Stop Chasing Ghosts: How to Bring Fresh Blood to Your RTO Store

Finding new customers remains one of the biggest challenges for Rent-to-Own businesses. While many stores focus on reactivating inactive customers or working through paid-out lists, there's a powerful channel that's often overlooked: Facebook marketing.
 
 Marketing expert Jeraud Norman joins host Pete Shau to reveal how Facebook's "interruption-based" marketing creates opportunities that Google's "intent-based" approach simply can't match. Instead of waiting for customers to search for your products, Facebook allows you to appear regularly in their feeds, creating awareness and staying top-of-mind for when they need your services.
 
 "Facebook is basically like the radio, but with visuals," Jeraud explains, highlighting how this consistent presence trains potential customers to think of your business first. Through authentic video content featuring real team members, RTO businesses can create personal connections with prospects before they ever walk through the door. This "know, like, and trust" effect significantly increases conversion rates and puts you miles ahead of competitors.
 
 The most surprising insight? You don't need professional equipment or polished scripts. In fact, authentic smartphone videos often outperform expensive, corporate-style productions. The focus should be on showing your real personality and creating genuine connections with potential customers. Minor blunders or imperfections actually make you more relatable and trustworthy.
 
 Ready to bring fresh blood to your RTO business? Discover how Facebook marketing could transform your customer acquisition strategy and drive substantial growth for your store.

Chapters

• 0:00 Episode Introduction and Topic Overview
• 3:28 Facebook vs Google Marketing Approaches
• 7:23 Creating Effective Video Content
• 14:58 Overcoming Fear of Video Marketing
• 25:50 Why Facebook Marketing Works
• 35:30 Tracking Results and Measuring Success
• 48:20 Final Thoughts and Contact Information

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:13

Hello and welcome to the RTO Show. I'm your host, Pete Schell. Today you guys are probably going to know exactly who I'm talking about. Normally I say it the other way. I say you probably might not know, but I think everybody knows who Gerard Norman is, especially because you're a huge part of this show. You're a great sponsor and we do appreciate that.

Speaker 1: 1:29

But today we're talking about something that we haven't talked about, I don't think, in any other podcast episode, and that is new blood, because we've talked about it and you guys know it. You guys know I have Gerard on here because we say the same thing all the time we are looking for that customer, we are looking to put down and grow our ranks, but where do we do it? We usually do it on the inactive list, on the paid out list, on the EPO list, and then every so often we go knocking on doors and something like that. Well, let's talk with Gerard and say how do we get them in here? Gerard, you know a lot about this subject. You know a lot about what's going on in the space outside of Rent to Own and how to bring in that new blood. How do we do that?

Speaker 2: 2:12

Man. First of all, appreciate the introduction, pete, it's always a pleasure getting to speak with you and spend time with you in real life, even though we can't do this in person now. But yeah, so how do we get new people in? There's a lot of different things you can do at marketing, so first thing I would like to preference on is the way I say to do it isn't the only way to do it, it's just the way that I've been doing it to help people. So I don't do Google. There's some great people that do Google.

Speaker 2: 2:38

You had Ryan Kras on Great people, great team over at Wild Brands. So shout out to them. They can do a great job for you. If you're not already working with them, you got the market. But the way that I specialize in is helping people with Facebook and Instagram ads. Then we can do some YouTube as well.

Speaker 2: 2:57

And what I like to say about Google is it's definitely a necessary thing that you got to have right, but when you're doing Google, it's more intent-based. So, yeah, if someone goes online and does one of those search key terms that you guys might set up rent, furniture or whatever the word is I don't even know what the keywords these guys are searching for, because I don't do search-based marketing. But a guy like Ryan, or even you, pete, would know you guys are competing with other folks to show up as one of the first few results, right, and that's great, absolutely yeah. So when people do that, they come through, right. But how many people are actually searching that? So when they search, there's intent, which is supposed to mean that they're closer to making a buying decision. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. The difference is, when you do Facebook, I consider that interruption-based marketing. So, yeah, they didn't search for it.

Speaker 2: 3:47

But if I show up with something that they want and I can grab their attention and they say they want that, it might be something they've been thinking about and just haven't searched about it yet. Like I bought a new car last June and I've been wanting to buy a new car for some time. I was just I don't know, it just wasn't a priority until my son got on me, so I wasn't searching for a new car. But if the ad shows up and keeps creating not necessarily creating that desire, because the desire already has to be there it's just to remind me, interrupt me, of the thing that I want.

Speaker 2: 4:14

Now it's like okay, well, I seen that this new couch or I seen this dinette, whatever it is that you guys top seller is. They give you their information and then, once they give you the information, you can have a conversation with them. So that's a way that we've been helping out rent to own for, I'd say, over four years now. Started off working with premier dealers. We work with some buddy stores, work with some errand stores I don't know if we ran ads for them, but buddies, premier, in addition to like, we're working with American Rental. Shout out to Justin Burns and Mr David Davis.

Speaker 1: 4:45

We love Justin and David, david, great guys. I love talking to Justin because when I talk to Justin Burns, he actually understands what I'm saying. When I'm talking about a marketing piece, when I'm talking about the production value of it, what I'm going after Justin gets it, just like Ryan Krasick. He said he understands it. So what it sounds like you're saying is basically, we are in the spaces that customers are at all the time, and the idea is to give them that reminder piece so that when the thought comes up, this is the first thing that they think of. So, instead of saying I'm going to Google something and get this on my first search, what I'm going to do is put it in their mindset. So the first thing that I'm thinking about when I'm thinking about furniture, when I'm thinking about rentals, when I'm thinking about home appliances wait a minute, I've seen that ad from this rental owned company cover up quite a few times. That's probably where I'm going to check first.

