Having an online presence is a simple, effective way to create awareness about your brand while connecting and building relationships with customers from all over the world. In the technologically savvy world we live in today, having a website and social media is essential for success!
In this training webinar, Allan McNabb with Image Building Media, and Ray Hendricks, with HD Real Estate discuss why it is important for businesses to have a website and social media presence.
Video Transcript
Allan McNabb: Hey, there! Well, we are live on Facebook now. This is Allan McNabb with Image Building Media, and we got with us today Ray Hendricks with HD Real Estate Company. And Ray, I’ll let you introduce yourself and your company there.
Ray Hendricks: Absolutely. It’s Ray Hendricks with HD Real Estate Company. Right now, me and Allan, we decided to team up, use his media savvy and my real estate savvy and really give the real estate community some information about marketing, setting up businesses. It’s just a plethora of different topics that we’re going to start covering every month, but just 30 minutes. So we’re going to take just a little bit of your time, but we’re going to give you a lot of information in that time. So how’re you doing today, Allan?
Allan McNabb: Yeah, doing great. And Ray, we’re an internet marketing company here based in Tampa. We serve customers throughout the United States, and a lot of them are real estate. So it’s just really great to be working with you and HD Real Estate, and excited about our topic today. So we decided for our first topic, and I will just share my screen really quick.
Ray Hendricks: All right.
Allan McNabb: And Ray, I made it a really super… I guess, really, Ray, what I did is I put it out in the terms of all businesses because an agent, real estate agent, and a broker has their own business, right?
Ray Hendricks: Right, absolutely.
Your Competitors Already Have a Website and Social Media
Allan McNabb: So what we do for one business is not any different than for another business in just these general terms. So I put it into terms of why every business needs a website and social media, and that’s what we’re talking about today for real estate agents. And so Ray, I want to go through here, and you probably have some others also, but I want to go through here just with the basics that agents need to understand. And you know what? I think I’ll start with the one at the very bottom of our page, and that is “Your competitors already have a website and social media.” To me, that’s just hilarious. What do you think about that, Ray?
Ray Hendricks: Absolutely. Well, a lot of real estate agents, they’ll get into real estate thinking that they can just basically go around their sphere of influence. Now, sphere of influence is where you want to start ’cause it’s the people that you know. So you’d want to tell them, “Hey, you know, I do real estate. This is what I can do for you. This is what I’ve been learning,” or what have you. But a lot of them don’t think that they really need a web presence, which is crazy to me. Unless you’ve been in real estate for a whole bunch of years and you have, basically, a referral business is what we call it, you basically just work off referrals, then you should be putting yourself out there to be seen, googled, and so people can know who you are, get to call you, see your website, and everything else. So I’m one of those people who believes in having a social media presence.
Allan McNabb: But you know, Ray, I know… Well, I know some agents that can… They do a great job selling real estate, and they don’t have their own website, especially since Placester, the ones, the free ones with Placester, those all fell apart, and a lot of agents ended up not having anything.
Ray Hendricks: Right.
Allan McNabb: But even, sometimes, with that, one agent, particularly, I’m thinking about, sells luxury real estate, but had a listing appointment, and you know, quite honestly, the people said, “You know, looking at your website, you’re not really the type of agent we want to represent us,” and lost that. Lost that just because of that. And that really gets us to our next point because… Ray, are you like me? If you go to check somebody out or a business out, you go online to check them out?
Ray Hendricks: First thing I do.
Allan McNabb: That’s the first thing I do too.
Ray Hendricks: Absolutely, first thing I do.
Allan McNabb: It doesn’t even matter if it’s a church or whatever it is, man. I go online to check them out. And the one at the top here, I’ve got, “You need a website and social media because of branding and credibility.”
Ray Hendricks: Absolutely.
Allan McNabb: What does it say, Ray? What does it say when you don’t… Well, I’ll just back… I won’t even try to… What does it say when you don’t have a website, and you don’t have social media as a business?
