The Marketing Trench

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How COVID, Taxes and Politics Will Affect Real Estate in 2021

Dustin Steeve, Scott Schang, Ricardo Bueno — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 11:30:00 +0000

Today we are going to talk about Californians fleeing California (and other states). There are questions about if this is actually a real thing that’s happening. And if it is, whether or not it's something the real estate industry can take advantage of. Because if people leave the state, they’re going to sell their homes and there’s a great opportunity emerging.

So is there? Is there a sales and marketing opportunity in flight from California or flight from the state you live in? There was a Orange County Register article that came out recently that was mapping out where people are going and why they're going. It seems that between politics, taxes and COVID there's a lot of things going on that could disrupt people's living and work situations.

Remote work people aren't tied to any one geographical place. Even if people are working and they become partially employed. It’s going to impact your ability to afford housing in an expensive state like California.

There's a lot of folks that are going to be asking questions and I think it's important that we in the real estate and mortgage business can really provide clarity to these people.

[3:26] What does the data reveal?

[5:04] Is there a Market?

[9:11] What's the best way to find people in this emerging market

[15:48] Creative ways to connect with the people who need you

[27:22] How to syndicate video on facebook

[29:13] How to come up with content ideas

[33:41] Are you willing to do what others won't

[37:28] Where are people fleeing to?

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Tool Spotlight: Using Tophap Real Estate Analytics Platform

Dustin Steeve, Scott Schang, Ricardo Bueno — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 11:30:00 +0000

Today we speak with Anton Danilovich the CEO and Co-founder of TopHap, a comprehensive data and analytics platform for real estate professionals. TopHap’s AI-powered analytics platform provides buyers and sellers confidence in one of the largest decisions of their lives -- the purchase and sale of their home.

We dive deep into this powerful platform’s features to see how they can make your life easier when you're buying a new home or helping your clients buy a new home. We look at microtrends and insights that drive property values, how Tophap will save you time while researching local properties and regions, how to grow your business outside of your home territory and how Tophap can help you build trust with your clients.

Head over to https://www.tophap.com for a free 14-day trial to help you decide if this tool is right for you.

[1:37] Who Is Anton Danilovich?

[4:20] What are people saying?

[5:30] At look at Tophap

[12:29] The deeper, hidden features of Tophap

[13:37] Value analytics

[15:24] How Tophap has acquired such a robust and detailed amount of data?

[18:14] A look at the valuation module

[20:12] how can Tophap benefit investors and flippers

[23:33] How Tophap improves the service agents provide to clients

[27:45] Tophap pricing

[30:31] Who is Tophap for?

[42:11] The best feature Tophap offers

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Are You a Guide or a Hurdle on the Customer Journey

Dustin Steeve, Scott Schang, Ricardo Bueno — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 20:13:59 +0000

Are you effectively guiding your customers along their buying journey or standing in their way? Large tech companies spend mass amounts of money testing how easy people can move through their products from start to finish to make sure that there's as little friction as possible. They do this to make it as easy as possible for customers to keep coming back and buying time after time, month after month.

We ask the questions, does the real estate industry have a problem with getting in the way of their customers ability to buy? And what processes do you have in place to make your clients feel nurtured and taken care of the whole way through the journey to create an experience that feels safe and under control? We also look at ways to avoid “emotional crash” once your clients are in the process of receiving your service or product.

[2:31] Why are we asking this question

[5:13] The importance of building processes in your business

[7:31] Drafting a client persona

[19:22] Why you should pay attentions to your customer's emotional state

[29:03] A look at a customer journey template

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Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com

Silver Lining Marketing Strategies

Dustin Steeve, Scott Schang, Ricardo Bueno — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 11:30:00 +0000

COVID has forced everything into the digital world. Even though the world was already going in this direction, the pandemic put the transition into express mode speeding up the move of the real estate industry to e-commerce by a factor of 10. We are finding that most inquiries for real estate agents are coming from people who reached out through Zillow or a similar service and hearing from fewer and fewer buyers agents.

We’ll take a look at the silver linings of a seemingly stressful time for people who either are feeling uncomfortable with the speed at which the transition is taking place or who weren’t anticipating the transition at all. And we discuss whether or not buyers agents are at risk of becoming obsolete.

