Gary Vaynerchuk on Realtor & Lender Marketing Strategy

One of the things we want to talk to you, Gary, about was we focus on bringing value to the agents and doing direct exuberance. So we're doing like two different models as a board. So one of the things that we are going in on is a third of the buyers are now millennials in our markets. And of those millennials, all the things we learned over the past 10 years on marketing actually are pushing these people away. Right. So we're told to when the lead comes in, call them X number of times over this period of days. Blast them.

Wants that phone call?

No, nobody answers the phone. So they actually will fill out an inquiry on a lead page or something and they'll say they're interested. But when we call them, they don't answer the phone.

What about texting them?

So that's what we've been doing is like, I've noticed a little bit like emails weren't getting open in personal email boxes work emails are getting open, but personal ones has become a wasteland.

That's right.

So I've been texting video clips through the service called Bombbomb and then also just sending quick texts asking when they would like to talk. And it's working. Am I on?

Imagine talking to people the way they want to be talked to.

So, like, is that you? What do you believe? What are your thoughts on text?

I'm all in on text.

Okay.

Because, like, I'm very bullish on text. It's why I have first in line.

Yeah.

And I believe in it the most. Notice how I said, what about text? Text.

Do you think in terms of building a subscription model?

Opt in if you added what's your Instagram handle in your lead gen form and said in little parentheses, we will follow you on there and DM you if we're unable to get to you by phone. Yeah, you'll get everybody.

Yeah. I mean, and then what you should.

Really do on your lead gen forum is how would you like us to communicate with you? Email, phone, Instagram, dm, come to your house, smoke signals, write you a letter. You get a lead gen and then you've decided through tried and true practices from the nineteen fucking seventies, this is the industry now to communicate with them. But they don't want to communicate. If somebody called me, I'd be upset. I'm upset when people call me.

Because you don't want the bandwidth for it.

Because there's technology. It's called text me and I'll get back to you when I can. Not you call me on my time. We Value time. You should make the lead gens predicated on. Not just that, you should absolutely ask them up front, aggressively, how would they like to be talked to? Like if you say we acknowledge. Many people now communicate in different forms. How would you like to be communicated to 1, 2, hold down email and Instagram, call and handshake, letter and telegram.

Makes sense.

It will work.

And with millennials, that's.

And there's old school millennials who want a phone call and there's 73 year old grandma who's hip as fuck. Individuality to how they want it. Not just millennials do this. Got it. And you have that ability. That's how the form should be set up.

So you actually build a service. And then for texting, is that something they have to opt in for big time.

Like you get their thing, then they gotta opt in and confirm because it's a very sacred ground.

It's not a spamming place.

No, it is not.

Okay, okay. And is there anything else that you can give us as far as marketing to this demographic, which is becoming a bigger portion of our buyers?

Look, I mean, they're cynical to marketing. Like they don't want the fucking.

They don't wanna be sold, dude.

They don't want the hot shot. I got a Lamborghini and a suit and like I'm your real estate gu. Like, they want authenticity, they want contextual, creative, where they live. They want, you know, they want information, they want value. But they're like any other human. They either want to be entertained or informed. Right?

Yep.

Makes sense. It's basic. But the problem is you can't run an infomercial anymore. They don't care. There's no 27 year old that thinks it's cool that your face is on a bench. Yeah, I mean, literally, when I see like a real estate agent space on a bench, I'm like, that person's definitely.

We'll go on the freeboard and we'll see a billboard where somebody just put up their face. And I'm like, that's for you. It's not for anybody else.

100%. And like. And that's fine too.

Yeah, that's cool.

Like, mazel tov. Enjoy it. I put my face on a billboard back in the day. It's fun. I get it. The part where they really lose. Believe it or not, I'm a little bit funny. With outdoor media, the same billboard can sell for 20,000 and 2,000. So my opinion changes on that.

So there's a price, but it's just not what they're asking.

Correct. So billboards sell in a funny way. You'll sign a six month contract and they couldn't sell it to somebody else. So now the month is there. Now they're scattered. They don't want an empty board. So you can buy for 2000 just for the month. So I like that billboard. Here's where I get screwed up the content. So now you got the billboard at the right price. I'll take it. Yeah. Every passenger's looking at their phone. Yes. I don't think billboards are as good as they were 30 years ago. But you give me a $20,000 board for 2000. Right. Everything's got a price. That's how I think about media. But then creative. The problem with most real estate agents when they get a billboard is they take their most stock image in a good suit. Nobody wants to talk to you. Barry. 1-800-Barry will help you. Is like fucking 1987. Why don't you put a billboard that says every other real estate agent sucks and wear that awesome shirt that you're wearing now and that will convert way better. Even though some people hate that you said sucks.

Bu.

Yeah. I know what every single banking and lawyer outdoor billboard looks like. It is a person in a suit with a tacky phone number can't break through. You've never seen it because you're so used to it.

Yeah. It's a vanilla. Yeah.

It's the same thing.

You get somebody with a Faze clan hoodie like saying, I'm a lawyer and every other lawyer sucks. I put a phone number. They're gonna cream up 22 to 30. Yeah. 25 to 35. Right?

Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense.

Yeah.

Real estate and mortgage like both these industries moving forward with everything happening in technology and how they're having to adjust or pivot. Which one feels the impact more?

Both. Because they're so inherently tied together. You know, Both.

The middle gets eliminated on both.

