The Marketing Strategy I Used To Bring In 3 Listings My Very First Month

Brandon Davis:  Immediately when we started doing the ads, you know, I did a lot around marketing, but it wasn't getting the retargeting and stuff that you guys are doing with Platform, but immediately when we started doing that, within I would say two weeks, one video, it just exploded for me. I started running into people and they were like, “Hey, I'm seeing your videos everywhere.” In my mind, I only had one video out at that point, but yeah, it definitely feels different because now it feels like people truly know who I am. It's very noticeable in the community and people are constantly saying things to me about it. 

Tim Chermak: So, you felt, and this is one of the questions I often ask on The Platform Marketing Show. You felt that literally within two weeks, you felt the difference in your business? 

Brandon Davis: 100%, yes. 

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. I'm joined today by Brandon Davis in Lebanon, Virginia. Brandon, welcome to the show. 

Brandon Davis: Hey, thanks, Tim. 

Tim Chermak: Brandon has really, really scaled his business in the last year. I mean, at this point, how long have you been with Platform? It hasn't been that long. 

Brandon Davis: It's right at six months. 

Tim Chermak: Okay, so you're actually one of the earlier conversations that we're having on the pod here. Because often when I interview someone, they've either been with Platform for a year, sometimes even 18 months or two years, but you've already had pretty epic results with the Platform strategy just in your first six months. 

Tim Chermak: I know that prior to Platform, you were doing about $9 million in sales volume. That's already really impressive because most agents will never, at any point in their career, get to $9 million. They would view their long-term goal is to get to $9 million. So already, you're probably in the top 1%, top 10%, something like that in your area if you're selling $9 million. 

Tim Chermak: This year, however, after implementing the Platform strategy and kind of pouring some marketing gasoline on your fire, you're already at pace to end the year at $14 million, possibly even $15 million, so that's like 50% growth. But again, you've only been taking action with Platform for six months. So in just six months, your business has grown more than 50%. Has it felt different? 

Brandon Davis: It has in a sense. Honestly, what's really happened, and I'm sure we'll talk about this more, but immediately when we started doing the ads, you know, I did a lot around marketing, but it wasn't getting the retargeting and stuff that you guys are doing with Platform, but immediately when we started doing that, within I would say two weeks, one video, it just exploded for me. I started running into people and they were like, “Hey, I'm seeing your videos everywhere.” In my mind, I only had one video out at that point, but yeah, it definitely feels different because now it feels like people truly know who I am. It's very noticeable in the community and people are constantly saying things to me about it. 

Tim Chermak: So, you felt, and this is one of the questions I often ask on The Platform Marketing Show. You felt that literally within two weeks, you felt the difference in your business? 

Brandon Davis: 100%, yes. Within the first month, I had at least two to three new listings that I can directly relate to Platform simply because they said, “We saw your ads on Facebook.” They called me because of that.

Tim Chermak: So, you got three listings in your first month with Platform? 

Brandon Davis: 100%. Yes. 

Tim Chermak: That might be one of the greatest case studies of all time. That's incredible. Okay, so where is Lebanon, Virginia? I'm probably more knowledgeable on Virginia than maybe the average American because my wife went to Liberty in Lynchburg. And so when we were dating, I was actually still living in Minnesota, but I'd drive on these long road trips to Virginia and visit her when she lived in Lynchburg going to school there. So I'm sort of familiar with some towns of Virginia, but Lebanon, I don't know where that is. Can you describe what the community is like, how many people live there, and also where is Lebanon?

Brandon Davis: Lebanon is really right at the tip of the state. I'm right at the Bristol, Tennessee-Bristol, Virginia state line. If you know Nascar, The Bristol Motor Speedway is the big thing that everybody relates to this area. But Lebanon specifically, it's a very, very small town. There's roughly 3,500 people in the actual town itself. Yeah, 3,500. In our county though, there's about 30,000, which is still very, very small. 

Brandon Davis: I think that's honestly why Platform has worked so well for me is because it is such a small community and people are seeing this everywhere. But the town is just, everybody knows everybody. It's all about building that rapport and that relationship with people. From being close to the sheriff, they own a honey store in town. People just really, it's a very small community. It's almost like what I would imagine a Hallmark community to be like. And I feel like we're one of the last ones left. 

Tim Chermak: And from a marketing perspective, or if you're trying to build your business as a real estate agent, that's kind of like a double-edged sword. Because I think a lot of agents in maybe bigger cities are like, “Oh man, it'd be like shooting fish in a barrel to be an agent in a small town.” 

Tim Chermak: Yeah, there's certainly advantages of being in a small town. I think the most obvious being that if you're spending about a thousand dollars a month in your marketing, you are gonna absolutely just saturate your town with a thousand dollars a month of ads. Where if you're in a bigger city like Houston or Nashville or Chicago or something and you're putting a thousand dollars into ads, it doesn't mean if you're walking down in downtown Chicago that everyone's gonna recognize you 'cause you spent a thousand dollars on ads. That's like a drop in the bucket if your city has millions and millions of people. But a thousand dollars a month ad budget kind of makes you a local celebrity if you're in a small town. That's the upside.

