How We Film Creative Listing Videos That Get 50,000 Views

Jaelin Moldenhauer: I've been keeping track of where we're getting our leads from and the next six listings, five of them are from Platform.  

Tim Chermak: This is The Platform Marketing Show where we interview the most creative and ambitious real estate agents in the country, dissect their local marketing strategy, and get the behind-the-scenes scoop on how they're generating listing leads and warm referrals. We'll dive into the specifics of what marketing campaigns are working for them, how much they're spending on those campaigns, and figure out how they have perfected what we call the Platform marketing strategy. This is your host, Tim Chermak. I'm the founder and CEO of Platform. I love marketing and I talk too much, so let's dive in.

Tim Chermak: Hey guys, it's Tim Chermak and welcome back to another episode of The Platform Marketing Show. Today I'm joined by Jaelin and Chris Moldenhauer from Polson, Montana. Welcome to the show, guys. 

Jaelin Moldenhauer: Hey, thanks, Tim.

Chris Moldenhauer: Thank you. 

Tim Chermak: So this is kind of crazy that we're doing the podcast episode today because just totally impromptu, out of the blue, two days ago I had a phone call with Brandon Smith who runs a big insurance agency in Montana. I mean, they're huge in the Mountain West, they're not just in Montana. They have clients all over, but I know that he's in Missoula. And Brandon actually spoke at our Platform Mastermind a couple of years ago and I've since become really good friends with him. We met at a completely separate conference that had nothing to do with real estate in Phoenix, and we all have some mutual friends in common, like Grant Botma, Nick Ayers. I don't know if you guys know those guys, but they're all kind of friends, family friends. And so I got connected with Brandon via some mutual friends. 

Tim Chermak: Anyways, Brandon and I have since become really good friends. He called me out of the blue a couple of days ago because he saw that our mortgage company recently got licensed in Montana. And he was like, “Hey, man! I'd love to work together. We got to connect on that. By the way, are you working with Jaelin and Chris Moldenhauer?” I was like, “Yeah, dude. Actually I'm interviewing them on the podcast in two days.” And he's like, “No way!” I can't even remember how he knows you guys. What's the connection there? 

Jaelin Moldenhauer: My brother married his sister. We know him because we had gone to his dad's church. That's how we originally met him. 

Tim Chermak: Okay, yeah. There was some family connection there, and he was like, “Yeah, I saw some ad that had Jaelin on it and I was like, I know her!” And I'm just like, that's such a small world. He's in Missoula. Obviously, not too far from you, but I've never hung out with you guys in person. There's just a weird triangulation of how many people know people. Well, cool. If you're listening to this, you're just joining the podcast, you're probably like, what the heck are you guys talking about? Jaelin and Chris have really blown up their business in the last year. Would you guys mind sharing where your business was at and where it's at now? 

Jaelin Moldenhauer: Yeah, so last year, we'd kind of gone down a little bit in our sales. And so last year, we sold $3.2 million. Our best year was $6.7 million. My goal since the beginning has always been $10 million, never been able to quite reach that. Honestly, I've been praying for something to make that change and to really get us up to where we needed to be, and now it's honestly blown up since we started with Platform. We've already closed $1.6 million for this year. We have almost $7 million potential listings coming up, so we're definitely on track to reach our goal number, I think. 

Tim Chermak: Your goal is $10 million. Last year, you did $3-point-something million. And this year, just so people know when we're recording this podcast episode, it's early April. It's like the first week of April here, so you haven't even really gotten into the spring/summer selling season in Montana. Because I know that where you guys are, you’re basically still in winter in Montana. I was born and raised in Minnesota, so I completely know how that goes.

Jaelin Moldenhauer: [inaudible]

Tim Chermak: Yeah, exactly. The market doesn't really pick up till honestly closer to Labor Day. Or not Labor Day, but Memorial Day. 

Jaelin Moldenhauer: Normally, the winter months are completely dead. We're just starting to see buyers come out. And honestly, this week, my phone hasn't stopped ringing. From buyers, sellers. This is literally the busiest I've ever been at this time of the year. 