Yeah. Tech will eliminate everything in the middle. Glass stores, people that sell you. Those sunglasses. Got eliminated.

Yeah. Sorry. I bought these from Warby Parker.

Correct. You used to go to fucking Sunglass.

Hut, lens collectors, all that.

That's exactly right. Got it. The Internet wins. We lose. Now figure it out. If you're in the middle, you're finished. I really believe that. Now the question becomes when I'm right about that. But if I said this in 1994 and you owned a bookstore, you'd be like, pshh. You got called out first. Mr. Bezos came along. If you were A taxicab driver. And you watched this video for some reason. Cause it hit your fucking Instagram feed and you're like, I run an Internet taxi in 2009. You're laughing at me like a kid doesn't know shit. And then Uber put you out of business. The Internet will put everybody out of business if you don't build something defensible. The only thing that's defensible is the best product. The best. And this is the scary thing for people because now they hear that and they're like, well, I'm the best. No, you're not the best product that's differentiated. You're just a real estate agent. There's plenty of people that have done it for 27 years too. Or they could be LeBron and Kobe. I have a funny feeling if I decide to be a real estate agent next year, even with my lack of experience, that I'd be really good at it.

Is that why you got Liz into it or.

No, Liz, my sister, got into it because she always wanted to do it. I mean, I pushed her to make the jump and supported her as she navigated, inevitably, what a lot of stay at home moms navigate, which is you feel a level of guilt that you want to do it. She grew up in an Eastern. I know what household she grew up in. One that's very traditional Eastern European. Mom stays home, you know, so she had to go through her own shit. The part that I've pushed Liz on is her content on Instagram is, I suck.

I haven't sold shit, but it's real. Yeah.

Yeah. That's gonna lead to all her business.

Yep.

Sweet. You know.

Yeah, it makes sense for sure.

Definitely will.

And there's like. It just seems like just being at this conference, there's a disproportionate amount of people in a higher age bracket. Like, people are in real estate mortgage. Like, we have no young people in our office. It's all older people that have been doing it for a while. And I think they get stuck on.

Well, everybody's in trouble with young right now because everybody young thinks they're Mark Zuckerberg.

Yeah, we can't hire anybody young.

You can't hire anybody young. Cause they're all starting companies. We need the economy to collapse. Then you'll get young. When everybody realizes their direct to consumer kumbacha is not going anywhere. They're going to get a job.

Yeah.

Punched in the fucking mouth.

Punched in the fucking.

But these guys, like a lot of them, everybody's kind of plagued by the shoulda, woulda, coulda's. Cause they're in the older part of their life and they keeps them back from future opportunity a lot of times. But I saw a piece of content of yours a while back, I don't know, mixed in somewhere, and it said, like, you were talking again about how you should have or you could have invested in Uber, but you didn't. But then you don't get yourself get hung up on it because you could have done it and then got hit by a bus.

I'm very big on it. I'm glad you like that piece of content. Super interesting. Right?

Because I'm like, all the mistakes I made before got you to where you were now. Like, this is the reason why you're at where you're at and use that as your fuel to go forward.

Yeah. And by the way, I could have been way better. I mean, I'm pretty smart. Like that 400 million. And I put it like, it could be great. Yeah, it could be great. But it didn't happen.

Yeah.

I don't know what. Until somebody shows me a time machine, my ability to look back and dwell is going to be zero.

Yeah. Makes sense. We just wanted to thank you for doing this too, man. We got a ton of wine on the way. I think so.

Yeah. What are you gonna do?

We'll give it to clients. He's a big wine guy. I'm not.

That's why I'm so excited about the barter I did with wine. Yeah. But it was always a win win. I always loved when I did barters for books, sneakers. And anytime I'm selling something, I want a barter because I want it to do well. And I know that access to me is very valuable because you can't get it. So I always knew I had a market. And obviously as I've gotten bigger, the market gets bigger. I mean, some of the shit I did for. Crush it. Like, buy five books and I'll be your best friend for a year. You know, Like, I didn't have the same lever. So anyway, with books, what I watched a lot of people do was they would buy a thousand books and put in a warehouse. Yeah. Because they just wanted my time. Maybe they gave away a couple. But like, I don't blame. They're busy. If you can buy a thousand books, you're probably busy, you know, so they're like the best use of their time was to put in a corner. Wine's gonna be different. Wine people are gonna do shit with. Cause it has a natural currency in our society. That's better than a book.

Clients love it, agents love it.

And then for me, for me, it was always ROI. Once I ran the math, buy 4,000 sneakers was worth whatever I was doing. For you, buy four sneakers was worth whatever you just bought. I decided it was worth it based on how much pressure I felt to sell it. You know what's interesting about that, though, is I'm like, this actually might really work for me because I did the trade. That was worth it. But the back end has more of a residual. You're going to give it to clients, they're going to fucking love it. They can't get it anywhere else besides me. It's a direct to consumer brand.

Well, it's not going to be in retailers. Okay.

So they're going to go to the website and order it. It's just going to travel. Better than books.

It works better. Yeah.

It's easier to enjoy right away.

And I'll tell you, and I'm very proud of this. It's a $40 wine for 20 bucks. That's fantastic. So my hope is like, like that people will be able to taste it. It's a big delta.

Yeah. So that's awesome, man.

Thanks, Gary.

Thanks.

Thanks.

Really appreciate it. Thank you.