Intro:
This is pod popular podcast for the people.
Matthew Maschler:
Welcome to the Real Estate Finder podcast. I’m Matthew Malow, the real estate finder@realestatefinder.com.
Staci Garcia:
And I’m Stacy Garcia, also a real estate finder.
Matthew Maschler:
Hi, Stacy. How are you? I’m good. We have a special guest today. Who’s that? You know, it’s funny sometimes, um, my wife will ask me like, well, who’s gonna be on the show today? I’m like, it’s me and Stacy. It’s like our show <laugh>. Like, it’s not an interview show. So I’m not, I’m not Johnny Carson, but, um, but like, but I’m Ed McMahon. Yeah, there you <laugh>. You left my jokes. But, um, but sometimes we like to have, uh, guests and introduce people to some of, uh, our, our vendors and people we work with and people behind the scenes. And I wanna talk to today, talk to everybody today about someone that I have that works behind the scenes. You’ve seen his work, but you don’t know who he is. So today we have on our show, Andy Kleppner from Brighter Ideas Multimedia. Hi Andy. How are you?
Andy Klepner:
I’m great. How are you?
Matthew Maschler:
I am doing good. Doing good. So, um, Andy does all of my, um, ads, if you’ve seen my ads in, in magazines, mailers, uh, homes, and Land Magazine, book Observer. Uh, sometimes vocal Observer will write, write up an article and stuff, but most of the content, um, if I go to a, uh, a charity show and there’s a program, most of the content all comes from Andy. Um, but that’s not really what Andy does. Andy, what do you do? What is your primary, uh, thing that you do?
Andy Klepner:
We are, uh, digital marketers. We build online campaigns for businesses just like yours. And we do print media
Matthew Maschler:
And, and, and, and websites
Andy Klepner:
Webs. Uh, so yes, so websites, email campaigns, anything that deals with reaching out to the public online. Uh, we can help people with social media campaigns, Google, Google ads, Google my business, et cetera.
Matthew Maschler:
Oh, that’s great. That’s great. So how long, how long do you, would you say we’ve worked together?
Andy Klepner:
Oh, wow. We’ve probably worked together for about eight years now.
Matthew Maschler:
Eight years? Seems like a minute. Yeah. Do you
Staci Garcia:
Have other agents that you work with?
Andy Klepner:
Uh, yeah, I have actually about 20 clients, 20 active clients right now. And,
Matthew Maschler:
Uh, that are real estate agents?
Andy Klepner:
No, no, actually real estate agents. You and one other person right now. Mm-hmm.
Matthew Maschler:
<affirmative>, I am not against you using other real estate agents. Andy likes to be, you know, loyal to me and I love it, but I want Andy to make money, so I’m not against Andy, uh, um, taking, I’m
Andy Klepner:
Loyal to, I’m loyal to you in Bogar tone, but this is out of your state, so <laugh>.
Matthew Maschler:
Yeah, no, no, no problem. No problem. So, so, so we’ve been working together for eight years and, you know, I met Andy, um, at a time where I really like, I need, I where like, it’s weird, like sometimes, you know, people come into your life when you need them. Trust, timing. Yeah. I, I really, I was in a situation where I really, I needed someone to do my digital, to do my ads, uh, to do my website. And, uh, I’ve always, I’ve, I was putting it off for years and years and months, months and just always putting it off, always having ideas and, and I kind of, I was waiting for the perfect scenario and I, I realized that there’s no perfect scenario. So like, what was I waiting for? I was waiting for, is there a high school kid? Is there a college kid that wants to do this?
And, and when I talk to people in business that don’t have a website, because they’re, they’re looking for that one part-time millennial, it doesn’t exist. Yeah. Right. Like, there’s nobody out there with the skills that, that can do all the things that you want, and they’re not doing it, and they’re just waiting for you to come around and be their first customer. <laugh>, it doesn’t happen. Anyone who can do this absolutely. Is doing it <laugh>, and they’re doing it for money and they’re doing it for other people. See you. And that’s what, and that’s what I realized. I, I, um, I, so I, I sat down with a pen and a paper. I started making a list of all the different, and I, I’ve used some people. I’ve used, you know, drips and drs. And so I started making a list of everybody I’ve used before. Everybody I thought of using, I had like seven or eight names on the list. And my memory goes that I was at like a networking event, and I was literally with a piece of paper independent, and I was like writing the list when I met Andy <laugh>. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but, but that’s how my memory
Andy Klepner:
Is. It was like, it was like a cha it was like a Chamber of Commerce meeting, and literally I just pictured table and sat down right next to you and Jill. Yeah. And struck up a conversation. So came into the, came into your life at the right moment. I got lucky Tony, Joe, I hope at,
Matthew Maschler:
At the right time. And, uh, yeah. And, and then, um, you know, it’s funny that, Andy, do you, do you listen to the podcast? Do you listen to the Real Estate Founder podcast?
Andy Klepner:
I have listened to a couple of the episodes. I need to listen to all of them, but I’ve only listened to a couple.
