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EMPWR Media is platform for agents to establish and manage their online presence.
Platforms: Browser; mobile-optimized
Ideal for: All agents, teams and brokerages.
Top selling points
- Widespread data dissemination
- Detailed results reporting
- In-app content management
- “Customer Voice” client review module
Top concerns
This is for real estate agents who actively manage and promote their personal and brokerage websites, as it provides a much-needed foundation on which to base the services EMPWR provides.
What you should know
EMPWR (pronounced empower) Media isn’t a lead generation solution, and thankfully, it’s not another customer relationship management (CRM).
The software’s intent is to augment real estate agents’ digital footprint with a critical balance of static information, such as location, markets covered and brokerage affiliation, with dynamic content, such as social media feeds and client reviews.
In short, this is a product for any agent who thinks industry portals have bullied them out of contention in the SEO (search engine optimization) game.
You still won’t beat a Zillow Premier Agent who is spending tens of thousands a month, but you will give your leads and clients the same amount of confidence in your expertise for tens of thousands less.
EMPWR is divided into four primary modules designed to “multiply your leads,” collectively known as its “Digital Real Estate Suite”:
- Customer Voice: Requests and manages online client reviews.
- Reputation Management: Helps respond to, engage with and enhance online mentions.
- Listing Builder: Builds, spreads business data and profiles using four major internet data providers.
- Social Marketing: Creates, publishes content to six different social media outlets.
The combined effort of each component helps agents and brokerages show up where they should and look reputable. Think of as an “always open” sign for the discerning online consumer who lends great credence to recent reviews, star ratings and Google Map business profiles.
“Customer Voice” uses a series of emails to request reviews from clients, highlighting the simplicity of doing so with a “three-step” instructional email for Google, Facebook and Zillow, in that order. It’s made very easy for the buyer or seller.
The “Reputation Management” module stands out for its evolving word-cloud of recommended SEO-friendly terms for agents to use when responding to reviews.
It tracks what people are saying, listing positive terms in green and not-so-engaging terms in red. Agents can also see what words are being used in reference to their competitors.
The “Social Marketing” feature is pretty self-explanatory, giving users the ability to post, schedule and measure content on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google-plus, Instagram and Google MyBusiness.
The two Google platforms are all about search engine significance, as the search giant rewards recency and relevance.
This specific touch to EMPWR’s platform is probably its most important, as it rounds out for the user a finely tuned online marketing strategy.
In most cases, agents rely on a website and some blogging to build and maintain an online presence. It takes much more to use it as a competitive advantage, which is EMPWR’s intent.
I think the UX (user experience) suffers a bit by using the label “Listing Builder” for something that has nothing to do with a selling a house. In this case, “listing” refers to the agent’s “business listing” on searchable websites, which the company proliferates through partnerships with major information aggregators, ensuring that the who, what and why are up-to-date and in-sync across the web.
Inside EMPWR Media is a straight-forward user experience for monitoring account status, checking-in on social media performance and generally ensuring that things are going as planned.
It’s not an every-day login, like a CRM, especially if you use the scheduling tools on the social media module. In fact, this is a superb tool for admins and marketing managers to handle.
The user interface is clean, and it employs soft graphics and an appealing overall look and feel. Users shouldn’t have much trouble running things once onboard.
When you change brokerages, EMPWR will audit your account and ensure all the new information is dispersed around the web accordingly — phone numbers, addresses, logos.
All in all, this is one of the more comprehensive answers to the ever-fluid quandary of how to remain relevant online. But again, this isn’t something for agents who are still wondering if the web is a worthwhile lead source.
If you’re all-in on your web presence, EMPWR Media is worth a look.
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe
