Get ready to be F.I.R.E.D U.P because today we have the founder/CEO of Digital Muse Media, Dean Aguilar. Wanna learn about social media marketing, especially on Instagram? You have to learn with the master, the one that truly understands the social media algorithm! We will teach you how to drive traffic down the funnel. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show, remember, the one who markets the most wins!
P.S If you like this interview, check out my “F.I.R.E.D Up” playlist with more interviews! Just visit —> http://bit.ly/3bmkm0o!
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How To Drive Traffic Down the Funnel With Dean Aguilar
Krista Mashore:
Hey, everyone. Are you ready to be fired up? Because I sure am. I've got Dean Aguilar here. He is the founder of Digital Muse Media, specializing in, obviously, digital marketing, and he is a master at Instagram. So if you're interested in Instagram, you're interested in social media and getting your reach, this is the show for you.
Hi, Dean.
Dean Aguilar:
Hey. I'm fired up. I like that.
Krista Mashore:
Yeah, I'm happy to have you be here.
Dean Aguilar:
I'm excited. I'm excited to get going and just talk to you, and see if we can give some good insight here on Instagram.
Krista Mashore:
Well, so here's the deal. First of all, everyone knows that I don't ever refer anybody or have anybody on that I can't personally say that I've worked with and have done an amazing job for me. I actually hired Dean's company at Digital Muse, and they were able to help me to increase my Instagram following substantially, I mean, by the thousands in just a 60-day time frame. So absolutely love what you do.
So tell us a little bit about your company and what you do, and how you help digital marketers across the world, which is professionals. Any type of professional business, you guys can help.
Dean Aguilar:
Yeah, a lot of different industries who we have as far as our client base. And really what we focus down to is we're trying to come up with a brand development play for each individual because I think a lot of people mistake how to develop a brand. They're really, really fixated on pure sales or what they do for a living instead of the all encompassing of what a brand is. What we really focus on is trying to deploy all that content on a couple of different platforms. Actually Instagram being the main one now. Believe it or not, we are now playing with TikTok quite a bit.
Krista Mashore:
By the way, I saw your video of your father-in-law with the casino machine. So cute.
Dean Aguilar:
That was a great one. For those who don't know, my father-in-law had a stroke a way back, and he hasn't been able to go to the casino anymore because he can't walk and stuff like that. So we got him his own casino basically every weekend and put it in his house. So now he doesn't have to leave the house and he can play his slots all day long.
Krista Mashore:
So let me ask you, so they brought a casino to him, and it's like a real actual machine. It wasn't one you guys just bought. So if he wins, it wins?
Dean Aguilar:
Yeah.
Krista Mashore:
Oh no.
Dean Aguilar:
It's legit from… We bought it from a casino actually. My wife had the hook up. So they were selling off a bunch of them, and we bought two of them. We bought two slot machines. We have a little poker table set up back there. So he has his own little git up.
Krista Mashore:
So, so cute. I saw it. Hey, I love my TikTok dances. I'm on there too.
Dean Aguilar:
You know what, I don't follow you. So I got to go follow you then.
Krista Mashore:
Oh, they're terrible. They're terrible.
Dean Aguilar:
It's totally good. It's totally good. But essentially what we're doing is we meet with beautiful Krista. We find out all about her, what she's about, and then we try to deploy her voice through these platforms. It's been really, really great. One of the main things that we use is influencer and celebrity shout outs. We were just talking about that, right?
Krista Mashore:
Yes.
Dean Aguilar:
It's probably one of the only ways, and I know you do a lot of Facebook. So you'll understand that Facebook, as far as content play, the organic posting, it's super difficult to gain traction as well as-
Krista Mashore:
Let's just dive into that a little bit, and then I want you to explain more the community influence because most people don't understand this. So many people will think, “Wow. I'm going to watch X, Y, Z, and I'm going to see them. They post on their business page, and they post on their personal page. They've got hundreds of hours and thousands of followers.” But that's because they are using the platform correctly and getting organic reach, whether it be on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube is almost impossible. I mean, to go get organic millions of views is less than .01% of people do that. The people that you're seeing that have massive influence in most cases are because they have beat the algorithm or they've paid to actually get the exposure.
So one more time, they've beat the algorithm because they've paid the actual Facebook or the backend of TikTok or the… Not TikTok, but the backend of Instagram or backend of YouTube or the backend of Facebook. They've paid for ads to have exposure or they've paid influencers to help them. So either way, the only way for you to get these platforms to work for you is if you pay.
Dean Aguilar:
Yep. That's 100% correct. We talk about that all the time, Krista. It is literally just like you said two ways. You got to paid for ads or you got to pay an influencer. Because right now, unless it's an anomaly where it's like you just happen to go viral and become a superstar online, which is .00001% that does that. It's funny because over the last five years, you've probably seen this, your own friends, your own family sometimes won't see your stuff because it gets buried in the algorithm.
