When it comes to Facebook advertising most Estate Agents adopt the same approach they do when sending out leaflets. TELL TELL TELL and hope someone is listening…
This direct approach style marketing died a looong time ago and was not resurrected with the advent of digital marketing, it still doesn’t work. The truth is, people simply don’t go on to Facebook or any other social platform to be advertised to.
When they feel like they are they simply scroll past, unless of course your, message is timely and extremely relevant. But let’s be honest the chance of you delivering that on your first shot is close to ZERO, bit like the aforementioned leaflets really.
So, if that’s the case why are Facebook ads so effective and how can Estate Agents use them to their advantage?
In order for our ads to be more effective we should try to communicate to our audience in a way that reflects the relationship they have with us and the one we want to build with them.
To help break this down it’s easier to look at your audience as being in 3 keys stages and deliver your messages tailored to the current stage that they are in.
THE KEY STAGES:
- Cold Audience
- Warm Audience
- Hot Audience
Another way to look at it for you funnel fanatics is Top of Funnel (TOFU), Middle of Funnel (MOFU) & Bottom of Funnel (BOFU).
Cold Audience (TOFU)
Members of this audience likely don’t know who you are, may never of heard of you and quite frankly don’t really care what you have to say. This doesn’t mean that they won’t be interested in the long run.
These are the majority of people you can target with Facebook and are like the people in your leaflet audience (sorry I know I keep mentioning leaflets but it’s a great comparison)
Trying to get these people to take any sort of action is for the most part futile. However, what we can do at this stage, which is really important in terms of relationship building, is start to get them to KNOW you.
Warm Audience (MOFU)
Once your cold audience begins to know you a bit better and have started to engage with your content either by watching your videos or clicking your ads, visiting your website (amongst other things) they become a bit warmer.
They are beginning to show intent and an affinity to your message and the solution it brings. Maybe they have a problem they now believe you might have the solution to. They now KNOW who you are and are listening to your message, it’s time to build on that relationship and deliver content that gets them to LIKE you.
This can be done by delivering value in advance of any commitment.
HOT Audience (BOFU)
I know, seems a bit upside down right? The HOT audience being at the bottom of the funnel…
I didn’t make up the rules ?♂️
Anyway, this is it, this is where the magic happens and this is what what estate agents try to achieve at the top of the funnel with their cold audiences which is why most of their campaigns FAIL.
These people KNOW who you are, they’ve listened to your message, you’ve delivered VALUE and they LIKE you. They TRUST that you are the authority in providing the solution that they are looking for and are ready to do business!
Go for the conversion, ask for the appointment and go there knowing that none of your competitors have done nearly as much as you in terms of building a relationship.
But before you do that let me explain…
The Big Mistake
The one that I see estate agents make most often is using the same message for all the audience types. Trying to close for the appointment or TELL the viewer about the latest offer across your cold, warm and hot audiences just isn’t going to work.
Remember, people in the Cold audience don’t even know you well enough yet, they need to get to Know & Like you first.
So why don’t we just advertise to the warm & hot audiences then I hear you ask?
We cant rely solely on the Warm & Hot audiences as they are not scalable, they are limited only to the number of people who have engaged with you in some way, and those numbers are very finite.
Therefore, we need the cold audience to continue to push new people into our Warm and then Hot audiences.
Move Along, Move Along…
So the trick really is to continue to push or attract new people into the top of the funnel (TOFU) and deliver content that moves them along to the Warm and subsequently Hot audiences, all the while getting them to Know, Like & Trust us enough to either do business with us or refer us to others who are ready to do business with us.
So let’s break this down:
| Audience | Funnel Stage | Action | Objective | Campaign Type | Content |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cold | TOFU | Know | Connect | Awareness | Why |
| Warm | MOFU | Like | Engage | Consideration | How |
| Hot | BOFU | Trust | Convert | Conversion | What |
Getting complicated?
Luckily for us Facebook breaks it all down with their advertising campaign types. They are Awareness, Consideration and Conversion which as you can see perfectly map our audience types and really should be used in that order.
So first we attract someone to the top of our funnel and use Awareness to highlight something they may be interested in. This could be a blog post, video or graphic that touches on a topic relevant to your solution or service.
Avoid the temptation to go too deep here, remember they don’ know you yet, so are unlikely to devote the time to a lengthy post or video. Deliver a snippet of truth and a smidgen of personality that will help get them to know you better and be more interested the next time they hear from you.
A great idea at this stage of the funnel is to show them your “Why” explain why it is you do what you do.
So now they’ve had a Touch from your brand and made a connection, they Know who you are and are interested in what you have to say but are probably still not ready to commit to doing business with you. They are in the Consideration stage, they are thinking about it, now is the time to engage with them, go deeper with your message and maybe offer a solution that really piques their interest. They are now Warm to your message.
This is the perfect time to deliver your “How”, the how in this case being how your service or solution solves the issue you made them Aware of back in your “Why”
This really helps us to build authority with our audience and authority builds the most important ingredient and that is TRUST. Once you have built this Trust you audience become HOT and are ready for Conversion, so let’s ask for the business!
The Only Agent In
Because you have delivered VALUE at each of these “Touch Points” by the time they are ready to make a decision, they already Know you, Like you and Trust you. Is there really any other choice when it comes to deciding who to instruct?
I can tell you that many of my clients and students who follow this funnel are often the only Estate Agents called in. The clients want them to sell their property, the choice of agent is not one of their variables and neither is the fee.
So next time you are planning a campaign or wondering why your adverts are falling on deaf ears, I want you think about these three different audiences and how you can communicate with them differently.
Think about the content you are posting, are you always focussing on the conversion or are you posting sequential content that draws people in moves them along your funnel?
So there it is, the 3 audiences Estate Agents should be thinking about and how to speak to each one differently. I hope this helps give you some inspiration for your next campaign and some insight in how to structure it.
If you’d like to learn more about how to implement this into your Estate Agency business with examples on what types of content to create and how to target the right people then take a look at my Digital Marketing Mastermind program. It will help you get up and running in no time and our virtual sessions will help to keep you up to date with what is working right now. Go check it out!