Investing in Your Business
Ray Hendricks: Well, what it says to me, ’cause it says different things to different people, for somebody like me, it says that you’re not willing to invest in yourself. And if you’re not willing to invest in yourself and promote your business, how well are you going to promote mine? Or how well of service are you going to give me? You know what I mean? How good of service are you going to give me? So if you’re not going to take time to really look at what other people… I mean, if you’re not going to take time to invest in yourself and put yourself online, then it makes no sense for me to do business with you. That’s how I feel.
Allan McNabb: Yeah, I’m the same way. And if you don’t care enough about yourself to have the basics of business, which is to have a reasonable website for what your business is. If you’re an agent that’s just getting started, that’s one thing. If you’re an agent that is selling… [chuckle] You know, I was on IDX with another agent today looking at their new website, by the way, and their IDX, it’s coming through, and we saw a $15-million property for sale in Tampa Bay, that if you’re selling properties that are $15 million, then you need one kind of website.
Ray Hendricks: Right.
Allan McNabb: But if you’re selling properties, you’re getting started, you’re selling properties in the 250 to 350 area, that’s a whole different thing, right?
Ray Hendricks: Right.
Allan McNabb: So if you don’t care enough about yourself and your business to have the very basics, which is just a reasonable website for who you are, and to have a social media presence, if you don’t care enough about yourself, I’m not going to care enough about yourself either. You know what I’m saying?
Ray Hendricks: Absolutely, absolutely. So…
Allan McNabb: That’s right. Go ahead, go ahead.
Ray Hendricks: Well, actually, you were the one that really got me to really spend money on a website and really take it seriously, as far as my social media presence, all of that stuff. ‘Cause everything, I was doing it by myself, and you were like, “Well, why don’t you do… Why don’t you let us help you? [chuckle] And then you can do what you do on the internet, which is great, and then we can add to that.” And it has helped me a lot. I’ve actually had people come to my company because of that.
Allan McNabb: That’s awesome, man. That’s awesome.
Ray Hendricks: Definitely.
Allan McNabb: And quite honestly, if you’re smart about it, it’s not like it costs a lot of money, you know?
Ray Hendricks: No, not at all.
Allan McNabb: That’s the thing about it. It is so affordable, and it just costs a little bit of money. And if you don’t… [chuckle] I’m just sort of speaking like as a consumer, you know?
Ray Hendricks: Right.
Allan McNabb: And again, even if it’s a church, if you don’t care enough to spend a few dollars a month to have a reasonable public presence, then that’s a real negative for me. That’s a real negative for me, you know?
Ray Hendricks: Oh, yeah.
Allan McNabb: So it’s just a few bucks, that’s the thing, that’s the thing.
Ray Hendricks: Now, here’s the thing, I always wanted to ask you this. And well, we talk, but I always wanted to ask you in a live format. When it comes to building your image, as far as any type of company, what do you think is the number one, the major thing you should start with first? ‘Cause I think a lot of agents don’t know where they should start first.
Allan McNabb: All right, so I want to bring it back to all businesses because I want the agents to think like a business owner. “I’m a business owner, and I have to do what any business owner has to do,” right?
Ray Hendricks: Right.
Showcase Products and Services
Allan McNabb: You’ve got to have your basics. Ray, is a business card a basic?
Ray Hendricks: Business card is a basic.
Allan McNabb: Yeah, I mean…
Ray Hendricks: Now we’re doing digital, but yeah. Yeah, it is.
Allan McNabb: Yeah, we’re doing digital. I was at a meeting last night. One of our customers had a hard launch in the solar business. And well, I introduced one fella to one of the sales guys that was there, and asked for a business card, said, “Well, you know, I’ve got a digital business card.” But that is a necessity, right? Can you be in business without a business card?
Ray Hendricks: No, not really.
Allan McNabb: No, no, no. So you need a business card. You need a business address, and that can… If you want to make that your home, that’s fine. Not that you got to have an office downtown or something. You need a website because quite honestly, Ray, which do you remember more easily: The URL to our website or our business phone number?
Ray Hendricks: The phone number, I remember first. [chuckle]
Allan McNabb: You’re a phone number guy, huh?
