Recruiting and Technology

Recruiting & Technology Supplement, April 2013
Compliments of Imprev, Inc.
Why would I want
to work for you?
In this issue
Phil Soper
Renwick Congdon
Marilyn Wilson
John Heithaus
Using social media
to engage agents:
Share your voice
The new agent:
Revitalizing a
great industry
The mobile
migration:
Don’t go cheap
If it sounds
too good
to be true
Page 3
What it takes to be a
breakaway marketer
BRIAN BOERO - 1000WATT
The new agent:
Revitalizing a great industry
RENWICK CONGDON - IMPREV, INC.
Page 4
If it sounds too
good to be true
JOHN HEITHAUS - MRIS
Page 5
Mobilize your marketing:
Cutting the cord
MIKE RYAN - RE/MAX, LLC
MARC DAVISON - 1000WATT
Page 6
Using social media
to engage agents:
Share your voice
PHIL SOPER - BROOKFIELD REAL
ESTATE SERVICES (ROYAL LEPAGE)
Page 8
Are you a digital native
or digital immigrant?
CHRIS SMITH - CURAYTOR
Page 11
The mobile migration:
Don’t go cheap
VICTOR LUND - WAV GROUP
MARILYN WILSON - WAV GROUP
MIKE SHERIDAN
A former president of
The National
Association of
Real Estate Editors
(NAREE), Mike is
an award-winning journalist and
accomplished freelance writer. He
began his career at The Hartford
Courant and was a real estate
reporter at both The Houston
Chronicle and The Orange County
Register. His work has been featured
in dozens of publications, including
The New York Times, The Los
Angeles Times, Urban Land, Delta
Sky magazine and Reader’s Digest.
He was a Fulbright Scholar in Japan,
a Walter Bagehot Fellow at
Columbia University and a Gannett
Fellow in Hawaii.
Inside this edition
PHIL SOPER
As Chief Executive Officer of Brookfield Real Estate Services, Phil oversees
a real estate brokerage and franchising firm comprised of Royal LePage,
Johnston & Daniel, Via Capitale and Prudential Canada. Phil’s business
career was honed at IBM. He joined the company in 1984 and served
in various positions of responsibility including General Manager of IBM’s
Information Technology consulting services division from 1997 to 2001.
MIKE RYAN
As Executive Vice President, Global Communications and Branding, for RE/MAX,
Mike oversees marketing and communications activities for 70,000 RE/MAX
agents in North America. He joined RE/MAX in 1994 and helped launch
its award-winning RE/MAX Satellite Network, the first-ever business
television network in the real estate industry. In 2006, Mike oversaw
its evolution into RE/MAX University, a 24/7 on-demand real estate
education platform. Before joining RE/MAX, he was a consultant for MAC Productions in
the Greater Cincinnati area.
JOHN HEITHAUS
As Chief Marketing Officer of one of the largest Multiple Listing Services
in the U.S., John brings more than 30 years of real estate industry experience
to MRIS. Previously he held senior executive positions with Coldwell
Banker, Prudential Real Estate, Monster.com, Merrill Lynch Realty and
Sentrilock (owned by the National Association of REALTORS®).
VICTOR LUND
Founding partner of the WAV Group, a Multiple Listing Services consulting
firm, Victor is also a founder and CEO of RE Technology, the leading
real estate technology and media portal in the United States with more
than 1 million visits a month. Previously, he and partner Marilyn Wilson
operated Wilson Victor Associates. Victor also was an associate with the
venture capital firm Resource Capitalist, LLC.
MARILYN WILSON
As a partner of the WAV Group, Marilyn led national research projects for
the National Association of REALTORS® and also introduced PRO Research©
(Problem Resolution Opportunity) methodologies to the real estate industry.
She was President and CEO of Surveyor Corporation, a leading provider
of web camera software and hardware. Marilyn also was Vice President,
Strategic Planning and Worldwide Marketing, for Fisher-Price toys, where
she launched over 1,000 new products and created four new divisions.
BRIAN BOERO
As a partner at 1000watt, Brian provides consulting services to real estate
companies, media organizations and startups that want to define real
estate’s future. Previously, he was CEO of VREO, Inc., creators of Real
Estate Dashboard®, a mobile and paperless software application. Brian
also was President of Inman News, where he served as executive producer
of 10 conferences.
