Last week I chatted w/ Mike Lefebvre, known as The Uncommon Agent, on Twitter. Within minutes of adding him to my list of Twitter friends, he pinged me and said, “As a video-minded guy, you’ll dig what I did. Search for homes in Medfield, Ma on Trulia and click my ad…..feedback appreciated!”
So, I did. And there he was, with a pretty unique Trulia Pro Spotlight Ad.
After clicking the ad, I was taken to this YouTube video Mike created which won the Century 21 Video contest and won his clients $21,000. Pretty amazing if you ask me.
Appreciating Mike’s creativity using Trulia Pro and video, I just had to get the inside scoop. So, without further adieu, here’s my conversation with Mike:
Rudy: What made you want to try Trulia Pro?
Mike: I was a Trulia early adopter. Like what they’re trying to do. Think they have a talented team in place. Been a fan of Trulia Voices since its inception and for $39/month, why wouldn’t you try Trulia Pro?
Rudy: Do you have a strategy for using Trulia Pro? If so, what is it?
Mike: I try to answer Trulia Voices questions that I can provide some valuable insight on. I tend to let questions that I DO NOT have a solid, helpful answer on slide, even if they are local. The ability to show up on search pages for the 20 communities I target is a no-brainer. The ability to target people WHILE THEY ARE SEARCHING and link them to ANY SITE YOU CHOOSE is a fantastic opportunity. I am choosing to bring visitors to a specific video message intended personally for them, rather than linking to my Trulia profile or some static website. My strategy is “talk to them directly at the moment when they are most likely open to it”. Introduce yourself through video at a point when they most likely will be in the mood to listen. Now that I’ve given my strategy away, I’m sure we will see a lot more Trulia Pro ads linking to video messages, right? 
Just not in my backyard, OK, or I will have to go after you! Let it be known I pioneered this strategy!
Rudy: How did you decide what geographic areas to target?
Mike: With 20 areas to target, I simply chose the 20 most proximate towns in the metrowest suburbs of Boston, where I do most of my work. I will probably switch out the ones that are not performing as well with new ones. I may look into taking out my LEAST performing towns and substituting the zip codes for my MOST performing towns. I learned that my ad comes up in searches for Natick, MA but not in searches for 01760 (Natick’s zip code).
Rudy: How many impressions have you had?
Mike: 20,881 as of today (joined 6/19/08)
Rudy: Has anyone contacted you or mentioned the your ad? What were their comments?
Mike: No direct contact yet, but it has been less than one month. The people who HAVE contacted me are fellow real estate professionals who like the way I was linking the ad to the video. BTW- it originally linked to a video on vimeo.com but my vimeo account was deleted because I violated the non-commerical agreement with vimeo! I worked with Dalas over at vimeo (cool guy), eliminated the commercial-esque videos on vimeo, re-activate my vimeo site and re-directed the Trulia Pro ad link to a YouTube video.
Rudy: What do your clients think of the ad?
Mike: Not sure yet. Although feedback has been positive it is mostly from colleagues in the business so far. Looking forward to click through stats!
Rudy: How has video helped you and your business?
Mike: Earned me a sort of national reputation within the RE blogosphere. Locally, it helps differentiate me on listing appointments. Won my sellers $21,000 in Franklin, MA! Definitely helped sell the house in the “Steak Out in Franklin, MA” video. We put the home under agreement THE VERY SAME DAY the corporate contacts from Century 21 were up here to present my sellers with the grand prize. This particular video also won me an audience (of only 50) with Seth Godin for a day-long seminar. Met some other cool people in NYC on that trip as well. PS- BTW Rudy, my online stuff has presented me with some pretty interesting opportunities.
Thanks Mike!
How creative are you with your advertising?
If you have an interesting Trulia story to share, please contact me at rudy [at] trulia [dot] com.
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July 14th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
Great stuff MIKE!
I think it has to do with his uncommon name. : )
The video was, and still is just awesome!
July 14th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
July 14th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
I knew mike was an agent to watch from the first moment I saw his winning video. Thanks for sharing with the rest of us
at least I’m way down here in Georgia!
July 14th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
Mike, this is absolute genius! I am floored. Fabulous work, you absolutely deserve the big win, and I am totally inspired to make better videos.
Bowing,
Diane
July 17th, 2008 at 5:45 am
I too have signed up with Trulia Pro. It’s only been about a week so I like to give things 4-6 months before making a decision on what to do. Realtor.com should learn a few things about making it easy and cost affective to advertise on their site too.
Realtor.com please take note: Though there are those agents who are blessed and very successful, asking agents to pay ridiculous
advertising amounts is absurd and in bad taste. Take a good look and see what others are doing and why don’t you make an effort to at least compete before you get run over in the near future and embarrass the members of the NAR.
July 23rd, 2008 at 5:47 pm
That sounds like he definitely knows how to get attention and that is what real estate is all about.
November 5th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Cool!