Real Estate Lead Funnels Using Social Media – David Caldwell
JOIN NEXT WEEK’S MASTERCLASS HERE
In this video, David Caldwell will walk you through the key elements of a successful real estate marketing funnel. He teaches how to identify potential clients, nurture those leads, and ultimately convert them. We’ll cover each stage of the funnel, including attracting leads through targeted social media advertising and content marketing, engaging with them through personalized communication, and closing the deal with effective sales tactics. We also get a surprise visit from Tom Ferry!!!!
Nazar Kalayji 0:00
This is Dave Caldwell, or David Caldwell. He is my my personal coach right now. And he’s one of the top coaches of the Tom Ferry organization. And he is a wealth of knowledge. So I’m super excited to have him on here to be able to kind of share with us some of the things you can talk about today, which would be funnels and just sales in general. So without further ado, Dave take it away.
David Caldwell 0:04
Perfect. All right, thank you. Well, this was, this was a little bit last minute and putting together a deck. But what my goal is today is to help you guys kind of understand how to create a sales funnel, using social media. And really, this strategy can be taken into other areas as well. But we’ll talk about specifically how to create a sales funnel. I want to give you guys some like tangible takeaways that you could hopefully go execute in your business today. For me, it’s a lot more fun to have interaction than just speak on a webinar. So I don’t know if you guys often take questions, things like that, I’m happy to do that. Or you could pump some questions into the chat for me. But at first, we’re just going to kind of do a basic overview of what a funnel is. And we’ll go from there. So like Mizar said, my name is David Caldwell, I am still in production. I’m still doing what you guys are doing. What’s today today, it’s Thursday. On Tuesday, I probably spent four hours in my CRM digging for gold, right. So a lot of things that I coach on are things I know that work with my clients or things I’m implementing in my own business, I had been in sales since 2007. I have a team in Portland. And like Nizar said, I’m a coach for Tom, if you scan my QR code, you will actually, you know, be able to follow me on Instagram, I have a podcast or some resources in there, just if you want to see what things look like, and actually put this up, because this is actually part of creating a digital funnel. You know, if this link is in my bio, which it is on Instagram, there’s different places that people can take action. And based on how they take action, I’m going to communicate to them differently, to try to bring them through a sales process. But, you know, we all need a place for the consumer to take action. And then we need to find ways to communicate to them as they’re going through this process of learning to buy and sell real estate.
David Caldwell 2:21
So what is the sales funnel? You know, for those of you that aren’t familiar, at the top of it, I have leads the leads, I nurture them, I educate them, I turn them into prospects. And at the bottom, hopefully, I’m going to have some clients fall out, right, let’s use Google PPC. As an example. If I get 100, Google PPC leads, statistically, I might be able to convert two to three of those, I’m gonna have to use a lot of different ways to nurture call text, email those prospects, as they go through this learning cycle, this education, this nurturing, to pop out to the bottom to actually be able to get customers. One of my observations is that most real estate professionals, we’re only working at the bottom of the funnel. But the best real estate professionals, I hear all the time, hey, I got this client. They’re three years old, I got this client, they’re five years old, I got this client, they’re six years old. Most of the time, that wasn’t a weekly call for six years. It was some sort of campaign there were different emails. But that’s basically what we’re going to talk today is what is a sales funnel? And how do we put that in place to increase conversion, the whole point of marketing, the whole point of everything you’re going to do on social media is to create clients.
David Caldwell 3:40
So here’s another way to look at it. The top of the funnel z is lead acquisition, traffic. So our offers, right. The second is our call to action. It’s our nurturing. It’s talking to people about what’s actually happening in the market.You know, if someone is looking to buy a home in St. George, and they came to me, by way of Zillow, Google PPC, a social media post, I should be communicating to them about what it’s like to live in St. George, what is happening in the St. George marketplace, that’s gonna help me aid in conversion. As I move them down through the funnel, obviously, that’s where I’m gonna close the sale. And then there’s this other really important part of turning that client into an advocate so we can start to go get more referrals. So we won’t, we’ll skip by this one. Since we’re going to focus specifically on social today. Social media platforms might be the single best tool we have to stay in front of our sphere daily. You know, when I think of social, I go there a little bit to learn, but I’m just kind of going there to see what’s going on and see what my friends are doing. To see what’s happening in the world. We’re all scrolling. We know the data right? A large majority of our time in the United States right now, is spent on social media. This is a great way to remind people that you are a real estate professional. One thing I want to add is, this is not the most powerful tool.