Tim Chermak: That's awesome. So again, we're early April. You guys are still in winter where you are in Montana and you already have $8.5 million either closed, under contract, or listings coming up. And last year, you closed $3 million total. So you're basically at the point where it would be accurate to say your business has essentially tripled year over year and it's only April. It's already effectively tripled and it's only April. 

Jaelin Moldenhauer: And that doesn't even include our buyers that we have. We have a handful of buyers that are going to be, I mean, quite a few million. We just picked one up. Actually, Chris was calling our leads.  

Tim Chermak: Let's go. Good job, Chris. 

Jaelin Moldenhauer: I'm gonna pick up the phone and I'm gonna call the leads. Just this last week, he picked up a buyer that had an unlimited budget. He was looking at a $3.2 million lake house. 

Tim Chermak: Cause here in Polson, is it Flathead Lake that you're– no, no, no. It is? Okay. 

Jaelin Moldenhauer: Yep, so it's the biggest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi. It's pretty big, it's very clean. There's a lot of people moving here because of that. 

Tim Chermak: And I'm glad you brought that up because you're in like a unique market. And so often, when we have agents that are interested in the Platform marketing strategy, the question that they ask is, “Oh, my market's kind of unique. Will it work for me here?” And I always just kind of sarcastically say, well, are you working with humans? Because as long as we have that in common, the marketing is going to work. 

Tim Chermak: Because you can be in a second home market or a vacation market or some sort of weird market where you think your market's not normal, right? And ultimately, humans are humans and they're going to choose which agent they want to work with based off of the vibe they get from you. And that doesn't change whether or not you're in a more traditional market like Missoula that it's more single family owner occupied homes, or if it's like Polson where you're probably gonna have a little bit more vacation homes, second homes than Missoula does. But humans are humans, so the same type of marketing that's gonna work in one market is gonna work in another. So you're, I mean, it's safe to say you're gonna blast through your goal of $10 million this year, which is incredible because Jaelin, you said you've been licensed as an agent for coming up on 10 years now? 

Jaelin Moldenhauer: Yeah. I think it'll be nine years in October. 

Chris Moldenhauer: I just went over four years. 

Tim Chermak: Okay. So it's a pretty good sample size when we say that, hey, $10 million would be an amazing goal. And if you hit that, you know that the marketing is working. It's not one of those situations where you were right at $9 million when you signed up for Platform and then you went over $10 million and then we're trying to take credit for your business, probably would have been there anyways. Like, it truly has really grown your business in the last year. 

Jaelin Moldenhauer: Yeah. I've been keeping track of where we're getting our leads from and the next six listings, five of them are from Platform. 

Tim Chermak: That's incredible. So of your six listings, five of them, you can track, hey, that came from the Platform marketing campaigns. 

Jaelin Moldenhauer: Yeah, and then we have two on market right now that are also from Platform. 

Tim Chermak: All right. I mean, that's amazing. So for someone who's listening to this, let's just say that there's a realtor listening to this podcast right now or watching on YouTube and they're not familiar with Platform. They have no idea what we keep talking about when we say this Platform strategy. In your own words, Chris or Jaelin, how would you describe what the Platform strategy is and what maybe makes it different than what most realtors are doing with their marketing? 

Jaelin Moldenhauer: I think it's just a lot less salesy, which I appreciate. People are starting to get to know us in the community. I feel like they are wanting to use us because they feel like they know us just from all of our ads. We walk around town basically and they're like, “Oh my gosh, we see you on Facebook,” and people are always talking about us. And I think we had some success at the very beginning. Our first listing tour that we launched, we got a seller within 10 days of our very first listing tour. And then it tapered off for a little bit and we didn't get any, but I feel like just all the months and months that we've been doing it, we just keep showing up and being in people's faces and on their screens, and they can't help wanting to use us. 

Jaelin Moldenhauer: For instance, I went to a meeting with a bunch of real estate agents, and a realtor that I didn't really know that well came up to me. And she's like, “I watch all of your stuff all the time. Honestly, you make me want to use you as my agent.” And I just thought that was so awesome. Because other agents, I mean, are always commenting how much they love our Facebook posts and stuff like that. So, I just feel like they're not salesy. People actually enjoy reading them and love the content. They love seeing us just be silly and ourselves and getting to know us a little bit. I just think now that we're almost to a year, we can really see that’s just kind of the thing, I would say. 

