,
20:22
[SPEAKER_00]: make it make more sense, right?
20:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
20:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Put it in a format.
20:25
[SPEAKER_00]: So now you've shared your expertise and then chat, you know, AI has cleaned it up for you and then here now it's it's so it's figuring out how do you feel comfortable and then using the tools and the technology available you to.
20:39
[SPEAKER_00]: do other things with it, right?
20:40
[SPEAKER_00]: I think AI is best when it's derivative of the things, right?
20:45
[SPEAKER_00]: As I mentioned earlier.
20:46
[SPEAKER_00]: And so for me, that's how you start to do it.
20:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, what do you have to do doing?
20:50
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, so do that.
20:52
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you have to do what I call do double duty with it, right?
20:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I've even taken to, you know, just recently we're in New York and Boston and we were doing, you know, I would do a keynote there.
21:02
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we were inviting folks back to the booth to ask marketing questions.
21:07
[SPEAKER_00]: We recorded that for to put in a podcast episode that we just released, but then I also set up a camera and recorded myself just myself answering the questions, so then I could take those clips and then share those in social media.
21:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh my god, that's brilliant.
21:22
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm doing, like, so every day we do so much work that could be used for something else, but we treated as kind of disposable when we throw it away and then be like, oh man, I got no time to do that other thing and like actually you did the thing you just needed to document it.
21:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's just getting, it's just, you got to break yourself out of the mindset of like, oh, yeah, there's so much I could take advantage of right and just share the story of our had this conversation today, right?
21:51
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think it's just, oh yeah, and it's obvious when you say it out loud, but then you just need somebody to go, oh yeah, you're right.
21:58
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, no, it's creating the habit to just be mindful of what's happening, you know, like what you're doing, what conversations you're happening, that that can be used as content.
22:10
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
22:10
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, it really is.
22:12
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to get back to what your example, stuff for a second because essentially it had to do with the subject line.
22:19
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
22:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
22:21
[SPEAKER_02]: And really, that's the thing that's going to create the open rate, right?
22:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
22:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Click.
22:26
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
22:26
[SPEAKER_02]: So that feels to me like it's super important, the subject line.
22:31
[SPEAKER_02]: In fact, I had a, I did a, my weekly newsletter two weeks ago.
22:36
[SPEAKER_02]: it got blown out of the water like I had well over 60% open rate on it and it was it was the gift, the goof, and the real reason it matters.
22:47
[SPEAKER_02]: That was my subject line and it got a ton.
22:50
[SPEAKER_02]: So talk to me about the subject line.
22:53
[SPEAKER_02]: How important is it?
22:55
[SPEAKER_02]: How do you figure out what's the right subject line like you know like you did?
22:59
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean that was brilliant like you're that out.
23:06
[SPEAKER_01]: the simplest thing for me is, how am I going to stand out?
23:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Right?
23:11
[SPEAKER_01]: How am I going to do something that's going to stand out from everything else that's in my inbox?
23:17
[SPEAKER_01]: People might see that something's coming from Stephanie Alfonso great.
23:21
[SPEAKER_01]: And I hope that people would want to open something I send.
23:24
[SPEAKER_01]: But the reality is, right, is that we've got to present some kind of value, and I have to do it very, very quickly, and it needs to be something that's going to capture people at a glance within a second, right?
23:36
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think that's the first challenge.
23:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, there's ways AI can help with that, like in constant contact AI can, like, basically,
23:44
[SPEAKER_01]: review the entire email and create suggestions on subject lines based on the email.
23:50
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's super helpful.
23:52
[SPEAKER_01]: I know Dave he talks a lot about some kind of misconceptions about spam and things like that.
23:57
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure we'll get to it in a little bit.
23:59
[SPEAKER_01]: So I don't want to focus on like don't do these things to end up in spam and this and that because that's a little bit outdated.
24:06
[SPEAKER_01]: But really it's just I try my best to infuse my personality.
24:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Number one, you can use an emoji.
24:12
[SPEAKER_01]: There's, you know, some people don't realize you can use emojis.
24:15
[SPEAKER_01]: You can use exclamation points, not too many, but, you know, those are things that help to show I'm an enthusiastic person.
24:22
[SPEAKER_01]: I try to make it something sometimes that can be kind of provocative.
24:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Then a subject line that you just message, you said, or that you just mentioned, you said the gift in the goof.
24:32
[SPEAKER_01]: The GIF, GIA, the GIF.
24:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, okay, okay.
24:35
[SPEAKER_01]: The GIF and the Goof.
24:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
24:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Personally, that what is it that iteration kind of stands out a little bit.
24:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
24:43
[SPEAKER_01]: But the fact that you said Goof, like even that is just a different word than I'm used to seeing.
