Mark Joyner, President and Principal Broker for Napier REALTORS® ERA and the team leader of GoRVAHomes and GoNNKHomes, has been a proud partner of Delta Media Group for over 25 years. Balancing many roles and responsibilities — from multiple locations — he relies on Delta's innovation and support to keep him and his agents moving forward. 

A Father-Son Team

Mark Joyner grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and began learning the ropes of real estate at a young age by helping out his father, Ken, a broker and new home builder. Since he was eight years old, he has been digging ditches, leveling footings, raking yards, and sweeping houses.

For college, Mark attended James Madison University. He studied finance, intending to become a banker. However, he ultimately circled back to real estate after a few semesters. He got his license and immediately went to work at the brokerage his dad was with. After working at a few other local brokerages, Mark joined Napier ERA in 1998 and has been there ever since. 

"Real estate is all I've ever done since college," he explains." I've never done anything other than full-time real estate sales."

After years of hard work and long hours running their separate businesses, Mark asked his dad to come to Napier ERA and work with him. The father-son pair then teamed up to serve customers around Richmond and started GoRVAHomes, now serving five counties: Goochland, Chesterfield, Powhatan, Hanover, and Henrico. The team wouldn't be complete without their Customer Service Coordinator, Kate Gyory, who Mark says "keeps us all straight."

"As a son, it was a unique experience to launch my career from my dad's brokerage and then have my dad come in and comfortably slow down his career at my brokerage," says Mark.

Mark enjoys working with his father daily, and he feels that their unique expertise allows them to better assist clients of different ages at various stages of homeownership. For instance, his dad recently went through the process of "downsizing" and can offer first-hand expertise in that market.

He says, "My dad focuses on helping people do what he just did, which is downsizing and sometimes helping families get loved ones into a community with a tiered structure of care as people age and then selling the property they were in to afford their new living arrangement. And so it's nice that he just went through that experience and can share that experience with other people."

On the other hand, Mark's clientele are those who have finished raising a family and are looking for a home where they want to spend their golden years.

"My demographic is those whose kids are in college, who are going to work now, and who are figuring out their next chapter," he says. "We bought our first house. Then we bought our second house because it had great schools and we were raising kids. Then the kids go away, and it's like, okay, what house do we want? This is the time to buy a house that we want. That's the kind of market I'm in."

Finding a New Opportunity Along the Chesapeake Bay

Mark and his wife bought a vacation home on the Chesapeake Bay when his kids went away to college. This was when he saw a new opportunity to sell real estate in the Northern Neck community. He formed his second team, GoNNKHomes, alongside charter captain and REALTOR® Ryan Rogers, and marketing expert and REALTOR® Suzy Smith. Ryan and Suzy are longtime residents of this community and have vast knowledge of the waterfront lifestyle.

"I've got Ryan and Suzy down here on the water in this community; they're selling houses both off the water and on the water," says Mark. "Ryan, a multi-decade captain, knows the water like the back of his hand."

Their office is even located along the water in the Northern Neck. This location is not only extremely appealing but perfectly aligns with the lifestyle GoNNKHomes is selling.

"Our office down here is in what they call a boatyard railway, which is basically two train tracks that go in the water, and they can pull these big boats out of the water and work on them," says Mark. "And then our office is sitting right up here, in this antique railway. It's just a really neat environment."

With the two locations only a couple of hours apart and many homeowners owning properties in both, GoRVAHomes and GoNNKHomes often send business back and forth. With Mark owning a home and spending time in each area, he can serve customers and work with his team members in both locations.

A Platform for Making Connections

One of the greatest factors Mark attributes to effectively leading two teams and handling work of such high capacity is the DeltaNET® platform. What Mark finds most valuable about the platform is how it allows for better connections to both his clients and teammates.

"It is, to me, a connecting platform," he explains. "One of my mentors, Brian Buffini, said, 'Hey, everyone, real estate is a contact sport, and if you're not contacting people and making connections, then you're going to have a short career.' What I like most about DeltaNET is the ease of connection."

Mark believes that automated marketing features in DeltaNET are key for connecting with customers. They save time while ensuring contact with leads and clients remains consistent. One of his favorite features for staying connected with clients is My Customer for Life (MCFL) because it is easy to use and converts to new business.

"My Customer for Life newsletter, it couldn't be any easier," he says. "I check a box, and everybody I load into my database, everybody's in there, gets it, all with that checkbox on a schedule that I set with a header that I have crafted. I've received hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales every year because of the newsletter, just reminding folks, oh, don't forget about GoRVAHomes, don't forget about GoNNKHomes."

Mark also finds the email campaigns in DeltaNET to be an easy and effective feature for staying connected.

