The Institute for Luxury Home Marketing was founded in 2003 and is the premier independent authority in training and designation for real estate agents working in the luxury residential market.

Institute for Luxury Home Marketing (ILHM)

How The Institute’s switch from Facebook to Mobilize increased renewals by 30%. 

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Increase in 2021 renewals among members that were in the community
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Increase in renewals YOY
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Increase in paid memberships

The Problem

For years ILHM used Facebook Groups to engage their audience of 13,000 luxury real estate agents who needed help with certification and career development. The pain was acute: there was no access to data, no way to integrate with their AMS (association management system), no way to segment paid versus inactive members, and no meaningful analytics to know if the group even worked. 

The Institute sought a better way to add value to members while giving ILHM insights, data and deeper relationships with members. The driving goal was to turn their transactional customers (who just needed training) into “lifetime members” who saw ILHM as a huge boost to their career. And, ILHM wanted to do all of this with less overhead. 

The Solution
ILHM partnered with Mobilize to create an exclusive professional network for members that provided connections, opportunities and thought leadership that could not be found anywhere else. In addition, the platform was integrated with ILHM’s AMS so they could share data across systems and connect community engagement with downstream results such as retention. Little did The Institute know that community would become their biggest member benefit.   



“Community is now the most valuable member benefit by a long shot.”

Diane Hartley, President

Become the Industry’s Go-to Network

Over a period of 3 months, ILHM worked with Mobilize on a community strategy, which focused on a resource center, opportunities and listings, and networking. A major element of the strategy was to connect the community to training cohorts and events so that members felt a sense of belonging from the beginning. Members could then expand into other groups of interest over time.

Proving Community ROI through data

Using Mobilize Data Studio was key to proving results, most importantly on retention, which was the primary measure of turning customers into members.

The Results: 80% renewal rate from members in the community and a 30% increase in overall membership YOY

 

Within just a year, ILHM was able to transform their business. According to President Diane Hartley, the network had become ILHM’s “most valuable member benefit by a long shot.” 

One-time customers were becoming long-term members. The community was getting 5X the engagement of industry standards. Members were touting the network on social media, which was driving huge organic growth. And, ILHM was transforming into a true subscription business. 

The best part? They did all of this with half the resources.