As we continue to explore the digital advertising space within the real estate industry, we’ll be shifting our focus to one of our larger reading demographics: brokers. Over the past few months in part one and two of this four-part series, we’ve looked at Google’s overwhelming prominence in the origination of real estate-related searches on the Web. We’ve also defined what Intelligent Ads are and how agents can leverage them to market their listings and compete with the large portals. This month, we’ll look at a widely discussed topic within the industry—the value proposition of the broker—and how intelligent ads can add value.
Change is inevitable, and it’s no secret that the value proposition of the broker has changed along with the real estate industry over the past several years. It’s a topic that comes up fairly regularly in industry publications, at events and in conversations with industry colleagues—both brokers and agents. Many of the successful brokers who are thriving in today’s market have found ways to redefine their value proposition to their agents, making them more successful while simultaneously attracting more successful agents to their firm. One of the more common things I’ve heard from brokers of late is that they’re playing a bigger role in the support services they offer to their agents. With agents busier than they’ve been in years, their broker’s ability to streamline things in areas of technology, transaction management, marketing, etc., solidify their value proposition.
So how does offering the Intelligent Ad Platform—a new system designed to automatically create and place ads in the top spot on Google for an agent and their listings—add value to the broker’s value proposition? We recently caught up with a few brokers who were part of the Intelligent Ad Platform Pilot program and asked them how offering the Intelligent Ad Platform to their agents furthers their value proposition as a broker.
“We believe this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of this platform becoming an agent’s one-stop shop for marketing themselves and their listings digitally,” says Brenda Tushaus, general manager of RE/MAX Results in Minnesota. “As a company, we can leverage Above the Map to further our recruiting and retention efforts for top talent in our market. It will give our agents a significant competitive advantage, ensure they win more listings and it reinforces our commitment to provide the tools they need to drive referral-free leads.”
According to Kathy Kuyoth and John Mangas, broker/owners of RE/MAX Preferred in Ohio, “a lot has changed in our value proposition as brokers since we bought our first RE/MAX franchise in 2001. The Intelligent Ad Platform has the potential to be part of the next-generation RE/MAX Preferred value proposition that changes everything once again.”
As quickly as things change in today’s real estate industry, adapting to the new norm and shifting your value proposition to meet the demands of agents and the market is crucial. Offering tools that help agents set themselves and their listings apart from the competition can serve to further your value proposition.
Seth Kaplan is president of MRE – Win Local®.
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