Ray Hendricks: Yeah, but most people are going to remember, they’re going to remember the website, most people.
Allan McNabb: Absolutely. I cannot tell you what your phone number is. I can’t tell you what your cell phone number is. I can’t tell you what your business phone number is. I can tell you what your URL of your website is, you know?
Ray Hendricks: Absolutely, absolutely.
Allan McNabb: And it’s easier to remember. HD Real Estate is, for me, easier. HD Real Estate Company is easier to remember than the phone number, you know?
Ray Hendricks: Oh, yeah.
Allan McNabb: And so you need a website. It needs to just be reasonable for who you are, and what you are, and your point in business. And it doesn’t need to be for all the agents just starting out. It doesn’t need to be expensive. It doesn’t need to be a lot of cost. It doesn’t need to be any of that, but you still need one. And then you need a social media presence. And with your social media presence, it needs to show that you’re posting something, right?
Ray Hendricks: Absolutely.
Allan McNabb: If you have not posted anything in a year or two years, what does that tell people? That there needs to be some recent posts on there to just show people, “Hey, we are alive, and we are still in business.” And I’ll say lastly, you need some way of emailing people. When you’re starting out and you start out manually, that’s fine, just do it out of Gmail, that’s fine. Eventually, you’re probably going to want to move up to a CRM to be able to save yourself some time. But you need a business card, you need a website, you need social media that looks like you’re alive, and you need a way to email people. Can you think of anything I left out, Ray?
Ray Hendricks: I’ll say even a name tag is, as cheesy as it sounds and as outdated as it sounds, sometimes, I’ve left my name tag on by mistake. I’ve been like, “Oh, all right, I’m off now. I’m going to put it down. But let me go ahead and go into the supermarket,” for instance, “And just grab something.” And people are, “Oh, you’re a realtor?” “Yeah.” [chuckle] Even though I’m a broker, “Yeah, I am.” So I’ll get conversations that way. I have T-shirts and everything with whatever, with my company stuff on it, or whatever the case may be. I think anything that puts you out there as a brand is a viable way of gaining potential clients.
Allan McNabb: Totally. Totally agree, man, totally agree. So that’s just the basics of getting into business, right?
Ray Hendricks: Right.
Allan McNabb: So by the time you go out and you do those small little things… I mean the name tag, even if you get a shirt, or even if your, what is it, free SavvyCard? You get a free SavvyCard, all the realtors in Tampa Bay. That’s part of being part of the organization, and they get a free SavvyCard. That’s just sort of like the entrance to get into the game. And Ray, what happens when someone is trying to get into the game without paying the price to get in? If you want to go see your favorite football team play, but you want to go, but you don’t want to pay the price of admission, what’s going to happen?
Ray Hendricks: You’re going to be outside.
Allan McNabb: You’re going to be outside. You’re not going to go to the game. You know what I’m saying?
Ray Hendricks: No.
Allan McNabb: And do you see agents who try to get into the game without paying the just minimum entrance to, “Hey, this is what you got to do to be in business?”
Ray Hendricks: Yeah, I see that. And you know what ends up happening with those agents? They don’t make enough money, and then they end up dropping out. That’s why the failure rate in real estate is over 70%. And it’s not over 70% because the money isn’t there, or it doesn’t work, or nobody wants to use realtors, all the excuses that I hear. The reason it’s like that is because one, people don’t want to stick with it long enough. They do real estate for a month or two and don’t have a sale and think that all of a sudden, it just doesn’t work. It’s an industry you definitely have to stick with, and not only stick with, but market yourself.
Allan McNabb: Yeah, and I’m glad you said that because marketing, that’s a long-term play, right?
Ray Hendricks: Absolutely.
Allan McNabb: I mean so many, and I’m not just talking about real estate, but so many businesses, business owners, they want to start marketing. And if they don’t get a sale in a week or two weeks and certainly not in a month, they’re like, “Oh man! This isn’t paying for itself.”
Ray Hendricks: Right.
