It's funny how quickly things change.
Only a few years ago Rock Star was born out of 200 square feet of office space in an executive suites rental unit.
Today we're busting out of our 3,000 square feet and are close to locking up a new, larger home (that won't be ready for over a year!), and we're already worried if it'll be big enough.
Back then we didn't care how much office space we had.
We also didn't care that the "front desk" at that first office was actually a sandwich counter.
Yes, that's right, the front desk was an honest-to-goodness snack bar.
So when realtors would come in to drop off deposit cheques, the lady who made the BLT's would accept them.
Crazy right?
No one in their right mind would think that was "professional."
But we never cared.
For some reason, we intuitively understood that putting on the most "professional" front that we could wasn't the key to business survival or growth.
We were fortunate enough to know, deep down, that our ability to acquire a steady stream of new possible clients was all that mattered.
And that if we provided "value" in the form of good information, good service, and a sincere heart that we would survive.
It worked.
Last week we were named to Canada's Profit 500 list for the third year in a row, our highest ranking ever at #153, as one of the country's fastest-growing companies (you can click here to see Rock Star Real Estate on the 2017 Profit 500 list).
So we feel we've earned the ability to confidently share with you the four website strategies that are often ignored, but when done right, can almost guarantee a small business's success.
We don't share this stuff lightly.
In fact, most sane people would tell us never to share this stuff.
But we don't care.
We truly want to share our journey in hopes that it may inspire or help guide your journey.
Living life on your own terms is a guiding principle for us. And implementing these strategies is one way to create that life for yourself.
If we are all living our truest calling, we believe this country can be an even better place to live.
So here it goes...
(And by the way, this strategy works for any business, in any niche, so don't think this doesn't apply to you. Thank you for your co-operation in this matter.)
We see a lot of focus on "social media" right now, and it definitely has its place.
But people don't begin their search for whatever it is they're interested in buying on Instagram. It's not that this doesn't happen sometimes, but it's not the primary place your customer is initiating their buying process.
They usually begin with a Google search of some sort to find information.
If you create good information on whatever it is you're selling and group it together on your website, you're building an asset that will work for you, automatically and in-your-sleep, for years.
The key here is that you don't pitch yourself, your product, your service, or anything at all.
You just share.
Share a quick video, a blog post, a formal article, anything.
Pour your heart into it. Give your best information, tools, tips, and thoughts.
And you don't expect anything in return for it.
Does this take some work? Of course. But very few people do it, so it leaves a huge competitive advantage and opportunity open to you.
When people find you, some will hate you, but some will like you simply for your effort in sharing good information.
So it's entirely appropriate to offer them something good in exchange for their contact info.
That contact info may be a mailing address, an email address, a Facebook follow, an Instagram or Twitter follow etc.
You'll want to choose the contact info where you feel the most comfortable in following up with them.
We like and use email a lot for this.
So we'll exchange a tutorial video or maybe an invitation to a webinar or in-person event in exchange for an email address.
And the reason we want the contact information is so we can follow-up with them, repeatedly, with more good information (see Strategy #1).
The key to this is coming up with something valuable enough that a person is willing to exchange their contact information for it.
Social media solves a huge problem.
Just a few years ago, you really couldn't get an idea who you were buying products or services from until you actually did it.
Maybe then you realized that the carpet cleaners you hired were horrible, dirty, and hated carpet cleaning.
With social media, we all have a platform to share who we are.
Our stories, our personalities and our own insights.
Interviews with customers and clients.
This naturally acts as social proof for your business.
We're in real estate, a naturally nasty industry. Full of over-promising and under-delivering.
And we're not perfect in this regard by any means. But we're trying our very best to deliver as much as we possibly can. To follow-up with everyone in a timely manner. To be as helpful as possible and to offer life-long advice and service.
We're not naive. We know this isn't always possible, but we try, and we try hard every day.
Social media, via Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, or whatever your flavour of the month is, gives you a platform for others to learn about you.
This builds trust, even before they meet you.
Everyone wants that glossy, professional website that shows them off in the best possible light.
And you need one, it's just not the first thing to focus on, and it's only one piece of this 4-piece puzzle.
This is the place you put your contact numbers, maps to your store/business, and all the other normal things people put on such sites.
Pictures of your team, summaries of your product or service offerings, etc.
This is the place people end up after they've transitioned through the above three steps.
The beautiful thing about this process is that your competition thinks this is the most important strategy, the professional website.
It's actually the least important.
If you implement the other three strategies ahead of this one, you'll find attracting and keeping customers is much easier.
The vast majority of businesses aren't doing this, which makes even more of a case for doing this 😉
“Look at what the majority of people are doing, and do the exact opposite, and you’ll probably never go wrong for as long as you live.”
- Earl Nightingale
Look, we don't have all the answers. But we know what we're sharing works because it's helped two guys who quit their jobs build a business from zero clients, zero sales, zero everything.
If we can go from stuffing marketing envelopes on our hands in knees, on the cement floor in my unfinished basement, to the Profit 500 list, then you definitely can too!
Until next time ... Your Life! Your Terms!