Speaker 2: 5:31

Exactly, exactly Now, then I'm giving you guys a secret sauce. Like my whole thing is give value. Value is created after the experience. So I'm going to, I can tell you exactly what I do and I, granted, am I going to walk you right through the Facebook ads manager right now? No, but at the end, if you reach out, I'll give you my free course. You can do it yourself If you don't want to pay me or pay somebody else, and I'll be honest, in this industry there's no one else that's going to do it. Same way I feel about, you know, ryan doing his Google ads. I can't do it like him. Just going to be honest with you guys, and if you don't like that kind of confidence, then I don't know what to tell you and I'm just telling you.

Speaker 1: 6:03

Well, you know, it's funny because I just saw I just saw something, you know that Vox put out and said the same thing. Sometimes, when you're addressing a situation, you might come across people who are't I don't exactly jive with that, or it's not the same thing. Here's the difference. If I'm not telling you something that's wrong, or I'm being offensive, or I'm telling you something completely off color, then it just might be that I have a different view than you are, and maybe it's something that you're not doing that maybe you should check. It doesn't mean that we're here to bump heads, but I definitely want to. I don't want the yes people around me. I want somebody who wants to challenge my view.

Speaker 1: 6:37

Now, does that mean that I'm going to completely take their word for it and go with? That doesn't mean that, but that means hold on. Are they onto something that I'm not onto? Do they know something that I don't? And if I correct some of the things that I'm doing, or if I change some of the things that I'm doing, am I going to this that they're describing? And I think that's exactly what we're talking about here, guys is I mean, there's always that timeframe where you do what you do because you know how to do it. But you also have to understand that that timeframe has elasticity and every once in a while you're going to start reaching those borders where you have to change. You're going to have to bring in something different, different ideas, different marketing types and literally different viewpoints from everything. Because, like you said, ryan is going for somebody who's already in the market looking now, this is that future setup and how important is that? To start reaching out to people now so that when they do have that need, they're already your customer.

Speaker 2: 7:31

I think that's huge. Right Because Facebook is twofold. Right Because one is, like you said, if you're getting in front of them and staying in front of them. It's so cheap to do and we all have this right, no matter, oh, it's funny enough, someone's calling my phone, I'll let them know, but we always have that in front of us, right? So guys are on Facebook, instagram, sometimes LinkedIn. They're always there, so if you can show up where they're already at, you can grab their attention. That's one thing. The second thing is there's multiple ads you can run. You can run people to your website, which, in all honesty, I don't really suggest that a lot, especially with Facebook, because you can get a lot of people there and a lot of times the website's not going to convert at a high rate, but it's still a good option.

Speaker 2: 8:09

What we do is we do what we call lead forms on Facebook and you can send them to a landing page, which is cool, and the difference between a landing page and a website. Website is like we said if we went to you're with Buddies, so we'll use you. Guys, for example, went to buddiescom. That's a website. There's so many tabs, there's so many of this. People can get lost there, especially if they don't have the time. Like, how many? If you go to your Safari or your Chrome, how many window tabs do you have that you meant to get back to in your phone? Let's not talk about that, gerard. I have quite a few, me too, right, and with Google Chrome now they inactivate them after 30 days. So then you got another window with a whole bunch of stuff. But then if you do a lead form or a landing page, landing page is basically, and one thing with Rent to Own 2 is stop trying to sell the whole store all the time Kind of focus on a product. That's something that I've been talking about for a while and the guys who do it. I feel like they get a lot out of it. But let's say we're focusing on furniture, you guys, for example, there was a guy I worked with and I don't know if you want me to say his name, so he's a buddy's guy. We'll just leave it at that.

Speaker 2: 9:10

Your first campaigns they did was recliners. I think it was his father's day last year and the whole thing was focused on recliners. He had bought a ton of recliners and I'm not saying we did all of the work selling them right. Obviously like I'm not going to take credit for his whole campaign, but we both agreed that the campaign was very successful in helping him sell a lot of recliners. So let's say, if we had a landing page, versus sending people to buddies where there's everything on, that landing page is literally just about the recliner deal. Or if we use the Facebook lead form, which allows people to make a landing page without having to have tech skills, it's the same thing. They saw an ad about the recliners, they saw the deal, they land on the spot. It's just to remind them that they're in the right place. You get their information and you call them up Right and I think sometimes, if anything with Facebook, I think that's the most challenging part for people.

Speaker 2: 10:01

But it's not just rent to own is following up with leads. Everybody says they do it, but everybody doesn't and majority of people just aren't good at it. They need to be trained. There's an art to texting. It's not a hard art, but it is an art to texting. There is an art to just following up. When a new lead comes in, do you wait or do you pick up the phone and call right away. So that's a whole, nother part to it. But yeah, like streamline the process, video, which is part of the secret sauce. I show people how to create videos literally just with your cell phone. You don't have to have a Coca-Cola type situation.

Speaker 1: 10:37

Plus. Isn't that the thing, though? Lately I've noticed that Gerard tell me if I'm wrong we have had for so long and I hate using the words legacy media, but these big productions where somebody has a $50,000 camera and they're in front of all this stuff and we've got to hire actors and extras and all this stuff, and then the content is slowly creeped down to your Facebook reels. You've got your YouTube reels, you've got TikTok, you've got Instagram, where everything is done with some really good cameras, but they're all cell phones and you have the ability to not only edit it on the phone, but you can make some really good looking content that's very directly driven to the customers you're trying to reach in a short amount of a time and they actually hold more value to the person that's watching than these big productions that cost $200,000. I mean, it's crazy. It's funny.

Speaker 1: 11:31

You mentioned that because I know that a lot of the content that we've been trying to do truthfully this is something that I've been trying to teach and a lot of what we call it is shotgun sales. Right, we point at a certain thing, we want customers from here or there, we pull the trigger and we see how much spread we can get when the truth is, I think we need to close it down to more sniper effect. Like you said, let's dial into one thing and sell that one thing very well for a little while and then change. And that really helps when you have things like things that you're overstocked on things, and days like father's day, mother's day, memorial day is usually a big mattress. They say I don't know why that is, but it's usually traditionally a big mattress sale day and it's like how do I focus in on those things and and and you're saying it. That's just just dial into a one thing or a set of things and display that as your primary goal. Is that kind of fair to say?