Tim Chermak: And you made a really good point when you said that this strategy doesn't feel salesy. Would you mind elaborating on that? Or maybe what are some of the specifics of a few examples of ads that you guys have done that don't feel salesy, but that have been successful and worked for you to get traction in the community? Are there specific ads you could point to?  

Jaelin Moldenhauer: Let's see. I feel like a lot of our food ads, when people have to choose what restaurant is the best. Those ones have worked really well. I guess this one was not quite salesy, but Chris did the stop sign ad where we said that we had buyers– 

Chris Moldenhauer: That was probably the one that we've gotten the most traction from, was when we said we had these five different clients that are looking for these different things. And we've had a lot of traction from that, people calling me with different listings and stuff.

Jaelin Moldenhauer: People have been definitely reaching out to us, a lot of sellers. “Hey, I have this property.” So that's just been, yeah, cool about that. A lot of people will talk about our listing tours. We had one lady that was interested in a house that was like, “Well, you know, we need to sell our house first. We're gonna get down on the market.” And I said, “Well, don't you want to go see the house before you even put your house on, you know? Don't you want to go walk through it?” She's like, “No, I've already seen everything I need to see. I watched your listing tour. I've learned everything I need to know.” So I just feel like people come to our page now just to learn about our market, watch our videos. 

Jaelin Moldenhauer: People are just, I feel like, commenting all the time in town. Random people at gas stations, the grocery stores, everywhere we go, people mention pretty much all of our ads. I don't know that we have any in particular besides the stop sign ad where we are seeking houses for our buyers. I think all of the ones that we've done have been very successful, to be honest with you. 

Chris Moldenhauer: Honestly, I've got a lot of compliments as far as it makes us seem more human, with all of our funny videos and stuff like that. It makes us way more approachable, not that we're– Just, I guess some people have felt like real estate agents, they kind of almost have that professional, I'm-too-good-for-you sort of outlook. But we humble ourselves and we're goofy and we're no different than anybody else out there. 

Tim Chermak: Yeah, it makes you really approachable. 

Chris Moldenhauer: Yeah, absolutely.

Tim Chermak: Chris, you mentioned that you've been licensed now for, did you say three years, four years?

Chris Moldenhauer: Four.

Tim Chermak: Okay, four years. Jaelin's been in the game a little bit longer, she's nearing 10 years. But you mentioned that like, hey, you're a volunteer firefighter. You previously worked in law enforcement. Even occasionally, you're substitute teaching in the local schools there. So you're actually incredibly active in the community. But I think this is a really good illustration of being involved in the community often isn't enough to build a successful business as a realtor. You have to actually market and promote the fact that you're active in your community. 

Tim Chermak: Because the only thing that's changed in the last year isn't that you guys suddenly got really involved in the community, because let's give you credit, you were already very involved in the community. I mean, you're obviously involved in all the various organizations and friendship circles and social sphere that you have. You were literally a volunteer firefighter and you worked in law enforcement and your substitute teaching in the schools. I mean, you basically could not get more involved in the community than you already were, and yet the business wasn't necessarily growing because the missing ingredient there is that you actually have to promote the fact, you have to market the fact that you're involved in the community. 

Tim Chermak: And that's what really changed in the last year is you guys started building this brand and you're popping up in people's news feeds on social media, whether it's Facebook, Instagram, YouTube. And now, your business has tripled in just the last year, even though all the other things you were doing have stayed constant. What's changed is just the amount of exposure that you're now getting on social media. So I think that's a really good teaching point for those listening that yes, you have to be involved in your community. That's necessary, but not sufficient. You also have to market the fact that you're involved in your community. 

Jaelin Moldenhauer: And we just did the teacher video, and we know it wasn't at the beginning of the year, but we're like, hey, I mean, we live in a small town and people are going to love that. And we had already been getting our kids coming home from school and saying, “Oh my gosh, this teacher said that they watched your video,” and all the teachers at school were already talking about us to our kids before we did that video. And so I just think it's cool cause it's like, none of those teachers or people would know that we were even real estate agents, but, boom, now they see us all the time and now they're talking to our kids about our videos. 

