Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Tomie Raines REALTORS®

Overview

Tomie Raines, Inc. is one of the leading real estate brokerages in Mid-Michigan since 1977. Comprised of between 75–120 real estate agents throughout the year, Tomie Raines, Inc. services one of Michigan’s most populous areas including the state capital, Lansing. In 2016, Tomie Raines merged with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, expanding their team and brand.

The Problem

Before Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Tomie Raines REALTORS® teamed up with Web Ascender, they spent much of their time and marketing dollars on more traditional, interruption-based marketing methods such as postcards, commercials, and cold calling. They began realizing that these tactics were increasingly less effective as computers, phones and tablets had instant access to the internet, giving people the power to choose what they viewed and read and when they did it. Debbie Barnett, President of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Tomie Raines REALTORS®, and her team recognized that people were seeking and consuming information online before they even contacted a Realtor, and knew they needed to change the way they marketed and educated their prospects and clients.

What We Did

• Website design
• Web application development
• Internet marketing strategy
• Search engine optimization
• Inbound marketing campaigns
• Conversion optimization
• Email marketing
• Launch + Growth™

Results

Our strategy was not to compete with national, multi-million dollar organizations like Trulia and Zillow, but to differentiate the company as the best local real estate source. As a result of a focused effort on creating unique and compelling content, increasing promotional strategies such as social media, and other tactics, overall traffic increased 25% on Tomie Raines, Inc.’s website. Organic traffic to the Tomie Raines blog increased by 245% in one year (2016 vs. 2015).

Instead of vague contact form submissions, website visitors now filled out forms explicitly expressing qualified interest - asking for more information on a for-sale home, reaching out to a specific Realtor, and requesting a home analysis - providing hot leads for their team of Realtors to connect with and nurture into clients.