With Facebook and Instagram now actually, it's starting to get tougher because it's only going to show it really to the people who have engaged back with you. So meaning you could have X amount of followers, but if you don't have a play to actually invoke a conversation back, then only the five people who love Krista-like mom, brother, my one favorite client. If they constantly are commenting, then those are the ones who are going to see it constantly. All your other followers, it's going to be hit or miss.
Krista Mashore:
So let me explain that. Okay, everyone, because what he's saying is completely true. So if Facebook's algorithm and all these other platforms, their algorithm only exposes your content to your friends and family. And even of your friends and family, only 0-2% of them are actually seeing it because the only ones that are seeing it organically are because Facebook's putting it in front of them because they're already engaging. They're already interacting.
Who do you want to see your content? You want the rest of the community to see your content. You want everyone that doesn't know you to constantly being seeing your content and to be reminded that you are the professional service provider that you are. So everyone will say, “Well, Krista, should I post on my business page or my Facebook page?” I say it doesn't matter. Neither of them. You need to pay for ads or pay for influencers to get you the exposure because the algorithm… Facebook is a business. Instagram is a business. You have to pay to play, whether you're paying them or you're paying somebody else to promote you. Period.
Dean Aguilar:
It's going to happen to TikTok. It's actually already happened. Matter of fact, Sharon and I were just blessed with being accepted into TikTok's ad platform. So it's in beta, and now we're able to sell ads for them. So I'm only saying it not to brag but to saying it's coming in large scale there. LinkedIn is going to go. I mean, they're already running ads on all that stuff. But it's always pay to play. It's always going to be pay to play.
Krista Mashore:
So it's a matter of who do you want to play with? You want to play with the people who know how to play.
Dean Aguilar:
Exactly. That's it. And you know what, look, it's while you're paying for ads and you're playing for influencers and celebrities to shout you out, we always say the same thing. It's bringing the followers to our clients is never an issue because we can borrow the audience from these celebrities. We can [crosstalk 00:07:36]-
Krista Mashore:
So explain the [inaudible 00:07:37] package because I want you to explain that to me. So tell me how this works-
Dean Aguilar:
Yeah.
Krista Mashore:
And why it would be good for someone to do it. So explain how it works and why they want to do it. As you know, I'm going to be doing it. So I believe it, but explain to our audience.
Dean Aguilar:
Yeah. So essentially the way it works is this: you select, there's literally thousands of influencers and celebrities that do this. They make a good sum of money doing it on the backend obviously, and the way they're doing it is twofold. You can use a micro influencer that has let's say a couple million followers or something like that. They run a good page. They maybe in fitness. They maybe in modeling. They maybe in whatever. And their engagement is fairly high. What they'll do is they'll run a campaign, a giveaway so to speak. So what they'll say is… So Krista, our client, Krista will pay to get into this giveaway. And what happens is Krista is one of 50 people that have paid to get in because Krista wants to obtain these followers.
We say to Krista, “Hey, Krista, this influencer has about two million followers. So we could estimate that they would probably get somewhere between 15- to 30,000 followers for you.” What they do is the way that they drive them is they announce that they're doing a giveaway to their audience, and keep in mind we usually pick ones that we work with that have very high engagement. So over 5% engagement on IG where normally, honestly, it's between 2% and 3%. So 5% is pretty high.
So what happens is they make the announcement. They say, “Hey everyone, we're doing a giveaway, and we want to give you $10,000 and six iPhones. Here's how you enter to win.” So what happens is now they're telling everyone, “I need you to go follow everyone that I'm following in order to enter to win.” So what they do is on their follower list, the people that those influencers are following, they clear them, and they input all the people like Krista who is paid to get in. So now their two million followers or 5% whoever engages sees this and says, “Holy shit. I want to win $10,000.” And so they're going follow, follow, follow, follow, follow, follow to the 50 people. And now Krista is going, “Holy shit. I'm getting 10,000 people in a matter of two hours. Dean, what's going on?” “Hey, the giveaway just started.”
Krista Mashore:
And that doesn't alert Instagram to do anything weird?
Dean Aguilar:
No. It's been eight years. And matter of fact one of the largest companies that runs these giveaways are our partner, and they're certified by Instagram. So it's big business. You have to understand the Kylie Jenner's of the world, the Jamie Foxx's of the world, these people are actually running the giveaways. They're never going to not do that for these celebrities. As an example, two years ago, Kyle bailed out of Instagram and their stock plummeted. Plummeted. You have to understand she has 148 million people on… That's a lot of stroke. You have to understand, that's a business. It's an influence business. Instagram is a very highly engaged platform. To have an influencer like that disappear from the platform is not good business. So they'll never touch it. They haven't for eight years.
Krista Mashore:
So give me an idea of pricing. So somebody wants to use you and wants to hire you guys, and they want to utilize… I know you've got different packages. One that's like certain amount of followers per month, and then you got ones that you offer this type of a giveaway to. Can you tell me…
I love you, honey.
