Have you ever stepped into a new role in an unfamiliar industry and wondered how you’ll ever get up to speed? Many marketers face this challenge. It requires acquiring mountains of industry knowledge quickly. Learning to read the market wins, understanding your customer’s desires, and navigating this transition are no small feats, and the pressure to deliver results can feel insurmountable when you’re still finding your footing.
That’s what Social Pulse: Retail Edition episode’s guest Staci O’Prey excels at. The field marketing manager at Coldwell Banker Realty chats with host Agorapulse’s Chief Storyteller Mike Allton.
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Could you share your initial approach to completely new industries?
Staci O’Prey: When I started in the marketing field as a consultant way back in 2004, my clients were marketing to my demographic. So it was easy. It was pediatric dentistry. I had a young son, so it fit me perfectly. It was a med spa. It was real estate where it was right at that time when I was looking to buy a home with my husband. So it was very easy for me to market.
To myself, I was the avatar, the customer persona as we like to call it, and that went on for about 10 years.
And then I ended up getting a client who was a lawn service and equipment provider and also golf carts. So at first, I wasn’t even sure I was going to take him on as a client. I was a little nervous and didn’t know if I could do well for them, so I just dug into it and researched them and their competitors.
When I looked online at their social following, which they didn’t have at the time, I also looked at their competitors, so I was able to get my feelers out for who it was that they were looking to help, what their pain points were, what the demographic was, and what the psychographics were.
It was a lot of research in the beginning, but it was well worth it.
How do you balance learning all this information about industry-specific trends and information with delivering marketing results as quickly as possible?
Staci O’Prey: When I took clients on, I would give about two weeks to do that research and understand who it was I was marketing to.
There’s a balance. So, when you bring on a new client, if it’s just social media, they expect day one, they’re going to have posts and engagement, and everything is going to be great. There’s learning and applying.
As you’re taking those two weeks to learn the client and learn the competitors, you also want to provide them with their marketing. In this example, social media. So what I did for this particular client at the time was while I was learning, I took their content.
I had them do a short video on who they were, what their why was, and what their story was. Some customer testimonials, some user-generated content. So I had things that were going out, and we were starting to build in the algorithm. We were starting to get noticed.
By the time I had to do some of the marketing and posts for a product or a service that they had, I already had some engagement there, and so I could get right into it, but I was always learning the whole time.
It was just that initial, I would say, probably the first 30 days of getting up and running, researching, getting content from them, sharing their story, and then going with the flow after that.
At first, for people who are just starting with social media marketing and they’re looking at a brand-new business, it can be a little bit overwhelming. But with all of the things that we have, all the tools that we have, especially now with AI, there was no AI, there was no ChatGPT when I was looking in and researching. So now you can even start your initial search with an AI product, say ChatGPT, get an outline and go from there.
What key strategies have you used with these new target audiences?
Staci O’Prey: I find that competitor research—let’s say again with that social media example and what are they posting? Are they advertising? You can find out what person or what company is advertising on Facebook, what their ads look like, and how much they’re advertising.
So it’s a sneak peek at what they’re doing but also finding out what that client or that prospect:
- What are their likes?
- Where are they found online?
- Where do they like?
- Are they a Facebook person?
- Are they Snapchat?
- What platforms are they on?
Understand what their pain points are.
Using the lawn equipment and service provider is so far from anything that I knew about. So it was like, “Okay, who are their clients?” They have homeowners. They have service providers, lawn and landscaping. I don’t know anything about that. I even went to the clubhouse at my HOA and asked the guy who ran the landscaping for our neighborhood. Just got an idea of the equipment that they used and just sparked up a conversation with him—which I always would say hi and see him—but understanding how much equipment do they have on their truck? What types of things do they look like they need help with? And I know it might sound odd, but that’s who I’m marketing to for certain products that they’re selling.
So I have to understand: How can I help them? I’m providing a service. They’re providing a service. What is going to make their lives easier? Again, what are their pain points?