Tim Chermak: The downside is that when the community is that tight knit and everyone knows each other, they often already are loyal to a realtor. If there's already kind of like a good old boys club, whatever, almost no amount of marketing you can do is going to change that. 'Cause people just like, “Oh, this is the realtor that my family has worked with for 14 generations going back to the Mayflower.” It's just hard to get people to change their mind. Are you originally from the area? Did you move there? How did you break into this? 

Brandon Davis: Yes. I'm originally from here. I grew up in a small town very similar to this about 30 minutes away. This area is very much a coal mining community too. That was the big industry here, is coal mines. That's what I grew up in, is coal mining. My dad was a miner. I ended up, early on in my career, I started working for a defense contractor and I moved to Lebanon. Real estate was always my dream and something that I wanted to do, so ultimately I moved into real estate and then opened my own brokerage here in Lebanon. Honestly, it's one of those things that sometimes there's really no explanation on exactly how I ended up here, but I love the area.

Tim Chermak: Again, small town, but that's not necessarily a huge advantage. I think it's both a disadvantage and an advantage because if you don't know people or they don't know you, marketing is very difficult. But that's where the Platform strategy comes in, is that the Platform strategy is marketing, but at the same time, it's just community involvement but in the form of marketing. 

Tim Chermak: What have been some of your most successful ads that you've done that you think your community has resonated with? Again, I'll add the disclaimer here before you even answer this question that Brandon's only been in the Platform program for six months, so it's not like he's done hundreds of ads yet. You've only been with us for six months. What have been the winners so far in the first six months? 

Brandon Davis: The one where we talked about reasons to move to Lebanon. I can't even tell you the amount of comments that were on that. I should have looked at that, but I would say at least 50 or 60 comments on that one alone, and true engagement in that one. Also the one where I chuck the phone over the house. People totally went nuts over that for whatever reason. They really thought that I threw the phone. And then some of the other ones have been more of my personal stuff. 

Brandon Davis: I really feel like in this industry, people want to connect to you and they want to know who you are and who they're gonna be working with. I have twin daughters. I had shared about them at the last day of their pre-K class. It was just a picture about them and their awards and stuff, and that one exploded. I think it was just people wanting to really connect. 

Tim Chermak: So the first ad you mentioned Brandon was reasons to move to Lebanon. Now, let's just imagine someone listening to this podcast has no context of Platform. They have no idea what you're talking about. Could you describe what that ad is? It's just a photo ad, right, that would pop up on someone's Facebook or Instagram? What does the ad say? What makes this such an engaging Facebook post to make?

Brandon Davis: In our community, we don't have a ton of things to do, just like we were talking about Lebanon being very small. 

Tim Chermak: You're just being honest. Just being honest. 

Brandon Davis: Correct. But just the area, it's absolutely beautiful. Outdoors is a big thing here. That ad, it was just a picture of me standing in front of one of the town signs saying, “Welcome to Lebanon, Virginia.” And in the actual ad copy, it just listed reasons why do you wanna live in Lebanon? Why is it so important to be here? And what makes people come to this area? And if I'm not mistaken, I believe that we listed a lot of just the outdoor stuff here. We have a local Russell Theater that back in the day, it was a movie theater that the town restored just recently and actually bought themselves and they've turned it into just such a nice event space and stuff now. It's just really highlighting what is available in this community. 

Brandon Davis: Because the average person looking in says there's nothing to do here, but in reality, there's a ton of stuff to do here but we have to highlight that. I think when people started to see that, people started commenting like, “Hey, did you know that you could do this here?” Or, “I love this about Lebanon,” or, “Hey, here's some restaurants to go to whenever you move into the area.” And I actually saw a lot of people comment that had just recently moved into the area within probably the last year or so. 

Tim Chermak: Cool. I love that ad because it's just a perfect example of positioning yourself as being a champion of the community who just happens to be a realtor. You're not always talking about your listings or an open house coming up or why Brandon Davis is such a great realtor. You're really championing and promoting the community, and it's kind of like in the background, “Oh, by the way, I'm a realtor,” but you don't even have to say that because the ad doesn't talk about you at all. It's just that if people are intrigued by the ad, if they click on it and they could do a little bit more research, they'll probably eventually figure out that Brandon Davis is a realtor, but that's what all the other retargeting ads are for. 