"Delta has a bunch of the email campaigns already built for us, which is great," he says. "It's easy for us to go in and make it sound like Virginia and not Ohio, haha. If I want a moderate follow-up program, I can send one email a month for the next 12 months. If our team has a hot buyer, we can send them something every week. They're all sitting right there in the email campaign library. It couldn't be any easier."

Delta Media's Social Connector is another way Mark and his teammates use the technology to connect with their customer base. This tool enables them to simplify the task of posting new listings and other updates on their social media.

"My teammates and I, for both teams, use Social Connector," he notes. "All of our new listings, all of our new videos, and all of what we just sold, that automatically goes to our business pages on our social media sites."

Mark considers how many touches are needed to form a relationship with a client and, thus, how important automated marketing and communication features like MCFL, email campaigns, and Social Connector are for forming this level of connection.

"I heard a statistic: To have a connected relationship with somebody in your database, you must have 32 touches per year," he says. "Napier is focused on statistics that help our agents understand what connection means, and then through their own systems and the combination of the abilities and the capabilities of DeltaNet, try to accomplish that and have that connection."

As president and the leader of multiple teams, Mark frequently uses the companywide messaging in DeltaNET, which helps him easily keep in touch with all Napier ERA agents and his team members. He points to how helpful this feature has been for staying connected, which has been particularly important amid all the recent industry changes and hurdles.

"I use the companywide messaging a lot, especially recently," he mentions. "We've had some pretty all-encompassing changes in our marketplace, whether it be forms, policies, procedures, what have you, with our MLS and different entities. Being able to go in as an admin, go to users, and then click the message and whether I want to do a text message or an email has been invaluable. It's awesome. I can do the same for my team members."

He also loves that new features are always being added to the DeltaNET platform. 

He says, "Delta is always reinventing something or adding something. At least every month, new features are coming out, and there's either a video, an email explanation, or something about these new features, which is great."

Finally, Mark feels that DeltaNET helping agents connect goes hand-in-hand with the brokerage's focus on forming strong client relationships. 

"Napier's focus is on the relationship with your client," he mentions. "This is not a transaction; this is not a closing or a sale. This is someone who will need some real estate help at some point in time and you're the trusted advisor when that time comes. And that's our company focus."

A Website and SEO Partner That Never Fails

As a committed partner of Delta Media Group, Mark has witnessed the value of having a user-friendly, customizable real estate website to generate new leads and connect with local customers online.

He says, "Our Delta websites were super easy to set up. I love the templates. There's every flavor you could ask for, from technical-looking to artistic. And then, within that, there are options within the template to do other things."

He appreciates the flexibility and the opportunity he had to create two unique sites that cater to the needs of each of his teams. 

"With GoNNKHomes.com, I used a search results page that I could build within DeltaNET with a header about my team," he says. "And then we jump right into the waterfront properties because, for that team, that's what people are looking for. And then my GoRVAomes.com site is a more traditional template that talks a little bit about the real estate, the reviews, the new listings, and all that stuff. So, the flexibility with Delta's website customization allowed me to do what I wanted with the two teams."

He has also partnered with Delta for SEO on his sites for the last 15 years. His website ranks at the top of the search results when a customer searches for him. He feels this is an important marketing tool for all agents.

"If somebody says, 'I met Mark Joyner, and I know he is a REALTOR®,' then they type in Mark Joyner REALTOR®, our sites are right up there on the top results," he explains. "That's what I want for all my agents."

Mark and the rest of the leadership at Napier ERA have always looked to Delta to lead the way regarding his website. He has found that his site's ability to drive traffic and capture leads is all thanks to the work and recommendations made by the Delta team.

"The consistency of listening to you all with what's needed to have an active website, you need to have blogs on there, you need to update all your content, and all this stuff, helps you get up in the algorithms," he says. "We've always listened to that and you guys have helped us there, so that's been very important in our relationship."

A Leader in Technology

Having been around for over 60 years, Napier ERA has always been a leader in technology. They quickly jumped at the opportunity to build a website when the technology first became available.

Mark says, "Napier was one of the first in our area and our entire marketplace to get a website in 1998."

The brokerage has only continued to innovate since, allowing them to remain at the top of their market around Richmond.

"We have not remained a top 12 company in the Richmond metro marketplace of over 700 firms by sitting still," says Mark. "The only way you stay on top is by continuing to innovate. You're always doing the next thing, and you're always looking for that next piece."

Mark credits Napier ERA's partnership with Delta as a major factor in the company staying innovative, saying, "Our business grew up with DeltaNet."

He attributes this innovation not only to Delta always inventing new products and updating current software but also consistently listening to their customers' ideas and feedback.

