In 2022, RISMedia conducted an extensive, proprietary marketing study, surveying thousands of agents and brokers to find out how real estate professionals put their brands, listings and expertise out into the world. Delving into everything from budgets to preferred channels, the study, which was designed to encompass a huge swath of variables, unearthed insights into how women spend their valuable time and money on marketing.
While it would take a much more extensive analysis to offer a “why” for these data points, here is what we learned about how women approach marketing in real estate:
- On average, female agents spend less money marketing their personal brand—$5,600 a year, compared to men, who spend about $6,400. Men and women spend about the same amount of time per week in marketing efforts for their brand, an average of 8.3 hours for men and 8.1 hours for women. Male brokers spend around $156,000 a year on all marketing efforts, while female brokers averaged about $127,000.
- In terms of how much agents spend marketing a listing, women invested more—3.4% of the property’s list price on average, compared to men, who spent 2.7%. Conversely, female brokers were less likely to spend heavily on marketing listings, doling out an average of 2.2% compared to men, who spent 6%.
- Women value outdoor displays more than men, with female agents twice as likely to rank that channel as highly effective. Female brokers spent about 7.3% of their budget on outdoor displays, with male brokers only spending 3.5%. But female agents spent less on print (6.9% of budget) compared to men (8.4%).
- Female agents invested slightly more in social media marketing (18.1% of their budget, compared to 16.8% for male agents), but they saw more value in that investment. Almost half (49%) of female agents ranked social media as either a nine or 10 (out of 10) in terms of effectiveness, compared to 39% of men.
- More than a quarter (26%) of female brokers said social media was the single-most effective way to market, while only 10% of male brokers did so. Yet male brokers still spent more on social media—20.1% of their budget compared to 15.4% for women.
- Male agents and brokers invested more in video and saw more value in video-related marketing efforts. On average, male agents spent 5.7% of their budget for video, compared to 4.2% for female agents. More than one-third (38%) of male brokers ranked video as a highly effective marketing tool, compared to only 10% of female brokers.
- Female brokers spent more on marketing directed at recruitment and retention—allocating about $25,000 annually for that purpose, compared to $19,000 spent by male brokers. Women also saw marketing to obtain new listings and marketing directed at new construction as more effective than men did. In terms of tools provided to agents, male brokers were more likely to offer CRM and branded websites, while female brokers provided branded social media channels and lead-gen tools.
- Female agents generated slightly more leads organically than male agents—37% to 31%. Women also valued inbound marketing (word of mouth, content marketing, etc.) more than men, although both preferred inbound to outbound overall.
To see the complete RISMedia Premier Exclusive Marketing Study, please visit www.rismedia.com/premier.