Tim Chermak: We don't absolutely have to have every single ad we put out be a sales pitch about Brandon and why you should list with Brandon or buy a house with Brandon, and that to me right there is the magic of retargeting. Because if you don't have retargeting set up where people click on your ads and then they start seeing all of your other ads sequentially over time, if you don't have retargeting set up as we do with the Platform strategy, honestly, then you kind of do have to work in a sales pitch to every ad. Every ad does have to mention you if you don't have retargeting, because you have no idea if someone might see one of your ads and then never see you again. You don't wanna necessarily spend money promoting the community or promoting local schools or parks or restaurants or whatever if there's no logical link or logical connection back to Brandon Davis. That would be just you wasting your money and having no idea if any business is gonna come from it. 

Tim Chermak: But because you have retargeting set up with Platform, you don't have to rely on that one individual ad to do all the work for you. It's like, hey, this ad just builds rapport. It highlights the community. It's not about me at all. But that's fine because if they click on this ad, they'll start seeing all these other ads too that some of them do mention me, so I don't have to rely on this ad to convert all the leads. I can take a much more long-term holistic approach. Again, I love that ad because it highlights the community, not you. You're making your marketing about the town and the neighborhood, not just you in particular. What were the other ads you said that have been successful? 

Brandon Davis: The one where you had to put your phone on airplane mode and throw it over the house. I think that was so successful because it caught people's attention right away. And people stuck with the video because they're like, “Holy crap. Did he really just throw his phone across the house?” And I actually had people ask that.

Tim Chermak: For those who are listening to this and they're like, what are you talking about? We have this template video that we've had a bunch of our Platform agents do where to open up a listing video, 'cause you gotta grab people's attention in the first three seconds. You can't just slowly walk up to the house and open the door 'cause that's how every agent starts a listing video. We're always looking for what's a quirky, fun, creative way to start a listing video, so we had you make it look like you're about to throw your cell phone. You put it on airplane mode, like, “Hey, the phone's going on airplane mode.” It's kind of like a play on words. And then it looks like you're throwing the phone in the air and we just use some Photoshop, video editing magic to make it look like you threw the phone over the house. Again, it really has nothing to do with the house, but the point is it grabs people's attention and then they actually watch the video.

Brandon Davis: Yeah. It was amazing. And the amount of comments that I got on that, and we got that house sold really quick too, which I know that the purpose of those videos is not necessarily to sell the house, obviously, but it definitely helped. 

Tim Chermak: Yeah. Again, one video isn't gonna build your brand. It's like, oh, this guy's the best realtor in town. But consistently and over time, if you're consistently doing more creative, fun videos than other agents in the area, you will absolutely build a brand where people think, “Hey, Brandon Davis is the most creative realtor in the area. He gets his listings more exposure, more engagement. I wanna work with someone like Brandon.” If I have to work with a realtor to sell my house, I might as well work with an agent who's gonna get my home a ton of exposure. And that absolutely over time leads to people choosing you over other realtors. Are there any other ads that you've done that just seem to have gotten a lot of engagement?

Brandon Davis: The one, like I said, about the girls, my twins, at the end of the year. Again, I think this goes back to everything that we've been talking about, is people want to connect to you. They don't want it to feel super salesy. If you are doing these ads and, like with my kids, you know, it really was a very heartfelt, Brandon is being vulnerable, sharing a little bit about his life. People can connect to that, and I think that they build trust in that brand and build trust in you as an agent. That ad did not mention anywhere that I was a real estate agent, but it got a ton of engagement. And obviously that helps build that retargeting ad. That one was awesome.

Tim Chermak: Yep. And that's a great example of an ad that doesn't look like an ad. That's the phrase I always repeat. If I were to distill the Platform Marketing philosophy into just one phrase or one sentence, it's “Make ads that don't look like ads.” Because that's my biggest complaint about social media over the last 10, 15 years is that Facebook used to be more pure social media, whereas when you'd log on, you'd see posts from your friends or photos from your friends and family, and now there's so many just obvious ads. You're scrolling your newsfeed and you're not seeing near as much content from your friends and family as you used to 10 years ago on Facebook. 

Tim Chermak: From a marketing perspective though, that's actually an opportunity. Because it means if you take this mentality of, hey, I'm gonna make sure my ads don't look like ads, so when it pops up in someone's newsfeed, it kind of sparks a little bit of joy. Just for that split second that it pops into someone's newsfeed, they're like, “Oh, what is this? This doesn't look like a blatant sales pitch or advertisement.” And in this instance, it's a photo of your daughters, or it's a quick video of you about to throw your phone over the house. 

Tim Chermak: If every time someone sees something from Brandon Davis pop up in their newsfeed and just for that split second, whether it's a photo or a video, you give them a little sense of joy or happiness because you're always posting something interesting or fun, that makes people look forward to your posts. When you can eventually retrain people's brains to like, “Oh, I enjoy seeing Brandon's posts,” often they don't even realize whether or not they're your Facebook friend. 'Cause maybe they're not literally friends in your personal profile, but they think that they're your friend because your posts keep popping up and they keep engaging with them.

For more of this episode, listen on Apple or Spotify Podcasts.