Ever feel like you’re doing ALL the things with your marketing but still not seeing the results?

In this episode, Chelsea and Kayla are doing a deep dive into exactly how to audit your own marketing to find those sneaky gaps that might be holding you back. They’re breaking down the most common missing pieces they see when agents DM them asking “what am I doing wrong?” and giving you the framework to finally start building that sustainable, referral-generating business you’ve been working toward.

The Power of Self-Auditing Your Marketing

Your social media marketing is going to take time and practice to get to that place where you love what you’re posting.

You’re not going to wake up one day and suddenly be able to create amazing reels. It takes constant reps — getting better on video, talking on camera, and editing reels.

We want you to get to the place where when someone asks, “What’s your handle?” you don’t say, “Oh, I don’t really post a lot. My IG is just pictures of my kids.”

We want you to confidently say, “My handle is @realtor____ and you are going to LOVE it there! I post about ___.”

Right now, you might be following the steps, posting relevant content, but still feeling stuck. Usually, there are just a few key things missing that are preventing all that hard work from converting into conversations and clients, so let’s do a social media audit, starting with…

The #1 Marketing Mistake Most Agents Make

The number one thing we always think when we look at someone’s feed is: Are you having conversations?

Because if you’re not having conversations, you’re not building the community aspect around your brand. It comes down to when you’re sharing content — are you making it conversational?

It can be as simple as “I’m watching The Summer I Turned Pretty, are you Team Conrad or Jeremiah?” or weaving any trending topic into your content, but what matters is making your content feel friendly and approachable.

This is content we feel seen in or have an opinion about.

When you’re creating content, think: Would someone send this to a friend? Would they feel inspired by it? Would they think, “I can relate to that”? Or would they think, “That’s not for me because I’m not buying or selling right now”?

Social media is like relationships in real life. You don’t start a relationship by asking, “What are your values? What’s your schedule?” You start with, “Wait, you have a kid too? My kid’s in that grade!”

There’s a quote we love: “In a world full of look-at-me girls, be a come-with-me girl.”

It’s not just showing “look at my cool living room.” It’s more like, “Okay, what do we think about this? Do you agree with me here, or am I totally off my rocker?”

That builds community. Maybe some people will only come for that content and not stay for your real estate stuff. But they’re going to remember that you do that. And when their friend says, “Hey, I’ve been looking for a good realtor,” they’ll say, “I know a girl.”

It’s the long game. But real estate IS the long game.

Make Your Feed More Personal

Audit Question #1: Am I showing more than just real estate graphics? Am I showing my personality in some way?

When we talk about making marketing more personal, we often hear questions like, “Why would sharing what I’m making for dinner make someone hire me to sell their home?”

Yes, it would be so much easier if you could just post a lead gen story prompt and get people to automatically drop their email.

But the truth is that if you do that without a personal approach, very few people are going to respond! You have to build the relationships first. When people are bought into you and your brand and they like you as a person, they’re way more likely to respond to your marketing.

Start by considering your personality traits, interests, and favorite things to do.

If you love to clean and organize (hello, Monica from Friends!), you could do home organization content for getting ready for market. “We’re going to make your home look like Monica Geller was here for three days before the buyers get here.”

The point isn’t to have a feed that screams “look how fun I am!” The point is to give people something about you to remember.

Your Feed vs. Your Stories

Audit Question #2: Am I showing my personality in Stories?

Your feed is like your storefront — it shows people what you talk about and the value you bring. Your stories are like walking inside the store — that’s where the real conversations happen.

No one’s coming to you direct from a post saying, “I want to sell my house with you.” It’s much more probable that when they inquire, they’ve already been consuming your stories for a while.

Does that mean you should you only post in stories? No, because your stories rarely reach new people. That happens through your feed. So you have to post in your feed to get a constant stream of new people viewing your stories!

But if posting personality stuff in your feed feels overwhelming right now, start with your stories. Picture them as having a group chat with your friends.

Share what you’re cooking for dinner, little pieces of your life throughout your day. Make your audience feel like they’re driving around in your car with you as an agent. Where are you getting coffee? What house are you showing? Take a picture at a subdivision entrance and say, “Showed a cute two-story today.”

The strategy is documenting over creating, always keeping the content cocktail of personal, real estate, and local in mind!

The Face-to-Camera Challenge

Audit Question #3: Are you showing your face and voice in your videos?

We look at feeds all the time where people say, “I don’t know why this isn’t working,” and we’re like, “I don’t even know what you sound like. I know nothing about you.”

We know it can be intimidating to speak directly to the camera. But if you’re not willing to practice, you’re not going to get better. Marketing is like a muscle you have to work out; you have to get those reps in!

When you audit your Instagram, look at your first nine squares. Is there at least one video of you talking to the camera or one video with a voiceover? It’s nearly impossible to come across as real, relatable, and approachable without sharing your voice.

