Investing in The Complete Guide for Real Estate W Wishpond Online Sales Funnel

A Complete Sales FunnelAn optimized sales funnel consists of an entirely automated strategy which: ● Collects traffic either paid for through advertising or organically through content ●

Investing in

The Complete Guide for

Real Estate

W Wishpond

Online Sales

Funnel

YOUR

The People who Actually Pay You

Anthony Hitt (CEO of Engel & Völkers North

America) has a quote which is as true in modern online marketing as it was when he said it about phone calls and mailouts

The quote framed the way the most successful real estate agents and developers did it in the 90s and 2000’s, and continues to define them in modern online marketing

“To be successful in real estate,

you must always and consistently

put your clients first When you

do, your personal needs will be

realized beyond your greatest

expectations.”

That’s why we created this ebook.

When you want to create a product that generates a buzz, inspires others, and sells successfully, you do so first and foremost with your end user in mind

For real estate, that product is you.

The way to stay ahead of the curve in the competitive real estate market is to consistently and visibly provide value

to your prospective clients - and to ensure you’re getting something in return

This ebook will guide you through doing that well, online I’ll also take a comprehensive look at optimizing your

online marketing efforts without spending your entire budget and half your lifetime

This ebook is your guide to uncovering the online

marketing formula that works best for you, but more than that it is your guide to finding the formula that works FOR you, even when you’re not paying attention

Let’s get rolling

Yours truly,

James Scherer

Marketing Strategist, Wishpond

Introduction to An Optimized Sales Funnel

Chapter 1:

An optimized sales funnel is one which, once set up

intelligently and completely, takes care of you when you’re not looking

Let’s try a short experiment Answer these two questions (no need to write them down, just go over the answers in your head):

1 Do you feel that online marketing only works when you’re doing it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and paying through the nose?

2 Are you currently able to track the ROI of your online marketing efforts to determine exactly the value of your dollar?

If your first answer is an emphatic yes and your second is

an emphatic no, then we need to work on an automated and optimized sales funnel

A Complete Sales Funnel

An optimized sales funnel consists of an entirely

automated strategy which:

● Collects traffic (either paid for through advertising or organically through content)

● Drives traffic to a landing page designed with a single conversion “Ask”, and equipped with a retargeting pixel which shows bounced traffic further ads to

convert them at an optimal rate

● Delivers content-focused and sales-focused timed emails to nurture contacts towards a final sale

Landing Pages &

Remarketing Advertising & Content Marketing

Email Automation Final Sale

A Complete Sales Funnel

Let’s break it down into bite-sized pieces (all of this will be covered in-depth in later chapters):

Middle of Funnel;

Each promotional strategy (paid or organic) drives traffic

to a page optimized to get a single conversion from that traffic Landing pages are used to get contact details

Remarketing campaigns are used to reconnect with traffic that bounces from your pages

Bottom of Funnel:

Timed and automated emails (optimized with tested

subject line, length and content) are sent to the leads

generated by your landing pages These emails either

nurture leads towards a final sale or (depending on the landing page) arrange a good time to meet or call

The “Aha!” Moment

Many real-estate agents find that there is a certain action which prospective clients consistently take before

converting to a contract or deal This is referred to, in

some circles, as the “Aha” moment

Driving a prospective customer towards this action can be

a good way to design your sales funnel - optimizing it for a single Ask which you’ve found (and proven) to result in a conversion

For instance, if you’ve found that a certain piece of content you’ve created (a video series discussing the benefits of passive income real estate, let’s say) elicits more final

conversions than another piece of content, you need to devote more time, energy and resources to promoting that content than you do a piece which doesn’t result in the same kind of conversion rates

I’ll get more into optimizing your sales funnel based on

“Aha” moments in Chapter 6

Why Should I Produce Content?

Consider the reason your clients hire you Why are you worth your commission?

Because buying or selling a home is hard It’s time

consuming, frustrating, confusing and the stakes are high

You make it easier You facilitate the easy processing of what is often the largest purchase (or sale) of a person’s life

But you need to convince prospective clients that hiring you is worth it You need to be an authority, or else why should they trust that you’ll ease any of their real estate aches and pains?

