Grant Wise is the president and founder of Witly (a client generation program for real estate agents) and the host of the podcast MarketingGenius.TV. He’s worked with Gary Vaynerchuk, Grant Cardone, and other industry leaders.

Today on Stay Paid, Grant gives us a deep dive into Facebook marketing, and explains how you can use this popular social media platform to close more deals.

Key Points:

• With Facebook marketing, you can turn total strangers into qualified leads, who then become loyal customers.
• In order to be effective at Facebook marketing, you still need a rock-solid sales process.
• Video content is an incredible tool for real estate agents looking to build trust and win over clients.

Q: Introduce yourself to our audience.

I grew up in the real estate industry. Everybody in my family was in the business in some capacity. I was just never really interested in the transactional side of real estate.

Despite this, I started a brokerage at age 21, which had some successes and failures. I was eventually asked to leave the business that I’d started.

I’d spent the better part of two years trying to teach agents much older than me how to use social media to grow their business. It never really went anywhere.

I had $25 in my pocket, which I used to launch my Social Media Bootcamp program that I hadn’t even finished developing. A woman named Tanya gave me $1,000 for my program, and she sold 48 homes over the next year.

In December 2015, we packaged it as a full-blown course. I went from being broke to being a multimillionaire. Our courses have helped sell billions of dollars in real estate, and helped agents better understand business, how to acquire customers, and how to grow their brand.

Agents can create predictable income if they understand what they’re doing with these systems.

Five or six years ago, it was very easy to get leads. A few dollars could bring you a great lead, because there weren’t really any restrictions. Since then, we’ve invested heavily in testing and have discovered what works.

Q: How do agents create predictable income through Facebook marketing?

Agents aren’t taught to be business owners. Instead, they do activities that make them good employees. They’re programmed to produce for somebody else and not themselves.

Once you understand this, you can implement systems that will make you the business owner.

There are three steps to creating a client generating system.

1. Target cold prospects on Facebook. Then, pull those leads into a CRM—taking them from leads that you rent to leads that you own.
2. Build a brand. Build a relationship—along with trust and loyalty—or you won’t get anywhere. The moment a lead logs back on to the internet, they should see your face (dynamic video re-marketing).
3. Have a great sales process. Today, people generate a lead, then text or call them. When there’s no response, they move on. You need a predefined, consistent experience that will allow you to convert at least 3–5 percent of your leads.

When you can do these three things, you have a holistic system that will allow you to see your cost per closing. This is important, because you can’t cash a lead at the bank. Your cost per closing reflects the people who have actually paid you for your services.

When you reframe your business to focus on your cost per closing, that will give you predictability.

Q: How do you nurture leads that will close at that rate?

Everyone likes to communicate in their own way. Some prefer texting, calling, video, or meeting in person. It really depends on your ideal customer.

You need to understand who your ideal customer is. For example, I know baby boomers won’t want to sit and text me all day long. They’re going to want to jump on the phone.

We like to have systems in place for all different types of communication. Prospects will self-identify their preferred method of communication depending on how they respond to you.

If you don’t know who you’re marketing to, do a little research. Look at the results you’re getting, and proceed from there.

Q: Which types of ads tend to get the most leads?

There are three basic consumer mind-sets that a seller goes through.

The first is unaware. In this stage, the seller doesn’t know their need for the real estate process. Why do we spend so much of our time marketing to people at this stage?

The power of Facebook is that you get to strategically target a segment of our community that we know is actually interested in real estate. This is the second stage: home aware. They are aware of their desire or need for the real estate process.

This is where Zillow came in and dominated everybody. What people want is properties to look at. That’s why you need to start by marketing listings, just sold ads, and other property ads.

This introduces the consumer to their third phase, which is: home + you aware. You gave them the list, the hook, and the lead magnet. This is where the dynamic retargeting process kicks in. Take your in-person meeting messaging and give it to people in a video. Once you do this, the people you’re talking to will be more qualified.

Give people what they want. Tailor your experience to what they are looking for.

Q: What kinds of videos should you create?

There are four types of videos you should create—and all you need is a cell phone to get started.

About Me. This is a video ad where you explain why you sell real estate. People need to connect with your message within 60–90 seconds.

Educational. You need to become the authority figure in someone’s mind. Educate them about the market. For example, create a video series about buying or selling that you can use for months to come.

Testimonials. Someone else needs to validate what you’re saying about your business. It’s social proof.

Community Content. Real estate agents are seen as the local guides in every market. Once you know who your client is, you know exactly what kinds of content to create. Go to a local business your ideal customer would frequent and create a 3–5 minute video about that business. Now you’ve created a relationship with this business vendor who sees your ideal customer on a regular basis. That means the business owner will send business your way.

Q: How do you retarget someone on social media?

One way is by creating a video they’ll be interested in, such as a slideshow of listings in their market. Attach it to a lead form. Then, you can retarget prospects based on the fact that they watched that video. You’re creating a cookie in their browser that will help you build a connection with them everywhere they go on the internet.

Q: How has Facebook targeting changed for real estate agents?

Facebook targeting used to be so good that HUD (United States Department of Housing and Urban Development) had to step in. HUD came in and ruled that agents were discriminating by targeting certain parts of the market and excluding others.

When this happened, a ton of agents stopped running ads on Facebook altogether. But Facebook gave agents nine months’ notice before putting these changes into effect, and I began testing those changes immediately. I’ve seen it affect some clients and not affect others, and it primarily has to do with how educated agents are about Facebook marketing.

Our clients are still getting $1–5 leads. The main thing is to market to people as soon as they become leads. One lead is being shared among 20–30 real estate professionals. All of them are calling or texting, not getting a response, and then moving on. If you can instantly show up in someone’s feed right away and provide them value, you’ll stand out in a big way—and your cost per closing comes down massively.

Q: Which routines have driven success for you?

The first thing is gratitude and prayer. I used to not be able to get out of bed before 8 a.m. But once I started my mornings by being grateful, it was easier. Now, I get up at 4:30 every single morning when I’m not traveling.

Getting up earlier gives me time to go to the gym, to journal, or to take a cold shower—all these things that have allowed me to be more productive.

Every morning, I have about 4–5 hours to myself where I can just focus on me. This was the culmination of several years of work. But, once it became a habit, I was able to do these things. It all started with gratitude.

Q: What advice would you give to your younger self?

I would tell 20-year-old Grant, “Hey dude! You need to wake up.”

When I pocketed six figures from my second business, I thought I’d made it. But life really chewed me up and spit me out.

At age 22 or 23, I was finally in a position where I could hear the truth, because my life was in such bad shape. I had a vehicle that got repossessed. I knew it hadn’t hit my credit report yet, so I went and bought a brand new car.

Three months went by, and I couldn’t make my payment. I called my coach and told him about my situation. I asked him for help. Later, he called me back and told me that I should let the vehicle go.

He told me that I didn’t deserve anything in life except the situation I was in, because of the choices I’d made. From there, I swallowed my pride and began to see what lessons I could learn from my mistakes.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you have it all figured out. That’s one of the silliest things on earth that you can do.

Action Items:

• Film a 60–90 second video about yourself.
• Film an educational video.
• Get a testimonial video filmed.
• Figure out who your ideal client is, and create a video for them.

Connect with Grant:

How to Sell a Home for Every $72 Spent Marketing

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