EPISODE 45 OF THE MARKETING SOLUTIONS PODCAST: YOU CAN'T SEE SERVICE. GROWING A SERVICE-BASED BUSINESS WITH FREYA FROM REAL ADVOCATES
Sonya:
Today I am joined by Freya Myles, who is the owner of Realm Advocates. Hi, Freya, thank you so much for joining me today.
Freya Myles:
Thanks for having me, Sonya. Lovely to be here.
Sonya:
Freya and I actually connected just last week through my old coworking space in Melbourne, One Roof Women. It is currently not operating due to COVID, and they were in the process of switching office spaces. But they kind of pivoted and have developed an online community, and, as part of that, they're doing something called Coffee Roulette each week, where you're matched up with a virtual coffee date with another member.
Freya and I were matched up, and it was the first time I've actually ever attended one of the Coffee Roulette sessions. We just got talking on and on about marketing and business. I reckon it was about five to 10 minutes into our conversation, I just stopped and went, "Oh, my God, we should have recorded all of this." So much valuable information and things that we're talking about. So we, of course, had to line up a chat on the podcast.
Freya Myles:
Yes, yes. So I hope we can [inaudible 00:01:33] off everything that we managed the first time around, and maybe a few extra things as well.
Sonya:
Exactly. I guess let's start with, can you just give people a really quick brief overview of your business?
Freya Myles:
Sure. We're a vendor and, well, advocacy business in Melbourne. What we do is we guide buyers and sellers when they're looking to buy or sell property. We share with them our contacts and insights, so that they're getting the right information along their journey to make informed decisions.
Sonya:
Amazing. Where do you operate, Freya, when COVID is not on?
Freya Myles:
Right now, we're definitely very much operating from our offices at home, but we do get around normally. We're based in Melbourne, so we do a lot in Metro Melbourne.
But we also get out and do a lot of rural areas, particularly growth areas like Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo. We also do lovely breeze down Surf Coast and down Mornington Peninsula as well as. So, yeah, we do love getting in the car ordinarily, and I'm very much missing it at the moment.
Sonya:
Oh, fingers crossed it won't be long before you're back doing what you love again. How did you actually start your business, Freya?
Freya Myles:
Look, it was a bit of a long time coming. My business partner, Aife, and I had both been in the property industry for a while, and we worked in various roles as well. Myself, I've been in property management, property sales, auctioneering and advocacy.
We were seeing reoccurring themes throughout the property industry no matter what level you were at. That there seemed to be a growing inequality, and that existed in offices, and it existed in how a lot of real estate agents were approaching clients and who they were giving good advice to.
That didn't sit right with either of us. We wanted to look at giving advice to people who might have not thought that they could get it or that they could afford it, and making sure that they were getting that insight at the right point so that they're not spending their life making up from mistakes that they made that may have not been their fault at all.
Sonya:
Amazing. Let's go back to the really early days in your business when you went out on your own. What did you find was most successful in generating leads for you? Where did those initial clients come from?
Freya Myles:
Look, I think certainly and Aife and I have spoken about this in the past, our strength has always been networking and building relationships. I think that's because that's where we find true joy in our job, and I think that that always comes through. So we've certainly found that networking has been a great way to do it, and just getting the word out there to both referral partners, but, of course, potential clients.
But in doing that, you also need to make sure that people know about you. So we've also had to kind of look at different marketing to make sure that we're we're front of mind and actually reaching those people who want to be connected with us as well.
Sonya:
For those of us who hear the word 'networking' and want to go and hide in a cave, any tips like practicality-wise? This is probably something that's in the context of when COVID isn't happening, but what do you actually mean by networking and how can we, as business owners, actually go out and make those connections? Any tips? Any sort of practical guide on what we should be doing?
Freya Myles:
Sure. Look, I think that each individual business needs to look at their business as it is and what their target market is and what their supporting industries are. So it's going to be different for me as someone who's in a service-based industry in property, to what it would be to someone who perhaps owns a gift store.
But in saying that, there's still similar principles that you can use. Myself, I've found joining networking groups has been really fantastic. Obviously, One Roof is one of them, and I've loved that because it's a lot of really driven women in there. So that really excites me, and I really love connecting with everyone, yourself included. That's certainly been a help, so looking at referral partners as one form of networking.
