Saturday night in the 90s, my family had a ritual.
We’d pile into the car, drive to Blockbuster, spend twenty minutes arguing about what to watch, and leave with a film and a bag of pick and mix.
It was an event.
Blockbuster had 9,000 stores.
Every high street.
Every retail park.
Every town in the country practically had one.
They were impossible to miss.
And they still lost, spectacularly.
Not because Netflix out spent them.
Not because Netflix had better locations or bigger signs.
Netflix didn’t have any stores at all.
What they did was put themselves in front of the right client.
A tactic that so many mortgage brokers & estate agents aren’t doing.
Back in the late 90s, DVD players were brand new.
Only around 1 or 2% of households owned one.
Netflix worked out that the person buying a DVD player was the exact person who would want their service.
So instead of waiting to be found, they went and put a voucher to rent their favourite films inside the box of every new DVD player sold.
Think about that for a second.
The moment someone got home, opened the box and set up their new player, there was Netflix. Right there. At the exact moment that person was ready to use it.
Blockbuster just waited for people to walk through the door.
Netflix showed up where their ideal customer already was.
Now think about your Facebook page.
You’re posting.
You’re showing up.
You’re doing the right things.
But you’re Blockbuster.
You’re waiting for people to walk through the door.
The brokers who are actually winning right now are doing two things in the Facebook groups where there ideal clients are.
- They’re sharing their content in those groups. A post they’ve already written, dropped into a community where the right people will actually see it.
- They’re commenting. Genuinely helping. Answering the question someone just posted. Not pitching. Just showing up as the person who knows their stuff.
One useful comment in the right group at the right moment does more than a month of posting on your own page, hoping someone stumbles across it.
Blockbuster had 9,000 stores and waited.
Netflix put a voucher in the box.
You already have the content.
Now put it where the right people already are.
Chris