And then fitting that into the content, even with the way that I would write a caption or an email subject line in the email body, something that I would write for a demographic like myself when I was doing pediatric dentistry. I know how to talk to a person, usually moms usually in the same age range.
With this particular client, I had changed my wording even from when we were moving and we ain’t taking it with us. We ain’t taking the things with us. Obviously, I wouldn’t use that at a med spa or I wouldn’t use that for pediatric dentistry, but trying to get in that lingo, and that talk of that demographic, I found helpful.
Now, I was the first person they had ever hired. They were waiting to hire someone in-house, so I was temporary, but wow, they were blown away because they never had one, they never had marketing. Two, the results that they got, the click rates, and the engagement on social media. It was new and it was fresh, and their friends and family started seeing some of this stuff.
But it was the first time I had ever done marketing for a product. I had always done service. For instance, in pediatric dentistry, you don’t just send something out and get a patient. It takes time. You have to build that trust. Same with a real estate agent. This isn’t “I’m sending you an email or I’m posting something on social media, and all of a sudden you want to list your home with me.”
It’s a long-term play. It’s a long game. And so when I did the product, I was blown away. Social media marketing organically. We were just doing it organically and just email and text campaigns. They were bombarded with people reaching out to try to get a product to get some lawnmowers, and they were selling golf carts, and they were blown away.
I was blown away because I don’t normally hear from the client that morning or that afternoon after something’s gone out they’ve just had five orders within the hour. So it does work if you know how to approach that demographic and that person that you’re looking to market to. It’s very important.
Have there been things that didn’t pan out how you’d hoped?
Staci O’Prey: There wasn’t anything that I’ve done with the client that was a total bomb. There was one instance where I was working with a real estate group and he wanted to build his YouTube channel and YouTube shorts weren’t around at that time.
This was probably 2019. We were doing long-form video, so I would say four to six minutes max, and it was all about for sale by owner and it’s one of those things across the board, and I should have said this before: Always do your keyword research. Because if you’re doing, if you’re marketing, whether it’s a dentist or a lawyer or a doctor and you’re putting this content together, you want to make sure that the way that you structure it is optimized for Google, SEO. So you want to search those keywords? What are people looking up?
And so I found it in this instance people weren’t really looking for a sale by owner, but this agent wanted to have a library on his YouTube channel, hopefully, to get some keywords in there and get picked up when people were searching it. But he wanted to have a library.
So what we did is we took that four to six-minute video and I chopped it up and I had little trailers, teasers, and now the reels. So we would put those out on Instagram and Facebook and then have them go, watch the whole video, and go back over to the YouTube channel. There weren’t a lot of, I think in the first month, maybe six people clicked on that video.
It was probably more than I thought, okay, this is really just for a library, but I wanted it to be successful. What we did after we finished it was like a seven-video series for sale by the owner. I thought, “Okay, they’re watching, there’s engagement on the short videos. Is it the length of the video? Is it the content, or is it the caption?”
I was working on his website at the same time as a web designer. He was an expert in seven neighborhoods and seven suburbs. I had him go to each of those areas and film a short 32nd neighborhood spotlight, which we called Neighborhood Spotlight, and he got in front of the camera. One of them was at a golf course and wrote a mini script for him saying, “This is where I’m at. Give some key points.” It’s 400 beautiful homes, just little tidbits about the area. Make it short and sweet. Put that on his YouTube, put that on his Instagram. And it was like 230 in the first two weeks.
So I thought, “Okay, that’s what they want to see. They want to see the actual area that they’re going to buy.” He focused on homebuyers. A lot of agents I’ve worked with focus on listings, but he was a home buyer. People want to see the area. We know how many people are coming to the San Antonio area. We’re pretty sure where they’re going to want to move, but let’s give him a little bit more because we want to let them know that he’s not only an expert in real estate, but he’s an expert in the communities in the area.
The more he was on camera, the more they got to know and trust him and feel comfortable with him.