Speaker 2: 12:22

Yeah, and I'm not saying you can't do the, because what happens is everybody focuses on the deal. So buddies may be running a $25 six-month, same as cash. Premier might be running a dollar down. American Rental could be running $10. I don't even know what Rent-A-Center is doing.

Speaker 2: 12:40

So to the customer it all sounds the same, but then it's almost like everybody's in a race to the bottom. And then it's like you guys, this whole business is built off of forecasting and I think it's wild. I mean, the business works, otherwise we wouldn't be here. But you can give people free time. You'll deliver it, which I hate paying for delivery. So the fact like I bought Ashley furniture when my wife was pregnant, my daughter's three. Now, if I had known I could have got it delivered for free and paid it off in the same amount of time. I didn't want to pay Ashley another $200 to deliver it and stuff and bring it up, you know, right? So it's almost like a race to the bottom. You guys give so much up front to project what you would get, and I think on average is 18, 18 months or so, right? So instead of being in a race to the bottom, figure out what people they start to fall in love or it's like that whole no like and trust thing. They start to get to know you, like you. It almost happens at the same time and then trust is built.

Speaker 2: 13:47

It could be all in one video or it could just be multiple videos showing up. So when they come in and like man Pete, and it's like you don't even know this person, but you're so cool, you get to be more who you are without having to get them to that level. It's like you went from you know you skip first base and you're already on second slash, third base with this person and if it doesn't work, it doesn't work, but it just puts you in a situation. So when people feel like they know who you are before they meet you, it gives you the advantage. So that's why I'm really big on.

Speaker 2: 14:12

Part of the secret sauce of Facebook is videos of your actual team. Like you could do a good job of doing videos for all the stores, no matter what brand they are, but tend to know you're not there, they just know versus if you're in that market and they see you and then what starts happening? You start going around town and that town that you're in and people are just like hey, I saw your video and they're not always customers, but it's just like that's a connection right there and when they need something, you're now the guy and it's so easy to do because it doesn't cost that much money, not to mention, on top of that, if they didn't give you their information. There's a list of people that did give you their information, that said they wanted something, and then that's when the follow-up game shows up and that's a whole news.

Speaker 1: 14:51

Right, right. Well, let me ask you a question. In your opinion, you're doing marketing. You're solid in it. Every day I see the things on the Instagram posts. I see that you're always teaching and showing people how to get ahead.

Speaker 1: 15:01

When you're talking about the difference between staged and realism, as far as your marketing concern is, how critical is it, when you're doing this Facebook marketing, to not be as staged and to be more realistic? In your professional opinion, is it a huge difference between how we, how we go from I want to stage this, I don't want to know everything I'm saying and I got to be right on point to this is Pete, I'm selling you this sofa. This is Bob over here making some sales. Call us today, we will get you hooked up. If you don't know about it, we're going to sell you for free. We're going to get this done. We're going to deliver you for free. We're going to do no credit. Yada, yada, yada. Come and see me. How big is that transition from like I got to be you know, I got to be reading in front of my teleprompter to let's just have fun with it. How big is that?

Speaker 2: 15:45

Super important and again, that shows your levels because you freestyle that on the spot Now. Granted, eventually you want to advance, but I think it's because you got to the key word is social media. People are supposed to be social. So what's more social? You free flowing and them seeing what it's like. Again, the value is created after the experience. Right, and that's part of the reason I'm here is to give value and you can experience and then you can decide you want whatever. Same thing when it comes to you guys. So if they get an idea of what it's really like to be around you or be around your team, it's almost like, well damn, I want to be around those guys. You might even have people just coming in just because they just want to be close to you, which you guys just want people coming into the store. So I think it's important to seem more social.

Speaker 2: 16:24

That doesn't mean that you don't create a script. We'll create scripts for people only from the standpoint of there's certain things when you do an ad you want to do. The one thing I tell people never to do on social media ads, especially if it's to a cold audience, is tell people who you are right out the gate, because no one really gives a damn. They want you to. You got to understand who your audience is, what their problem is, and then you offer them a solution. And when you offer the solution, that's where you come into it Like so it's like your problem is you need a new couch, yada, yada, yada. However, we go down that and like oh, by the way, my name is Pete, I'm down here at Buddies and if you need some help, man, I would love to help you, At least love to shake your hand, whatever, whatever. However, it goes no-transcript, because you think about it like this If you did that video and I saw the ad and I wanted something I lived in Florida I give you my information.

Speaker 2: 17:34

If you call me and I don't answer, what? If you call me and I don't answer, what that no like and trust is allowing to build on is hey, pete, hit me up, not buddies, hit me up who's buddies? I don't even know who buddies is. Maybe I should know, but I don't. I don't know who any of these guys are. Company name wise, right, but Pete hit me up. I saw Pete in the video. I like Pete. It gives you a better chance of increasing your follow-up percentages, because now they're saying no to a guy they said that they liked, versus just. I mean, I can turn on anybody's ad and we call it doing carousel. We take your best performing pictures or products, put them on Facebook and it's like they can click five or six buttons and then, just like, give us your information. We can get really good cost for leads on that, but the follow up typically for those folks is a little bit harder because there's no personalization involved, right? So I think it's super important the point that you made.

Speaker 1: 18:24

Well, I love the idea when you said you know it's got to be social because it's social media. Sometimes I forget about that. Right, this is supposed to be content from us and not the man and I hate to say that but the man you know, the companies, the broadcasters, the people who have been doing this for years and years and years. It's social media. When social media is from us and I tell people, sometimes they're afraid, you know, like when we're making our little skits or whatever we're doing, and they're like oh man, I said it wrong and I got to do it right.