MARC DAVISON
A partner at 1000watt, Marc is a published author and an accomplished
musician whose career began on Madison Avenue with top ad agency
Young & Rubicam. He then founded DG Entertainment, a talent management
and PR firm for recording artists, which he later sold. Marc licensed real
estate content to hundreds of newspapers and was recruited by Inman
News. He left Inman for VREO, Inc., an early pioneer in paperless real
estate transaction software.
CHRIS SMITH
A highly sought after real estate consultant, speaker and blogger, Chris
recently co-founded Curaytor, a social conversation search engine. Previously,
he created the award-winning blog Tech Savvy Agent and served as chief
evangelist for Inman News. His background includes working for the largest
Internet lead generation mortgage company in the country. Chris worked
with an international Search Engine Optimization firm whose clients
included Facebook and Pepsi. He also served as an Internet marketing and social media
consultant for Move, Inc.
©2013 Imprev, Inc. | Marketing Technologies | 11400 SE 8th Street, Bellevue WA 98004 | 1-855-4-IMPREV | www.imprev.com
The new agent
Revitalizing a
great industry
BY RENWICK CONGDON
CEO, IMPREV, INC.
During a CEO event co-hosted
by the New York Times this
January, I shared an idea of
creating a new — and potentially
disruptive — model for real
estate brokers to attract younger
professionals to the industry.
What it takes to be a
breakaway marketer
BY MIKE SHERIDAN
Younger agents joining
your firm are looking
for a new way to cut
through the marketing
clutter to build their
business. The best advice
you can give them, says
a top industry analyst:
Don’t let them fall into real
estate’s ‘me, me, me’ trap.
In today’s highly competitive
world, agent marketing must be
strategic, says Brian Boero,
co-founder of 1000watt, a brand
and marketing agency focused on
the real estate industry.
He continues: “Few agents are
truly strategic about marketing.
They do a lot of different things
in a lot of different places without
clear goals. It’s a ‘spray and pray’
approach that often does more
harm than good.”
Agents should try to focus their
marketing efforts on no more
than three areas, Boero advises.
“If you do more, you’re not
going to execute well,” he says.
“And don’t do anything that’s
not relevant and engaging to your
prospect.”
“REALTOR® marketing for the last 30 years has been very personality
driven — me, me, me. I’m a top producer, I am this and I am that, and so
forth,” says Boero. “But, that’s exactly backwards. Change those “I’s” to
“you’s” in all your marketing to get yourself in the mindset of delivering
a relevant message to the person receiving it.”
Boero also suggests that agents ask themselves two questions before
sending any message — through any medium — into the marketplace:
“Who cares?” and “Says who?”
This will help agents stay focused on prospects’ questions Continued on page 10
My proposal: Create a
structure in your brokerage
that supports business creation
and encourages those
businesses to grow. Stop
recruiting salespeople. Recruit
business owners.
In this model, a business has
specific characteristics. First,
a business can have multiple
owners. Second, a business
can be sold to new owners.
Third, a business can run
itself without the owner(s)
being present. Entrepreneurs
build businesses with these
characteristics. Sales people
build careers. There is an
ocean of difference.
By creating the structure to
support growing businesses
and from that, entrepreneurs,
new opportunities open up.
Share ownership: Brokers,
friends, and family can invest
in and jointly create a company
(L.L.C. is a great structure
for this) with the agent
entrepreneur; they all own
shares of the business. The
broker-owner delivers the
systems, the tools, the
roadmap; friends, family
and, in some cases, brokers
and other agents provide
the capital that the business
needs to be successful.
The agent entrepreneur runs
the business.
What are the advantages to
Continued on page 10
No 3
If it sounds too good to be true
BY JOHN L. HEITHAUS, CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER
METROPOLITAN REGIONAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS, INC. (MRIS)
Attracting top prospects
requires you to have the
right technology systems.
One of our industry’s
leading marketing
experts shares how to find
strategic partners that can
deliver those cool new
tools today, but also be
around to support them
tomorrow.
