Digital Marketing 101 {Ep.2} Casandra Properties Podcast

00:00:06 – 00:05:12
Hello everybody, welcome back to the Casandra Properties Podcast. This is episode number two today we are featuring Peter Gambino. We made a brief intro to Peter on the first podcast. He is typically on the ones and twos running everything digital here Casandra Properties. He’s our CMO and today’s podcast is going to focus on digital marketing. You know we’re calling it digital marketing 101. We want to take you through everything you need to know about how to stay ahead. In a fiercely competitive field right now in the ever-changing field, we’re going to do this obviously through the spectrum of a real estate company, but a lot of the principles that Pete has brought to the company can be used in every different kind of field so Peter, thank you for joining us today. Absolutely exciting. I’m a big fan of the podcast I’m glad that we were able to get this off the ground. Continue going on, and we have some could. Guests lined up but yeah, it’s it’s fun. It’s a good experience. So the podcast along with so many other initiatives was absolutely in part, and a big part spearheaded and kind of pushed through by Pete. He has really brought our company to a completely different level, so I think it’s important. Let’s pull it way back and let’s kinda start at the beginning. Can you tell the audience a little bit about yourself? Give some history previous work experiences, and how you ended up at this wonderful real estate companies business. So your most relevant working experience is again into Digital Marketing, digital advertising actually back in two thousand nine where I started with a Mobile Advertising Company called Quattro Wireless. They were based out in Boston in Waltham Massachusetts and had an office in New York City. What they did ws serve banner ads onto mobile devices and you get people to try and download applications, but a lot of the today and everything like that, so those annoying ads. Those annoying ads. That they’ve evolved over the years I know now. There’s a lot of video. Involve everything like that, but yeah those annoying as a pop up. That got you download. Remember my first campaign I Iran was doodle. Jump I don’t know if you remember that game, it was one of the most popular games was ninety nine cents and the developer was crushing it. Which Doodle Jump. We just jump up all the way A high. You can get, but it was. It was a pretty cool APP at the time. So from there. The company got bought by Apple in two thousand ten and. What we did, what ended up becoming of Quattro wireless, the entire advertising network turned into something called iAd which was Apple’s. Advertising platform where so we took Where we took those annoying ads, and now we didn’t more mass scale and tried to make them. Less annoying, packed full because there was a huge market obviously frappes even now as I’m sure everybody has a ton of APPs on their phone sees a ton of ads for these different. Companies so. Goal was obviously to help developers to drive revenue for developers by serving more ads in these APPS, which in turn was the hopefully create more free apps. happening now instead of the paid version, and there’s been a big evolution in that huge evolution with that and. It’s a little bit more of that. If you want, but just to finish up on the the history part is. So with the. With, the mobile advertising there and helping developers develop More. Installs of applications. It turned into Business, but Apple’s priorities shifted a little bit and kind of got out of the advertising business, a little bit on that front, because of privacy issues and everything else like that so from there moved onto another digital advertising company kind of doing the same thing, and then kind of fell into the real estate business here. He’s been two years now to two and a half years maybe and landed here, trying to take some of the things I learned over there and kind of bring them over here. Which it it? It’s working. It’s been a long process, but it’s definitely working and helping out a lot of. Yeah so and we’ll get into kind of benchmarking and. Taking stock of where you are so that you could properly ascertain what’s effective and what’s not, but I have to go back to a a bunch of money. Right so so we’re GonNa talk about you know APPs and ads. We have talked about a couple of games. Right turf wars crushed. Right the game, none of offender one remembers. This is the game where you literally had to go and be physically in the territory claim a terror to play matre right so I remember we road trip one day gummy playing his game.

00:05:12 – 00:10:06

We ended up. In Massachusetts we were driving all over the place we took a day in had some fun dropping these turfs, and then of course there was clash, clash, Royale, right and clash of clans, those a two two other ones I know if anyone out there remember them, but tremendous last royale bigger moment was on a on a cruise or something. It was started playing that, and then you kind of just got involved and it was addicting just because it was a good experience, you know quick. It was Kinda like a chess match almost in a digital form. It was really good game. It was a good game, but they the. It’s funny how these Games have integrated seamlessly into everybody lives in dies with their phone now right? everything that we do is driven through our phones or tablets devices, and they’ve made them they’ve integrated them so brilliantly. You can go from heavy real reading a heavy document or being involved in something on the business side. Flip right over. Throw a quick match or to win gives you just like a brief. Reset right, it’s. It’s interesting how how they’ve done that, so you work for a company Quattro wireless your acquired. My apple is that apple bought quattro so to one little story there? There’s some good stories I could tell about whole experience as well too so apple at the time Quattro’s was biggest competitor Admob anyone in the advertising world would know who Admob was, the biggest mobile advertising network at the time. Quattro was number two so Apple was actually trying to buy Admob at the time, but Google came in and scoop them up before it Kinda outbid them, and they bought Admob Google so. Admob was off the market. Came in and bought Quattro instead, so it was kind of like you know a good thing where you know. I got bought by Google. Otherwise I probably would’ve been working full time so and I i. really enjoy the experience. What Apple learn definitely lot there, so let’s talk about that for a minute. What’s that like I? Mean you know apple is? Company and I mean I’ve I’ve got Apple Watch apple. Apple’s coming out of my ears here. So what? What was that like? What is that experience like? So? It was good. It was challenging. I would say that so what happens does in the beginning when they acquire a company. Is They buy the company? And then they kind of leave you on your own company that you previously were for away of bad. They say about two years and they say if. If you can survive on your own under the apple umbrella for two years. We won’t help you right, so it was. It was confusing for a lot of people that worked with us for our clients. Because like oh great. You Work Your Apple. Now you know. What can you do from tunes with you know with developers? Can you help us out and we were like? We really don’t have much. With them because I know, we worked for apple but. He didn’t get it. They were Kinda wanted to let us go on her own operating a silo, right. Exactly. Make sure everything can function normally see continue you know thriving business, and then okay now we’ll come in to help you. It’s not like you guys trailing. Come and helping you make it better. We WanNa make sure you are great business that you working and then from there. We’re going to make it even better after that. So for two years was kind of the same process. You know a little more difficult, but then once we start getting an integrated with items that team and You know we started to uh. Develop relationships there and we’re able to move things along. It got a lot better, but it’s definitely great company to work for. You know. They were big on on privacy. Which is great and I have nothing to. Say about apple whatsoever, so big fan still have all the products same thing IPAD iphone. Apple Watch all that stuff so definitely a great experience and it must be must be really neat to. Be Able to go from a smaller company to be able to step in and get through that two year period to have access to see how they do it right? That must have been really neat experience for you. Definitely was for sure and see how they operate. and I worked there for I. Think Steve Jobs still the head of apple while I was there for maybe a year, so before we passed and my CEO at the time of Quattro wireless became the VP of advertising, and he has some really good stories about things that went on with him and and Steve and some stories that you hear of how he was definitely true. Some aren’t, but he had a particularly of acting around things and and. Getting things done in. The distorted reality, a lot of people say, but he He built a very products company. Yeah, so there’s. There’s. Something that we talked about also enough first podcast, just being a little bit more tolerant people have to understand that. Is Good in the bed in everything and everyone, and there’s certain things that make up the individual, and you can’t just pluck all the great. You know attributes of somebody, and then not deal with the the other side of it so That’s really cool, and and then you go from Apple, and you step way up the ladder into Casandra Properties and.