Speaker 1: 18:55

Hey, sometimes those gaffes make it worth watching. Sometimes those blunders, those little things, they remind people I'm human, you're human, I'm here to solve a need. I don't need you to sell anything else crazy. You have a need of this sofa. I've got a sofa and, holy cow, I could get it to you for a really good deal and it doesn't have to be all scripted and yes, sir, and no sir, and let's get the right angles and let's just do it. How important is it when somebody has it in their head that they want to get something done In your mind? Is shooting from the hip almost like the way to go, or is it more like you should have it a little bit more drafted?

Speaker 2: 19:30

I like the shooting from the. If you're confident enough to shoot from the hip, just do it Because, again, it's the fun People and that's why I like video testimonials and stuff like that is because you can. I mean, someone might be nervous. Let's say you weren't good on video and I got a testimonial from you. You might be nervous, but I get nervous people on video giving me testimonials and it's like, oh, they were nervous. You can just tell just by being outside watching it versus someone sitting there making up some stuff. So by you being more free flowing, I just think it allows you to tap into that energy more and people can pick up on it and they want to be around that.

Speaker 2: 20:04

Because the way I see it too is and I'm not saying every rent to own customer is someone who has horrible credit and can't get what they want but I would say a lot of people that you serve probably don't like where they work, probably don't like the people they're around and if you can be the light in their day versus you know, you know a lot of people don't like their boss. So if they're at work and they don't like their boss and I got to talk like this I get off of work. I don't want to deal with something like that and I got to buy something. I want someone who's going to be real and show people, do business with people they like. So that's why, when people come to the store, you guys close percentages so high, especially for a guy like you, because you're personable and you know how to diagnose what they need and listen without pressuring them, and that's what they want, and you don't talk like the man at work or the woman at work and that comes across in the ads too when you know if you're fun, because a lot of it's really just entertainment.

Speaker 2: 20:55

Grabbing attention is entertainment. Now, does that mean you got to act like a clown? No, there's all different forms of entertainment. I mean scary movies, game of Thrones, comedy movies. I don't watch scary movies at all, but get what I'm saying. Like, whatever your jam is, there's entertainment comes in so many different forms, so you have to entertain, educate, educate and then execute. That's kind of what happens in an ad Grab their attention and get them through the finish line, and then I mean it's like clockwork man.

Speaker 1: 23:03

With Facebook marketing now that it's become so prevalent. You know, before it was like this is Google, now it's their social media and now we're dialing in. We're on Facebook. When you're talking about somebody who can really make content versus somebody who's just new to the game. They're starting out and they want to get it done. What are some hints that you can say?

Speaker 1: 23:25

You know what, if you're new to this, not somebody who's secure and you know, I hate to say it, I've gotten a little better over the years right, you know, and I'll just throw it out there I'd be like hey, man, what is it going to take to earn your business? Cause I got a free lollipop in the back and it's got your name on it. You know what I'm saying. But people just get excited about that stuff because it makes absolutely no sense. But you know, because I've, I've, I've known that sometimes we have those people who haven't been.

Speaker 1: 23:49

They're not the salespeople yet, they haven't gotten there and literally they're at the phone. They're order takers. They haven't gotten there yet, they're going to be, but they're not there yet. What would you say is hey, I'm going to start doing Facebook marketing place. Give me some of your new guys. And this is something that we would walk through to get the mold broken, to get them out there and say you know what this is going to lead you a little bit better to the land of making sales and being personable on Facebook.

Speaker 2: 24:17

I in sales and being personable on Facebook. I like that. That's a great question. So, first thing is, those people are really great to be on video, as long as they're willing to try it like. There's a thing about being scared on video and I ran through the same things you do. You have like. Even to this day, I've done so much video.

Speaker 2: 24:30

I still don't like the way I look or sound on video, but it's just like when you feel like you can bring value, no matter what lane or walk of life you're in, you have a duty to bring it, and video is one of the fastest ways to get out there. So if I got someone who's brand new which a lot of times we're training people all the people we train were brand new and most of them suck that video it's just, hey, shoot the video and then let's take a look at it together. You can't be the judge of your own video because you're always going to judge against it, right? So that's the first thing. Another thing that would help, too, is if you have multiple people at once. So when I first started shooting video, it was back in Vegas, like 2014, 2015. It was a had a selfie stick and I looked like an idiot with my friends. It was a marketing. It was a direct sales company, right? So you know people call it a pyramid scheme, whatever. But they flew us out to Vegas and how. One of the starts I got in marketing was these guys in Vegas came in and killed the company and they were using internet marketing versus trying to talk to everyone, and that fascinated me, because I don't want to talk to everyone. If I'm being honest, I'm naturally an introvert that learned how to be extroverted. So one of the guys was teaching us video and I just reconnected with him, funny enough. And so all the people from Virginia Beach it was like five of us we went out and was walking around Vegas, had selfie sticks and we were trying to do what he told us to do. And because I was doing it here and my buddy Don standing here and my friend Cheryl standing there, we all look stupid as hell. So it was like all right, cool, well, I don't look, I'm not by myself. So that's.

Speaker 2: 25:57

Another hack, too, is, if you got people shooting video, have them shoot it together in a group, so that way they don't feel so insecure, because I understand what the insecure feeling is like the first time you shoot it.

Speaker 2: 26:07

But if people can get past that without it being in a group or not, like shout out to my guy Rick and Jasper, he started shooting video and he didn't really want to shoot it. I wouldn't say he was like totally against it, but he didn't really want to shoot it and he just pulled through and did it and man, he's phenomenal on video and it's still him being himself and people just come in and be like, oh, I saw your video and he started getting creative with it. Then he learned how to do some quick editing which doesn't take long. So as long as someone's not totally against it, we can get it done, but if they're totally against it, it's okay. What's really holding you back? And then, if they're totally against it and if that's what you need as a store, are they technically the salesperson or do they need to be in another situation? They might be an order taker if they don't want to do it, which, again, order takers can become salespeople, but they are not salespeople in the moment.