24:47
[SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't.
24:49
[SPEAKER_01]: The common mistakes that people are making, you know what I mean?
24:52
[SPEAKER_01]: It just stands out.
24:54
[SPEAKER_01]: And so those are the things that I just think to myself, there's nothing scientific about it.
25:00
[SPEAKER_01]: It truly is what's going to be a little bit different, maybe a little bit provocative, and make people say, huh?
25:08
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to read this maybe is a number even a number like showing me like okay this is the three things that whatever but makes me feel like all right I want to know those three things I don't want to make those three mistakes whatever and it makes me show that it's not going to be a super long read either yes those are like my little just kind of practical tips what are your thoughts Dave
25:29
[SPEAKER_00]: I would just say, like, two things you mentioned here, I think it's, yes, like, the number of a reason reason why we open an email is because of who it's from.
25:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, and as we talk about these, you know, personal connections and doing that, I think a number one, you should make sure that you are sending from a person, right, like not the name of the business necessarily, you can be, you know, a name of person at business, sure, but make sure there's that recognition of the person, right, because that's actually going to be
25:58
[SPEAKER_00]: But then to your point, what we're saying here, I mean, you're both gave examples of things that create curiosity.
26:05
[SPEAKER_00]: And so what is it that's going to break the pattern as you're scanning your inbox?
26:10
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this, again, boils down to knowing who you're talking to.
26:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And I like that idea of like putting like opposing things together sometimes or like something that's known with something that's unknown.
26:22
[SPEAKER_00]: So that you're like, wait, how does this go together?
26:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
26:27
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that puts a little bit more on us on you to then deliver on that when you open up the email.
26:32
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think, you know, it's just doing those things.
26:34
[SPEAKER_00]: But I often try to tell people to, you know, like, don't stress out too much about the subject line.
26:41
[SPEAKER_00]: The end of the day again, it's if you're consistently providing value to people, people are going to be looking forward to opening that anyway.
26:48
[SPEAKER_00]: And the subject line is just a, almost the thing that says I'm kind of doing, should I open this right now, right?
26:53
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, meaning so you catch them as they're cleaning out their inbox kind of thing.
26:57
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think the simplest way to think about it is like, what's in this email?
27:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Why would someone find that interesting?
27:05
[SPEAKER_00]: That's your subject line, right?
27:07
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, but that's what I would start to think about.
27:10
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the curiosity piece.
27:11
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that ultimately gets people to go like, oh, okay, let's give this a shot.
27:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and I love that curiosity piece.
27:17
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think what you bring up a good point about consistency, like you need to be providing that level of high level of value, balance with personal,
27:29
[SPEAKER_02]: on a consistent basis so that people ask the question, do I need to open this now or can it wait to later?
27:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, to me, that's when you've reached your sort of holy grail.
27:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, steps in my email box, do I wait?
27:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Or do I open it right now?
27:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's what I mean, it's important.
27:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
27:47
[SPEAKER_01]: I talked to a lot of brokers too that will say like they really try to limit the amount of communication with their agents.
27:55
[SPEAKER_01]: In the sense of they'll find if they send one email, right?
28:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Brenda Thompson, she won't mind me calling her out.
28:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Brenda Thompson, with Homesmar, she will send an email, her marvelous Monday email to her agents every Monday 9 o'clock central.
28:12
[SPEAKER_01]: And she'll say, like, this is my weekly like everything you guys need to know is it's in your marvelous Monday.
28:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
28:18
[SPEAKER_01]: People look for it, right?
28:20
[SPEAKER_01]: They know when it's coming and they know that that's where they're going to get all their needs to know.
28:26
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I think that time, again, relevancy who it is, I think it's going to be really important.
28:32
[SPEAKER_01]: But we want to create have it for me just like the podcast world.
28:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I have my podcast that I listen to and I wait for every week.
28:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
28:39
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, and so I think that if we kind of try to lean into that type of anticipation with that good content and it comes out at the same time every day or every week or whatever your cadence is, that's going to increase your engagement.
28:52
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to move on to open rates because, you know, I used to swear by open rates, but now Apple has this privacy protection right that they sort of automatically open them, which really makes open rates less relevant.
29:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Talk to me about that and, you know, are they still relevant and whether they are not like what other measures are really important that agents should be looking at.
29:22
[SPEAKER_01]: So, first off the bat, I would say what matter, what I think would matter most is like your list growth rate, right?
29:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Am I getting people to subscribe to this newsletter?
29:31
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's very important.
29:33
[SPEAKER_01]: And I always talk about getting your followers to become subscribers, right?
29:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Talking about augmenting your social media and your email together and conversion rate, right?