David Caldwell 5:15
But the most powerful to you tool you have is your voice and communicating to people one to one, we can’t replace that with social. But this is a really important part of the sales funnel, whether it’s past client Soi, or it’s someone new coming into our world. This is a stat from the National Association of REALTORS 62% of home sellers and 50% of homebuyers down there agent through personal connection.If we think about that, you know, I watched one of his Rs master classes from a couple of weeks ago, where he’s talking about the things we can control and the things we cannot control. The things we can’t control right now is the amount of transactions going on in the United States. Everyone, we’re seeing lower sales volume. So this is a really important category of clients to me, right? This is the highest probability place that you’re going to be able to find clients. And one on one coaching a lot I ask people, what’s your daily schedule look like? And in that daily schedule, how are you showing people that you’re the realtor of choice?
David Caldwell 6:28
I was at a conference last week in Portland, and they were talking about how every every person in the United States, statistically is connected to nine real estate agents. Like those are just the numbers based on how many people are at NAR? And how many people own homes. What are you doing daily, to show people that you’re the best option to be their real estate professional or to refer you when someone’s thinking about real estate. Because this is about because this is about social Sorry, I have coaches walking over here seeing what I’m doing. Because this is about social. Social is an amazing place to show people what we do, who we are, and what kind of real estate professional that we are. So we certainly represent them in transactions they know they’re gonna be taken care of. So let’s focus on the top. What would lead acquisition and traffic? How will we create lead acquisition and traffic on Sopko. And since I don’t have a clicker, I’m just going to go down to here.
David Caldwell 7:32
Let’s break down each one of these vertical videos, post stories, organic versus paid traffic, direct messaging and comments. You know, I can’t see everyone on here, but by show of hands, who has been making vertical content? Oh, what’s up, Robert? Mac? I know, Rob is you can’t see me. But I am for sure. We just did 15 yesterday, so we’re on it. Nice. And what’s what’s been the outcome for you in making Britain creating vertical video? Well, I mean, we’re still working on figuring out how we can engage the audience with you know, we’re always trying new things. But for us, it’s just putting it out there and just doing it consistently and not really micromanaging the process. And you know, people are seeing it. Are we getting leads from it just yet? Not yet. But I know that over time, it will work. Yeah. So let’s talk about that a little bit. Because that’s what we’re supposed to be creating, right is like, how do we create leads through marketing? How do we create client touches? It’s just gonna work. Basically, it was through proximity, doing vertical video with people that we know.
David Caldwell 8:38
There’s one thing we hear all the time in real estate marketing when it comes to video, which is like we shouldn’t use calls to action. And the reality is you guys as we should do, people need to be told what to do they need to be told why they should be communicating with us. We should be making them an offer. Right? That is going to speed up the timeline that’s going to start putting people into a sales funnel. Hey, there’s a link in my bio, go look at this house. No statistically 5% of homebuyers according to Nar, find their agent because they asked a specific question about a specific home. And we see these home tour videos sometimes that are vertical on on social, and there’s no call to action, send them to a link to go to your website to register for more information. Offer a home tour. Right, and don’t wait till the end, do it towards the beginning. Right. There’s different places that we can put our offers in. But the whole point of marketing is to create transactions. Brand is great, right? But I think brand is a byproduct. We don’t make money unless we have clients.
David Caldwell 9:50
Hey, so there’s vertical video, there’s posts, right? Instagram has come out recently and said they are going to put more emphasis on posts. We’ve all seen that. Great carousel posts. For any of you who follow me on social or if you don’t, if you go look at my social media page, my posts are a tool that I use at open houses. You know, one of the posts that we do every single month is where the market is at, compared to other previous years. So if I’m talking to someone at a listing appointment, at the gym, wherever, wherever I have my phone, and I want to show them really what’s happening in the market, I can just pull my phone out. We did a post of the last 30 years of appreciation in Portland, it’s pinned on my profile, we are using that pinned post like crazy, and it creates a ton of conversation into Instagram stories. I’m going to be honest, you guys, I am not someone who likes documenting my day. I love my kids. Like I like posting pictures of them. I go to work every day. I’m not this like crazy Instagram character. But I have a goal every day to do 10 stories, because it keeps people engaged, it keeps people coming back and watching me. And then that hopefully, they’re seeing what I’m doing to be that real estate professionals that they would hire. Even today, one of the coaches goes, you know, almost every day you post on Instagram, like laying on the couch in your office, how do you find time to do that.