Can you tell me what kind of… For an influencer package like this, what are those packages look like as far as the status and micro followers, max-
Dean Aguilar:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let me give it to you. So what's interesting is there's two approaches. The biggest bang for your buck is always going to be the giveaways, which are influencers that have over two million followers, all the way up to the Kyle Jenner's of the world. The other approach is the targeted approach, and that's the shout outs. So the difference is this: we will use business pages like quote pages, meme pages. These pages that have high virality. So as an example, a lot of people who are listening are on Instagram, and they're like, “Oh, that quote is so awesome. It home today,” and they share it. Those pages that you're getting it from are high virality pages because everyone loves that stuff. So the engagement is through the roof.
So what we do is on a targeted shout out, so if Krista said, “Hey, you know what, I want less of a giveaway bang, but I want a more targeted, shout out approach that is a little bit higher of engagement.” Because what we do is we place you on the shout outs on those pages, and we're saying, “Hey, for great information on selling in real estate, please go visit Krista Mashore,” blah, blah, blah. And we keep doing the shout out until those people come to you and follow you. So think of it as a pretty hot opt-in versus a forced registration because the forced registration-
Krista Mashore:
The forced registration is basically the celebrities-
Dean Aguilar:
The giveaway.
Krista Mashore:
The giveaways. The other one is more of a, “Hey, it's a more targeted because people are interested in the same types of things,” whether it be business or what have you.
Dean Aguilar:
That's it. That's it. Because we don't have control to force them to do it. They're looking at the page that they love, and they're going, “Okay, great. Let me go check out Krista.” And this is where it gets important, which is the second part, which is the content play and making sure your profile and you look great is because when they land on you, two things need to happen. You need to be interesting, and you need to be able to keep them. Because if you're boring, unfortunately, they're going to leave. They may decide to follow you, but you have to keep them engaged. Again, the platform is all about engagement. And so if you don't engage with them, they will leave on that approach.
Krista Mashore:
Absolutely. You've got to keep them interested. You got to keep them coming, wanting to come back for more.
Dean Aguilar:
For sure. And with the giveaways too, one thing to keep in mind because I think it's worth noting, is because it is a forced registration so to speak. When the giveaway is over, there is typically 20% drop off immediately.
Krista Mashore:
Probably at least.
Dean Aguilar:
Yeah, at least.
Krista Mashore:
Over time, what does that drop off usually?
Dean Aguilar:
Usually it doesn't really go more than 25, maybe 30% tops over the course of a few months really. But it's one of those things it's pretty simple. A lot of them were just there for the giveaway. But ideally what you're trying to look for is the net followers that you'll gain and the people who stay. You actually want people to leave because the people who are never going to engage was there. Because what happens is it drops your engagement rate. So if you have 100,000 people but only 40 of them, 50 of them are engaging, then that's going to drop your engagement rate. So you want 20-30% leaving so that way the people who are left are the ones that are most likely going to actually engage, watch your stories, comment, like, whatever.
Krista Mashore:
So then tell me a little about this. So why would it be conducive for somebody to want to do this? How has it help their business? How does it help them by having a lot of followers on Instagram? How does it help them in their professional business?
Dean Aguilar:
Yeah. So it's just like having a large email list or database, and Krista, I know you know about this. You know what I mean? You're in marketing, and anybody listening to the call, whether you're in your real estate or fitness or whatever, a large base is everything. It really is because… And it's not about the followers because I think too many people think followers is a bad word because it's vanity or whatever. No, it's about engagement, but an engaged follower base. And logic dictates that the higher amount of people that you have that engage with your product is essentially more people that's going to buy. That's just it.
Krista Mashore:
It's helping people because they're having more people, more eyes on them. They're getting more exposure. They're able to make more of a relationship and be seen as the authority figure. That's the reason why you feel Instagram is so valuable.
Dean Aguilar:
Yeah, absolutely because it's essentially blowing up your brand. It's making you know nationwide versus in a little… You have a lot of agents that listen to you, correct?
Krista Mashore:
Yeah. Yeah, across the country.
Dean Aguilar:
Yeah. Okay. So I think a lot of times agents are fixated on, “Hey, how can I get more people in Mississippi in this subdivision?” And I'm like, “Well, you got to run ads because that's the only way that you're going to get it in that subdivision.”
Krista Mashore:
Well, you can't even do that now because the special ad category. Unless it's 15 miles or more. So now it's like you can do it 94513 or Brentwood but you can't do it in subdivision. Yeah.
Dean Aguilar:
Exactly, exactly. It's even tougher to do that now. But I guess the way that I explain it to everybody is this. I always give this one analogy and whether it connects or not, it's up to you. But imagine if Ryan Serhant, because everybody knows who he is, said to HGTV or whatever show, A&E. I done forgot what his show was on. He said to them, “Hey, look, I sell real estate in New York. Thank you for the exposure nationwide and worldwide, but since I only sell in New York, I only want you to show the show in New York and preferably $500,000 and over they need to make. And really downtown New York.” Now what kind of shit is that? He would've never had the opportunity-
Krista Mashore:
Not only that but then you can have the referrals and all that. So when people start to see across the country whatever business that you're in, whether you're real estate agent, an insurance agent, a divorce attorney, a financial planner, a realtor, whatever you are. Do you hear that noise?
