[00:00:00] Zach Hammer: Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Real Estate Growth Hackers Show. I am Zach Hammer. I got Charlie Madison in my co host seat with me. Welcome back, Charlie.

[00:00:09] Charlie Madison: It’s good to be back. Happy Monday.

[00:00:12] Zach Hammer: Happy Monday. Monday is one of my favorite days because it’s the day that we record our great content for the folks at home. I do not like Garfield, hate Mondays. I I actually quite enjoy Mondays, right?

[00:00:25] Charlie Madison: It’s a good day to record a show.

[00:00:27] Zach Hammer: That’s right. Today what are we talking about? We are talking about a really cool concept one that surprise, I’m incredibly excited to share with you.

[00:00:35] Charlie Madison: You’re excited about this one?

[00:00:38] Zach Hammer: I’m excited. I’m excited. We’re talking about the reverse testimonial. Okay. So that’s what we’re talking about today. This is a really cool concept that I think puts a twist on what people typically expect. And as a result allows you to get some results from testimonials and from your marketing strategy that you don’t typically see from, most [00:01:00] cases.

[00:01:00] Let me give you guys some foundational ideas about what we’re talking about here. So first off, to understand the reverse testimonial, let’s talk about what a traditional testimonial is. So a traditional testimonial is when your clients give you a review saying, Hey, it was so great to work with Charlie because Charlie did X, Y, Z that, here’s where it was before.

[00:01:20] Here’s what the experience was like during and then here’s what happened after as a result of working with Charlie. And Charlie was great. I would recommend him. Everybody should work with Charlie. And so that’s a traditional testimonial, right? These are great. I don’t have any problems with traditional testimonials. But here’s something that I found that’s interesting. It can feel a little awkward sometimes to share a testimonial directly, like depending on how you’re doing it, if you just post testimonials all the time about people saying good things about you, that might feel a little bit awkward to have that constantly coming through your own personal social feed.

[00:01:53] Now it depends on how you structure it, people can do it well, there are ways to do this well where I don’t think it has to feel awkward, but just at [00:02:00] face value, if all that comes out of my mouth, Is people say great things about me? That starts to potentially feel a little bit weird, right? But here’s something that’s really cool, if you do the opposite. So the reverse testimonial is essentially this, which is You endorsing or celebrating your client While subtly showcasing your own expertise and contributions in the process.

[00:02:22] This is you saying, Hey, I am so excited to have worked with this person. It was amazing working with them. They did a great job of doing everything that I asked in order to help make sure that they were successful. Like always, we ran into challenges during this transaction. Here’s some of the challenges we ran into. But by working together, We were able to get through that process really well. And now they are happily in an amazing home that is going to meet their needs, or we were successfully able to sell their house for top dollar, even in light of these problems that we had, you essentially, you share the story [00:03:00] of what happened in a transaction, or what it was like working with somebody. And there’s a lot of things that you could do about this. And I’m sure there’s a couple of aspects of this that you’re already like, Yeah, I could see the the power of that. Because part of what I mentioned, they did a great job listening to the expert advice that I gave them, right?

[00:03:17] And I am planting that seed to anybody that sees it. That, hey, to get good results, you probably want to actually listen. So, you have a word for that. Is that called? When somebody actually listens to what you say.

[00:03:28] Charlie Madison: Good old compliant clients. You want compliant clients that easily close.

[00:03:34] Zach Hammer: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, so you’re actually by leveraging that wording, that concept and how you do one of these testimonials, you’re getting that benefit as well. Let’s talk a little bit more.

[00:03:42] Why is this important? We touched on a couple of points. One, I have found real estate agents typically they really struggle with marketing in this way. It’s really hard to know how to market yourself in a way that you can do [00:04:00] continually that people actually want to hear and see. Because here’s the reality if somebody isn’t actively looking for a real estate deal, they’re not actively looking for a home, or they aren’t currently considering selling. The general population’s appetite for caring about real estate is very small.

[00:04:19] Charlie Madison: Right.

[00:04:20] Zach Hammer: If you own a home, you probably care about what’s going on in the market in terms of how it impacts your home value. But even that… You really only care if you feel like it’s a massive shift, or change, especially to the negative, and secondarily, you maybe only care if you’re considering selling, right? If you’re thinking, oh, hey, is this a good opportunity to make a move, to make a shift, to make a change? What’s going on in the market in light of that?

[00:04:42] So, even that your interest is maybe small until you’re actively considering selling. And if you’re not in the market, then, unless it impacts your day to day life, you probably don’t actually care a ton about real estate, but people are really interesting in that we love stories, right?