David Caldwell 11:23
It’s funny how that post creates conversations for me. Or a lot of times in the morning, I just post a picture of a book, like whatever book I’m reading a page from the book, that’s created a ton of conversations for me. But conversations lead to other conversations, when we’re creating a sales funnel, a marketing funnel, what we put out is really important, it’s what people are going to perceive us for one, but it’s gonna basically enable different communication. Organic versus paid traffic. You know, most people aren’t boosting or, or pushing their reels. If you have a really great reel that a lot of people connect with, you might want to think about putting some money behind that. So more people can see it in a similar audience. Or maybe sometime I can come on here and do a training for you guys on YouTube ads. No, in my marketplace, we run YouTube ads in a specific area could be a one mile radius, it could be a zip code, it could be a whole city, it could be an old customer list that you have. And they’re just commercials, right? On average, we pay three cents for someone to watch two minutes. So that’s usually talking about the market.
David Caldwell 12:35
I mean, that is way less expensive than a postcard. And it does create that brand. But organic versus paid traffic is something that we all need to think about. Another way that we can create a sales funnel is just direct messaging, and participating with people in the comments. Going and commenting on what people are doing, staying in the flow with them. But lead acquisition and traffic. This is what’s the most important thing about social to me, you know, Instagram. It’s a promotional tool. And at the end of the day, that’s what it is. And it’s a great tool in your business again to go back and show people what you’re doing daily. So the next thing calls to action and conversion. If I get a lead, what am I going to do with it? If they’re not at the bottom of the funnel? How am I going to strategically communicate and I’m going to stop sharing my screen so I can see people a little bit better. How am I going to communicate to them strategically? If someone is not ready to buy, what am I going to do? Does anyone sorry?
David Caldwell 13:49
How many of you guys have a weekly email that’s going out? Raw Rob. How many of you are like challenged to execute against a weekly email? Maybe we can get something tactical here like I will look at a weekly emails like a campaign like you hear Jason talked about campaigns to rule them all right, or the Lord of the Rings, the ring the roll them all. And a simple email that goes out on Saturday at 730 This is my team’s playbook. 730 in the morning, every Saturday scheduled through a program called MailChimp. Depending on the size and size of your database, you guys, MailChimp will probably be free for most of you. I have 8000 people in my database, cost me $160 a month. We nurture everybody through this campaign past client soI Google PPC leads, seller leads, it doesn’t matter. It’s an educational email about what’s going on in the marketplace. If you guys want to see it. If you go back to the QR code that I showed, there’s actually a link to sign up for our email newsletter. You guys can steal the call attend most of the content we send out as KCN. Here’s what’s important about this email. It goes out every Saturday at 730 in the morning. Why? Saturday? It’s lazy day. Usually it’s a sleepy morning for people, right? They’re not rushing to work. They’re not dropping off kids at school. They’re like sitting down enjoying a cup of coffee. Why 730 We just decided on 730. We have a great open rate. We like that time. But it goes out every Saturday at 730. So people know that we’re consistent. Consistency and frequency builds trust.
David Caldwell 15:35
But this campaign ad nurtures people all year, what do we have inside this campaign? We have sales funnels. Click here to get your home value. Click here to ask questions about buying a house, click here to look for homes. Click here to get your an annual home equity review. We embed videos, right? Here’s a conversation was talking about the market. Why or why not to live in a house that that’s in an HOA community? Homeowners Association, right? We send out educational content so people know that we’re the best. But it’s nurturing them, right? If you come in to my world, and I didn’t call you which I’m going to your lead. But if I didn’t, I know at a bare minimum, you’re gonna get 52 emails from me.
