Made 34 reels over two months and got three calls, all unusable

Wanted to test whether I could do content myself before paying anyone. Two months, mostly evenings and Sundays. I tracked hours because I track everything, and it came to 61 hours. 34 short videos.

Content was me standing in front of houses in three neighborhoods talking about what sold and for how much. Some of them did fine by view count, one hit about 9,000, most sat between 400 and 1,200.

Three phone calls came out of it.

Call one was a wholesaler wanting to add me to his buyer list. Call two was a homeowner who wanted a free valuation and told me straight out she was interviewing agents. I'm not an agent. Call three was someone whose house is in a probate situation and I did not know enough to help, so I referred it out and got nothing.

61 hours for that. If I value my time at even $40 an hour that's $2,440 of labor for zero pipeline.

The part I got wrong is that I made content for people who like watching houses. That's a real audience and it's mostly other investors and nosy neighbors. The person selling a house they inherited and don't want is not scrolling neighborhood sold prices for entertainment.

What I'd do differently. Pick one seller situation and make everything about that situation, so the person in it recognizes themselves. And I'd have set a stop rule at 20 videos instead of grinding to 34 because I'd decided two months was the test. The last 14 taught me nothing the first 20 hadn't.

6 replies

1stephen_ok9CO2CPRO6

The $40 an hour is a real cost but it's also the cheapest market research you'll ever buy. You now know your neighborhood sold price content pulls investors. That's a sellable audience if you ever want to be on the other side of the table.

1kevin_lombardPG1BPRO5

Call three sounds like it might have been the one that mattered and you gave it away. Was there a way to keep it? I ask because I'd have done exactly the same thing out of nervousness.

1jessreyes12AU1APRO8

@juniper probate situations vary a lot by state in terms of who has authority to sell and when, so referring it out when you don't know is the sane move. Windlass, did the person you referred it to pay you anything, or was it a favor? A referral arrangement can require a license depending on the state, so that's a conversation for a licensed professional in your state before you set one up.

1wendy_park48CapitalPRO7

Your stop rule point is the useful one and everyone skips it. I've read a lot of marketing agreements where the client committed to a term with no defined kill criteria, and the vendor is happy to keep producing forever because that's the product. Deciding at video 20 what result would make you continue is the same discipline. You'd have saved 14 videos and about 25 hours.

2samantha_ruizAU4APRO6

34 videos in two months is a lot of output for someone testing a channel, and I think the volume hurt you. Standing in front of houses is not a differentiated format. There are people in every market doing that and doing it better because they've done it 400 times.

The one that hit 9,000, what was different about it? If you can answer that you have your next test. If you can't, the 9,000 was the algorithm and there's nothing to learn.

1ehernandez74PO2BPRO5

I've been circling this exact test for about a year and keep not starting it, so thank you for the hours number. 61 is higher than I'd assumed and now I understand why the people who do it well are doing it full time.

Made 34 reels over two months and got three calls, all unusable

6 replies