The great American writer Ernest Hemingway once penned in The Sun Also Rises that “Things change gradually, then suddenly.” Although he wrote these words around 100 years ago, they have a startling applicability to the world of 2025. Although technological development always seems to be moving forward, the last few years have brought about an explosion of unprecedented development. Just take AI and automation. Once confined to the realm of science fiction, AI is now firmly entrenched as a normal part of everyday workflows.

Perhaps nowhere is it easier to see the influence of these emerging technologies than in the world of marketing. AI programs have made it much easier to do the work of creative professionals. While this has been a massive win for many businesses’ productivity and profitability, it is not without its drawbacks either. Lack of nuance and context. Brand distortions. Quality control problems. And customer fatigue. These are all risks a business takes when relying exclusively on AI for public-facing communication.

A far better approach is one where a business pairs human authenticity, empathy and judgement with AI’s powerful ability to generate massive amounts of content quickly. That way, companies such as title agencies can reap both quantitative and qualitative benefits in their marketing. Let’s go a little deeper to identify these opportunities for balancing human authenticity with AI-powered automation.

Building out the body of a writing piece

Whenever you are gearing up to put together a piece of marketing collateral and wonder how you should delineate the work between human and AI, think of the task like building a human body. AI is really good at providing the bones of a marketing asset. It can generate outlines and ideas for your writing like nobody’s business. Offloading this work to AI can save valuable time, especially since brainstorming and curating content are often time-intensive. Once the skeleton is in place, human marketers can step in to flesh out the material, imbuing the piece with emotion, humor and heart—all essential to connecting with readers and bringing your marketing to life.

Establishing nuance and context

For as fast and efficient as AI is at generating creative material, it is still pretty crude when it is trying to establish the nuance and context of a piece all on its own. When humans and AI work together on these qualities of a marketing project, however, much more engaging storytelling becomes possible. Think of this as the difference between a Wikipedia article on a historical topic and a scholarly work of popular history from one of the genre’s masters like Simon Schama or Doris Kearns Goodwin. While the former is good for establishing the overarching frame of a subject and its associated dates and events, the latter fashions such data into a larger narrative that contains meaning, texture and resonance. By combining AI’s speed and efficiency with the depth of human insight, you can create content that not only informs but also resonates and engages your audience on a deeper level.

Protecting your brand image

Last but certainly not least, balancing human and AI inputs is of paramount importance whenever you are talking about your brand within a writing piece. An AI can do a great job of summarizing your service offerings at blazing speed and communicating publicly available details like when and where your business was formed. But it can’t capture the emotional roots of your brand—or the personal stories of how your offerings have made a difference in people’s lives. Therefore, you must weave together the talents of both AI and human capital if you want to speak about your business in a way that captures both its material and immaterial brand pillars.

Embracing the best of both worlds

In the epigraph of A Sun Also Rises, Hemingway quoted his mentor Gertrude Stein saying that “You are all a lost generation.” This is another quote that drills down on the disorientating experience of existing during a period of rapid change. All of us are living through a similar period now, particularly given the rise of AI. But just because the old rules have changed doesn’t mean success is out of reach. It just necessitates a strategic approach. When it comes to marketing your agency, that means finding effective ways to combine the best of both human and artificial intelligence. By embracing both, you can execute your marketing goals without losing the human touch that’s essential to building trust.

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Market research is key to successful expansion

Navigating business expansion can sometimes resemble trying to pick your way through a thick forest. The trail can feel uncertain and unpredictable where one wrong step could trip you up. Think of market research as a light that illuminates the best path forward. It deepens understanding of potential customers and leads to more informed decision-making. Moreover, it reduces risk, enables the creation of better products and services, and shores up the long-term health of your brand.

The challenge of getting started

Despite its benefits, conducting marketing research can seem like a tall order, especially if you’ve never done it before. All too often, this leads to companies commissioning a report by a third party, which can be quite costly. Depending on the research, the cost can range at least $15,000 – $25,000 a pop.[i] This can be an unnecessary expense, especially as it’s possible to gather a lot of this information on your own.

A deeper dive

So, how do you start a market research report? Begin by sketching out your goals and objectives. Then outline the contours of your target market using these categories: 

• Market demand for title insurance
• Qualitative and quantitative nature of the customer base
• Competitor analysis
• Regulatory environment (only if different from your current environment)
• Competitive advantages you bring to the table
• Any barriers that will prevent you from entering the market

Secondary research

After you have this framework, add additional detail by consulting secondary research sources. Fill out the market demand and customer base sections of your report by consulting:

• Title industry reports
• Government databases
• Housing, population and employment trends

Next, learn more about your competitors by following these steps:

1. Search online for competitors who serve the target market.
2. Look at business directories and your local land title associations for additional information.
3. Then, see what your competitors are doing to market their products and services by looking at:
   
   1. Their website
   2. Social media channels
   3. Review sites
   4. SEO rankings
   5. Any available advertising
      
4. Pair this with information on your competitors’ pricing, services and customer base.

In working through this exercise, a better picture of competing organizations will come into focus. The last step is then to populate the sections on your competitive advantages and barriers to entry. Perhaps one of the best tools to use here is what’s known as a “SWOT analysis.” Here’s what that requires you to look at and flesh out:

• Strengths: What are you doing right and/or well.
• Weaknesses: The potential weak points within your organization.
• Opportunities: The opportunities or openings in the market of which you can take advantage.
• Threats: What could threaten your ability to enter a new market.