00:10:07 – 00:15:01
It’s. Definitely different so coming. It has it definitely a lot translates but. A lot should translate into real estate because real estate is, it’s it’s about advertising. You know you have to obviously the reason why. People work on a realtor is because they want their property sold and advertised and get it out to the masses and let people see it. You know so that’s why. Coming here like this is great I do a lot of advertising stuff. I realized. Nobody’s really doing it. You. Will you use the word obvious? And he said obviously, and it was an obvious. It wasn’t even obvious to me. We you know I had a pretty good handle on. The transition and what we had seen coming you know again talking about converting from dealmaker to a marketer to completely different things and the real estate industry has an awful lot of the kind of titans in the industry that came up in a different world in a different era and everything has changed. It’s not just about being dealmaker. You needed great dealmaker, but you also need to have massive exposure, so that’s that’s going to be the focus for today’s podcast. We want to really. pull the curtain back a little bit more and rundown many of the initiatives. Many of the things that you’ve done that have helped. Establish Sandra Properties and offer share some of this knowledge. To our audience, you know I think it’s important that we. Talk about being an authority in this industry right in your industry, there are a lot of folks that position themselves as SEO experts, and they position themselves as digital marketing experts and they’re not. You know this is a a really fast changing game and You’ve got to be completely vested. We found impossible and we work with some great companies but we found it absolutely impossible for us to be able to work with a third party company. Because real estate, the changes are so fast right new listings price changes. People want their their sight. You know their property up in marketing. They wanted front and center. Things happen so quickly, and you’re coordinating over twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, one hundred different agents, staff and people We found it impossible to work. Seamlessly with third party companies as wonderful as they were, and we had some great experiences within. It wasn’t until you came on that things started to click and I think that’s when you started to get a sense of how. Much of a disconnect there was between the top dealmakers, and what digital marketing or marketing in general really was. You know I it’s. It’s hard to work with a third party or something like this just because it’s, it’s a fulltime job and. Third parties obviously whatever their. Specialties are whatever their services are. They’re not going to be focusing on just one client, which is obvious, they have other clients at the oath, and if you’re not in down in the weeds. Things can kind of get lost, and not marketed properly or not. you know done in the correct ways we’re things are getting done, but it’s not the most effective way getting done without a doubt so Definitely. Taken on all of the marketing initiatives. Here I it. It’s great I love doing it. It’s something you know. It’s a lot of creative stuff which I love to do. which I haven’t really gotten to do in the past, but it’s definitely it’s it’s a fulltime job someone to be focused on it just to drive. The Exposure into every place that we want to. Obviously you want it out there everywhere and you want it. Want to get a listing or any kind of miss out there on every platform, but it’s to be at the right time. You got the right audience you gotTa have the right targeting. You GotTa have the right message everything like that. And that takes. It takes a lot of work. It’s not something that can be found in or You know kind of Sun on autopilot too much, so there’s there’s a big difference again between people who position themselves as experts experts in and I. Say this, not as a you know self promoting thing i. say this because you are an absolute expert, you have taken this to a whole different level. When I just wanted to share some quick stats in the little over two years that Pete been with us. Feedspot, which is a they publish a monthly blog and they update. You know rankings in the country for real estate blogs, and for real estate websites in a little over two years. Pete has brought us up now. where fifty eight right from blogs we’re now fifty eight. For real estate blogs in the country. That’s that’s pretty amazing.

