From Likes to Loans: How to Convert Social Posts Into Clients

Hey there my friend welcome to a special AMA ask me anything addition of mortgage marketing radio. I want to bring these back I did these a while back and I really love to hear your questions and help you work through some challenges provides a mental frameworks and potential answers to what issues that you find recurring for you in your business and so today I'm going to share a question that came in from one of our listeners in just a moment but I wanted to first of all give you the opportunity for you to leave me a quick voicemail a question right here's the cool part right you can be featured on an upcoming episode just head over to ask jeff anything dot com that's ask g-e-o-f-f anything dot com yep that's why my mom named me Jeff Jeff g-e-o-f-f anything can I say that once more ask jeff anything dot com leave me a quick voicemail and you might hear your voice right here on the podcast just share with me what is the challenge issue or thing that you're working through or want some insight or direction on and I definitely would appreciate it and feature you on the show if it's a great question no no pressure here okay so today's question comes from Michelle Michelle has been in the business for 20 years and here's the question Michelle had hi jeff I listened to your podcast regularly I've been in the business for 20 years I'm struggling with converting clients after I do a social post and I'm really looking for advice for one platform I need baby steps so one platform that you feel like has given you the best results converting into a lead and also how once that lead has reached out to you how are you making the conversion thank you okay well first of all Michelle thanks a lot for listening and being so honest about your challenge really appreciate that you've been tuning in consistently for some time and you know this is one that's coming up more often that I hear quite frequently about you know how do we move people from these third-party platforms right or what I call discovery platforms how do we essentially take them off of that platform so we're going to unpack this a little bit and her question as well first of all let me set the framework of the stage of you know the the the the challenger issue is this is that if you think about you know the content that we're all putting out there on these various platforms right so whether you're on Instagram Facebook TikTok YouTube X or LinkedIn and you interview picture of funnel right at the top of the funnel it's wide and that's what we call borrowed distribution and so there's a benefit to being on those platforms in that you can get distribution right the downside is it's borrowed you don't own it you don't control it and the algorithms are forever changing all the time and you need to keep up with that and quite honestly the competition is steep because it's all about content now it's all about the quality of your content it's not about how many followers you have in terms of like reaching things like that it's about your content is it relevant and is it packaged well it's also a packaging game these days to be able to get attention stop the squirrel and get people to engage with your content so the first thing you have to ask yourself is you know what which of these the types of content are you more suited for right on LinkedIn even though LinkedIn is doing video of course on LinkedIn is still very dominant when it comes to written content in the form of text and carousels over there they're you know they're called documents but they're similar to Instagram carousels but the text still does very well on Instagram on LinkedIn as well does carousels and of course videos growing and trending there as well so we could pretty much say that across all these platforms video is an aspect of it but if you were to tell me hey I'm really not in a video don't do video then probably either extra LinkedIn would be the place I focus so with that said probably most of you have chosen at least one primary platform that you're on Instagram Facebook etc all of them have different nuances all of them have different rules of the game if you will or suggestions right for succeeding but I will say come back to this idea of like what you're using the platform for is to create awareness right you want to build an audience you want to become known let's get back to the issue of the problem it's called borrowed distribution and so the thing we want to do if you picture that funnel in your head once again is you've got the funnel top of the funnel with you know all of your social platforms the goal is to move your audience the percentage of people that you can move them from awareness to trust to a different stage in the relationship with you and in order to do that you need to have a mechanism to take them from borrowed distribution these social platforms to what we call owned media what is owned media own media is things like email podcasts like this events in person or virtual events and communities both in person and online and the ultimate goal is to continue to move some of those relationships to the next stage which is conversations which leads to transactions now the conversations can definitely happen over the DMs but they can also happen over the phone over zoom calls and consultations and things like that but ultimately that's the the final stage to which is the precursor to getting to actual transactions so once again let's just recap this top of the funnel borrowed distribution all the various social platforms next stage in your process in your funnel is moving from awareness to trust and that's it's essentially going to the next stage in the relationship so if you think about this podcast maybe you've been