Matthew Maschler:
What about the other podcast? Do you listen to the Matthew Mania podcast?
Andy Klepner:
Yeah, I do listen to the Mania Co. Oh, you
Matthew Maschler:
Listen to
Andy Klepner:
That one more. My son, who you’ve turned into a, into a wrestling fan. Uhhuh <affirmative>. My son listens to the podcast more than I have.
Matthew Maschler:
Really? Oh, that’s
Andy Klepner:
Cool. Yeah. Well, thank
Matthew Maschler:
You, Truman. We should get him. We should get him on the Matthew Mania podcast one day.
Andy Klepner:
So if you want to talk shop with anybody, that would be Truman when it comes to wrestling. Absolutely.
Matthew Maschler:
So when I asked you to come on the podcast this morning, did you know I meant the Real Estate podcast?
Andy Klepner:
I figured as much. Okay. So, because I, I look like an idiot when it comes to wrestling. <laugh>.
Matthew Maschler:
Well, well, it’s okay. It’s really for children, <laugh>.
Andy Klepner:
Fair enough.
Matthew Maschler:
<laugh>. Um, so tell me why a business needs a website in 2022.
Andy Klepner:
You know, it’s, it’s funny that you say that a website really for a business is a marketing hub. Now, used to be that you would just put up a website with a bunch of your stuff and hope it’s good, and then nobody arrives it. But what a website is, is a central place for not just your portfolio, but for everything that you’re doing. Kind of like with you, Matt, with your podcast, with the vendors that you work with. A lot of people put their videos, et cetera on there. So it’s, it’s kind of like your piece of real estate. Funny, we’re on the Real Estate Pointer podcast, but it’s your real estate on the web, and then you need to drive traffic to it. So it’s basically your office virtually. That’s why you need it to Uhhuh
Matthew Maschler:
<affirmative>. And, and, you know, the things that I connect on my website, you know, if you’re on the Real Estate Finder website, you know, besides people looking at my, at my listings and searching for homes and, and, and communities that we, that we focus on in Boca Raton, it’s also where I have, like you said, the hub. It’s where I can link people to my social media. It’s where I can link people to my podcasts. Your logos, my logo? Well, that’s a secret.
Staci Garcia:
Oh, I didn’t know that was a secret.
Matthew Maschler:
<laugh>. No, no. Like, like, like social media has a, and, and podcasts and the vendors list have buttons on the website. Oh, the logos is like a secret backdoor. Oh, it’s the back case place. It’s where, where I store all my logos. So if I’m dealing with someone who, um, a, a vendor or an advertiser that needs my logo, I can send them that link and then they can download the logo from the website, whichever logo they choose. Right. But it’s a, I can’t keep them on a zip drive in my pocket. No.
Staci Garcia:
You know, I, I just had referred someone recently to your logo page, and they were like, wow, look at all these logos. I was like, I thought it was public. So
Matthew Maschler:
It, it’s for, it’s for, it’s for downloading the public version. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, this is another thing. This is a website that I have a public facing website. I don’t drive traffic to it. If you go to matthew h ler.com mm-hmm. <affirmative> it has <laugh>. Yeah. Yeah. No, Andy build all of these. Um, uh, matthew h ler.com. There’s a, uh, a logo and a link for all the different companies and businesses that I’m involved with, or I’m on the board of. So all the charities, I’m on the board of all the businesses I invest in. Um, so it, you can’t download the logos. You, you can, it’s, you don’t get, you’re not gonna, you get the quality, the quality file. Yeah. A high definition file. But, but it, it gives you a good overview of all the different businesses, um, and, uh, and things that I’m involved with. And it’s, uh, that’s where I go when I, when I think of advertising something. Um, if I’m gonna advertise in the magazine, if I wanna advertise something, be besides the, my real estate business or besides the podcast, uh, it’s where I go to find other things that I’m involved with. Right. Um, so Annie, how many sites, let’s, let’s talk about how many sites you’ve done for me. You did the Real Estate Finder website, that’s the main one. Matthew h LER eight,
Andy Klepner:
Or maybe you have the six or seven album. Keep going. Yeah.
Matthew Maschler:
Yeah. We have the Oaks home.com, uh, stone Creek ranch.com. And the, the good thing about Stone Creek Ranch was, um, when I took over that business, um, basically I bought out the prior developer, I think it was 2010 or 11, I bought out the prior developer of Stone Creek Ranch. And, and I took over, uh, I bought all the lots and I took over the sales. So I took his website, but I had to like, move his website and I had no idea how to do it. So I had Andy, can you grab this website and put it on? And, uh, I don’t know if he owns Stone Creek Ranch. He had a different web domain name. I took the domain name mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And, uh, I don’t
Staci Garcia:
Think people always know that, just so you know. I mean, I feel like they might or they might not, because remember I used to check
Matthew Maschler:
No,
Staci Garcia:
What No, about, not about Stone Creek Ranch, but about like, when I used to go to, uh, the Oaks Uhhuh, and I would show The Oaks and I would send out your website Right. To people. And then I’d be like, oh, yeah. Wait, that’s not the Oaks website. That’s your website. Right. Not the Oaks. Right. Right. And then I thought about it, and I’m like, oh, well, <laugh>
Matthew Maschler:
Well, that’s what I want.
