Chief marketing and growth officer model for brokerages
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Brokerage | Contributors | Opinion!Image 4 7 minute read
Why real estate brokerages are turning marketing into a growth engine
The new era of marketing leadership owns recruitment, retention and revenue
April 20, 2026, 12:05pm _by Lauren Henss_
Article Summary
Brokerage marketing is shifting from output to outcomes, with leaders owning recruitment, retention, and pipeline. The column argues CMGO-style alignment across brand, product, and adoption improves growth metrics._AI Summary_
For years, real estate marketing was viewed as simply a support function responsible for campaigns, promotional materials and brand visibility. Now, there is a new model that is poised to help brokerages scale successfully.
Today, marketing sits at the center of how brokerages drive agent recruitment, retention and revenue growth. It is no longer a support function; it is a growth engine.
Marketing shapes brand perception, drives pipeline, influences recruitment and ultimately determines how and how fast a brokerage or proptech company scales. It empowers brokerages to move faster, attract stronger agents and grow market share and profitability.
The organizations pulling ahead today are not doing so because they market better. They are doing so because they have redefined what marketing is responsible for: growth.
But that kind of growth does not happen by accident. It happens when marketing is structured with intention, when brand, performance and agent marketing and experience are distinct, aligned and accountable for real business outcomes.
The traditional brokerage marketing model was built for a time when visibility alone could drive results, and where marketing operated downstream from strategy. That model no longer holds.
What is emerging in its place is a new archetype: the marketing leader who thinks and operates like a Chief Marketing & Growth Officer with company-wide influence, accountability and ownership of the full growth system.
Own the full growth funnel
Historically, brokerage marketing teams were measured by output: brochures, signage and listing campaigns. These are still important, but they no longer differentiate a brand from a growth or expansion standpoint.
The most effective senior marketing leaders today are measured by outcomes. They go beyond marketers. They are builders and operators: close enough to the business to influence how it looks _and_ how it grows. They own the full growth funnel, while helping shape conversations and decisions around recruitment, expansion and investment.
The data reinforces this shift. Research from McKinsey & Company found that companies with marketing embedded in strategic decision-making see 1.4x higher revenue growth, yet only about half of CMOs are meaningfully involved at that level. At the same time, Boston Consulting Group reports that organizations with strong alignment between marketing and sales achieve up to 20% higher revenue growth.
Marketing and recruitment need to be intertwined. Agents evaluate brokerages the same way consumers evaluate brands: through reputation, visibility, authority and, increasingly, the quality of the technology experience. The marketing leader who understands this doesn’t just generate leads; they shape demand for the right agents at the right time.
The brokerages that will outperform over the next decade will be those that give marketing a true seat at the table. Not as a support function, but as a driver of compounding growth.
Lead the digital transformation or be left behind
The Chief Marketing & Growth Officer, or a marketing leader operating with that mandate, should lead digital transformation with the CPO. Not just IT, or in isolation from Product. It should not be viewed as a secondary initiative owned by operations.
Digital transformation is not just about systems. It’s about adoption, experience and behavior at scale, which are all part of marketing-led outcomes.
This is where most brokerages get it wrong. Industry data shows the majority of digital transformations fail because organizations struggle to translate tools into behavioral change and business impact. In SaaS and tech companies, product and marketing are inseparable; real estate is well overdue for the same shift.
Effective marketing leaders partner closely with product and operations to improve and simplify the agent experience. They strip away unnecessary complexity, prioritize what drives progress, and ensure the tools agents rely on actually help them win business.
The issue facing most brokerages and PropTech companies today isn’t access to technology. It is translation: turning capability into behavior, tools into productivity and investment into measurable growth.
Two companies can invest in the same platform and see completely different outcomes if one treats it as a feature and the other treats it as a system. In real estate, that gap is accelerating.
Brokerages are investing heavily in AI, automation and data, but many agents are still operating with fragmented workflows, underutilized tools and inconsistent experiences. The result is not transformation, it’s complexity.
The firms pulling ahead are doing something fundamentally different. They are not asking, _“What should we buy next?”_ They are asking, _“How should we operate differently?”_
They are rethinking:
- How agents generate and convert business
- How client experiences are designed and delivered
- How decisions are informed by data, not instinct
- And how technology supports, not complicates, that process
This is where the CMGO creates a disproportionate advantage. For brokerages, it means driving measurable outcomes such as stronger agent recruitment, higher productivity, improved retention and a more consistent client experience across every touchpoint.