David Caldwell 16:22
Hopefully at some point, you’re gonna reply. Once we get the lead, what are we doing with it? When we get referrals that are at the bottom of the funnel, we’re all like a dog on the bone. I would imagine those are easy to convert. But what about the person that’s 12 to 18 months out? What about the person that’s just in curiosity? Those people are really easy to forget. You know, we need a call cadence. We need an email cadence, trying to get them to interact with us on social. But in a sales funnel, the nurturing is where most of us mess up. Tom was talking about a study today that he did with Greg Schwartz with some of the legacy clients some of the biggest clients and Tom and Tom ferries organization, where they took a bunch of their leads and scrubbed them. And out of this group of leads, they found 91 that the agents Tom’s agents had sold them houses to and 491 that have bought homes from other people. Now, it probably be impossible to convert those other 491. But what if they just converted an extra 100
David Caldwell 17:37
You know, the way that you convert that extra 100 You guys is simple conversations. It’s a simple frequency of follow up via phone and via text. It’s simple marketing principles like a weekly email. You know, our industry is so hyped right now on vertical video. But we barely ever talked about building email lists. You know, weekly emails are a goldmine if you research email, email is one of the most under appreciated forms of marketing. So we have to nurture we have to get into the cycles of nurturing. Let’s go make it my screen backup wants to show the last slide we’ll finish off with this one. So hey, the last thing we got to do you guys, we have to close. We are salespeople. For some reason that has become a bad word in real estate. Every time I hear another coach or one of my peers talk about being salesy. I cringe. Because I know what’s going to stop some people from taking the most important action which is talking to their clients about why they would work with us.
David Caldwell 18:48
We are salespeople we have to sell people on why they would work with us. So then we can have the opportunity to advise them. Now we all know eight 910 Real estate agents, what are we doing to show them that we’re the most professional? If we take this back to social because that’s what the title was. You know, what’s our offer? Like I have a I have a podcast with Tom on home equity reviews, or annual equity reviews. Has anyone heard about that strategy? Basically, it’s a fancy word for doing a CMA. It’s just like a rebranding of doing an unsolicited CMA for a client. That’s been one of the biggest offers that we’ve made in our marketing funnel on Instagram. Because people want to know what’s going on with the marketplace. You know, direct them to your DMS have a conversation about it.
Nazar Kalayji 19:49
So Dave, can you walk us through what that looked like for you? So was it a video? Was it a real was it a post?
David Caldwell 19:58
Yeah, we have we saw I have I have videos we’ll do, we’ll do stories with it. If you guys follow me on Instagram, you’ll start you’ll see the stories were asking about home values. And sometimes we direct people to DMS. But it could just be something really simple like, Hey, this is David called with Hillshire Realty Group. We know there’s lots of uncertainty in the real estate market today. And it’s more important than ever, to know the value of your home. If you want a no obligation consultation of your home’s value, not a listing presentation, just a conversation about house the market. Click on the link in my bio, fill out the form and you know, request and request your complimentary report or can be sent me a DM or it can be called me. But it shouldn’t be as it shouldn’t be all three. But people do need specific direction on where to go. Now what would you do with that lead? If that person’s 123 years out?
David Caldwell 20:48
I might say hey, Nazar, how frequently would you want to have this conversation? And Nazar may say every six months, you might say every year he might say it’s not that important to me. When you think I should know, just let me know. I’m convinced as a coach, that just like your dentist calls you twice a year to tell you to get your teeth cleaned. You don’t go to a different dentist. As a coach, I get my clients to talk to each one of their clients twice a year about their home values. That consumer doesn’t talk to anyone else about it. And a How’s the market conversation is a leading conversation for people in a transaction.
Nazar Kalayji 21:27
So my dentist did call me and said Hey, Nazar, it’s been six months since your last cleaning. You should come like not some any Joe Schmo. But like my actual dentists call me like, Oh, shoot. Yeah, let’s let’s schedule it.
David Caldwell 21:40
It makes a big difference. All right, hold on. We got a guest.
Tom Ferry 21:45
Hi, everybody. Hey, well, that was a very lame response.
Nazar Kalayji 21:51
Everyone’s on mute. We’re on mute.
Tom Ferry 21:54
So what’s going on? Talk to me in his art, what’s the Hey, can I ask you a question?
