March 10, 2025 • 27 mins
In this episode Todd Alexander, Head of Marketing at Ray White Corporate joins the podcast and delves into all things marketing. He discusses marketing technology for real estate agencies, including insights on Ray White's One System, their Canva integration, and other tools that enhance agent productivity and maintain consistent brand standards.
There are plenty of practical recommendations that agencies large and small can learn from, including on the significance of customer experience surveys, the use of data, and the evolving role of AI and machine learning in the real estate industry.
00:00 Introduction and Episode Overview
00:41 Meet Todd Alexander: Journey to Ray White
02:45 Ray White One System: Enhancing Efficiency
04:07 Canva Integration: Consistency in Marketing
08:37 Customer Experience and Nurture Cloud
10:40 Setting Up a New Agency: Essential Tools
15:07 Balancing Paid and Owned Ecosystems
17:26 The Role of Data and Analytics
22:46 AI in Real Estate: Current and Future Impact
26:37 Closing Remarks and Thank You
Visit www.propertyedge.app/the-property-edge-podcast to see other episodes, see episode summaries and read transcripts.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
sonic logo
Rob (00:04):
Today's episode or the property edge podcast.
Todd (00:06):
Our CRM talks to an email provider, which then talks to
another piece of technology theneveryone's talking to each
other, which then ultimatelyleads to more efficiencies in
the business.
There's no point being part of anetwork when you are
inconsistent in your delivery ofmarketing material.
It just shows a disconnect.
There's a level ofunprofessionalism as well about
(00:27):
it.
So instead of making a hundredcold calls, they may make 10
warm calls and they may be theonly 10 calls they need to do a
day to get the same outcomes asdoing a hundred cold calls.
Mhm.
Rob (00:41):
And welcome to another episode of the Property Edge
podcast.
My, my name's Rob Turnbull, andtoday we're gonna go a little
bit different.
We are gonna look at marketingtechnology for real estate
agencies, and there's no onebetter to talk about that with
than the head of marketing forRay White, corporate based in
Sydney.
Mr.
Todd Alexander, welcome Todd.
Todd (01:03):
Thank you, Rob.
Thank you very much for havingme.
Excited to be here.
Rob (01:06):
to start with, I think the the listeners would like to know
how an Adelaide boy who went toBrighton High ends up in Sydney
running marketing for one of thelargest agencies in the country.
Todd (01:17):
Yeah, good question.
The simplest answer is I Ichased a girl.
a girl is now my wife and we'vegot a beautiful little girl
together.
And so yeah, one of those.
Sort of sliding door momentswhere I could have stayed home
in Adelaide or try and dosomething, which is pretty cool
and pretty unique and moved toSydney and it's now been 13
years and yeah, Sydney's beenreally good to us.
(01:38):
And to be honest, Rob, I, I, Igenuinely would've never thought
I'd be in the fortunate positionI am where I'm the head of
marketing for Australaisa'slargest real estate group.
So I get to pinch myself everyday.
So it's been, yeah, it's beenpretty cool.
Rob (01:53):
But you started out at an agency, correct?
You learned the ropes, runningthe marketing for an agency, and
then progressed up to corporate.
Todd (02:01):
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah.
So eight years ago I with ourDouble Bay office and certainly
a baptism of fire within thereal estate industry.
Some of the biggest names, Ithink within Sydney Real Estate,
but also Australia's real, realestate.
Yeah, Gavin Rubinstein,obviously from Luxe Listings was
someone that I got to work with.
Got to, see the way that he goesabout his craft and just his
(02:21):
relentless pursuit of perfectionis probably a simple way of
describing the way that he goesabout it.
But there's some, there's somepretty other incredible people
that work within that businessfrom.
You know, Elliot Placks to, youknow, Ashley Bierman and Warren
Ginsburg, these guys that yeah.
Were so good to me and got tolearn the craft.
And without'em I wouldn't be,Here where I'm today.
Rob (02:41):
Yeah, that's, it's beautiful when you can get that
sort of experience under suchexperts, isn't it?
So, so perhaps we'll jump intomarketing technology now and,
and from a, if we start with.
With Ray White, what you'recomfortable to share with Ray
White.
Can you explain the Ray WhiteOne System?
What, what's the purpose of thatand how does it help the
individual agent on the ground?
Todd (03:01):
So the Ray White One System is a consolidation of
around 30 different pieces oftech, which all talk to each
other, which ultimately drivesefficiency and profitability for
our agents.
And you know, profitability canbe bottom line because we're
able to negotiate deals with aneconomy of scale being so big
(03:22):
that we can get a biggerdiscount for a lot of different.
You know, pieces of technologyversus I'm just gonna create
Todd Alexander Real EstateGroup, and then I've gotta go
find email provider, then findan internet provider, and so on
and so forth.
So one, we're able to negotiatea really good deal so ultimately
it leads to, you know, a betterprofit line because we're not,
our guys don't need to invest asmuch in tech.
But two, that the key here, andthis is probably the most
(03:45):
important, is all of our systemstalk to each other.
And so, if we can driveefficiency of use, because our
CRM talks to an email provider,which then talks to another
piece of technology that we own,then everyone's talking to each
other, which then ultimatelyleads to more efficiencies in
the, in the business.
Which hopefully means our peoplecan then focus on prospecting
(04:05):
and listing and selling.
Rob (04:07):
Gotcha.
Gotcha.
And so from a marketingtechnology perspective, I know
you've got Canva involved now,and I think Canva will be part
of that One System platform.
It seems to me, you know, and,and this is a bit of a gimme
question for you, but obviouslygiving your agencies access to,
to Canva means that you cancreate consistency across all
your marketing assets thatthey're creating.
(04:28):
You can, you can shoot thingsout and they can use these
things that are, are consistentwith the brand, but equally it's
a brilliant tool.
I mean, we use it ourselves.
I know a lot of businesses useit, particularly for the non
design minded.
It's a really simple tool.
What has been the effect atagent level of that partnership?
Todd (04:46):
Yeah, it's more time back in the diaries, probably the
biggest measurement of success.
The best thing for me aboutCanva outside of all those
things that you've mentioned istheir APIs gives us the ability
to create a really uniqueplatform within Canva.
And so what I mean by that is,there's two APIs in particular
that we're able to tap into.
(05:07):
One's the auto fill and theother one is the Connect API.
And so through software thatwe've created ourselves, we can
create a workflow where theagent doesn't necessarily leave
our ecosystem for them to getmarketing assets, which are
housed in Canva.
So really loosely speaking,we've, we've created EARS"
Express Auction ReportingSystem.
(05:28):
So on a Saturday being game dayfor our industry.
We'll do one in four auctionsaround Australia in a week.
So on Saturday was when we dothe majority of the auctions,
and so as an agent, we canactually send'em a text message.