29:41
[SPEAKER_01]: What, when you have a CTA, there's a call to action that are you converting?
29:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you getting people to do something?
29:47
[SPEAKER_01]: So, I think beyond those are kind of two metrics
29:52
[SPEAKER_00]: later that state.
29:53
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll just add to that to say that I, you know, I often joke that opens and clicks are very much the original vanity metric, right, in many ways, because opens and clicks do not equal money in the bank account, right?
30:08
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I often recommend that people, you need to look beyond that and it may be something that doesn't show up in your dashboard, right?
30:15
[SPEAKER_00]: It could be
30:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Does someone reply right that that's a high level engagement because you particularly today like it's not like when we first got email I was like, oh, I've got this electronic mail.
30:27
[SPEAKER_00]: I can reply to somebody right like now it's just like everybody's got so much and if somebody actually takes the moment to reply to you Yep, that's meaningful
30:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
30:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
30:37
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it's like, oh, okay, that's something that I would look at, right?
30:41
[SPEAKER_00]: So is there engagement coming from that?
30:43
[SPEAKER_00]: But then I would also look at, okay, well, are people doing the things that I wanted them to do.
30:48
[SPEAKER_00]: And and that might mean did someone pick up the phone and call me did someone ask a question about a particular listing that I sent out or something like that, right?
30:56
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think it's just
30:58
[SPEAKER_00]: being clear on, I'm going to send this email, what's the purpose of sending that email?
31:04
[SPEAKER_00]: What do I want to have happen by sending this email?
31:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
31:07
[SPEAKER_00]: And once you understand that, then you kind of know what's important to be looking for beyond just the open synclics.
31:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Does that make sense?
31:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Totally it makes it makes great sense.
31:16
[SPEAKER_02]: I love and it's the list row growth rate is also really important I I mean I have a goal for myself for this year, so I I agree with that and I'd love it Like when I send my email newsletter out every week.
31:29
[SPEAKER_02]: I love it when I get replies.
31:30
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like oh
31:32
[SPEAKER_02]: it hit a nerve, right?
31:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's me.
31:37
[SPEAKER_00]: So again, as somebody is creating content and like knowing like knowing what's resonating is far more important to me than just the open, right?
31:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Because sure open, but like did I care?
31:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, right?
31:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
31:49
[SPEAKER_00]: And to your point, yeah, like that's, you know, uh, not a true number of these days anyway.
31:55
[SPEAKER_00]: But like knowing what resonates, then allows me to know, oh, okay.
31:59
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is content that people are that's getting attention of, and that it's such a data path, okay.
32:05
[SPEAKER_00]: So what if I?
32:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Expand it on this idea or this topic more because at the end of the day, I think, you know, many ways.
32:11
[SPEAKER_00]: It's because there's so many things competing for attention.
32:15
[SPEAKER_00]: It is getting that attention that allows you to stand out and have a place in in people's hearts and minds and use that phrase, but, you know, that type of thing and also in real phrase.
32:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, think about this too and you when you when you think about, okay, if I have a very high open rate, right, a lot of people are opening my emails.
32:35
[SPEAKER_01]: And you're not getting much engagement.
32:37
[SPEAKER_01]: You're not getting replies.
32:39
[SPEAKER_01]: You're not triggering a call to action.
32:42
[SPEAKER_01]: What does that tell you?
32:43
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?
32:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Like if we're only measuring that open rate, we're getting a high open rate.
32:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Nothing else is happening.
32:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Like there's a bigger problem here that we need to deal with, right?
32:52
[SPEAKER_01]: The relevancy and the value that you're providing.
32:55
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I almost feel like yes, the open rate is a metric that
32:59
[SPEAKER_01]: is part of the email world, right?
33:01
[SPEAKER_01]: You want to make sure things are landing.
33:02
[SPEAKER_01]: But at the end of the day, it's the other metrics that really matter.
33:06
[SPEAKER_00]: But I love that, right?
33:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Because it points you in a direction.
33:09
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's the key is like, don't just do the thing, make sure you are looking at what's happening with the thing so that you can say, oh,
33:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, yeah, a lot of people are opening up at no ones responding, or then now you've got people on subscribing, or, right, so it gives you, it kind of points you in a direction to say, oh, okay, I've got to be more focused on this part of it, right?
33:30
[SPEAKER_00]: So that I can figure out what's going on there.
33:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I love it.
33:34
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, gone are the days to of, you know, there was a lot of companies that would just put out content for agents, right?
33:40
[SPEAKER_01]: And 10 years ago, it was kind of, it was in Vogue, right?
33:44
[SPEAKER_01]: We even coaching that associations and I would say, you know, guys, it's important that you're in people's inbox and then there are news feed and all this kind of stuff.
