Greater Boston Association of REALTORS®
OUR CHALLENGE.
The Greater Boston Association of REALTORS® (GBAR) is the largest local REALTOR® association in New England. GBAR supports a network of over 10,000 REALTOR® members providing access to education, resources, and advocacy that enhance members’ ability to achieve success.
GBAR experienced a drop in membership. They needed to communicate to reach new members, interact with existing members better, and communicate with consumers using key messages.
OUR SOLUTION.
Agency McKenna is an agency of change. We facilitated GBAR’s new strategic plan, its mission and vision statements. We led a communications audit to identify gaps that needed filling. We conducted member focus groups to uncover better engagement opportunities. The Board tasked us to lead a first-ever consumer campaign using digital ad placements and local media.
Our consumer campaigns generated:
• a reach of 3,674,056 impressions over 3 months
• garnering 66% better click-through rate than industry standards
• and 30X more website traffic to its landing page
TRUSTED ADVISOR CAMPAIGN.
REALTORS® are held to a higher standard.™ Not every agent is a REALTOR®. Consumer trust is earned one relationship, one transaction at a time. Consumers wouldn’t trust surgery without the skill of a surgeon. Nor should they DIY the purchase or sale of a home without a REALTOR®. Competency, fairness, and integrity. That’s what REALTORS® stand for.
FAIR HOUSING CAMPAIGN.
Fair Housing is every month, every day, for everyone.™ This campaign was created to address racial discrimination, implicit bias, and equity issues in the Greater Boston area. It’s important to communicate to consumers all REALTORS® abide by a national Code of Ethics. Consumers can trust a REALTOR® to be fair with clients and treat every consumer with dignity and respect.
CHALLENGING MARKET CAMPAIGN.
Navigating a challenging market—takes a REALTOR®. The lack of inventory, scarcity of affordable homes, and multiple offers including bidding wars–the Boston real estate market echoed national challenges. This campaign underscores when buying or selling a home, don’t hire any licensed agent–rely on the expertise of a REALTOR® and a network of over 10,000 members.
CASEPRO FOR PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS.
GBAR has been a CasePro client of Agency McKenna for years. CasePro is the real estate industry’s only all-in-one professional standards case management software for REALTOR® Associations. CasePro has been expanded to support MLSs, subscriber rules and regulations complaint management. CasePro technology is used by associations and MLSs for over 625,000 REALTOR® members. 24-7-365 online access and hosted by Microsoft® Azure.
MEMBER RECRUITMENT.
There are quite literally thousands of licensed agents in Boston who do not belong to GBAR. We aimed to change that. To recruit more brokerages and new members, Agency McKenna worked with GBAR to develop a multi-touchpoint campaign to pinpoint the incredible value of membership. Old-school letters, postcards, and 2-pagers mailed to brokerages in Boston.
GALVANIZING NEW MEMBERS.
Engagement is all about the hub you create. Agency McKenna developed a sub-brand identity and communication assets for GBAR to speak specifically to their newest members. The “GBAR-HUB” is a space for new members to get targeted information in order to thrive in their first year. Branded swag, emails, and social media welcome and create a sense of belonging.
SEGMENTATION THAT WORKS.
Agency McKenna conducted focus groups and member satisfaction surveys of GBAR members to determine their main audience groups. Through the discovery of members’ wants and needs, GBAR can now better target information for each audience segment. Agency McKenna created email headers and a robust strategy for GBAR’s #1 communication vehicle—targeted email.
