Muskogee launches launches Top Agent ads, signs 40% of agents in first meeting

Wehaa has announced that CNHI has selected the Top Agent Ads platform to promote sales in the real estate category. 

“The real estate market continues to change, and local agents are looking for something different that helps them stand out in a crowded space,¨ says Wehaa’s VP of sales, Kevin Collins. 

Newspapers have been struggling for years with real estate ever since the giant search aggregates like Zillow and Trulia came on the scene, virtually destroying the category almost overnight. 

Wehaa’s solution to win back the category is an Agent & Broker Promotional platform that combines print, digital and social to deliver hyper-local leads to local agents. 

“Agent & Broker Promotions is all about the agent,” Collins said.

“By leveraging the newspaper’s brand equity and cutting-edge technology, newspapers can  help local agents get more branding and better exposure.”

The platform provides a unique combination of promotions:

• An Agent Bio page that includes contact info, agent’s social media links, reviews from sites like Zillow and Realtor.com, a carousel of listings, sold homes, lead form and agent bio

• Dynamic banners with DFP and native codes on the newspaper's website

• Facebook & Instagram carousel ads with geo & behavioral targeted traffic buys each month

• A PDF flyer for each listing that can be used for the info box on listings and left on- counter for open houses.

• Reverse publishing from digital to print

Reports include traffic metrics using Google Analytics, API for all results for exclusive leads from dynamic banners, social media ads and targeting criteria, flyers printed, phone call data (a local call-tracking number is optional). 

The timing of the partnership could not have been better. Dale Brendel, CNHI’s Muskogee Phoenix Publisher, had begun talking with his regional advertising director, Ted Gurley, about strategies to bring back their lost real estate business when Gurley received an email from Wehaa about the new Agent & Broker Promotions. He decided to get a demo.

A couple of weeks later, Collins was on a plane headed to Muskogee to launch Muskogee Phoenix Top Agents. 

Here is the home page view of the site showcasing the top agents:

Clicking on the agent takes you to the agent profile page, this shows the agent’s contact information as well as displaying one of their top listings.

A nice feature of this page is the section ¨Let me show you the value of your home!¨ with buy and sell options that change dynamically, rather than using pop-ups, to qualify and capture leads.

They presented the new marketing package to a group of local real estate agents. They asked a lot of questions, and at the end of the presentation approximately 40% of the agents signed up for a six-month commitment. 

“The feedback from the agents was overwhelming,” says Kevin Collins. “We showed them things most agents didn’t even know was available to them.”

CNHI said they made the decision to launch Agent & Broker Promotions for four key reasons. First, the solution is feed-less and virtually hands-free for publishers and agents. Wehaa syncs up the newspaper’s CMS to the agent or broker’s website and scrapes all the data. Not having to worry about feeds from agents was a big factor in making a decision to test the platform. 

Second, the social media element provides an extended reach outside of the newspaper; utilizing geo and behavioral targeting to real estate intenders. Most newspapers are not capable of producing the dynamic carousel ads for Facebook & Instagram provided by Wehaa.

Another big factor for Mr. Brendel and the CNHI team, who believe print is still a great value for agents, is the reverse publishing component. Using this system, Muskogee can produce a weekly “Top Agent” ad with agent pictures and featured listings in the paper. 

Finally, a compelling component is the agent reports. “The agent reports make the intangibles, tangible,” Mr. Gurley said. The reports paint the whole picture for each agent and show the traffic stats. Each time an agent looks over their reports they will see exactly the results for the money. 

Muskogee Phoenix launched Top Agents at the beginning of June and CNHI has since rolled out the program to other papers including The Stillwater Norman Transcript. Next in line is The Joplin Globe. 

So far, the response from the market has been outstanding. Mr. Brendel received a testimonial after the first print ad went out: “I just got a house listing appointment due to the ad that was in Sunday’s paper about me being a top producer. Thank you very much! (smiley face). I’ll bet it made some of the Realtors who chose not to join the new Phoenix advertising jealous.”