33:52
[SPEAKER_01]: And companies were just giving content.
33:55
[SPEAKER_01]: So the agents were excited because they're like, oh, I don't have to do it.
33:58
[SPEAKER_01]: But the articles were, you know, five easy steps to cleaning out your litter box.
34:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
34:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
34:03
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's like, God or those days where that's enough, my friends.
34:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.
34:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
34:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
34:08
[SPEAKER_01]: You can't just be in the inbox, right?
34:10
[SPEAKER_01]: You've got to have a business result.
34:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
34:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Or else it's for not.
34:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
34:15
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think, you know, you've got to, like, you were saying earlier, Dave, you know, talk to people, like, you're talking to a friend.
34:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, you have to
34:27
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not like a church person at all.
34:29
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, that might turn some people off even.
34:32
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know, but I do go to church every once in a while.
34:36
[SPEAKER_02]: And we have a priest who I swear to God, that church is full of families.
34:46
[SPEAKER_02]: And I feel like he's sometimes, I feel like he's just speaking to me.
34:50
[SPEAKER_02]: And that is the effect I think that you want to have when you send, you know, an email campaign out.
34:56
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like, you, you want that person to feel like, um, where they following me around, because I, yeah, you know, that's the goal, right?
35:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's the goal and so on.
35:07
[SPEAKER_00]: And harder said, you know, easier said that done, of course, but it's by knowing that audience.
35:12
[SPEAKER_00]: And, and, and I think you're living this in so many ways.
35:15
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just taking that you just have to,
35:18
[SPEAKER_00]: In some ways, open yourself up to noticing it, right?
35:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I feel like we do these things so often, right?
35:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Like sometimes I feel like the easiest marketing advice sometimes it's just like, would you do this face to face with someone?
35:30
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
35:31
[SPEAKER_00]: If the answer is no, don't do that.
35:33
[SPEAKER_03]: Do it.
35:34
[SPEAKER_00]: And if it is, look for more ways to do that.
35:37
[SPEAKER_00]: But you're just using the digital realm.
35:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
35:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
35:39
[SPEAKER_00]: So.
35:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Totally.
35:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
35:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Dave, I feel like it's you who had said this before.
35:44
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you have, I totally have stolen it.
35:46
[SPEAKER_00]: If I like it, I'll take full credit.
35:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Got it.
35:49
[SPEAKER_01]: You're very simple, very simple.
35:51
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's all about like taking your contacts and turning them into individuals, right?
35:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
35:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, we're creating content when we're targeting like all these contacts in your database.
36:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, I'm just coming off the road of all these conferences and everything with people that are like, I've got,
36:08
[SPEAKER_01]: 10,000 contacts.
36:09
[SPEAKER_01]: I've got 5,000 contacts.
36:10
[SPEAKER_01]: I have about 50,000 contacts and it's like, all right, great.
36:13
[SPEAKER_01]: We need to start thinking of these as individuals.
36:16
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the status 52% of consumers are going to switch brands if content isn't targeted.
36:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
36:23
[SPEAKER_01]: If we are not sending content that makes you feel like the priest makes you feel like whoa.
36:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Like you are reading my mail, you are speaking to me, my friend.
36:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
36:33
[SPEAKER_01]: We need to make sure that's the goal.
36:35
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's the emotion that we want to create too.
36:38
[SPEAKER_01]: And whenever we're putting out content is like, you hear me, you know, that matters to me.
36:44
[SPEAKER_01]: If I'm looking in some people will say to me too, like, well, am I sending out content too often or whatever?
36:49
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, if I'm an actor buyer, especially, or if I'm, you know, if I'm active in the market right now, like, no, when I just move from Florida to Colorado,
36:58
[SPEAKER_01]: My agent, there's no way he could have sent me too much content.
37:01
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to know what are the good burger spots in that particular area.
37:05
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to know all the neighborhoods.
37:07
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to know if there's a road closure because I don't want to close to somewhere where there's construction like all those things matter to me.
37:13
[SPEAKER_01]: So.
37:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, I want to get back to List Grove because I want to know from your perspective, um, what's working when it comes to List Grove because leave magnets are, you know, I feel like they're going away.
37:27
[SPEAKER_02]: I feel like they're a thing of the past.
37:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, is that true?
37:31
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, what do you see working to build lists?
37:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, so.
37:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Good.
37:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Good.
37:37
[SPEAKER_00]: You got, well, I was just going to say like,
37:40
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what it is?
37:41
[SPEAKER_00]: So here I'm going to be like honest, like I think I think we sometimes use things as an excuse for why we're not get it them.