I think that people often get frustrated with networking because they think, "Oh, I went to one event" or "I did it once, and I'm not seeing any results." It is a long game with networking. I've been in real estate for over a decade, anyway, so I had, of course, already created relationships within my industry. I've been in networking groups prior to launching my own business as well. That also helped me decide whether I wanted to launch my own business because I was able to talk to people who could share their experiences and what they wish they could have done or learned along the way. That's been really, really useful as well as, obviously, them sharing referrals, is also them sharing their experience as business owners.
Sonya:
Oh, fantastic. I think a little bit does come down to you seem to love people. So for you, you're probably thinking, "Well, networking is more just building relationships and having conversation and meeting new people," which is probably a really nice way to think about it.
Freya Myles:
Yeah.
Sonya:
Okay. Now that you are more established, Freya, what do you find moves the needle most in your business? I imagine there's still like a very heavy focus on the networking side of things. But outside of that, are there any marketing tactics that you've used that have helped you, I guess, build up brand awareness and, ultimately, get more clients?
Freya Myles:
Absolutely. Look, we're certainly in a trial-and-error stage as well, and I think I encourage people to be open to that. I think that they'll be certain things that will work for your business and certain things that won't.
But we've certainly invested in a little bit of online advertising and we're just with Google Ads at the moment, so that's been really helpful. We found that really useful because that's targeting someone who's typing in words that are related to what we're offering. It really does target the right kind of people, and so we're certainly getting leads through that.
We're also using social media and trying to find our groove with that. I think it was, firstly, really important that our voice came through in our social media and in our Instagram. I think that that, hopefully, will be quite strong, not only our passion for property, and we're just all such lovers of architecture. I dream about seeing beautiful ceilings and the curved archways and all that kind of thing.
But also for, again, our love of people and our love of the community. It was really important that we were kind of distinguished in our approach, as opposed to other things that perhaps were a little bit more traditional. We're happy to kind of call out injustices in our society. That was something that was important for us to do, and social media has been a great platform for us to do that with.
In doing that, that's attracting people who share our values. That's something that's been really lovely because we want to help everyone. Of course, we want to give everyone their best shot, but it's really lovely what we set out to do and the vision that we had kind of dreamt up is realized through our clients and through helping them along their journeys. It's really, really rewarding.
Sonya:
Do you know what? Something that you've just said about how you're using social media as a platform sort of call things out, I think that comes back to that saying of, "If you are marketing to everyone, then you're speaking to no one," right?
Freya Myles:
Absolutely, yeah.
Sonya:
I think what you're doing there is that you are not being a fence-sitter. You're having a strong stance on something and, therefore, you attract clients that also have that same opinion, and you repel the ones that don't. Those people that you are attracting probably feel a much deeper connection to you and are probably already sold by the time they actually reached out to you to make an enquiry.
I think that's something really important for everyone to keep in mind. Don't be a fence-sitter. Don't be vanilla. Don't think that your target audience is everyone because, at the end of the day, it isn't.
Freya Myles:
Yeah. I mean, we've said, obviously, in our platform, we've said we're very strong on Black Lives Matter, we're very strong on feminist issues. People who don't share those values, they were never our client. I think it's the same, some people get a little bit scared of going, "Oh, but I'm missing out on so much business." But chances are, there were other things that were not going to work between that relationship, anyway. So focus on those ones that are because, again, they're going to be the really fulfilling ones for both of you and the client. So, that's really enjoyable.
Sonya:
Yeah, I love that. Something that we touched upon it now, little virtual coffee date last week, was the role of social media in your business and how you see it as being a place to, I guess, grow those relationships and express who you are as a person and also the values in your business.
But perhaps social media for you is more of the top of the funnel. It's more about that brand awareness stage, rather than generating leads. Can you talk to me a little bit more about how you, I guess, see Instagram in particular fitting in in that sales funnel and that general marketing mix?
Freya Myles:
Absolutely. Look, I think, first of all, I do look at a range of different marketing platforms and that each of these marketing platforms have their own demographics. We know that Instagram is generally targeted at a younger audience and that's Instagram's marketing policy. So it's wise to latch on to what the actual providers were kind of hoping to achieve through them because they're already doing their own kind of marketing targeted at these particular audiences. So we do look at Instagram, firstly, very much as quite a useful platform. We love first home buyers, we work with a lot of young clients, so that's been really useful in, as you said, giving it a bit of brand awareness there.