Next steps

Armed with a better understanding of the market, your competitors and how they stack up against your organization’s strengths, weaknesses and capabilities, you can build better offers for your products and market them in a way that connects and converts. Don’t stop with just market research, though. Use this document as the basis for creating a strategic plan, a marketing and sales strategy and even guidance for how your organization can align resources with short- and long-term goals. Combined, these various assets will position you to not only enter your target market but hit the ground running.

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Hope Springs eternal

Starting a new marketing campaign is always an exciting and even hopeful time, especially during the spring selling season. Time and time again, the turning of the seasons brings increased buyer demand, as house hunters and sellers look to make a change and start fresh. Agencies that get proactive about their marketing can capture greater market share and solidify their position as the go-to-resource. It all starts by taking a good, hard look at your current marketing programs and making improvements where necessary.

Spring into action

Nearly everyone has heard the expression “look before you leap,” but it merits repeating whenever contemplating a marketing overhaul. Reviewing your previous marketing activities and taking stock of what has (or hasn’t) worked in the past is an essential first step before embarking on a new campaign.

To do this correctly, spring into action and go channel-by-channel. Assess whether your current strategies have brought you closer to your goals. If you started a social media feed to bring people to your agency’s website, dig into Google Analytics and review acquisition numbers. If your drip emails are intended to promote your offers, inspect click-through rates to determine if they’ve moved the needle.  

Apply the principle across the entirety of your marketing output. Only by understanding the historic results of your marketing can you plan for future success.

Spring is in the air

When spring is in the air, put the season at the heart of your marketing and freshen up your copy. Begin with your most important digital asset: your website. Consider rewriting important sections of your site to emphasize the concepts of rebirth. Intertwine these ideas with the real estate market and communicate how your company can keep buyers and sellers safe as they embark on this new beginning. If you can, consider offering a spring-themed promotion. You may also want to create an entire landing page that can act as a hub for your spring campaign and which includes a clear, compelling call-to-action.

Build thematic, impactful campaigns

Once your website has been polished and freshened up, turn your attention to the channels you want to use to promote your products or services. The best part about spring is how well it lends itself to content and social media marketing. Here are a few examples of marketing actions you can take to raise awareness and convey your value:

• “Spring cleaning”: Build an educational campaign to get people thinking about how they can ensure a smooth buying or selling process. Instruct aspiring buyers and real estate agents to keep an eye out for anything that may mar title. Frame your copy around the concept of “spring cleaning.” Emphasize how important it is to have all paperwork organized and accounted for prior to proceeding with a transaction.
• Hit the road: Spring often brings an up-tick in in-person real estate events, which are prime opportunities for title agents to hit the road and network. Doing this can potentially lead to greater brand visibility and leads, but only if you’ve prepared ahead of time by doing things like practicing your agency’s elevator pitch.
• Out with the old in with the new: Leverage the beginning of spring by timing the release of any new products or services you may be unrolling. Doing so dovetails perfectly with the season’s focus on renewal.
• Expand your social media: Let’s face it: Title insurance isn’t exactly known for its visual qualities. The spring selling season, however, offers plentiful opportunities to change that. Push as much visual content as you can during this time. Even doing small things like profiling your employees or asking your followers to share their favorite spring memories is a great way to grab eyeballs during a time of increased demand.

Let’s welcome the return of spring

As winter reaches its last legs, what exactly “springs” to your mind? For real estate and title insurance professionals, spring is all about the sales. Carefully reviewing your marketing and leveraging the spirit of the season can help you capture new business and success throughout the year. In short, April showers may bring May flowers, but it can also bring a windfall of increased opportunity and profitability to your firm.

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In a third season episode of the great mockumentary sitcom “The Office,” hapless middle manager Michael Scott rails against the ever-increasing encroachment of technology at Dunder Mifflin by exclaiming: “People will never be replaced by machines. In the end, life and business are about human connections. Computers are about trying to murder you in a lake. And to me the choice is easy.”

Although right before this we had seen Michael actually drive into a lake after misinterpreting his GPS’s instructions, you can’t entirely dismiss his point. Technology is fundamentally intertwined with business, but at the end of the day, people want to connect, collaborate and work with other people – not machines. This means you must seize opportunities for personal, face-to-face marketing whenever they arise. Let’s look at some ways of doing so successfully.