Allan McNabb: And it’s just so… And I think sometimes, there’s a lack of understanding. Maybe that’s a good reason we’re doing training webinars like this for folks. It’s a lack of education, and that’s just like people who get a business card and say, “Well, you know, do you expect your business card to bring you a sale in a week?”
Ray Hendricks: No. [chuckle]
Allan McNabb: You expect, “I’m going to give out one business card, and I want to get a sale. And I want to give out 100, and I’m going to… I’m going to sell a luxury property and make… ” I don’t know how much you make over that, Ray, 200,000, 300,000, or something like that, you know? Yeah.
Ray Hendricks: Well, luxury property, it depends. You can make anywhere from 20,000 on up to 70,000, 80,000, depends. ‘Cause it’s whatever the property price is, 3% of that, or if you do double-side, it’s 6% of that. You never know.
Allan McNabb: Yeah, so it’s… Get just these basics, is the price to get in the game. So it’s like the necessity of being in the game. All right, so Ray, we got a few other things here we can share with the folks.
Ray Hendricks: All right.
Branding and Credibility
Allan McNabb: So brand and credibility, it makes you credible. You can brand yourself. And I love your branding, by the way, and I don’t know if you still use the Real Estate Ray one, you know?
Ray Hendricks: I do. I do from time-to-time. I still have the [0:16:36.3] ____ and everything.
Allan McNabb: I love that one, HD Real Estate. Yeah!
Ray Hendricks: Yeah.
Allan McNabb: Yeah, exactly, exactly! And also, it makes it easier for customers to have access to you. Because Ray, are they going to call you at one o’clock in the morning and say, “Hey, I want to buy a house”? But if they’re cruising the internet, and Ray, you do appear on the first page of Google, and there you are. But they’re not going to call and get you out of bed at one o’clock in the morning. They’re not going talk to you while you’re at a listing appointment. They’re not going to talk to you while you’re at a closing, but there’s easy access to you, and your company, and your videos, and your materials, and all of that; it makes it a lot easier for them to do that.
Ray Hendricks: Absolutely.
Allan McNabb: And then when that happens, number three is: Generate leads, you know?
Ray Hendricks: Absolutely.
Save Time with Sales and Customer Service
Allan McNabb: Because at the end of the day, isn’t that sort of what it’s all about? Generate leads that are good, that convert, and you make sales? At the end of the day, that’s what it’s about, right?
Ray Hendricks: Absolutely, absolutely.
Allan McNabb: Very cool, very cool. Go ahead.
Ray Hendricks: Well, the things that I like here, man, “Showcasing your product and service, saving you time, and with sales and customer service.” People don’t understand how much branding saves you time. Because instead of you having a elevator pitch, elevator pitch, elevator pitch, it allows you, this internet allows you to speak to a broad audience at once. And they talk about the benefit of a Google search, you taught me that. I’ll tell you, now sometimes, I get a lot of leads of people that I… ‘Cause I really don’t do a lot of rentals like that. But what I have done is take all the people that called me about rentals, and I actually funnel them to my property management company that I know, that I use for my personal properties.
Generate Leads
So now, it has created lead generation for them. My website has created lead generation for them. And it says, your competitors already have a website, social media, that’s the basics, like you said in the beginning. If you don’t have social media and a website… I can’t see somebody really wanting to do business with you unless, I don’t know, I don’t know what kind of business they would… Well, if you’re on the side of the road selling honey or selling fruit, I guess you don’t need a website then ’cause people can see you. But it’s the equivalent. The website is the equivalent of that, being somewhere where there’s a lot of traffic, where people can see you, you know?
Allan McNabb: Exactly. And for a real estate agent, to showcase their properties, properties they have for sale, properties that they’ve sold.
Ray Hendricks: Absolutely.
Allan McNabb: To have listings, it’s like where else are they going to see those things? And so that’s super, super important. And generating leads for your referral network.
Ray Hendricks: Absolutely.
Allan McNabb: If you’re giving leads to your property manager, and then they hear somebody wants to buy a house, who are they going to give that referral to, right?