If you’re worried about the direction real estate is moving in, we’ll give you actionable tips that you can incorporate into your business to make sure you're ready when the industry sees the big changes happen.

[2:32] Is the transition a good thing?

[6:57] Can/will buyers agents be replaced by mass buyer tech?

[13:56] How to create value so you don't get wiped out by technology

[17:45] How did COVID contribute to these changes

[20:30] What are the possible changes in how a home is bought?

[21:08] But where are the silver linings?

[24:31] Is there anything that could slow or stop the changes from happening?

[28:13] What can you do to find the silver lining?

[37:22] How do you become a specialist as opposed to a generalist?

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COVID, Biden, and Business Planning for 2021

Dustin Steeve, Scott Schang, Ricardo Bueno — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 11:30:00 +0000

With the election coming to an end, Biden has released a statement saying that his team is considering a 4-6 week total national lockdown to deal with the COVID19 pandemic that is seeing numbers on the rise. We talk about how going into lockdown could impact the economy and more interestingly, businesses.

How we approach business planning for 2021 will depend on if the lockdown happens and how our plans might change depending one what that looks like.

Whatever happens you can bet content marketing will be a large part of 2021. People have had more exposure to social media throughout 2020 and are more active than ever. They are looking to places like YouTube and LinkedIn to get answers to their questions. If you position yourself as an expert early enough, you’ll build credibility and soon become a go to source for people and can convert them into leads.

[2:09] Is Ricardo laying out a business plan for 2021?

[7:50] How has the pandemic affected marketing in 2020?

[10:57] What marketing strategies will work in 2021?

[17:24] How self criticizing could hold you back in 2021

[19:38] Content is King in 2021

[22:30] The value of building an audience

[25:25] Create content that is most natural for you

[29:09] Marketing principles going into 2021

[33:41] Concise to the point content will convert the best

[41:07] What you should prepare for in 2021 marketing

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Why Ricardo Needs a Therapist - Err, Coach

Dustin Steeve, Scott Schang, Ricardo Bueno — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 11:30:00 +0000

A business coach is a type of consultant that provides an outside perspective for you and your business. The number one priority for a business coach is to help you address the issues you're having in your business. But that’s not to say it’s the only priority. They also set out to help you with issues of a more personal nature, like finding career fulfillment and figuring out what’s most important to you.

Business coaching can play a critical role in the success of your company — but it might not be what you expect. You’ll find that the bulk of the help they provide isn’t teaching you practical business skills. What they actually set out to do is help you in such a way that will guide you to achieve a higher state of performance, to cultivate stronger leadership qualities, learn how to build trust in a team and learn how to improve focus so that you can get things done more efficiently.

In this episode, we take a look at dissecting the role of a business coach to figure out what exactly they do, if hiring one is right for you (it is) and if/when you decide to explore hiring a business coach, how to do it to make sure you’re getting exactly what you need from the right coach.

[1:16] What do business coaches do?

[4:25] Coach vs. Therapist

[12:02] An inside look at what business coaches do

[17:44] Business coaching as an industry

[22:27] How to choose the right style of coaching that works for you

[27:17] Coaching is behavioural

[31:14] You need someone to talk to you about your worries

[33:22] Is coaching the right choice for?

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Leveraging Data to Grow Your Business With Cole Realty Resource

Dustin Steeve, Scott Schang, Ricardo Bueno — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 11:30:00 +0000

We're going to be talking about how to leverage data, to create business opportunities. One of the big questions that we have all heard out in the field is. “I want to do texts”. “I want to do emails”. “I want to be cold calling”. “I want to be reaching the right people”. And there's a sense that there exists technology and information out there that helps you reach the right people. But what we’ve found is that when it comes to the moment when you're ready to pull the trigger and do something. You don't know where to get that information. You don't know the first thing about how to think about that kind of information. And when you do get information, it's bad. And when the information is bad, it's discouraging, and you lose your momentum.

This is where a company like Cole Realty Resource comes into play. We welcome Tyler Steenken from Cole Realty Resource to The Marketing Trench. Cole offers unlimited access to cell phones, emails, landlines and other additional household intel such as purchase date & amount, square footage, length of residence and much more. When you use a service like Cole Realty Resource you are able to announce your Just Listed/Just Sold properties to neighbors, Farm neighborhoods to stay top-of-mind and Let residents know you have buyers looking in their area.

