2022 was an odd year for real estate. Coming off back-to-back record-high years in 2020 and 2021, there was much uncertainty about how 2022 would play out. After a blazing hot Q1, it seemed as though the market immediately cooled in Q2 of this year. Despite coming down from those incredible highs, most real estate economists are not ringing the "doom and gloom" warning bells. If you take a step back and look at the last 10 years worth of existing home sales you'll find that 2022 is only 1% lower than the historical average. 

The point is, I believe many real estate brokerages are focused on the here and now, and not the long-term strategy or the "big picture." Yes, existing home sales are down 18% from 2021 to 2022, but all that's really happening is the market is returning to normal. If you look at 2021 as the "outlier" year, things are much less bleak. Many brokerages that got into the market in 2019/2020 have never been in a "regular" real estate market, and what I believe that means is there is actually an immense opportunity for the traditional real estate brokerages that have run their business the "right way" for a long time. The brokerages that over-extended their budgets and their spending over the last few years are going to be looking to buckle up their budgets in the coming calendar year.

In my opinion, that means it's time for the brokerages that have a healthy business model to double down and look to grow their market share. There's an expression I think of often when it comes to saving money in your budget: "Trim the fat but keep the muscle." You should be looking for ways that you can save money by cutting frivolous spending. Right now I'm seeing more and more brokerages eliminate unnecessary offices because agents just aren't working in them as often. That's a great place to start to look to trim expenses. What you shouldn't do is eliminate any spending that's going to actively help you grow your market share. 

In my experience, one of the first places brokerages look to make cuts is their online technology or digital marketing platforms. Based on all of the data and evidence we've seen here at Delta Media Group®, this is one of the last places you should be looking to cut. Having a powerful online technology platform is one of the primary sources of new business generation in your organization. A true technology platform impacts so many elements of your business and your agents' business. Therefore, a true analysis of the value of your platform should be taken before looking to make a move. 

I've written articles in the past that outline my recommendations for how to conduct a technology partner analysis and the areas a brokerage should focus on to determine if it's the right time to make a switch. For brokerages looking to make that type of evaluation, I recommend reading that article.

What I would like to share here is the direct feedback I have heard from agents on how a powerful online technology platform can make a direct impact on their business, and why that expense is justified if you're looking to grow market share in 2023. 

I oversee all of Delta Media Group's strategic industry partnerships and our enterprise brokerage relationships. What that means is in addition to my responsibilities as a sales professional, I am often asked to travel to different companies and share presentations of our services with agents and hear direct feedback on the things they are most excited to have in their business, and the "pain points" that they often have with their existing older technology offerings. On a recent trip, I had the opportunity to speak in front of a class of more than 200 experienced agents at a well-respected university in the midwest, and here's what I learned. 

#1 - Full-time real estate agents are spending over eight hours a week, on average, solely on building their brand. That's activities like creating blog content, running advertising online, building flyers and print marketing materials, or even managing their social media presence. 

#2 - Agents do not have the time to keep in touch with customers in their sphere of influence the way they know they should. On average, we found that a full-time agent usually has around 300 contacts in their CRM. Trying to keep in touch with those 300 customers regularly with quality content is a huge challenge for them. 

#3 - There was a very strong feeling that agent websites were a waste of time, and online generated leads were more often than not bogus. A growing sentiment appears to have cropped up in many real estate brokerages that online leads are a waste of time. 

#4 - Agents are technology-fatigued. The last 20 years have brought many agents multiple technology platform migrations, new shiny tools that only last for a few years before becoming obsolete, and an immense time sink for non-tech savvy agents to try and understand. 

#5 - Many newer agents who have just entered the real estate vertical over the last few years are really scrambling to figure out how to market listings and manage customer expectations now that homes aren't selling within 2-3 weeks from hitting the MLS. 

This feedback was important for me to hear, as it gave me an opportunity to better position how agents should be looking at opportunities to grow market share by making just a few small tweaks to their way of thinking in terms of their business. 

There are five key concepts that I truly believe that if applied correctly, will transform your business's opportunity to thrive and grow. These concepts are actionable steps that can be taken to change the way you look at technology, how your customers view your business, and ultimately how you operate inside of your business strategy in 2023. It also directly tackles all of the feedback I listed above from the agents I've had a chance to work with. 

