Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
The Wall Street Journal recently ranked Springfield, Illinois #19 on its Housing Market Index. The town of just under 150,000 has also been rated as one of the most affordable places to buy a home in the U.S., as well as one of the best cities to live in. Springfield's top agents are our focus this week. So, here's a roundup of four of the best in the region.
Kyle Killebrew is a Zillow Premier Agent with 386 five-star reviews from clients who use that platform. In business for about two decades, Killebrew and his team have had an impressive sales record of more than 400 transactions in the past 12 months. On Facebook, Killebrew has almost 4,000 fans and an Instagram marketing effort. As for the agent’s website, it’s a 70% rating SEO-wise.
Killebrew has also created a Youtube channel with only seven subscribers. The last video seems to have been made about six years ago, so it’s probable that the agent gave up on this marketing channel. One hundred twenty-two nearly perfect Google reviews tell us the people who use this agent's services are almost always satisfied. Killebrew only has 191 LinkedIn connections, so this channel probably does not provide many leads either. The team has zero media mentions, according to Google News.
With such an impressive sales record, I feel Killebrew could bounce up and be one of America’s top agents with more time and resources spent on ads, marketing, and branding.
Website, Facebook, Contact # 1-217-321-8210
Right behind Killebrew, Jim Fulgenzi leverages three decades of experience and a team of Zillow rating stars. They have had almost 200 sales in the past year. The Re/Max agent has just over 2k Facebook fans, and the page is well-maintained. On Instagram, Killebrew’s effort is a bit half-hearted, as his YouTube channel has precisely the same number of subscribers as his competitor, Kyle Killebrew. Only Fulgenzi seems to have given up on the video marketing route about nine years ago.
Fulgenzi has not one but two websites, neither of which is very good SEO-wise. The newest site is nice aesthetically and useful, so I linked to this one. This star Springfield agent outdoes even Killebrew with almost 300 near-perfect Google reviews. This Re/Max professional blasts past most area agents using LinkedIn with 500+ connections. Another feather in Fulgenzi’s cap is that he is mentioned several times in local media, a marketing funnel aspect many agents overlook.
Another top agent in Springfield, Debra Sarsany, made over 100 sales in the past year. According to Zillow, Sarsany has nine people on her team, with 5.0 Zillow user reviews. Debra is the most experienced agent in this roundup, with almost four decades in real estate. But she also has 500+ LinkedIn connections and posts frequently on the platform.
About 3k people follow Sarsany on Facebook even though her team posts less frequently than other agencies. She also maintains an excellent blog and is a good writer, another skill/method often overlooked by agencies in the US. Unfortunately, the blog sits on a lonely website that only some people visit. The SEO ranking is 60%, but other metrics show that only some people see. This means the blog could be more readable. With some cross-posting and using groups on Facebook, this could be remedied. Sarsany also gets some light media coverage in the Springfield area.
Melissa Dowson Vorreyer rounds out this week’s list of top agents. Her 246 perfect Zillow reviews put her in our view space, and the fact she’s sold 121 properties this past year tells us she’s one of Springfrield’s most successful real estate pros. In addition, she has nearly 3k Facebook followers and two killer Instagram channels that differentiate this agent from most of her competitors.
Vorreyer has a good website SEO-wise, but the Re/Max cookie-cutter sites are not extraordinary by anyone’s estimation. However, this Springfield agent makes up for it with over 1k LinkedIn followers and almost 100 endorsements. Unlike her contemporaries in the area, Vorreyer also operates a fairly robust Twitter account. Finally, I find it interesting that Vorreyer seems to be advertising with a YouTube user called “Gamer.” Other agents broadcast via this channel too, and I wonder if anyone is getting leads from it.
