The One Type of Content That Turns Followers Into Clients

Welcome to the listings lab podcast with Jess LaNugale, founder of the listings lab and best selling author of more money less hustle, becoming the seven figure real estate agent. Are you ready to learn how to scale your real estate business from six to seven figures and create unlimited scalability and financial freedom in the process? It's time to take back your life and avoid the "Oso Common" realtor burnout. Learn techniques and strategies to help you build relationships at scale and create a business of clients you love with systems that give you the freedom to live your life. It's time to put aside the old school tactics and embrace a new way of business where you can have predictability in everything that you do. Let's get into it. And we're going to talk about case studies. So I'm glad you're here. We are this is essentially like the single piece of content that when you do it right, we'll turn followers, viewers into actual clients, right? Case studies, case studies equal clients. And this is really the way that I'm going to frame this. This is the right way to post social proof. So in the next 35, 40 minutes, I'm going to go through exactly what a case study is. Why it outperforms almost everything else you're probably posting right now. And the full structure on how to write one from a transaction that you've already closed. So I want you to be able to walk away with a framework that you can actually just sit down and run with. Okay. So let's get started. If you are one of those people who tends to come to these and just do a million other things at the same time, I would probably say that this is the one that you close all of your other tabs. Like flip your phone over. Give this one your full attention because this is going to be one that you actually really do want to focus for. This is for the agent who's already getting some attention on socials, who's posting and so showing up. Maybe you're a little frustrated with the attention that the attention that you're getting isn't converting into conversations and clients. If you feel like you're kind of posting into the void a little bit, then this one's for you. And especially if you're kind of new around here and you've been you have been posting just sold, just listed kind of graphics. This is really going to replace all of those things. So I want to zoom out for a minute. So you can kind of see in the overall picture where case studies fit. Right. There's a full set of different kinds of content types that every agent really needs to master. Right. We've got personal beliefs, personal philosophy, personal story, authority value, process solution, case studies, testimonials, PR, myth, busting lifestyle. Right. All of that matter and they all work together and they also have a purpose. So most of what you post is nurture content. It builds trust, it builds connection, it warms people up. Case studies are different in one specific way. They are the content that converts that warm audience into people who reach out and who want to work with you. Right. So that's why we're spending this whole training today on that one, on essentially that one type of content. So our roadmap, what a case study actually is, why they're so powerful, who you should be highlighting, step by step process to build one, and finally how to play with the structure so that it never feels formulaic. And then so you can stay consistent with them. This is all going to feel good though. I don't want you to be posting anything that feels salesy, that feels an inauthentic. I don't want anything old school or sleazy coming out of this. Everything that I teach always is based on telling true stories about real clients that you genuinely helped. And getting to like just you don't have to fake anything. So the real definition of a case study. A case study is a single unit deeply in, is is is is a it studies a single unit deeply in thoroughly. So for us that one unit is one client or one transaction from start to finish. It's qualitative and quantitative, which means it has feelings and it has numbers. So it covers the meaning. So it has yeah, so it has it has feelings and it has numbers, but it covers a meaningful kind of stretch of time. In normal language, it's before, during and after, and a walkthrough of one client's journey. Where they started, what you did, where they ended up. Right? You've already lived in normal number of these, right? You just haven't necessarily been telling them. So these matter so much because one, they give you social proof kind of wrapped in a story and packaged with value. Two, they let a potential client emotionally connect with your business before they speak to you. They see themselves in your client. They see they can live vicariously through your client. And three, stories are 22 times more memorable than facts. I've been saying this for years and years. You can list all of the stats all day long. You can wrap those stats in and when you wrap those stats in a human story, people will actually remember you. So there's also a second layer, why they work. A case study moves that reader or watcher from current situation to desired situation. Right? They watch your past clients go from stuck to sorted out. And they map themselves or they see themselves in that journey. It lets you also walk through your entire system. Every valuable thing you do without ever sounding salesy because it's not pitching. You're just telling a true story that happens to showcase how good you are. And I want you to hear this part really, really clearly. This is