00:15:01 – 00:20:11

Bad now. That’s amazing. Right I mean you know when you think about? We are a relatively small real estate company here in Staten Island. And to be just e even look up and see names like Forbes and Realtor, dot, com and you know. It’s really neat, Zillow and Trulia. Website to you did this for our website worth we’re fifty two now in the website rankings. You know that’s that’s it’s. It’s a lot to do with. A lot do of your vision, your vision soil this and you knew it was coming and you knew what had to change, and it was just a matter of just implement implementing things. Stay on top of it and. I don’t think people understand the importance of the blog. You know that’s It’s extremely important one for for content. I mean we’re GONNA. Content driven world right now. Where it’s all about con I mean think about. Why are we doing a podcast? Right outs for contact you know so people are eager to consume content whether it’s on the vice on their laptop anywhere and they’re. Everybody wants to be educated onto something. so a blog is a great way to educate an audience you know, get a message out, but having a blog that updates regularly is. is a great way to You know drive people to your site I don’t I’m not again. I’m not sure how many people know how important it is for you. Search engine optimization something we talk about in order to rank for that. How many people come through just for the blogs and then up going to look at different listings and seeing things there, so it’s a mechanism to a gateway to get people there because they want to consume content they want to. Be Educated on certain things that they don’t know about and if you have a good article, if you have it done, optimize the right way and if people searched for. Whatever it is, you know, house, cleaning, home, improvement, or so my house fast any like that and if we’re somewhere in how? High up in the rankings and we get somebody to come to our site a lot of times. They’re gonNA. Stay there, and they’ll come back so so let’s This is where the rubber meets the road and we wanted to deliver value to our audience, so I want to get in the weeds on some of these things you know what some of the things Pete’s talking about and just again to to establish the authority in this marketplace. We’ve now increased to sixteen hundred organic clicks a month on our website. When we started, we were fourth or fifth where. Where now number one? The next closest competitor is two hundred seventy clicks organically a month right so that’s that’s the type of Delta that you’ve established, and you’re just Kinda getting rolling right? We have now over sixty one hundred subscribers on our youtube channel. We have over two hundred and seventy thousand video views. I never would have even thought that that was possible at the end game so the subscribers possibly that many you know climbing this fast right now, which is kind of exciting You know a lot of to do with just again. It’s content. Content. Consists. Inconsistency where you know, you could post a video once or twice a year. You can claim to get a bunch of subscribers about. They’ll never come back because they don’t. They’ll never know about your gain any other ones because there’s no content coming out right, so it’s the quality of the of consistency of the content, and that’s where it gets people to continue to come back and want subscribe and be part of your audience, so let’s take people through if we can is a lot that I wanNA touch on. On, but I do WANNA touch on the main topics of if you’re in the industry, or you’re in any industry, and you’re looking to drive your digital presence. You looking to grow your website. You looking to grow your social platforms. Here’s a really you know kind of quick roadmap of how you do it. We’re going to go through each topic. We’re GONNA. Talk about each topic for a couple of minutes and at the end. Certainly, if if you have questions, please feel free to reach out to us, but let’s start. With the website, right, everything is kind of the websites are hug. That’s where we try to force everybody to. Force everybody to, but that’s where we want obviously all the eyeballs to go whether it’s from social whether from advertising whether it’s from you know blogs, search organic or paid. That’s where we won’t people end up. Is the the website, so you’re using a lot of terms? They wanted to to slow it down a little bit because I didn’t know most of this stuff when we started so Seo is kind of the backbone. Search engine optimization. Okay, so search engine optimization. So this is Most people go out the engage somebody to do a website for them. They get their standard proposal and they show what the website is going to look like, and they talk about some of the basic functions that the websites going to offer, but it goes so much further in so much deeper than that. Pete took us through an SEO exercise We basically call it the Seo Bible now right, and and we went in and to my complete shock keywords right which are things that you want to have included in? Critical parts of your website and you want it all searching for.

00:20:11 – 00:25:06
We’ve into different components in your social and your Hashtags, and all that sort of stuff, so these are the key phrases for us. It’s Real Estate Staten Island Real Estate Commercial, real estate, residential real estate, and it goes on and on and on. People don’t, search. For. Your product the way you think they do and let me explain so if you’re going you launching your website. First thing you should be doing. Is An SEO exercise with the professional, so I search real estate because I’ve twenty five years of experience I have a different level of insight and knowledge so when I search for something in real estate. I type it in one way. You took me through this exercise, which was probably the single most eye-opening exercise for me because everything prior to that, I had people building around how I thought people would search so you have this neat tool where you plug in a key phrase you, you plug in a key expression and Pete’s. He’s got a wonderful way of taking me down a long path. Did you show me that I’m? I’m wrong at the end instead of just saying no dummy. Listen to me. I’m right so we started to There was four or five us. We went on for hours along when I is right. We were there until two o’clock in the morning. You guys picked it back up through the weekend, and at the end of the day. What I, what I what I arrived at was. My knowledge is not how people search, so you type in the key phrase, and it will tell you the competition it will tell you how many people are searching that word or phrase a month, and it will tell you how many results are being produced for those keywords, key phrases, and and the competition as well so competition is important because. It gives you a better understanding of. I’d say related keywords that you can rank for. Much easier easily easier easily easily easily your rank for than maybe your target Qr, so we’ll for example real estate that term extremely hard to rank high on because of how broad this. How many people trying to you know? Get out that is saying like you said Zillow’s truly as dominate that kind of phrase and market, but if you dial it down and look for. Key phrase around that aren’t so competitive like. Maybe not Staten Island real estate, because it’s a little competitive, but real estate listings or real. Real estate for sale or houses for sale near me. Where those are for in a neighborhood in specific neighbor, yeah. Another thing that we went through his different neighborhoods that something we optimize the site for talk about after, but it’s you look around, and even if it doesn’t have as much volume. But it’s still has volume, and it’s less search results in less competition. It’s a lot easier to rank for something like this, and as long as you rank or something like that and you start driving clicks than people get see the other content. That’s they are everything else. That’s on your site right so essentially. The my entire website for all the years prior to this was built predicated on focusing on search terms and search words that were either totally irrelevant, or had so much competition that it didn’t matter like we were just a drop in an ocean, not even a bucket, so pete identified the the long lead time kind of slow grind things the general terms that you have to compete for right. You have to show Google that is relevant. See even though there’s that fierce competition, but then you found you know instead of there being. Two, million, six, hundred and fifty four thousand results for this term. You took certain nuances to it, and we started seeing things that were forty searches fifty searches a month that were market specific that you know just by adding an s dropping an s adding neighborhood dropping a neighborhood. You know just flipping words around, and you went right away. When after those forty, fifty, hundred, two hundred where there was very little, search results if any, and immediately started to layer these things up, so we have a massive spreadsheet Fox, and and we recommend to everybody again, and this applies to every field, no matter what field it is that you’re in if. You’re a lawyer legal terms. If you’re a real, dear, it’s it’s a real estate. Stuff for your restaurant. Is Restaurant stuff so you get these terms? We put them into the Bible now. This gets woven into everything right. This gets woven into every blog, so we have our agents right logs. We write blogs then it goes to our prefer. The proof goes down. The Bible pulls out the relevant Seo words that they think fit that particular narrative it gets woven into the blog.