Staci Garcia:
I know, I know. But I never really thought about it before.
Matthew Maschler:
But what happens sometimes is I’ll get phone calls
Staci Garcia:
Regarding the Oaks, like to make reservations
Matthew Maschler:
Or for the hoa, or Right. Can you call this person into the guard gate list? Yeah. And I’m like,
Staci Garcia:
This is because yours comes up higher. This is a
Matthew Maschler:
Real estate office, and it does good work.
Staci Garcia:
So yeah. That’s actually a success story. It
Matthew Maschler:
Is
Andy Klepner:
<laugh>, absolutely.
Matthew Maschler:
I still get people for, uh, stone Creek Ranch thinking I’m the homeowner’s association.
Staci Garcia:
Yeah. Like, can you call in our gate? And it’s
Matthew Maschler:
Clear as day on the website, <laugh>, it’s a real estate office.
Staci Garcia:
That’s their fail. They should hire Andy. Yeah. Yeah.
Matthew Maschler:
The
Andy Klepner:
Absolutely.
Matthew Maschler:
Well, they don’t, they don’t need to.
Staci Garcia:
Well, it’s true though. I recently, every single, um, you know, every single listing, you wanna include the documents for the HOA and also the community information. And if you just basically do a Google search for that, um, name neighborhood C sometimes someone else comes up like, like you a realtor in front of the neighborhood. Right. So I would, if I didn’t know better, I would click on it like I did with The Oaks and think I was getting the Oaks, um, homepage. But really, I’m getting your homepage for the Oaks. So I recently did that with, uh, Fairfield. And I didn’t come up with Fairfield. I came up with another agent. So it means I think they’re, they’re doing a better job than the actual community. But why would the community try to compete even? But I would actually, if I were the community, wanna come up first or second or third, or after the paid people, you know, I mean, Andy can talk about the paid, paid, uh, results versus unpaid, right. Organic.
Andy Klepner:
Absolutely. Oh yes, absolutely.
Matthew Maschler:
Go
Andy Klepner:
Ahead. You know, basically anybody who c we always wanna get found with SEO on, uh, on the website, but we want to kind of guarantee the travel to the website. We kind of want to guarantee that we’re gonna get an audience. So just like you used to put out a sign in a magazine, you’re essentially doing the same thing online through two different types of advertising. The person who’s searching, which is intention advertising, and then the second one, which is passive. So if you ever see a Facebook ad, uh, that’s a passive, that’s a passive type of advertising where a person is kind of going through kind of like they’re watching TV and they see an ad and it drives them, uh, to your, to your business or anything like that. And what Matt does, a combination of the both of them to drive traffic to the site,
Matthew Maschler:
I’m much, much more in favor of the natural language, uh, the unpaid, right. So I like your idea, everyone else.
Andy Klepner:
That’s the holy grail. I
Matthew Maschler:
Like what you said about magazines, right? Like, you could pay for an ad to be in the magazine, or the magazine can like focus on you mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But what happened is, you know, I went for a long time and paid a lot of money for paid advertisement, and once it was off, it’s off. If I would’ve spent all of that time, energy, and effort on the natural language and the natural search, you know, I’d still have the, the dividends of that today. I, you know, I have a lot of left over and I, I still have a lot of, you know, half-built projects or unfinished projects or, or projects that we did that are, that are old, that I’m still getting traffic and, and, and, and, and inquiries on. So every, to me, every dollar I spent unpaid, had I spent on unpaid, I feel I would’ve gotten results. And that was what was, um, always drove me crazy about the paid and how much money I was spending on paid is, I think that
Staci Garcia:
Also publications, they know that now. Yeah. They know that their customers are savvy now. And instead of just paying for their ad, or their advertorial or their advertisement with a article, you know, now they have to present them with something that’s gonna be, um, organic later. And will say,
Matthew Maschler:
You would think, but a lot of the magazines in Pres down here, they really, they don’t do a good job. They
Andy Klepner:
Do not. They’re, they’re, they’re stuck in the Stone age, to be honest with you. And, you know, the,
Matthew Maschler:
It’s, it’s not that. It’s not that. It’s, it’s, the problem is journalism’s dead. That’s true. So they’re buying content, they’re not producing content. If they were producing content and directing that content, they could incorporate their advertisers easier. But because they’re buying articles, they’re Yeah. Right. Like, I know someone who, um, who owned a, uh, a cigar bar and there was an article on where to watch the Super Bowl mm-hmm. <affirmative> and the, and the cigar bar was, which advertised to the magazine wasn’t included in the article. Oh, yeah. Right. And you, you, that’s not, I mean, that’s not even bad pay to play. That just makes sense. Right. But because it was a bought article, the writer of the article, they didn’t insert it didn’t incorporate, um, w w but like, how could this magazine not talk about this place? Which would’ve been, which would’ve been a perfect place even if they weren’t an advertiser. Right. So, well
Andy Klepner:
That’s, that’s why online advertising right now is so key. So the algorithm recently changed, uh, for Google. And I might be using kind of crazy words here, but the whole fact of it has changed so much that I just brought an SEO guy on to start taking care of my clients, write the blog posts, do all those things to drive traffic. And just like you’re mentioning, mentioning those certain parts of the business within the content so that it drives, uh, the visitors more. So if a person looks up real estate and Bog Raton and you talk about the market just in general, you’re gonna get hits off of that in naturalized traffic. Right. Which is the best sexiest kind of traffic.