Content does this

Consistent, high-quality content increases the breadth of your brand (you) online, increases your reputation and makes you a sector authority People looking to learn how

to intelligently sell their home learn from you

Who better to help them when it comes time to buy, sell, rent or invest?

An interconnected online sales funnel

allows you to see the value of each

step independently and in conjunction

with the steps above and below it.

An automated sales funnel allows you

to sit back and watch the traffic and

sales roll in, only interfering when an

update or change needs to be made.

Creation of lead-generating content

not only acts as a first touchpoint for

your business, but improves your

status within your sector and spreads

brand awareness.

W

Wishpond

Getting the Most out of Paid Advertising

Chapter 2:

It’s no revelation that online advertising delivers a

trackable ROI and (9 times out of 10) a superior one when compared to traditional forms of advertising Every time I see a real estate agent on the back of a bus or a park bench

I cringe If it works, awesome, but I’ve yet to talk to a single broker, agent or realtor able to prove without a shadow of doubt that their investment was a positive one

And that’s the true benefit of online, even more than the

cost comparison: the ability to track what you spend and

what it delivers for you.

This chapter will dive into the two primary forms of paid online advertising, Google Search Ads and Facebook

Advertising

Both platforms have benefits and deficiencies in equal measure While Google delivers high-quality traffic, it is highly competitive and can be costly While Facebook is extremely affordable it can offer a low click-through-rate.Learning more about these platforms is the best way to maximize their potential and your return on investment

Google Adwords

Google delivers search-based advertising to prospective clients Your advertisement shows up at the top (or side) of Google’s search results when someone types in its trigger keywords

Click-through-rates for Google Search Ads will vary widely depending on placement (between about 5% and 7%) Ad cost will also vary widely, as some keywords in some cities

- particularly for the real estate market - will cost upwards

of $15/click While other cities will be only a dollar or less

Google Adwords Tips and Tricks

Long-Tail Keyword

Google prioritizes the context of a search as much as it does the keywords Long-tail is this context-centric search format

Think of asking SIRI ‘Where’s the best Thai restaurant in the area?’ She scurries off with that information and comes back with a response that makes sense Google is

designing its search (and Adwords) to do the same Tap into this when choosing your keywords, and see your ads popping up more frequently than your competitors who choose generic keywords only

Test multiple ads until you find the right one

Create multiple ads for a single campaign (based on offer, house, or service you provide) and watch the rate at which people are clicking through on each Determine which ad works best for you based on Impressions and CTR

After a month or so of running your different ads,

determine which single ad (or ad and landing page

combination) stands out based on the ratio of Impressions

to Clicks

Google Adwords Quality Score

The placement of your ad isn’t based solely on your

budget Google will reward ads with better placement if they have a history of generating more traffic

In other words, your ad will get better CTR and your cost per click for the same position can also go down

Here are a few best practices for how to do that:

1 Use the keyword phrase that you're targeting in your headline If you are wanting clicks on "Manhattan real

estate", then have that in the title, such as "View

Manhattan Real Estate Opportunities."

2 Try to also place the exact keyword phrase near the beginning of the description It could be something like "All

Manhattan Real Estate listings, maps and more here."

3 Enter the Display URL This is usually the home page of your site It isn't necessarily where they're going, but

shows legitimacy

4 Enter the Destination URL This is the link to their

destination on your site, such as your IDX search page

Google Adwords Extensions

Ad extensions let advertisers enhance their Google Ads with phone numbers, an address, site links, reviews,

previous page visits and more They generally show up in blue, just below the ad description

By including more contact information in your ads, you make it easier for your potential customer to connect with you

Ad extensions don’t cost anything more to include in your

ad but you are still charged for interactions with your

extensions as you are for your headline For example, if someone clicks on your phone number to call you directly from your ad extension, you’ll be billed for the conversion

Google Adwords Conversion Tracking

There’s really no point in me paraphrasing Google when their definition of conversion tracking is solid as a rock:

“A conversion occurs when a click on your ad leads directly to a behavior that's valuable to you, such as a purchase, newsletter sign-up, phone call, or download.

It's important to track conversions because they can give you insight into how the performance of your ads relates directly to the success of your business Conversion tracking can also help identify which ads and keywords are most successful for your business.

