No matter how much “curb appeal” a real estate office has, its workforce is its lifeblood.
As top agents in hot markets look to local firms as they consider transitioning to that “dream team,” assessing the tools a firm provides to help them serve more clients better, faster, and more efficiently is top priority.
Brokers and leaders across the real estate industry look to RISMedia and its licensed content solutions including RREIN (RISMedia’s Real Estate Information Network®) as a resource to not only motivate their boots-on-the-ground sales force, but as an important tool in their recruiting and retention efforts as well.
Evelyn Ferrara, vice president of Relocation & Business Development at CENTURY 21 Alliance in Audubon, Penn., says she works closely with two recruiters for her company’s sales associates. One of the firm’s recruiters uses RISMedia’s content and engagement systems on a regular basis to shoot off e-newsletters and e-bulletins to specific recruits.
“She gets about a 70 percent return or open rate,” reports Ferrara. “We are always trying to use tools like this to attract agents, and the more we are using RREIN as a recruiting tool, the better our results.”
Diane C. Harris, social commerce coordinator at Century 21 New Millennium in the D.C. Metro Area, says she started using RREIN in late 2011 and saw the content as a great way to promote herself and her team’s expertise, especially on Century 21 New Millennium’s social marketing platforms.
“I manage how the company uses the content and we do all the training,” says Harris. “Our recruits and existing agents love it. We’re using the content companywide, at the branch and individual levels. We have new agents coming in finding it hard to imagine we give them all this content for free.”
Stacy Gross Benedict, vice president of eCommerce & Marketing for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Florida Realty believes RISMedia’s content resources allow her company to immediately connect with new sales professionals.
“It’s part of our new-hire internal processes,” explains Benedict. “We add them to our communication distribution, which immediately connects and brands them to our company. As soon as they are added to our CRM, they begin receiving daily messages that are professionally presented and branded to the company and also relevant to the real estate industry, which they can read and then share with their sphere of contacts.”
Tom Skiffington, owner of RE/MAX 440 and RE/MAX Realty in Perkasie, Penn., says when RREIN was presented to him, he saw great value for his team members who want to learn “about what’s going on in the industry and how to help their clients make the best decision about buying or selling properties.
“We use the content to help create articles on our blog that give information to visitors and clients,” says Skiffington. “We use it for our social media; and we use it for promoting seminars and educational events on the Web and with e-newsletters as well.”
Ferrara encourages agents to use the relevant content they provide to reach out to their client base.
“Since the information RISMedia provides the consumer is about our specific market, using the system provides a way to touch people without having them feel you are always prospecting them. That way, our agents become more of a source of information to them. We also have a relocation guide we send to our buyers, and I plan to talk about using RREIN to distribute our localized e-Guide as well.”
Harris uses RREIN in recruiting presentations, and once an agent is hired, she helps them build their content.
“They really like that,” she explains. “And they love the monthly newsletters; they can set it to go to the people they want and forget it. RISMedia is even delivering content to the agent’s website without them having to do anything.”
Harris underscores that the RREIN system serves as an important retention tool as well.
“They love having a behind-the-scenes person handling their publishing, great newsletters which are being read, and Web content that updates itself,” she explains. “We have some agents with their own domains and we embed the content Resource Center on their individual pages. When we meet agents who come from other brokerages, they say they had no previous support and were too busy to handle the publishing work themselves.
“The team at RISMedia makes the content and engagment solutions easy to implement, and once it’s up and running, the support continues to be fantastic,” Harris adds. “Our leadership team talks about it all the time. The content is so specific to various audiences; it’s so much more than one-size-fits-all.”
One branch manager recently heard from a RREIN newsletter recipient who says she was going to be coming back into the area and would soon be ready to buy a home, Harris reports. That referral went right to his sales team for handling.
“In terms of retention, nobody is offering these services or tools,” Skiffington concurs. “Nobody is providing a good social media solution and quality newsletters with authentic information like RISMedia.
“One of our agents got a call just the other day from a prospect who says our articles in our e-newsletter were so knowledgeable, they wanted to work with us,” adds Skiffington. “The content adds credibility and people are perceiving us as the expert. RISMedia does an outstanding job; it’s a nice fit for our agents and clients, and I don’t know of any other companies doing this.”
Today many of the more progressive and successful agents, brokers, MLSs and associations are effectively using license content to engage and build relationships with both home selling and buying consumers. Real estate professionals need to enhance and empower their communications, websites and social media channels with relevant articles, videos and turn-key delivery systems.
RISMedia, widely known as the Leader in Real Estate Information Systems, is now providing access to its valuable content and engagement solutions to many of these progressive industry professionals. As this article points out industry and consumer news is now readily available for download, or choose from several branded auto-delivery channels (emails, website feeds, blog posting) to help you engage more effectively with agents, industry professionals and consumers.
For more information about how RISMedia’s content solutions can help your recruiting and retention efforts, contact Anne Kraft, senior vice president, RISMedia, at akraft@rismedia.com or (561) 276-6409.