What’s going to cost you more time? Posting just to check the box and not getting results? Or doing a reel with your voice that someone can actually hear?

Look at accounts with millions of followers like Mel Robbins or Gary Vee — their feeds aren’t the prettiest, but they’re full of videos showing their face and voice.

Challenge for this week: Post something where you’re talking to the camera within one week of reading this, and tag us because we want to see you!

Why You Can’t Skip Email

Audit Question #4: Have you been sending emails every other week?

In reality, 97% of your followers aren’t seeing your Instagram content. But every time you send an email, 100% of those subscribers see your name in their inbox. Are you going to take advantage of that or not?

At minimum, send one paragraph with a little story about something you’re up to. Maybe you came home from showings and your kids didn’t do the dishes, and it got you thinking about priorities. Tie that into real estate somehow. Then add one more thing — something local going on or a listing you have.

Here’s a real example from Chelsea: “Have you ever had one of those weeks where you just can’t keep up? I have this local hack called Simple Eats MKE — their food is amazing and saves me so much time.” Then add a P.S. about what you’re up to on Instagram and link to a recent post.

You sent an email, shared something valuable, highlighted a local business, and drove them back to your Instagram. That’s the most bang for your buck.

What happened today that you could turn into a quick story? What recommendation do you have from something you tried recently? What are you doing this weekend?

If you’re sending emails, you’re building long-term clients for yourself. That’s how you compress time and make this work faster.

Simple Profile Fixes That Make You More Memorable

Audit Question #5: Is my profile optimized?

This might sound basic, but it’s super important!

Use your face as your profile picture, not a logo. We just told an agent recently that we almost accidentally deleted her message because her profile picture was a logo, and we initially thought it was spam. If it had been a face, we would have been much more likely to open it.

Lead with your name in the name field. No matter what your handle is, put your name first. You can say “Kayla Fox | Columbia City Realtor” but lead with your name. When you DM people, if the message says “Columbia City Realtor” instead of “Kayla,” they’re probably going to delete it or assume you’re trying to sell them something.

Make your handle simple. Don’t be creative with it. Make it something easy to type like @RealtorChelsea or @ChelseaPeterson. Avoid initials, abbreviations, or middle initials that make it confusing to type.

Here’s the ultimate test: Go to your account right now and pretend one of your friends told someone at baseball to look you up because you’re an awesome realtor. What are they going to find?

Are they going to be able to figure out anything about you personally? Are they going to be able to connect with you in some way?

Is your bio clear about where you sell real estate and how you help someone? Or is it just “dog mom, I love books and I’ll help you find your dream home”? Make it deeper.

Ask yourself: Would you follow you? Look at the accounts you choose to follow and look at yours. What’s the difference? What would make you want to follow you? If you don’t see it, make some adjustments.

The Time and Money Audit

Audit Question #6: Am I investing my time and money on what matters?

If you’re saying “I don’t have time for all this,” do an audit of your schedule. Track what you do every hour for a full day. You’ll likely find things like mindlessly scrolling Instagram or watching Love Island (if you have time to watch Love Island, you have time to do something dramatic because it’s such a time requirement).

What about time-consuming activities that aren’t moving the needle? Creating graphics, addressing flyers, sending mailers to people who aren’t interested. Not only are you wasting time, you’re wasting money too.

Audit your spending: What are you pumping money into monthly? When we paid for Zillow leads, we couldn’t get past the fact that we were working for free until we closed so many leads. We were spending time with non-serious buyers who made us jump when they said jump.

When you operate out of desperation, you get desperate results — time wasted, money wasted, working for free. Get more focused. Audit your time and spending. What can you eliminate that isn’t building the business you want?

Start Getting Results

Our goal for you isn’t to have some fancy influencer-status social media account. The goal is building a brand that makes people say, “I thought of you before I ever knew I was moving.”

That’s why we send emails. That’s why we show up in our stories. That’s why we talk about personal things that connect and get us having conversations. These things aren’t fluffy or extra!

As a real estate agent, you’re going to be overwhelmed. You own a business, you’re helping clients with unrealistic expectations. There’s always a million things you could do or improve.

Instead of fighting the overwhelm (because it’s never going away), learn to dance with the overwhelm. Accept it, embrace it, and get very clear and focused on the things that are going to move the needle.

Whatever you’re doing consistently, that’s what’s going to work. You do open houses consistently? You’ll probably get leads. You send postcards consistently? You might get someone to call. You send emails consistently? You’re going to have referrals.

Pick what you’ll be consistent with, but know it’s going to feel overwhelming sometimes. Nothing worthwhile ever comes easy.

Homework: Start working on your social media audit!

The marketing you’re avoiding is probably exactly what’s going to get you the results you’re looking for!

This episode was edited by Adrienne Cruz.