00:25:06 – 00:30:18
The blog gets posted. So this is what drives me mad when you try and explain this to people and and and you. You know you have sellers that will say. Oh, well, you know. Everyone has a blog I’ll not everyone. A lot of people have logs, but very few have blogs that are written the right way that have the proper phraseology right they’re opt. That’s the vernacular. They’re optimized correctly, so you’re going to start this website. You’RE GONNA. Go you’re GONNA hire somebody right? Let’s make sure that you’re getting a proper seo search engine optimization analysis off the hot. That’s really the first thing that you want to do next. Let’s talk about Meta data right so I love that word Meta data like that word at data. It’s confusing at times, but yeah so Meta data is pretty much. It’s a description of your page over your blog or whatever you’re creating of a really short quick. Summary of what it is, and that’s what shows up on. The search results as well, too. If you search for something against then on real estate you might see the title. The title of pages show that’s the big bold letters that are there then right underneath. That is a couple of lines of text. Description of the page when you do a Google search exactly and that’s where you want your keywords and. Google’s update and optimized so many times, and they’ve gotten smarter as well to. Where in the past people would kind of spam meditate or spam keywords. Where would be like? If you wanted to rank for staten now? In real estate, it would be like Staten Island real estate come to this patriots that now and real estate, and when you force that real estate, you can find sign on real estate in this market because it. Staten Island and Google kind of took that and said Happened any longer because it’s, it’s not relevant. It doesn’t. Nobody would read that in just trying to game the system where so you have to, you could still include keywords, but you have to make it more readable. And it’s got a flow in the right way where you know, people understand that it’s not something that’s you know very spammy. So it’s got a, it’s got flow. It’s gotTa make sense right, and we’re taking still the same key words and phrases that we want focus on then for that particular page of the website where weaving it not only into the text on the website page, but also in the description of the website page. Meta data the meditate I. AM optimus prime. So that’s the Meta, so you WANNA. Have your key word. You want to have in your title. You want to have it in the Meta data description. If possible you kind of want to have it in the link is well. Okay you know what to Sandra properties dot com slash. Stat down real estate, or whatever that’s what you’re searching for, or whatever the keyword is, so if you have those three things, that’s a great start, but this is much more layered on top of it that needs to be done as well I’m. and. You WanNa go to the next phase the next phase. Yeah, so next phase we have is the wonderful back links links. You’ve established your sight and your site is setup, and you’ve your proper homework with your Seo and you have A. Quality Product now Google wants to. Make, sure you’re an authority right right exactly so I’ll I usually messed this one up and I’m I’m still learning folks so yeah, so being a so back. Links are extremely extremely important, and they probably the hardest thing to get You know on your site or for different blog articles or anywhere and what it is, it’s pretty much. A It’s another site. Pointing to your site, so. Explain so a good example is That island do that. NYLAND’s zoo okay great, so Staten Island Zoo dot com. Let’s say if they were. They had some kind of article or some kind of content on there had a real estate, and then in that article they have cassandra properties and a link to our site. That’s a back link so. The reason why it’s so important to Google, white makes you authoritative site, the more back links you have because it’s It tells Google that okay. You know what you’re talking about. It so for example, if I, but it’s going if you ask me, I need something to new information commercial real estate I’d say point to James was like you know. Go to talk to him. If you’re somebody else in the office setting, you know commercial real estate appointed James Go to my wife or parents or anybody in the commercial real estate the point James So James is becoming that authority that authority figure in commercial real estate. Google says okay. Look at all. These people pointing the James when someone types commercial real estate. We’re going to send you to James, because all these people appointed to him, so you WanNa have if you’re doing advertising packages, folks, or if you’re making sponsorships, or you’re involved in in your, you know your civic community of course, and you’re involved in all different boards in different affiliations and your your setting up your packages, you know with the local business.

