Podcast: Embed
Tim Chermak scaled Platform Marketing to over 7 figures serving the Real Estate Niche. Tim’s agency offers unrivaled service that no other agency in the market provides.
In this episode, we unpack:
- How he chose his niche
- The services he provides to his clients
- How he scaled to over 7 figures
- The strategies that work the best in his agency
- How his team fulfills work for his clients
- How he retains at the highest level possible
Outline of This Episode
- [0:28] Learn more about Tim and Platform Marketing
- [3:36] Building a business in the real estate niche
- [28:52] The Platform Marketing service mix
- [40:00] How Tim’s team fulfills the work
- [50:48] Why Tim chose to hire a CMO
- [57:05] How Tim structures operations
- [1:04:47] How Tim retains his team members
- [1:08:36] The secret to client retention
- [1:16:22] Focus on getting client results
Learn more about Tim and Platform Marketing
Platform Marketing specializes in working with realtors. Tim points out that most of their competition aren't marketing agencies, they're software companies. They sell a website template and CRM. That's not marketing.
Platform Marketing creates unique ads, 90% of which are on Facebook or Instagram. If you're a realtor, you need a lead that's a typical Facebook user. They want someone in their 40s–60s because they have money and a desire for more expensive homes.
They strictly work with one realtor per market so they can make them stand out in their communities. They currently have 220 clients with monthly revenue of around $300,000 per month. Tim's goal for 2024 is to exceed $4 million annually.
The Platform Marketing service mix
They charge $1,820 per month and whatever the client wants to spend on ad spend. Tim firmly believes that lead generation isn't synonymous with marketing. All of their ads are custom. Agents don't just want hundreds of leads to sift through. They want qualified leads coming to them. Platform Marketing's strategy will get them 200+ leads a month.
But they also write specific retargeting ads that aren't generic posts based. They base them on independent research. Their tagline is “The best ads don't look like ads.”
One ad was about the history of the vanilla ice cream cone. He told the realtors to get a photo with a vanilla ice cream cone from their favorite local place. They tagged the local place in the ad. The ad often went viral because the ice cream place—and their fans—shared it. It's creating a category of one.
How Tim’s team fulfills the work
They share folders with clients in Google Drive. They’ll connect with them to have them do their homework (i.e. the photo with the ice cream cone). The account manager does a quality check on the content (listing videos, photos, etc.). This is submitted to the ads team (or fulfillment team). They use Slack to communicate with each other and Monday to manage the projects.
Any time an ad is launched, it’s likely a Filipino doing the initial video editing with an American proofing it before it goes live. They aim for a 48-hour turnaround from receiving content to launching the ad.
They do weekly one-on-one calls with clients. They aren’t hiring VAs to be account managers. They want someone with boots on the ground who understands the real estate market in the US.
Why Tim chose to hire a CMO
Tim’s friend was running an agency in Minneapolis with a brick-and-mortar generalist agency. They took on any work from web development to social media marketing. They didn't have a niche. Max was trapped in his business model. So Tim approached him, shared their ten-year vision, shared what he could pay and the equity he could offer, and asked him to come on board. Max is a genius marketer and Tim believes his high-level marketing strategies will get them in a position to scale.
How Tim structures operations
One of the most important things they do is call their clients weekly. Most agencies only do a monthly check-in to go over the numbers. That means that they talk to their clients at least 50 times a year. They get to know them. They’re a business partner who happens to manage their marketing. That’s the key to their operations. They invest in time with clients. That depth of relationship keeps their churn low.
They throw an annual mastermind that’s completely free. Clients get to meet each other and hang out in person. They have a private Facebook group where people can share best practices. They’ve built a community for their clients that doesn’t exist anywhere else.
Tim believes that community is the secret to client retention. It doesn’t have anything to do with marketing. You can’t use traditional financial metrics to rationalize an investment in a relationship. Their events are investments in community and retention.
They’ll max out around 250–270 clients and Tim will be thrilled with that. He wants to be the best in the industry—not the biggest.
Resources & People Mentioned
Connect with Tim Chermak
- Platform Marketing
- Tim@Platform.Marketing
- Follow on Facebook
Connect With Josh Nelson
- Josh's Coaching Page on Facebook
- The Agency Success Facebook Group
- www.SevenFigureAgency.com
- Seven Figure Agency on YouTube
- Josh on Twitter: @joshnelsonimc
- Josh on LinkedIn
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