If you’re thinking about signing
up for a strategic partnership,
then I have some advice for
you, based on my 30 years in the
business world:
Look before you leap.
As a vice president of supplier
alliances group at Cendant
Mobility (now Cartus), I was in
charge of the preferred alliance
program. I served as senior vice
president at Monstermoving.com
and as senior vice president of
partner and product development
at Prudential Real Estate. I’d always
take a look at what was new in
strategic partnerships — some of
it was amazing with all the bells
and whistles — but I learned the
hard way to be very careful.
When I was at Monstermoving.com,
we entered into an alliance with
a company that created virtual
tours. The firm was offering a
cool, simulated virtual tour of
various cities around the country.
No 4
If a client was moving to say,
Phoenix, this company provided
360-degree views of downtown,
cultural facilities, residential
neighborhoods and the like. We
thought we were on the cutting
edge of technology. But what we
didn’t foresee was these guys
being acquired by another
company. We didn’t even know
they were on the market! So we
made a huge splash about this
alliance offering virtual tours. We
rolled out this promotion, talking
about our worldwide exclusive
and future plans. But the acquiring
company pulled out of the virtual
tour business. Our mistake: We
didn’t think it through. We didn’t
put in exit provisions or protections
in the contract.
I’d rather work with an established
company that has been around
10 years and re-innovates than a
new company that is working on its
first innovation and hasn’t made
its first dollar.
You may meet someone
representing a product at a
conference or event and think
they are the greatest. But first impressions aren’t
always
accurate. There
is a lot of hype
out there and
people tend to
get swept up in
it. Remember
when everybody
was swept up
in the dotcom
craze? Hundreds
of companies
were offering
the “greatest product”
to solve this
problem or that shortcoming. But
how many went bankrupt and
the product fizzled, leaving real
estate firms holding the bag?
Complete your due diligence but go
beyond the scope usually required.
Check references? Sure. But everyone
has references, and start-ups aren’t
going to provide a bad reference
to a new customer.
Also look for the cultural fit.
Is the company management
competent? Do they understand
the unique needs of real estate
agents or are they new to the
industry? Can they build for
future growth and scaling?
Site visits are important. Meet
with the people you are going
to sign up with. Get into the
weeds. Don’t just talk to executives
and sales reps, meet with people
behind the scenes. When I was
at Prudential, we’d do site visits
to see if a supplier’s operations
matched the marketing. If the
employees seemed unhappy, that
was a tipoff. Sometimes you fall
in love with a brochure and a
sales pitch. You shouldn’t.
Mobilizing your marketing:
Cutting the cord
BY MIKE SHERIDAN
How mobile are you? That might be the first question a new
agent will ask about your firm. Agent marketing in a mobile
world means far more than a mobile website, notes these top
industry experts from RE/MAX and 1000watt.
Today, more people turn to their
mobile devices for general search
than their desktops, and more
than half of all Internet home
searches are now done on mobile
devices.
Consumers have gone mobile in
a big way and it’s changing the
way real estate agents reach and
engage homebuyers and sellers.
“Mobile weighs heavily on the
future of real estate,” says Mike
Ryan, RE/MAX Executive Vice
President of Global Communications
and Branding. “Consumers now
expect an online video experience.
And if videos are optimized
properly when they’re uploaded
and if they are syndicated to
several sites, the SEO can be
increased significantly. That’s
exactly what we’re training our
agents to do. Integration with social
media like Facebook, Twitter and
YouTube is very important.”
Mobile offers a great opportunity
for brokers to truly embed
themselves as a more valuable
partner with their agents —
something agents believe is
important when they decide where
to hang their license, adds Marc
Davison, partner at California-based
1000watt, a full-service interactive
marketing communications and
design agency.
“While the last thing a broker needs
is to have another tech solution
shoved down their throats, the
fact is, the desktop Web has become
a crimson ocean filled with competition
and there’s not much more a
broker can do to get a
leg up on their competition,”
he adds. “But the mobile
environment is still a big blue
ocean of opportunity.”
Davison says he doesn’t advocate
abandoning the desktop Web,
but as phones get bigger, as
tablets get smaller and cheaper,
the mobile platform is on its way
to becoming the dominant entry
point for users. More importantly,
it is becoming the dominant interface
for agents who spend the bulk of
their time in the field.