Ray Hendricks: To me. And believe it or not, property management companies, they deal with investors all day. Who do investors use? They use realtors. So there you go.
Allan McNabb: All day long, man. All day long, absolutely, absolutely.
Ray Hendricks: Oh, yeah.
Allan McNabb: Save time with sales and customer service. When you’ve got a website, they can go there, they can look up stuff, they can learn about it. It’s just going to save you time because you don’t have to talk to everybody on the telephone, you know?
Ray Hendricks: Absolutely.
Benefit from Google Search
Allan McNabb: And benefit with Google search, you got that like that. And that last one, just to be competitive, you’ve got to do it, right?
Ray Hendricks: Absolutely.
Allan McNabb: And I don’t know about you, Ray, if I… And I think we really talked about this already. If I’m checking out two places, all things being relatively the same, one person cares about their digital presence, the other person doesn’t, you know who I’m going with. The person that cares, right?
Ray Hendricks: The person who cares, absolutely.
Allan McNabb: Absolutely, absolutely.
Ray Hendricks: Absolutely.
Allan McNabb: All right, Ray, so I think we pretty much… We just covered the basics, and really, what we said, it’s just a necessity, and we’re just emphasizing that. If you’re going to be successful, you’re going to be in business, it’s just a necessity to have a website, to have your social media, and to look like you’re alive, right?
Ray Hendricks: Absolutely.
Allan McNabb: All right, so can you think of anything else we need? I jotted down these little things. You think of anything else we need to talk about now?
Ray Hendricks: Well, for this particular one, no ’cause this is just giving you the overview. But the next one that we do next month, I really want to dial into strategy ’cause there’s marketing for certain strategies. ‘Cause we have mail strategy, we have internet. So there are a lot of marketing strategies, and I kinda want to dial into that a little bit more next time because now that we have the branding, what you need, how do you utilize these things should be the next.
Allan McNabb: Yeah, because you know what you’re doing with all of it. And social media also. You’ve got to have somewhere to send them, right?
Ray Hendricks: Absolutely.
Allan McNabb: Your social media has to send them somewhere. Where does it send them? It sends them to your website. Your website is where you, I call it ring the cash register. Social media is terrible at ringing the cash register, although you can do a little something. But even if you’ve got properties in the marketplace, Facebook Marketplace, you’re still going to have somewhere for them to go, right?
Ray Hendricks: Right.
Allan McNabb: And the same thing is we talk about strategies next time. I imagine we’ll talk about email marketing, which has, by the way, statistically, the highest return on investment.
Ray Hendricks: Absolutely.
Allan McNabb: But you gotta have somewhere to take the people, and that is the website. The website’s where you’re ringing the cash register, that’s where it all comes together. So I look forward to that one, Ray. That will be awesome. That’ll be a great webinar also.
Take Away
Ray Hendricks: Well, I thank you guys for tuning in, all of you that have tuned in. I thank you, Allan, for helping me with this series. We’re getting all the bumps out for the first one, but we just continue with this, we should get more of a following so that people can understand that this isn’t just about real estate, it’s just about building up brands, period. All right, so you guys need to tune in to us. We do the second week of every month, and it’s at 2:30, 2:30 to 3:00.
Allan McNabb: All right, guys, this is Allan McNabb with Image Building Media, and we’re based here in Tampa Bay. Ray, we appreciate it, and we look forward to being back together in about a month.
Ray Hendricks: All right, sounds great. [chuckle]
Allan McNabb: All right, guys, thanks. Thanks for tuning in.
Ray Hendricks: Bye-bye. Bye-bye.
Image Building Media
Image Building Media is an internet marketing company based in Tampa, Florida, serving clients in various industries throughout the U.S.
We specialize in internet marketing, including SEO, social media marketing, website design, content marketing, video marketing, email marketing, SMS marketing, mobile web marketing, online reputation management, CRM integration, and more. We also provide consulting services, including conversion analytics.
To learn more about Image Building Media and our services, book a free consultation or contact us direct.