How one real estate agent turned Instagram reels into closings
North Carolina-based agent Emily McAllister generates half of her revenue on Instagram and focuses on creating local content that adds value to her ideal client groups. Jimmy Burgess sits down with her to find out exactly how she does it.
Whether it’s refining your business model, mastering new technologies or discovering strategies to take advantage of the next market wave, Inman Connect New York will prepare you to take bold steps forward. The next chapter is about to begin. Be part of it. Join us and thousands of real estate leaders January 22-24, 2025.
Success on social media is not just about the number of views. It’s about focusing on and delivering content that specific viewers want and need. Emily McAllister of Greenville, North Carolina, generates more than 50 percent of her revenue by producing local content that focuses on purposefully delivering value to her ideal customer groups.
Over her eight-year career, McAllister has seen her company evolve from traditional business growth strategies to more modern, social media-focused marketing. She accidentally found herself having success on TikTok, but even though she was getting a lot of engagement and building brand awareness, she had no control over the kind of audience she was building, and that wasn’t translating into the business growth she desired .
This led her to switch from TikTok’s strategy of focusing as much on content as possible to a more targeted content strategy on Instagram, focusing geographically and demographically on targeted content for her ideal customers.
TAKE THE INMAN INTEL INDEX STUDY FOR NOVEMBER
These changes have resulted in a thriving business that allows her to share her passion for the Greenville area in a way that continues to attract more business.
Her content mix includes roughly 35 percent local real estate content and 65 percent community-focused content. Her Instagram page is one that agents can use as a model to build a local audience for themselves. Below are some specific examples of what’s working for her right now.
Turn on a normal home tour video
Many agents do a video walk-through or short video highlighting their listing. McAllister has added a twist to unlock a specific group of potential buyers for her listing. The change she made was not only to showcase the home, but also to get very specific in her targeting of move-up buyers.
“I started this video with an appeal to a very specific audience. “I started with a close-up of myself standing in front of a beautiful ‘buy-out’ house, and as I spoke, I turned the camera back for a full view of the house,” McAllister said. She starts all of her videos with a few different taglines, and in this video she says after the tagline, “If you bought a starter home in Pitt County before 2020, this post is for you because you can buy a starter home in Pitt County. house like this with a mortgage payment of just under $2,000, using the equity you most likely have in your current home.
She uses ManyChat with the call to action reel to receive the full mortgage specification to their email address, courtesy of her lender. She has the lender calculate how much the down payment for the house would be to get the mortgage payment under $2,000. In the case of this home, it was $115,000, and she said she knows anyone who bought a starter home in her market before 2020 most likely has $115,000 in equity.
She said many local people won’t comment in the comments section because they worry about other people “knowing their stuff,” but many message her directly for more information. She also said that converting the reel into an Instagram story with a link to the details has been the most productive way this type of content has generated leads for her.
“While the public engagement on this type of video may not seem high, the specific targeting has made this one of the best types of videos I have created to speak directly to a specific potential customer. My early success on TikTok was both a blessing and a curse. It taught me to pursue likes and engagement even if they wouldn’t grow a specific audience that would be useful. I’m now more focused on how specific messages attract the attention of specific people I can help,” said McAllister.
Video about local restaurant specials
Another big part of building her personal brand on Instagram was her hyper-local content to Greenville. By sharing details about local businesses, she helps them gain exposure for their businesses, but she also stands out as a resource for all things Greenville. A recent video that performed well was in which she highlighted five local restaurant specialties for each weeknight.
She started the video by saying, “Here are five Greenville weekday specials in 30 seconds.” She then shot quick clips of herself enjoying the special at each location. She said the companies loved it, and she added them all as contributors to the post, expanding their audience. This reel generated over 1,000 likes and over 500 shares.
Videos of people on the street (unique ad promotion strategy)
“Person on the Street” videos are a format first made popular by late-night hosts. This format also performs at a high level on social media. This involves asking random people on the street a question that often comes with a prize if the correct answer is given.
McAllister recently used this format, promoting her new ad by playing a game she called “The Listing Price is Right.” She offered a $100 gift card to the person who guessed closest to the list price without going over the price. This format is attractive, and the idea of not knowing what might happen or what someone might say makes for an engaging video and additional promotion for the listing.
Meet me at local events
McAllister said one of the biggest “aha” moments she had was that local success on social media is not just about social media presence, but also about community presence. One of the ways she has connected her social media to her presence in the community is by promoting local events.
She will highlight an upcoming event and let people know she will be attending. This sparks conversations with people who attended the event and learned about it from her Instagram video. This has also led to event coordinators and local businesses asking her to attend and promote their events or grand openings. These videos continue to create engagement with her local community and potential customers. She also makes videos while attending the event to make her content more personal as well.
If you want to turn your Instagram page into a business-generating platform by 2025, focus on local, targeted content. If you’re looking for an example of someone doing this well, check out Emily McAllister on hair Instagram page.
Jimmy Burgess is a broker and national team builder at Real Brokerage in Northwest Florida, serving the 30A, Destin and Panama City Beach markets. Connect with him Instagram And LinkedIn.