"It's been a great two-way street," he says. "Delta has brought ideas and thoughts to us and has been all ears when we brought thoughts and ideas to them. You stay with the technology partner because you work together."

Mark doesn't believe innovation is the only reason for their success, but rather how their partnership with Delta enables the technology and people elements to work together.

"We've seen the storms, we've been through the storms, and we've come out of the other side," he says. "We're doing what we do, and we're taking care of our people. I think that's the benefit of having a technology partner like Delta Media Group. For us, the technology piece and the people piece are very important. The magic is making the people and technology pieces work together to foster that relationship. And I think we should focus on that."

The Advantages of an Automated, All-in-One Solution

Mark sees many advantages to having one system and one technology provider that helps you manage the majority of daily tasks. He believes you can't necessarily make more time, but you can choose where you wish to focus that time by automating routine tasks.

"There's no such thing as time management," he says. "You can't manage time. It's never going to stop. It's never going to slow down. However, you can manage events and you can manage tasks. So then you have to figure out which tasks are important to you, which make you money, and which do not. And when you do that, you realize pretty quickly that about 80% of what you do does not directly make you money, but it has to be done to satisfy the transaction and make happy clients, which will ultimately help you get paid. So the good business people out there figure out how to do 80% of that stuff as fast as possible and then do something else."

Having had success with Delta Media Group being his sole technology partner for so many years, Mark believes that you can keep things simple with the right provider. He advises teams and brokerages yet to adopt an all-in-one solution: "Keep it simple. Have one contract. Do your due diligence and make sure you trust your business partner. If you trust your business partner and they give you no reason to leave and do everything for you, why wouldn't you do that?"

Not only do their websites and the DeltaNET platform help the GoRVAHomes and GoNNKHomes teams stay connected with each other and their customers, but they also have a partner in Delta who stays connected with them. Mark credits Delta's connection to their customers to CEO Michael Minard.

He says, "I must give Mike Minard credit. He grew his company with the ups and downs in technology and the economy and remained connected to his customers. Sometimes, as you grow, that gets lost, and he did a wonderful job of not losing that."

Training As a Top Priority

Agents and staff at Napier ERA receive excellent training on how to use DeltaNET. Mark attributes this to the great work of Jeff Hardy, the brokerage's Information Technology Director.

"Our company is good at keeping us trained up to speed, and DeltaNet's always a moving target," he says. "We pick a couple of features every month and train."

To simplify training, they use DeltaNET® Academy, which is included for free as part of DeltaNET.

"I like DeltaNET Academy because it's more of a deep dive," says Mark.

Mark explains that one of his main goals with training in the next few years is to teach agents how to segment their email list and set up campaigns.

"In the next few years, I'm going to focus on really taking the platform apart piece by piece and training the agents that want to be an expert on how to do emails and set up an email campaign," says Mark. "I'm going to say, 'Here are the campaigns. Here's where they are. Here's how you customize it. Here's how you save it yourself. Here's how you attach it to people. Here's how you group your people.' We're going to go deep into these things and really help our agents use them from top to bottom, not just splash all this stuff we have."

A Provider That Supports the Team Structure

As an agent and a team leader, Mark sees how DeltaNET supports teams as a huge advantage to his business.

"Technology is crucial for a team leader," he says. "You have to have a technology partner that you trust that's up on the current trends and that gives you the flexibility to do what you want to do. If I were a team looking for a software partner, I would look at Delta long and hard."

He points to how simple it is to simultaneously manage multiple websites and execute both team and individual tasks, all within the platform.

"When I'm logged into DeltaNet, I can go on my agent site, and I can go on my team site," explains Mark. "It is super flexible for both team scenarios where team members also have an individual site. And we have some with both in our company, and it works flawlessly."

With an increasing number of agents interested in joining teams these days, the opportunities provided by DeltaNET also make it possible for brokerages like Napier ERA to recruit teams and encourage existing agents to adopt a team structure.

"It gives me, as a company owner, and my brokers and managers, the flexibility to encourage teams to come on board," says Mark.

Using Technology to Build Lasting, Genuine Connections

Mark Joyner's relationship with Delta Media Group these last 25 years has been pivotal to the ongoing success of his teams and brokerage. Mark relies on this partnership to provide him with the tools needed to build genuine, lasting connections with clients and collaborate in real time. By automating routine tasks, DeltaNET has allowed him to focus on what matters most: forming meaningful relationships with clients. 

Whether serving Richmond families or Northern Neck waterfront enthusiasts, Delta Media Group supports Mark and Napier ERA's vision of a connected, people-centered approach to real estate. Mark and his team members remain committed to innovation and connection, always ready to adapt and grow.