David Caldwell 22:00
I’m gonna totally, I told I already told him this are you’re going to take over?
Tom Ferry 22:04
Yeah. So what is the fundamental problem you’re trying to solve right now in your business?
Nazar Kalayji 22:10
How many more listings.
Tom Ferry 22:11
Is that the only thing we’re discussing?
Nazar Kalayji 22:14
We’re talking about lead funnels right now with Dave
Tom Ferry 22:18
I’m convinced in his are you’re on you know, many of these, you know, high level text conversations that we’re having. Even you know, even inside the legacy group, what is the only thing we’re focusing on? Everybody’s saying the same thing. Right. And then everybody read the the Inman or routers or wherever you got the information yesterday, and the class action lawsuit for all of us living in the US. Okay, so I hope you watch my little video, it’s, it’s prepared, not panic. We, we as a community have been talking about this for two years. And nobody should be shocked that that next level of announcement has come up. It doesn’t mean Robert Mack, that nothing’s going to happen on Tuesday. All it means is they now have a go forward plan. And then it’ll be you know, 8 million stops along the way. But I’m gonna make the argument that a whole bunch of agents that just read that article are probably going to do nothing today, but all of us are gonna communicate color paths, lines, make more conversations, develop more content, we’re gonna do all the right stuff.
Tom Ferry 23:18
So not not not motivational by design. Instead, the people that do the work right now are gonna make a fortune. And we are in the spring market. So whoever has all the listings wins. You guys talking about that kind of stuff we’re talking about an annual equity review is that if they talk to proactively talk to their clients about the market, their client will talk to anyone else about it. And then the 100% that and all the texts that we went through a couple of days ago with Jimmy Mackin, which is are all send you and then you can send out to everybody. There’s like three different texts that are just performing really well right now we know the one email the you know, name, your price email. Have you guys all sent that out to your database? Give me a thumbs up if you have because I see some faces. All right, that one is performing really nice. But there’s a whole bunch of that the I would say the easiest conversation starter on the planet today is you ask, especially if you have a team. You ask your team, you’re like, Okay, we’re gonna sit down Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and for one hour, we’re going to take every person we sold the house to and this year you pick the year right? So just you can kind of frame it and frame their mind around whatever 2019 transactions 2017 transactions 2020 And all you’re going to do is you’re gonna go to their house on Zillow or realtor.ca Take a screenshot of it and text it to them and say, I was thinking about you today. I looked at your house on Zillow. I have my opinion on this price. What do you think send it’s like the it’s the CMA it’s like 10 CMA is in two seconds and all of you will get this is the first time in your life that you’re super stoked that Zillow is wrong. Make sense? That one so does our I’m yet to have any of the you know any the small teams, individual agents, right that I’m working with, right? Large teams, enterprise, everything, none of them, they all say the same thing. I start, I do five a day, five a day, five a day, five a day, and then I’m too busy.
Tom Ferry 25:13
So I would make the challenge for all of you. I know you all have your quarterly goals already set. But I would certainly hope that one of your quarterly goals is how many listings you’re gonna take in the second quarter. And we all know the rule, no more than three goals per quarter. One has to be how many listings we’re going to take in the quarter, I would also make the argument if you don’t have a profitability goal, for the second quarter, you’ll finish the quarter without one. And the third one would be clearly we all need more attention. We need more eyeballs. So what do we need? Like what’s the marketing goal for the quarter? And hard to argue against whether it is x number of future sellers? Nobody needs a buyer lead? Hopefully not in this group. Nobody needs a buyer lead. It also be like, how many marketing leads? How many hand raisers can I generate in the second quarter for the third quarter, the fourth quarter, the first quarter of next year in the second quarter of next year? How to identify all my future sellers in my database and do it all on one quarter? That’d probably be my third most important goal. Now against I’m only talking business, not life, just listings, profit and future sellers.