Tim Chermak: So you mentioned this teacher video, Jaelin. Again, I bet someone's listening who has no idea what you're talking about. Would you mind sharing what you say when you say the teacher video that's part of the Platform strategy and why this video makes strategic sense for a realtor to film this video, even though you're not a teacher? How does that help your business? And what is this teacher video that you're talking about?  

Jaelin Moldenhauer: So we have four schools here, two elementaries in the middle school and high school. So we got photos of two teachers from each of the schools, and then you guys gave us a really cool script that we were able to read over top of the video. And basically, it was telling the teachers just how much we appreciate them and all the credit that they do for our kids that they don't always get thanked for. So it's really cool just to be able to honor them and do that. 

Jaelin Moldenhauer: And I just feel like, I mean, once again, people were sharing the video and it was blowing up around Facebook. I just think just with the teachers too, they're gonna tell their friends and family. Those teachers all appreciated it. They all loved the video. And I think that's the thing, you just get out in the community, do community-minded things, and everyone just enjoys it. I think, with us, we only have about 6,000 people in our town, so everyone knows about five real estate agents so you're always trying to be the one that they pick. I think now, we're actually winning the listings from that. They have their five and we're at the top of their five now. 

Tim Chermak: Because everyone knows you. 

Jaelin Moldenhauer: “They're all great, blah, blah, blah,” but now it's like, “No, we want to use them because we know that their marketing is going to give us the most exposure.” And then like I said, they think that we're more human and aren't going to be that salesy, slimy real estate agent that some people assume we are. 

Tim Chermak: All right. While you were saying that, I just pulled up on my phone, I went to your page. By the way, if someone's listening to this and wants to check it out, on Facebook, the name of their page is Jaelin & Chris Moldenhauer - Mission Bay Real Estate. And I pulled up that video cause I was curious how many views it has, and your teacher tribute video is nearing 50,000 video views. So you said that there's 6,000 people in your town? 

Jaelin Moldenhauer: In the city, yeah.

Tim Chermak: Most towns, you can usually subtract about half the population is under age 18. They don't really count towards that because they're not on Facebook watching your videos. So there's like, effectively, 3,000 or so adults in the area, and your video has 50,000 video views, which means, just basic math tells me that even if there's a little bit of spillover from people in neighboring towns seeing the video, whatever, the average adult in your community has seen this video five to 10 times. That's not my opinion, that's just math. That's incredible. 

Tim Chermak: And when she says teacher video, again, what Jaelin is talking about is it's this, essentially, a tribute video to local teachers, just thanking them for all the hard work they put into being a teacher. They don't often get thanked and we all know that teachers don't get paid a lot relative to pro athletes or whatever. So it's just kind of like a thank you tribute video for all the local teachers, and you spliced in footage to this video of local teachers, thanking them. And we put some music behind it and a script with you guys narrating. You're basically the narrators of the video, thanking local teachers. 

Tim Chermak: What makes this work kind of ties back into what you said earlier, Jaelin, that this Platform strategy seems to be working so well because it's not salesy. This teacher tribute video has nothing to do with real estate. There's not even an indirect tie in. It's not like at the end, there's some awkward call to action to contact you if you're thinking of moving to a better school district or something, you know what I mean? It literally has nothing to do with buying or selling homes or real estate. There's no call to action, it's just a genuine tribute video to local teachers and you guys just happen to be the narrators of the video. 

Tim Chermak: If people see this video and they see the other content that you're putting out that's congruent with this video, they realize like, wow. If they see enough of your content, at a certain point, whether it takes a month or two, or whether it takes six months, at a certain point, people are like, “You know what? Chris and Jaelin, they seem really cool. I like how committed they are to promoting the community. I like how involved they are in the community. If I'm going to work with a real estate agent, I want to work with someone who really loves the community that they sell in and they just happen to be a real estate agent,” you know what I mean? 

Tim Chermak: You are absolutely creating that brand in your area with videos like that, that teacher tribute video that have nothing to do with real estate. And so it's not surprising to me that your business has tripled and it's probably going to frankly quadruple this year or more based on how many deals you have in the pipeline because you're putting out content like that. I mean, if you're an agent, even in a bigger city, getting 50,000 video views on a video like that is phenomenal, but I mean, especially when you're in a small town. That means everyone has seen it. That's really cool.

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