00:30:19 – 00:35:04

groups SIPC Chamber of Commerce etc. You want to make sure that you are including in these Marketing packages or in these sponsorships, right? We we were all trying to be good. Neighbors were all doing sponsorships for different places. You want to try and get those groups to point to your website as an authority. So that makes perfect sense now again from the top. We’ve got our SEO. We’ve got the METADATA describing it right. We’ve got back links. We have other people that are pointing to our website. You’re starting to but I’m getting the finger. The finger I’m get on the others still another thing, so another important thing on the on the link, so not only are so back links by far. Probably the most important hardest thing to get, but there’s also internal links that you want to do as well too, so that’s. Not Equally as important, but very important and much easier to do, so, what that means is you have the you have an article? You have a page on your site. You want your keywords to link to other pages on your site as well all right so. So we write a blog about a new listing, one two three main street, example, all right and folks. You’re writing the blog. You’re having the SEO. keywords and phrases dropped into your blog. You’RE GONNA use not another neat, little trick, and getting off track a little bit, but let share it now. You’RE GONNA use a unique photo in that blog, right? Don’t be lazy. Don’t take pictures that you used in uploading the pictures for the the home or the property and then use the same picture in a blog. Google catches that they want a unique photo there to rank you higher, so take a unique photo that doesn’t live on the Internet somewhere with all tech’s, but with all text okay I. don’t even know who I’m talking about after you finish it. So, so you’re going to have this blog, it’s going to be written position properly, and within that blog you then want to have a link which is living on your website already that points to one two three main street. Listening page on your site. Correct correct right so again. That’s what Google sees that as well to. It’s pointing to other sites. It’s not Google content those relevant content and loves You know people continuing the search. Click on things obviously, so that’s where that helps build your authority has to. I have a blog and this is my only page in. There’s nowhere else to go once you’re here. They want people. To spend time on the web you know, spend time on on the sites. You know so that’s where if there’s a link to one through three main street, they click on that they go to three main street page from there. They might be another linked to contact us. You know so. We go to the contact. It’s that simple. That’s simple or even in a blog mentions the neighborhood neighborhood section on our on our site. Right to go through different. Mentions elting Ville. Villa goes to the neighborhood section of our page and goes through that, so it’s continuing to keep people there in pull them into the site, and you get them to search more and more on the site so and those are much easier to do because you, don’t yourself. You know you just got again. Find a key words you know. Make sure you right pages. Of! Don’t be overly spammy. Don’t want to include a ton of links. A couple in their three or four is fine of internal ones and then. You also want to do outbound links as well, too because Google wants to see that you’re referencing wherever you getting your data from. It’s a relevant source as well. Okay, so that’s what that’s. The one thing that can really help. You back links So we did a article on. On The Staten Island Zoo because you mentioned it before. We could link a couple of pages internally to our site. If we mentioned Stein real staffers nothing if you mentioned listening or neighborhood, but also we wanNA link to Staten Island Zoo dot, com, or whatever the website is and then if we may be start throwing out stats abouts. Animals or People that frequent zoos or tourism or something like that and we linked to other sites like that that are again authoritative about the subject Google sees Dan says okay. Great blog is written very well. It’s got lots of stats that are of validated through these other sites. We’re GONNA rank that kind of we’re GONNA. Write that one higher as well to fifty different keywords so when when you reviewing this proposal with your website company right under backlinks. We WanNA. Make sure you’re getting proper. Backlinks to your site internal links with your site and outbound links to other relevant places that you may be affiliated with. An and I can tell you ninety five out of one hundred proposals that we’ve seen. Don’t have any of that information in there now, so so so important, so you’ve now got the website rolling.

00:35:04 – 00:40:01

We’ve got give you the finger again. One second point the finger again just because I mentioned that the pictures before and the Altech, so the important thing that Google on all texts on images, so when you place an image on a blog or site anywhere they give you the option to kind of describe the picture, right? It gives you a place, super text kind of behind the picture of what it is, and if it’s a picture of the Verizon, bridge. It’s a good place keywords Staten Island real estate, Verizon, bridge or the Verrazano, Bridge Staten Island, so you’re in. This is a scripture of the post your picture I don’t see I don’t see it. But it helps the visually impaired is what it’s for. Go you know if they click on something and they have the The readable website technology read sites the pick. Google knows they could read. That picture tells them okay. This is a picture of the verizon. Bridge says what the Scriptures there, but those are keywords that Google up on as well so you want include that and sometimes you’ll see them. If you website load slower, the bad connection and the pictures and load right away. You’ll see the text yes, there. is or Text and that’s means that somebody put all there, and that’s what that’s fours so again. the difference between. A professional site that really is driving traffic and just a digital apparatus. That’s kind of floating up in space, right? There’s A. Huge difference now where we’re building a site, we have the infrastructure. We have the backbones. wanted to share some stats about video. It’s utterly shocking. How many people are not using video more effectively, so couple of stats folks so video on landing pages can increase conversions by eighty six percent in English. Pete explained to the audience. What does that mean that means when you click on site and you get to page one land on that page landing page and if it’s an offer if it’s for listening if it’s for anything that he’s either somewhere we can. Ask for more information or something or buy something whatever if there’s a video describing the product or showcasing highlighting aspects of it, people more inclined, eighty five eighty six percent of the time. We’re likely to engage or. Convert to either buying that product or giving an email address or a subscribing something like that because. People love to consume video rather than RETEX and I’m perfect symbol that I hate to read. Fortunately I would much rather watch video and listen to it as it goes on just easier for everybody thinks. Could be played in the background of anything it’s it’s just more engaging with his music and different in I feel the age that we’re in now is a very short attention span for one as it is, you know so if I see paragraph. I’m I I try to read it in. Get lost as into something else video where his music or words or anything different cut scenes definitely keeps people more engaged in the minority. Seventy two percent prefer video overtaxed right? That’s just the world that we’re headed to. It’s we’re so moving so quick, and there’s so many stimuli that we have to respond to you throughout the day. That video is becoming just kind of. The norm right, so a couple more stats just to reinforce. How important video is then? We’ll get into some video content forty five percent watch over an hour of video content week, eighty nine percent. Eighty nine percent of property sales start with a click. So tie back now. All of the things that we’ve talked about from SEO and back links and outbound links and internal links and Meta data, and all of the nuances about blogs and keywords, and all of those types of things. This is a numbers game. If the more people you get, my listeners in front of. The better chance that’s going to sell. Quicker and at a higher price, if eighty nine out of a hundred people are searching for a home online I and yours doesn’t show up or your or your site doesn’t show up. It’s big problem, right? It’s not enough to have the site. Folks make sure that the professionals at your hiring have the right site and they have the right people working on the site. It’s not enough to be there. You have to be able to be sourced and found if you want top dollar. Now. This is the most shocking stat of all knowing all of this. Only nine percent of agents use video. In, contrast, seventy three percent of homeowners want agents to use video, and out of that seventy three percent I would say one percent of those homeowners, no the nuance of how important it is to produce the right content.