“If they do not have direct access
to tools, content, contracts,
signatures, etc., from the field
through their devices, the time
they spend tethered to a desk will
put them at a great disadvantage,”
he emphasizes.
Why is this important? According
to “Consumer and Market Trends
in Real Estate,” a 2012 Joint Study
from the National Association of
Continued on page 10
No 5
Using social media to
engage agents:
Share your voice
BY MIKE SHERIDAN
Are you using
social media to recruit
new agents?
You should be.
It certainly is a powerful
tool that works
for this top Canadian
real estate executive.
Phil Soper has mountains between
him and the thousands of real
estate agents who work for his
firm. Literally. Entire ranges, even.
The CEO and Chief Soothsayer
for Toronto-based real estate
enterprise, Brookfield Real Estate
Services (Royal LePage, Via
Capitale, and Prudential Canada)
must communicate on a daily
basis with agents and managers
across nearly 4 million square miles.
And he does it perhaps better
than anyone in the business.
How? With the help of social
media. Soper uses social media
No 6
to stay in touch with, take the
temperature of and keep his
agents engaged.
“Social media has helped
tremendously in grappling with
Canada’s vast geography,” says
Soper. “We have close to 15,000
salespeople in our Royal LePage
business alone. They are spread
across our huge country roughly in
proportion to Canada’s population,
in centers large and small.
“Getting the message out is a
challenge for every CEO. Services
like Facebook, Twitter and
LinkedIn offer new conduits to
reach your people. And by
definition, if they are ‘tuning in,’
they are engaged.”
Royal LePage has been called
the “voice of Canadian real estate“
for many years, and Soper notes
that social media channels
extend the reach of the
company’s research reports and
public relations initiatives.
“As a company and industry
spokesperson, I can add personal
insight to economic events that
are of interest or concern to
homeowners and 70 percent
of Canadians are,” says Soper.
“In fact, it was the 2008 global
economic collapse that inspired
me to become engaged in social
media communities.
“I felt it was important to
personally reassure people in
Canada that the housing meltdown
occurring in the United States was
due to a collapse of America’s
financial system — the subprime
crisis — and that Canada was
structured differently and safe.“
The conservative 100-year old
company keeps ahead of
competitors by embracing new
marketing technology that helps
maintain the firm’s marketshare.
The tools that Royal LePage provides
agents include those that make
using social media very easy.
randomly shares a thought once
or twice a month is analogous to
an absentee boss. What was he
doing for the last three weeks?
Am I (the reader) so unimportant
that I warrant only 140 characters
a month?”
“Social media is celebrated as a
tool for reaching the world;
Twitter’s role in sharing the
struggles of those on the ground
during the Arab Spring uprisings
comes to mind,” he continues.
There are practical steps that can
help streamline the process,
Soper says. “Use a productivity
enhancing service that let’s
you manage content and
scheduling for multiple accounts
from one tool,” he explains.
“And then enable the tool on
the various devices you carry.
I use HootSuite on my laptop
and iPad; UberSocial on my
BlackBerry. App stores offer
numerous alternatives.”
“We shouldn’t overlook its usefulness
in engaging people locally as
well. In February, I hosted a
retreat in Kenya celebrating Royal
LePage’s Centennial with 100 of
our top performers. Participants
were able to share the joy of
seeing their first wild cheetah by
posting pictures in the evening
on each others’ Facebook pages.
Half a world away, family and
colleagues were able to participate
in these wondrous sights on a
real-time basis. This from tents on
the Serengeti. Magical!”
Every company approaches social
media differently. One interesting
insight that Soper has gleaned
from talking to other engaged
executives: Most write their
own material.
“When I first began to use the
media, I envisioned a member of
our communications team managing
my accounts and writing my
tweets and Facebook posts,”
says Soper. “That lasted less than
two weeks. In my opinion, even
talented professional writers
cannot speak with another’s
voice. A by-lined online post is a
very personal thing. You need to
let your true self shine through,
for better or worse. And once you
become engaged, it’s important
to keep it up. Become a regular
participant in the conversation.
