The Team's Solid Advice For When Your Marketing’s Not Working

Hey, it's Mark Podolski, the land geek with favorite niche real estate website, thelandgeek.com and on this week's roundtable podcast, we have almost all the usual suspects. We've got the technician, Eric Peterson. Eric, how are you?

I'm well, thanks.

Good to see you. We've got Taria putting in the reps. Harris, Treya. How are things in San Jose? Going to say Atlanta, but you're not in Atlanta.

Oh, it's nice. It's wet in San Jose, which is a rarity, but appreciate it.

Yeah, I'm surprised everybody in California just didn't leave California, because it's like, if you're going to pay those taxes and not have good weather, why are you there?

Feels like Seattle. It really does, but it's. It's needed. We are finally close to being out of drought. So there are benefits to.

Well, your other half. Your partner in crime, Landon. AI Harris. Oh, gosh. AI the aquatic investor. Landon, how are you?

Landon can't hear you already.

Technical difficulties with the aquatic investor. You know, Landon, there's nothing worse than. Than dead air. I'm on my way up.

I'm on my way up.

I'll be back. Well, let's just go to the next person. I love it when you call me Big Papa. Tate Litchfield. Tate, how are things in Sin City?

It's good, man.

Life is good.

We're staying busy, and, yeah, things are happening.

All right, well, we've got a great topic, and it's an Eric Peterson topic. Eric, what's our topic today?

What do you do when your marketing's not working?

What do you do when your marketing is not working? So, because Sharia and Landon just had to slip off for a bit due to technical difficulties, and Scott Todd is having technical difficulties. Eric, let's start with you. All right, let's do it.

So, I mean, there's any number of things that. That you should try when you're struggling on the marketing front, when those leads aren't coming in as you expect. I think the first thing to try is just do something different with the current platforms you're marketing on. And that might look like changing images, it might look like changing headlines, changing pricing, you know, just varying what you're doing, trying something that's opposite of what you have been doing to see if that will generate results for you. Along with that, I would recommend that if you're going down that path, that you don't do all of that at once. Because if you do it all at once, you don't know what change helped you start getting leads.

Right.

So we've got to do some testing. You know, maybe you can post two ads, one with a different type of thumbnail or different images and one as you would normally post it and evaluate them over time, see which is getting more views or creating more leads. And then maybe you test headlines separately and so on down the line so you can have data to compare against. So, I mean, obviously there are more things to, to try, but that's, that's one place to start.

I think that's a great place to start. And I also think the, the marketing mindset of it needs to be. Everything is a test. None of this is personal. In fact, all of life is just a test. Don't take anything personally, but especially your marketing, because you're going to have to pivot much quicker with that. So Teria Harris is, is nodding her head in agreement. Tria, put in the reps. Harris, what are your thoughts about Mark? My marketing's not working. What should I do to start getting those leads back?

This has been big for some of my coaching clients. And truthfully, each one of those situations look different. Like Eric said, you have to test it. It's not a science, it's an art. Right. So you just have to kind of feel your way through it. But with one of them, we went back and reevaluated his pricing. His pricing was so off and he didn't even realize it. So he's marketing. He's marketing, he's marketing. But when you look at his competitors, he was so far above them until why would you know someone pick your property? And, and he was getting the clicks, but no one was following up. And I would tell them they're clicking because they want to know what about the property should they pay 2 or $3,000 more for? So you were capturing them, but they're not reaching out because once they got to the ad, there was nothing there that would make them want to pay extra for the property. That was one situation, another situation where they were using stock photos, and that was all. And while the stock photos were gorgeous, they were, let's say it's in Arizona with the most picturesque part of Arizona. And so when I first glanced at it, I know, obviously I'm not buying this property, right? You're not selling me this mountaintop property. So a lot of the photos they were using just weren't an accurate depiction of the property, nor were they specifying that within the ad. And they weren't using any other photos. No GIS photos, nothing. Just a stock photo of, you know, the Grand Canyon. And it's like, that's not going to work either. So. I like what Eric said. Backtracking, taking a look at what you're. What you have out there, and how can I tweak it to make it better?

Yeah. Do you care if we digress? Just a bit off topic.

No, but it wouldn't be us if we did it.