[1:54] History of Cole Realty Resource

[7:25] Hyper local domination

[9:38] Hyper local domination case study

[14:11] Leveraging data subsets for large areas

[15:09] What data points do you need to track

[24:23] Applying the data to advertising

[26:47] Facebook marketing from state-to-state

[29:32] The shift in how you generate leads

[33:22] Why you should focus on owning one category

[35:16] Prospecting from home

*Coleinformation.com promo code 200OFF. Save 200 off the annual subscription.

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Problem Solving to Grow Your Business

Dustin Steeve, Scott Schang, Ricardo Bueno — Wed, 11 Nov 2020 11:30:00 +0000

On today's episode, we're discussing how to become a better problem solver to build your business. Ricardo happened upon a book called Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen by Dan Heath. The book talks about what happens when we think ahead and try to prevent problems before they happen. It questions the behaviour of living reactively and asks the question why 'solve' crimes when we could stop them being committed? Why treat chronic diseases when they could be prevented from developing?

If you take on this mindset when running your business, you’ll avoid situations where your clients question your ability to seamlessly provide what you promised them. You’ll be able to reassure them that when specific problems come up, you have a plan for solving them because you’ve looked ahead and prepared for all possible outcomes. This is very different from panicking in the moment and causing you client to lose trust in you.

Actional tips to show your clients that you’re looking out for problems before they happen:

Create a “lead magnet” style guide outlining steps to get started on your journey to high ROI.
Outline common problems that come up all the time and how to solve or avoid them all together.

[1:56] What are we talking about today

[6:14] How do you market yourself to look like a problem solver

[13:27] What are you doing for your client as a problem solver

[17:31] Is problem solving the best use of your time

[24:16] Actionable tips to take this approach

[36:42] How to demonstrate that you are looking ahead for problems for you clients

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Website: https://www.lighthouseescrow.com

Taking Back Control of Your Leads With Leadpops

Dustin Steeve, Scott Schang, Ricardo Bueno — Wed, 04 Nov 2020 11:30:00 +0000

Leadpops is the only Conversion as a Service (CaaS) platform serving the mortgage, real estate, and insurance industries. With Leadpops you can build sales funnels to convert more clicks into clients and build websites with built in sales funnels to help convert even more clicks into clients. They also offer a team of expert marketers to help run ads through Facebook, Instagram, Google, retargeting, email marketing, blogging and reputation management.

We do a deep dive into how Leadpops works and how you can use it to increase the amount of clicks and conversions you're getting. We take a look at what makes it different from other options, where you should insert this tool into your customer journey and compared to Facebook ads, how Leadpops performs and is it a better option.

We’ve been users of Leadpops for some time now and we take a quick look at the analytics and the tweaks made to increase the performance. Leadpops coupled with other tools like verse.io or similar is proven to increase your ROI if it’s set up properly and you’re able to close the sale after the lead has been qualified and has made contact.

[1:48] We aren't affiliates, we actually use this stuff

[5:19] What is Leadpops?

[10:50] Are Facebook ads better than a dedicated lead generation tool?

[12:23] How do we qualify the tools we recommend?

[15:14] How Flexible is leadpops?

[21:40] How effective is Leadpops

[29:04] Is a tool like Leadpops worth the money?

[32:50] Where should Leadpops go in the conversion process?

[34:00] vers.io alternatives

[38:25] What to do with leads that just aren't ready yet

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Understanding the Next Generation of Homebuyers

Ricardo Bueno, Scott Schang, Dustin Steeve — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 10:30:00 +0000

The National Mortgage Insurance Corporation and Cultural Outreach released a report on next gen homebuyers. They are considered millennials between the ages of 25-39. This generation has been defined by entering the workforce around the crash of 2008 when the economy fell apart and now after a bit of recovery in the following years, the current pandemic is, again, causing financial stress for this generation.

We take a look at the insights of this report and how to market to the millennial buyers and successfully sell to this generation. Online marketing campaigns leveraging YouTube and Twitter as a way to build trust and credibility to help close the sale before your lead makes their first contact with you. We also take a look at why investing in your home is the best way to save and build capital in your later years.

[3:47] Are millennials really that bad with money?

[7:44] Next gen financial priorities

[9:17] How are millennials saving

[12:33] With so much consumer debt can the next gen buy?