37:51
[SPEAKER_00]: meaning like, well, lead magnets aren't really working well right now.
37:55
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like when we took away like pixel tracking and like those types of things.
37:59
[SPEAKER_00]: And like, well, just because you can't track it now, it just means you have to work harder at getting people to do things, right?
38:07
[SPEAKER_00]: So really make the difference that I feel like this is this is similar.
38:10
[SPEAKER_00]: It means you really need to
38:13
[SPEAKER_00]: create something as that lead magnet and I don't think it's just on that.
38:17
[SPEAKER_00]: I think whatever just you're creating in the stuff that you're offering, show the value of that, focus on what that thing is and talk to a specific audience that you're trying to get on your list.
38:27
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you can do that, it's kind of the culmination of all of these things we've been talking about to this point.
38:33
[SPEAKER_00]: If we're providing value in the emails that we're sending, if people are feeling like we're been following them around and talking about what's going on in their brain,
38:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, then they're going to want to receive that.
38:47
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, also if you get some of those replies and like this email really hit on, you know, what I've been thinking right now.
38:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Why not say to that person, hey, would you mind if I put this on my landing page where people sign up where it says like this email hit me right where I needed it to hit me right at this point, right?
39:02
[SPEAKER_00]: So you're used.
39:03
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the same as like
39:05
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the same as selling your business, right?
39:07
[SPEAKER_00]: You want referrals about your business.
39:10
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, you want the same thing for the section of your business, which is the email list, right?
39:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Because that's where the business ends up coming from.
39:17
[SPEAKER_00]: And so you have to, we're always selling.
39:19
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to sell each part of those things and think of them as the individual components leading to the bigger overall picture, of course.
39:26
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's that, just,
39:29
[SPEAKER_00]: be focused on the people that you're trying to reach and then help them become more successful and then everything else kind of takes care of itself.
39:36
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know from really answering your question, but like I just feel like we can probably do more than we do to be more valuable to other
39:46
[SPEAKER_01]: So, when it comes to lead magnets in particular, just because that was an example that you used, I think one of the classes that I really want to create is that I want to call back to the future.
40:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Like what are some of the old school practices that we can't couple with new, you know, more modern practices that we can couple together and make work more efficiently.
40:09
[SPEAKER_01]: For example, a lot of people will usually magnets and have like one.
40:14
[SPEAKER_01]: lead magnet out there.
40:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
40:15
[SPEAKER_01]: One of the things that I'll say, like have multiple lead magnets out there, make sure that we have lead capture on our website is the lead capture on our website integrating into our CRM or our marketing tool or whatever that might be landing pages have far more lead generation.
40:33
[SPEAKER_01]: capabilities or success rather than even your own website.
40:36
[SPEAKER_01]: So are we using landing pages, are we using multiple landing pages, all of those things work together, and really it comes down to also identifying again the business objective.
40:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
40:46
[SPEAKER_01]: When something, when I think of a lead magnet, we think of leads, especially in real estate.
40:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Like a lead magnet is going to show me a buyer or seller.
40:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, maybe a lead magnet is truly just to get
40:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Like for list growth, maybe that lead magnet is truly to get more people in my database.
41:02
[SPEAKER_01]: It could be somebody that doesn't list their home with me for the next five years, but they're in my database.
41:08
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think you know, coupling all of that with just having correct objectives.
41:13
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not always about a lot of times the agents again, we look at leads as people that I'm going to do business with right now.
41:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, right.
41:20
[SPEAKER_01]: It's either a now lead or a later lead, but all of these things together.
41:26
[SPEAKER_01]: the way I teach everything is about building your list.
41:28
[SPEAKER_01]: That's it.
41:29
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're buying leads, if you're using lead to magnets, if you've got a bought on your website, it doesn't matter.
41:35
[SPEAKER_01]: It's all about growing your list and then targeted effective consistent marketing to your list is going to get you buyers and sellers like at the end of the day.
41:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, there it is.
41:43
[SPEAKER_01]: That's it.
41:44
[SPEAKER_01]: That's it.
41:46
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll add one of the things of the list of this growth though is I think you have to remember to make this part of your process.
41:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, you have to make it a priority because if you're not asking people or you're leaving in the trail to your list then your list isn't going to grow.
42:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you know, I think of my own, you know, my own personal list that I grow, you know, I'm sending an email every other Sunday and every Friday before I send one I'm putting up a post on LinkedIn that says like, Hey, here's what to be talking about in my email that drops on Sunday, if you want to find out more about what I'm talking about here and make sure you're clicking that link in my profile and setting up right and time I do that.
42:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm getting 10 12 15 new people sign up.
42:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Now if I'm not doing that, that means I'm not getting 10 12 15 new people signing up every other week right and so, but it's part of my process.