All right, so we're talking about stock photos. Is it ethical to use a program like Dolly or. I think I forgot the other ones. Something mystery Majesty. Use it. You can type in as a prompt raw land, say Cochise County Desert. You know, land. And it comes up. It creates a artificial intelligent photo. But it is very intelligent. It's very, very accurate to what the land actually looks like. Is that ethical?

I think it's ethical if you put in the ad somewhere that this photo may be of the Aryan, not actually of the actual property. I think when we don't disclose that this is an artificial picture, you're not actually purchasing this piece of land. That's where it becomes a little muddy for me. But everyone else could chime in, Landon.

So, yeah, I don't think it's ethical to do that. But I do think there is a point where you should disclose that to your buyer. I mean, you just. I don't know. I think with this business, there's a lot of skepticism that's already out there. So we don't want to add to any more of that skepticism. You know, we can say, hey, this is of the area. You know, we can tell them this is not, you know, of this property. But, you know, once you go out there, you'll be able to see exactly what it's like. So we want to lead them in that direction. Unethical. I don't think it's an ethical.

So, okay. But as long.

So as long as you're saying this. This picture is of the area and was generated by artificial intelligence. That being said, it is an accurate depiction of what your land will look like.

Yeah. I think that's fair to give somebody, you know, you're not, you're not, you're not. I don't want to call it false advertising. You are just being open for what you know. Right. But you are establishing some kind of rapport and relationship with, you know, I'm telling you up front, this is what we have, and this is what I'm, you know, I'm presenting to you. So I. I do think buyers at the end of the day will look at that and go, okay, they were honest about that. Let me continue a conversation or look into this property a little further.

Okay. Eric, what do you think?

Yeah, I mean, I. I kind of agree with what everybody has said. As long as you're disclosing that, hey, this is not an actual property photo or you're not representing it in that way, I don't have a problem with it. You know, it's. If it looks like the area, it's no different than, you know, us hiring a photographer to go take photos of the area and then using those in a listing saying, hey, this isn't the property, but it's the general area. This is more or less what your property is going to look like.

Okay, Tate, it comes down to communication, right?

Just.

Just how you communicate. It is what matters.

Don't.

In all aspects of this. Right? Like, don't misrepresent something, whether it be with an image, with an ad, you know, with a headline.

Tell the truth and you're okay, Okay, I like it. So, Landon, let's get back to the subject of marketing. You've got a client, they're struggling getting leads. What would you do to get them back on course? What advice would you give?

Yeah, I mean, this is a great question because it happens to want to say everybody at some point. You know, like, Eric, I really believe in. You got to start testing. You really start to. You got to start getting some metrics back to know what's happening. Why is this happening? You know, something that I spoke with one of our clients before, was asked them directly, hey, what made you interested in this property? Why did you go with us? You could have gone with anybody else. Why did you begin looking at this property in the first place? And you know, they will give you, I like your photos, I liked your ad, I liked where the property was. And so sometimes those things can kind of. That feedback and kind of lead you into, well, what needs to change or what were you doing before that actually was working, that you can kind of apply to where you are now. But I think testing and getting metrics is probably your number one place to start. So I think what everybody says so far is dead on. But like I said, testing is probably the main number one thing.

Yeah, it's such an interesting point because we don't talk a lot about those customer metrics only because I don't know how many people are actually gathering those customer metrics because it. It adds a little bit more friction into the marketing process because you actually have to now ask them that question where we're just kind of shooting blindly in the dark. We are assuming, oh, they're coming here because the headline grabbed them, and then they clicked and. And then my beautiful copy got them emotionally involved with the property, and then we really hooked them in with the irresistible pricing. But until you ask, you really don't know. It could be something completely different. It may not have to do with any one of those variables. But without knowing the customer analytic or the customer metric, you're just shooting in the dark. And then you can adjust your marketing to fit that avatar because you know definitively this is what is attracting people to my ad. It's not the headline. It's the irresistible pricing, or the headline is amazing. And people are clicking more, but they really like this area because for some reason, they have a story about this area that is now being, let's say, you know. You know, culturally magnified now. Because, oh, it's. It reminds me of a little type of Yellowstone. And I love the. I love the show Yellowstone.

Right?

Something like that. We just don't even know until we ask. It could just be completely out of left field. So let's just go to. I love it when you call me Big Papa Tate. Litchfield Tate. Your clients want to know my marketing, it's struggling, not getting the leads. What do I do?

