Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
This week we travel down to Tampa, Florida, in search of the top real estate professionals in the region. As has been the process in past weeks, we rely on Google and Zillow ratings to isolate the agencies, then drill down to find out their digital and conventional marketing practices. Our methods continue to shift, but we're homing in on ways consumers can quickly isolate and evaluate the professionals best capable of converting sales. We also found the same sad situation in Tampa, which we've run across in other medium-sized markets. With hundreds of agents to choose from, relatively few actually use all the available tools to service clients. Here's this week's list.
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I almost missed Tampa, Florida's most prolific agency. Were it not for the relative mediocrity of Andrew Duncan's competitors, a slight flaw in my methodology would have left him off this list. You see, the 5-star/100 plus Google and Zillow criteria I established for previous lists do not cover all circumstances. The Duncan Duo team has one horrible review out of over 1,000, which takes their rating down to 4.8. So, it's a good thing I went back to search Tampa agents for a superstar. Somehow, I knew there had to be a Tampa-St. Pete marketing hero out there.
Duncan has no peers in the realm of marketing, according to what I found. Facebook, Instagram, Inc. 500, almost 3,000 subscribers on a real estate Youtube channel, the guy needs a costume like Green Lantern. Seriously, in hundreds of reviews of real estate professionals nationwide, only a handful are as good. The only negative, I could find across this Tampa agent's footprint is the fact his dentist made the man's teeth too white. The smile from the guy will blind you even on Instagram. As you can tell from the share I use for his profile pic. If Duncan has one strike against him, it's his ghastly ugly website, which does pass SEO with a score of 89/100. No seriously, this is the guy I'd get to sell my house in this region. I'm not alone in this assessment either. Duncan Duo has been the No. 1 Re/Max agent in Florida and the No. 8 team in the world, as well as having been endorsed by Barbara Corcoran (Shark Tank). Come on, the guy even has his own radio show.
Christie's International associate Kelly Parks has made 142 sales in the last 12 months, according to Zillow. However, looking at her marketing prowess across all spheres, I'm thinking she could have made a lot more. Perfect Google and Zillow reviews led me to her various profiles and to a score of traditional media mentions. While I was not thrilled by Parks' corporate Instagram style, her followers and post frequency speak volumes.
On Facebook, the Tampa agent does a superb job too, but her community could be larger given the size of the market she serves. 2k fans for Tampa is not exactly killing it in my book. Her website, which is not exactly a thing of beauty, has a respectable SEO score with Google. She loses points for leaving a link to her suspended Twitter account and for maintaining a placeholder only on LinkedIn. I hate opportunities lost, especially where easy maintaining social media connection is concerned.
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Kendall Bonner is another Tampa real estate professional whose digital marketing skills match her reputation as a power seller. She’s a frequent contributor to local industry news and ticks all the social media boxes with useful shares on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and LinkedIn. The only problem I find is with the recent frequency of posts. Perhaps she’s been on vacation or her social media manager has? From what we're seeing, Tampa Agents are not world shakers in digital consistency anyhow.
If the agent has a weak point, I guess it’s the number of reviews on Zillow (23 - 5-star). In fact, I broke tradition here, including her only because of 384 5-star Google reviews. Where SEO on her site is concerned, Bonner seems to have done a good job with the relatively new site. The SEO score of 78/100 is not bad. Bonner’s real strong suit is traditional media, where she can be seen on ABC, local news, and via PRNewswire and press releases. Clearly, she’s got a good grasp on the marketing game.
Joseph Kippling's Tampa Bay Home Team appears as one of Florida's most successful real estate agencies. Appearances, though, can be deceiving. The Keller Williams agent comes right out on the firm's website and says their "marketing sells." Well, 5,500 plus fans on Facebook, engaged properly, can't hurt. However, an Instagram button I could barely find on the website led to a two-week-old posting, which does not indicate a stunning marketing strategy.
Also, claiming to advertise client homes to 100,000 people on Facebook seems a bit fluffy to me. A couple of likes per post and a bit of social media love? I just don't see it. Maybe Kippling's team is talking about "impressions" for some ads they once ran? Anyway, the team's site is the best of the lot SEO-wise, with a score of 83/100.
I wish I could move onward to Youtube or other channels to tell of the "home team's" digital prowess blossoming. I just can't. On the website, Kippling makes a big deal of using professional photographers, drone images, and video marketing. But the Youtube channel has 53 subscribers. Even this would not be so bad if the agent were not using marketing prowess as a selling point. This is from the website:
"Get yourself a marketing agent, not a listing agent."
I don't want to dig any deeper here. Looking and some dupe content on Kippling's blog pretty much did it for me. Adding a lead paragraph to someone else's copy is just not kosher for journalists. Anyway, this Tampa agency gets a spot for perfect Google and Zillow scores and not a lot else.
