Robert Cedeno‘s team has 166 closed and pending transactions for the year, which comes to about $112 million in volume. He’s built his Instagram following without paying for a single ad.
Done right, a listing video can pull in thousands of views. But the next step, turning a viewer into someone you’re talking to on the phone, is where a lot of agents get stuck.
Cedeno sat down with The Broke Agent to walk through how his team gets there. It starts with how he sets up his Instagram pages and runs all the way through the DMs.
Read on for the plays that will lead to more conversations in Q4 and beyond.
Separate Pages for Separate Audiences
Cedeno runs three Instagram accounts, and each one is built for a different person on the other side of the screen.
- Personal page: Tips and entertainment for other agents, which helps him recruit for his team of about 25 agents
- SoCal home tour page: Home tours for consumers in the Inland Empire, covering San Bernardino and Riverside counties
- Rob Sells Homes: The same home tour playbook, run in L.A. County after his recent move there
His home tour pages leave out agent-facing content, and he estimates family posts make up about 2 to 3% of what goes up there. When The Broke Agent asked about the consumer page, Cedeno explained how he thinks about Instagram.
“I’m on Instagram to get business. I’m not here to keep up with the Joneses. I’m not here to keep my family updated. I have group chats for that. I’m strictly here to attract consumers and that’s what we do on this page.”
He keeps the pages apart because he talks about leads on his agent page, and he doesn’t want consumers seeing that word. He said mixing agent content with consumer content would confuse the people he’s trying to reach.
The Broke Agent added that niche accounts tell Instagram who to push the content to, so the algorithm isn’t bouncing between agents and consumers.
The personal page does its own work offline. Cedeno said people he meets at events recognize him from his videos, which makes it easier to start a conversation in the room.
“When somebody is sitting next to you, they don’t really know who you are and then you’re like, ‘Hey, what’s your Instagram?’ …I only have 50-some thousand followers, but they see the consistency all the time. They’re like, ‘Dude, you’re crushing it!’ And it just opens up other conversations.”
Four CTAs in Every Caption
Cedeno’s listing captions give viewers four ways to respond. The Broke Agent read them off one of the posts, and Cedeno ranked how each one performs for his team.
- Comment a keyword: Brings in the most engagement, and an automation sends each commenter a DM
- Text a keyword: Brings in the most phone numbers and CRM contacts, with an automated text reply
- Click the link in bio to search homes: Cedeno called the website option “okay”
- Book a 15-minute call through the link in bio: Brings in 3 to 5 bookings a month, and those convert at around 40%
Cedeno cross-posts his videos to Facebook, and he said people there pick up the phone and dial the number in the caption.
“We’re getting this combination of people texting in and actually calling in. So, I think it’s super important to have that call to action with your phone number on there. And then that gets assigned to one of our agents.”
The Broke Agent pointed out that the harder an action is to take, the more serious the lead tends to be. He guessed texting appeals to people who aren’t used to comment-for-DM automation, or who simply prefer communicating by text message.
The DM That Ends With a Question
When someone comments on a listing, Cedeno’s team doesn’t send them a link to a property website.
He explained why.
“We still need to withhold some information. Where people make the mistake is they send them the address to give them all the info that they need. They no longer need the Realtor to give them info. So, we’ll give them basic info, price, size of the home, bedroom count, bathroom count.”
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Every DM ends with a question. Cedeno shared the ones his team uses:
- Is this something that you’re considering?
- Is this something that you’re looking at?
- Are you looking for a home in this area?
- Would you like to schedule a showing?
He wants the messages to read as natural and a little messy, so they feel like they came from a real person on his team.
When his team sets up automation, the first message sometimes includes two buttons. Tapping “yes, looking for something like this” leads to a message asking for a good number to call. Tapping “need something else” leads to a question about price range.
Once the person replies, one of Cedeno’s virtual assistants (VAs) takes over the conversation.
Three to Five Messages, Then Ask for the Number
Cedeno’s VAs handle the DMs on his consumer pages, and they follow one rule. After three to five messages of back-and-forth, they ask for a phone number.
“We’re not there to get emails. We’re there to get phone numbers.”
If the chat keeps going, the VA tells the person it’d be easier to jump on a phone call and asks for a good number. Agents ask Cedeno how he gets people to hand over their number.
“People always ask me, how do you ask for the phone number? You just ask for it: ‘What’s a good phone number?’ And it works.”
Once the number comes in, an agent on his team makes the call. Cedeno told The Broke Agent he leaves those calls to his agents and sees himself as “the rainmaker on the lead side,” bringing in opportunities for the team.
Why He Stopped Messaging New Followers
A lot of agents and brands send an automated DM the moment someone follows them. Cedeno’s team did this for a while.
“When we would send that original message, a lot of people would unfollow us. So, they would follow us and then they get scared that we’re messaging them.”
His team decided their lead flow was strong enough to let new followers watch his content for a while before anyone reached out. He posts several times a day, so a new follower sees plenty of it. He hasn’t used the welcome DM in the last year, and he said tactics like this tend to work for a stretch and then stop.
The Broke Agent agreed and said an automated welcome takes away from the experience of following someone.
Relatable. For a lot of folks, a DM right after the follow is too much too soon. It’s like looking at one sweater in a department store and having someone walk up and ask, “Do you want to try that on?”
Instant no, thanks. And if you’re like me, you’re already looking at the nearest exit.
When it comes to responding to DMs, the play depends on the page. When Cedeno gets DMs on his personal page, he answers those himself, without his VAs.
Map Your Own Path From Post to Phone Call
Cedeno’s system starts with knowing who each page is for and ends with an agent on the phone. If you want to test pieces of it, your captions and DM templates are a good place to start:
- Give viewers more than one way to respond, including a text option with your phone number
- End every DM with a question and hold back some details for the call
- Set a message limit before you ask for a phone number
Watch the full episode with Robert Cedeno to enjoy the full conversation and to learn more about how he uses Instagram and AI to attract leads with content his viewers love to share.