Speaker 1: 27:01

So I think that some people they get really confused, right, because they get in front of the camera and if they have that shy moment, I believe that they feel like they need to look like you know a model or a Brad Pitt or every line has to come out perfectly when you say it and everything needs to be. You know, the sun needs to come up and the car needs to come out and the explosion needs to. As I'm walking up, the explosion should go in my back door and it's like you know they're always looking for this perfection and it's like you know part of sales is being so relative to the situation. I am just a human being that is helping you out, doing the best that I can to help you find ownership in whatever product that you need. Period point blank that's the end of the story, and I love the idea of having your friends in it, or at least colleagues that you see every day, because I can do some weird stuff. But when I have somebody else doing weird stuff with me, it just seems a little easier. It just seems something that can be done. I also like the idea of just shooting, because I can tell you what. There is paralysis through analysis, and I have seen that so many times.

Speaker 1: 28:01

Well, what do I do? How do I do it? Well, I got to make this look good. I've got to walk in. I've got to be holding this. I've got to say that, I've got to be. You know, it's $20 a week and all this man that sucker.

Speaker 1: 28:18

And see how you end up, and I think some people will be really genuinely surprised at how well they do, because personality is probably one of the biggest things that's lacking out there and I think, as we're scrolling up down, left, right, you're looking for a personality in there that stands out to you. You're looking for that person that doesn't match the 50 other left swipes, right, swipes, ups down. But oh, wait a minute, why is this one different? Because maybe they're not trying so hard. Maybe they're just telling me they genuinely want me to be able to own some stuff by going to their shop, their store, their furniture outlet and hey, get this, get that. I'm going to rent to own you, I'm going to take care of you. There's none of this stuff needed and I can make it easy, if that's the greatest term for it, but I love this.

Speaker 1: 29:01

So why Facebook marketing? So, when you say Facebook marketing, because this is something that you excel at. What made you decide Facebook marketing is the place where I'm going to put myself and my business at. To give those constant reminders as the situation moves up and go hey, you know what. To give those constant reminders as the situation moves up and go, hey, you know what. If I have this idea that I want to buy a sofa, I know how to make you the first person they think about. Why did Facebook stand out more than the other social medias? Or is there a rhyme to reason to that? Or do you just love Facebook and you're like Facebook is where it's at, man.

Speaker 2: 29:33

I personally don't. I mean it's weird to say I personally am not a social media person. So I mean I know that you'll, you know you'll praise me, we'll text and be like hey, man, great job. And I'm somewhat inconsistent. But then there's two sides to social media is the organic side, which is the natural posting. Then there's the running the ad. So if you get a good ad granted, you do want to have posts on your page, but no one really ever sees them. To be honest, the post, I mean the ad's going to keep running. It's going to show people right.

Speaker 2: 30:01

But how did I pick Facebook? When I decided to get into this marketing thing? There was plenty of options. There were SEO, there was Google, there was Facebook, and I never really watched ads on Facebook, or if I did, I didn't know. And then one day my mentor showed up in my newsfeed on an ad and I'm usually never on Facebook and I actually watched it. And when he got there a week before, I thought to myself if I ever can help people keep getting clients, I'll never be out of business. Plus, I started off as a sales guy. So I don't like when people just say you're a marketer, I'm not, I'm like, I'm like the whole package when it comes to. I understand each side of it. Have I ever sold in the store, like you guys know? But I definitely understand the online process and I know how to sell in person as well. So when he showed up, I was like that's exactly what I said I wanted. Funny enough, I showed up in my news feed and then when I got with him, that was the doctrine that he was preaching and I understood and I was like well, there's not as many people doing this Now there's a bunch of people doing it.

Speaker 2: 31:00

But the reason why I decided to stay there was because I honestly and truly feel it's the fastest way to grow your business. Does that mean that you shouldn't use Google, shouldn't use SEO? I'm not saying any of those things, because some of the Google and SEO guys will be like oh, don't use Facebook. Facebook's no good. They treat it like a stepchild or even worse than a stepchild, which I don't even know that is. They treat it like a homeless person, right, they act like it's the worst thing in the world, but to me, it's the fastest way to grow your business because I think there's advantages Google has over Facebook, and then there's vice versa. So the advantage with Facebook is on Google you can't do a video unless you market on YouTube, which is an extension of Google, right, but on Facebook you can, or Instagram you can.

Speaker 2: 31:41

So it's almost like, again, it's inviting you to see who I am and know what I'm like to know who I'm dealing with versus on the other side. I'm looking at all these reviews which reviews are great. I'm going to the website, I give you my information. I don't know who I'm talking to next, unless they outline the journey like that, which most of them don't. But I get an idea of who I'm dealing with before I even make a decision and I'm like man, I like that guy, and sometimes they don't even they may not even been thought they wanted something, but because you showed up the way you showed up and like, yeah, I do want something. And it's almost like people want to spend money with people they like.

Speaker 2: 32:11

So that's how I chose, so that's how.

Speaker 1: 32:13

I chose Facebook. The thing, too, is like Facebook is linked to Instagram. If anybody doesn't know this, this is a quick tip Facebook and Instagram are pretty much linked. If you have a business account that you open up on Facebook, you can actually post to Instagram as you're posting to Facebook, and it takes care of two platforms at once. Linkedin is a little bit more of a business program, so I don't know if I would go there. So, to me, facebook and Instagram is where it's at Now.