Nazar Kalayji 26:25
So Tom, in the past when the market was, as it was several years back, people were moving me just because there’s opportunity was great, right, right. But now what I’ve noticed is that people are moving only when a life event takes place. And so it’s not work opportunities, you know, we’re like I would I want to move to my next house, I want to move to another home, but I don’t want to give up my 3.2% interest rate, right. And so how do we identify those individuals that you know, because obviously, those are conditional things that need to happen, right? A life event needs to happen for them to say, Okay, well, you know, rates are
Tom Ferry 27:03
I got you so, so ready. Here’s our hey Tom and Kathy, I was thinking about you guys every day. I was looking at your price on your apartment. You know on Zillow. I have my thoughts on this price. What do you think send and my wife had literally like this. This is true story. You’ve heard me say these are right. Death, divorce, diamonds diplomas, right? And then I put D relocation to be funny, but it’s like D relocation right? We know that’s there. You don’t my new one is please don’t be offended by this fucking dogs. I have a puppy coming on Thursday. My wife’s like, we have a new dog coming. Oh my god, I’m so excited. Like the next thing out of her mouth was we’re gonna have to sell the apartment, get a house. Are you kidding me? I’m not getting I’m not moving. And I told her I love you way too much. And I don’t want to miss you. I’d prefer that we live together. But she has been looking at houses in Highland Park nonstop. Christina is like I love Gabby. Yes. But even that, and I’ve got like a 2.1 interest rate on my apartment on a 10-year fixed. Right. It’s I live there for free, essentially. But you know what my wife says we’re moving. It doesn’t matter what I say.
Tom Ferry 28:11
You have made so so here’s my point. Unless you’re talking a probate strategy, right? A very defined like a divorce a attorney strategy. Right? I don’t think there’s any other way than working right now than going deep. Go to Z in your database and work your way up. The people that are willing to do the work, right? It’s no different from because I see so many. Like, I’m not gonna say familiar faces. I’m gonna say friends. On this session. We, we put hazmat suits on and went out and showed properties during the pandemic. You all know how to pivot. The pivot now is work ethic. That’s it. Now, if I gave you a second one, but this is a long-term play, the long-term play is in all of you have heard me say this before. All of you have heard me say this before. But now we’re seeing people that actually went from idea to opera operationalizing it Maureen Fallon has had 48 Boomer and above hand raisers come to a sell your home seminar in her office to in January to in February Saturday lunch Hangout, have conversations make a presentation. She’s going to do it at the summit this year. But get this of the 48 that should who in their right mind goes to a real estate agents office to learn how to sell their home. very motivated sellers are to be with me. So she says I’ve already listed five starting from January. That means I got the other you know, whatever. 48 minus 543. She said that are on various dates of nurturing. She’s going to do two of those a month for the balance of the year. Maybe take August off because Queens New York right a lot of you were you out and about? She said, but I’m going to try and generate hundreds of these future opportunities you said, and they’re all showing up. 65, 70. Right. So, so if you start to think about that demographic, but Rob, that’s a long-term play. Right, Andrew, that’s a long-term play. It’s not a, I’m just going to start sniping these people and knocking on their doors sending out one mailer. It’s all about the long term. So if you haven’t gone into remind your MLS and said, Show me every person with a two-story home that’s 65 years or older, right with zero mortgage or only have 20% left on their mortgage, and then really sad. Okay, now, what’s my demographic farming strategy? And last time I checked, there’s this guy named Nizar who’s done a couple of talks for us at Tom X and others on this farming strategy. I don’t know if he’s, is he given up on all that stuff? I don’t think so. Okay, so so he knows how to operationalize farming. But now the new game is if you want to get narrow, it’s demographic farming, but it’s not send a mailer and expect to listing it is I’m going to send him address notes. I’m going to send mailers, I’m going to invite them to stuff I’m going to do events for them. I’m going to bring in trust attorneys, I’m going to bring in like tax law attorneys, I’m going to educate them how to bring in like how to do a home makeover. We’re going to talk about how do you go from big house to small house.
CURIOUS ABOUT FIV REALTY and want to learn more?
Schedule a call with us at https://calendly.com/fivrealtyco/30min
About Fiv Realty: Fiv Realty is a high-split, low-cap, cloud-based brokerage that believes in COLLABORATION with a growth mindset. Empowering real estate agents to take Fiv steps forward to ACHIEVE SUCCESS and BUILD WEALTH.
Let’s Get Social!
https://www.facebook.com/fivrealty
https://www.instagram.com/fivrealty
https://www.tiktok.com/@nazarkalayji
https://fivrealty.com
