5 steps to turning holiday cheer into lead conversion

Do you want more real estate closings in 2016? I’m sure you do, so I’m going to show you something simple and yet so powerful. Something that we sorely underestimate in its ability to convert people to using our services.

I’m sure you’ve either heard of or even run your own Facebook ads for buyer and seller leads. You’ve probably also heard me talk about how important it is to make sure your Facebook page likes are highly targeted, aka beneficial to your business.

If you don’t believe me when I say you need to remove all of your real estate colleagues and out-of-area family and friends from your Facebook business page, please stop right now and read this article.

If you move forward with what I’m going to show you with a mixed audience, you’ll waste a whole lot of money and see minimal results from what follows.

OK, are you ready? Let’s do this.

One of the best ways to convert prospects into clients is to give to them without the expectation of return. I know you’ve heard this before, but what does it mean, exactly, and how does it apply to your online presence?

Well, in this case, it’s about saying thanks, celebrating life and making people feel special. Specifically, I’m referring to running holiday ads on Facebook that are geared toward your Facebook fans and website visitors.

You might be wondering, how does running holiday ads convert prospects? When you do it well and often, you create an avalanche of good will, and as we all know, what goes around comes around.

People love it when someone else does or says something that makes them feel good.

Even Facebook knows how to do it:

Here’s the deal: Doing this is so incredibly easy (and inexpensive); it’s a no-brainer.

Here, I’ll show you how to run this step-by-step. If you have any questions, please hop into the Facebook for Real Estate Agents group to ask, and I’ll see what I can do to help you.

Step 1: Aim your traffic and your targeting

Make sure your Facebook page likes are highly targeted. Like I said earlier, this will be a waste of time and money for you if you’ve got your colleagues and random family or friends connected to your business page — random meaning people who are not your ideal client.

If they live in Turkey and aren’t contemplating a move, they are random. Get rid of your detrimental page likes.

And, make sure you are pixeling your website traffic. This means your Facebook Ads Pixel should be up and running on your website.

If you aren’t sure where or how to do this, here’s a quick explanation:

1. Go to Facebook Power Editor
2. Go to Audiences
3. Go to Create Audience
4. Go to Custom Audience
5. Go to Website Traffic
6. View or Create Your Pixel Code
7. Install your pixel code on your website (you might need help from your website creator)

Note: If your site is a sub-site of your broker’s, or you’re using eEdge or a mass template that doesn’t allow you to add code to the header section — — of your site, you will not be able to pixel (or target) your website visitors, so this step will not be an option for you.

And, if this is the case, you need to look at better website options. The power of using Facebook lies heavily in the power of ad targeting your website visitors.

Step 2: Choose your (original) visuals

Select your image and optimize it according to Facebook’s standards.

You have so many options open to you, but always remember, you absolutely must own your image — in other words, you must take the picture yourself — or you must have written permission to use the image.

All photos are copyrighted by the creator automatically the minute they are created, and the last thing you want to do is ruin your reputation (and run into legal issues) by stealing someone else’s photo.

So you can’t go to Google or Flickr or any other source and just pick an image to run. You have to make sure in writing that you, as a business, are allowed to use the picture. Most free-use images exclude commercial gain. Don’t make this mistake.

I highly recommend using Shutterstock to gather images. The quality and selection are second to none. You want a fabulous image that stands out against everything else on Facebook.

Some keywords you ca input on Shutterstock include: Christmas, holiday, Christmas manger, Hannukah, December, new year, holiday celebration, etc.

Use this coupon: SAVE15 (put it in at checkout). Note: The coupon code is good as of when I wrote this article. I am unable to offer any guarantees on how long Shutterstock will run this special or honor the coupon.

Next, go to PicMonkey and resize your image. You want 1200 by 1200 pixels for this particular creation.

Step 3: Put your ad together

Create your ads. Here are the steps you’ll need to follow to create your ad (inside Power Editor):

Create Campaign (name it)

• Buying Type: Auction
• Objective: Page Post Engagement

Create Ad Set (name it)

Note: You’ll want to run two ad sets — one for website visitors and one for page fans.

• Budget: (Choose)
• Schedule: (Choose)
• Audience: (Custom Audience: Website Visitors or Page Likes)
• Placement: (Choose)
• Optimization and Pricing: (Leave default)
• Advanced Delivery: (Leave default)

Create Ad (name it)

• Text: Give your holiday greeting
• Image: Upload your image

Step 4: Go live

It’s time to publish your ad. Don’t be nervous, this is going to be fun!

Step 5: Enjoy the journey

Yes, enjoy this. When people comment on your ad — respond to them. Engage with them. They wouldn’t comment if they didn’t want to engage with you.

Did you make people feel special? Please share your results in the comments section below.

Need a step-by-step checklist for this? I created one for you. Click here to download it and enjoy.

Christina Ethridge is the founder of LeadsAndLeverage.com.

Email Christina Ethridge.