They tell us how well theauction went, how many
registered bidders, how manyactive bidders, and then what
was the final price.
(05:49):
Those details then go intoCanva, then through the API
Canva spits back a social asset.
Right on their phone, which thenthey can download and then they
can share across their socialmedia channels.
And so that's one example ofmany different workflows that
we've been able to create usingtheir APIs.
But Canva powering the designasset.
And so from a marketingperspective, to be able to use
(06:12):
Canva as the one source of liketruth for all those marketing
assets, but then have all thesedifferent little workflows,
which our agents don't reallyneed to go to Canva to get a
marketing asset is, is reallyefficient.
And as I said earlier, puts timeback in.
Our people's diaries to lookafter our customers.
Rob (06:28):
That is a brilliant use of, of technology attached to
marketing to create an outcomethat actually makes life easier
and better for your, uh, yourend user, the agent.
I know there'll be agents andagencies listening, going, well,
we, we are never gonna be ableto set that up, right?
But anyone can set up brandtemplates in Canva, right?
So you can get your designer, orif you've got an in-house
(06:50):
designer, they can set that upand then no one can mess with
your brand design, right?
And so it can be super easy toto, to create stuff, even if
you're not using APIs to autopopulate and sending text
messages.
Todd (07:02):
Yeah, correct.
I'm super lucky.
I've got five designers in myteam here in Sydney and.
We're always just adding andrefreshing the templates that
we've got in there.
And we've probably got athousand in Canva alone, let
alone other brand platforms thatwe've got to create signboards
and press ads and deals andbrochures.
But within Canva, the one clickdistribution to our entire
(07:23):
network is such a benefit to us.
So you can imagine like we'rerolling out a new campaign, or
we need to make an adjustment toan existing template instead of
having to go to individualservice accounts or go to
individual suppliers, whateverit is, it's just one centralised
location, then it's one clickfull distribution.
So again, very efficient from myperspective to be able to
(07:44):
distribute any evolutions tosome of our marketing templates.
Rob (07:47):
Yeah.
And that that's something that,you know, if there's a group of
three agencies, they can do thesame thing, right?
They all get onto the sameaccount and then one person
creates it once everyone can useit.
I love that.
Todd (07:58):
Yeah, like it's, it's, I know it might seem like a bit of
a no brainer, but there's nopoint being part of a network
when you are inconsistent inyour delivery of marketing
material.
It just shows a disconnect.
There's a level ofunprofessionalism as well about
it.
I'm not saying we're perfect,we've, we've got opportunities
to be better, but for the mostpart, we are pretty good when we
(08:19):
execute the Ray White yellowwith the Ray White logo.
You see it and you know thatit's part of our group.
And yeah, the way that we dobrand management platforms is a,
is a really important part tothat.
Rob (08:29):
Yeah.
Well, let's go one step deeperthen and get a bit more
granular.
So, so your agents createdsomething using whatever.
How do you help them understandthe customer experience at that
end?
How do you, how do you, with a,whether you show them from a, a
data perspective or do you howdo you train them up to
understand the effect of whatthey're doing at the on the
(08:52):
ground?
Todd (08:53):
Yeah, that's a, that's actually a ripping question.
So we survey every buyer andseller that transacts with us.
it's all automated.
As part of our CRM, we believein surveying every, every
customer because the needs andwants of the customer is always
evolving.
So unless you're actuallysurveying everybody in real
time, you're never gonna keepabreast of those needs and wants
(09:13):
as they evolve.
And so with this platform, itactually gives insights into
where our customers are comingfrom and like very loosely
speaking in the last report thatwe pulled I think it was over
like a three month period, therewas 20,000 response from our,
from our survey.
So 20,000 vendors and just under55% of them was either a
(09:34):
previous experience or areferral or recommendation.
So like, why is that reallyimportant for me is, yeah, it's
cool, like we can create allthis amazing material, but 50%
of the time, based on this, thecustomer is already in your
world and so the the emphasis oncustomer experience and making
(09:55):
sure you understand and exceedthe expectation of the customer.
That should be first andforemost, like there's no point
in having the most sexiestlooking marketing if you
actually don't have a reallygreat nurturing ecosystem.
And so, we've, like, we're RayWhite, invested heavily in
providing technology, whichsupports that.
And there's a bit of a buzzwordwithin our world at the moment,
(10:17):
which is something calledNurture Cloud, which is a piece
of technology which we've boughtand we've evolved, and which is
gonna be our future movingforward.
But the idea is that, itsupports our agents in nurturing
our customers, and marketingplays a role, but for me, like
the fundamental needs to belike, let's make sure we look
after our own backyard and lookafter our customers, first and
foremost.
Rob (10:38):
All right.
So I'm gonna put something toyou here.
Imagine a couple of gun agentscome and say, we are gonna set
up our own agency.
We want you to run marketing forus.
You agree.
And, what is on your shoppinglist?
What marketing technology isright at the top there?
What are you subscribing to fromday one?
Todd (10:56):
Yeah.
Nurture Cloud first and foremostby a long way.
I know that's a very selfishsort of answer because Nurture
Cloud is a, is a Ray White ownedpiece of technology.
But yeah, first and foremost itwould be Nurture Cloud because
it's it's designed to be able tobe a one stop agent operating
system to from prospecting to,you know, looking after the
(11:16):
customer, live vendor reporting,so on and so forth.
So for me, Nurture Cloud wouldbe the top.
Second would be Canva really,because, yeah, I just think
Canva is just a great tool andas you alluded to earlier, like
anybody can use it and it's justso efficient, but the
intuitiveness of it is just, youknow, really great.
And also gives you the abilityto personalize it with the api,
(11:36):
so that's, that's really great.
A digital listing presentation Ithink is also really important.
There's a couple of good onesout there, third parties and the
fourth one probably would be, areporting tool, which really
understands like how we're goingin the marketplace and if it's a
market share report or justunderstanding how our
(11:58):
competitors are going, just togive us clear sight of where
opportunities are and wherewe're, we're getting beaten in
some, in some of our core areaswould be really a really good
tool to have.
Rob (12:07):
So you've got all that set up.
How many personas, roughly areyou creating off the bat?
Todd (12:13):
Oh, that's a great question.
How many personas.
Rob (2) (12:16):
While you think about it and just explain for the
people out there, it's a bit ofa marketing term persona.
So persona is essentially apicture of a, a generic type of
customer that you might treatdifferently to other types of
customers.
So a persona might be single,first home buyer under 30.
Or newly retired couple lookingto downsize in the city,
(12:37):
something like that.
So you can create loads andloads of personas, but off the
bat, what are the most importantones for you?
Todd (12:43):
Yeah, I, I might take a different track if that's okay,
Rob and choose, a recruitmentpersona.
you know, to quite Brian Whiteif you are not recruiting,
you're not growing and we arejust starting out in our own
little real estate journey ofteam of three.