Speaker 1: 32:34

If you could do TikTok, which is probably a whole other video you do that. That's a whole other world out there. Man, that is a very young, young crowd. I know that there are older people that are on it, but let me tell you that is a younger crowd and they shop completely different, and I think right now, the way I look at it is like Facebook is that sweet spot where you and it's it's still everybody's like oh, you know it's, it's going off and you could say that all you want to, but I still believe there's 48 million or 50 million people that are on this thing every single day that look at it. I don't care what you say, I look at it every day, even though I don't want to and I remember and it's funny that you say you talking that way because so there was this radio ad guy from like a couple years ago and we he was called mr huge, I think he passed away but he was mr huge and he came to the tampa area and I didn't know this guy from adam, but on every single radio station he would tell you about his deals and he goes because it's huge and he did it everywhere. He'd go to restaurants and he'd say that thing, he'd go to like grocery store. He'd say that, so He'd go to like grocery store. He'd say that so he became Mr Huge, but he was everywhere. And I mean, I had no intention on buying a car from this guy. Ever, ever, ever.

Speaker 1: 33:45

One day we're talking about buying a car, like he said you got a car recently. My wife goes yeah, I think I did a car and the first thing that came to my mind was hey, let's go to Mr Huge's. And then I was like, oh my god, I fell into the trap and we do. You know, since then we have bought four cars, three, three cars, three cars from that, from that same place, and he's, he's actually gone. They actually sold a dealership he passed away or whatever. We go to the same dealership still. My wife got two brand new cars and I got a brand new car from them last year.

Speaker 1: 34:18

It's just like, if you don't understand what we're talking about, be that constant reminder in your customer's ear. Now, this is a different type of marketing, guys, and you need to understand it. We're not talking about going into the SEO, which is the search engine optimization, and putting in rent to own furniture. I need a sofa. Where can I buy this?

Speaker 1: 34:36

This is to give them those thorn reminders in their head so that when they need what you're selling, they're going to trip over it and go. I need to go there first, and those situations you cannot put a price tag on them. I am telling you now you cannot. It is so important to be first up in their mind. Now, mind you, you might have to pay for that Google ad that stays first on the list. You're not paying for the same way, to be the first person in their head and that will come up no matter where they are. They're going to have to type in Google for one thing, when you get that minder, that minder and says, hey man, I need this holy cow. This is coming up. That's where you want to be. How often, gerard, would you say that somebody really needs to post or be involved or get what they do? What do they have to do to get to that level of being that first up?

Speaker 2: 35:25

Man, you said quite a few things.

Speaker 1: 35:28

I'm sorry, man, I kind of packaged a lot. No, you're fine.

Speaker 2: 35:30

You're fine. The huge thing was crazy, so let me attack that first. So what you said about him being on the radio and being everywhere, I want you guys to think of Facebook the same way. Right, because everybody listens to the radio and even, honestly, people don't listen to the radio as much as they used to. I'm not saying don't do radio, but Facebook's the same way. It's being everywhere and that's the one, one advantage I feel like Facebook has over Google. Again, not to say don't do Google is you can't be everywhere, it's only when they have intent.

Speaker 2: 35:59

If someone watched that video, let's say Mr Huge was still on the radio, but I'm going to just break down what you could do with that on Facebook. If you listen to three seconds of that ad, which that's a little bit of time, all the way up to the entire thing, I can make sure that he shows up everywhere Facebook, instagram, youtube, when you go to other sites, just from making sure that it's the constant reminder, right, if they clicked which you can't click on the radio, but let's just say they did you can keep showing up over and over again to be that constant reminder. Or pennies on the dollar, I mean, at one time I remember one campaign sticks out to mind Every time. This lady spent 17 cents. She was getting in front of another person and I was just like this is crazy. And then we tracked her cost per lead, cost per sale and all that other stuff, because you want to make sure you stay top of mind and still want to make sure you make money, and that's another difference with me. My whole thing is how much money did you make? Now, how many people you saw? I don't care about all that how much money did you make? How many deliveries did you make?

Speaker 2: 36:57

Don't be one of those guys that don't share the information. I'm not going to charge you more. I just want to know so that I know we're doing our thing and we're helping. But to go back to what you were saying yes, so that thing with Mr Huge, facebook is basically like the radio, but with visuals. Right, damn, there you go, pete. I appreciate that.

Speaker 2: 37:13

So then, as far as the posting and all that stuff, I'll be honest there's a difference between social media management, which is the guys who will post or teach you about posting. I really don't have. Only thing I can tell you is post consistently If it's once a day, if it's once a week. Just be consistent, and I'm telling you that from a guy who's not consistent. If we're talking about ads, though, I mean, at the very least, what everybody can do is and I just I have a jewelry store here in Virginia Beach that I'm working with Did the same thing.

Speaker 2: 37:44

He's spending all this money on radio, and I was like, bro, if you are spending this money on radio, I'm not telling you to stop. But what if you had an ad of you showing, because it's a family run business. It's him and his wife and their kids and they sell these cockapoos that are hundreds of dollars, and I'm like you're a loving family. Everybody who knows you loves you. Why not put that out there so more people see it? And then what?

Speaker 2: 38:05

We started doing that, and then we just made sure that kept going, and I don't technically do branding campaigns, but that was a branding campaign, but we were still getting information. His average ticket as a jewelry store is twenty five hundred dollars for anyone who buys. Obviously, he sells stuff in hundreds of dollars, but we were getting him. I think we got him over one hundred twenty, one hundred and twenty leads at like eleven dollars a piece and some change Right, and it got to a point they couldn't follow up with all of them.

Speaker 2: 38:31

So again, it's the follow up on the back end. So we were we're working on building automated systems to help him with that. He has to eliminate some of the things he's using in order for me to help him the way he wants to be helped, or he has to let them do it. But I said, hey, you're getting, first of all, you're getting seen everywhere. You got more story traffic. You're getting all these people's information, but you're not following up. This is your money you're spending. Let's solve the problem so you can close more of these deals. And he's already happy with what's already been going on, just because, like one deal, I mean, I won't even tell you what you're charging, but let's just say one deal pays for itself, right.