42:34
[SPEAKER_00]: I now do this in presentations where hey, if you like anything I talked about today side would for my list right, so I'm.
42:40
[SPEAKER_00]: The where I'm in front of people, I'm giving them good stuff and then inviting them to come back with me.
42:45
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think if you don't make a part of your process as you're always going to be going like, who's moving?
42:49
[SPEAKER_00]: What's growing?
42:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, right.
42:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Because you're not really right.
42:52
[SPEAKER_00]: You're not really trying to grow it.
42:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
42:54
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think that's the, you've got to make a part of what you do.
42:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, absolutely.
42:58
[SPEAKER_02]: I love it.
42:59
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
43:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, we only have a couple more minutes here.
43:02
[SPEAKER_02]: And I want to, I want to talk a little bit about constant contact because I'm a, I am a user.
43:07
[SPEAKER_02]: I'd love it.
43:08
[SPEAKER_02]: You guys work for the company.
43:11
[SPEAKER_02]: You're doing so many new things, releasing so many new features.
43:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, all the time.
43:16
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to know, you know, are there features?
43:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Of course I'm saying this for myself.
43:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Inside Constant Contact, that people just aren't utilizing enough.
43:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, that's a good one.
43:33
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll start.
43:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Go.
43:35
[SPEAKER_01]: SMS, not utilizing SMS, nearly enough for sure, for sure, for sure, I'm teaching a lot of classes around SMS marketing.
43:44
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm really trying to get people to understand if you're comfortable, because so many real estate professionals are like, I'm not going to be annoying, you know, all of that and making them understand kind of doing some myth-busting around SMS marketing and giving some examples of how like retail, for example, does a great job using SMS.
44:03
[SPEAKER_01]: non-profits to a great job using SMS.
44:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Here are ways that real estate professionals can use it.
44:08
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the other thing that I would say would be landing pages.
44:12
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of people don't realize that constant contact no matter what level of constant contact you come in at, you have unlimited landing pages.
44:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and to quote, Marky Lemon's role, who, uh, are, be a marketer podcast, she will, that will be a Hillsdale die on, she will be landing pages, landing pages all day long.
44:31
[SPEAKER_01]: You'll get way more leads from your landing pages and you will your website, um, and you have so many of those, whether you want to use that as a single property website or whatever, um, those are two things.
44:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Every day, I see that they're not being utilized in its full capacity.
44:46
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, I definitely need to utilize the SMS more.
44:48
[SPEAKER_02]: I like many people very afraid to be annoying.
44:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, so let me add a tip to that then, right?
44:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I think that's your point, that's a big thing.
44:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Like people always go like,
44:59
[SPEAKER_00]: I hate getting text messages because typically what do you do you sign up for like a consumer-related text message?
45:04
[SPEAKER_00]: And all they go is say like, here's a sale, here's a sale, here's a sale by the stuff, by the stuff, by the stuff, right?
45:09
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, okay, if you don't like that, who says you have to use it like that, right?
45:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think the big thing in the advantage of the SMS pieces that if someone dings your phone, you're looking at that right away.
45:20
[SPEAKER_00]: So think about how is what I'm sending through that text message?
45:24
[SPEAKER_00]: How is it timely?
45:25
[SPEAKER_00]: How is it relevant to the person receiving it?
45:28
[SPEAKER_00]: And how is it also got some type of exclusivity, right?
45:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Because somebody gives you the permission to contact them on that device that they have with them all the time.
45:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And like, you don't want to abuse that.
45:39
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it's about, like if we use our example, like some of the things we've talked about here today, like, oh, you see someone looking at listings they're in the market to buy.
45:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you then send that person, hey, I wanted to let you know about an exclusive listing that I haven't even told anybody else about yet.
45:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Tell me if you want to go take a look at this, right?
45:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, oh, all of a sudden this becomes like, oh, wow, you feel special.
46:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And like, yeah, that's talking exactly like what I'm looking for because I'm using the information.
46:08
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think it to add to the SMS piece.
46:11
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's it, right?
46:12
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, yeah, don't be annoying.
46:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Look about look at how can I add value to this relationship, right?
46:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, how can I just help serve that person?
46:20
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's going to serve you better.
46:24
[SPEAKER_00]: In terms of pieces of constant context, specifically, I think an underused piece of this, again, gets to the idea of content, right, is the ability within constant context to use dynamic content.
46:36
[SPEAKER_00]: When that means is, I could send my weekly email and then I could say, I'll just give an example.
46:42
[SPEAKER_00]: I have a, you know, I can send my weekly email and I kind of have a section of that email where I have people that I know are either a marketer at an agency,
46:51
[SPEAKER_00]: people that are the owner of a business doing the marketing or people that are even constant contact employees that are on list as well.