You know, I think the first thing that you need to do is admit that you have a problem.

Right?

Isn't that the first step to recovery is admit that what you're doing is not working? And that's hard, right? It's hard. Especially if you got VAs out there and you're paying these VAs and you're paying experts to. To generate leads for you. Your experts aren't generating, you know, enough leads to justify their expense. So first thing you got to do is admit you have a problem. Once you admit you have a problem, then it becomes easy to say, well, what am I systematically going to change to figure out if that is going to improve things? But first things first, you got to know, hey, I'm not getting what I should be out of my team, out of the ads that we're posting.

And.

And we need to restart. And I've told people plenty of times, look, what works today won't work tomorrow.

Yeah, right. For you. What. How do you define that? How long do you let an ad marinate in the marketplace before you say, this ad is not generating the amount of leads that I would expect?

Well, for us, it's not on an ad by ad basis, right? It's on a marketing as a whole basis. So we don't look at it and say, well, for every ad I post, I should get.

Why?

Right?

Like that's not the equation we have, but we have a general expectation of the company, of the team, of the work. And we say, if we're not hitting these results, something needs to change. But, you know, rarely are we going out there and saying, all right, delete everything, restart. No, we just make changes. We leave our poor performing ads posted and then we slowly go through and. And make changes. Maybe we'll start with the images, maybe we start with the headlines. Maybe it's the ad copy, maybe it's our avatars. Maybe it could be a laundry list of things. Maybe we're not spending enough money. Sometimes that's the answer. It's like, look, our marketing budget for what we want to do needs to not be free. 99. I think every single one of us on this call has had that realization where it's like, I'm never going to sell enough land if I'm on the free plan, right? So, I mean, first things first is you gotta just take extreme ownership and say, all right, we gotta fix this. If that means reworking things with the VA team, if it means getting new headlines, new ad copy, new images, you gotta do it. You just gotta be testing and don't get lazy, don't get complacent, because what you're gonna do today, that works, I guarantee it's not going to work this time next year. Parts of it might work, but marketing is evolved. It's a living, breathing, you know, aspect of our land, businesses. It requires a lot of attention, for sure.

Yeah, I think that's a really good point. Number one, admitting you have a problem. And then number two, living in the reality that what works today won't work tomorrow. I almost think that this is the great challenge of life, is just living in reality. It just, you know, I mean, if you like, any problem you have, any of them, just say, what problem do I have at this moment? That is the only thing that's real in that moment. And typically, in that moment, you don't really have a problem. Typically. Now, when I was thrown off the, the raft, whitewater river rafting, in that moment, I did have a problem. But usually, you know, but, but, you know, in those types of situations, whether it's, you know, in an extreme situation, your mind is not just distracted, right? If, if, if Landon's benching £5,000 like he normally Does I guarantee he's not thinking about what is he even having for dinner that night. Right. Like his mind is not watering. Like it's completely focused. And so the point here, the business point is, as Tate said, you need to get come laser focused on getting that property sold. And knowing immediately this is a problem, I'm going to now solve the problem. I'm not going to spin out about it. I'm not going to spend half a day worrying about it. I'm going to actually attack the problem and then I'm going to make the adjustments that the lanky coaches have just told me to make. I'm going to maybe change my channel, my platform channel. I'm going to look at my messaging. I'm going to make some type of change. I'm going to ask my back, my old customers, why did you click on this ad? I'm going to get better customer analytics. I'm going to go step by step and I'm going to go about to solve the problem and live in the reality. This property should sell. It's not selling. It's not personal. Let's just solve it and get it done. So I thought this was a really good topic. I'm surprised that Scott Todd just completely ducked out of it. But you know, when, when you're the flight school Sherpa, you could, you can do those things. Speaking of, today's podcast is sponsored by Flight School. Learn how the next 16 weeks will literally transform your life. Go up that mountain of land, investing safely, quickly, efficiently with Scott Todd as your Sherpa. And I know what you're thinking, well, how much is all that going to cost? It ain't going to cost you nothing. Guaranteed you're going to make it back 180 days or less. Just follow the recipe, show us your work. Start creating that passive income without renters, rehabs, renovations or rodents. So what is your next step? Go to thelandgeek.com forward/training the land. Geek.com forward/training schedule. A strategy call, a freedom call. We'd like to say and see if this business is right for you. Okay, well, we're at that point now in the podcast where we're going to ask for a tip of the week. A website, a resource, a book, something else actionable for the art of passive influence listeners to go improve their businesses, improve their lives. The aquatic investor, Landon Harris. What have you got?