[00:04:59] Like, we [00:05:00] love hearing what’s going on in somebody else’s life. We love hearing the stories of what went down. And so this is actually a really cool way to be able to change that, right? To be able to talk about real estate and have it be something that could come up pretty consistently.

[00:05:13] But it’s done in a way that people are actually like, it might not be the kind of thing that they’re like. Gonna fall out of their chairs excited about, but it’s at least the kind of thing where it’s a story that you’re connecting with people, you’re sharing a quick touch point that’s an easy to digest, easy to consume thing that people feel good about because they’re getting to hear the story of what went down and connect with you in that way.

[00:05:34] Does that make sense? Does that ring true to you as, as well in terms of? How this kind of marketing might hit compared to other marketing?

[00:05:42] Charlie Madison: Yeah, the first thing that occurred to me, how many home flipping shows and home renovation shows, and home buying shows are, on cable like 24 hours. And what are those are stories of people, and the other thing, it reminds me of my coach Jamie, he says, [00:06:00] when we hear a story, we go into milk and cookies mode.

[00:06:04] That’s when you were a little kid, maybe you’re at school. Your teacher pulls out the book. She starts reading like you’re conscious. And it’s just you just relax, you’re ready for milk and cookies, you’re just ready for the story and, when people get into that mode their defenses aren’t up, they can relax, they can enjoy the story, they feel good.

[00:06:26] And that’s also where you can have a lot of influence and persuasion.

[00:06:28] Zach Hammer: Absolutely. Yeah, exactly. And so that’s the key here. So, we’re getting to have the benefit of talking about real estate, but doing it in a way that people actually will enjoy reading, right? They’ll still be able to connect. And so, we get to take control of being able to do that because we could talk about the things that are going on in our business in this way at any point, right? We get to take control of that so that we can be proactive, have something that we can talk about and still make an impact and be able to leverage it even further.

[00:06:59] So [00:07:00] here’s one of the other things. That’s really awesome about this. Now, typically Charlie, so, if I left you a testimonial and I said, here’s what’s great about talking with Charlie, here’s what’s great about working with Charlie. What is your typical response in the comments on something like that? I tag you on something like that, I leave a great testimonial. What is your response to that, almost by default?

[00:07:22] Charlie Madison: Thank you so much. It was great to work with you.

[00:07:26] Zach Hammer: Exactly, and that’s the same kind of thing that happens when you do this after your clients as well. My guess is that everybody that’s listening to this is trying to find ways to get people to leave them testimonials, leave them reviews, and it can be hard. It’s it can be like pulling teeth because people really, it’s a low urgency thing for most people.

[00:07:47] They don’t know how important it is. And so they don’t often think to take the time and effort to put together a testimonial that would make a massive difference for you. But when you lead the way and you share the story, you elevate them and [00:08:00] you thank them. Our default reciprocal nature almost guarantees that assuming the person did have a good experience working with you, chances are that’s what you’re going to see in the comments.

[00:08:12] They’re going to reply and you’re going to get at least a minor testimonial as a result of doing this process. And they’re going to respond and say, Hey, thanks so much. It was great working with you. Yes, there were challenges. But man, were we able to navigate them and you get that process happening in the midst of your post. So people get to see that.

[00:08:33] One of the things that I’ve been studying recently is Dennis Yu talking about personal branding. And the way that he describes personal branding is that personal branding isn’t what you say about yourself. It’s what other people say about you. It’s essentially the perception in the market about who you are based what everybody else can see.

[00:08:53] And so this is really fantastic as a personal branding strategy because simultaneously people [00:09:00] get to see that the way that you’re representing yourself is that you’re celebrating your clients. You’re making them feel good. You’re elevating them and saying good things about the people that you work with. Which subconsciously in their mind makes them think if I work with them. They’re going to say good things about me, right?

[00:09:18] They’re going to elevate me and make me feel good. Talk about how great it was working with me. Assuming that I actually do the work to be a compliant client and give them something to celebrate, right.

[00:09:29] So there’s that. The other aspect. Is that immediately in the comments, you’re getting somebody else to talk about you as well. And this is very typical, very normal, that’s likely to happen. And so you’re also seeing that you’re establishing that social capital, that social credibility where you get that inbound testimonial as well.

[00:09:51] Now, it may not be exactly where you want it. It may not be on a review site, may not be on Zillow, may not be in Google or Yelp or whatever, right? But you could potentially move [00:10:00] from that testimonial and get them to post it on one of those sites now that they’ve already done some of the legwork, right?