To use conversion tracking for most sources of conversions, you or someone else will need to edit your website's HTML code to add a small bit of tracking code called a tag This tag will place a cookie on a user's computer or mobile phone when

he or she clicks your ad If the user reaches one of your

conversion pages, AdWords looks for the cookie and records a successful conversion for you.”

Here’s how to add a conversion pixel to your site to track the success of your Google Adwords

Google Adwords Resources

● Google Keyword Planner

○ Keyword Planner allows you to search for

keyword and ad group ideas, get historical statistics, see how a list of keywords might perform, and even create a new keyword list by multiplying several lists of keywords together

● Google Adwords Glossary of Terms

○ The top 25 terms you need to know before

diving into Google Adwords Before reading or learning advanced strategies, you need to start with a solid foundation

● How to Optimize Keywords and ROI for Google Adwords

○ Outlines 10 advanced strategies to increase the success of your keywords and improve the

return on your Adwords investment

● How to Add a Conversion Tracking Pixel to your Adwords Campaign

○ Breaks down why to track conversions as well

as the how and where of implementing the tracking pixel correctly within your website

Facebook Advertising

If Google Adwords is intent-based advertising, Facebook is target-based Facebook gives you access to the largest guaranteed advertising audience in the world 1.35 billion possible monthly impressions means that there’s no doubt about it

Your next client is on Facebook, you just have

to find them.

Facebook Advertising

For those unfamiliar with Facebook Advertising, here’s a short snapshot of the platform

A quick breakdown

There are three types of Facebook Ads: Sidebar, News

Feed, and Mobile News Feed:

● Sidebar ads are the cheapest options, though they also have the lowest average click-through rates

● News Feed ads are the most expensive and have the highest average click-through rates

● As the name suggests, Mobile News Feed ads are specifically designed for display on mobile devices

For real estate, there are two primary objectives, “Send

people to your website” and “Increase conversions on your website” For the latter, you’ll

need to place a pixel

(provided by Facebook)

within your website’s code

to track conversions

There are two primary pricing

structures: pay-per-click and

pay-per-impression (an

impression being 1,000 views of your ad.)

Facebook Advertising Best Practices

● Avoid too much detail as your image will be

compressed before it goes live

● Test multiple images for the same campaign to

determine which works best Try multiple headshots

to see which yields the highest clickthroughs

on Facebook Ad Images and Facebook Ad Copy

Facebook Advertising Targeting

Now that that’s out of the way we can move onto the thing that makes Facebook Advertising worth doing

Targeting.

A Facebook Ad thrown haphazardly onto the platform is

no better than your face on the back of a bus (actually, it still is, because at least you can see the value of your

Facebook Advertising

Here’s what the basic ad targeting manager looks like, and

how it all breaks down for the real estate market:

Apart from targeting by location, there’s no real need to mess

around with initial demographic targeting The fun stuff is below

More Demographics allows you to target your ads by education, job title, and life events like recently married or engaged

Interest targeting allows you to target by people interested in real estate or investment

Behavior targeting allows you to target Facebook Page Admins, frequent travellers, etc

Facebook Advertising

An example:

If your ad is shown to 5,000 untargeted people in

Sacramento, California, your click-through-rate is unlikely

to venture above 02% That equals about one person per day being sent to your page True, you’ll only pay about 40 cents for that person, but it makes the whole process a waste of time

If, however, you target your Facebook Ad at 5000

newlywed or newly-engaged users (who have a reasonably high chance of being in the market for a new home) in

Sacramento, California, your results will be entirely

different

Your click-through-rate goes up to 1% and each day you get a qualified lead (provided your landing page converts

at about 10%) for $4.00

Facebook Advertising Tips and Tricks

Work the Ad Auction:

Facebook Ads go through an “ad auction” before they go live on the social media website

Your daily budget, along with the amount of competition trying to reach your audience, determines whether you win that auction

Winning the auction is important (and is the basis for

Facebook’s “Suggested Bid”) because it determines what portion of the “Possible Reach” your ad will actually

encounter

But if your ad isn’t time-sensitive, you can refresh the suggested bid every once in a while to see if winning the auction would cost you less at different times

Once you set your maximum bid and win the auction, your

ad reach won’t change — which means you could save some serious cash over the course of an advertisement’s full run

Facebook Advertising Tips and Tricks

Work the Outside Angle:

Consider targeting specifications ostensibly unrelated to real estate Facebook allows you to target newlyweds, married people of a certain age group, even people who have friends who have recently purchased a home

● Test different ad

audiences to see which

delivers the highest

click-through-rate

● Test different ad images

for different ad audiences

Does a picture of you work

better for people Interested

in Real Estate while a picture

of a home work better for

people recently married?