the replacement for just sold posts. A just sold post graphic says, look what I did. It centers you. It's a brag and the scroll keeps moving because it's not valuable for anybody. A case study centers the client and the transformation and your audience will lean into this. So same closed deal, completely different result. So from today forward, every time you want to post a just sold, I want you to build a case study instead. So the principle underneath all of it is that people buy emotionally before they buy logically. So we make the decision in our gut and then we justify it with facts afterwards. And then the case study hits the emotion first, the story, the relief, the transformation. And then we back it up with the numbers, right? So that's the exact order that your brain, the human brain wants to receive the information. So let's talk about who to highlight and what's the criteria for who to actually create case studies for. First, I want you to pick a client who fits your niche perfectly. So if you work with move up families and you feature a downsizer, you confuse your audience about who you're for. So match the client to the people that you want more of. Second, this is obviously going to sound obvious, but pick clients that were happy. Right? The story has to be true. The win has to be real. Then choose the larger, more obvious life transitions. First, I'm growing family getting at a bigger house with a yacht with a bigger yard is a stronger story than someone who's making a lateral move. Right? The bigger the transformation, the more compelling the read. And then start with the deeper pain points too. Right? If you have a client who was overwhelmed, scared, stuck, or against a hard deadline, it gives you a like a richer and a deeper quote unquote before to work with. And then lastly, we're going to talk always talk about permission. Right? We're going to talk always ask permission first. We're going to talk about how to automate permission in a second. You can highlight the address, the property, the sale. You can highlight the client and their human story. For most of you, the client and their story is going to be the more powerful choice because that's who your audience is actually going to relate to. Okay, let's start step by step. Let me just check to see if anybody had any questions. Do the case studies always have to match with only match with the niche? Yes. What if your clients, what if you have a lot of clients who don't match your niche? Then from an online marketing standpoint, they're not going to add. They're not going to add. Is there a frame to do this if I close a house over a month ago? No, absolutely. You're never too late. You can go back years and write case studies from like literally years ago. If you still just remember the story, the actual structure of a case study, the way I build them and the way that I teach how to build them, I'm going to use move up families as an example because it's kind of easy to picture. Whenever I say move up families, I want you to in your head just drop in your own niche, whether it's first time buyers, downsizers, divorce, relocation, investors. The structure doesn't change. It's only going to be like the details that change. Number one, choose the client, get permission. Get permission from every client at the start. If you're doing buyer agreements or you're doing listing paperwork, have them sign or initial, your permission for this right at the beginning. Because then no matter what, you don't have to go back and figure out whether or not you've got permission or not because you have permission from everyone. If you do that, you never have to make the awkward after the fact ask. You just have a permanent growing library of stories that you are already cool and clear to tell. Step two, as soon as the transaction closes, open a notebook, open on your computer, voice note it, you can do a doc, a note anything. Capture your raw materials and they doesn't have to be clean, three buckets before after process. We're not writing polished sentences here, we're not writing the piece. of content here, you're just capturing the details that make the story real before you forget them. Right? So again, three buckets before after process. Now, let me go through what what actually goes through each one of them. So bucket one is going to be before this is where you build the emotional hook. Right? So the question that you answer is who are they? Right? For a move up family, it's something like a couple in their 30s who has young kids in a starter home or a condo, whatever neighborhood, what's their current situation? What are their pain points? The move up family mostly has outgrown their space. The kids are sharing a room maybe, maybe there's no yard, maybe they're tripping over each other, like the home that was perfect for them five years ago is busting at the seams now. Did they tell you a story about why they decided to move? Did they have another second baby on the way? Maybe they want they couldn't host a holiday without it being chaos. And what were their concerns or what were they worried about going in? Right? What were they worried about is important. For move up families, a lot of it, it's how do we sell our current home and buy the next one without number one ending up homeless in the middle? And then number two is can we even afford to make the move? You want to name that fear out loud because it's the exact moment that the reader or the watcher says, yep, that's me. That's exactly where I am right now and that's exactly why I haven't taken action yet. Okay. Bucket two is the after. And