To me, a business leader that
It’s important to treat the process
of social media engagement like
other business activities.
“Objectives should be determined,
a plan built and executed, and
results tracked and analyzed,”
he continues. “Working
together as a team across your
organization will improve your
effectiveness. At Brookfield,
I regularly support the
LinkedIn-driven campaigns that
our Royal LePage Commercial
business unit launches by sharing
content and comments with my
personal network.
Annually we run Canada’s largest
charity ‘garage sale’ supporting
victims of domestic violence for
our primary corporate philanthropic
initiative, the Royal LePage Shelter
Foundation. As I tour garage sale
sites, I share photos and stories
through my posts and re-tweet
and share the contributions from
event organizers in other parts of
the country.”
For Soper, social media helps ensure
that no matter where he is, he’s
still visible and top-of-mind so
that nothing gets in between him
and his fellow Royal LePagers.
No 7
Are you a digital native
or a digital immigrant?
BY MIKE SHERIDAN
Your digital brand is a
key factor in attracting a
younger workforce.
Knowing your Xs and Ys,
how to best connect with
them, and the value your
firm offers is vital, says this
well-known tech evangelist.
The next generations of homebuyers — Gen X and Gen Y — all use technology
differently and they each want to be communicated with in various
ways. Email might work great for the vast majority of your customers
today, but your email may go unanswered and probably unopened if
sent to a 20-something homebuyer. You should have sent a text.
Understanding technology propensities is key to communicating with
clients today and in the future, says Chris Smith, cofounder of Tech Savvy
Agent, a chief paper killer at dotloop and one who served as chief
evangelist at Inman News.
“It’s really not about age, but about experience,” says Smith. “I was born
with a Game Boy, but the next generation will not know what a mouse
is. It isn’t that the younger generation is better at technology, but it’s
more ubiquitous to them.
“For the older generation, technology has become actually useful in
the past five years. If you ask people today if they ever used augmented
reality they’ll probably say ‘no.’ But augmented reality is looking to a
phone and seeing information about a house on the screen. The tech
designers have led us to a new day, but most of us are still worried
about Outlook or taking the battery out of our BlackBerry to reboot it.
The older generation thinks about those things.”
In contrast, the younger generation doesn’t spend any time thinking
about technology. “They just do it and move on to the next new thing,”
says Smith. “Gen Y is about instant gratification: If they can’t see it on
their phone, it doesn’t really exist. In real estate, they must be a part of
the process. If they don’t feel like they can ask questions, they’re not
going to be interested.”
Millennials now number around 80 million U.S. residents. Many of them
are just a few years away from purchasing their first home. How can
you position yourself as the real estate professional they want to work
with? You must bridge the tech gap, says Smith, leveraging the power
of a robust marketing technology. While Gen X and Gen Y can easily
navigate the Internet in search of data, they often don’t know how to
make sense of it. That’s where the real estate professional comes in, to
educate them.
“So develop your digital brand — carefully!” says Smith. “You don’t get
No 8
a second chance to make a first
impression. Think: ‘Before I open
my mouth and tell people I’m a
real estate agent, I must have a
brand I am proud of.’ Just having
a website won’t cut it. Gen Y and
Gen X can tell immediately if
you put everything together on
the cheap and built your site in a
hurry. So don’t do it. You’ll lose
business. The slogan used to be
‘Ready Aim Fire,’ but some in real
estate think, ‘Fire, Then Aim’.”
Instagram and Vine — a fun new
ease of use, he continues. “Your
iPhone app from Twitter where
marketing has to be about how
people shoot and share very short
easy you are to work with and
videos,” says Smith. “They are
how useful you are to your
going to smaller, micro-social
clients,” says Smith.
sites. They continually find a new
place to communicate and real
Smith also argues that content
estate professionals need to also.”
continues to be crucial when it
comes to your 24-hour office,
Real estate agents must
your Website.
concentrate where their target
audience is focused. Smith says
“It’s important how much
agents should think of their mobile
content you have on your site
Keep ahead of the curve: technology
isn’t static. It can change
dramatically. “College students
used to only use Facebook,
but now Mom and Dad have a
Facebook page, so Gen X and
plan like a store. If you are going
that visitors can go to without
to build a retail store, then you
picking up the phone. You want
want to be in the area with as
to get everyone to go to your site.
much traffic as possible.
