By simply following Trevor Halpern on social media you instantly gather why he has been the #1 Independent Agent (for 3 straight years) at North & Co - the hip residential firm in Arizona known for challenging the status quo of the traditional real estate experience. But this was not always the case.
“When I moved to North&Co I did a branding exercise where I asked myself, who I am and what do I bring to the industry that is a little different? It gave me the pause to build a brand that resonated more with me… and it became an evolution as I was growing into my own skin in this business.”
And grow it has. With a 95% repeat & referral network, Trevor and his team have developed a layered marketing approach resulting in a cult social media following, a popular podcast and a strategic tech stack, including an abundance of users of their Halpern Residential App.
“Having our App gives us great street cred. People always go “Woa you have your OWN App!” Our App gives us weight and allows us to capture the eyeballs of people in a very engaging and immersive experience they won’t get elsewhere.”
Read on for how Trevor leverages tech for onboarding, stays true to himself on social media and how hosting a podcast actually saves him time!
Everything We Post Has to Feel Like 'Us'
“Is social media important to our business? YES. But the overarching theme of our content is that it needs to feel good to US. We have posting plans and a mix we want to get out there, but for my team, family & employees, we don’t ever do anything that feels “icky.” This is important because it’s the message of how we want to be shared with the world. As one layer in our marketing, it helps people to recognize that we are good at this, that we can be trusted and the process is going to be fine.”
Hosting A Podcast Saves Time and Delivers Good Content
“In this business, I get to have killer conversations daily. I found myself going ‘I wish I had that recorded!’ and I thought, ‘How can I share this knowledge?’ At the time we were spending 3-5 hours/week creating content and that wasn’t sitting well with me. Then the lightbulb went off—if I sit down and chat with someone for 45 minutes, I can save time AND deliver good fun content to my audience. The confluence of the podcast and being able to share all of the good stuff that I learn turned into a much easier process.”
Introducing Our App In Onboarding Helps It Stick
“When we onboard buyers, we immediately send them the link to our App. We want to get them away from searching anywhere else. We want to be the only channel when it comes to real estate that they are engaging with so we get them on our App. We tell them, look if you're good at searching with the other stuff, go for it, BUT, backstop it against our app, engage with us and we find people pull more and more into our App.”
Use Your App as a Honeypot for Leads
“We use our App as a honeypot. We can push it out in both digital and print ads with our own QR code. It has created another avenue for us to engage with our network as well as people that stumble into our marketing that we are doing out on our farm.”
App Data Facilitates Better Client Communication
“My team is very hands-on with our App. Jaci monitors our marketing systems, from a larger strategic standpoint. While Lia is out in the field and introduces our App in her buyer consults. She then checks our App’s insights daily and monitors clients' saves and searches so she can find homes that align with their specific preferences and sends properties to them right through the App. This keeps them in our ecosystem and that engagement and discussion is all in the App. It really facilitates some great communication.”
Be Patient with New Technology
“When you invest in big pieces of tech you can’t expect things to just happen. You need to soak it in for a minute, see how other people are best using it and take those nuggets to figure out your approach. Be thoughtful and learn as much as you can about how you can deliver value through your App. Grow slowly and integrate it into your systems and figure out how it works for YOU.”
Follow along with Trevor and his team on their Real Estate adventure at @halpernresidential on Instagram
To snag more of Trevor's tips watch the full interview here
Ready to learn more about building a white label app like Trevor? You can find more info HERE.