● Test different ad copy

Do you see more clicks when

you keep your ads short and

factual, or colorful and full of exciting words and phrases?

Facebook Advertising Tips and Tricks

A real-world example of “working the outside angle”

This is a screenshot

from my phone - a

Facebook Ad delivered

serendipitously as I

was writing this ebook

In it, realtor Envy

It’s likely that the

advertiser chose this

image based on its

targeted audience

(males) To optimize

for click-throughs they

should have a different

image for their female

demographic

Facebook Advertising Tips and Tricks

Get Advanced:

Custom audience targeting lets you target current

customers, lapsed or inactive customers, new leads, etc — basically, any existing contact that you want to reach with highly targeted content

Custom audiences see substantially higher click-through rates than standard advertisements mostly because

people who see the ad already know your brand

Lookalike audience targeting generates a list of Facebook

users from your existing custom audience — and once again we’re targeting single individuals here

You won’t be able to see their names, but Facebook will take your custom audience & create a similar group with either 1% or 5% specificity

I recommend testing both methods to see which works best for your business

For more on advanced Facebook Ad targeting, check out Facebook Ad Strategies That Won’t Break the Bank

Facebook Advertising Tips and Tricks

Conversion Tracking:

Similarly to Google Adwords conversion tracking, to

ensure your ads are actually worth the money you’re

spending on them you’ll need to place a conversion

tracking pixel within the code of your site’s conversion page

Think of it as a bit of gum stuck to your prospective client’s shoe When they see and click your Facebook Ad they step

on a sticky bit of gum That bit of gum stays with them through your landing page and onto the conversion

confirmation page (likely a “Thank You for downloading”

or “Talk to you soon” page) As soon as they arrive on that page, your bit of gum pings Facebook to let the platform know a conversion has occurred

For a full breakdown of how Facebook’s Ad Conversion tracking pixel can work for your business, check out the how-to guide

Facebook Vs Google for Real Estate

Google Adwords Price per Click: $.5 - $20.00 depending on keyword

Targeting Effectiveness: Excellent: Targeting based on

keywords as well as geographic and some demographics (with

display advertising only)

Ad Creative: Poor: No color, severe copy limitations,

restrictions based on keywords

Testing Capability: Good: Multiple variations with solid

analytic platform.

Overall Effectiveness: Good: Largest possible ad audience

Keyword targeting ensures valuable traffic Extensive optimization

necessary.

Facebook Advertising Price per Click: $.25 - $2.00

Targeting Effectiveness : Excellent: Most advanced non-keyword

targeting platform Capable of targeting by job title, interests, purchase behavior, similarity to existing clients, and individual email addresses

Ad Creative: Good: Color, imagery, limited copy

Testing Capability: Excellent: Multiple variations visible with

excellent analytic platform Campaign structure makes it easy to see which ad (directed at he same landing page) is delivering a better ROI

Overall Effectiveness: Good: Large ad audience and solid targeting

strategies yield high ROI for low ad spend.

Chapter 2

Key Points

Test your Adwords keywords

exhaustively, and try comparing the

performance of long-tail keywords vs

traditional.

Create multiple Facebook Ads for

different target audiences, and rotate

the ad design when your Frequency

reaches 5-7.

Hit Facebook Ad targeting from a

different angle to maximize your

budget Consider newlyweds,

recently-moved and recently

Creating a Landing Page

Chapter 3:

A well-targeted, traffic-generating online advertisement

is completely useless and a serious waste of money if it’s driving traffic to a un-optimized, badly-designed landing page

It’s like a Ferrari without an engine: it looks beautiful until you pop the hood and realize you’re going nowhere

Whether you’re offering a lead-generating real estate walkthrough, ebook or a straight-up sales call, you need to design it with that “Ask” in mind Don’t send traffic to a website with a navigation bar distracting them with 10 different tabs Don’t send them to an irrelevant page of your website or your About page

Get the initial conversion by focusing on the initial

conversion Everything else follows