We also know that Instagram is a very visual platform. We know that while I love to talk, as I'm sure you're getting the impression of, I'll write anything, but most of the time it's the images that are speaking to people. So it's about making sure that we're giving, I suppose, our audience what they're wanting. I mean, Instagram's wonderful when it is a business account, because you can look at your insights, you can really kind of track what's working and what's not. Then we try and adapt a little bit as well and try new things that we haven't tried. It's certainly, yeah, been a little bit of a dip your toe in and just see how it goes.
Sonya:
Let's compare that to Google Ads where people are, in my opinion, especially with your industry, if they have gone to Google and they're searching for a buyers agent, for example, they already know what they want and they're on the hunt for someone, so they're in hunt mode. It's really low-hanging fruit. It might be a more expensive way to go about things, but the conversion rate, I'm guessing, is a lot higher.
How do you use Google Ads at the moment? Are you driving people to a website? Are you encouraging phone calls? What kind of leads are you getting, and what does that look like now versus pre-COVID?
Freya Myles:
Yeah, sure. We're certainly driving them, yeah, to the website. Ideally for our clients, we like them to fill out a consultation form as well because that, at least, gives us a little bit of an idea of what their goals are before we pick up the phone and speak to them so that we've got the right information and also the right time allocated to speak to someone, so that's been really useful. Again, as you're saying, they're very serious leads generally who are going to take the time to actually fill out a form and request a consultation.
Look, certainly with COVID and the lockdown now, where we currently are in Victoria, we can't inspect properties and that's certainly been something that's slowed things down and we felt that on all fronts. But in saying that, we're still getting enquiries, and we're still getting people who are excited for what's ahead and things like that. So, yeah, it's been wonderful.
Sonya:
Oh, that's great. Okay, let's wrap this up, Freya. One last question for you, what advice do you have to people looking to generate leads and grow their business that are in the service-based industry?
Freya Myles:
Look, I would say, first and foremost, service is something that you can't see, and that's a very, very difficult thing to market. I think when you've got a beautiful product, you can get gorgeous photographs. You can do a lot to really kind of work on those visual senses with people.
With service, you need to touch something deeper, and it's very hard to do that when there's no trust. So I think it's really important that you need to establish trust in some way. Now I know that certainly having testimonials from clients is something that's really, really useful for us because people can see, okay, there's someone that's had a really good experience. They might say things in their testimonials that are similar to what the prospective client is hoping to achieve. So, that's been really wonderful, as have, of course, referrals and things like that. But it is also the marketing. You do have to get your name and your brand out there in some way. And, again, Google's been great. LinkedIn might be a great option for some people, as is Facebook. So, yeah, certainly getting it out there. Look, I think that you need to have a clear idea of your identity and your voice and, hopefully, that's coming through.
I think if you can get help along the way with anything, whether it's your Google Ads or your SEO or your social media management, if you feel that you're not up to it, go and get some advice, go and get an expert to take the reins and do it for you because I think that you also need... We were aware of this as well. I'm not an Instagram guru. That's not what I do. That's not what I'm paid for. I'm paid to get people [inaudible 00:15:57] come with property. So if I'm investing too much time into advertising, for example, and I'm not getting the results, I'm losing money as well. So you have to see it in that way, so invest. If you can't be bothered, if you're not motivated to, get someone else to, I say. We've done that certainly with things like SEO and things like that that just makes my mind blow up. So I've happily given that to someone else to do, and that's been really helpful.
Sonya:
Fantastic. Thank you so much, Freya. Now, where can people learn more about you? What's your web address, and what's your Instagram handle?
Freya Myles:
Sure. We're just at realm_advocates at Instagram, and then our website is www.realm-advocates.com.au. All our contact detail is on there so reach out if you wanted a consultation. We'd love to chat and find out more about your goals.
Sonya:
Beautiful. Thank you so much for your time, Freya.
Freya Myles:
My absolute pleasure, Sonya. You have a wonderful day.