For PropTech companies, it means ensuring that products are not just built, but actually used, adopted and embedded into daily workflows. The gap between product innovation and user adoption is where most value is lost.
The CMGO is uniquely positioned to close that gap because they sit at the intersection of brand (what we promise), product (what we deliver) and experience (how it’s actually used).
They understand how agents build their businesses, how consumers make decisions and how both interact with technology in real-world environments.
More importantly, they own the outcomes tied to it:
- Recruitment and agent attraction
- Conversion and productivity
- Agent sentiment, retention and long-term value
- Product adoption and customer lifetime value
Without adoption, there is no ROI. Without alignment, there is no scale. And without marketing leadership, there is no system connecting the two.
The modern CMGO operationalizes new tools, partnering with product, sales and operations to ensure that every technology investment translates into a better agent experience, stronger market positioning and measurable business performance. In SaaS companies, this alignment is expected because product and marketing operate as one system.
Real estate is still evolving into that model. The companies that win will not be the ones that invest the most in technology, but those that align leadership, culture and execution around it.
In the end, digital transformation is not about modernization but about momentum. And momentum is what great marketing leaders are built to create.
Credibility is the new competitive advantage
You have the right tools and agent adoption, now what? Today’s consumers are savvy. Generic marketing claims that once attracted attention are now costing brokerages credibility.
Today’s consumers and agents are more informed, more skeptical, and more reliant on digital signals than ever before. According to Zillow’s 2025 Consumer Housing Trends Report, 37% of buyers and 36% of sellers find their agent through online channels, turning digital presence into a direct revenue driver.
That shift elevates something many organizations still underestimate: credibility. Earned media, reputation, thought leadership and consistency across platforms now carry more weight than controlled messaging. The strongest brands don’t just say they are different; they demonstrate it repeatedly in places they don’t own.
This is where many brokerages get it wrong. They try to appeal to everyone, but credibility comes from clarity, not breadth. The most effective brands understand exactly who they are for and who they are not. They build systems, messaging and agent experiences that reinforce that positioning at every touchpoint.
Brand is no longer just a story; it is a filter. And marketing provides that filter. Over time, that filter compounds, strengthening culture, improving retention and driving performance.
Measure what actually drives growth
The shift to a CMGO mindset ultimately comes down to accountability. Not for activity, but for impact.
Marketing leaders must operate as builders and operators: close to execution, deeply connected to the business, attuned to market shifts and aligned across recruitment, customer experience, product, operations and technology.
This requires a different measurement framework. The metrics that matter are not vanity metrics, but business metrics such as:
- Recruitment quality and conversion
- Agent satisfaction, retention, and productivity
- Technology adoption and utilization
- Customer acquisition cost and lifetime value
- Revenue growth and market share
These are not marketing-adjacent metrics, but marketing-_led_ metrics. When marketing owns them, the entire organization becomes more aligned, more efficient, and more capable of scaling.
The new era of brokerage marketing
We are at an inflection point. Brokerages and PropTech companies can continue to treat marketing as just a support function or they can recognize what it can become. I recommend two sectors: agent marketing and corporate brand and performance marketing.
When a marketing leader operates with a Chief Marketing & Growth Officer mindset — owning how the business attracts, converts and retains agents and clients — the impact is not incremental, it is transformational.
The companies that win in this next era will not be the ones with the biggest budgets or the most tools. They will be the ones with the clearest strategy, the strongest alignment and the leaders capable of connecting brand, product and performance into a single, scalable system.
That is the role of the modern marketing leader. And it is only just beginning.
_Lauren Henss is Vice President of Marketing and Strategic Initiatives at FirstTeam_.
_This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of HousingWire’s editorial department and its owners. To contact the editor responsible for this piece:_tracey@hwmedia.com
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About Lauren Henss
Lauren Henss is a leading Chief Strategy and Marketing Executive who has led brand, marketing, and growth strategy for real estate, PropTech, SaaS, and large consumer brands for more than 20 years. Her career has centered on the intersection of brand technology and human behavior, helping companies translate long-term vision into strategy, measurable growth, and revenue.see full bio
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About Lauren Henss
Lauren Henss is a leading Chief Strategy and Marketing Executive who has led brand, marketing, and growth strategy for real estate, PropTech, SaaS, and large consumer brands for more than 20 years. Her career has centered on the intersection of brand technology and human behavior, helping companies translate long-term vision into strategy, measurable growth, and revenue.see full bio
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