listening for a while maybe you're new but we take you know the question we got which is I've been listening to your podcast for a while I would venture to say that there's a certain amount of trust in relationship established because somebody listening to a long foreign podcast like this right for 10 minutes or an hour that's a lot of time on brand right if somebody's engaging with your email your newsletter that's a lot of time on brand same thing within person events that next level of personalization and trust and engagement and connection is really where you're going to see the best ROI and results and I think the challenge that we all face myself included with these awareness you know the borrowed distribution platforms to create awareness in scram social youtube all that the challenge is while we may be creating some awareness and people love to use the term that visibility beats ability and I agree to a point that you've got to become well known but if you don't have a strategy or a process for moving from or off of borrowed distribution to owned media like the examples I mentioned then you're kind of like the dog chase in its tail like you know where's it going how are you ever going to convert those to actual transactions and that is the ultimate goal and that's what I want to get back to answering today's question by Michelle so which one platform would you focus on I think that comes back to when I said a moment ago which is where do you already hang out like which one do you think is most appropriate for you what's your vibe is it Instagram's at LinkedIn Facebook YouTube right and you're asking for like a baby steps roadmap well I think the baby steps starts with want the one you feel most comfortable in and the style and in vibe of the platform that you align with most the reason why I say that is because you're more likely to be consistent and hang in there for the long game and it is a long game now that said there are certain depending on which your end goal is there may be advantages to one platform over the other and so I want to talk about this idea briefly of discoverability if your goal is discoverability you've got to know the rules of the game how do you get discovered on Instagram how do you build that audience how do you create awareness how do you get your content to reach more people same with the other platforms right as I said earlier there are rules guidelines rules of the game right your contents got to be on point it's got you've got to have compelling hooks you've got to have good packaging you don't have to be you know the super high polished professional but you do have to build that skill of creating attention stopping the scroll of creating engagement so that people will consume right I mean if you think about the the goal of the algorithm it's like will people click will people watch that's the bottom line I don't want you to underestimate the skill the reps that you need to get in to be able to do well with that skill I'm definitely learning that all myself I'm kind of investigating and testing out different things on different platforms and really trying to get clear on my vibe and where who are my ideal clients that I want to reach and what platforms are ideally suited for that and I think that's the real question who's your ideal client which platform is best suited for finding and reaching that ideal client if you're first time home buyer buyers right that's actually a good question many people would think oh first time home buyers right Instagram TikTok right well maybe yes maybe no I am looking at the recent next gen home buyers report published by Kristen Messerley what's up Kristen and there's a question about where they go to consume their content for financial related access financial information with the next gen where they go other than friends and family next they go online and predominantly to YouTube with over 65% of next gen buyers going on YouTube and then the next category is 40% on social media and that's of course right across the apps I mentioned Instagram TikTok probably more so than LinkedIn as far as that goes and then the next category that's coming up interesting enough is AI and chat GPT and I'll do a whole separate episode on AI and chat GPT because we need a whole separate episode on that and how to show up in search on chat GPT by the way if you want to do a test today just just do a search first of all do a search on yourself roast yourself right tell me about right Jeff Simfer or whatever your name is or start searching other loan officers who's the top three loan officers in right Irvine California search real estate agent and you're gonna start to see the sources by which those results are being fed so back to the question about what Michelle asked is which platform would you focus on I think again that's a personal choice who's your ideal client and where are they most likely to hang out and be consuming or searching for let me say that with an underlying searching for the type of information that you provide and they all have their potential right but some have more than potential than others and then the rules of the game take YouTube for example YouTube has some additional considerations in terms of long form content right now can you do sure is there sure but once again let's talk about this trust and what I call time on brand okay the more time on brand somebody can spend with you the more trust typically is going to be built okay so next Michelle's asking about my process for once somebody reaches out what's the flow DM booking calls follow up etc I think all those work right and I think you need to definitely start probably with easiest way you can start before you overcomplicated it which is probably a DM and that's where a lot