Dean Aguilar:
No. It's in your head. I'm joking.
Krista Mashore:
It's doing this weird thing. Anyways, you're going to attract other people to then want to refer you. So it's a referral based business. So we have to remember that too. Absolutely. Okay, great.
Dean Aguilar:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what, it's interesting because this has happened to Sharon and I a lot. You never know who's watching, and whether it's related to that particular business or an opportunity, “Hey, we've heard you,” or, “We've been following.” This is how it always starts, by the way. “We've been following you for a while.”
Krista Mashore:
Yes, absolutely. I see you everywhere.
Dean Aguilar:
“I see you everywhere.” “We've been following you for a while.” Blah, blah, blah. And now you have this opportunity to go speak in front of 10,000 people or whatever.
Krista Mashore:
It's so true. That's how you and I met. I remember I was at the Closing Table, and I had no idea that you and Sharon even knew who I was. And Sharon was like, “Oh, that's Krista.” Sharon had been following me for two years because I was actually stalking Sharon with my Facebook ads. But I didn't know that he knew me.
Dean Aguilar:
You did it to me too. Yeah. So the ads, it's comfortable. We knew who you were.
Krista Mashore:
Yeah. And we felt that with you. “Oh, I never seen you guys.” And then we just kind of, “Oh!” You felt like you know people. So then next thing you know he's on my podcast. I'm going to be on his podcast. They interviewed me. It's just a matter of building relationships, and now if they ever have anybody in my area who wants to buy or sell real estate or anybody who wants to actually learn how to utilize digital marketing strategies to enhance their profession, they're going to refer me. And we feel like we've been friends forever.
Dean Aguilar:
Yeah. 100%. I mean, and Krista you know this. You've done an amazing job marketing yourself. You really, really have in your business.
Krista Mashore:
Thank you.
Dean Aguilar:
Everybody that's in sales, whether it's homes or whatever, they would give their left arm to have the consumer feel super, super comfortable before that conversation starts on sales. And this is what this is. It's just like Ryan Serhant or yourself. I already knew how your energy level was. I knew what to expect when I talk to you, and you were ever bit of what I thought you were going to be, which is great. It's very refreshing, but it's that comfortability factor that people don't understand that you're building because we all want to be an authority of something. But imagine walking into a conversation when they already knew what to expect, how you were going to talk, who you were going to be. It's much easier to sell to those people.
Krista Mashore:
You're attracting the ones that are attracted to your personality, and you're detracting the ones that aren't. And so then the sales game becomes so much easier, especially as a local professional, you have to understand that most people, they don't interview 15 people. So they usually interview one, sometimes maybe two or three. But if they are only interviewing one, if they're researching you and they're calling you and you have content out there and they're watching your videos, they like what you're saying, you've already developed a relationship with you. You've got it dialed in. You walk in and they're hugging you and high fiving as if you're besties because they feel like they already know you because they've developed a one-sided parasocial relationship with you based upon the content that you've produced.
Dean Aguilar:
100%. It comes from two places: ads or influence.
Krista Mashore:
Yes.
Dean Aguilar:
And that's just it. You need fans to be able to have that kind of-
Krista Mashore:
And let's not say fans. Let's call them people. They're not followers. They're not fans. They're people. People always say, “Oh, these are bad leads.” And I always say, “No. They're people. Those are not bad leads. They're people.” Followers, fans, bad leads, people. Eventually the people, all of those things are going to make a connection, and they're going to covert. Or they're going to remember to refer you, or they're going to remember to come back to you as a repeat client because even when you finally get the client, one of the biggest problems that people have is how to retain, refer and resale people. When you're constantly on social media, you're showing up where people are looking. When you're on their platforms that they're at which they spend over two hours a day on these platforms, and they constantly see you because they are following you. They are your friends, your fans, whatever you want to call them. Your business just starts to expand exponentially because you're not forgotten. And then they're referring you and their friends are referring you. Blah, blah, blah, blah.
Dean Aguilar:
Yeah. As long as your messaging is consistent and authentic, you're going to win. You really, really are. But again, just to your point, that's the reason why having a wider base makes sense. I think a lot of people get stuck on whether it's a nationwide audience or a local audience, and the answer is always going to be nationwide because you never know who's going to watch and who's going to refer, just like-
Krista Mashore:
Yeah. We actually just talked to a guy who called on one of our listings. He's in Arizona, and he's like, “Oh my gosh. I've been watching Krista's videos forever. I want to come work for a company.” And I'm like, “Sure. I'm with EXP. Come on. We're taking everyone across the country right now.” So it works amazing, but he only knows about me because of my videos. So had he not developed a relationship with me from Arizona, even though he's moving to California, he wouldn't have come to Homify Krista, right?