If you don’t have rich content on
Getting people to your store
your site, there is no way
involves two critical components:
people will stay and you will
Gen Y are moving on to sites like
perceived value and perceived
never get them back.”
No 9
The new agent: Revitalizing a great industry
Continued from Page 3
the broker of owning shares in the business? First, you share the
profit. Second, if the agent ever leaves your company, you retain
your ownership in the business, no matter where the agent goes.
And since it is a business with shareholders, the agent has a
responsibility to protect the shareholders, so she can’t simply close
the business and open a new one with different owners; just like
every other business.
Do we really need a new model for agents?
The question I hear over and over is “how do we recruit younger
agents?” followed by “the younger generations aren’t interested in
sales careers.” These two statements, taken together, make the
answers fairly obvious — not by doing the same thing you are
doing now. Add to those questions the NAR report showing that
the average age of an agent has increased by four years over the
last five years and it is pretty clear that younger people are not
attracted to the real estate industry.
We all know that current model will change. It is just a matter of
who will lead the change. Brokers are in the perfect position to
lead — they can leverage the tools they have in place, the value of
their brands and their years of experience to create the systems that
a new business needs to increase the likelihood of success — but
they have to decide to lead. If the brokers don’t do it, someone else will.
US News inadvertently pointed out the effectiveness of the current
model in its ranking of the “100 Best Jobs for 2013.” Real estate
agent came in at number 74, right below plumber (73) and above
glazier (75), handily beating out bus driver (80), but trailing hair
dresser (56), home health aide (48) as well as perennial favorite:
landscaper and groundskeeper (29).
We can do better.
To join the conversation and share your insight and
ideas on how to attract the next generation to real estate,
follow @renwickcongdon at Twitter.
About the author: Renwick Congdon is CEO of
Seattle area-based Imprev, Inc., an award-winning
marketing technologies company he founded in 2000.
He currently serves on the Board of Directors of
Entrepreneurs Organization (EO) Seattle. EO Global is
a dynamic network of more than 8,000 business
owners in 40 countries.
What it Takes to be a
Breakaway Marketer
Continued from Page 3
before sending any needs, and
avoid unsubstantiated claims, a
cardinal sin of marketing.
Nowadays, there are plenty of
applications and numerous
companies that offer print on
demand, social media management,
drip marketing, leads on demand
and so forth, “but nobody right
No 10
Mobilizing your marketing:
Cutting the cord
Continued from Page 5
REATLORS® and Google, finding an
agent and agent-related searches
on YouTube grew 46% year-over-year.
Offering 51% of the videos,
YouTube is the top video research
destination for home shoppers.
The number of agent-related videos
on YouTube last year included
88,400 results for real estate
agent, 19,200 results for how
to find a real estate agent, and
118,000 for buying a home.
But few brokers provide their
agents with simple, effective mobile
devices; instead, agents must fend
for themselves. Brokers, too, need
an affordable, multi-channel
marketing platform that can help
close the widening mobile gap
between agents and consumers.
“Increasing numbers of consumers
are accessing information with
mobile devices and real estate
agents have to be prepared to
provide their messages to a mobile
audience,” Ryan continues.
“Their websites will have to be
mobile-friendly and their marketing
materials will need to be delivered
to mobile devices, too. We believe
that it is important to offer the
very latest technologies for serving
their clients, and to update those
technologies often so that they
remain competitive. In fact we
provided these technologies to
RE/MAX professionals at no cost.”
now has pooled all of these items
together, because a true marketing
strategy in 2013 needs to involve
it all.”
Most real estate agents understand
the power of social media and
appreciate having the ability to
share relevant communications
with their clients using these
platforms. But there’s more.
An agent may have drip e-mail
system, but if it’s not tied to
what the agent is doing in social
media, or what the agent is
doing in print it will cause
unnecessary work, because the
agent must deal with separate
systems that don’t talk to each
other, he notes.
