Welcome New Client Rick Andrews

John: How did you hear about us? 

Rick: Funny, it's multi-pronged. Your advertising is working. My real estate coach mentioned you. I Googled an agent on the other side of North Carolina's video blog, Lars [Hedenborg]. I looked at his video blog, and scrolled down to the bottom and saw it was ya'll. All within about a two week period.

John: Great. What finally motivated you to call us or take our call? 

Rick: I'm in a second home resort market. Almost all of my buyers are in other places, so I have to reach out to them through the Internet. I'm big on know, like, and trust. Well, our sales record is very, very strong, so they normally trust us. They know us because we spend a lot on marketing. But your personality doesn't really come out in an email. It's hard to like someone just through the written word, whereas I think if they get to know you through video, that may be a way of encouraging that component.

John: Summarize where you're at with your business right now. What are your goals going forward? 

Rick: Again, we're very small, rural market. I have a Real Geeks site and a Market Leaders site that I use for my lead capture and buyers. I find folks are not that loyal, and really they don't have a reason to be. There's a thousand different websites out there saying, "Pick us, pick us." I'm just looking for something a little different in my marketplace, and there's no one that does anything quite like this. I had considered doing video for some time, and then I came across ya'll. One of your video guys says, "Come on, how could I get all of this done for 500 bucks a month?" And I thought, he's right.

John: Do you know how many people are in your database right now? 

Rick: I have a direct mail one that's 500, and then between the Market Leader and the Real Geeks, I guess another 2500. So actually around 3000.

John: And do you know how many email addresses you have? 

Rick: That's what I don't know. I probably have right around 2500 of those. Now the 500 that I send snail mail newsletters to, those I don't know.

John: You're doing snail mail. Any other email marketing or anything to the database. 

Rick: I have a Top Producer drip. As soon as I get an email lead, they're on a listing drip as far as listings that meet their criteria. Then through Top Producer I have them on a drip. We're a second home market in which the buyer takes 18 months, and you do not want to be pushy. Initially, they get two over the first 20 days, then it stretches anywhere from 30 to 60 days just to check in. They should be getting some either through Real Geeks or Market Leader.

John: Would you say these things are working pretty well for you? 

Rick: Yeah, for my market. I sold 3.5 million last year. I know that is nothing in a city market, but when your average sale in your market is about 167, and you co-broke that sale you started, that's quite a few properties. So I finished number one or number two in my market last year. So it works, but it could work better. I have very little doubt that the video will really enhance my presentation.

John: Why not try to do this yourself? Why hire Vyral Marketing? 

Rick: The truth is I sell, and that is the same reason I have a full time guy here who does all our IT. My time is better spent bringing in money and dealing with folks than doing the logistics, so to speak.

John: What kind of results are you expecting? What does success working with us look like to you? 

Rick: I will tell you one thing that I think is going to help, and it's not something I would have expected. My weakest link is calling people. I cannot stand calling people. I am not a chit-chatter. And the gentleman that I spoke with the other day, at the end of our conversation said, "Our phone calls are just like this: you call and ask, 'How was the video? How can we improve? What topics do you want to hear about?'" And I got to tell you, I got goose-pimples. I thought, yeah I would ask people that! I thought it was genius. It gives me a legitimate topic to discuss. I will blow that out. Those are calls I'll gladly make. So the one thing I don't like to do, it makes it easy to do.