[00:10:05] So anyway, that’s one of the other big benefits there. But yeah, it’s really powerful that you get all these great things, right? You feel good celebrating these people. They feel good being celebrated. The people reading it feel good because they get to see this cool story that like you said, it puts them into that milk and cookies mode.

[00:10:21] I love that. Puts them into that milk and cookies mode where it’s just an entertaining little anecdote to consume. And all of this helps you to attract the right people, right? It helps you to attract the kind of people that are going to do that work. Be compliant in following your advice, and it’s going to attract them back to you. What is it two things or three things that’s required for somebody to work with you as a real estate agent? What are they again, Charlie?

[00:10:44] Charlie Madison: Yeah, to have a basically a come list me is three things. First when they’re ready, they think of me. Two, they feel comfortable reaching out to me. And three, I’ve got the capacity to respond.

[00:10:57] Zach Hammer: Absolutely.

[00:10:58] Charlie Madison: With those come list me’s, it is that [00:11:00] simple.

[00:11:00] Zach Hammer: Right. And so this, as part of a strategy of making sure that’s clear as possible to your list, what does it do when I am talking about the stories that are happening with my clients?

[00:11:11] One, it’s saying that I am the right kind of busy. Does that make sense? I don’t want to go to the restaurant that has nobody in it.

[00:11:19] Like, we see that and we’re like, Ooh why is there nobody here? But like simultaneously, if I’m hungry right now, I probably don’t want to go to the restaurant that has the line out the door and looks so busy that I may not be able to eat for the next couple of hours.

[00:11:35] Like I want to go to the restaurant that like, I see if there’s a lot of activity going on. I see that they’re busy. But I feel like I’m going to be able to get seated and have a meal pretty quick, right?

[00:11:44] Now, I might go to that one that’s got the line out the door if like I’ve, it’s a really special occasion. I booked it in advance, right? That idea of being able to show I’m busy, but in this way where you’re just getting to see somebody’s doing the work. They’re active, their business is alive, they’re doing [00:12:00] what’s necessary. Helps with that. It helps people to see that you’re actually doing the work, right?

[00:12:04] But it doesn’t give that perception that you’re so busy. That you can’t work with them, right? It doesn’t give them that perception. In fact, leveraging some of the strategies that you talk about with referrals while you sleep, which this goes really well together with exactly what you do with referrals while you sleep. This is a really great way to make sure that you are attracting the ideal people to work with so that you have plenty of time to work with the best people that you know, the people that you could serve at a high level that you could start honing in on your biggest check and making sure that you’re working with those really high caliber people that you could give that time and attention to because your time and attention isn’t drawn between these harder to reach people in leads, et cetera, right?

[00:12:44] It’s really great at zeroing in on that. And then, it’s making it clear that you can help them, right? When somebody has that thought in their mind that they need to do a real estate transaction, they are hearing that you are helping people with exactly that kind of work.

[00:12:58] And so, I got[00:13:00] that they feel comfortable reaching out to you. I got that one. What were the other two again?

[00:13:04] Charlie Madison: So the first is when they’re ready, they think of you.

[00:13:07] Zach Hammer: Okay. this solves with that. Cool. So we got that.

[00:13:10] Charlie Madison: Two is they feel comfortable reaching out to you.

[00:13:13] Zach Hammer: Perfect. So, we got that we’re making it clear when you work with me. It’s a good experience. I talk about you favorably. I elevate you. I make this process good. There’s other aspects.

[00:13:25] Charlie Madison: Kids are home for fall break.

[00:13:28] Zach Hammer: Good call. Ha. But yeah, so, get that ability for them to know that they could reach out to us. Ha. And while this doesn’t specifically say, hey reach out to me, it’s easy. This does communicate I’m a positive, easy to work with person, so it makes somebody definitely subconsciously feel a lot more likely to reach out to you.

[00:13:46] And then what was the third one?

[00:13:47] Charlie Madison: And the third one is I have capacity to respond. I’m not door knocking 20, 30, 40 hours a week. I’ve got the ability to respond, it’s that simple. And what makes me think one of the, a great [00:14:00] way to end this, it’s one of my favorite dialogues is to say, Hey, and I want you to know that I have time for you or anyone you care about, feel free to reach out.