And a big part of our growthambition is how are we're gonna
recruit.
And so I'd probably create apersona of what sort of agents
(13:03):
that are existing in theindustry that we want to target
to be able to bring them overwhat is our value proposition to
be able to bring them over.
So persona number one.
Persona number two.
Again, I think this is probablymarket dependent, but let's say
I'm working in the southwestsuburbs of adelaide, so my home
area of Brighton, Somerton parkand Glenelg.
(13:24):
I would probably say I would betargeting upsizers and also
downsizers as probably my secondand third personas.
Rob (13:32):
Brilliant.
Brilliant.
And when you're running thatagency.
Is everything you do basedaround personas how important
are they to your operation?
Todd (13:42):
Yeah, I'll be honest.
Yeah, I, I, I'd probably say wedon't go into the granular level
of breaking down each personaslike we have here.
I think like.
We have to be like, especiallyin my position, we need to be
quite broad.
And so there's always therecruitment lens because again,
to my point from Brian White, ifwe're not recruiting, we're not
growing.
So we've always gotta have alens around what does
recruitment look like and whatis our value proposition
(14:04):
connected to that.
The second one is like it's morebroad, where it's probably
buyers, sellers, landlords, andtenants.
So they're probably our fourmain sort of transactional
customers that we would.
Yeah, sort of have lenses on,but outside of that, my team and
I probably don't go any deeper,any deeper than that.
Rob (14:20):
Yeah, that's fair.
And also, I mean, I guess yourdirect customer base are
franchisees, right?
Todd (14:25):
Yeah, correct.
Yeah.
Well, it's a good debate.
Like we it's quite easy to saythat our, our primary customer
is our, is our members.
But, the good debate that wehave internally is, well, our
vendors pay our franchisees.
Our franchisees pay us.
So should we be looking after?
Our vendors or should we belooking after our franchisees.
So it is always a really gooddebate and, and yeah, to quote
(14:45):
Jason Andrew, our CEO up inQueensland, like he'll always
say our primary customer is ourfuture.
And I sort of like the thecontext that gives because, you
know, at any given time it couldbe our vendors, which are our
primary customer, but then itcould be our, our franchisees,
which are our primary customers.
So yeah, just, justunderstanding that balance given
the the time of year.
Rob (15:05):
Yep.
Yep.
Fair enough.
All right, let, let's, let'sshift pace a little bit and
we'll talk about paid andrented.
Paid, paid, rented ecosystem.
So, domains realestate.com, evenFacebook and.
And all the socials where yousort of pay to play and then
your owned ecosystem, that'syour CRM, that's your website,
that's your channels, controledchannels.
What's your perspective abouthow, how marketing and, and how
(15:27):
the tools that you have and canget people from those paid
channels into your ownecosystem?
Todd (15:33):
They're so important.
You've gotta get a balance ofall possible channels made
invaluable.
So I always break it down, like,especially when I'm having
meetings with franchisees aroundowned, earned, and paid.
So to your point, like.
What earned channels can wereally maximize, which have zero
cost to it?
What earned channels can we get?
And that's a probably a Pr and amedia place.
(15:54):
And you know, we're veryfortunate with our media team.
We've got a 50% share of voicewhen it comes to all real estate
related content beingdistributed cost Australia.
And that's pretty powerful, likewhen you think about it.
So, why is that important forus?
Well, two is good profiling forour agents and for us as as a
franchisor.
But more importantly, I.
(16:15):
Our people can sit in front ofMr.
And Mrs.
Vendor and say, hand on heart.
If you work with Ray White,you've got a 50% chance of us
getting free advertising foryour property.
That's all by, that's alldriving acquisition, you know,
to our environment.
And then the third is probably atwo layered approach to the
paid.
You've got VPA and then you'vegot your own, your own
(16:38):
investment into your ownbusiness.
So I think finding the balanceof all three is really
important.
Focusing all on one is reprobably remiss of the other
two.
And you can quite easily justget seduced by the easy wins of
just doing a bunch of paid.
But the juice is really whenyou've got the balance of all
three, especially within in yourown environment.
(16:58):
And just going back to thatmetric around, you know, 20,000
vendors with over 55% of themcoming from either previous
experience or a referral thatjust shows the importance of
just looking after like your ownnurturing ecosystem.
Rob (17:12):
Yeah.
Yeah, and I guess one of thebenefits of, of your own system.
One of the, the, the powerfulbit is the data that you have
and you ongoingly collectparticularly about behaviors
whether it be website visits,clicks on, on listings returns,
all that sort of thing.
Analytics is something thatyou'd look at a lot, I'd
suggest, and particularly yourfranchisees.
How do you get your franchiseesinto that game though?
(17:33):
Because I mean, I look at it alot, but am I not my job as
marketing?
The rest of my team don't lookat it at all.
How do you get an agent or aprinciple or someone in that
business interested and up toscratch on that side of things?
Todd (17:47):
Again, like another really good question we were talking
about this the other weekactually.
It's like the art of influenceand understanding, like what is,
what is like if we got.
So if we've got two people thatwe need to influence our, our
business owners and our agents,so understanding what, what is
the main driver of those twocustomers in franchisee world?
(18:09):
So as a franchisee or aprinciple, it's profitability.
So showing insights into data tohelp get more profitable
businesses outcomes.
That's probably a big way ofinfluencing them.
one is agents themselves and theagents, they're, they get
inspired, they get influenced byleads So if you think about
(18:31):
those two really key drivers,then using data to support those
two sort of drivers drivingforces is really important.
And so if I can say to Mr.
And Mrs.
Or Mr.
Or Mrs.
Business owner.
By using data and usingbenchmarking against other
businesses in our network ofyour size, are overindexing in
(18:53):
desk costs or you areoverindexing in marketing, or
you're not spending enough inmarketing and in tow, you're not
getting enough leads to youragents.
And then that means that.
You're having a less profitablebusiness.
And so we can use data in a waywhich supports business
decisions and yeah, we've got awhole network finance team and
profit team, which roles is togo into our businesses and make
(19:14):
sure that yeah, they're usingdata to make better business
decisions about where theyinvest into, into their own
respective parts of thebusiness.
Rob (19:21):
Yeah, that's a very powerful support system that you
provide.
But let's go one level down, onemore level, more granular.
Todd (19:25):
Yep.
Rob (19:26):
You've set up your agency with your two gun mates.
What data are you looking at?
What marketing data are youlooking at?
Todd (19:34):
Calls made and appraisals conducted.
Rob (19:42):
Mm-hmm.
Todd (19:44):
They're probably the two.
Not very marketing specific,very sales performance, but,
yeah, I like to quote MarkMcLeod, our chief strategy
officer.
You know, if you're, if you'renot making calls, you're not
making appraisals.
If you're not making appraisals,then you've got no future
business.