of it goes down the conversations go down in the DM on social on the other platforms YouTube as well with you know messaging and so forth maybe a comment and that's a great way to start if you've got questions hey DM me you can put links to your calendar and your bio and profile definitely smart that you want to do that hey are you tired of cold calling realtors and feeling like you're getting nowhere with my agent classes you don't have to chase agents anymore we hand you a done for you system of ready to teach presentations plug and play marketing and even 200 producing agents to invite so you can double your agent referrals in 90 days or less plus you'll get weekly coaching and a community of loan officers sharing exactly what's working right now here's a quick win from one of our members I joined it because I was tired of doing business the way that regular loan officers have been doing it in my market which is just making the the core calls every Monday and Friday check in with real estate agents I've had done that for years and it seemed like everybody was doing that I need something different and I wanted to find a way that I could work with the agents that I want to work with I wanted to find a way that I could have a captive audience every month every couple weeks where I could find agents that were like minded and that wanted to work with me as well so it's probably brought in I'm just guessing here but it's probably brought on in the three years I've been back with the program it's probably brought on it's probably say about 40 million dollars in volume since then right and it's led to some massive relationships and I wouldn't be able to do those things without this program the value of these Friday calls are so incredibly valuable for all of us I get upset if I miss it on a Friday the cost of this program is what is worth it just because of these Friday calls that we're on where we help coach each other we're just here to help each other add value to our real estate partners are you ready to stop chasing and start attracting agent referrals on demand book a call at mortgage marketing dot pro or hit the link in the show notes now back to our show and then as you get a little bit more comfortable and advanced with this you might want to start offering different what we call lead magnets right these are different tools and resources that this the potential client could engage with that could be a home buyer's guide that could be a custom GPT that's built for first time home buyers to get educated that could be your app something like a finlocker app or some type of financial app because next Jan is using that a lot if that's your target market right there's obviously other target markets if you're specializing in reload or divorce think about what other specialized information you could package up and make available as a link right where you need to get their email speaking of email do you have an email newsletter if you do I hope it's good I hope it's not the usual canned crap that comes from most organizations that most people don't read and have a very little value once again it comes back to the skill content it's not easy right because there's so much noise there's so many things for people to engage with what make sure it's better than the other what make sure stand out is it highly specialized and focused on a particular niche is a specific angle is it actually maybe it's a curation of different information and tools and resources and that people can go to right there's a lot of different directions to go here but I do agree that you need to have a flow or a process for taking people off of the discovery platform to a conversation and you may not be able to jump right from you know post DM to conversation there might be some other threads in in between there you know such as some back and forth messaging maybe some type of a resource guide handout checklist video watch or something like that right and that's where it's important to architect your process and this is all testing by the way but I do think at some point having a booking link to go to your calendar is does make a lot of sense okay well I hope that's helpful Michelle and listen if you've got a question that you'd like to ask here's how to share your question with me simply go to ask Jeff anything that's ask g-o-f-f anything.com I'd love to hear from you what your question is and you just might get your question featured on the show drop me a voicemail I'll tackle it on a future episode I plan on doing these about once a month on average so no question is too small chances are if you're wondering about it and you're struggling with it so our hundreds of other originators and I want to help provide answers to those questions so once again we can go to ask Jeff anything.com appreciate you tuning in and hey if you like this episode please leave us a review let us know subscribe share it with somebody else you think might find it valuable and we'll see you on the next one okay that's it for today's episode before we wrap up I just wanted to remind you about my agent classes you're proven system to double your agent referrals in just 90 days imagine never having to co-call again instead building real lasting relationships with top-producing agents who want to send you business with done for you presentations marketing automation weekly coaching it's all designed to make growing your business easier and fun so if you're ready to take control of your agent referrals and grow your income visit mortgage marketing dot pro or check the link in the show notes and why you're there don't forget to check out the success stories from other mortgage pros who've already seen incredible results thanks for listening and I'll see you on the next episode