Staci Garcia:
Yeah. I, for, I just write the summaries for the Real Estate Finder podcast, and I write them for seo. You know, I end up writing as you should be a real estate finder, real estate market, real estate summary, <laugh>. I used the word real estate a lot, cuz I know that’s, once it’s posted it’ll pop up. But I feel, um, right.
Andy Klepner:
And then we, we, yeah, we need to then put those actually on the website now because that’s, the summaries gonna help with his, those summaries are gonna help with his SEO for his also. So it’ll be a double dip. Yeah.
Staci Garcia:
Awesome. So what else do you do?
Andy Klepner:
Uh, weddings and barm mitzvahs. <laugh>,
Matthew Maschler:
You don’t have enough tins to, to, to do weddings and barm mitvah?
Andy Klepner:
No, but in all seriousness, uh, you know, it’s mainly online stuff. We do a lot of Google My business recently, like I said, we just took on an s e o guy, um, uh, because we need to flesh that part out of our business. And then on top of that, we do a lot of graphic design, but mainly for Matt, he’s our biggest graphic design client. But we’ll design pamphlet’s, logos, et cetera. Uh, and of course the graphics from our website
Staci Garcia:
So is, so, um, did you go to school for this?
Andy Klepner:
Funny enough, I went to school, uh, I went to school for advertising and I originally became a, uh, uh, I kind of fell into this. I was a real estate agent in New York City for years. I, I actually got a chance to meet my wife there and this new internet thing came out and I decided to get a job in it cuz they were basically, it was during the.com bubble. They were throwing money at people in their early twenties. So I took that <laugh> and I got a job in, so I took that money <laugh> and I started building sites. And, but what’s funny is they had nothing for me to do there. I literally sat on my ass all day long staring at a screen. So I picked up a book while I was in there and taught myself how to build websites. And that’s kind of how I started working with a lot of real estate people. And then I eventually moved down to Florida and I’m, you know, I’m giving you the very condensed version Right. But eventually moved that out to Florida, met Matt and got a chance to, you know, work so much more in that kind of stuff. But I, I’m basically self-taught with some really good, uh, intermediate classes in between, because when I started, there were no classes. There was like, there’s this internet, do something with it, grab a book. Because there were no formalized classes.
Staci Garcia:
I still find that fascinating because I feel like our age, and I’m gonna say 50, um, 50 year old people around that were stuck between, we had typewriters and we were supposed to fast pace it and learn everything. And so when people look at our generation, they’re like, mm, we kind of missed the boat. So you have to be self-taught cuz who is gonna teach us?
Andy Klepner:
Well, you know what, Stacy? Yeah. Here’s the thing. Sta stasis status is dead. If you don’t keep learning, you’re dead. And the more you’re learn, so like with me, the newest technology I’m learning right now, how to do the metaverse and all that stuff on my own free time because that’s the next, next thing. If I, if I don’t sharpen my skills, I’m gonna get le left in the dust. Right. If I don’t know what I’m talking about, well there goes my business. So with this business, and I’m a learner in general, I enjoy learning. So for me, the new technology, the new cool thing, that’s, that’s just what I love.
Staci Garcia:
So let me ask you a question. Cause I know you have a daughter who’s a teenager mm-hmm. <affirmative>, do you think? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, she knows more about than, um,
Andy Klepner:
She teaches me every day.
Staci Garcia:
Ah, that’s what I was gonna ask <laugh>. I was trying to do, she teaches trying to do it nicely.
Andy Klepner:
And, and, uh, Matt, I didn’t get a chance to tell you this. She actually just got her first client. So she is really for the Chamber of Commerce close to where I live here. She’s an unpaid intern, but she, it gets to go on her college resume, but she’s doing all their social media. Oh,
Staci Garcia:
That’s awesome. And
Andy Klepner:
She’s doing posts and she literally just started yesterday and she is excited. And while it’s not technically a paid one, she gets to push some experience there. And, you know, that’s why I tell a lot of young people who are starting out, you know, you gotta build a bunch of, build a bunch of stuff for free so that you can then get paid later on.