And
Rob (20:02):
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Yep.
That's that's fair.
That's fair.
Todd (20:05):
I think if, yeah, if you, if, if, if you are, if you're a
business owner and you'relooking at two metrics to be
able to have really good, robustconversations with your people,
then yeah, it would be calls andthen appraisals.
If you've got a marketing lens,you, I'd probably be thinking,
Don't get so seduced by noveltymetrics like impressions in
social media world becauseimpressions and eyeballs are
(20:27):
great, but sometimes those bignumbers don't necessarily lead
to something tangible likeleads.
So you've got an acquisitionstrategy for using paid social
media, search engine marketingor Google Display Network or
whatever it is, then I'd belooking at something like actual
leads, generated leads, whichthen leads into phone calls,
which then leads into appraisalsand so
Rob (20:47):
Mm-hmm.
Todd (20:48):
So I know it's a bit more than two probably we've given
you three there, but yeah,they're probably my top three.
Rob (20:52):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And, and it's, it's a fulljourney, right?
It's just marketing startsbefore you get to the lead
perspective, before you get tothe closed deal and all that
sort of
Todd (21:00):
Yeah.
Rob (21:00):
Um.
Todd (21:01):
debate, isn't it?
Like don't mind me like sort ofgoing off piste here, but we
always had this debate aroundwhen does the actual customer
experience start?
Is it 12, six months beforethey're even ready to come to
market?
Is it two years before?
Know, we always talk about,well, especially here
internally, like we're in, we'rein this game of building
authentic relationships with ourcustomers and they're building a
(21:22):
trust profile of you as anagent.
And so how do they build trust?
They, they sort of see you insocial media world.
They see the results, they seethe DLs in their letterbox, they
see your billboards and busstops all around the place, and
they're just sort of slowlypiecing this trust profile of
yourself.
And at times it can be yearsbefore they even interact with
you.
So.
(21:43):
You know, be pretty critical onwhat you're putting out there
because it could be the, thedifference in the next listing
or not.
Rob (21:48):
Yeah.
And that's where brand andawareness marketing is so
important.
Or just brand full stop, right?
And either way, that yourpersonal brand or it's your
agency brand, because that'swhat people remember.
Um, Just, just quickly, you gota wishlist for any marketing
tech that doesn't exist outthere or data that doesn't exist
and your goodness me, you'd wishyou had that'cause that would
make your life easier.
Todd (22:06):
I would love to have one, one thing that does everything,
there's like the, the MarTechspace, PropTech space, it's it
is very disjointed.
Like we mentioned, like you, youasked about our one system and
that's 30 Pieces of technologylike Utopia would be like if
there was one thing that did'emall.
You know, from CRM to Canva toan email bulk SMS platform to a
(22:31):
market share analysis tool.
Do paid social media You know,like one thing to do them all
would be, would be reallyawesome.
Rob (22:39):
It's funny, number of, other, uh, guests on this
podcast have said exactly thesame thing when it came to, to,
to PropTech as well.
Yeah.
And just, uh, we might finish onai, your perspective on AI right
um, is it, is, is it providingleads that are, are solid leads?
Is it closing deals?
And where you think it's gonnaend up in the next 12 to 24
(23:00):
months?
Todd (23:01):
Yeah, it's it's moving pretty quick, isn't it?
It's it only feels likeyesterday that chat GPT and.
Claude AI really sort of hit ourworlds and now you just see it
in everything.
Like Canva's just bought or theyjust Yeah, I think they yeah,
they bought Leonardo AI aboutsix months ago, and so they're
gonna try to plug that in Iassume, into their, into their
tech stack.
(23:22):
I, I guess to answer thequestion, it plays a significant
role in our day to day.
There is a difference betweenmachine learning and day ai, and
we're certainly playing in themachine learning space where
it's going to make our agentsworld more efficient.
So instead of making a hundredcold calls, they may make 10
(23:42):
warm calls and they may be theonly 10 calls they need to do a
day to get the same outcomes asdoing a hundred cold calls.
So I think from an efficiencyperspective, it's going to, it's
gonna be good for our good, forour industry.
I think Ai, we still dunno whatit means for the consumer, so
for vendors and buyers and, andlandlords and tenants.
I think that that space is superinteresting and yeah, I guess
(24:05):
let's, let's let's beopen-minded when that sort of,
sort of hits the consumer, theconsumer world.
yeah, I guess, I guess side ofthat, it's, I don't know, Rob.
It's an exciting time.
It's a scary time.
It's happening so quick.
Are consumers ready for it.
I don't know.
I don't even know if I'm readyfor it.
But yeah, I think it's somethingyou need to be early adopters
of.
Otherwise your competitors willbe across it and then they'll
(24:27):
be, they'll be the ones that areahead of it.
So, yeah, I guess tread withcaution, but also be
understanding of if you're notdoing it, your competitors will
be, and they'll be ahead of youwhen it comes time for you to
finally get on it.
Rob (24:38):
lot of both marketing and, and say property appraisals and
looking for customers is, is, isabout data, right?
And one thing that machinelearning does really, well, is
sifting through that data andfinding trends or finding
connections that manually youwouldn't find.
You know, it's really hard to,to dig out and that's where I'm
excited from a, from an intentperspective on customers.
You know, where, where arepeople, what are people doing,
(25:01):
who are, who have intent when itcomes to a purchase or you know,
a specific type of research.
And I can see in the next 12months a lot of the tools that
people are using right now intheir.
In their own platforms, they'llget tweaked to start putting
that sort of capability in usingsomething behind the scenes that
you just, you'll start ending uppaying an extra five bucks a
month for, or something likethat.
Todd (25:21):
yeah.
It's, I ask, I got asked aquestion maybe a month or so ago
about just.
consumer and how they, how arewe gonna be marketing to them?
And it sort of justinstinctively just went down the
AI route.
And I sort of took it anotherterm, which was the way that we
digest media has evolved soquickly because of the
(25:44):
smartphone.
And so by 2030, what doessmartphones look like and what
does it look like when we try totalk to the consumer about
branding, positioning, tacticalmessages around, I don't know,
we sell one in four homes, orwhatever it is.
I think that's probably for me,like the most interesting of
(26:05):
where are we gonna be in fiveyears?
Because like the, the iPhonecame around like 2008, like in
the great scheme of things, likeit's only been around.
Like not even 25 years.
And so in another five years,like how do we digest media?
How do we absorb differentcontent styles and how are we
personalizing the content wedeliver to the device?
(26:26):
That's a really interestingproposition, which I'm excited
to see where we land becauseyeah, that landscape is evolving
just as quickly as the AIlandscape is changing.
Rob (26:36):
Yeah.
You bang on there.
And I think, I think that's agood spot to end.
'cause I mean I think us twomarketers, we could probably
yabber on about this for a long,long time, but I think we'll a
lot of our, uh, listeners forthat.
