Real Estate Pros Podcast: For Real People Working in Real Estate

Every day, real estate businesses and individual agents fight for share in the marketplace, the attention of their prospects, and sales. Sadly, in the eyes of many consumers, every real estate business does the same thing and only the strongest brands survive and thrive. Among the strongest are the brands that just "get it." They know who they are, who their prospects are, and how to reach their prospects in a way that speaks to them and encourages loyalty. But they don't stop there. Powerful brands always grow. They understand that to stay ahead, they must evolve as technology changes along with the way consumers think and buy.  To explore the steps you need to take to build a powerful real estate brand, I interview branding strategist and advisor Karin Forster. On this episode of Real Estate Pros, Karin explains the steps to successfully re-branding your business, starting a new brand from scratch or building your personal brand as an individual agent.

When it comes to digital marketing in real estate, we’ve seen a lot of new ‘things’ this year. From the developments in Facebook Advertising tools for promoting properties to the launch of countless agent comparison sites and property portals. It can be easy to be seduced by shiny new platforms and tools that promise to deliver more leads to agents, more often.    Something that our team have been focusing on heavily this year is educating agents on how to have less of a reliance on other platforms for new business opportunities. It's something that we’re super passionate about and from the exciting results we’re seeing with our own clients or agents who have attended our training in 2017 and have implemented the key learnings themselves, it’s a mission we’ll push even harder next year.    On this episode of Real Estate Pros, we share three digital marketing must-haves for agents in 2018 that will deliver you more leads, more referrals and less of a reliance on other platforms for new business opportunities.    Show notes -> stepps.com.au/podcast

For some real estate agents, growing a massive social media following takes precedence over anything else on those platforms. This leaves me to ask, when it comes to followers and "Likes," does quantity trump quality? We recently sat down with an agent who has over 5,000 followers on Facebook, 10,000 on Instagram and 5,000+ LinkedIn connections. But although he appeared to be 'crushing it' on social media, nothing was what it seemed.  On this episode of Real Estate Pros, we explore the real estate industry's obsession with social media and why your focus could be hurting your marketing efforts.

There are only a few industries left in which automation isn’t threatening job roles. That’s a pretty scary thought, right? Well, don’t panic just yet. According to The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs to Computerisation?, it is jobs that are highly reliant on social and negotiation skills that are less threatened by automation. BUT! If you and your team are too busy performing mundane repeatable tasks while your competitors are the ones who are face-to-face with clients and prospects, delivering a better customer experience, your chances of being disrupted are highly likely. On this episode of Real Estate Pros, we interview Ian Campbell, founder and CEO of Aire - a software company focusing on solving big problems for the real estate industry. Ian and his team have built the first ever digital assistant for real estate, Rita, who can outperform a human counterpart at a range of tasks and deliver an amazing customer experience across digital channels. Ian shares his background in the industry and we look at how artificial intelligence is shaping the future of real estate.  This is an interview you don't want to miss!

Let’s face it - we’re all looking for shortcuts to help manage our real estate businesses more efficiently and effectively. One of the best ways to make your daily activities run more smoothly is outsourcing - having someone manage the repeatable tasks for you - allowing you and your team to focus on only high-value activities. While some businesses continue to sit on the sidelines of outsourcing, debating whether or not to give it a go, there are many businesses who have quietly been getting on with the job of building their offshore teams. On this episode of Real Estate Pros, we're joined by Aimee Engelmann, CEO at Beepo - an outsourcing company specialising in real estate. We discuss the tasks that are currently being performed offshore for Australian real estate businesses and the steps you should take if you're considering outsourcing.  Stick around until the end! Aimee has a very special offer for our listeners.

Are you concerned about the growing influence of the major real estate portals, agent review sites and lead generators? What if there was something you could do to rely less on those platforms for new business opportunities? What if that 'something' was a marketing strategy that's actually been around for hundreds of years, and more recently has become one of the most talked about terms in digital marketing?  On this episode of Real Estate Pros, we're joined by Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute and the guy who invented the term 'content marketing'. We discuss why content marketing is so different to traditional advertising and why it could be the only marketing left if you want to rely less on the big online platforms for new business opportunities into the future.

When you are not getting the results you want, it is tempting to throw out the marketing tactic you are using and jump to another.  You don’t need to look far for a real estate agency website with a blog that hasn’t been updated in over two years or a social media page that hasn’t been posted to in months. Just because something isn’t driving new business right away, doesn’t mean it won’t later. On this episode of Real Estate Pros, we discuss why cutting a marketing initiative short could have spelt long-term brand damage for one particular real estate business. Read the highlights: stepps.com.au/podcast

How many times have you heard someone say, I just want that top search result on Google? For a business website, the top spot in a Google Search can be a lead generating machine. Think about it. Google is where most people go when they are researching. What if there was a way to get the pages of your company website on that coveted first page? Well there is… On this episode of Real Estate Pros, you'll learn 3 simple ways to improve your Google ranking - without the need to bother your web developer or SEO team.  Read the highlights: stepps.com.au/podcast

Very few companies have led the spawn of an entire industry, and still managed to stay ahead of the curve, like Netflix.  The video-streaming giant marks its 20th anniversary this year, touting a valuation of $60 billion. That works out to about $3 billion of added market value a year. But as impressive as Netflix's growth has been, it's their founder Reed Hasting’s vision for the future that is truly inspiring.  On this episode of Real Estate Pros, we discuss Netflix's rise to fame, why Hasting's pivoted the company in the year 2000 and the lessons for our beloved real estate industry from a company that's grown from zero to $60 billion in 20 years. Read the highlights: stepps.com.au

