Marketing technology company Placester, recognized for its affordable real estate websites, has launched a new product to help brokers manage the hiring of outsourced creative professionals.
The company announced the rollout of Concierge Custom, a workflow system centered around “on-demand remote marketing,” in a press release. That category includes people and companies specializing in graphic design, social media, copywriting, software development and other facets of content marketing.
The solution is designed to ensure project transparency, according to the release. Scope, timeframes, creative approach and timelines are all addressed by the new software; access to Placester’s Services Marketplace, an outlet for off-the-shelf tasks, is available through Placester directly.
It’s common for real estate brokerages not to employ full-time marketing teams or creative personnel, despite the industry’s collective dependence on such business needs for almost every step of selling a property or attracting clients. Marketing and creative tools are usually offered by CRM solutions, provided at the national brand level, or outsourced to single providers, which is often costly. Placester based its model on providing comprehensive, affordable web and digital marketing services to the industry. It once offered websites for $5 per month.
“Building memorable brands is a process, not a one-time event,” Seth Price, VP of product and marketing at Placester, said in the press release. “We act as an extension of their marketing team, turning around marketing workflows in hours, not days, and without the exorbitant pricing historically associated with hiring an agency or developer.”
Placester won the 2017 Inman Innovator Award for Most Innovative on the heels of its mobile app launch and $100 million in funding. It also announced a deal with NAR to provide free agent websites.
However, within a year, the company underwent a significant layoff effort and adjusted leadership.
About the company’s current state, Price told Inman in an email that the company has regrouped and refocused on the people who operate its software and that revenue is up.
“We’ve completely rebuilt our platform and business over the last 3 years,” he wrote. “When we decided to pull back from the large partnerships that provided basic software to the new agent segment of the real estate industry, it gave us room to go deep and focus on solving our individual customer’s needs. Software alone doesn’t make agents more productive unless you also add the people to operate it for them.”
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe
Craig C. Rowe started in commercial real estate at the dawn of the dot-com boom, helping an array of commercial real estate companies fortify their online presence and analyze internal software decisions. He now helps agents with technology decisions and marketing through reviewing software and tech for Inman.