So let's not do that.
Thank you so joining, uh,joining the podcast today.
I really do appreciate it.
Todd (26:51):
My pleasure.
Really appreciate theopportunity, Rob.
Thank you.
Rob (26:54):
And to our, to our listeners out there, thank you
for taking time to uh, to listento this today.
I hope you got some value out ofit.
If you want to see a transcriptof this or watch the video, do
head over to Property Edge appwhere you can also obviously
learning about the amazingProperty Edge research platform.
But until the next episode,bye-bye.
sonic logo
sonic logo
Rob (00:04):
Today's episode or the property edge podcast.
Todd (00:06):
Our CRM talks to an email provider, which then talks to
another piece of technology theneveryone's talking to each
other, which then ultimatelyleads to more efficiencies in
the business.
There's no point being part of anetwork when you are
inconsistent in your delivery ofmarketing material.
It just shows a disconnect.
There's a level ofunprofessionalism as well about
(00:27):
it.
So instead of making a hundredcold calls, they may make 10
warm calls and they may be theonly 10 calls they need to do a
day to get the same outcomes asdoing a hundred cold calls.
Mhm.
Rob (00:41):
And welcome to another episode of the Property Edge
podcast.
My, my name's Rob Turnbull, andtoday we're gonna go a little
bit different.
We are gonna look at marketingtechnology for real estate
agencies, and there's no onebetter to talk about that with
than the head of marketing forRay White, corporate based in
Sydney.
Mr.
Todd Alexander, welcome Todd.
Todd (01:03):
Thank you, Rob.
Thank you very much for havingme.
Excited to be here.
Rob (01:06):
to start with, I think the the listeners would like to know
how an Adelaide boy who went toBrighton High ends up in Sydney
running marketing for one of thelargest agencies in the country.
Todd (01:17):
Yeah, good question.
The simplest answer is I Ichased a girl.
a girl is now my wife and we'vegot a beautiful little girl
together.
And so yeah, one of those.
Sort of sliding door momentswhere I could have stayed home
in Adelaide or try and dosomething, which is pretty cool
and pretty unique and moved toSydney and it's now been 13
years and yeah, Sydney's beenreally good to us.
(01:38):
And to be honest, Rob, I, I, Igenuinely would've never thought
I'd be in the fortunate positionI am where I'm the head of
marketing for Australaisa'slargest real estate group.
So I get to pinch myself everyday.
So it's been, yeah, it's beenpretty cool.
Rob (01:53):
But you started out at an agency, correct?
You learned the ropes, runningthe marketing for an agency, and
then progressed up to corporate.
Todd (02:01):
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah.
So eight years ago I with ourDouble Bay office and certainly
a baptism of fire within thereal estate industry.
Some of the biggest names, Ithink within Sydney Real Estate,
but also Australia's real, realestate.
Yeah, Gavin Rubinstein,obviously from Luxe Listings was
someone that I got to work with.
Got to, see the way that he goesabout his craft and just his
(02:21):
relentless pursuit of perfectionis probably a simple way of
describing the way that he goesabout it.
But there's some, there's somepretty other incredible people
that work within that businessfrom.
You know, Elliot Placks to, youknow, Ashley Bierman and Warren
Ginsburg, these guys that yeah.
Were so good to me and got tolearn the craft.
And without'em I wouldn't be,Here where I'm today.
Rob (02:41):
Yeah, that's, it's beautiful when you can get that
sort of experience under suchexperts, isn't it?
So, so perhaps we'll jump intomarketing technology now and,
and from a, if we start with.
With Ray White, what you'recomfortable to share with Ray
White.
Can you explain the Ray WhiteOne System?
What, what's the purpose of thatand how does it help the
individual agent on the ground?
Todd (03:01):
So the Ray White One System is a consolidation of
around 30 different pieces oftech, which all talk to each
other, which ultimately drivesefficiency and profitability for
our agents.
And you know, profitability canbe bottom line because we're
able to negotiate deals with aneconomy of scale being so big
(03:22):
that we can get a biggerdiscount for a lot of different.
You know, pieces of technologyversus I'm just gonna create
Todd Alexander Real EstateGroup, and then I've gotta go
find email provider, then findan internet provider, and so on
and so forth.
So one, we're able to negotiatea really good deal so ultimately
it leads to, you know, a betterprofit line because we're not,
our guys don't need to invest asmuch in tech.
But two, that the key here, andthis is probably the most
(03:45):
important, is all of our systemstalk to each other.
And so, if we can driveefficiency of use, because our
CRM talks to an email provider,which then talks to another
piece of technology that we own,then everyone's talking to each
other, which then ultimatelyleads to more efficiencies in
the, in the business.
Which hopefully means our peoplecan then focus on prospecting
(04:05):
and listing and selling.
Rob (04:07):
Gotcha.
Gotcha.
And so from a marketingtechnology perspective, I know
you've got Canva involved now,and I think Canva will be part
of that One System platform.
It seems to me, you know, and,and this is a bit of a gimme
question for you, but obviouslygiving your agencies access to,
to Canva means that you cancreate consistency across all
your marketing assets thatthey're creating.
(04:28):
You can, you can shoot thingsout and they can use these
things that are, are consistentwith the brand, but equally it's
a brilliant tool.
I mean, we use it ourselves.
I know a lot of businesses useit, particularly for the non
design minded.
It's a really simple tool.
What has been the effect atagent level of that partnership?
Todd (04:46):
Yeah, it's more time back in the diaries, probably the
biggest measurement of success.
The best thing for me aboutCanva outside of all those
things that you've mentioned istheir APIs gives us the ability
to create a really uniqueplatform within Canva.
And so what I mean by that is,there's two APIs in particular
that we're able to tap into.
(05:07):
One's the auto fill and theother one is the Connect API.
And so through software thatwe've created ourselves, we can
create a workflow where theagent doesn't necessarily leave
our ecosystem for them to getmarketing assets, which are
housed in Canva.
So really loosely speaking,we've, we've created EARS"
Express Auction ReportingSystem.
(05:28):
So on a Saturday being game dayfor our industry.
We'll do one in four auctionsaround Australia in a week.
So on Saturday was when we dothe majority of the auctions,
and so as an agent, we canactually send'em a text message.
They tell us how well theauction went, how many
registered bidders, how manyactive bidders, and then what
was the final price.
(05:49):
Those details then go intoCanva, then through the API
Canva spits back a social asset.
Right on their phone, which thenthey can download and then they
can share across their socialmedia channels.
And so that's one example ofmany different workflows that
we've been able to create usingtheir APIs.
But Canva powering the designasset.
And so from a marketingperspective, to be able to use
(06:12):
Canva as the one source of liketruth for all those marketing
assets, but then have all thesedifferent little workflows,
which our agents don't reallyneed to go to Canva to get a
marketing asset is, is reallyefficient.