00:40:01 – 00:45:01
That source -able. That’s easy to navigate. That’s easy to consume. So. In this industry where about question I mean we just had an experience on enlisting during Covid, we did a virtual open house. The homeowner did the open house for us. WE SOLD IT for? We came within four point three percent of the asking price. And the purchaser never set foot in the house until. Two weeks down the road when things open backup and phase two. They were allowed to go in the house. They went to the basement two minutes and they left so. That evolution actually came. Much quicker than I thought it would I thought people still would really want this. Push that along. Yeah, this is definitely accelerated that so the investment in digital assets for us is certainly paying off now, but this is a time where people are buying real estate without ever setting foot on on the property. And a regular basis. Because if with the right experience you could pretty much be in the home without being in the home. I if you do it right and that has a lot to do video, but also has a lot to do with Some virtual tour stuff and well let this is a perfect segue. Let’s get into picture quality and not a poor tours, right? There’s a there’s a major difference between a matter port tour, and what agents pitch as a virtual tour right, so talk a little bit about about the experience so right away virtual tour I always thought of a virtual tour as what the matter for. For tour really is something where you could literally walk through the home. online where you click through, and you continue to go through entire home upstairs downstairs. You know three sixty views of everything you’re. You’re in the home. You control the experience experience, right? You move the mouse around or anything else. There’s no other way to explain as well, but that’s what was my. Coming from not from real estate that was always makes me as a virtual tour. Getting into virtual towards people like Oh, yeah, we do those all the time and ends up being a slide show video of still pictures still pictures with some texts maybe over. To talking about the the property and that’s again, that’s not a immersive experience. It’s not. It’s really virtual tour. It’s just again. It’s a video with a slight. It’s not even the best video. Honestly, it’s just A. It’s video that gives you pictures. It takes your pictures. Put them in a a a slide show where you able to move them. That’s it and you have no control and you could watch it, and that’s great and could easily manipulated obviously the pictures. Pictures Videos, but that’s not what my understanding virtual tours, and and being James speak differently on this, because he says because I say virtual tour virtual tour and he’s constantly they a poor and I’m like yeah, exactly same thing bright. You know we’re going back and forth. We’re talking the same thing, but he’s calling some to let me explain again for the audience here so. Pizza assumption coming in was virtual tour will of course, a virtual tour is a three d full immersive experience that you have control as the user. You’re going through the kitchen. You WanNa. Stop and take a look at the Molding WanNa look at the doorknobs you WanNa. Take a look at the pattern of the tile on the floor. We actually have glasses that we send. Send out the clients that are out of state. They put them on with their iphone. In it and you literally you are in the home. It is so cool you look up and you’re looking up. You look down. You’re looking down. You go forward. You Walk Forward. It is legit like you’re in the home. I take those with me everywhere. I go so cool because. People don’t understand what it is again so I. If we do a virtual tour for for a seller and again, they really don’t understand what it’s GonNa. Look like when it’s data tour. Sorry again. So the matter giving you the edge. So! The Metaphor tour. We’re going to do it and the celery again doesn’t really understand what it is. They don’t know so. I always carried a goggles on me. It’s VR glasses there, really nothing but with the APP and. The other virtual tours have done in the past. You could just again put your phone in the cardboard box with lenses, and you give it to the the the person and they’re literally astonished. They’re amazed where you know. They spin around saying, look up, look down. They start to walk where I think it was your father or somebody up. He was in the home. Doing any started walking into the table because he thought he was in the home and then realize that you know you shouldn’t be walking anywhere so. It’s definitely a different experience whatsoever. It’s a great experience. It’s really. If. You have a virtual a Matapo again. You’ve ever manafort poor tour and someone goes through that van for tour, and then continues on, says okay I. Really just want to go back at home and seat. You know one time in love. It’s a pretty good solid lead. Or buyer. That’s really the whole without a doubt because nothing else. You could literally read. What’s on the table with the with the candidates us? So. There’s no reason why when you get home. There’s any surprise like this. Is it right? It is what it it.

00:45:01 – 00:50:02
It was such such a profound difference. The a port again verse the. Virtual tour. Mattapoisett fully immersive three experience virtual tour slide show stills looking at it on a tablet phone device whatever it is totally different experience We went out. We bought all the equipment like we went all in on this years ago. We were like this is every listing. Everything we do should have this type of technology so again going through all of the exercises to get people to your site now. You WanNa make sure that you’ve done all that. Work the best experience you can write. Make sure you’re investing in high quality pictures and video because it matters right. It really matters when you’re when you’re. You’re talking about the most expensive asset for most people that they’re ever going to sell. Put Your Best Foot forward, right? This is what’s going to distinguish you. against the competition so when you’re out there. Talking to listing agents make sure you know as a seller. Am I getting a true fully immersive three d experience, or am I getting stills? Because there’s a massive difference in how content gets consumed drone footage. That’s another thing, right? We’ve been so trained. to see everything at our I level from our perspective. We found that when you start using drone footage, and you have that as your thumbnail right and the thumbnail is basically image that you’ll see before you start the video than eight people are inclined to click because it’s a different perspective. Absolutely, that’s what exactly what it is again. You’re trained to see things certain way at street level, or whatever it is, and then once you see something up above again. It’s like wh. Where’s that? That picture taken from. What kind of angle is that right again? It get somebody to click on it and something that I love you know the dry long join around just taking over headshots sometimes at home I would fly around the different things and how high it can go, and see an overview of the whole landscape and everything, but again it’s just a different perspective, and that different perspective is something out of the norm, and it gets people to be like what is this? Gets people will go and click on that and take a look at some different. Yeah, so Another neat tool that we we’ve been using and we have found to be super. Helpful is with the metaphor tours where able to generate. Blueprints, not structural plans overhead drawings essentially outlines that show the bedroom size or the kitchen size or a commercial property. The office is it basically the camera will go through and map for you. this overhead plan that we in leasing. We call the. Plan Yeah, the floor plan so on the commercial side. It’s Nello. Di lease, outline, drawing, or at least overhead drawing, depending on who you’re talking to, and then on the residential side. It’s basically just a print of the house, so when the prospective buyer gets home, they can jump on the website. They’ve got this immersive tore. Oh, what did that look like again? Where was the closet referred to? Prince. Right again say blueprints, but they’re. They’re lay out of the house. All the sizes could take out the tape measure. Will the bedroom set it? Will we be able to get the furniture? In Another thing that is overlooked and should be focused on. is type of. Access to materials that. Don’t require the purchaser to be there and still be vested in the process when you’re not in front of them, right Narrated walk-throughs something else. We’ve had a lot of success with right you WANNA. Talk a little bit about that that started from The the live open houses. Well, you know that’s something that I something. I always wanted to do because I saw value in it, but it’s. It’s intimidating I think for a lot of people. It’s definitely tempting for me like I’m not a camera guy I’m much more behind the scenes I in behind the camera, but you know for people that aren’t afraid of the camera in front of the camera, these live open houses, or live open tours or recall more. Narrative walk-throughs are incredibly useful. I think just because it’s again. If you can’t be there, it’s an agent pretty much walking somebody through it home like it’s an open hall house giving you a description of each room showing the entire flow of the home. and I think we’ve done maybe five or six of them I think live open houses on facebook and I mean we’ve had tremendous success with it. As far as a minutes watched I mean, it’s been weeks since we’ve done the first one and the first one still continues. Get watched. A couple of minutes here a day while the other ones continue to get watched the alarming over I think in the first day or two five hundred minutes watched on one of the live open houses. And again that’s something that we would share to. People’s while to. It’s like here’s the tour alive the House here’s this.

