Have suggestions for products that you’d like to see reviewed by our real estate technology expert? Email Craig Rowe.
Marketer is marketing automation technology and services company for the real estate industry.
Platforms: Browser, mobile-responsive
Ideal for: Larger brokerages and offices, franchises and real estate developers
Top selling points:
- CRM integration for listing data
- Automated Facebook ad creation
- Google advertising
- Post-sale agent promotions
- Seller reporting tools
Top concern:
Based in Norway, the company is well-recognized in Europe and is making its way to the states in 2022. However, until a full domestic presence is established, U.S.-based service could offer challenges.
What you should know
Automation is all the rage in proptech today. When it’s done at the expense of agents gaining valuable expertise in how to sell or generally understand the business, I see it as a disadvantage.
However, when it comes to marketing tasks and the tactical end of marketing and lead generation, there is tremendous value in it.
Marketer excels in executing on your marketing plan, helping you reach the people you determine will best serve your business plan. It’s who you call when you know what needs to be done.
In the demo, a company representative told me their mission is to present “… the right property to the right people at the right time.” They do this through retargeting social and online display campaigns, Google advertising and property websites, among other tactics.
The company pulls listing data for outreach campaigns by connecting with your current CRM or whatever tool is used to track listings. It then creates individual, FHA-compliant personas for each property entering the market. A “persona” is a universal marketing term used to describe the ideal target for a product.
In this case, Marketer will ensure a luxury listing in a specific ZIP code is exposed to an audience of luxury buyers looking in that ZIP code. And they can get more nuanced than that, too, diving into square footage or community name, assuming that data is available.
The company uses predictive modeling — a polysyllabic way of saying it churns a lot of data to ensure targeting accuracy. The intent here is to find better quality leads, whereas standard, broadly targeted marketing tends to scoop up those not as apt to buy.
Ad campaigns run on Facebook and Instagram, as well as on Google and across news and media outlets, similar to what Adwerx and other ad providers offer.
Live results from each ad run are tracked in a backend dashboard. Those stats can be distilled further into seller reports. I would think the campaign reporting tools would make good fodder for listing presentations.
Marketer’s automations can deploy property websites to extend the sales funnel, complete with chat windows to engage prospective leads and hand off favorable conversations to the actual agent.
The backend does more than track what you’re up to. It offers ways to take action on specific properties, and its Lead Management module can two-way sync with an existing CRM, meaning leads and activity updates collected in Marketer campaigns can be pushed through to your legacy solution.
Something else that stands out about Marketer? The price. New clients get a three-month free trial, which is sort of necessary to determine how capable an office is in regard to encouraging adoption. No software company wants to waste time on an ill-equipped client.
Implementation and setup is free, and the company assigns a full-time project manager and a success representative to assist with onboarding and long-term usage challenges.
I have little doubt Marketer will find traction here in the states. I’d likely rank it a little higher if that was already the case. Still, I get the feeling there’s more to come from this company.
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe
Craig C. Rowe started in commercial real estate at the dawn of the dot-com boom, helping an array of commercial real estate companies fortify their online presence and analyze internal software decisions. He now helps agents with technology decisions and marketing through reviewing software and tech for Inman.