it has two halves. The first half is numbers because this is where you're going to kind of like quietly prove that you're excellent at what you do. So capture the real figures. It could be like days on market, number of showing, sold over asking, like all of the stuff that we are just going to briefly mention, right? The second half of the after is the human win. This is like, this is the, this is the where most agents actually don't do this at all. They skip this part entirely and it's actually the most important. You write out the life transition, you know, maybe for a move up family, it's the four bedroom with the backyard and the kids each get to get their own room. They're in a better school district. They have space to grow into then say what mattered emotionally. The relief of not being on top of each other, first holiday in a home with room for the whole family. The numbers are going to prove that you're good at your job. The transformation is what makes people feel something and that feeling is what makes them reach out and you need both. You need the emotion first and then you need the numbers. So bucket three, it kind of sits in the middle. So you've got before and you've got after and then the middle is the process. So this is where your signature system comes in. And this is going to, you have to frame it in a way that never sounds like you're bragging. So you're walking through the steps you took and you keep it to three to five steps so it stays readable. You highlight the thing that was the most important, right? And this is the part that's the most specific to you, right? So I can't script these steps for you obviously. But the questions running in your head are what were the three to five things that I actually did to get the result? What did I do that other agents in my market don't do? Because that answer is your differentiator. And the process section is really where you are kind of selling your service package. But it's told it's told as a story and never like a sales pitch. If it even remotely feels salesy, you're going to lose people. So then we weave all three buckets into one story before process after. So you open with, you can open with the after as the hook, you can rewind it to the before. You're just connecting the dots, right? And so you can play around with this. A case study with you need to have a good close on a case study because that's what earns the that's what actually earns the client. So you want you want to end the post by turning the story outward to the reader or the watcher, something like if you've out you've grown your home and you've been putting off the move because the logistics feel impossible, that's exactly the problem that we solved here. Send me a DM with the word move and I'll show you exactly or we'll customize something exactly that we could work with your family. The only thing that you ever sell in is the last line. And then you do the part that creates clients, right? When someone comments or sends that DM, you don't pitch pitch them, you just ask curious questions back. I love that. What's making you think about moving right now or what's going on right now or give me a little bit more information like that's when you actually start to have the actual conversation. So case studies fit fit alongside everything else you post, right? On top of all of your site, other psychological and nurture content, case studies are your call to action content. The pieces that produce the results from all of the nurturing that you've been doing, right? So think of, I don't know, think of some one of our clients, right? Someone who uses case studies regularly because their results driven in their rotation, the nurture builds the trust that the case study is what actually brings in the clients. And then you get to play with the structure, right? There's no single hard and fast rule here, right? So if you want to start with a reliable frame, you do a headline the before, the after, then the process, but you can reorder that. You can lead with the result. You can open with the client's fear and then you can move the numbers around. Once you actually understand and you nail those four ingredients, headline before, after, before, after process, you can rearrange them. However you want and you get better and better at it. Your first case study is going to feel a little clunky. That's 100% normal. You just practice it, you iterate it, you write one, you post it, you see how people respond and you adjust it. By the fifth one that you do, you're going to find your rhythm. By the tenth one that you do, you're going to be like, oh, okay, I've got this. I've nailed this, right? Also, something that I see pretty consistently is when an agent comes to me struggling to convert from social media. They're posting all the right stuff. My first question is always, are you being consistent with your case studies? Nine times out of 10, the answer is no. They're posting lifestyle and value all day, but they're almost never showing proof of transformation. Right? So consistency with this one type of content is usually if you're doing everything right, like the missing piece. So I want you to go back, go back to your recent closings, go back to the closings you've had for the last year, pull the ones that you have permission or get permission. Look at the ones that you have a strong, a strong transformation from. Start your notepad files, right? Create like a backlog of like just like your, you just brain dropping. Because I want you to start to treat this as a system and not just, oh, I came to this training with Jess. I did