I don’t know if the first sale by the owner would’ve been a failure but I like to think it was a win because we figured out that by cutting those videos down and changing the location and changing the topic, it ended up being an ultimate success. So it was a win-win, I think.
What role does creativity play in an unfamiliar industry?
Staci O’Prey: I think creativity is key because you’re learning, especially with a budget. I’ll start this with being creative and problem-solving with a budget. Because when a social media manager or marketing consultant brings on a client and you’re focused on small business owners, they don’t have a big budget.
So you have to do with what you have and be creative, such as user-generated content. Let’s say you have signed on to do five posts a week and get user-generated content. You can do contests, let’s say pediatric dentistry. Show us your smile and win a $50 coupon or an Amazon gift card or something like that.
One of the contests that we did—this is a while back, I just remembered—was Where in the World is Your Toothbrush? And so the kids, it was over summer break and they would go to grandma’s house with a toothbrush. They would go camping and take a picture of their toothbrush, and then that gave them, I think we had 110 photos submitted, and you could just post one a day. Now you wouldn’t want to do that ’cause that would get redundant. But all of that content you’re not needing, that client’s not needing to pay for someone to come up with a graphic design. That’s all user-generated content.
When I’ve worked with real estate agents, having user-generated content would be testimonials. Whatever industry marketing or a social media manager is niching or working on, there’s something that you can get testimonials for a yoga studio, testimonials for a coffee shop, any of those businesses, you could have those people that come into your business.
Take a photo, and tag the business. Put the location on in the business and that spreads and that goes a lot farther than having to advertise all the time.
Facebook advertising is expensive. So if you, I always say if you can nail down your organic and then you need some more, then obviously bring in that paid advertising.
There’s a quick example from during Covid I had just taken on this particular real estate group. At the end of 2019, so we were right on the cusp of everything getting shut down.
Now, a real estate agent is a local business, so would it be best to support your local businesses? We had all of the businesses basically shut down, all of the restaurants, all of the locally owned gift shops, all those things were shut down. And how did we figure out how to support them? What we did was we ran a couple of contests, so we were able to go in and get gift cards, and then we would have user-generated content, take a picture, or whatever.
I can’t remember exactly what the contest was, but we would have people just like you would see on Instagram and Facebook, tag a friend, do all that good stuff and then we could support the local business. They can’t go into the business, but they’re getting money by us giving them gift cards. So when they do open up the person who’s won that gift card and they were so appreciative of that.
When you’re supporting your local businesses and you are a local business, they’re going to support you back. I also tell clients that people are busy, especially the agents that I work with, and they can’t get on Facebook and Instagram, and LinkedIn and and comment on everything or post every day and put a new reel up.
But what they can do is maybe spend 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening after they’ve eaten dinner and comment and engage with local businesses and therefore support them. There are ways to get creative and sometimes we get more creative when we’re stuck against the wall.
But I like to think that most of us in the social media industry and the marketing industry are creative and we usually end up coming up with something good and we can brainstorm with the client also
How important is collaboration in adapting a marketing strategy to a new industry?
Staci O’Prey: I love that question. Collaboration first for the marketer is crucial.
When I first joined the Social Media Manager Group, probably in 2015 or 2014, I was looking for a group to take the classes, learn about the platforms, and learn about social media marketing in a little bit more formal setting versus just watching free YouTube videos. And I will tell you that was the best $1,400 or $1,500 I have ever spent. I am still in contact with those people who I went to classes with. We’ve done masterminds. We did one in Atlanta Georgia in 2019 when I needed help for a new client, a new industry. Those are the people that I go to. I do the research online, I do that, but I always reach out and say, “Has anybody ever done a golf coach or whatever industry it is?”
And there’s always someone in the group who has done that. So collaborating with your colleagues, I think, is huge. We had a big group with the Social Media Manager School, and then we had a little offshoot from that next-level marketing group. We had already been working in the field and doing that stuff, so the questions that you would get in the beginner group, like what’s your favorite third-party software?