And as I said earlier, puts timeback in.
Our people's diaries to lookafter our customers.
Rob (06:28):
That is a brilliant use of, of technology attached to
marketing to create an outcomethat actually makes life easier
and better for your, uh, yourend user, the agent.
I know there'll be agents andagencies listening, going, well,
we, we are never gonna be ableto set that up, right?
But anyone can set up brandtemplates in Canva, right?
So you can get your designer, orif you've got an in-house
(06:50):
designer, they can set that upand then no one can mess with
your brand design, right?
And so it can be super easy toto, to create stuff, even if
you're not using APIs to autopopulate and sending text
messages.
Todd (07:02):
Yeah, correct.
I'm super lucky.
I've got five designers in myteam here in Sydney and.
We're always just adding andrefreshing the templates that
we've got in there.
And we've probably got athousand in Canva alone, let
alone other brand platforms thatwe've got to create signboards
and press ads and deals andbrochures.
But within Canva, the one clickdistribution to our entire
(07:23):
network is such a benefit to us.
So you can imagine like we'rerolling out a new campaign, or
we need to make an adjustment toan existing template instead of
having to go to individualservice accounts or go to
individual suppliers, whateverit is, it's just one centralised
location, then it's one clickfull distribution.
So again, very efficient from myperspective to be able to
(07:44):
distribute any evolutions tosome of our marketing templates.
Rob (07:47):
Yeah.
And that that's something that,you know, if there's a group of
three agencies, they can do thesame thing, right?
They all get onto the sameaccount and then one person
creates it once everyone can useit.
I love that.
Todd (07:58):
Yeah, like it's, it's, I know it might seem like a bit of
a no brainer, but there's nopoint being part of a network
when you are inconsistent inyour delivery of marketing
material.
It just shows a disconnect.
There's a level ofunprofessionalism as well about
it.
I'm not saying we're perfect,we've, we've got opportunities
to be better, but for the mostpart, we are pretty good when we
(08:19):
execute the Ray White yellowwith the Ray White logo.
You see it and you know thatit's part of our group.
And yeah, the way that we dobrand management platforms is a,
is a really important part tothat.
Rob (08:29):
Yeah.
Well, let's go one step deeperthen and get a bit more
granular.
So, so your agents createdsomething using whatever.
How do you help them understandthe customer experience at that
end?
How do you, how do you, with a,whether you show them from a, a
data perspective or do you howdo you train them up to
understand the effect of whatthey're doing at the on the
(08:52):
ground?
Todd (08:53):
Yeah, that's a, that's actually a ripping question.
So we survey every buyer andseller that transacts with us.
it's all automated.
As part of our CRM, we believein surveying every, every
customer because the needs andwants of the customer is always
evolving.
So unless you're actuallysurveying everybody in real
time, you're never gonna keepabreast of those needs and wants
(09:13):
as they evolve.
And so with this platform, itactually gives insights into
where our customers are comingfrom and like very loosely
speaking in the last report thatwe pulled I think it was over
like a three month period, therewas 20,000 response from our,
from our survey.
So 20,000 vendors and just under55% of them was either a
(09:34):
previous experience or areferral or recommendation.
So like, why is that reallyimportant for me is, yeah, it's
cool, like we can create allthis amazing material, but 50%
of the time, based on this, thecustomer is already in your
world and so the the emphasis oncustomer experience and making
(09:55):
sure you understand and exceedthe expectation of the customer.
That should be first andforemost, like there's no point
in having the most sexiestlooking marketing if you
actually don't have a reallygreat nurturing ecosystem.
And so, we've, like, we're RayWhite, invested heavily in
providing technology, whichsupports that.
And there's a bit of a buzzwordwithin our world at the moment,
(10:17):
which is something calledNurture Cloud, which is a piece
of technology which we've boughtand we've evolved, and which is
gonna be our future movingforward.
But the idea is that, itsupports our agents in nurturing
our customers, and marketingplays a role, but for me, like
the fundamental needs to belike, let's make sure we look
after our own backyard and lookafter our customers, first and
foremost.
Rob (10:38):
All right.
So I'm gonna put something toyou here.
Imagine a couple of gun agentscome and say, we are gonna set
up our own agency.
We want you to run marketing forus.
You agree.
And, what is on your shoppinglist?
What marketing technology isright at the top there?
What are you subscribing to fromday one?
Todd (10:56):
Yeah.
Nurture Cloud first and foremostby a long way.
I know that's a very selfishsort of answer because Nurture
Cloud is a, is a Ray White ownedpiece of technology.
But yeah, first and foremost itwould be Nurture Cloud because
it's it's designed to be able tobe a one stop agent operating
system to from prospecting to,you know, looking after the
(11:16):
customer, live vendor reporting,so on and so forth.
So for me, Nurture Cloud wouldbe the top.
Second would be Canva really,because, yeah, I just think
Canva is just a great tool andas you alluded to earlier, like
anybody can use it and it's justso efficient, but the
intuitiveness of it is just, youknow, really great.
And also gives you the abilityto personalize it with the api,
(11:36):
so that's, that's really great.
A digital listing presentation Ithink is also really important.
There's a couple of good onesout there, third parties and the
fourth one probably would be, areporting tool, which really
understands like how we're goingin the marketplace and if it's a
market share report or justunderstanding how our
(11:58):
competitors are going, just togive us clear sight of where
opportunities are and wherewe're, we're getting beaten in
some, in some of our core areaswould be really a really good
tool to have.
Rob (12:07):
So you've got all that set up.
How many personas, roughly areyou creating off the bat?
Todd (12:13):
Oh, that's a great question.
How many personas.
Rob (2) (12:16):
While you think about it and just explain for the
people out there, it's a bit ofa marketing term persona.
So persona is essentially apicture of a, a generic type of
customer that you might treatdifferently to other types of
customers.
So a persona might be single,first home buyer under 30.
Or newly retired couple lookingto downsize in the city,
(12:37):
something like that.
So you can create loads andloads of personas, but off the
bat, what are the most importantones for you?
Todd (12:43):
Yeah, I, I might take a different track if that's okay,
Rob and choose, a recruitmentpersona.
you know, to quite Brian Whiteif you are not recruiting,
you're not growing and we arejust starting out in our own
little real estate journey ofteam of three.
And a big part of our growthambition is how are we're gonna
recruit.
And so I'd probably create apersona of what sort of agents
(13:03):
that are existing in theindustry that we want to target
to be able to bring them overwhat is our value proposition to
be able to bring them over.
So persona number one.
Persona number two.
Again, I think this is probablymarket dependent, but let's say
I'm working in the southwestsuburbs of adelaide, so my home
area of Brighton, Somerton parkand Glenelg.
(13:24):
I would probably say I would betargeting upsizers and also
downsizers as probably my secondand third personas.