Matthew Maschler:
Right. You know, I did that in my real estate career. A lot of, you know, a lot of the first listings I took were for my, you know, friends and family, my dad or whatnot. And, and even if I, you know, took it for a couple hundred dollars or, or 1%, uh, to me still offering a buyer commission. But, um, you know, all, all those houses in Stone Creek that I sold, you know, I didn’t, I didn’t make a commission. I was selling them for my own account. Right. So I didn’t charge my partners, uh, a listing fee. Um, I, I did a lot of, uh, work with, uh, with foreclosures and, and r e o and I didn’t, you know, I, I sold our, um, real estate holdings and, and I didn’t charge, um, a percentage because there were other people all along the line of, uh, that touched this file as it as it moved down. And, and, um,
Staci Garcia:
Did you get work from it?
Matthew Maschler:
Oh my God, I earned a huge reputation
Staci Garcia:
Also. That’s what I was gonna say. Absolutely. It says Stone Creek. So you did make money off. Yeah. Yeah. It’s an enormous, um, price point. Right. It’s a super high price point for Bucktown. Yeah. A
Andy Klepner:
Lot of people forget that. Yeah. A lot of people forget that. You gotta do, you gotta do a bunch of stuff to get yourself out there to then turn it into something bigger because it shows experience and then you get charged later.
Matthew Maschler:
Absolutely. You know, um, you know, and to how many people intern or whatnot to get experience and, uh, you know, you go to school, you pay money to learn. So, you know. Right. So, so even to get a, uh, an an internship with a nominal, uh, amount of pay being paid to learn. Right. I i, I, the first, my first real estate listing was a condo in Boca West, and I didn’t know what I was doing and, and, and I learned exactly. But I learned. Yeah. You know, and, and that’s how I learned. And there was a, there was a, there was a major problem with the listing and, um, in, uh, in, in the development name, um, I said Boca West, the sub development name, I put Laurel Oaks and, uh, the, my customer and the seller kept telling me that people are doing searches in Boca West and they’re not finding the listing.
And I realized that the agents are, are putting Boca West in the sub development name. Oh yeah. Right. And so it doesn’t come up, uh, because I had Laurel Oaks in the sub development name, but it took me days to figure that out. And, um, and just that lesson there, um, for at least a hundred listings, not a, not the next a hundred, but over, over the time of my career, uh, there were problems with listings that I was able to solve, uh, through the thought process of, of knowing that it was a database and there was a problem with the database entry based on what somebody put in.
Staci Garcia:
You know what you’re making me think right now, because I, I was thinking earlier today, this is just very particular that you said that I should have a lot more calls on Fairfield. On Fairfield and I, and in my, um, subdivision, I did put Cedar Grove.
Matthew Maschler:
Yeah. You have to change that to
Staci Garcia:
Fairfield. I have to Fairfield
Matthew Maschler:
As soon as I get back. Yeah. Cause if somebody has a safe search out there Yeah. Uh, for Fairfield, uh, it’s not popping up.
Staci Garcia:
Yeah. Now I’m gonna change it. I actually wish going by the text information, but now I’m gonna change it back to Fairfield.
Matthew Maschler:
So this is insider. This is for agents that are listening. This is something that I do if I’m doing a search, right. If I wanna search Fairfield mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I won’t look at the sub development really. Or, or the development name. I don’t search by development name. I will do, I absolutely will draw a map
Staci Garcia:
And do Oh, I draw on them out too
Matthew Maschler:
Because Oh, yeah. Because sometimes someone will put Fairfield in the development name, but sometimes somebody might put the word fair uhhuh space field. Right. And then Fairfield won’t come up. And somebody might even put, there might have been, sometimes there’s a legal description from,
Staci Garcia:
That’s why that’s what
Matthew Maschler:
I put from, from the developer right Before they came up with the name Fairfield. There might have been a developer that, that was just using like the, the farmer’s name that owned the land in the fifties. Right. Heder. Or, or, or, or or whatever. And um, a lot of the bridges properties are hider. Um, and so some of might put Heder because the legal description, uh, the sub development name is not Fairfield. The legal description might be an older name before the name Fairfield came in. So, so you can get a lot of problems, uh, just by doing, uh, searches, uh, by, by development names.
Andy Klepner:
Well, you know, it’s funny that you mentioned that because that’s the same thing we do with seo. You misspellings are so important in the seo. Having other examples of the way you’re typing something in is really, really important. Uh, that’s just, that’s just good business cuz a person may spell something one way or they may spell it another. And the more examples that you can have in it, like, like you just said inside baseball. So if you had an article about the bridges and then in line in that article mention the old farm Heer, you’re gonna get found if a person stretches for Heer when none of the, none of the other agents on their personal websites put anything about that. That’s interesting. So that’s just good seo. Yeah, absolutely.
Staci Garcia:
I forgot about that actually because I haven’t, I’ve always been drawing on the map for my searches, probably for the last few years because it’s fun <laugh>. Yeah, sure. And um, and I forgot to look, um, based on subdivision or based on the community name, I just don’t do it anymore. So that is important. What’s, what are some of your secrets, Andy, that you do to make Matt pop up all the time?