00:50:03 – 00:55:00
After all that they’re going. Still see the home. You’ve got a pretty solid fired. It’s yeah, that’s coming. And the these technologies and these assets not technologies. These digital assets are working for you when you’re not working, which means that working your property owner right once once the content is uploaded people referencing this a week two weeks three weeks of five months down the road. People are finding these things, and it’s you’re. In a soft play kind way your still pushing and marketing the asset so It’s another neat thing that that people and again not just for real estate folks. If you’re an attorney, give legal advice to do a series on. You know we went. We Google the top I think we ended up with top one thousand questions that were asked in real estate. Estate right so we. We did the searches. We pulled list lists everywhere. We call collated it. We got it all together and now we just go down one of the time. peach producing one day, I write some of them. He writes some of them. Becca right some of them. Some of the staff right them, but basically these are questions like what is. A, good example, there’s another good example yet to. I don’t know if you WANNA give anyway or what so F- give a little it’s. A good one you know, so. We searched What is hard and again? This goes back to the SEO part that we discussed where we saw me. How much volume was search volume on results they were you know they was good volume a ton, but actually for her. There was a good amount of volume and not a lot of competition at all or not a lot of results, so we. James wrote a blog. We optimize it the right way. things take time, but now we’re for that blog were ranked thirty three. I think right now, and it’s driving a couple hundred clicks just that blog itself whereas I think one other example better example was. Our F- Our. What is our Afar So if you don’t know what are far, is Google it and our blog? Probably I. It’s strike number one right now. If you put in what what is the meaning of our of our, which is the right of first refusal? Are Blah comes up number one and again it was something that we searched for not a lot of results, not a not of a lot of search volume, but. Good volume that comes in anyone looking for attorney comes star site because it’s number one, and that’s something that if we wouldn’t have done the reverse search and use the program to identify things that people are searching and then layering in the keywords. We never would’ve wrote that blog, right? So why is this a value to our clients? Because when people are searching, what is our afar the right first refusal? They’re engaged in some sort of acquisition right then they’re on a real estate website. So this is the kind of stuff and again attorneys restaurant owners people. Biggest mistake. I’ve made by far and away is I have taken for granted the twenty five years of experience and knowledge and I want to share it more. I want to get that out there because people don’t. And can’t possibly have the same experiences or knowledge that I have in this particular segment, so we get that that type of information out. People want to know this stuff I tell the agents all the time. People want to hear what you have to say. You know you’re an authority in this industry. Go ahead and get that type of information out there. Okay, so last thing we did was narrated walk-throughs. We covered live open houses blogs. We’ve talked about pretty extensively so now you’ve got the website you’ve got it optimized. You’ve got great digital assets. You’ve got the best type of tours. You’ve got the best videos the best photos. Got To promote alone social right so you. Put your best foot forward for search, but. not, everybody searches for certain things you know people need to have things in front of them, so you still have spread the word out somehow so that’s where social media comes into play. So social media is. A powerful tool get. Everybody’s pretty much on social media. I me personally not a huge fan of it on, but you have to be there. Obviously for business was so there’s facebook instagram that is linked in twitter. All those things and there’s different strategies for a for each one Can’t be kind of the same type of thing where you you do for one and you do for all, because certain platforms allow different things right so are geared toward different audience. Geared towards different audience well too, and that’s how you build your audience as well to. You don’t want to take what you have and just. Take that product would take that article. Take whatever and put that on every single platform. You want to push people to your other platforms right so if I just take this article in put it everywhere. Someone will go see it on facebook, so don’t see it on instagram seeing on twitter Lincoln wherever. They have no reason to go to the platforms, and the follow US stuff. You’re promoting right, so there’s things that you wanna put on certain platforms whereas things you. You Wanna put everything out there, but in different ways.