Dean Aguilar:
100%. 100%. And look, gaining the audience is just a first part. Like I said, I think it's important that people drill down their content strategy, which is another thing we talk about all the time because I have my own thoughts, Sharon does as well. I think a lot of people make mistakes on what they think they should do versus what their audience is telling them they want to hear.
Krista Mashore:
So let's expand that a little bit more. So obviously we know it's like giving the right content to the right people at the right time, and you never know where they're at in the funnel. You never know where they're at in their buying cycle. Are they buying? Are they researching? Are they making a decision? Are they looking for testimonials? Are they dappling? Are they comparing and contrasting, or are they ready to actually take action? We don't know where they're at, which means we have to constantly produce content and then drive the traffic down the funnel based upon the right content. But expand upon what you're saying so I can-
Dean Aguilar:
Number one, always lead with value.
Krista Mashore:
Absolutely.
Dean Aguilar:
It's common sense, but no hard selling in the beginning.
Krista Mashore:
Serve, serve. Serve don't sell. You don't just jump into bed when you meet somebody at a bar. You actually date them, text message, go to coffee first.
Dean Aguilar:
That's right. That's right. Exactly. So that's the main one. I mean, one thing that I always tell everybody that I think is very hard for most people because they struggle with wanting to be very professional and also not wanting to be vulnerable. And we teach this a lot, and it's a struggle because everyone has their mindset of, “I just want to teach. I want to do this, and then I want to sell.” But you and I both know that if the consumer knows, likes, and trusts you, they will work with you. And in order to know, like, and trust you, they've got to see a little bit of that person. Whether it's a little bit of personal stuff. And so-
Krista Mashore:
It's so funny. I literally just posted a video on Facebook. I'm a cheese ball, and I was like, “I take my thumb,” which by the way, I got these really ugly Megan Fox, serial killer thumbs. They look like a big toe. I've got a big toe for a thumb. So I was like, “Do you like this thumb or this thumb?” And I have my friends A or B, and everyone's like, “B.” And then I took my feet. I was like, “Do you like this foot or that foot?” And people loved it. They were like, “I can't believe you're posting your ugly feet on Instagram and Facebook.” I'm like, “Ah, who cares.” Because people are getting to know that side of me, and then the next video that I'm doing is like, “Hey, how to digital market.”
Dean Aguilar:
Right.
Krista Mashore:
You got to be yourself.
Dean Aguilar:
100%. And I love that. I would venture to say that probably was one of your highest engagement engaging posts for-
Krista Mashore:
Yeah. It did really, really well.
Dean Aguilar:
Sure, right.
Krista Mashore:
People love it. They like realness. You know what's funny because I actually had my own team tell me, “You're too real sometimes, Krista. You're too real. You're too honest.” And those people don't work for me anymore because I'm like literally I just got rid of my two of the highest people in my company. Their biggest message to me over the past year was, “You're too real and too vulnerable. You can't be yourself so much. You've got to be this person that's always perfect and this authority.” I'm like, “But that's not me, and that's no one. No one's perfect all the time.” Sometimes my husband and I having a rough time or sometimes I want to shoot my kids, not really. But I want to scream at my kids, and sometimes I don't have to always be this perfect person. I'm real.
Dean Aguilar:
100%. I mean, the Gary Vee's of the world, the Tony Robbins of the world. You literally know everything about them because what you're getting is what you see is what you get. Those people, they don't break. They're just super vulnerable and super authentic, and it's always going to win. And one thing you said which was amazing, which is what we also coach around, is when you do these… It's not like you have to make it just a personal feed or that's all you're doing. It's teaching you have to mix a little bit in there so that way they do know you. But you always can piggyback the engagement.
So meaning, here's the thing, for any real estate agent on that's on the call, I'll just be honest with you. The consumer is going to think that here are the three tips of what to expect in a buyer, whatever. Let's say you're buying or three mistakes people make in a home inspection, something like that. Those types of tutorials are super boring. They don't want to see that. The consumer's not going to sit through 10 minutes-
Krista Mashore:
Well, it depends though. I'm going to contradict you. It depends upon where they're at in the funnel. So for example, if you are creating an ad about buying that has the five E's, you're engaging, you're entertaining, you're educating, you're enthusiastic, and you're doing all that. And they're watching something about buying that they like. So we did a really funny one with sitting on the couch, and my dog farted and all this stuff. And we're like, “Oh, is your house too close for comfort?” That was a buying video, and they watched the whole thing. And then we target them to three tips on how to…
But boring content works if you are targeting them in the right place. Meaning if they're watching stuff on buying, they want to know more about buying. They're watching things about selling, they want to know more in depth things about selling. But you don't start there all the time. It depends upon where they're at in the process. Make sense?