Andy Klepner:
Well, that’s one of ’em, you know, having those misspells, having that extra information, you know what, it’s, it’s, it’s oftentimes one of the, those little things like is a website updated? Does it have the latest technology? Is it secure? And here’s a big one. And Matt, uh, is ensuring that the, uh, the website has what’s called an SSL secure socket. So if you ever see a website without that little lock in the url mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, that makes people feel queasy. And, and it also hurts them on the Google algorithm. All of Matt’s websites of course, have that little lock, which is super, super important to make sure that, that it’s a verified site and secure lot. You would be surprised with even some bigger companies that forget those little things. And of course we also make it so it’s very, um, responsive, meaning that it can be viewed in any type of device, not only a laptop or desktop, but of course your phone, your tablet, et cetera.
Staci Garcia:
So your mobile, what’s it called? Mobile.
Andy Klepner:
Yeah. Mobile optimize. Right, right. Absolutely. You know, everything that we do is we don’t know what the person is looking at our website with. So we have to design and we have to build our sites, assuming that it could literally be anyone. It could even be someone who’s this handicap and we have to make sure it works for that.
Staci Garcia:
I’m wondering, um, if there’s, if there’s a formula that you use or does it change All the time.
Andy Klepner:
All the time. All the time.
Staci Garcia:
So how do you find out that kind of stuff?
Andy Klepner:
You keep up to date <laugh>. I mean it’s literally like that when you’re working, you know, how did you know that they have a new thing in the, uh, in the MLS of a coming soon,
Staci Garcia:
Right? Well, yeah. Well I guess
Andy Klepner:
Because you were kept, because you were kept up to date because you saw that it was available cuz you were paying attention. Cuz you’re in the industry. That’s what makes you guys great is that you’re always paying attention. You’re always seeing the new trends and new things coming out and you’re watching the market like a hawk cuz that’s your job. So just like that with me, I’m doing the same thing.
Matthew Maschler:
Is it true that if you start your, uh, website with the letter A or like a a a, like a AAA real estate or AAA locksmith, Google will put you at the beginning of the alphabet?
Andy Klepner:
No, absolutely not.
Staci Garcia:
<laugh> like the yellow pages <laugh>. Yeah.
Andy Klepner:
It’s not the Yellow Pages.
Matthew Maschler:
That’s in marketing. That’s what we used. Marketing. That’s what we used to do. Oh, I know. We would name our businesses A or aaa that way we would come be listed before our competitors.
Andy Klepner:
Right. Now here’s the thing though, Matt, and this is what’s key. A website is like a living thing. Now you, you’re smart, you’re always updating your website, but a lot of these websites you go on, they’ll be five years old and people will say, well I never get any business from my website. I’ve never even looked at it for the past three years. And that’s lot of the thing Google, their whole business model revolves around one thing, giving a person the most relevant information based on the search that they put in. If you’re not giving the newest, most relevant information, gooing up your website, adding things to it, putting out the latest market trends, putting up new listings like you always do, Matt, if people don’t do that, they fall like a stone. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But if you’re, but if you’re always adding new information and you’re always doing new things, always adding seo, always working on your content like you are, you’re always gonna get higher in a search engine, engine optimization to get found. Excuse me.
Staci Garcia:
When you put, um, when the, I see agents do this, um, more often now when they create a listing, they create a, uh, landing page just for that listing. Does that help also?
Andy Klepner:
No, no. That’s a great question. Unfortunately, thank you. Because of <laugh>, unfortunately because of the Zillows and the Redfins of the world, those people are always gonna come up first Uhhuh <affirmative>. And you can write the greatest article ever about your listing. You will still be in the loneliest place on the internet. And that’s the second page of Google. Right? The
Staci Garcia:
Second page of Google. Nobody, nobody goes to
Andy Klepner:
The second page. This is the loneliest place on the internet. So what you wanna do is you wanna have, and Matt, we actually, this is the next phase that we’re gonna work on with your website, is you wanna write SEO articles about moving to Boca or about moving to whatever area about moving to fill in the blank, right? Where it’s like the Bridges, seven bridges, et cetera, all the different communities. And you want to have articles about moving there and what’s available in there. Cuz you’re gonna find people are gonna find that way before they’re gonna find out about such and such a listing on Northwest 52nd players. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you’ll, they’ll never find you cuzz Zillow’s coming up first and it doesn’t matter.
Staci Garcia:
That is true.
Andy Klepner:
Yeah. A hundred percent. So the more generalized your seo, the more and pumping out those articles all the time. Like I said, we just brought somebody in to do that exclusively. Because I’m a programmer and I’m a designer. Uh, I am the writer <laugh>. That’s why we, you know, we add people to our business to do that kind of thing.
Staci Garcia:
So what else do we need to know?
Andy Klepner:
Well, what the biggest part of what you need to know is always be changing your, your marketing. Always be refreshing, your marketing. There’s nothing worse. Than’s still marketing, you know, there’s nothing, uh, funnier that when you see a real estate agent and their information and you see real estate agents for some reason love to put their picture on everything. And like Matt is always changing his picture. We should ask something fresh.
Staci Garcia:
Is it, do you think I I need a new photo. I, no, I wanna know your
Andy Klepner:
Photo’s. Good. Matt,
Staci Garcia:
What do you think about the photo? Because we discussed, we discussed the photo in one of our podcasts. Do you think the photo is important?