[16:55] Next genès hurdles to home buyership

[24:52] Where is this generation's attention?

[34:57] Create content that will reach the market

[38:11] Phone calls over email

[40:15] how to close a Hale before meeting your lead

[49:52] Your home is your best investment

[55:02] The single woman buyer

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The State of Lead Conversion In Marketing & Sales

Ricardo Bueno, Scott Schang, Dustin Steeve — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 10:30:00 +0000

This week we're going to dive into a really interesting report that our friends over at verse.io put together in collaboration with Ascend2, a research marketing company. It’s called The State of Lead Conversion In Marketing & Sales.

4 key findings of the report that we’ll take a closer look at are:

Companies need more lead qualification data.
Companies struggle to establish fast initial contact with leads.
Communication capabilities matter.
Companies are challenged to conduct effective follow up.

The goal of the report is to help companies take the lead-to-sales conversion rate from low performance to high performance. Only 12% of digital marketers can say they have high performing lead conversion even though the majority have adopted automation software, conversational marketing apps, and other methods to improve targeting, engagement and click through rates.

If you implement automation correctly and decrease the time it takes you to make first contact with a lead. You’ll be starting the lead nurturing process faster than almost half of your competition. Your leads won’t even have time to think about checking out one your competitors because you’ll be taking care of them before they’ll feel the need to.

Episode highlights:

[2:36] Study introduction

[7:21] The importance of lead scoring

[11:36] The importance of automating your lead contact process

[15:50] The problem with not following up

[18:56] Costs associated with lead conversion challenges

[24:34] Why is there uncertainty about outsourcing lead contact

[29:25] Why you should build a database

[33:51] What are people using to automate their follow UPS

[38:04] How often is direct contact made

[43:09] When do leads come in?

[46:30] Conclusion

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Ricardo's Favorite Sales & Marketing Tools in 2020

Ricardo Bueno, Scott Schang, Dustin Steeve — Wed, 14 Oct 2020 10:30:00 +0000

Ricardo talks about his favorite tools that will help you be better and more efficient at completing tasks throughout the day at your job. We’ll talk about tools that will help you improve your advertising and marketing as well as some options for automating operating processes like scheduling events.

The Tools Ricardo will cover in the episode are:

Website design with Agent Fire and similar options

Google My Business

Canva for graphic design

Calendly For booking calls and meetings

Verse, Structurely and Gabby to efficiently follow up with leads to keep them hot

Facebook Ad Portal from LionDesk for designing Facebook ads

Momenzo for easy video creation

Vemely to easily add captions to your videos

[3:01] Do you actually need a new website? Or do you need better traffic?

[5:47] Website builders and website design tools you should use

[9:32] Creating content when you aren’t a content creator

[13:34] How to improve your website's Google ranking factor with Google My Business

[16:38] Social Media and Design

[17:09] What is Canva?

[24:56] What is Calendly?

[33:43] What are verse.io and Structurely

[40:50] Facebook Ad Portal

[44:31] What is Momenzo?

[46:23] What is Vemely?

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Lead Contact & Conversion With verse.io

Ricardo Bueno, Scott Schang, Dustin Steeve — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 10:30:00 +0000

Daniel Cross is the Director of Business Development at verse.io. Using a 2-way SMS, AI driven follow-up system, verse.io is the smartest way to engage and convert your inbound leads into qualified, sales-ready opportunities and is ready to help you 24/7.

Daniel joins The Marketing Trench to talk about lead contact conversion and some of the secrets and best practices to making sure you are converting as many qualified leads as possible. We also take a look at the analytics that prove automating your lead conversion increases your ROI.

We talk about why it’s better to automate your lead contact conversion, how to ensure your leads are truly qualified and the best way to leverage the tools available to you to increase your lead conversion.

[1:12] What is verse.io

[3:46] Why following up with leads sucks

[5:32] Lead source success

[14:07] Should you automate your contact and conversion process

[15:42] How much of an increase in follow up does verse.io provide

[21:41] What is a qualified lead?

[24:02] Tools From The Trench: Conversion analysis (what are the numbers?)

[32:31] Best ways to leverage verse.io and increase your lead conversion

[40:44] Why 24/7 automation is necessary

[42:23] Will your sales team actually follow up manually?

[50:21] Outro

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