Facebook: NAA auction pros use targeted tools to best market to your asset needs

Armed with loads of data,
NAA’s ATS designation curriculum is punching conventional auction marketing theory in its gut feeling.

By Curtis Kitchen, NAA Director of Communications

I had heard John Schultz’s story before – how the Chief Marketing and Technology Officer for Grafe Auction Company, in Chatfield, Minnesota, decided to go rogue and spit in the face of traditional auction marketing.

Without as much as a whisper to anyone, including his boss, Schultz strapped on his life preserver – loads of buyer and seller behavioral data he had collected – and jumped full into a deep strategy of cutting off print advertising for his company’s auctions. Instead, he directed those efforts and dollars into digital pieces – Facebook advertising, specifically.

His data lifejacket popped him to the top almost immediately, and Schultz finally spilled the beans to coworkers after about three months, only after they began noticing substantial increases in auction attendance, website traffic, higher bids and higher sales.

Print and print advertising aren’t dead; but from that turning point back in 2013, they no longer were openly welcome to live in Schultz’s marketing plans.

Schultz now shares this story with an earned certain amount of prideful glee each time he presents as an instructor with the National Auctioneers Association’s Auction Technology Specialist (ATS) designation course. He caps the tale by explaining how he’ll still use print materials when forced, only to sadistically prove to a seller, after-the-fact, how much advertising money was wasted based on the number of buyers who a) attended, or b) bought something.

At an NAA ATS course held in Atlanta last month, while some of the room shared it had a little experience with Facebook advertising, everyone, including seasoned users, were blown away as Schultz showed living proof of how “valleys are now lower than our previous peaks” with regard to website visits and how he has mastered the Facebook Lookalike Audiences tool. (NAA also uses this tool and others to push content marketing and social media marketing initiatives.)

Schultz expertly illustrated the why’s and how’s on data collection, and, more importantly, how to apply Facebook data so that it sharpened his marketing campaigns.

He and Robert Mayo, of Mayo Auction & Realty, in Belton, Missouri, have teamed up to share their knowledge as NAA ATS instructors – spreading their digital influence to hundreds of NAA members from all corners of the country since the designation’s curriculum was reenergized last year from simply providing online auctions to sharpening all levels of auction marketing management. Topics covered include: digital marketing; social media; brand development; marketing tools; remarketing tactics; project management; better data collection and analytics implementation; and, others.

With its curriculum now intact, the ATS designation will officially complete its branding metamorphosis in July 2016 when it becomes Auction Marketing Management (AMM).

For buyers and sellers, it is another huge, modern benefit to finding and using an NAA Auction Professional through the NAA website at auctioneers.org/find-auctioneer. Use the search and find the highly-educated, ethical NAA auction professional in your area who best fits your specific asset needs.