Andy Klepner:
I think it’s important, but I think it needs to be updated. Right? So what does that mean? So what does that mean? If you have a photo where your hair was long and brown and now you’re a short blonde, you gotta update that photo so that people know what they kid expecting when they see you or when they see you in the ads, you know what I mean? Or if you’re still wearing like, clothes from the, from the, uh, nineties with, uh, shoulder pads, sort like that. It needs to constantly be updated.
Staci Garcia:
Do you put
Andy Klepner:
In, and that’s the thing about a,
Staci Garcia:
I know in, um, in certain, uh, I’m not sure if it’s, I can’t remember if it’s, if it’s, uh, SEO or if it’s social. Do you put, um, words in the picture so that it comes up? What’s it called? Made up. Made
Andy Klepner:
Up the algorithms? Yeah. Well, meta information. So you’re, you’re, you can put it on the images and the algorithms can read the text in that images, but it’s really about also what you put in that post and the content you put in that post. And here’s the trick though, the more that post is shared and as people add comments to the post, the higher it’s gonna get relevancy. So Matt oftentimes will put a post online, like on Facebook or something like that. Right. And then he’ll wait for people to comment, but he doesn’t comment immediately back to them. He waits for it and lets it cook for a little bit. And then by little bit later on, adding his comment to the comment stream mm-hmm. <affirmative> and saying maybe thank you or answering somebody, it bang pops it right back up higher into the, in, into the feed. Right. And bumps it up, it bumps it up. And he’ll even do something that’s two or three years old, throw a new comment in, and it’s like having a new post and reminds people and gets it active
Staci Garcia:
Again. I feel like that’s Matt’s secret.
Matthew Maschler:
You know, on, on Facebook <laugh>. Oh, on Facebook, I see
Andy Klepner:
People coming away.
Matthew Maschler:
No, no, that’s okay. I see people sharing posts. Yeah. And um, when I share post, I get no comments. I’ll get one or two likes, I get no comments. It’s a dud. If I make a new post, I may or may not get comments. So sometimes people will share their own old post, they’ll take a five year old post and then they’ll share it. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> it doesn’t get comments. But if you go a, if you go to that five year old post and you comment on it, and especially if you tag someone else and then they comment back, all of a sudden Facebook will see that as fresh new content. So I, I hate sharing. Um, I did it recently. I shared something in a group, um, because it was relevant to the group and there was no way I could turn it into something of my own. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I’m like, if I’m going to post the same thing on my, uh, real, on my real estate page and on a real estate group I’m involved with, I’ll do two unique posts post posts. Right. I won’t, I won’t share because the, the, I don’t, I think Facebook values, um, uh, a shared post,
Andy Klepner:
I, they do, depending on how much comments that sharing can be, it all deals with the comments and how people start reacting to it. Right. If you share s um, if you share something and people react to it, it’s gonna go higher. If they don’t, like you’re saying No,
Matthew Maschler:
But what I’m saying is I’ll, I’ll, I’ll often scroll on Facebook and see what’s going on, but sometimes I’ll look for somebody directly and if I find them directly, uh, and I scroll through, through their posts, there’s plenty of posts I’ve never seen and, and mm-hmm. <affirmative>, all of them are the shared posts. Oh yeah. Like I’ll, you know, like Wendy has a cousin, I don’t think she listens on the show. So I’ll say Wendy has a cousin, her cousin Patty, and she’ll, she’ll post whatever. But if I go to her page, I’ll see shares all day long. I just got a note from the producers in the back room. It says, I am a thousand percent correct. Can you, um, let me take that sign home and from for the house so wife and kids could see that <laugh>, <laugh>.
Andy Klepner:
You know, the funny, the, it’s funny that you said that because, um, people will often share and keep sharing, like, I’m getting no reaction. Cause they’re not putting fresh content. Right. All they’re doing is sharing. It’s gotta be a mix.
Matthew Maschler:
Right. Right, right.
Andy Klepner:
It’s gotta be a, a mix of that stuff.
Matthew Maschler:
All right, so I’m going to comment on the nine on a post from 2019, that was what, three years ago?
Andy Klepner:
Mm-hmm. <affirmative> mm-hmm.
Staci Garcia:
<affirmative>, do a test. Yeah.
Matthew Maschler:
See what happens.
Staci Garcia:
This is the test of the American broadcast system. Yeah. And the amount emergency <laugh>. So, um, I don’t know, Andy, could you tell are other agents that don’t have the budget that Matthew uses to get his information out there? Some tips they could do?
Andy Klepner:
The most important thing is if you, if you, if you don’t have the budget, you got yourself and the, and, and to, to do it yourself. Always be sharing the more information that you can put up there. You have so many channels to do this so easily, totally. For free. Right. The more you, the more you comment, the more you look like a per, every time you sell something, every time you see a house, if you comment about that and you put that into the, into the world, you’re gonna get reap the rewards. So if you just saw a house at such and such a place, share it to the world. Even if you went on your own, you know, take a video of it and say, I am at a house right now and do a Facebook live. I’m in this house right now in Boca Ridge. Tone three bedroom, two bath, and talk about the house and sell yourself. People will see it. Yeah. And that’ll
Staci Garcia:
Give you some, I can definitely vouch for that.