“The quality of the end product
a buyer or seller receives must
impress,” says Ryan. “Agents
want easy to produce, high
quality, professional-looking
products. That’s very important
to our associates.”
The mobile migration:
Don’t go cheap
BY MIKE SHERIDAN
Helping new recruits by providing the mobile tools they
need is step one to helping them kick-start their business,
say these tech-savvy industry consultants, especially since
the real estate industry is trying to catch up to where
consumers already are.
Trying to save a buck is one of
the biggest mistakes real estate
agents make today when they
migrate to mobile, says Victor
Lund, a partner in the WAV
Group. “The other, of course, is
not having a mobile strategy.
Mobile is more expensive than
what agents are used to
paying, but it’s a must,” says
Lund. “Some agents try to go
cheap and that’s the wrong move.
They build their websites in Flash,
for instance, and Flash doesn’t
work on mobile.”
The result: a consumer going to
your website from their iPad sees
a big black rectangle, Lund notes.
smartphone; the average user has
a smartphone with them 23 hours
a day — that’s right, most people
sleep with their smartphones!
Some 51% of business travelers
use a mobile device, twice the
rate of two years ago, according
to statistics compiled by Yext, a
New York-based mobile
business-listing firm. More
importantly, Yext says consumers
spent more minutes on mobile
apps (81) than the web (74).
“Mobile is super important,” says
Wilson. “Actually, it’s critical and
most of the industry is behind
the curve. But once an agent gets
comfortable with mobile,
especially an iPad, they want to
use that as their primary
computing tool. Consumers got
ahead of us. We’ll catch up.”
In their quest to bridge the gap,
many agents make mobile
mistakes, she adds. “There’s a
lot of off-the-shelf broker apps,”
Wilson says. “The problem is
that most apps don’t ‘talk’ to
each other; there is no way to
connect to other systems in any
organized way. It’s just floating
out there. It has to circle back
and connect with the agent to
build relationships.”
It’s critical for an agent to tie into
a marketing platform so that an
agent’s marketing is integrated.
“Agents must recognize what
mobile buys you,” says Wilson.
“Usually one of the best tools is
an iPad enabled with wireless and
cell access. But an agent is only
as good as the agent’s interest in
learning to use mobile effectively.
Agents must think about how and
where mobile can integrate with
what they do every day.”
Lund advises real estate
professionals to test all their
sites on mobile, particularly the
iPhone. “The iPhone is one of
the most difficult to get things to
work,” says Lund. “So if it works
on the iPhone, it’s more likely to
work on Android.”
Consumers today want their real
estate data at their fingertips.
And that can prove challenging
to some agents.
“They want to see listings from
their phone immediately,”
explains Marilyn Wilson, a
founder of WAV Group. “They
not only want active listings, but
also homes with sales pending
and those that have sold. They
want photos, property descriptions
and other information. They
want all this without meeting you
at the office.”
Mobile has become a key
component of real estate today.
Some 31% of Americans own a
No 11
RECRUITING &
TECHNOLOGY
Making the numbers work for you
1
RANKS#
email
email marketing
marketing
return
return on
on investment
investment
nearly
nearly $40
$40 for
for every
every $1
$1 invested
invested
50%
of all new businesses fail
within the first 4 years
86%
of starting entrepreneurs
create businesses from
personal motivation:
autonomy wealth
50%
73%
12%
of all mobile users
are over the age of 35
of homeowners are
more likely to list with
an agent using video
of agents have a
account on
23HOURS
average time a person has
his or her smartphone with them
achievement respect
67%
REASONS TO RETWEET
personal
#ONE interesting
content (92%) # TWO humor (84%) # THREE connection (66%)
commission gain
when agents used
digital Campaigns
Sources: DMA, National Association of REALTORS, Realtor.com, Pew Internet, University of Tennessee, Keller Willams Realty, movoto.com, WhiteFireSEO, and Local Mobile Marketing Formula.
“The RE/MAX Design Center has been the envy
of our competitors and one of the most loved
agent resources since we launched in 2006. It
truly revolutionized RE/MAX agent marketing
and helped agents better leverage the power of
the RE/MAX brand.”
Margaret Kelly, CEO, RE/MAX LLC
Learn why industry leaders choose
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