[00:14:12] It’s that same thing. Like I’m busy and I have time for you. It’s like I’ve got a lot, I’m that restaurant, I might have a line backed up, but you’ve got the VIP slot, like you can reach out to me with my cell and like, that adds some additional influence. People like I got the inside scoop with Charlie,

[00:14:30] Zach Hammer: exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So even in how you structure your post, you can make it very clear. Hey, I am never too busy to answer your questions and help right? I am never so busy that I can’t help you with what you need.

[00:14:44] Please feel free to reach out directly and I’d be glad to help you and answer any of your questions, right? Yeah. That’s a fantastic way to leverage that. So that’s actually a really great segue. Let’s go ahead and dive into how we actually do this, Right.

[00:14:57] Like, how do we structure one of these posts? What does [00:15:00] that look like? People likely have the concept. So this should be pretty quick to get this idea in place. But here’s some of the elements. Feel free to mix and match these. These are some of the ideas that I think are important in a post like this. But really don’t overthink this too much, it’s a pretty simple thing conceptually. And and pretty easy to implement.

[00:15:16] So first off, the thing that I like to start with is a celebration, or acknowledgement of gratitude of the client themselves saying, Hey, I just want to say how thankful I am to have worked with this person, how exciting of a process that was right.

[00:15:31] Start on a note of gratitude or celebration saying, this person was great to work with. This person, it was wonderful working with them. Tag that person or people. Make sure to literally make sure they know that you’re talking about them. And you’re talking about them in this sort of way.

[00:15:47] Express very clearly, what was great about working with them? Try and make that clear, specific, and explicit as possible. Try and say, what did you like about working with them? What was that experience like? Et cetera. Find the things that you were [00:16:00] like, man this person was a quick action taker.

[00:16:02] This person listened well. This person was flexible. And here’s a hint, call out all of the traits that you would love to see. And the other clients that you want to work with, because that’s just going to be part of how you attract them.

[00:16:16] And so the next thing that you want to do is you really want to dive into the story of that transaction if possible, right? Talk about what went down, what was the difficult challenge that they were facing that you helped them overcome? What were challenges that came up in the process that you were able to navigate through and how did you navigate through leverage your ability to strategically and tactically say, I am a real estate professional who knows what I am doing and share that story.

[00:16:40] This is the part where you’re simultaneously getting that milk and cookies moment, but you are able to convey your expertise in the process. And that can be really hard to do in other scenarios. Like Charlie, if I sit down and with the average person say, Hey, can I take a few minutes and tell you why I’m so great [00:17:00] as a real estate agent?

[00:17:01] The number of people that are going to be excited to listen to me is exactly… Maybe you one, which is me, because I’m going to really enjoy talking about how great I am. Nobody else will enjoy that process, right? But we get the same benefit of being able to do that by conveying how you strategically solved problems through that story.

[00:17:19] Lay that out. Where were the challenges? Was it that they had a difficult situation to navigate, right? Maybe Some of these, you’re going to have to work with somebody to figure out what level they’re comfortable with you sharing, et cetera. Get permission on something like this.

[00:17:31] Maybe they were navigating just coming out of a short sale or a bankruptcy or something. And they got a an interesting set of requirements. Or maybe they were looking for a very particular home in a hard to get into area. And you could talk about what your strategy was in order to do that.

[00:17:45] Or, I don’t know what are some other examples of interesting stories or things that you’ve seen happen with transactions? Just pulling from your Rolodex of recent transactions.

[00:17:53] Charlie Madison: So one of the things to call out the type of transactions you want.

[00:17:58] Zach Hammer: Yeah, exactly.

[00:17:59] Charlie Madison: For me, [00:18:00] it’s always people looking to relocate locally and, we can break that down. They were in one school and they needed to get to another school before the fall break, or their kids had just moved out.

[00:18:12] And you can be dramatic about it, reminds me of have you ever heard of the book Skin The Cat?

[00:18:17] Zach Hammer: I haven’t. But that’s awesome. sure what it says about me, when I hear that title. I think, the book is talking.

[00:18:24] Charlie Madison: Skin The Cat, if you read it, some people say that it can run movies for you because what it is, it’s like minute by minute breakdown of how popular movies are created.

[00:18:34] Like, you start with the intro, the bad guys move in the dark night of the soul and then the finale but it, it’s like that and you can use a storyboard like that to, here were my clients.

[00:18:47] They had just dropped off their daughter to UT Knoxville and they looked at each other and they’re like, what are we going to do now? And then. You can play with that. You can use that, maybe, I had some clients [00:19:00] literally, I’m rolling into it.

