Episode 281: Using Instagram For Your Real Estate Business

Episode Timeline

In the 281st episode of the Mail-Right Show, John and Robert featured a real estate tycoon, Krista Mashore. She is a successful author, trainer, coach, speaker, and broker who has already developed such an enormous career in the brokerage industry. So far, she has already sold around 2,000 homes in the entirety of her career, making her become part of the top 1% of real estate brokers in the entire nation. With Krista’s new and fresh ideas, there’s no wonder why she was able to achieve her success. She now works with EXP Realty, and on top of that, she has her firm called Homes By Krista. Three years ago, she ventured out on a new journey: coaching. She built a coaching company that focuses on helping real estate agents and lenders all over the entire country. Her company aims to maximize the advantages of social media and digital marketing to help them reach larger audiences.

Instagram Stories

Krista is known for using social media to advertise her businesses. Most importantly, she mainly utilizes Instagram and one of its features which is Instagram Stories. She explained that this feature is like a user’s personal reality TV show where they can post anything that happens in their day. Indeed, it is an excellent way for your followers to know more about what Krista enjoys about Instagram Stories because she can produce as much as she wants without over-saturating people on the app. Unlike posts on your newsfeed, a story only stays up for 24 hours before it disappears. They are also fast, in the sense that users can tap quickly to go over your stories. Although it is short, Krista emphasized that it is an effective way to engage with your audience. Brand building is also made easier with the help of Instagram Stories because the more you post on your story, the more people will view it. 

Instagram VS Facebook

When asked about the main difference between Instagram and Facebook videos, Krista recalls that the two platforms cater to two different age groups. Facebook is saturated mainly by people in their 50s, while Instagram is filled with Millennials. But despite their difference, she still believes that it is essential to be on as many social media platforms as possible because it only means that you will reach bigger audiences through different apps as a real estate agent. But if you’re the only person managing your social media presence, it would be better to focus on one platform with your target audience and start from there. 

Krista also admitted that she is fascinated by Facebook advertising. Last year, 2020, she acknowledged that it was not her most excellent year, but she still managed to sell a total of 48 homes from Facebook. They got a total of $740,600 out of just $12,000 worth of advertising. She only worked 5 hours per month on the advertisement to check on how her team was doing. Despite that, they were able to pull off almost a hundred closed deals.

Targeting Your Audience’s Needs

Krista has already mastered the art of adequately advertising her businesses. She explained that for her CMA ads at $12,000, she did not just present a generic ad. She and her team studied why sellers aren’t selling; it’s because they are afraid that they won’t find a replacement property. With this information, she formulated an entire advertisement campaign that revolved around giving the sellers different selling solutions while finding a replacement for their properties. What Krista is trying to say is that most of the time, it is crucial to act as a guide to generate more deals. Clients will start forming a bond with you, leading them to trust you and let you help them with their needs – be it a buyer or a seller. 

By constantly targeting and retargeting specific prospects with the content that her company produces, the more they are likely to engage. Once they convert, they end up sticking. Constant retargeting is one of the most excellent marketing techniques that she has for her company. She firmly believes that it is a perfect way to increase their conversion rate. Once she has an interested client, she does eleven steps to increase the chance of closing the deal. These steps include emailing the client a CMA, doing a zoom video conference, going over the market analysis, explaining what they should expect when selling a property, and a whole lot more. But basically, it is about developing a deeper connection with the client to trust you as their broker.

Zillow’s Effect on Real Estate Agents

Krista recalled that all of her closed deals on Zillow disappeared after stopping her partnership with the company. She emphasized that one of her students, Alicia Collins, was doing well with just a Facebook advertisement, despite paying Zillow numerous amounts of money with little to no conversion. She stated that Zillow might be competing with real estate agents and are putting them out of work.