According to Instagram marketing expert Michelle Berman-Mikel, saying the right thing, then moving the conversation into the real world, can allow you to create a social media strategy that converts.
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Do you ever feel like you’re spinning your wheels on Instagram? Beyond boosting your content and getting verified, how do you use smart strategies to make sure that you are investing in your social platform in the best way possible? A great place to start is identifying a metric to measure with.
Ten percent. That is the magic number, and it’s the general rule of thumb for how much a real estate agent should put back into their marketing from their commission. One thing that many agents get wrong is that 10 percent isn’t just money; it is also time to work on engagement.
Savvy agents know that investing in their marketing will help their pipeline stay steady with prospects in an economy where every dollar counts. This guide will show you essential areas to focus on when building a marketing plan that invests back into your most important asset: Yourself.
We will review Instagram techniques to boost your leads, level up your engagement and put that 10 percent to work in ways you have never thought about. These simple strategies will take your doom scroll to a power play with just a few taps on your smartphone.
Not sure how to start a conversation? With these easy prompts, your leads will be engaged and ready to move from your DM’s to your next open house.
Start with creating simple funnels to capture leads
Instagram, if executed strategically, will not only provide you with more relationships but will also strengthen old ones. The best part is that it provides an opportunity to prospect on a saleable level, unlike any other platform.
How can you shift your 10 percent to the platform and be successful? Let’s dive into the three steps in the Instagram lead funnel that will create more opportunities and higher conversion.
Take the time to build your engagement tracker
Knowing where to engage and whom to engage with is the first key ingredient to setting yourself up for success on the Instagram platform. By building out your tracker, you will confidently know where to begin each day. There’ll be no aimless scrolling and uncertain searching, but, instead, you’ll have planned out and structured categories for who to talk to, based on who you are trying to attract.
The fundamentals of the tracker are simple. Each day has a category, and two of the five days of the week are non-negotiables. These two days are “following day” and “re-engage” day. The other three should be ideal client categories. Make a two-week cycle if you need more days to structure out.
When choosing the categories, it is based on your ideal client; just a “first-time homebuyer” does not qualify. You must get specific and hyper-focused. It will help you have conversations about things you are passionate about, make the opportunity for the “ask” easier because it is rooted in connection first, and will allow you to get way more yesses.
People who like you and feel connected to you are likelier to say yes to you.
Execute the conversation formula
What is the engagement strategy that will work best for generating prospecting and creating conversion? Here are the three parts to your initial touch point (reminder that all three of these pieces go into one message you send. This is the initial message you will send to someone when you are creating new engagement with them.)
- Part 1: Acknowledge what the person posted. By doing so, you show that you not only saw it but also read it.
- Part 2: Enter nostalgia and storytelling. This is how you subliminally share “what” you do without selling anything.
- Part 3: Ask a question. Who, what, why, or how are great ways to start it.
Move the meeting
The most critical piece to creating a conversion on Instagram is knowing when and how to move the meeting.
Moving the meeting requires using the connection you have established with the individual in your ask By doing so, you will avoid the slimy car salesman feeling, you will get more Yes’s, and you will better qualify the people you are talking to so that you are only on the phone with people who are ready to be there.
An additional side effect of this? Way less shopping around since the person you’re talking to is ready to work with you.
By executing the 45/20 strategy taught in this article, you will be looking at creating upwards of 225 new conversations per week. The funnel averages two new opportunities/leads per week when fully executed. When compounded over time, these numbers scale exponentially.
But how do you start that conversation?
Conversations are a necessary ingredient to creating conversions. The problem is that few are executing the conversations with intention, and even fewer can move the conversation to the next step, which allows for conversion to be on the table as a possibility.
We all know how important getting to know someone is, whether this is a new buyer or winning a listing. You don’t walk into either of those appointments swinging, talking about business right away. You must build a connection.
So how do you do this with someone you are connecting with on Instagram? And how does it make for better phone calls, higher conversion rates, and less “wasted” time on the phone with people who are not ready to speak with you?
The way you initiate contact can make or break the opportunity before you. Remember: You are choosing who these people are based on how you set up your engagement tracker. So, once you find those people, what do you say? Let’s cover the three things every conversation should start with on Instagram.
Acknowledgment
The first piece of your message needs to acknowledge the post you are engaging with. Have you ever received a comment or a message that says, “Awesome content” or “This is great. Keep sharing more!” They feel forced, spammy and lack acknowledgment.
The very act of acknowledgment has been defined as the “recognition of the importance or quality of something.” When you identify and recognize the importance or quality of someone’s efforts, that person feels seen, heard, and understood.
That simple act can be the difference between someone responding to your message in a sea of others or not.
Below are a couple of examples of what true acknowledgment looks like:
Storytelling
The second piece of the initial message is equally important as acknowledgment but has a unique purpose.
This part of the message helps set you up to have conversations about work while also getting to know the person. It creates visibility for what you do without you coming straight out and saying it or asking for business.
This makes it easier to transition the conversation from personal to business. In this part of the message, you can tell a story about a client you recently worked with. You can use nostalgia with “This reminds me so much of X client I helped” or a personal example of when you did something.
It is common that people find it hard to transition from being personal to talking about real estate, and this addition to your message eases that.
How do you keep conversations going? Ask questions. The final piece to the initial message you send is remembering to live in a perpetual state of curiosity. The more genuinely curious you are, the more likely the person on the receiving end will feel it and respond accordingly.
A mindset of curiosity can help us connect new information and avoid dead-ends in conversations. Most people say, “The conversation just stopped or came to a dead end.” The power of curiosity comes from its ability to help us learn and grow. It stops us from becoming obsolete, fills our blind spots, and improves our self-awareness.
When we are self-aware, we will be better at recognizing points that the person we are communicating with is giving us. We can identify pain points and read between the lines.
Ending messages in questions generates more responses, allowing more conversations to continue. The more conversations continue the better and the fuller the funnel remains as we get closer to being ready to go for the ask and “move the meeting.”
The groundwork for growth
Simple funnels and a conversation strategy will help you move your 10 percent investment into new avenues for your business. Learning that it is not just money but also time that you need to invest in your conversations on Instagram will help you start leveraging more authentic conversations that will push your marketing just a little further in an already crowded space.
Active prospecting is always time intensive, but if done correctly, the set up can alleviate a lot of the heavy lifting. Building out your engagement tracker ensures you’re strategic, efficient and always actively looking for new leads that fit your ideal client.
Michelle Berman Mikel is a nationally sought-after Instagram Content Development coach, speaker, owner of Berman Media PD and creator of the Instagram Power Method Program. You can connect with her on Instagram and LinkedIn.