Okay, so today I have a book for, for everyone. It's actually a book I started reading maybe a few weeks ago and found it really helpful. So it's called, it's a book by James Allen and James Allen is like a New York Times bestseller. It's actually an older book. It's called Getting Things Done. I think it's the art of stress free productivity. So basically that's David Allen. David Allen. I'm sorry, that's right, David Allen. Yeah, sorry, wreck that. But so like the book, this book was like really helpful. I run into sometimes situations where I just get stuck in my own processes. So it's been a, it's been a really good book. Like this isn't a new book and if you haven't read it, reread it because they've updated some things. It's really good about getting some processes, getting some understanding, some organization to your life and just understanding like how to prioritize certain things that you need to get done. Certain things aren't urgent, certain things are and helps you kind of guide through that. So I'm loving this book. But you know, like I said, this is worth a reread if you've already read this book.

I love it. I love it. So just to follow up with you on that book, that's a classic. What has been your biggest takeaway so far after re evaluating Getting things done?

Yeah, so for me personally, things are important just because it comes up in, in whatever happens in the moment. It's just important because somebody said I need to get this done. But it doesn't mean it has to be done right now. It might mean I can push it off. And so what I've found is like the organization, I can put it into buckets basically. This can be done today, this can be done later on and it just helps me organize that. So so far, like I haven't finished it all the way but so far that's where I am. That's where I am is putting things in organ or into an importance of organization. So I'm loving that part of it.

I love it. I think you should pair that book with Oliver Berkman's 4000 weeks time management for Mortals. I found that, I found that book such an antidote for the constant feeling that I'm never getting enough done and that constant feeling of just busyness and I'm never going to get through all my emails. It's just that the, you know, the Sisyphus right idea of I'm putting that rock, the bringing that boulder up the mountain and right when I get to the top, you know, sure enough it goes all the way back down. I'm just constantly pushing up that boulder of the mountain. You never get up there. But Getting Things Done I think is a phenomenal book to just tactically get things done.

I'm going to have to read that book you're talking about. That sounds really interesting.

Yeah, you'll love it. It's not your typical David Allen getting things done book. It's more about just the antidote to this, this existential feeling of never getting enough done to the point where you just realize, yeah, you'll never get it all done. It's just life. Like again, this is just the reality. There's a billion books. We only have 4,000 weeks. Like what books are important to us now? To the point where, like if you're reading a book and it's not resonating with you, and I hope it's after rich, you just get rid of it. Right? Go to another book. So that's a great one. By the way, speaking of books, have any of you guys read any recent fiction? I can't tell you the last time I read fiction until recently. No, I know, we're all type A. Yeah, we're all reading Netflix now. Dave Parley gifted me east of Eden by John Steinbeck and I just finished it and I loved the book and I really, what I loved most about that book is just the beautiful writing of it and the beautiful story and the rich characters and the fact that, oh, it's not, it's okay to read for enjoyment. And there was some deep wisdom and some, some ideas in that book that actually do apply to my life and it doesn't always have to be such a serious non fiction type of book that reading these fiction books is extremely enjoyable to mix it in for sure. So thank you, Dave. Appreciate it. That's my tip of the week. Read some fiction. Get yourself a good fiction fiction book. Well, I want to thank the listeners and remind them that the only way, the only way that we're going to get to continually haze Landon and have do it. Give us tips of the week is if you do three little favors. Follow rate Review the podcast. Send us a screenshot of your review. Support thelandgeek.com I'm going to send you a signed copy of Dirt Rich. So please do it and just do it for yourself. Selfishly, it just really helps us. Anyways, so are we ready to do this? 1, 2, 3.

Let, let bring it out.

All right, thanks everybody.

Thanks for listening to the Art of Passive Income podcast. Are you ready to learn how you can start building a passive income without renters, rehabs, renovations, stations or rodents. Schedule a free consultation at thelandgeek.com forward/training let freedom ring.