Top of the Hill

The Marketer: Jo Ellen Nash, CRS®, GRI
The Budget: More than $100,000

Last year Jo Ellen Nash spent more than $100,000 to market her boutique brokerage’s properties to wealthy buyers around Vail, Colo. She understands the need for high-end marketing to match her client base, but that doesn’t mean this savvy owner and managing broker of Nash & Co. doesn’t watch her pennies. A key marketing tool is her twice-a-year 44-page color magazine, Memories in the Making, for current and past clients. Despite its gloss and 100,000-copy distribution, the magazine costs her company almost nothing to publish.

That’s because Nash has developed affiliate relationships with local businesses, such as carpet cleaners, appraisers, and attorneys. The companies agree to advertise in the magazine at a cost of $1,600 for a quarter-page ad. The ad revenue covers the majority of the $92,000 printing cost of each issue. Nash includes her affiliate partners on her list of preferred sources for clients. The companies do the same for her. With her own money, then, Nash is able to implement a number of other marketing strategies.

Individual property URLs. She spends about $250 per listing to have a Web designer develop a custom Web site (such as http://658saddleridge.com). She also registers a domain name for each property at www.enom.com for about $8.95 per domain site per year (a bulk rate). The sites contain a Flash virtual tour set to music, downloadable brochure, photo gallery, community information, and online forms for scheduling showing appointments.

Podcasts. Nash uses a professional editing service, Talk Realty, to offer a monthly podcast about the local real estate market on her Web site. She paid $295 to set up the service and pays $49.95 to add each new podcast. Talk Realty sends her interview questions about the market; she researches local statistics and calls a special phone number to record her responses. Talk Realty then edits her answers, mixes in music, and adds a host or interviewer voice-over.

Stealth Web sites. Nash’s marketing materials direct prospects to some of her 35 generic Web sites (such as http://vailinvestor.com). The sites offer a nonintimidating way for buyers and sellers to find housing information without having to talk to a sales associate. The company’s policy is not to call Web site visitors, but it does use a registration form to capture e-mail addresses. The company sends prospects a list of properties that meet their search criteria. The point is to build an e-mail dialogue so that prospects call Nash when they’re ready to buy. She spent about $500 on the design of each site and $8.95 per site per year to register the domain name. Hostgator, a Web hosting company, hosts all 35 of her sites for about $20 a month each.

Client loyalty services. In 2005 Nash invested $33,000 in a used stretch limousine and put her company name and logo on the side. She lets past clients use it for weddings and proms; sometimes she sends tickets to local events to past clients—and dispatches the limo driver to chauffeur them. She also builds loyalty by offering a client concierge service—everything from handyman services (Nash typically pays for an hour) to a moving truck. She bought the truck about seven years ago for $25,000.

The result: Nash’s company closes $50 million to $60 million in sales yearly, about 60 percent from referrals and repeats.

Regardless of whether you’re a big spender or struggling to get your business off the ground, star marketers agree that the most effective marketing strategy is still one of the least expensive. “Allow others to get to know you as a person so that you’re not just a face in the newspaper,” Choi says. “Relationships are your greatest marketing tools.”