[00:19:01] Their daughter went to school and they wanted a house with a swimming pool so that their daughters would want to come back and hang out with their friends on the weekends and the summers. And their kids are now in their thirties and their place is still the place to hang out every Sunday, their friends come over and hang out by the pool, it could be that.

[00:19:27] Zach Hammer: By the way, I absolutely love that. Like, that to me is pro level parenting of thinking through how could I set up my house to be desirable enough to create opportunities that I wanna have with my kids. Like Man, that’s a really good idea.

[00:19:38] Charlie Madison: so call out, like for me, I wouldn’t, most of my stories would not be about first time homebuyers. I love them, but they’re not my ideal client. They’re not my biggest check, it could also be, Hey, my friends Adam and Aaron, they just adopted son and now they needed another bedroom, so they were stuck were like, How do I[00:20:00] handle the move?

[00:20:01] So you could, that’s what I would do, look at your top clients, look at their stories. One of the things that you mentioned too, you got to talk to your clients to see what you’re able to share. One of the definitions I love about compliant clients is, they do what I ask them because they want to help me.

[00:20:20] There’s that likeability and working with compliant clients like I’m not going to give their social security number out, they’re like, yeah, share this story, and I can have that connected conversation, and they’re happy. They’re happy for that.

[00:20:34] Zach Hammer: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah.

[00:20:36] That’s the key idea though. Share the story, share whatever level of the challenges that you can along the way. But I love what you mentioned about really, like, when you can, focus on the stories that are the people that you want to attract. And I don’t have a specific part where I’m going to mention this can think of.

[00:20:52] So I’m going to mention it here. You do not have to wait until this is a recent story in order to do [00:21:00] this. If you worked with somebody two years ago that had this happen, you can write about that now and just share it now, and shoot, still get their permission. But you don’t have to, there’s not going to be some sort of board that’s going to be analyzing your post to say, Yeah, but did you like just finish working with them or was this a while ago, right?

[00:21:22] So, if you’re looking for content to create Go back through all the transactions that you’ve done in history and think through the stories of those and leverage them for this kind Of content. And then what I’m going to talk about in a bit is like how we leverage this, not just organically, but how we actually throw some ad spend behind this, and get these stories going out to people so that this is part of what they’re seeing pretty continually. Did you want to say something about that idea?

[00:21:49] Charlie Madison: Yeah. I like that. It could be 10 years ago, 20 years ago, if you’ve got a client that you can’t be in touch with and you’re like, I don’t want to mention be like Hollywood, create aliases,[00:22:00] like you can either not mention a name or I just did, I think like you can just come up with some names, like you’re telling the story, it’s, directionally correct, it’s telling the truth, you’re not and so like there, there’s ways to make it entertaining. People want milk and cookies.

[00:22:17] Zach Hammer: Exactly, and you can lean in to it, something like, the other day, this transaction I had with this client, or, this client that I helped. I’m gonna leave their name out of it for sake of their privacy, but here’s what they were going through, here’s the challenge, here’s what we learned from it. Shoot, you could be talking about something that happened yesterday, you could be talking about something that happened 20 years ago, and that story is still going to be interesting and still achieve the basic purpose that we have here.

[00:22:41] Now, if you don’t mention names, you’re less likely to get like that reply that’s a testimonial, but you still get the benefit of the content for your marketing, which is really, to me, probably the biggest portion of value of this for sure. But yeah, so that’s the idea there. The other thing that can be really useful to go with this, when you’re in the midst of these transactions, this is something that I’m really bad [00:23:00] at, but I’m trying to get better at, which is remembering to capture the assets that you need to deliver on a great post like this.

[00:23:07] So what does that mean? Means get the selfie. Get the selfie with those people in some place that shows this scenario. Is it at the new house that you just connected them with? Is it just when you’re meeting them? Get the assets to go along with this to make it personal.

[00:23:23] The key things that are gonna matter most, the biggest one is that your face is featured. Because what you want to do is you want to train people to see your face, recognize your face, and tie it back to that story. It is useful and worthwhile and valuable to get their faces in the picture as well so that people are seeing you associated with different faces.

[00:23:43] But for sake of marketing that’s more about just the general being connected to multiple people, right? Your face being part of this is important for them to connect it back to you, and to start thinking of you, and to have your face exist in their minds. Because that’s going to make it more likely that when it’s time for them to do a real estate [00:24:00] transaction… You are top of mind.