Speaker 1: 39:04

Well, the idea is to and it's something that I'm really glad that you mentioned, because I think sometimes some people I'm not going to, I'm not calling anybody out but some people get really focused on what it cost me. That's great. I understand that when you're trying to budget your money and you're looking at it from a P&L standpoint, you're looking at it from a cash flow standpoint you do want to know what it costs you. But let's not forget the other end. If you want to do marketing, any type of marketing, whether you're doing mailers, whether you're doing calls, whether you're doing Facebook marketplace, whether you're doing mailers, whether you're doing calls, whether you're doing Facebook marketplace, whether you're doing anything Facebook, like he says. Here's the difference You've got to know where it came from, and if you don't know where it came from, you don't know what you brought in. And that's the more important number. It doesn't matter if I spend 500. It doesn't matter if I spend a thousand, it doesn't matter if I spend 1500. If I got $10,000, every time somebody walked through my door, right, all of a sudden, the budget would wait, pete, that's a crazy number and, of course, it wouldn't matter Exactly. So if you know that this expenditure of $500, $2,000, $10,000 is bringing you a net of tenfold, then all of a sudden the amount that you're spending just isn't as important. So sometimes we've got to look at it. I know that we do that sometimes around tone and go, wow, it's going to cost me this. I'm not really sure if that's a great idea. Hold on a second, let's find out how much is it really going to bring you back in return, because let's say, you and an overall investment we're not saying this as one month or 10 months or one quarter or whatever it is. Let's say 10, $10,000, but I'm telling you you brought $50,000 in return. Would you gladly do it again? And my answer is Gerard, if you're bringing me a five to one, I would find money under my cushions in my car, in my trunk, in yesterday's pants, to give you $10,000, because I know that I will get $4 in return for every dollar that I gave you. You can't put anything on that, but let's do it again and that's so important.

Speaker 1: 40:58

We've covered so many things here today and there's so many things that you know there's some good talking points. Make sure that you just take out the camera, show it to the guys and be like listen, let's just fire this up and go. If you can't do it by yourself, it's all right. Bring a friend and we can both look ridiculous. Make sure that you're not picture perfect. This is social media, so be social. Make sure you know where your money's coming from, if it's happened. Make sure you know what's going on and stick with something. You know Gerard's sticking with Facebook and he says that's where it's at. Gerard, I think you're onto something. I think you're onto something. I think you need to keep on pushing that. Where can somebody talk to you? Where can somebody find your information? Tell me where it is that.

Speaker 2: 41:40

Um, I would say. I mean, if you're on LinkedIn it seems like it's not, it seems like more like the directors and C-level guys are on LinkedIn you can link or you can just reach out Gerard J-E-R-A-U-D at gerardmarketingcom. That'd probably be the best thing. On my social again, I'm not consistent with posting we're working on that but I've been saying that every year for seven years. So I just like posting pictures about my family and what we're doing and my my transformation journey more than I like talking about the other stuff. So, um, oh, there was a one other thing that you had said. Uh, oh, when it comes to the video thing, one quick tip is I teach people how to do chat to BT. I'm gonna start doing free live classes on that. Um, I haven't decided a date, but when it comes to the script, you can literally get a script in seconds and then you can decide, because trying to figure out if you should pop in and out of this door, if you should pop out of a dryer, if you should put your phone in the daggone, that's a lot to think about and that'll psych you out. So chat, gpt or AI whichever one you want to use will help solve that problem. And then the last thing I want to, before we go, I have to touch on that thing you said with the tracking. I think it's weird to me and I don't know if that's the right word, but I'm just going to go. Like you said, they think about and I'm not saying everybody as a whole, but they think about what they're spending and they don't think about the return. And I feel like and again, correct me if I'm wrong here it seems like rent to own for my four or five years being in here. Now it's get something. Now, when we're forecasting at 18 months potential revenue, I'm going to have X amount of dollars. So you guys forecast what today's action will be in 18 months, but then, when it comes to your marketing, you're looking for today's results.

Speaker 2: 43:18

I don't understand how that makes sense. That's the first thing. And then, on top of that, like Pete said, I can't say everybody, but a lot of people are not tracking. And if you're not tracking, how would you know? I've had people that are doing a whole bunch of things and say I don't know what thing to stop because I don't know what thing's working. And I got some people who aren't going to do a thing because everybody else isn't doing it. But it's like, for instance, like I was talking to a store yesterday and it's the last example I get she had 117 leads Funny enough, it's 117. I remember, because I was doing a consultant call yesterday, 117 leads, spent about five hundred sixty seven dollars, and she had I think she said she had she got a hold of 85 people. So another thing people don't track is their contact, that's actually a lot of contacts.

Speaker 2: 44:03

Yeah, it's like 72 percent. I'm like, yeah, that's a lot of contacts. Yeah, that's awesome, right. So she got ahold of that and I was like, well, how many did you close? And she said, out of that, I closed 22. I'm like cool. And then she said, but there's 22 more that started filling out the application and just aren't ready. So these are future sales. So I said, if we just stick with the 22, how much in potential revenue did it bring? And she's like ballpark 3,300. I was like damn, all right. So you spent 567 to make 3,300 this month. She's like yeah. I was like that's freaking awesome.

Speaker 2: 44:35

I said now, how long do they stay with you? She said 18 months. I said, on average, how much do they pay? About 150 each for her store. And I was like so after 18 months, that's about 59,800. These numbers are fresh, right.

Speaker 2: 44:47

I was like damn off of 567.

Speaker 2: 44:48

Now, granted, that's forecasted. So I said you're doing your marketing. So this isn't me trying to take credit for your future sales, but if I was doing it, you would shut me down real quick, not saying she would, but the industry as a whole. And I said well, what's your collection rate? She said I think they were about 80%. So we did the math and if she factored in her collection rate on what she normally collects, she would have collected at least 47 or 48,000.