Those things over and over, we were working on strategies in our group. Always helpful, especially if you are a solopreneur and you’re working from home, you don’t have a marketing team around you, and it’s always nice to bounce ideas off of other people. Having colleagues and building relationships with colleagues in your industry is key. Collaborating as a business I think is also very important because again, you’re both local businesses. If we’re talking in the local business space, I’m thinking of your local town and maybe a coffee shop and I’ll use a real estate agent again because you’re seeing the same people.
You’re living in the same area. This world is small, people seem to know everybody after a while, especially when you get online and oh, you know her and you know him. And I think it’s really about supporting each other, supporting other local businesses. We all have the same fears, is my business going to be successful? Am I reaching the right people? Am I reaching anybody? So collaborating both as a business and as a consultant, I think is huge. Very beneficial.
Mike Allton: It’s so huge. You’re so smart. Absolutely. And I couldn’t agree more with the point about connecting with colleagues. I’m a huge proponent of creating mastermind groups with you and just three or four other people who are not in your actual company, they’re in other companies, other businesses, or other solopreneurs, if that’s what you are as a social media marketing professional perhaps. But people who are about the same pace and place in their journey in life so that you guys can get on a call every week or every month and talk together about what you’re each experiencing and help each other.
It’s such a profound life experience to be able to help others ’cause, gosh, you’re helping yourself the whole time. I’m wondering though, because we’re talking about, joining a new industry, trying to figure out what the audience is. We’re learning a new company, of course, figuring out the market, and learning about the players in that space. What about the channels? Because I know, we’re talking about a couple of different industries. For instance, already in this conversation, some might be great on LinkedIn. Others obviously should be focusing on, say, Facebook or Instagram.
Do you have a process for testing or identifying the best channels for a particular industry?
Staci O’Prey: Absolutely. That’s where the research comes in handy. And the demographics where these people are online if you’re trying to target a 55-plus crowd. You’re not going to be on Snapchat, I believe Facebook is still the most popular social media platform, but you’re going to want to be where your clients and your prospects are a lot of testing.
You might know that this particular group of people that you’re targeting is usually on Facebook and Instagram. So start there. If you’re business to business, I think the obvious choice would be LinkedIn. But you don’t know until you try.
If you’re doing things organically, you have more leeway. If you’re a new social media manager, if you’re doing business with consumers, you go with the obvious. You see what your competitors are doing, where are they at? If they’re running ads, you can also check on that. But as I mentioned before, I believe you should always try to do the best organically, your foundation, your website, and your Google Business presence make sure everything is up and running in the foundation and build up from there. Some industries, I think, do need that constant Facebook advertising and Instagram advertising. I know I’m using those two platforms, but for a lot of the people that I worked with in the past, those were their key platforms.
But you do have to test, so go with the obvious. After you’ve done your research and you understand who your avatar is, and who your consumer is, see how that works. And then you can branch off, especially organically. You’re not losing anything.
You can go to LinkedIn if you want to reach the business crowd, even consumers, or on LinkedIn for a real estate agent.
They’re trying to reach consumers if they’re on Facebook and Instagram.
On LinkedIn, are they going to reach consumers? Sure. Is that going to be their main focus? Maybe they’re thinking, “I’m reaching out to title reps, mortgage lenders, property management, and relocation services.” That’s where they would probably do better on LinkedIn with a business approach. They would have to change their wording and their focus. But, using the obvious that you’ve researched and you’ve seen success in other businesses, especially your competitors, just keep an eye out on the landscape. Always know what’s going on. That’s the thing about social media, digital marketing, in general, is what we used to have, back in the day, we had postcards, flyers, and events, then we got a website, and then we’re emailing.