[00:24:02] Your face being part of that process is a big thing to associate with this. Getting those visuals together to go along with this story could be really helpful. And it doesn’t need to be anything super complicated, right? If you’re talking about a really interesting visual element, like maybe they really wanted an infinity pool. If you could get a good picture of that infinity pool that they got, that’s probably gonna be a good element. Or even better would be capturing, like, you and them by that infinity pool, sharing good memories together, right?

[00:24:31] After the fact, like a housewarming party or something, right? Capture that could be really great to tie into something like this.

[00:24:36] Think not only about the story elements, but what can you do to create the visual story to go along with it as well? And i’m a big proponent of done is better than perfect capture something to go along with this, but when you’re looking for these opportunities, you could start to detect oh, yeah Like I need to get this picture not just for the fun of creating the memory because that’s good.

[00:24:56] That’s useful But for a business purpose, it’s like it’s creating the [00:25:00] assets for great ad copy to go along with this style of post.

[00:25:03] Does that make sense?

[00:25:05] Charlie Madison: Yeah, 100%. And, I would say, if it’s one of those clients from 10, 20 years ago, if it’s something in the past when I’ve done this, I actually just grab a picture of me with my family or, like, I’ll grab a picture of me with other clients because again, like that it’s directionally correct.

[00:25:25] It’s doing what it needs to do. They’re associating my picture with this story and I just make sure it’s not always a business shot. It’s different types of photos.

[00:25:35] Zach Hammer: Yeah, and actually, honestly, having a picture, really what you want to think about is you want to think about how do you want people to perceive you? That’s the idea. We have some friends that I connected you to a while back, Kevin and Fred one of the things that I love about their branding is that for a while, they were known as like flip flop real estate, right?

[00:25:57] Like, that was like pivotal to their brand where they [00:26:00] made it intentional that like they were going to show up for appointments and, Comfortable clothes and they were going to be wearing flip flops, right? Like they were going to be wearing the shoes that were going to be comfortable to them.

[00:26:10] And their whole thing was like, we only want to work with the people that are cool with us showing up for work in this attire. And similarly you don’t want to have all of the photos of you be buttoned up suit and tie, unless that’s what you want people to expect. You’re going to attract the people that want that.

[00:26:31] And I know people that are that way. That they show up for business suit and tie. And, they look great, it’s part of their brand, it’s part of how they present themselves. So it makes sense for them to leverage that in their branding, right? It makes sense for them to do photos that are that way, because they’re going to attract people that align with that.

[00:26:47] But if that’s not what you want, don’t leverage those kind of photos, right? You’re going to attract how you present yourself as well. Keep that in mind for sure. Yeah, I love that idea. So, let’s talk about how you could take this even further.

[00:26:58] So, here’s where something goes [00:27:00] from, like, cool and impactful. And maybe it makes a little bit of a difference to where It could be your primary marketing strategy. And that’s where you take this kind of post, and you throw a minimal amount of ad spend behind it. And you target it toward your sphere, your friends, your family, the people in your life that you already know and trust. And make sure that those people are seeing these posts. One of the strategies that works really well for this in terms of ad spend is you throw about a dollar a day behind each one of these as an ad unit. This actually, this is pulled straight from from Dennis Yu.

[00:27:37] It’s his strategy dollar a day strategy. And the basic idea is that a dollar a day on most of these platforms, Facebook especially, is the minimum amount that you can spend on an ad campaign and still have it run. But what you do is that you could start this strategy a dollar a day, run it for seven days.

[00:27:55] And what you’re looking for is you’re looking at the engagement rate and you’re looking to see [00:28:00] this post over a period of seven days, what kind of engagement rate did it get? And anything that gets a 10% or better is like a winner for you. And those posts. You should take and you should throw them in a bucket where you’re running them for, $30 for 30 days.

[00:28:14] If it wins off on that, then you keep running them indefinitely, right? And you find these posts that, for better or worse, are like your most engaging posts. But what’s cool is all along the way, as you’re testing more of these, as you’re getting more of these running none of them are gonna hurt you.

[00:28:29] If that makes sense. And none of them are going to make you worse off, but you might find those few that really connect with people that really activate them, that people really dive into and really engage with. You’re able to put those into a bucket of these are my winners. And I know that like, when I need to get business happening, I can throw some more ad spend behind these and it never needs to be a ton, right?

[00:28:50] It’s more just, do they stay in the mix of running continually? And your goal is just to keep adding more and more to that mix of stays running effectively, right?

[00:28:58] So over time, you build up [00:29:00] this library. Now, I would be remiss if I did not mention when people want to run this kind of ad strategy, it’s really helpful for them to have a very clear, easy, ready to target list of people.