Andy Klepner:
My
Matthew Maschler:
Real, I I tell a lot of my real estate agents, right. If you go to an open house, say I’m at an open, I’m at this open house mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, um, and not just for social media, right. If you think you have a buyer, send them, send them the link. Hey, I just saw this house I thought of you. Right. I mean, you, you can’t keep this stuff to yourself.
Staci Garcia:
Yeah. I shared, I remember a long time ago I shared a, a picture of the, what you got a like a six foot sub at an open house in, um, the Oaks. Oh, yeah. And I posted that and everybody was commenting like, oh and no. And there was also like a four foot sushi boat.
Matthew Maschler:
Well, that no, that was sushi and cupcakes. Oh,
Staci Garcia:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. Because I still get comments.
Matthew Maschler:
<laugh>, we, we had a sushi and cupcakes open house, um, where one house had the sushi. The other had the cupcakes. Yeah. And I didn’t tell anybody which house it was. So Yeah. You had to come by, you know, I imagined people that were coming, they didn’t necessarily want both. Right, right, right. Some people wanted the sushi, some people wanted the cupcake. So, so they had a 50 50 shop, but if they went to the wrong house, now they had to go to the other house. <laugh>
Staci Garcia:
That how is funny. Lot of people asked
Matthew Maschler:
Sushi and open house sushi and cupcake open house. Yeah.
Andy Klepner:
And you just did that off the top of your head, which is imperfect action. And that’s the other tip, imperfect action. Don’t be afraid to, like, you, don’t be afraid to get on camera. Don’t be afraid to do something. It’s better than nothing out there. You don’t have to have your makeup perfect. You don’t need to know your lines. Perfect. Just get out there.
Matthew Maschler:
That’s why when you asked me, um, well, we’re gonna talk about, I said we’re, we’re gonna find out when we start recording the show <laugh>.
Andy Klepner:
Absolutely.
Matthew Maschler:
If I start planning the show in advance and start talking about what we’re gonna talk about, get stale. But like, I’m like, I should have recorded that. Right. That could have been the show right there.
Andy Klepner:
Yeah, absolutely. A hundred percent.
Staci Garcia:
So when I, when I post on Instagram, it goes to Facebook. When I post on Facebook, it goes to Instagram and I, um, manually post to Twitter. How do you, how do, what’s your, what’s your, um, do you have a strategy, Andy?
Andy Klepner:
Uh, well, you know what I just, there, there’s so many different places to always be posting to. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you don’t know where you’re gonna find somebody. So e so start posting to all things, uh, immediately. Um, I have, I’m have I have a meeting in five minutes. And in that meeting, this client, all he does is he just posts a TikTok and those, those TikTok, believe it or not, those TikTok videos and he’s the older guy. Right. And those TikTok videos are what’s, what’s launching him.
Staci Garcia:
That’s awesome. So,
Matthew Maschler:
All right. All right. Well, Andy, I wanted to, um, thank you for joining us here on the Real Estate Finder podcast. My pleasure. Uh, send out, uh, your, your information. How does someone get a get ahold of you?
Andy Klepner:
Um, my, again, my name is Andy Kleppner. That’s k l e p n e r. And just look me up@brighteridea.com and you’ll see learn all about me and, uh, what we do and how we can help you and your business get online.
Staci Garcia:
Thanks, Andy.
Matthew Maschler:
Thanks. Great. Seeing you.
Andy Klepner:
Have a great one. Bye now.
Matthew Maschler:
Bye-bye. That was Andy Kleppner with Brighter Idea Multimedia. I am Matthew ler Real Estate Finder, uh, real estate finder.com
Staci Garcia:
And Stacy Garcia, also a real estate finder. And, uh, no hoa boca.com. All
Matthew Maschler:
Right, thank you so much.
Speaker 5:
The future looks bright and the pass by the sky’s dark blue when it’s almost that time. Life shows cameras flash when I pass Living in the moment. Forget about the past. They saved the best for last. Matthew Mania. We about to make a splash. Life is a marathon full of sharp terms. Gotta keep pace. Hands on the Hot five Fivestar. I run a show. You can tell the Boss Center place electricity, energy, fives. I’m always on time. Even if I’m, I make dreams come true. Living my life Clear. You give you,
Speaker 6:
You know, you know what’s song, you know what song, you know what song it is. You know what song. You know what you know what is, you know what song. You know what you know what it is. You know what song. Know what, you know what it is.
Speaker 5:
You know what time it’s, you know whose time it’s, you know what time It’s Matthew Mania. The Time it says, you know what time its, you know whose time its, you know what time Its Matthew Mania. The Time says, yeah. Got him. Shooked scared. Can look. We’re not afraid of the big bad Walk. First comes the.
