If a small firm can replicate the Web marketing and listing distribution that the big firms have, that could put big brands at a disadvantage.

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Developers are trying to build brand and hype, for both themselves and their projects, often even before ground is broken on a project...

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The Internet has influenced a structural shift in most real estate professionals’ marketing mix. Whether you work for an independent or branded residential agency, it is becoming increasingly difficult and painful to ignore marketing your firm or yourself on the Web. From personal Web sites to sophisticated search engine marketing programs, the sourcing of new business and clients is increasingly an online proposition.

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Online marketing is especially attractive because it's cheaper than print sources and it's easy to track what works and what doesn't work. The expenditures connected to online resources are returning far greater money to the bottom line than conventional print ads.

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Keeping pace

Independent real estate companies typically have two great strategic advantages over their regionally or nationally branded competitors: name recognition as a homegrown brokerage and a longtime, loyal clientele.

But those advantages can erode against the deep-pocketed resources of big companies if independents aren’t vigilant about branding and strategic networking, brokers of successful independents say.
Structuring support staff and technology to keep sales associates in the field selling rather than grappling with non-value-added issues is also key, because independent brokers have little margin of error when big powerhouses are spending lavishly to pull in customers.

Here’s how five independents keep their edge against bigger competitors in branding, networking, technology, and retaining support staff.

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