Rob (13:32):
Brilliant.
Brilliant.
And when you're running thatagency.
Is everything you do basedaround personas how important
are they to your operation?
Todd (13:42):
Yeah, I'll be honest.
Yeah, I, I, I'd probably say wedon't go into the granular level
of breaking down each personaslike we have here.
I think like.
We have to be like, especiallyin my position, we need to be
quite broad.
And so there's always therecruitment lens because again,
to my point from Brian White, ifwe're not recruiting, we're not
growing.
So we've always gotta have alens around what does
recruitment look like and whatis our value proposition
(14:04):
connected to that.
The second one is like it's morebroad, where it's probably
buyers, sellers, landlords, andtenants.
So they're probably our fourmain sort of transactional
customers that we would.
Yeah, sort of have lenses on,but outside of that, my team and
I probably don't go any deeper,any deeper than that.
Rob (14:20):
Yeah, that's fair.
And also, I mean, I guess yourdirect customer base are
franchisees, right?
Todd (14:25):
Yeah, correct.
Yeah.
Well, it's a good debate.
Like we it's quite easy to saythat our, our primary customer
is our, is our members.
But, the good debate that wehave internally is, well, our
vendors pay our franchisees.
Our franchisees pay us.
So should we be looking after?
Our vendors or should we belooking after our franchisees.
So it is always a really gooddebate and, and yeah, to quote
(14:45):
Jason Andrew, our CEO up inQueensland, like he'll always
say our primary customer is ourfuture.
And I sort of like the thecontext that gives because, you
know, at any given time it couldbe our vendors, which are our
primary customer, but then itcould be our, our franchisees,
which are our primary customers.
So yeah, just, justunderstanding that balance given
the the time of year.
Rob (15:05):
Yep.
Yep.
Fair enough.
All right, let, let's, let'sshift pace a little bit and
we'll talk about paid andrented.
Paid, paid, rented ecosystem.
So, domains realestate.com, evenFacebook and.
And all the socials where yousort of pay to play and then
your owned ecosystem, that'syour CRM, that's your website,
that's your channels, controledchannels.
What's your perspective abouthow, how marketing and, and how
(15:27):
the tools that you have and canget people from those paid
channels into your ownecosystem?
Todd (15:33):
They're so important.
You've gotta get a balance ofall possible channels made
invaluable.
So I always break it down, like,especially when I'm having
meetings with franchisees aroundowned, earned, and paid.
So to your point, like.
What earned channels can wereally maximize, which have zero
cost to it?
What earned channels can we get?
And that's a probably a Pr and amedia place.
(15:54):
And you know, we're veryfortunate with our media team.
We've got a 50% share of voicewhen it comes to all real estate
related content beingdistributed cost Australia.
And that's pretty powerful, likewhen you think about it.
So, why is that important forus?
Well, two is good profiling forour agents and for us as as a
franchisor.
But more importantly, I.
(16:15):
Our people can sit in front ofMr.
And Mrs.
Vendor and say, hand on heart.
If you work with Ray White,you've got a 50% chance of us
getting free advertising foryour property.
That's all by, that's alldriving acquisition, you know,
to our environment.
And then the third is probably atwo layered approach to the
paid.
You've got VPA and then you'vegot your own, your own
(16:38):
investment into your ownbusiness.
So I think finding the balanceof all three is really
important.
Focusing all on one is reprobably remiss of the other
two.
And you can quite easily justget seduced by the easy wins of
just doing a bunch of paid.
But the juice is really whenyou've got the balance of all
three, especially within in yourown environment.
(16:58):
And just going back to thatmetric around, you know, 20,000
vendors with over 55% of themcoming from either previous
experience or a referral thatjust shows the importance of
just looking after like your ownnurturing ecosystem.
Rob (17:12):
Yeah.
Yeah, and I guess one of thebenefits of, of your own system.
One of the, the, the powerfulbit is the data that you have
and you ongoingly collectparticularly about behaviors
whether it be website visits,clicks on, on listings returns,
all that sort of thing.
Analytics is something thatyou'd look at a lot, I'd
suggest, and particularly yourfranchisees.
How do you get your franchiseesinto that game though?
(17:33):
Because I mean, I look at it alot, but am I not my job as
marketing?
The rest of my team don't lookat it at all.
How do you get an agent or aprinciple or someone in that
business interested and up toscratch on that side of things?
Todd (17:47):
Again, like another really good question we were talking
about this the other weekactually.
It's like the art of influenceand understanding, like what is,
what is like if we got.
So if we've got two people thatwe need to influence our, our
business owners and our agents,so understanding what, what is
the main driver of those twocustomers in franchisee world?
(18:09):
So as a franchisee or aprinciple, it's profitability.
So showing insights into data tohelp get more profitable
businesses outcomes.
That's probably a big way ofinfluencing them.
one is agents themselves and theagents, they're, they get
inspired, they get influenced byleads So if you think about
(18:31):
those two really key drivers,then using data to support those
two sort of drivers drivingforces is really important.
And so if I can say to Mr.
And Mrs.
Or Mr.
Or Mrs.
Business owner.
By using data and usingbenchmarking against other
businesses in our network ofyour size, are overindexing in
(18:53):
desk costs or you areoverindexing in marketing, or
you're not spending enough inmarketing and in tow, you're not
getting enough leads to youragents.
And then that means that.
You're having a less profitablebusiness.
And so we can use data in a waywhich supports business
decisions and yeah, we've got awhole network finance team and
profit team, which roles is togo into our businesses and make
(19:14):
sure that yeah, they're usingdata to make better business
decisions about where theyinvest into, into their own
respective parts of thebusiness.
Rob (19:21):
Yeah, that's a very powerful support system that you
provide.
But let's go one level down, onemore level, more granular.
Todd (19:25):
Yep.
Rob (19:26):
You've set up your agency with your two gun mates.
What data are you looking at?
What marketing data are youlooking at?
Todd (19:34):
Calls made and appraisals conducted.
Rob (19:42):
Mm-hmm.
Todd (19:44):
They're probably the two.
Not very marketing specific,very sales performance, but,
yeah, I like to quote MarkMcLeod, our chief strategy
officer.
You know, if you're, if you'renot making calls, you're not
making appraisals.
If you're not making appraisals,then you've got no future
business.
And
Rob (20:02):
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Yep.
That's that's fair.
That's fair.
Todd (20:05):
I think if, yeah, if you, if, if, if you are, if you're a
business owner and you'relooking at two metrics to be
able to have really good, robustconversations with your people,
then yeah, it would be calls andthen appraisals.
If you've got a marketing lens,you, I'd probably be thinking,
Don't get so seduced by noveltymetrics like impressions in
social media world becauseimpressions and eyeballs are
(20:27):
great, but sometimes those bignumbers don't necessarily lead
to something tangible likeleads.