00:55:00 – 01:00:07
That’s what I would say right so The state offered a course that all the agents took called EPO right and I got tremendous value out of that and they. Sort of they describe it as the hub and spoke so think of your website as your hub, and then all of these different social media platforms as you spokes something else to keep an eye out for if you’re hiring a professional to handle this stuff, many of these proposals are written. We will post. On two different platforms three to five times a week. Do not allow that to be posted on instagram. You push it to facebook. Duplicate your post. It will impact your content. You WanNa have unique content for each individual platform that’s geared to the way. The demographic that uses that platform consumes that content right so. FACEBOOK instagram Youtube Lincoln which has become a wonderful source link. On the commercial side we have established tremendous contacts. We’ve been able to get in contact. With reps of all different titles in all different companies. Another platform I wasn’t using to a level of efficiency that I should’ve been and you guys actually. When we were doing a lot of the empire outlets leasing stuff you guys went in and started sending direct messages to the Individual Reps and unbelievable responses, you know the kind of ground and pound way that we would go to the shows and try and get in front of the wraps and try and get meetings now digitally. has been cut out. It’s still important you still have to. You know kind of press the flash and you have to get in front of people and you want to make an impression that stuff is also re really relevant, but the ability to reach them through these platforms. Unbelievable access and I think the meeting them in person just solidifies everything where everything is done right initially beforehand connections and you know outreach and everything, and then finally when you know you have that introduction in you meet in person just solidifies everything, but it’s You know Just to talk about that, imply forms real fast. I would say as far strategy goes wise. The biggest thing you want to do is like Jing’s mentioned wears. You don’t WanNa take post and push it. You’ll put on instagram the facebook or anything like that. Main reasons different platforms loud different things so instagram mostly a visual platform so it you know lots of eyeballs great, you know the bill up a following, and it’s great to send messages, but it’s generally meant for pictures or video. Posted Nice picture. You know put filters on it. description and use hashtags people concert. becomes searchable about hashtags. Talk about that. So. What hashtags Sh- tags on sure. I’m guessing people know exactly what they are, but it’s something that makes your post discoverable right so if you’re especially if you’re starting out bill, the following social media if you don’t put hashtags on, any of your posts is going to be very difficult for people to see what you’re posting right, so what how it works is you if you have let’s say hundred followers, and you post a picture to one hundred followers. Might. See it depending on when they log on might not see it, but those hundred dollars will see it if you don’t put hashtags on a on a poster picture an image anything. It. Limits the ability. No one else is going to see the post so if you put a Hashtag if you put A. Picture of a house, and then you Hashtag it with so many different things you can put up the thirty of them and is again is a deeper strategy on what you want to do, and how you put Hashtags, but just putting Hashtag alone if you put. Let’s say Staten Island Hashtag Staten Island. Anyone who either searches four Staten Island in instagram that has a chance of being show to show up or the biggest part now is I think I don’t know. How long have you been doing it for? Probably, GonNa while, but you’re able to follow hashtags now, and that’s what I do a lot on on. Instagram is followed him like staten, island or real estate or Whatever it is real. Interesting you follow Hashtag and then this way that shows up in your feed, so it’s not only who you’re following shows up in your feed, but it’s whatever puts that Hashtag that you’re following shows up in your feet and how many? Proposals have we seen where hashtags are not specifically identified and posts great content. People took time to to. Produce a nice posing. Zero hashtags people can’t find the only people that have a chance of finding people who follow you, and if you don’t have a big following than it’s not going to show up the reason, why say chances because again? INSTAGRAM changed Algorithms where they only show post people’s followers that engaged the most so if You follow properties if James Follows Cassandra’s anymore because properties, but if you don’t like their content, engage with our content, even though you still follow them.

01:00:08 – 01:03:14
Casandra properties content sometimes. If you don’t like it or engage with it. There’s a good chance they’re not going to show it to you just because even though you’re following them, they rather show you the posted your engage with the most because the more engagement drives. Obviously. It’s better for instagram the, platform. So. We’ve covered a lot like we wanted to There’s a lot more still we’re. We’re going long here. I. Think we wanted to try and boil it down and just give. In English the basics of Things that you should be focusing on today. I don’t care what industry you’re in the digital space is. Going to if it has not already completely changed the way you’re doing business, and you have to be front and center so If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out. I have to say The Staten Island advance right now is doing a neat promotion, because this stuff is expensive folks to get out there and to promote and to do all the things we’re talking about it. It’s it’s tough. It’s expensive in these are difficult times right now I mean you? You know people are struggling so to their credit. The Staten Island advance stepped up Danny Ryan WHO’s a senior advertising director over at the advance, launched a grant program that we just took advantage of so if you’re a small business out here in Staten Island the advance, has got a grant program. If you’re eligible, they’ll match up to fifty percent of your spend, so we just took advantage of a really big package with them. We’re super excited to collaborate with the advance. But this is a good time for people are on their devices more than ever now right with with corona in lockdown and more than ever. People are are on their tablets. They’re on their phone so for the advanced. Step up and make that offer now I think is great We jumped on it. Because it’s right, it’s toughest. You’re trying to stretch the dollar into double the dollar today. Today with your local go to publication is really important. Yeah, especially like you said the times are tough now if they are giving some sort of bonus and GonNa match, things definitely take advantage of it for sure and commend them for doing that you know to help get the message out. Help small business out here in staten. Island you know, continue, advertise continue to get their message out. They have a big platform here in Staten Island without a doubt right so folks enclosing real estate is typically you know to save for third time the most expensive asset in your portfolio. If you’re hiring, we’re professional. Make sure that they have the basis covered in the digital space. That is where it’s happening. That’s deals are being made. That’s where you’re driving. Top dollar Pete. Thank you very much for joining me today. happy to. To join you on, you’ll see me sitting in the corner sometimes and on the PODCASTS. Maybe Petey’s the camera there but Petey over in the corner, and he’s doing is digital. Whizz over there so folks. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out. Thank you for joining us today. We look forward We’ve got a bunch of great guests lined up and we’ll be back at it next week. Everyone stay safe and have great.