Dean Aguilar:
100%. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I definitely agree. And you know what, the one thing that you said too though to keep in mind, when I say boring, and unfortunately I am stereotyping quite a bit of agents, and I hope not… Just so you know, guys, I'm also in a real estate agent industry. I have a large real estate team. So I love you guys. But-
Krista Mashore:
He has a big 25 agents, right?
Dean Aguilar:
Yeah. I do have 25 agents. I also have a real estate company. But the reason why I'm saying that is because I understand, but you said something that was interesting. And when I say boring is because I think that 99% of the agents struggle to actually have a little bit of a personality. What you said was entertaining. Now that's what stood out in my ear. Now again I get the funnel thing because I totally agree on where they're at in the decision making process. But if it's entertaining, then that trumps all. Of course they would see through it.
Krista Mashore:
Yeah.
Dean Aguilar:
Do you know what I mean?
Krista Mashore:
You can make something funny and then bring it back into whatever your profession is, whether it be real estate or insurance or loans or whatever. And not all of us are super funny, so it doesn't have to always be funny. That's why it's important to do multiple types of content. They're going to get to see you cooking one day or see you play golf and see you talk about real estate or whatever your profession is or talk about digital marketing. But they're also getting to know you in the process. So it's really important to do a mixture talking about your community, best places to have hot dogs, best places to take your sweetie on a date, whatever it might be.
Dean Aguilar:
Yeah. No.
Krista Mashore:
[crosstalk 00:29:30][inaudible 00:29:30] dating compliment things here, Dean.
Dean Aguilar:
Where's your husband at?
Krista Mashore:
He's here. We're good. We're good. Don't worry. For a while I was like-
Dean Aguilar:
[inaudible 00:29:39] Why's Krista talk about dating?
Krista Mashore:
I know. Then last month, I was talking a lot about divorce. Like if you're a divorce attorney, and then they're like, “Are you getting divorced?” I'm like, “Well, actually we kind of have been having problems this month. We're good now.” But I was taking a divorce certification. So the divorce was on my mind, so I kept referring to divorce attorneys and everyone thought I was getting divorced.
Dean Aguilar:
You're hilarious. You're spot on a lot of this stuff. You know what you're doing. But the engagement piece, a lot of times the personal stuff will be the best producing stuff because it's an insight to you. But what I was saying as far as piggybacking and what you said was if you know that your engagement is staling, then you have to look at your content constantly. You always have to test to see what's working. The easiest way to spike it back is to literally do something with your kids or do something personal because you're going to see that more people are willing to comment and share and like those types of stuff. And then you can immediately piggyback that spike in engagement with the stuff you really want to say.
Krista Mashore:
Exactly.
Dean Aguilar:
You know what I'm saying, which is what you've done, and it works very, very well. It's just a matter of timing the pieces that go out.
Krista Mashore:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). So this has been great, by the way. I mean, I want to talk to you about getting you on one of my personal coaching calls as soon as we hang up. It's really, really good valuable information. So what kind of things are you seeing that's working across the country, and obviously if you could give three tips on… Well, one thing I know is this, and I learned this from you actually, you and Sharon. I remember I always wanted to get my 10,000 followers so I could swipe up, and they actually taught me, “Hey, swipe up is great. But really what you want to start doing is telling people to DM you.” Like, “Hey, if you like this, DM me,” because when they DM you and you DM them back, and then if you do a video to them or they video back, then Instagram recognizes them as one of your main followers. So they'll start organically going after you.
So don't worry about having 10,000 followers. Start telling people to DM you for X, Y, Z or for a special product or for something cool and fun, and then when they DM you, then Instagram sees them as somebody they want to continue to push your content to. That's a really good tip.
Dean Aguilar:
Yeah, 100%. And so what Krista's talking about for those of you who don't know, if you have 10,000 followers, you can use the swipe up in your Instagram stories. You can send people to swipe up. When they swipe up, you can send them to any funnel, sales page, link that you want them to. Unless you have 10,000, you can't do that. So the work around is exactly what Krista said. Let's say you're wanting to pitch a coming soon listing. There's a little bit of a sequence around this because you don't want to just do what everybody else does and says, “Hey, I want to show you my house. Look at the kitchen-“
Krista Mashore:
Tell us the sequence. Start from the beginning. Show us the sequence. What's the sequence?
Dean Aguilar:
So always address the consumer where they're at. So whether it's a problem or something that they would interested in. So it could be like, “Hey, have you guys ever been at the kitchen table where your or thanksgiving dinner where your bumping into your in-laws. And everybody's in the kitchen. They're all cooking and this, that, and the other. And you're like every year, you're like, “It's not going to happen again.” Well, let me tell you about this listing that we took.” So what happens now you're trying to… And that's just a very off the top of the head. It can be literally anything.
But you're trying to have them paint their picture of being-
Krista Mashore:
A problem. A problem they have. Yes.
