Should Agents Outsource Their Marketing?

Time is money for real estate agents—so if you find yourself too busy, consider outsourcing your marketing efforts

By Steve Hendershot

For REALTORS^®, all marketing is personal—their personality, after all, is part of their value proposition.

But that’s not to say that REALTORS^® should handle all their marketing personally. Time is one issue, because every minute spent designing a flyer is a minute not devoted to making a call, studying the market or closing a deal. Second, not every REALTOR^® has the design chops needed to craft a flyer that potential clients will find compelling.

Yet for the REALTORS^® who find a way to incorporate a winning marketing plan into a healthy overall business strategy, the payoff can be enormous.

So what’s the secret to balancing successful marketing with the other needs of a thriving real-estate practice? For many REALTORS^® and agencies, the solution is to outsource at least some aspects of marketing.

For example, Melinda Chamberlin, CRS, broker and owner of the Melinda Chamberlin Team at Keller Williams Living in Cleveland, Ohio, pays one company to send out a team-branded, monthly newsletter to her clients and another to send those clients emails several times per month. Chamberlin’s administrative assistant also helps with marketing tasks including social posts, printed materials and logistics for client appreciation events.

“Making the best social media post is not my strength. It would take me forever and it would drain the best part out of me,” says Chamberlin.

Instead, she relies on vendors Buffini & Company and Follow Up Results to reach out to clients with content such as market updates and homeownership tips. Chamberlin looks to her team to handle logistics so she can do what she does best: build relationships through conversation. At Thanksgiving, when Chamberlin offered complimentary pies to clients, 165 of them took her up on the offer—and she personally handed off each one of them. The event led directly to four referrals.

Chamberlin thrives upon touchpoints like these, but she knows they’re only possible because she isn’t tied down writing mass emails every week. Marketing support “allows me to concentrate on what’s important,” Chamberlin says.

Ryan Rohlf, CRS, owner and chief client advocate of the dsmSOLD team at the Keller Williams Legacy Group in Des Moines, Iowa, pursues a similar strategy using a hybrid approach: He contracts with Ogden, Utah-based company Cyberbacker to hire a full-time marketing contractor. The contractor is a college student in the Philippines, named Aldrin Tamang, who is studying advertising and public relations. Tamang assists Rohlf with tasks including producing social media content and writing blogs ranging from a home warranties guide to a rundown of top Des Moines-area coffee shops.

Prior to hiring his marketing assistant, Rohlf designed many of his own marketing materials. Now Tamang does it all—and does it so effectively that Rohlf says Tamang has become the most valued part of his marketing mix. Rohlf says he would cut spending on online ads and even forgo his team’s office space before parting with his trusted Cyberbacker.

“It’s taken a lot of weight off of me so that I can focus on making more calls and connections and casting a vision beyond the day to day,” Rohlf says.

Using marketing vendors to add polish and capability

Tamang helps Ryan Rohlf spend more time focusing on cultivating relationships and making deals, but that doesn’t capture the full extent of Tamang’s value: He’s also just better at online marketing than Rohlf.

“He’s not only taking things off my plate, he’s doing them 10 times better than me,” Rohlf says.

That points to a second reason for REALTORS^® to consider outsourcing some portion of their marketing: External marketing specialists can usually do it better than agents who don’t have formal training. Hiring a top-notch contractor or firm can be pricey, but it can also be a means of standing out. That’s especially valuable in the luxury home market where competition is fierce and potential clients are accustomed to high-gloss communications.

“You have to know your market,” says Gina Robichaux, broker associate at Coldwell Banker Realty in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. “My clients shop in high-end stores, they have the luxury automobiles and they’re used to seeing high-end marketing materials.”

So when Robichaux turned to an external partner to produce and mail a monthly printed newsletter to her clients, she knew it needed to meet a high standard of design, personalization and value. She found a vendor that could execute pieces at the level of quality she desired, and she now pays them to send regular mailings to clients and prospective clients in two key communities. The contract includes an exclusivity clause, so that vendor doesn’t work with any other agents in those communities.

“I chose somebody with a high standard, and they’re not inexpensive—but these are high-quality pieces, and they’re worth it,” Robichaux says.

Mix and match

External partners can even be valuable when agents remain highly involved in the creation of marketing materials. For example, Maxine Golden, CRS, broker at BrokerInTrust Real Estate-Maxine Golden in Newport Beach, California, writes and records her own videos for her “1031 Exchange Lady” YouTube channel she’s created, aimed at building visibility and credibility among beginner real estate investors.

Golden has hired film crews many times to augment the polished listings of million-dollar homes for sale. Her YouTube marketing efforts deliberately have a very different tone, as she strives for down-to-earth relatability. That humble aesthetic also means production costs aren’t high. Golden relies on her vendor, VidiUp, to add graphics and closed captioning, put the videos online and supply performance reports. Perhaps VidiUp’s most useful contribution is coaching, as over the last year, Golden has grown more comfortable and confident on camera.

“I can speak to large groups really easily, but to talk in front of a camera is the most difficult thing for me,” says Golden. “I’ve improved, which is what happens when you practice a lot. But this is the real me, and it’s a lot of fun.”

That sentiment is a sort of holy grail for outsourced marketing: something that extends a REALTOR^®’s capabilities and saves them time while also remaining faithful to their brand and personality. It’s not easy to achieve, but REALTORS^® who succeed in doing so are setting the stage for their businesses to be more profitable and more satisfying to run.

For more ways to market yourself economically, check out the eLearning course Keep it Simple with Low-Cost Online Marketing at CRS.com.

Photo: iStock.com/jokerpro