First, brokerages and agents need to be looking for ways to Be Powerful with their brand. Case and point: Agent Websites. I have seen over and over again middling producing real estate agents say their website is a waste of time because it doesn't generate any business, with them failing to realize that the website they have online is a representation of their brand online. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers report reveals that 95% of all home buyers are using the internet to search for properties. Additionally, the majority of millennials will look up their real estate agent online at some point during the transaction process. This could be to read reviews, see the number of transactions they worked on, or other things that could be factored into making a decision. The point is when your customers look up your name and find your website through the search engines, is the website you have today really a positive showcase of your brand and your expertise? You should never be embarrassed about a website that has your face on it — and I've seen websites that are so old they aren't even mobile responsive. 

It is so important to have a website focused on showing your brand and your hyper-local market expertise to accurately represent yourself to your customers. Websites aren't all about generating leads (although they should do that too!), they are about servicing your client when they find you online. There is of course also power in being visible in those search engines, so having a technology provider that understands SEO is critically important too. 

Second, real estate agents need to Be Efficient. So many tasks are still being completed the old-school way, and what it's really doing is eating away at time agents could be using to better serve their customers and build new relationships. The true potential to unlock efficiencies is through automation. An AI-driven CRM platform will allow your agents to log in to their CRM app every day and see new tasks created for them based on their customers' actions. As mentioned earlier, the average agent has over 300 contacts in their CRM. An AI-driven contact management system will be able to intelligently build lists of customers that are more likely to engage with your agents based on their behaviors. As a sales professional myself, it's amazing knowing there's a tool in my arsenal that allows me to know each day who I should proactively be reaching out to. 

There are so many other ways automation can power efficiency as well. Our entire marketing suite of tools is fully automated, meaning whenever an agent enters a listing in the MLS, our automated marketing platform will create for the agent:

• New listing alerts running to all customers
• A print suite of flyers, postcards, brochures, and even door hangers
• A digital asset suite of eCards, online ad designs, and automated listing videos
• Seller Reports to be automatically sent to the seller with updates on the performance of their listing
• Social media posts for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn advertising the listing
• A full single property website all about that home

The agent doesn't need to do anything, and their technology platform has already delivered them a full suite of marketing materials within minutes. All of the time they've saved by not needing to create those assets can now be spent building relationships elsewhere. 

Third, agents always need to be looking for new ways to Be Creative. I believe so much of real estate marketing has become dehumanized with advertisements running with faceless avatars and automated voiceovers. Every brokerage and real estate agent should be looking for new ways to present their services and make their brand pop. That's one of the reasons why we offer full custom website design and eCard & flyer services. No brokerage should look the same, and finding a vendor who can empower that creativity through new channels will help keep your brand relevant long-term. 

Fourth, and maybe most importantly, agents have to continue to Be Reliable for their customers. So often I find that real estate brokerages focus on the current buyers or sellers, and have tons of tools in their technology stack to service those customers. However, by always focusing on the customers actively working with you, it's easy to lose sight of the customer after the transaction has been completed. NAR's data shows us that over 90% of consumers say they would work with the same real estate agent again when asked directly after a transaction has been completed, but on average less than 20% are actually using that same agent again in the future. 

While there are many variables that influence why a customer wouldn't use the same agent again, I think a big reason why this industry is missing the market on repeat business is that real estate agents aren't continuing to be reliable and provide something of value to the customer after the transaction has completed. Yes, a housewarming gift is great and should be delivered to your customer after they've moved into their new home, but your services need to go beyond that. 

Real estate behemoths like Zillow and other national agencies spend millions and millions of dollars per year advertising directly to your customers in your sphere of influence. Think of the phrase, "what have you done for me lately?" Humans have short memories by nature so it's important that your agent's brand is continually in the face of those customers and even more important that the agents are delivering something valuable to the customer. 

One of the ways that can be accomplished is through something as simple as automated Market Watch Reports. A customer completes a transaction with the agent, and the agent can then enroll them to receive a monthly, or quarterly market watch update giving the customer an overview of all of the activity happening in the area where they now reside. This data can include calls to action to have the customer enter their address on the agent's website to get home values, see local community information, and more. The agent-client relationship should not end when the transaction is completed, it should evolve into something different. 

Ultimately that leads me to the last concept: Be Different. Don't be afraid to change things up and do things differently in your business. What I learned in my recent travels is that something as simple as actually downloading your CRM app and checking it every day makes enough of a difference in an agent's daily workflow that it could be their New Years resolution. My recommendation: as a brokerage, find the right all-in-one marketing & CRM platform that can truly automate business for your agents. Then, leverage that tool to build a healthy culture of technology in your organization by sharing the wins. What we've found is that something as simple as 15 minutes in the DeltaNET® could save your agents more than 200 hours per year. What a difference that could make in both their lives and their business.