Dean Aguilar:
Exactly. So now what's going to happen next is you're going to then tell a story. It could be a story about yourself, your experiences or whatever. After the story that you start telling about your experience with that, you're then going to tell about your solution that you did. So essentially, “Here's what I did to fix this problem.” And you're leading into the house. You're leading into the actual house itself.
The fourth component is the pitch. So I'll give you a better example. We use the credit thing a lot because we have a lot of agents that work with first time home buyers. So the easiest one that we always use is, “Have you ever been in a situation where you thought your credit wasn't actually good enough to purchase a home? They're in the sixes, and you're like, “Next year, I'm going to bump it up. Next year, I'm going to bump it up.” Let me tell you a little bit about my client Krista. So Krista was really worried. Her credit cards were maxed out. This, that, and the other, blah, blah, blah.” I tell this story about Krista.
So then I tell the solution. “Here's what we did. We got with a lender. We did a credit repair. Oddly enough she just needed to bring down her credit 25% on one card, which immediately with six weeks Rapid Rescore bumped her up.” Blah, blah. Blah. So now I'm giving this solution. That's the third component.
Then I'm leading into the pitch. And the pitch is going to be, “Look, here's a program that we just released. I want to share that with you because this is what worked for Krista and many of my past clients.” And now you're just going on. Again, this is off the top of the head, but you can do this sequence anyway that you'd like, as long as it flows in a story. Because-
Krista Mashore:
Hook, story, offer. You got to hook them into wanting to listen. You got to tell them the story, and then you make the offer. Another really great thing to do too is when you first hook them like you did, and then you want to align with their feelings. Like, “Oh my gosh. I know. I've been there too. My credit sucked so bad, and I thought I couldn't get it. So I waited four years to buy one. Really I could've bought so much sooner.” Then you're aligning with their feelings. And then you have to make sure that you give them a reason to want to continue to listen to you. So why? Why should they listen to Dean? Why should they listen to Krista?
I have helped over 200 people right here in East County purchase a home with bad credit. They were just like you. So then they're like, “Man, now I'm going to listen.” Then you give the solution, which then makes them want to take your offer to go ahead and do X, Y, Z.
Dean Aguilar:
100%. And it should be that way almost every single time because again you've seen this. You've seen a lot of agents, and it's not their fault. I think some coach somewhere told them, “Hey, you need to take out your phone and walk around the property.” I get all that. That's super cool, but everyone is doing the same thing. Everyone's doing the same thing, so you got to differentiate yourself on how you're going to be a storyteller to then land on your offer.
Krista Mashore:
Yes.
Dean Aguilar:
Now what Krista was talking about as far as hacking the little swipe up feature is we always use the DM because she's absolutely correct. Instagram is built for pure engagement. All they care about, and I say this time and time again. The algorithm is actually not as difficult as what people think. Here's the algorithm in a nutshell. The more people engaged with you, the more Instagram will show it to more people. That's it. Period.
Krista Mashore:
Engagement is liking, hearting, messaging, commenting, sharing.
Dean Aguilar:
Sharing it, saving, all of it. It's all of it. So what we do because we know that the algorithm likes communication back and forth with an audience is we tell people, “Hey, DM the word credit if you'd like more information on our free white paper,” whatever. So then what's happening is number one if you're shooting multiple stories and someone DMs you the word credit, you know which story it came from. So that's the first thing.
Krista Mashore:
Then you know how to for future market to them based upon the same thing.
Dean Aguilar:
Exactly. Exactly.
Krista Mashore:
My marketing is going to target that messaging.
Dean Aguilar:
You got it. Exactly. Head on. And now it's triggered, hey, Krista [inaudible 00:37:14] Dean. She's DMing him. Dean responds back to Krista. So now there's a two-way conversation, and when you send a link because you don't have the swipe up and there's only two places on Instagram that you can have a link. One is in your bio, the other one is if you have the swipe up. You can't do it unless you do it in the DMs because you can put the link in the DMs. So that's the bypass is once you have the conversation and you warm them up, you slap the link inside the DMs, and now they go and buy your offer.
Krista Mashore:
Yay! I love it. I feel like I'm talking to my male version of myself here.
Dean Aguilar:
I love it. I love it. There's one more tip I want to give everybody because I think again, agents. Agents-
Krista Mashore:
But I just want to… This works for any profession. Because just so you know, our major people are agents and lenders, but we now have a lot of local professions. So if he's saying agent, just swap it out with whatever profession you're in because this works for any profession.
Dean Aguilar:
That's it. It's so funny because you're right because Digital Muse is 80% agent, our company has 80%… But we have 20% that are not. It's ecomm, fitness, all kinds. And I'm constantly correcting myself as well because-
Krista Mashore:
Me too. I always am.
Dean Aguilar:
We're always referencing agents because that's wat we know. This is for anybody. In your bio link, one thing you shouldn't do, and this is just what I've learned with all of my clients is I really wouldn't put a link tree or a generic website because the problem with that is, and Krista, I know that you know this, is when the consumer has too many choices, they'll choose none.
