Real-Time Marketing Review: What’s Working for Agents Right Now

In a recent Luxury Presence webinar, hosted by Chris Linsell, director of content, a team of experts walked through real-world examples of agent marketing materials: Social feeds, websites, and blogs, to highlight what works, what falls short, and how to stand out in an increasingly crowded digital space.

This article recaps the lessons from that session. You’ll learn the practices that can set you apart, the common mistakes to avoid, and how to elevate your digital presence with purpose.

Quick reference: Best practices vs. common pitfalls

While strategy and storytelling matter, sometimes it helps to see the essentials side by side. Here’s a quick breakdown of what to prioritize and what to avoid in your real estate marketing:

Do this	Instead of this
Use your face in profile photos and blog images to create an emotional connection.	Hiding behind a logo or graphic that feels impersonal.
Share a mix of property promotion, behind-the-scenes content, and market insights.	Posting only open houses and “just listed” updates.
Create hyper-local content that highlights your community, culture, and lifestyle.	Posting generic content that could apply to any market.
Publish steady YouTube videos (e.g., one per week) with strong thumbnails and titles.	Uploading sporadically or expecting fast growth from a few videos.
Write clear, search-friendly blog headlines and break up blogs with subheads and visuals.	Publishing long, unbroken blocks of text with no images.
Keep fonts, colors, and styles consistent across all platforms.	Switching typefaces and styles that dilute your brand identity.
Showcase testimonials, sold listings, and marketing strategy before contact forms.	Asking visitors to “connect” without first showing value.
Invest in simple tools like clip-on mics for video.	Overlooking audio quality, which undermines your content.

Social media is more than just a digital resume

Social platforms like Instagram and TikTok are often the first stop for potential clients. The temptation for many agents is to fill feeds with open houses and “just listed” posts. While important, those alone rarely build meaningful engagement.

Aaron Grushow, social media marketing manager at Luxury Presence, noted the importance of mixing in behind-the-scenes and value-driven content. Looking at one agent’s feed that reflected that blend, he pointed out: “I love this type of content. People love to see this and it kind of gives perspective on how you prepare a home for market, how you prepare for an open house”.

Consistency matters more than sheer volume. “It didn’t take 10 videos. It didn’t take a hundred videos. It took five years for [that agent] to build a sustainable social strategy that created value and generated business,” Linsell reminded the audience.

The takeaway: Real growth comes from patient, steady effort and authentic storytelling. Followers don’t need to be in the tens of thousands to matter. As Grushow said, “A strong base of 500 people who are rooting for you and speaking your name in rooms that you’re not in can be even more valuable than having 10,000 followers of lower quality viewers.”

Make websites personal and purposeful

Your website is often your first listing presentation. It needs to establish credibility, provide value, and connect emotionally with visitors.

Isabella Gottlieb, director of brand and celebrity solutions, underscored the importance of simple human touches. “We don’t have a photo here. I would love to see a photo… putting a name or a face to your brand is going to be really helpful to allow people to connect with you”.

Equally important is the order of information. Jumping straight to a “let’s connect” section can feel transactional. Instead, Gottlieb recommended showcasing testimonials, sold listings, or marketing strategies upfront: “Most of the time, people need some sort of value… what are they going to give me that the other realtors in the area are not?”

High-quality imagery also matters. As Gottlieb explained when reviewing a brokerage website, “This is essentially like a listing presentation. The way you are marketing the property on their website is what they’re going to expect if you are their agent.”

Use YouTube to grow visibility

While Instagram and TikTok often grab attention, YouTube remains one of the most effective platforms for building long-term visibility. During the review, Grushow highlighted how strong thumbnails and titles can drive engagement. 

As he analyzed an account, he commented, “Right off the bat, your thumbnails are extremely strong. I love how you are in just about every single thumbnail. You’re associating your face with the brand. You have a good amount of text on there, but not too much.”

Grushow advised agents not to overcommit early but to focus on a realistic cadence. “Organically the best thing you can do is be consistent. And you’re not going to be perfect when you start out. No one is. But the more quantity you have the more your quality improves. You can only get better by doing.”

He recommended a practical starting point: “My suggestion is one video a week. I think that’s probably one of the best places to start. And once you have your systems and processes down, you can work on increasing that, but even then, one video a week can get you very, very far if you’re consistent with that for months and even years.”

For agents willing to stick with it YouTube can become a library of evergreen content that continues to build authority, capture search traffic, and position them as trusted local experts.

Go hyper local to build authority

Another powerful strategy is going hyper local. Grushow pointed to an agent who built a separate page just for community-focused content: “He is hyper focused on his market, extremely focused. And he’s created a separate page called Living Chicago Suburbs… it’s more focused on things that are going on, what’s popping up, what’s new, what’s exciting. And he’s really established himself as the mayor of the Chicago suburbs.”

This approach positions an agent as not just a salesperson, but a trusted local authority. It makes them the go-to resource for anyone thinking about moving into or around that market.

Blogs build long-term authority

While social media offers quick engagement, blogs remain one of the most powerful tools for sustainable visibility. “Eighty to ninety percent of organic traffic to most websites comes from organic search,” Linsell said. “Most of the time the traffic for real estate websites comes by organically appearing as the answer to a question that somebody is asking on the internet”.

But not all blogs are created equal. Strong headlines and subheadings improve “skimability,” making it easier for readers to extract value. As Linsell observed: “You were effectively using headlines and subheadings to give your content skimability. Today’s readers need to be able to skim through content very quickly”.

Images are another overlooked element. “Readers need to be able to feel engaged by the content… Images can play a really powerful role in your user experience and they’re things that search engines look for as well,” Linsell added.

Featuring your own face in blog images is also a smart move. He pointed to Ryan Serhant’s use of his image in marketing. “Not a lot of people are including images of themselves in their blog. This is a missed opportunity. Google associates the images of the blogs with their search results, so you get a chance to put your face front and center.”

Branding consistency creates trust

Across platforms, consistent branding reinforces credibility. Gottlieb noted the pitfalls of too many fonts and styles in social content: “What that does is make it a little bit visually overwhelming when I come to your profile and I’m not quite sure… what your exact brand is”.

Choose one or two typefaces and stick with them across social, websites, and presentations. Sound quality is another subtle but important trust-builder. 

The same principle applies to audio and video. Sound quality is another subtle but important trust-builder. As Linsell put it, “No matter how great the video looks, if the audio isn’t also great, it turns people off.” Grushow agreed, recommending a simple clip-on microphone: “They truly can increase the quality of your video content tremendously.”

First impressions matter

The final word came from Briana Fitz, strategic account executive at Luxury Presence: “Every agent knows that the competition is fierce. So if your brand isn’t inspiring that confidence instantly, we can risk losing business. Right? So we ensure that you never have that problem and that’s what Luxury Presence was built to do.”

From custom websites and a mobile app to AI-powered marketing and lead nurture, our platform gives you everything you need to elevate your brand and stand out online.