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It’s no coincidence that top real estate agencies all have a highly skilled marketing professional overseeing their advertising efforts.

Too many agencies put underqualified administration staff in charge of marketing. Some don’t have a specific marketing role at all. That’s a problem. In cases like these, directors and salespeople attempt to handle all the marketing themselves, often with lacklustre, hit-and-miss results. 

A dedicated marketing manager consolidates your efforts for an organised, cohesive approach that improves brand awareness and lets directors and salespeople do what they do best – list and sell property. 

Here’s why your office needs a marketing manager:

Arm your sales team with the right information 

RP Data’s recent Perceptions of Real Estate Agents report found that 58% of vendors feel confident in their agent’s abilities before the sale … but that drops during the sales process. Many agents are missing vital opportunities to provide their vendors with necessary information like local clearance rates, days on market, recent comparable sales, and suburb information. These oversights are a major source of customer dissatisfaction

All of this is easily overcome with simple tools like pre-listing kits, newsletters, market reports and suburb updates. But salespeople are – justifiably – far too busy focusing on each short term, 30-day transaction to implement and sustain a longer term marketing plan.

Having a marketing manager to coordinate your sales collateral means your team is always armed with up-to-date information to help them appear as professional and impressive as possible.

Steer clear of ‘sarketing’

That’s when a salesperson becomes responsible for both selling and marketing. Doing marketing right is time consuming – so is listing property. Forcing salespeople to do both is ineffective.

Marketing and sales are distinct areas of expertise, and your salespeople have enough to do without also being expected to coordinate an effective and cohesive marketing effort. Salespeople forced to do their own marketing tend to take a haphazard approach by pumping out letterbox drops, tweets and newsletters whenever there’s a lull in business, then neglecting those efforts as soon as things pick up again. Different salespeople send contradictory messages out into the marketplace, creating confusion around what your brand stands for. And important opportunities tend to get overlooked –  it’s not uncommon for us to be approached by panicked clients in mid-December who’ve run out of time to order Christmas cards. This type of inconsistency harms your brand.

A dedicated marketing manager plans in advance to ensure a regular, consistent marketing approach.

Knowledge is power

Salespeople generally lack the necessary expertise to develop and implement a long term marketing strategy. Without the necessary know-how, they too often resort to copying the competition rather than coming up with new ways to differentiate their brand (if you don’t believe us, count how many ‘spring is sprung’ cards land your letterbox in the first week of September).

On the other hand, a marketing specialist knows how to effectively wield the tools of the trade, and can develop and execute new concepts and ideas. Because marketing is their job, they have the skills, time and resources to implement campaigns, measure response rates, and spot new opportunities and threats as they arise.

Having a marketing manager on your team pays dividends. It frees your sales team up to do what they do best – sell property. And a well-planned marketing strategy will support them while they do it.

How does your office coordinate its marketing efforts?