[00:29:15] And for the most part, that takes quite a bit of work for most people, right? Assembling those people, those numbers, those emails, making sure that they’re all together. If only there was an easy way, that would make that process easy, make it easy to run these kinds of ads, make it easy to do that process.

[00:29:33] If only there’s an easy way that, say, I don’t know, generated referrals while you were sleeping.

[00:29:38] Charlie Madison: If only.

[00:29:39] Zach Hammer: If only. And so, can you take a second and talk about what referrals while you sleep is and why it fits so well together with this. Anybody who wasn’t picking up on the joke. Charlie has a company, a software tool, that actually Ties really well together with this concept, right?

[00:29:55] You can run this concept without referrals while you sleep for sure, but referrals while you sleep will make that [00:30:00] process drastically easier, quicker and more effective and make you have even less work to do in the process. Can you talk about how it fits together and where it might fit in the strategy if somebody wants to run this reverse testimonial idea?

[00:30:11] Charlie Madison: Yeah, so you’ve got a couple parts to this. Thank you, by the way. I didn’t know this was planned, but it’s true it is built to do this. And so the first part is you got to have your contacts that you market to, right? And I developed what we call the magic link that automatically syncs to the databases and all the people, where you do not have to do any additional data entry other than be a good realtor or lender.

[00:30:37] And we automatically create a database from that. It sounds like magic, which is why we call it the magic link.

[00:30:43] And so, we automatically build your database. And then two, what we do is we grab testimonials that have already been posted on Facebook, Instagram, Yelp, Zillow, and so the difference is here, you’re actually creating the story, which we love[00:31:00] which is amazing because what we found is the video really outperforms text and images.

[00:31:04] Which is amazing because what we found is the video really outperforms text and images. 10 to one, like it’s what all the platforms want. But once you automate the database, then you get the content. And so the content we use as testimonials and pictures of you, and most of the time you have pictures already on Facebook, already on Instagram.

[00:31:22] Pictures with you. The main thing, it’s gotta have your face and then it’s with you. Friends, family, sporting events with clients. The main thing I always like to say, it puts the you and the USP we’re not advertising, the football schedule or the recipe, it’s you. And it’s not some generic thing.

[00:31:42] And then what you do, as you go into Facebook and you set that up in a business manager, you set up a campaign, one of the things that we like to do is we do a dynamic ad. So we upload 10 pictures and 10 testimonials and we let Facebook show the right ones to the right people.

[00:31:59] But [00:32:00] that’s the third part, then you run it as an ad. And then the main thing with that we found is you do have to update it. You have to update because if you run the same ad for a year you’re going to get banner blindness and people are going to be like, why?

[00:32:14] Cause here’s the magic. People aren’t going to realize these are ads. I just had a client that he was talking to one of his lender friends and said, Hey, have you seen the ads that I’ve been running? And his buddy was like see you online all the time, but I didn’t know they were ads. And if it was the same picture with the same testimonial every second day, then that would be the case.

[00:32:36] And so, the last thing that we do is we provide accountability through the duo videos to actually make sure that you do those and it works, like I did this for a long time and I built this company so that when I’m busy, it keeps working for me. So thanks for that.

[00:32:52] Because that is the purpose of this is how you get those three things when they’re ready, they think about you, they feel comfortable reaching out because they [00:33:00] see all this social proof that they can trust you and then I’ve got the capacity to respond because I’m not, door knocking 50 hours a week.

[00:33:10] Zach Hammer: Yeah, exactly. And so what’s cool is the way that you build this out referrals while you sleep by itself is going to do plenty to make sure that you are getting all the business that you could want from the best people that you want to get business from, for sure. What’s cool though is That the way that you set it up, they’ll have access to this audience.

[00:33:28] So if they want to run reverse testimonial campaigns on their own, if they want to say, Hey, let me throw a dollar a day behind this post that I did. I’m just going to boost it to the same audience. It’s going to go right alongside with what’s already happening. And it’s going to fit right in to what you’re going to be helping them do with that automated scalable approach.

[00:33:46] Charlie Madison: Exactly.

[00:33:47] Zach Hammer: And so what’s cool is that you’re still gonna make it easy for them to be able to target exactly the people that these posts should be going to. Because, everybody thinks that the key is to go out and reach everyone in the world. And that’s [00:34:00] not typically what you actually want.

