Achieve Front-Page Visibility With Homes.com’s City Sponsor
As a broker, building an excellent team is one feat. Getting an audience to notice your team is something completely different. For John Santos, broker/owner with Agent Plus Realty, positioning his brand in front of his South Florida audience comes down to online visibility and where he ranks in a search. For the past seven months, he’s expanded his online visibility through the use of Homes.com’s City Sponsor package.
“People recognize our brand clearly now from my placement with City Sponsor,” says Santos. “I recently had a walk-in client who saw my business name on the first page of their home search. It definitely helps me with exposure.”
Exposure is a large area of focus for Santos, who has been in the real estate business for over 20 years, with three offices and 130 agents (and growing). Prior to his work in residential real estate, Santos worked in the mortgage sector, managing a team of 2,500 loan officers—a team he would like to replicate within his brokerage.
“We’re currently focused on massive growth,” says Santos. “I hope to have 2,000 agents within the next two years. In the last two months, I’ve recruited 16 agents per month. Eventually, I would like to be recruiting 100 agents a month.”
With such an ambitious growth plan, staying highly visible is critical. Through Homes.com’s City Sponsor, Santos has the ability to stand out at the top of search results, not off to the side. These native-style ads are more effective than traditional banner ads, showcasing listings as well as an agent or broker branding card with photo and contact information. By using City Sponsor, Santos can send interested buyers and sellers to a lead form or landing page of his choice, with unlimited lead-capture options, customizable call-to-actions and front-page visibility—the element that initially appealed to Santos. “With City Sponsor, I show up on the first page when people search for homes in their city,” he says. “I’ve been getting leads, which I pass onto my agents.”
The leads Santos passes to his agents have also proven to be a great tool for recruiting—another pivotal measure for rapid growth. “Since I joined Homes.com, I’m recruiting between five and 10 more agents a month, and I can track that to the appeal of the City Sponsor program I’m offering them.” During recruiting meetings, Santos shows potential hires where and how his team shows up in a search, and how effective it is for lead generation.
In addition to recruiting and lead generation, Santos is a fan of City Sponsor’s affordability. “Price-wise, City Sponsor is very cost-effective. I find it to be cheaper and more effective than some of their competitors, so it’s a real win-win.”
For more information, please visit marketing.homes.com/advertising/agent-broker-advertising/city-sponsor/.
Zoe Eisenberg is RISMedia’s senior content editor. Email her your real estate news ideas at zoe@rismedia.com.