one case study and then I completely forgot about it, right? But you can take everything that we've gone through today and just practice it. This process works. You have the steps now. So yeah, it's, it's just one of those things that like, this is your conversion content, right? If you don't do it, a lot of the time you're not going to get that result that you're looking for. So yeah, that's kind of like, that's, that's kind of the whole shebang. I know that this was only 20 minutes, but let me go through some of these questions. I can't show you someone else's example because I don't have permission to show you someone else's example right now. So Shana, I think that you asked that question before I went through the close. So I went through that. Can you put it in cloud and make the case study match your client? What I would do is, let me grab you guys. Hmm, let me see here. You can use AI to do this, but I would highly suggest that you do it on your own before you use AI. Because you will not know if it's good or not, but I'm going to give you a gift right now. This is a client story generator that we use internally with our clients. So let me open this and show you what this looks like. I've never given this to anybody who hasn't paid for it, but this will go through your format. Carousel B-roll talking head. You can click which one you want. It'll ask you to choose your tone. And then it will go through exactly what you need to say, whether you have a testimonial or not, how you want to identify them, and then it will generate it for you. Yes, Frank. I also gave this out at the event if you were at the event. So this is going to, this is going to really help you. Yeah, if you are lucky, if you are interested in, if you're interested in another virtual event, I am considering running another one at the end of the month. It will depend on how many people register for it, whether or not I decide to do it again, but there were just so many people who said that they missed it and that they were upset, that they missed it. It will be the same. It'll be the same one. So it'll be for people who either want to go through it again or for people who didn't get to the last one. So case study posts, I would say once a week, I would say a third of your content should be, should be called the action content. So it should be case studies testimonials PR. And then the rest of it is nurture content. So if you are interested in signing up or possibly coming to the event, drop your email right now. Just make sure you post it. You you spell it correctly. Drop your email in the chat. And Sharon will grab all of your emails. And we can send you an email whether if we decide that we are going to do it. Can we go back to a previous client and ask questions? You can. Yeah. I mean, if you worked with a client and they closed, you should be able to answer the questions yourself. You shouldn't have to go back and ask questions. The only thing that you should be asking is, is if you have permission. Am I still doing visible agent? I am. Yes. Wendy, I believe that you sent me an email the other day and I responded to your email. So let me grab you the link for that right now. So Wendy, I am dropping you the link for that just under your comment. How do we capture access to this generator? You just have to save the link. You have to-- for the generator, you just have to save the link. Shelly, you should have it already because you were at the event. So what is the cadence, personal versus business? So I mean, if we're going to simplify it, and I'm very simplifying it, Sharon, personal content, authority content, social proof are your three buckets. And if you go a third, a third, a third, you are going to be fine. I did respond, Wendy, and may have gone to your spam. There's the link again if you want to grab it. OK, so drop your email if you're interested in the event again. I may do it at the end of this month. I may do it. I'm going to take a poll of times that works better for people, too. This was probably the most-- this was the best feedback I've ever gotten from an event, even though it was virtual. So it's one of those things that if you decide that you-- if you are interested in it, we go through a lot of AI. We go through a lot of systems and tool building. We go through all the marketing stuff. We hit every pillar of your business throughout it. OK, use your case study generator. I hope you like it. And just my intention for you is that you use your case studies and you stop posting just listed just sold open house crab. And instead, you do this properly and well. OK, so you guys can go and be excellent today. If you need anything, you can always email me or let me know. If you're interested in the event, make sure you drop your email and feel free to use our content, our case study generator. I think you'll like the outputs from it. All right, guys, go be great. If you're in some of our programs, I'll see you this week. If not, I will see you next week next Thursday. Thanks, guys. Bye. [MUSIC PLAYING] Thanks for listening. To talk to our team about how the Listings Lab can help you grow your business, visit thelistingslab.com/apply. If you enjoyed this episode, please get the podcast Five Stars on iTunes and help us to reach other agents who want to massively scale their business the modern way. And if you want more marketing and scalability strategies for your real estate business in-between episodes, then join the Listings Lab Facebook group or follow Jess on Instagram @ JesslaNuvel. Thanks again for tuning in. And we hope you'll join us next week. [MUSIC PLAYING]