Krista Mashore:
Yeah, confused mind does nothing.
Dean Aguilar:
Does nothing. And I think what happens is most people want to put their link tree because it's like, “Hey, look at me on my YouTube, my LinkedIn, my this, my that, my…” There's literally 12 choices in a link tree to choose from, and they don't know what they're looking at. They really don't. And it's the same thing with a website. If I just went onto a website, it's like, “Okay, cool. It's an about, maybe the team, careers. I don't know what I'm doing here.”
Krista Mashore:
That's why a funnel is so much more successful than website because a funnel is just geared towards one specific thing that you're going to that funnel for.
Dean Aguilar:
That's it, and in your bio, you can send everyone to that particular link. So meaning your very last line on your bio should be the wording… So for off market properties not available in the MLS. Sorry, I'm still referencing agents.
Krista Mashore:
That's okay. Good, I love it.
Dean Aguilar:
But that's very specific. So now you're sending them to some kind of search. Maybe it's an off market search link that you have. Whatever it is that you created, you send them to that. But the copy underneath is going to be directing them to that singular call to action. Sharon and I constantly flop out because we have email captures, we have courses, we have all these things. Right now we're both on community, which is our text platform that we got approved for. So we're generating people to join that so that way we can have a base there as well. So that's what we have on ours. He may have switched his back, but you can constantly flop out that bio to whatever it is that-
Krista Mashore:
Yeah, change it whatever you're focusing on. Mm-hmm (affirmative). In other words, you have a campaign that's for buyers, put your buyer one on there. You have a campaign that's for sellers, put your sellers one on there. Absolutely.
Dean Aguilar:
And then what your personal brand… So Krista is the brand. Now Krista may decide next week that, “Hey, look, I've had this fitness journey. This, that, and the other. I ran across these supplements and now I'm getting into the supplement game.” Just go with me with that. Now with a personal brand versus being very specific on branding your company or your real estate team or your fitness studio. Instead of doing that, when you're building a personal brand around the person, the person is allowed to then talk about literally anything they want to champion a cause for. That's it. Too many people make the mistake of drilling down to what they do for a living and trying to build that. God forbid something happens to your company, team, the industry. It tanks, you get out. Now you spent all this time building something that no longer exists. Your brand and you as a person will never go away.
Krista Mashore:
Absolutely. Absolutely. Couldn't agree with you more on that. Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Dean Aguilar:
And people use it. We have clients that literally we grow them, but they have so many different things. So they speak, they do courses, they have multiple businesses. But sometimes, we have two in particular that I know of, they are heavy into charity. So what better way to have an audience to be able to then take donations and flop out those call to actions. It doesn't have to be always about selling. But again, it gives them the opportunity to build it around them.
Krista Mashore:
I love it. This was the best Instagram interview that I've done yet. Just so you know, it was. It was super valuable, super helpful, and you're so knowledgeable about… I respect you so much. And I know you are just… You love what you do, and you love helping people.
Dean Aguilar:
I really do. I love you too. You're awesome.
Krista Mashore:
Oh, thank you. I love you too. Okay, everyone. So we're wrapping it up here. So if you want to hear more about Dean and his company Digital Muse Media, how do they find out more about you?
Dean Aguilar:
So best thing to do is to go to RealDeanAguilar A-G-U-I-L-A-R on Instagram. Shoot me a DM, and DM me the word Krista.
Krista Mashore:
That's with a K. K-R-I-S-T-A. So tell them one more time how to get… I'll make sure it goes in the show notes.
Dean Aguilar:
It's RealDeanAguilar on Instagram.
Krista Mashore:
Okay. And DM him the message Krista so he knows you met him through me, and he will tell you more about what it is that he has to offer. Dean, this has been wonderful. Thank you so much. I always end every interview, and don't hang up when we're done, by the way. I always end every interview by saying this, if you can give one piece of advice, whether it's real estate or mind or anything to really, really add value, what would that one piece of advice be?
Dean Aguilar:
It would be to get out of your own head. I understand that you think… A lot of times people think, “I don't have something to say,” or, “I don't want to sound like someone else.” But you have to understand that Krista and I could say the exact same things word for word and some people would hate me and love Krista, and some people would hate Krista and love me. And what I mean by that it's your own voice. No one can ever, ever take away your experiences of what you've experienced in your life, and you should be able to share a little bit about that so that way your audience knows who you are and ultimately trust you and work with you.
Krista Mashore:
Oh. I could not have said it better. So Dean, thank you so much. I really appreciate you being here.
Dean Aguilar:
Thank you. You're awesome, and this was so good.
Krista Mashore:
So good. And hey everyone, remember, you're fired up right now but learning doesn't make a difference if you don't actually implement. So it's time to implement, and thank you so much for giving us a little bit of your time. And I can't wait to see you next time. So continue to be fired up, take action, and we'll see you later.
Dean Aguilar:
See you guys.
For more of my interviews just visit https://kristamashore.com/category/interviews/
