How Subsidizing Agent Ads Will Boost Your Brokerage Biz

When you think about how you're going to grow your brokerage business in 2019, what are your key initiatives? Recruiting new agents? Gaining more market share? Making your existing agents more productive? Whatever it is, it comes back to building your brokerage's value. It's all about your brand. Why would someone work with your brokerage over another one? Why would they choose an agent because they're associated with your brand?

As you plan for growth in 2019, consider how you are going to expand your reach in new ways, gaining further brand recognition and driving growth. Your marketing tactics must be strategic, but still manageable and sustainable.

Online advertising makes up for the vast majority of ad spend in the real estate industry, and it's increasing every year (Statista). There's a reason for it, but it can also be expensive and difficult to manage. What if you and your agents were able to work together to share cost and amplify the effectiveness of your digital ads? You have the ability to do that today. Consider subsidizing digital marketing costs for your agents. It's like jump-starting their marketing efforts, ensuring their listing gains interest and your brand gets noticed.

Here's what happens when you subsidize ads:

• You directly support your agents, which won't go unnoticed.
• You encourage your agents to leverage digital marketing and remain competitive.
• You promote listings under your brand, gaining significant exposure.
• Your agents are more likely to continue promoting the listing, getting even more eyes on your brokerage's brand.

Overwhelmed? Don't be. Here are a few ideas for how you could get started:

Promote a certain percentage of all listings.

For example, pick up the tab for the first 20 percent spend of all listing ads. Every time one of your agents opts to promote their new listing, you cover 20 percent of the ad spend and they cover the other 80 percent. This will gain the broadest exposure and show that your brokerage is doing high volume in your market.

Promote a larger percentage, but only for luxury listings.

Subsidize ads based on the ad spend. For example, subsidize 25 percent of all ads with a $99 ad spend. This will encourage agents to get serious about their marketing and get more eyes on their listing as well as your brokerage brand.

Whatever it is you decide to do, make sure it supports your marketing strategy and business goals for 2019. Tailor your ad subsidization parameters to fit your brokerage's objectives and budget and adjust accordingly as needed. Now is the time to decide how you'll better support your agents, and ultimately, your business growth, in the new year.

To view the original article, visit the Moxi Works blog.