What would it mean for your business if you owned direct access to an audience of homeowners who love your marketing so much they actually looked forward to getting it from you? What if instead of paying other people (media companies) for the privilege to access their audience, you could communicate with your own, for free, whenever you like? On this episode of Real Estate Pros, we share the story of a brand who became the largest media company in their industry. We discuss how they did it and why there is a growing trend toward brands turning into media companies in many industries all over the world. Read the highlights: stepps.com.au/podcast

What if the way we currently view social media in real estate was the only thing holding us back?   Over the past decade, we've watched the real estate industry adopt social media marketing in a big way. But, many are reporting it's harder than ever (and more expensive) to win attention. On this episode of Real Estate Pros, we discuss a social media marketing strategy used by media companies and high trafficked real estate websites to win the game of attention and drive business outcomes. Read the highlights: stepps.com.au/podcast

“Whoever gets to scale with data centric businesses has a natural advantage - a monopolistic tendency.” These are the words of Adrian Turner of the CSIRO in a recent documentary on the ABC titled 'The AI Race' - where business leaders and tech experts explored how Artificial Intelligence is changing jobs and impacting the value of businesses in every industry. Turner's argument suggests that businesses ought to focus on owning their data and direct access to consumers or allow 'monopolistic' platforms to continue to thrive. In this episode of Real Estate Pros, we discuss the influence of our major property portals, the growing influence of Facebook and how some agents are leveraging its targeting capabilities to drive traffic to their own platforms and to generate enquiries at a lower cost. Read the highlights: stepps.com.au/podcast

Social media is inherently buzz-worthy. It’s what everyone in real estate is doing, and what everyone’s talking about. Unfortunately, some of the things being said about social media, particularly social media marketing, are not as true as we have been led to believe. In fact, some of these misinterpretations could actually be preventing your business from maximizing the benefits of this powerful online marketing tool. In this episode of Real Estate Pros, we discuss real estate's love affair with social media and the one big myth that could be holding your business back. Read the highlights: stepps.com.au/podcast

'Show, don't tell' is one of the most powerful marketing strategies in real estate today. Much like in the movie Inception, your goal is to plant an idea in the mind of your prospective clients (or new team members) without them being fully aware of it. Someone is more likely to perform an action when it’s inspired by their own idea, not someone else telling them to. In this episode of Real Estate Pros, we explore the 'show, don't tell' marketing strategy and examples of how you can apply it in your business to attract (and retain) clients and staff. Read the highlights: stepps.com.au/podcast

"Instant coffee is no longer fast enough."  This quote by Matt Church is true for many consumers. People want things NOW.  Speed is a huge differentiator in business today and technology and software has certainly helped many companies deliver this much desired resource to consumers. But while speed is an important factor, it’s actually not what most customers put at the top of their priority list. Especially in real estate. On this episode of Real Estate Pros, we debate why the real estate industry is having the wrong conversation about disruption and why if businesses don't evolve quickly they may find themselves on the wrong side of history.

Your clients and prospects are bombarded by advertising messages every day, and each one fights to carve out its own place within their consciousness. With an overabundance of marketing channels, it is even more important in the digital landscape to stand out and get the attention of your audience and the answer may lie in the AIDA model - an advertising framework used particularly well by car companies like BMW to stand out from its competitors. On this episode of Real Estate Pros, we discuss the AIDA model and what BMW can teach real estate about using it to make your advertising stand out.   Read the highlights: stepps.com.au/podcast

In the past, you (or your company) only had a few channels on which to market your services. These included direct mail, phone, direct fax, TV, radio and newspapers. Back then, you only had to compete for attention against other real estate agents. Today, the media landscape is fragmented into thousands of different channels and with the rise of social media, you're not just competing for attention against other real estate agents. You're also competing for attention in the same newsfeed as people's friends, family and the causes they support. This has led many brands to explore a "new" approach to marketing. Well, new in the sense that it's been around for hundreds of years, but only now is it more relevant than ever. On this episode of Real Estate Pros, we're going back in time to discuss how marketing was done in the 'olden days', why things changed when TV came along and why so many brands today are marketing like it's 1885.   Read the highlights: stepps.com.au/podcast

From the major portals to banner ads, from websites to social media, there is no shortage of real estate agents and agencies with a presence on the internet today who are marketing their services and points of difference to vendors and investor clients. Let's face it, everyone is creating content. Lots of content. But just like any marketing channel, there are agents and agencies who stand out more than others. There are some who generate revenue from their digital marketing efforts but for others, it's costing their business time and money with minimal (if any) return. On this episode of Real Estate Pros, we discuss why some agents stand out online more than others and how to get more results with less effort. Read the highlights: stepps.com.au/podcast

As 4,000 real estate professionals converge on the Gold Coast Australia this weekend for the AREC Conference 2017, I want to talk to you about a trend that will most likely not be covered at length. It’s a trend on the rise in a number of other industries around the globe and one that I think we’ll be hearing a lot more about in the coming months and years.  Read the highlights: stepps.com.au/podcast

We would (probably) all agree that social media can be really fun from a personal perspective but when it comes to using social media for business, there is an entirely different purpose behind everything you post. It can be tempting to focus on the number of 'likes' you have or how much engagement you get as a measure of success. But if you're using social media for business (and you are!), these 'vanity metrics' can’t be the be-all, end-all of your social media efforts. In this episode of Real Estate Pros, we look at what you should be measuring to determine if social media is contributing value to your business, or a useless distraction. Read the highlights: www.stepps.com.au/podcast