So you've got an acquisitionstrategy for using paid social
media, search engine marketingor Google Display Network or
whatever it is, then I'd belooking at something like actual
leads, generated leads, whichthen leads into phone calls,
which then leads into appraisalsand so
Rob (20:47):
Mm-hmm.
Todd (20:48):
So I know it's a bit more than two probably we've given
you three there, but yeah,they're probably my top three.
Rob (20:52):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And, and it's, it's a fulljourney, right?
It's just marketing startsbefore you get to the lead
perspective, before you get tothe closed deal and all that
sort of
Todd (21:00):
Yeah.
Rob (21:00):
Um.
Todd (21:01):
debate, isn't it?
Like don't mind me like sort ofgoing off piste here, but we
always had this debate aroundwhen does the actual customer
experience start?
Is it 12, six months beforethey're even ready to come to
market?
Is it two years before?
Know, we always talk about,well, especially here
internally, like we're in, we'rein this game of building
authentic relationships with ourcustomers and they're building a
(21:22):
trust profile of you as anagent.
And so how do they build trust?
They, they sort of see you insocial media world.
They see the results, they seethe DLs in their letterbox, they
see your billboards and busstops all around the place, and
they're just sort of slowlypiecing this trust profile of
yourself.
And at times it can be yearsbefore they even interact with
you.
So.
(21:43):
You know, be pretty critical onwhat you're putting out there
because it could be the, thedifference in the next listing
or not.
Rob (21:48):
Yeah.
And that's where brand andawareness marketing is so
important.
Or just brand full stop, right?
And either way, that yourpersonal brand or it's your
agency brand, because that'swhat people remember.
Um, Just, just quickly, you gota wishlist for any marketing
tech that doesn't exist outthere or data that doesn't exist
and your goodness me, you'd wishyou had that'cause that would
make your life easier.
Todd (22:06):
I would love to have one, one thing that does everything,
there's like the, the MarTechspace, PropTech space, it's it
is very disjointed.
Like we mentioned, like you, youasked about our one system and
that's 30 Pieces of technologylike Utopia would be like if
there was one thing that did'emall.
You know, from CRM to Canva toan email bulk SMS platform to a
(22:31):
market share analysis tool.
Do paid social media You know,like one thing to do them all
would be, would be reallyawesome.
Rob (22:39):
It's funny, number of, other, uh, guests on this
podcast have said exactly thesame thing when it came to, to,
to PropTech as well.
Yeah.
And just, uh, we might finish onai, your perspective on AI right
um, is it, is, is it providingleads that are, are solid leads?
Is it closing deals?
And where you think it's gonnaend up in the next 12 to 24
(23:00):
months?
Todd (23:01):
Yeah, it's it's moving pretty quick, isn't it?
It's it only feels likeyesterday that chat GPT and.
Claude AI really sort of hit ourworlds and now you just see it
in everything.
Like Canva's just bought or theyjust Yeah, I think they yeah,
they bought Leonardo AI aboutsix months ago, and so they're
gonna try to plug that in Iassume, into their, into their
tech stack.
(23:22):
I, I guess to answer thequestion, it plays a significant
role in our day to day.
There is a difference betweenmachine learning and day ai, and
we're certainly playing in themachine learning space where
it's going to make our agentsworld more efficient.
So instead of making a hundredcold calls, they may make 10
(23:42):
warm calls and they may be theonly 10 calls they need to do a
day to get the same outcomes asdoing a hundred cold calls.
So I think from an efficiencyperspective, it's going to, it's
gonna be good for our good, forour industry.
I think Ai, we still dunno whatit means for the consumer, so
for vendors and buyers and, andlandlords and tenants.
I think that that space is superinteresting and yeah, I guess
(24:05):
let's, let's let's beopen-minded when that sort of,
sort of hits the consumer, theconsumer world.
yeah, I guess, I guess side ofthat, it's, I don't know, Rob.
It's an exciting time.
It's a scary time.
It's happening so quick.
Are consumers ready for it.
I don't know.
I don't even know if I'm readyfor it.
But yeah, I think it's somethingyou need to be early adopters
of.
Otherwise your competitors willbe across it and then they'll
(24:27):
be, they'll be the ones that areahead of it.
So, yeah, I guess tread withcaution, but also be
understanding of if you're notdoing it, your competitors will
be, and they'll be ahead of youwhen it comes time for you to
finally get on it.
Rob (24:38):
lot of both marketing and, and say property appraisals and
looking for customers is, is, isabout data, right?
And one thing that machinelearning does really, well, is
sifting through that data andfinding trends or finding
connections that manually youwouldn't find.
You know, it's really hard to,to dig out and that's where I'm
excited from a, from an intentperspective on customers.
You know, where, where arepeople, what are people doing,
(25:01):
who are, who have intent when itcomes to a purchase or you know,
a specific type of research.
And I can see in the next 12months a lot of the tools that
people are using right now intheir.
In their own platforms, they'llget tweaked to start putting
that sort of capability in usingsomething behind the scenes that
you just, you'll start ending uppaying an extra five bucks a
month for, or something likethat.
Todd (25:21):
yeah.
It's, I ask, I got asked aquestion maybe a month or so ago
about just.
consumer and how they, how arewe gonna be marketing to them?
And it sort of justinstinctively just went down the
AI route.
And I sort of took it anotherterm, which was the way that we
digest media has evolved soquickly because of the
(25:44):
smartphone.
And so by 2030, what doessmartphones look like and what
does it look like when we try totalk to the consumer about
branding, positioning, tacticalmessages around, I don't know,
we sell one in four homes, orwhatever it is.
I think that's probably for me,like the most interesting of
(26:05):
where are we gonna be in fiveyears?
Because like the, the iPhonecame around like 2008, like in
the great scheme of things, likeit's only been around.
Like not even 25 years.
And so in another five years,like how do we digest media?
How do we absorb differentcontent styles and how are we
personalizing the content wedeliver to the device?
(26:26):
That's a really interestingproposition, which I'm excited
to see where we land becauseyeah, that landscape is evolving
just as quickly as the AIlandscape is changing.
Rob (26:36):
Yeah.
You bang on there.
And I think, I think that's agood spot to end.
'cause I mean I think us twomarketers, we could probably
yabber on about this for a long,long time, but I think we'll a
lot of our, uh, listeners forthat.
So let's not do that.
Thank you so joining, uh,joining the podcast today.
I really do appreciate it.
Todd (26:51):
My pleasure.
Really appreciate theopportunity, Rob.
Thank you.
Rob (26:54):
And to our, to our listeners out there, thank you
for taking time to uh, to listento this today.
I hope you got some value out ofit.
If you want to see a transcriptof this or watch the video, do
head over to Property Edge appwhere you can also obviously
learning about the amazingProperty Edge research platform.
But until the next episode,bye-bye.
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