Online Advertising for Dummies

Hey all, We are in the middle of our "Fix What Matters Most" Series and it's time to tackle one of the biggest mistakes agents make in their businesses--driving traffic. Many agents we talk to either don't do it at all essentially turning their website into a glorified business card. Or they spend most of their hard earned commission dollars on the wrong methods with no clear goal in mind. I get it, the world of advertising vendors is a confusing one. It can feel like a full-time job just sorting through the various options. That's why we want to simplify finding a great advertising solution and show you how to implement it one-by-one. Today we are going to walk you through how to harness free online classifieds ads to generate 2-3 leads every day without spending all day in front of your computer refreshing new ads (we all have that weirdo in our office). Right now, in the US there are basically two primary online classified venues--Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist. Both are free to post on, and both allow you to renew your ads with the click of a button (this will be important later). We use the exact same ads on both so the process will be the same. Now, most of you are probably thinking one of two things: 1) Didn't Craigslist stop allowing agents to redirect people to their site? 2) I have tried Craigslist before and only got a bunch of spammers/lowlifes. I'll answer both. Nope. And the reality is that polls show Craigslist users skew younger, better educated, make more money and have better credit. There are a few keys to generating good ads on Craigslist. The first is borrowing (or having) good listings. Yes, you read that right. You don't even need your own listings to write great ads on Craigslist. But you do need listings. I'm afraid that generic homebuying ebook ad or lists of foreclosures ads just won't cut it. Not only will they get flagged and deleted, but they just don't provide something the customer wants. We have developed a script for how to ask agents to borrow their listings and we are happy to share it if you shoot us an email, but it's actually pretty simple--just ask. Most good listing agents are happy to get their listings sold by making it more visible without having to spend their time or money. The second key is writing a great ad. Again, this is not rocket science, but there are a few principles you will want to follow. 1) Choose a good listing. Agents that I talk to often think that a good listing is the low-priced new home that sells fast and I will tell you that is not always the case for my ads. Remember that selling the home is a secondary priority for an ad designed to generate leads. I generally try to pick a home with some unique selling feature that is 20-30% above the median home value in my area. This will make the ad writing easy and it will attract the most eyeballs. 2) Write out a simple description of the property's features. Beds, Baths and square footage should be included here, but also try to find 4-5 more selling features to point out. Since I am lazy, I oftentimes just copy/paste the "remarks" section of the MLS listing for the property since it usually does a good job of this already. Avoid writing a novel about the home. 3) Choose a great "featured" image. Depending on what classified service you are using (Craigslist, Facebook, Backpage, Kijiji), this may be called different things but the concept will be the same. You will concentrate here on the single image that will represent your ad when someone is scrolling through listings. Most agents default to choosing the standard front-of-the-home shot. The problem is that if you also choose an image with the front of the home, your ad is likely to blend in with the rest. I usually try to pick outdoor shots here if possible. Backyards, outdoor spaces, nearby parks, pools, etc. These tend to not only make your ad standout visually, but oftentimes these are the features that make your home unique. 4) Pack the bottom of your ad with keywords. You want your property to come up in searches so that you can maximize your eyeballs. Add in the names of every city, village suburb, subdivision, etc. surrounding your listing. Add in types of properties and property features that users might search for. Then just pack them in paragraph form at the bottom of your ad.I'll pause here for a moment and say that most agents get these parts generally right with no problem. The last part is perhaps the most important, but is by far the part I see agents get wrong the most. Agents have been trained for decades to write ads with a great description of the property. And sometimes that great description includes nice, flowery language. Unfortunately for most agents, describing an average 3 bedroom ranch home amidst hundreds of similar properties doesn't usually doesn't get anyone all that excited. 5) Write an attention grabbing headline. Most classified sites offer their list of homes for sale to browse with two main components before the content of the ads–the featured image and the headline. That means you have only two opportunities to grab a customer's attention and urge them to click on your ad. Since you have already chosen a great featured image, that leaves the headline to do the rest of the work. For a successful headline, you will need to focus in on one or two unique features of the property and then highlight those with language designed to grab attention. Don't be afraid to think outside the box, the unique features may not even be about the property itself but instead about its proximity to community features (parks, schools, shopping, etc.). You can also use language that otherwise would be out of place in the real estate section of a classified site. If you have gotten this far, then you probably grabbed the attention of some customers and they are now interested in your property. They aren't leads yet, though. They are just anonymous ad viewers. Now it's time to get people to go somewhere that you can capture them. For someone to make the leap, you are going to have need a clear and simple call to action (CTA). Writing an Effective CTA In order for all of this work to actually result in leads, your call to action must direct your viewers to something that will capture their phone number. There are three basic ways to capture a phone number: a landing page, an automated text capture system, and a call capture hotline. I'll cover how to set up your own infrastructure below. To write an effective CTA, you just need to answer the questions of "What are they going to get on your site/by phone/by texting?" and "How do they get that information?" Withhold some information like price and full photos on the ad so they have a reason to continue on past the ad. Then show them how to easily get that information by a) visiting your landing page b) texting your capture system or c) call your hotline. I use all three "traps" for my customers to maximize leads. Different people will prefer different methods for getting the info they want. More options means more leads. We have already covered how to build a great website that converts at least 20% of online customers in this series so I won't go into detail on that here. And you can find text and phone systems through a number of different vendors out there. But we also offer all three tools (and more) as part of our Pipeline Pro Tools system. It's way cheaper than buying everything separately and you won't get locked into some longterm contract. The first step in checking it out? See if we have availability. Or you can get a live demo of the tools to see how they work on Craigslist by clicking here. Until next time, Levi Jones   Guerilla Realty This email was sent to dsoldit.blogpost@blogger.com . You probably joined our list by signing up for one of our amazing free tools, free guides, or you wanted to be notified when we announce new stuff. 99% of everything we do for agents is totally free, no strings attached. The other 1% is even better. Don't let our updates make you mad. If you don't like them, do us both a favor and unsubscribe. Our stuff isn't for everyone.  Unsubscribe | Forward this email to a friend