Speaker 2: 45:10

Right, so it's like it paid for itself, right then, and it's going to pay for itself over 18 months. And again, the conversations that I have with some guys and if they don't get it I don't take that personally I try to help them understand that and I try to ask them how does it work for you when you do it this way but not this way? But I'm not looking to work with everyone, so that's part of the reason I want to give this stuff away, because I don't want anyone to suffer. I created this course to help local business owners, and you guys are local business owners, but if you don't get the ideology and you don't want to spend money with me, that's fine, find somebody else if you don't want to.

Speaker 1: 45:41

Well, you know, it's something that you're saying is great, because not all fits are good fits and we have to make sure that you're comfortable with it, just like we are. But I think something else that you said, you know, going into these final thoughts, is there is an understanding that you have to sell. It's what we do. There's only 50% of the business that we do each and every day, and that's either renting or collecting. That's what rental owns about. But this is the part that sometimes I think we forget. As we call people for marketing, as we learn the marketing strategies and as we go forward, this is what happens. I want to pay for something, they put something out there and I get a lead. If you guys don't understand I want to make sure that we have to understand this is that as business owners, as people going through, we have to take accountability for certain things as well. You're paying for a lead. I'm paying for somebody to look at this ad and call me and go hey, what's going on After that? You got to remember that there is an innate part that goes into. I also have to sell it.

Speaker 1: 46:44

Now, those two things aren't exactly married Just because somebody reached out to you and becomes a lead doesn't mean that you're going to sell it. You have to also remember you got to teach the sales part. You got to remember to show the person answering the phone. This is how it's done. This is what you need to remind them. You got to make sure that a couple of things happen. I get your name, I get your number, I get your email Any ways to contact you. I find out how that you contacted me. What brought you to my door? Because here's the thing If you have 150, go out there, 72% come back with you.

Speaker 1: 47:16

To me, marketing is a success. Now the question I have after that is why did I only close 72%? Well, I was only looking for this. I was looking for that. Is that the problem with the marketing that was done? Or is it because we didn't have their needs, or because we didn't know how to sell it, or because they're going to do it later? Those things are completely separate ideals. So, just so you guys remember that as you're going through marketing, whether you're doing, you know, gerard Marketing Solutions, whether you're doing Ryan Kras, they're going to get you those people. The question is, what do you do with it when you got it, because that's also another story for another podcast.

Speaker 1: 47:51

I just want to make sure we tackle that, because I think some people forget, you know, and they're like well, it's spent so much and I only got this out of it. Did you only get that? Or did you get 72%? That actually called you back and we only sold out of that 72% something. Their job is to really get somebody to knock on the door. It's our job to open it and make sure that they stay.

Speaker 2: 48:12

That's what we do. Going back to the order takers thing, is a lot of people don't realize they have order takers in place and then it's actually the manager slash, owner, slash whoever's responsibility to take that person, either hire the right person who can sell, or take that person and teach them how to sell so that they can become more. And that's a conversation I see all the time is. We're not getting this. And then you know if people are using my system. I can actually go in and listen to the calls, I can see the text message, I can see how fast they follow up and I'm just like you don't have a salesperson, and it's not to belittle the person who's in that role. I'm saying to the person I'm talking to hey, this is your responsibility. The thing with me is, when you work with me, I'm helping you on the sales side and the marketing side because I want to see you win and you're not happy until you got money. But a lot of times there's different things you've got to clean up in your business and people don't want to do the work, so they just say it doesn't work and they go on to the next thing. So, and the very last thought I'll give you too is if someone's doing Facebook marketing for you and they're charging like 250, those aren't real ads. They're just turning on a picture and just sending it out into the universe. It's good to stay in front of people, but if you really want to make money off of it, it's not the same thing. So, again, like I said, if you guys want my free course, you guys can just email me, jarad at jaradmarketingcom. We also have a website, wwwfastrtodeliveriescom. You guys can get the course for free.

Speaker 2: 49:36

Like I said, my whole thing is to give value and if you want to work with me, awesome. And if not, I just want to leave people in a better place than when they found it, because when I was struggling, lost everything and I found marketing, I wish I had that. Like the guy that I told you, I sold my car to get, I sold my car to learn the skill. He wasn't giving it away for free, even though he gives a very free content. So I'm going to do a free course at the Virginia Beach Economic Development Center because I know what it's like to be in a situation where you don't have the funds. You don't have the funds. You don't have the knowledge. Youtube University is too much.

Speaker 2: 50:05

So I give my time to that and I don't expect anything from it. I just want to help people. So if that's all you want, that's cool. If you got questions, we can talk. I'm not going to hard sell you and I'll just say this If we're going to work together, I'm looking at you just as hard as you're looking at me and I do say no. So I want to work with good people who get it and who want to grow, and if that's not us, that's not us. We can still leave in a respectful manner. So that's all I got.

Speaker 1: 50:29

Well, listen, I love you, Gerard. You know that. Guys, this is why that we choose Gerard Marketing as one of our sponsors. Because, listen, this world it's hard. Rto is not any easier. If you want to get it done, you've got to really look at yourself, figure out how you want to do it and then move forward. If you want to do Facebook marketing, that's excellent. Gerard Marketing Solutions is definitely going to take care of you. If you guys have any questions about today's episode, or if you want to ask me how I feel about something personally, yes, I am a little skewed on the fact that I like Gerard, but I will tell you exactly what I think. Email me, pete, at at therotoshowpodcastcom. You're welcome to go to the website. Same thing wwwtherotoshowpodcastcom. You can find us on Facebook, instagram, linkedin and now on YouTube. So please subscribe. And always I'm going to tell you guys. As always, gerard, I appreciate it. Man, I love seeing you here and we'll see you next time. Get your collections low to get your sales high. Have a great one.