47:00
[SPEAKER_00]: I could say I'm going to send this one email and lead the story up to this particular point and then I can say for
47:07
[SPEAKER_00]: these people at this content, for these people at this content, for these people that add this content.
47:13
[SPEAKER_00]: So I could be very specific on how I weave the story.
47:17
[SPEAKER_00]: I've started to tell into a specific use case for them and each person would feel like, oh, you just gave me one specific example versus me saying, here are three ways you could think of it.
47:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, and so that to me is like,
47:30
[SPEAKER_00]: And I look, I get it, that's more of an advanced thing that you get going down.
47:34
[SPEAKER_00]: But like, my hope is always, all right, do some of the easy things, yes.
47:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you hopefully get excited and have to go like, oh, that worked.
47:42
[SPEAKER_00]: What else could I do?
47:43
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is where you can start adding these other flavors of things on top, right?
47:46
[SPEAKER_02]: I love that.
47:48
[SPEAKER_02]: I love that.
47:49
[SPEAKER_02]: It is.
47:50
[SPEAKER_02]: It can be overwhelming.
47:51
[SPEAKER_02]: So I guess that would be my next question.
47:53
[SPEAKER_02]: If someone is feeling overwhelmed and just, like, I just was with a client the other day who said,
48:00
[SPEAKER_02]: I just can't even think about doing an email newsletter, like I just can't, which is where a lot of real estate agents are, especially the busy ones.
48:10
[SPEAKER_02]: If they're feeling overwhelmed and paralyzed, what are the first steps they should take in terms of taking advantage of email marketing?
48:22
[SPEAKER_01]: If you were out, it was going to say, you know, just something that's just kind of broad, but as far as any type of best practices, if it's something that, you know, like, and I hear it all the time, oh, I know I need to be doing it, right?
48:34
[SPEAKER_01]: I know, but I don't know where to start.
48:36
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the first thing is to carving out some time that's dedicated to it, right?
48:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I'm going to carve out, you know, every Monday at 9 a.m.
48:44
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to take an hour and I'm going to plot up that, like, that's going to be time that I create content or, you know,
48:50
[SPEAKER_01]: focus on constant contact and utilizing the AI tool to create me and I'll form me.
48:57
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's kind of step one of doing something is carving up the time for it.
49:01
[SPEAKER_01]: And then also I really do think, you know, obviously if somebody's using constant contact, there's a lot of help that we provide.
49:09
[SPEAKER_01]: And maybe just starting to leverage some of our educational resources or our one-on-one resources.
49:15
[SPEAKER_01]: I was just in Miami.
49:17
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot of people that were like,
49:20
[SPEAKER_01]: that can help to create this stuff for me, right?
49:24
[SPEAKER_01]: We have a professional services team that will do a lot of that on behalf of the agents.
49:29
[SPEAKER_01]: And so that's something that they can look into and explore.
49:32
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, I think carving out time and education is first and foremost.
49:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Dave, what else?
49:40
[SPEAKER_01]: What do you think?
49:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you know, I think, I mean, that's the big one always for me is that you have to good intentions on enough.
49:48
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think we all know, right?
49:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, yeah, I want to do that thing.
49:51
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you don't block the time in the calendar to do it, then it's not going to get done.
49:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Because there are so many other things to draw your attention to something else that feel more important than that thing.
50:01
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think it is really making dedicated time by time to do this.
50:06
[SPEAKER_00]: And then once you've got that time in there, it's also looking at like, okay, what am I trying to do this year?
50:11
[SPEAKER_00]: What's most important for me right now?
50:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Do I have something that's missing?
50:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Is there something that I need to improve?
50:18
[SPEAKER_00]: saying, okay, if I make a list of those things and then maybe circle the top three and then say, okay, I'm going to choose one.
50:27
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what I'm going to dedicate.
50:28
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm going to make that 30 minutes, 15 minutes, whatever it is, it's to do this.
50:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
50:34
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you, because if you don't, right, you've got to, you're just going to prioritize the work that care about and what's important to you.
50:40
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's just a reality.
50:41
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you know, I always joke, we, yeah, uh,
50:44
[SPEAKER_00]: I kind of tell this story through like a yoga class could challenge that I've been giving and then that last step is like really our teacher calls it the first thing you got to do is called auto as asana right and that means I got to get my ass in the car and go to the studio to take a class if I'm going to do anything right and it's a similar thing here you have to put the time in the calendar yes.
51:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
51:08
[SPEAKER_00]: And determine what's important to you and then do it because that's the way it gets done.
51:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
51:12
[SPEAKER_02]: But it's like it always goes back to this.
51:14
[SPEAKER_02]: No matter what it is, it's making the time putting it on the calendar and then committing to it because when you're committing or you're scheduling time for yourself or your business, whether it's for yourself or for your business, it's always the thing that you're like, I don't even do it later, you know, no.
51:31
[SPEAKER_02]: You wouldn't do that to a client, don't do it to yourself.
51:35
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a great point, right?
51:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Treat yourself like a client.
51:38
[SPEAKER_00]: What if you were consulting for yourself?
51:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
51:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
51:41
[SPEAKER_00]: We do it, right?
51:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Do the things.
51:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Because oftentimes, we have the answers.
51:46
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know it's a little bit more difficult to do for yourself.
51:49
[SPEAKER_00]: But again, I feel like these are places where
51:51
[SPEAKER_00]: AI comes in to be real helpful too because like I've been trying to use that more for myself to do the things that I know I should do but yeah, you know like all right I want to do this like help me break this down and you know do that and then okay now I've got to plan to do something sometimes that's all you need is like the steps
52:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.
52:07
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, and then all of a sudden it's not so overwhelming.
52:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
52:10
[SPEAKER_01]: And the reality is is a newsletter is for your clients.
52:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
52:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.
52:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Your business.
52:17
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, and it's like we are giving value.
52:19
[SPEAKER_01]: We are delivering value to people.
52:21
[SPEAKER_01]: We are illuminating things that they don't know already.
52:23
[SPEAKER_01]: And if they look at it is this is a service that I am providing to my database.
52:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Then maybe we'll prioritize it a little bit.
52:33
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I'll.
52:35
[SPEAKER_01]: wrap this little section up with this stat, but the reality is is ages are only retaining 13% of their business.
52:42
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's crazy.
52:43
[SPEAKER_01]: That's absolutely crazy, right?
52:45
[SPEAKER_01]: So 90% of buyers and sellers are saying, I will use my age again, 13% of them actually are.
52:52
[SPEAKER_01]: So we're becoming forgettable.
52:54
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I think that if every agent knew how important it was for retaining business, they would take that hour.
53:01
[SPEAKER_01]: They would do it.
53:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, absolutely.
53:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
53:04
[SPEAKER_02]: OK, you guys, finish this sentence.
53:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Who's first, or would you get a 90% the same thing though?
53:12
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what you should be trying to.
53:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh.
53:15
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to let you guys decide who's first.
53:16
[SPEAKER_02]: No like trust is.
53:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh.
53:22
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll go first, Dave.
53:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Especially because I listen to Christine Sunni, she's now.
53:26
[SPEAKER_01]: OK. To me, no like trust is knowing who you are and who you serve and not being forgettable.
53:34
[SPEAKER_00]: No like trust is what makes the world go round.
53:37
[SPEAKER_00]: It's everything is relationships and the people we know like and trust or the people we want to have relationships with and that's what makes things happen.
53:48
[SPEAKER_02]: I love it.
53:48
[SPEAKER_02]: You both, those were great.
53:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Those were great.
53:51
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's a wrap.
53:52
[SPEAKER_02]: How can people find you in constant contact?
53:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you can find me, Stephanie.lfonso at consticontic.com.
53:58
[SPEAKER_01]: You can connect with me at any time there.
54:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Also, unlinked in.
54:02
[SPEAKER_01]: It is my favorite channel.
54:03
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm on it all the time.
54:05
[SPEAKER_01]: So check me out, Stephanie.lfonso, unlinked in as well.
54:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, same constant contact of course, linked in them available there, Dave Shores.com if you wanted to get a mine newsletter, but I'm also hosting the Be a Marketer podcast for constant contact and we've had the lovely Stephanie O'Fanzo and Christine, you've been a guest on our real estate edition of that so you can hear me on that every week as well.
54:26
[SPEAKER_02]: So thank you so much, guys.
54:29
[SPEAKER_02]: It's been just awesome meeting with you.
54:31
[SPEAKER_02]: I really appreciate your time.
54:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks so much.
54:38
[SPEAKER_02]: Hey everyone, thanks so much for tuning in.
54:40
[SPEAKER_02]: I highly encourage you to follow Stephanie and Dave Unlinkedin.
54:44
[SPEAKER_02]: And if you want to make sure you never miss another episode of the No Like Trust for Real Estate podcast, you can sign up for our weekly newsletter, The Sunbeam.
54:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Go to postemaincreative.com and sign up.
54:53
[SPEAKER_02]: Or if you're interested in working with me, especially with me and my friends at constant contact, email me at Christine at postemaincreative.com.
55:01
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks again for tuning in, and I'll see you next time.