How today’s agents are merging media, marketing and mastery
Savvy agents are leveraging digital media to showcase and share their expertise and win new business, The Agency’s Mauricio Umansky writes.
Since the NAR commission suit settlement, buyer agents have faced new rules, new documents and a new normal. This month, Inman drills down on Today’s Buyers Agent with the fresh marketing strategies, skills and tools buyer agents are using to prosper in changing times.
In 2025, agents who aren’t actively leveraging public relations, digital marketing and social media are likely already falling behind. Today’s most forward-thinking agents understand that their business success is no longer driven by sales technique alone — it’s increasingly powered by visibility, credibility and creating meaningful connection with their sphere of influence.
This shift has given rise to a new kind of real estate professional: one who integrates deep market knowledge and client service with strategic ways of reaching and educating their audience. Through digital content, community engagement and thought leadership, agents are growing their businesses by sharing their market insights and staying relevant in a fast-evolving industry.
This isn’t about building personal celebrity or becoming a coach. It’s about making the most of the tools at our fingertips to communicate value, share expertise and drive results for our clients. Agents are finding new ways to lead conversations, answer questions before they’re asked and build trust long before a client ever picks up the phone.
My job is to empower this growth — by helping agents harness digital tools, sharpen their communication and align their expertise with business development strategies that help them go further, faster.
Strive for brand consistency
One of the most powerful ways that brokerages can support any agent is by helping them articulate their unique value proposition. It’s crucial to guide agents in defining their brand positioning — while ensuring it fits within well-defined brokerage brand guidelines. Are they an economics expert, a client service fanatic, a contract crusader? Figuring out what they and only they can provide to clients in their market is crucial.
Once defined, promoting and amplifying agents across the company’s owned channels is an effective way to help them build their business. At my brokerage, these include our real estate and lifestyle blog, email marketing newsletters and social media channels, to name a few.
Helping agents develop unified messaging creates consistency and lends agents a sort of “brand halo” that strengthens and uplifts the agent’s brand in their market — and it’s essential to creating real connection between consumers, your agents and your brokerage’s brand.
Leverage multifaceted marketing programs
Agents must effectively leverage the multi-faceted marketing support offered by their brokerage. Many of these programs are designed to help agents scale all aspects of their business.
Competition is fierce, and it’s no longer enough for agents to rely on instinct and hustle. To truly thrive, they must become savvy marketers — strategically tapping into the full spectrum of support their brokerage offers. From targeted training to bespoke media opportunities, brokerages now serve as more than just a place to hang a license — they’re dynamic engines for brand building and business growth.
Smart agents know how to take advantage of this. They use in-house learning programs to sharpen their edge in social media, digital branding and content strategy. They collaborate with marketing teams to craft compelling narratives around their listings, market expertise and brand identity.
Perhaps most critically, they engage their brokerage’s public relations team to tell those stories at scale — securing press coverage, building credibility and expanding their reach far beyond their immediate networks.
It’s about more than just visibility. It’s about creating momentum — amplifying every listing, every achievement, every unique point of view with the kind of strategic firepower that turns a good agent into a known entity. For those willing to lean in, the tools are there. The next move is knowing how to use them.
Build powerful media relationships
Agents can lean into established public relations partnerships or seek them out on their own. Leveraging established relationships with media outlets can bring an agent’s brand narrative to a broader audience and emphasize their diverse roles as sales professionals, but also as industry influencers and changemakers.
Our PR team actively supports our agents by repurposing agent-generated content into public relations assets and story pitches, generating additional media exposure for them. They also organize agent-led panels, secure speaking opportunities at conferences, nominate agents for awards and recognition programs, and coordinate thought leadership opportunities, such as feature articles in key industry publications. All of these efforts serve to increase agents’ exposure, enhance their credibility, and showcase their unique perspectives and experience.
From a coaching standpoint, our public relations team provides media training and talking points, making agents media-ready for interviews, panels, events and speaking engagements — aligning messaging with the broader company narrative to ensure consistency across all of our communications. Again, an essential aspect of effective brand messaging.
What’s next: Empowering expertise in a digital age
At our brokerage, we view our agents as trusted advisors, market experts and community leaders. Our role is to support them — not by asking them to become influencers or coaches, but by helping them use the tools of the digital age to better serve clients and grow their businesses.
In an environment where content drives conversation, agents who can articulate their expertise clearly and consistently will have a competitive advantage. As a brokerage, we aim to provide the structure, tools and amplification they need to do just that — while always staying grounded in what matters most: knowledge, service and results.
We’re proud to champion this evolution and even prouder to work alongside agents who are committed to raising the bar — not just for their business, but for the entire industry.
Mauricio Umansky is the founder and CEO of The Agency in Los Angeles. Connect with him on Instagram.