[00:34:01] Because you have a lot of work to get through to move somebody from not knowing you to trusting you when you go to the world at large, but when you go to the people that already know I can trust you already have some level of relationship with you, the people that you interact with on a day to day basis or are connected to those people, it’s a lot easier to move those people into the realm of trusting you specifically.

[00:34:22] And so it it works really well to target those people. The hardest part is just actually targeting them, right? The hardest part is doing that. So what’s cool is that referrals while you sleep does set that up for you. So it’s an easy way to, to add some strategy into what’s working there in a way that’s going to go to work effectively.

[00:34:39] For anybody who wants to check out what’s going on with referrals while you sleep, I’m just double checking, but I believe if you go to RealEstateGrowthHackers.com/ReferralsWhileYouS leep and I’ll double check and make sure that link works. You can not only go and find out more about Referrals While You Sleep, but you’ll also be supporting this show and [00:35:00] real estate growth hackers in the process.

[00:35:01] That is a dedicated link that lets them know that lets Charlie know that you’re coming through this show that you’re a friend of mine and and gets you guys credit for that as well. I don’t remember if there’s anything special from that, but I’ll tell you what. Chances are, if it comes through me, Charlie is more likely to just be incredibly excited to see you for sure, right?

[00:35:21] Charlie Madison: Yeah, If you sign up through there, get in touch with me, I’ll actually give you a free trial so you can try it out, explain it. And that way there’s no risk at all. And see how you like it. And it’s worked great for me. It’s what I use for my real estate practice.

[00:35:39] Zach Hammer: Awesome. Awesome. Exactly. So yeah. So there you go. That is the overall strategy for the reverse testimonial, how it fits together so well with Referrals While You Sleep. And we’ll really hopefully, help you guys out.

[00:35:50] So again, that quick idea to shorten it up and send you on your way. The reverse testimonial is basically the idea that you’re going to celebrate your current. Customers, your past [00:36:00] customers, clients share those stories about what was great with working with them, what the challenges were that you helped them overcome.

[00:36:05] Share that in a story format and then make sure just like Charlie mentioned at the end, can your call to action is simply to let people know, Hey, I’m never too busy to answer your questions, to help you. If you need help in a real estate transaction, I’d love to help you as well.

[00:36:18] So that people know that they can reach out to you. These sorts of posts to help to impression people to make sure that they know that you know what you’re talking about, that you can help them. They see that through a story format. It’s a great strategy for how to convey your value as a real estate professional to the market at large in a way that they’re actually going to be interested in hearing and seeing and reading about.

[00:36:38] And you could do it plus ads in order to make sure to leverage it as far as possible to guarantee that these posts are being seen by people and by the people that matter most to you in terms of who do you want to attract and how do you start making sure to attract the best clients that are happy, excited to work with you. And as Charlie mentions, compliant clients, people that are actually going to listen to what you have to say so that [00:37:00] experience goes well for everyone involved. So there you go. Any final notes, any final thoughts on the reverse testimonial, Charlie?

[00:37:06] Charlie Madison: I love it, it’s a simple way to get people. To get into milk and cookies mode and when you get into milk and cookies mode, you can persuade them, influence them, and in real estate lending, we’re in a unique spot in that we don’t have one conversion point, we’ve got five main conversion points, they’ve got to meet us, they got to sign up to be our client, they’ve got to write a contract or accept a contract.

[00:37:30] Got to get through the inspections and then you got to get through the final three days. We don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s going to happen at each one of those conversion points. If the trust isn’t there, the deal can fall apart and you don’t make money. And so to be able to persuade and influence to get more compliant clients that easily pass through these five by saying, what do I need to do?

[00:37:53] Makes life really good.

[00:37:54] Zach Hammer: Yeah, absolutely. So there you go. So go out there, leverage the reverse testimonial. I [00:38:00] really recommend the best way to actually have something like this show, like this episode, make a difference in your real estate business is to take this information and put it into action as quickly as possible.

[00:38:10] Just listening to the information and doing nothing with it will not improve your business. It will cause you to get exactly the same results as you were getting before. This kind of post is really easy to do, really easy to put together. And literally there’s not a downside that I could think of for putting it together, testing it out.

[00:38:26] Whether you throw ad spend behind it or not, it’s still going to be valuable as something that you can throw up on Facebook, throw up into LinkedIn, into your social profiles, and just get the message out there about what you’re doing and how you’re helping your clients. So there you go.

[00:38:38] Take action. Thanks again for showing up to another episode of the Real Estate Growth Hacker Show. Until the next time, we’ll catch you on the next one.

[00:38:46] Charlie Madison: Bye.