Now we have social media, and it just keeps expanding. Once you learn something, it’s like it’s already changed. You have to learn again. So you have to do that when you’re working with clients and figuring out this has worked for a while, but there’s a lot of noise around this new platform. Is this something that we want to investigate? You don’t have to throw all your eggs in one basket, but make sure that you’re on top of where people are going and what seems to be successful. You can do that by reading industry publications. I find a lot of information from Facebook groups, Mari Smith on Facebook, Social Media Examiner, Agorapulse blog, and my colleague groups, Google Alerts.
Social listening is always on top of it. So you know what is up and coming ’cause the worst thing is to have your client ask you about something, a new platform or something new that’s come out, they’ve seen the competitor do, and you don’t know anything about it. So it’s important. Once you’ve done the research you’re researching isn’t finished, it’s ongoing ’cause you have to go up with the times and the changes on all these platforms and new platforms too.
Mike Allton: That is terrific advice and thanks for shouting out folks like Mari Smith and Social Media Examiner and of course, I appreciate that. We’ll have links to those resources in the show notes.
We even talked to Mari on this show early on ’cause she has a fabulous resource as is folks like Jen Herman. If you want to keep up with what’s going on with Instagram, Mari is all about Facebook.
How are you currently measuring the business impact of this social media activity from that industry context?
Staci O’Prey: That’s a great question because social media managers share in the frustration when you take on a new client, they want to know why the competitor has 10,000 followers and they only have 300.
I think we’ve gotten a little bit away from that, but it was always about: How many followers can I get? You have 10,000 followers, but only 20 are interacting, so it’s more about quantity over quantity.
So, how do you measure that? Then you look at the engagement for social media, you can see the engagement. You can also see if you’re doing email campaigns, you can check all those analytics. Are people opening up the email? Do they click through? Are they going to the link that you wanted to send them to?
Advertising is easier because you’re paying for a certain amount, you’re getting those analytics that you can see right there, but organically it’s a little bit difficult to go to a client and explain that to them. It could be a slippery slope taking somebody on that’s just looking for a vanity metric—whereas the business overall would be healthier with quality engagement, measuring that, especially with those long game clients, those long-term clients, or the real estate agents where they’re not going to have someone knocking on the door, “You’ve been posting on my social media,” or “I’ve been posting on my social media for two months now and I haven’t gotten anything.”
It takes time, and you have to explain the organic process of the algorithm and getting those engagements in likes. Now, if you have a product, they have people coming in the door, not always, but you’re able to see more quickly, especially the client. “Oh my gosh, I’m getting all these phone calls!” So, that’s great. But you also have to provide them with analytics. So that could be people in the door, it could be the staff, making sure that when the client-customer comes, they mark in the database. “This person found us in the email, this person found us on Facebook.”
A lot of people don’t do that. Businesses, they’re busy. They might have a receptionist, somebody at the front desk, they’re busy, they’re not going to go back in and mark that. But that’s important. That’s old school. How many people came in the door and you marked it? If product-based or services like a yoga studio or a coffee shop. They could mark that down. But if you have a long game client, long-term client getting away from the vanity metrics and looking at the engagement, ’cause you’re going to see that growth eventually. And then with emails clicking through what’s happening? If you’re running ads, who are they going to your product page?
So I look at a lot of things. I look at a lot of different things and see what’s working. I don’t want to sound hokey, but I remember feeling a vibe when you met with the client, and things were going well. You just all were on the same energy wavelength and things were running, and so you want to stay and go with that and it makes the consultant or the social media manager want to do a better job.
Anything but vanity metrics. It’s good to get the extra followers. Always good to get engagements.
But when it comes to followers, don’t let that be the only thing you’re looking at, because, in the end, you want those quality people who are going to ultimately become customers.
Thanks for reading the highlights from this episode with Staci O’Prey. Don’t forget to find the Social Pulse Podcast: Retail Edition on Apple or Spotify, where we’re digging into the challenges, successes, and stories of social media and community professionals in the industry, just like you. And don’t miss other editions of the Social Pulse Podcast like the Hospitality Edition, Agency Edition, and B2B Edition.