Choose the right events

Before you can share information about your agency and engage in face-to-face marketing, you first must identify events that will put you in front of the right people. Thankfully, for those in the title insurance and real estate industries, there is no shortage of possibilities:

• Conferences and meetings: Consult your state’s land title association for opportunities. Trade press publications will also frequently advertise professional meetings to their readers.
• Real estate association meetings: Realtor associations and boards represent a fantastic opportunity to market yourself to integral players in the real estate space.Finding out about meetings you may want to attend is also relatively easy by searching online. 
• Online webinars: Both educational and social, digital webinars can expand your professional knowledge and industry circle in one fell swoop.
• Chamber of commerce events: Local chambers of commerce provide a supportive environment for businesses and offer resources and tools to help them connect and collaborate.

Know your company’s story

When acting as a personal representative of your agency in a face-to-face setting, you must have your company’s story down pat. More specifically, you must be able to convey your value proposition quickly and clearly.

One way to successfully deliver in these moments is to develop an “elevator pitch” beforehand. Creating easy-to-remember talking points allows you to effortlessly speak to potential customers about how your products and services can improve their lives.

Branded materials

Pulling off successful face-to-face marketing is challenging, but bringing along well-designed marketing materials can make it easier. Let’s look at the following best practices:

• Avoid clutter: While you want to include complete and accurate information, avoid overloading your materials. Remember: when participating in an event, people often don’t have time to digest large amounts of textual information.
• Include the right info: Highlight your communication information in any materials you bring. You are trying to equip contacts with the means to continue the relationship. Include your email, phone, company name, job title and potentially your social media accounts.
• Stay on brand: All marketing materials should be seen as a natural extension of your brand, which means they need to use the right colors, fonts and logos.

Follow up, follow up, follow up

Meeting and pitching someone on your business is not a one-and-done activity. You must also follow up with them. What’s the best way? As we know, some people are hesitant to talk on the phone these days and email is hit or miss. Social media platforms like LinkedIn can be an effective way to follow up. Reaching out on social media can have a personal and real feel, and sites like LinkedIn lend themselves to building organic, long-term connections.

Keep the following in mind:

• Be specific and personal: Even if you have a lot of connections to write, take the time to personalize each message.
• Brevity is best: People are busy and generally overwhelmed with information. If you want someone to read your LinkedIn note, keep it short and sweet.
• Emphasize value: Avoid coming across as overly “salesy,” but be sure to include a value proposition for your message recipient. Give them a reason to want to take the relationship to the next step.

Make meaningful, lasting connections

Personal, face-to-face marketing can yield a high rate of return. Even in our highly digital world, many customers still find connecting person-to-person one of the most impactful forms of communication. By taking these tips to heart, you can grab such opportunities and run with them.

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Are you looking to ramp up the marketing of your small agency? If so, consider making an email newsletter part of your toolkit. It may be tempting, especially these days, to think that email is no longer effective. Guess again. According to recent data, email marketing has an average ROI of $42 for every dollar spent. 80 percent of professionals say email is an effective tool for customer acquisition and retention.[i] Get started with your newsletter marketing and start building sustainable demand by implementing the following best practices. 

Subject Lines are Key

It is hard to overstate the importance of your email’s subject line, as prospects need to open your email before they can read it. The subject line is essentially your best opportunity to sell the reader on your email’s contents, so you need to make it count. Some main points to remember are to keep your subject lines short, convey the email’s main point or thesis, and avoid using characters like excessive exclamation points, which increase the possibility of your email getting stuck in a spam filter. 

Emphasize Your Value Proposition 

With any marketing strategy, it’s critical to make it primarily about the customer, not your business. The same idea holds true for your newsletter content. People will open and read your newsletter only if they understand there is something in it for them. Think about how you can deliver content that is exclusive, educational and actionable. For instance, your agency could put together a helpful video explaining how consumers can help keep their escrow funds safe from scammers and include it in your newsletter. You could even solicit participation from your audience, asking them to submit their own topics to be covered in a future newsletter. 

Optimize for Readability

Having strong content is only one-half of the equation; you also need to ensure that your newsletter is laid out in an aesthetically pleasing way. Keep your sentences and paragraphs short. Use strong, active verbs. Whatever you do, do not neglect including images. Nothing will turn readers off quicker than encountering walls of text within the body of an email. Many email marketing platforms now include free graphics that you can easily insert into your newsletter, and several sites offer stock photography either for free or at a relatively low cost. 

Stick to a Schedule

 Amidst all the other responsibilities that come with running an agency, making sure that your newsletter goes out at roughly the same time can seem challenging. Yet it is important to prioritize consistency if you are going to maximize your readership. Sending your newsletter at the same time will make it feel more professional, and it will also help you stick out in your recipients’ crowded inboxes. 

Toward More Meaningful Customer Relationships 

The marketing landscape is growing ever more complicated, with marketers having access to a variety of different channels and technology. But sometimes tried-and-true methods remain the way to go. Despite being decades old, email is still a viable marketing method that belongs in your arsenal. And when executed correctly, an email newsletter can help you build more meaningful and valuable customer relationships. 

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