The Three Myths of Real Estate Marketing with Rebecca Tubbs
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Rebecca Tubbs has spent years behind the camera as Director of Marketing at JLG, the team behind a huge amount of the real estate marketing you have seen searching Atlanta agents over the last decade. On this episode of The Justin Landis Show, Rebecca finally steps in front of the mic to break down what she calls the three myths of real estate agent marketing, and the answers are not what most agents expect.
How Rebecca and Justin First Connected
Before getting into the myths, Rebecca and Justin shared the story of how they actually met, and it was not through a resume or a job board. Rebecca and Justin were connected through their tennis captain when Rebecca and her husband needed to sell their trendy loft condo after having twins. A wrought iron staircase and two toddlers turned out to be a tough combination. Justin sold the condo, the relationship grew from there, and eventually Rebecca joined JLG as a client concierge before growing into her current role leading marketing for the team.
Myth 1: Going Viral Is the Goal
Rebecca's first myth to bust: agents do not need to go viral. She sees agents constantly pressured by their own social feeds to create more and more content, chasing trending songs and dances that other realtors are doing. Her honest take is that for the everyday agent, viral content is not a requirement. What she wants instead is a presence online so people can find you when they look you up, without burning hours editing a reel that might get ten likes.
Her biggest piece of advice: take the time you would have spent editing a trending video and instead pour it back into other people's feeds. Comment on friends' posts. Show up in their stories. Rebuild the relationships that get buried by ads and sponsored content in everyone's algorithm. That kind of engagement builds real relationships in a way a trending video never will.
Myth 2: You Have to Be an Influencer to Be Successful
The second myth is that agents need to act like influencers, constantly online and living their life in front of a camera. Rebecca says when agents point to influencer-style realtors as the model to follow, a quick look at their actual business often tells a different story. The most successful agents on her team are not aggressively posting. They are out in their communities, building relationships the old-fashioned way.
Rebecca's advice for agents feeling the pressure to be everywhere online: put the phone down and get back into the coffee shop, the sports league, the community. People are experiencing real social media fatigue right now, which makes genuine, in-person presence stand out even more. For agents who do not want to spend all day creating content, working with a team or marketing partner that can personalize and distribute content for you takes that pressure off entirely.
Myth 3: Social Media Content Matters More Than Reviews
The third myth, and the one Rebecca is most passionate about, is that social content outweighs reviews. From an SEO and search marketing background, Rebecca points out that reviews are far more searchable than social posts. About six or seven years ago, JLG made reviews a dedicated project, starting from around 50 Google reviews and growing from there.
The key was a shift in how they asked for reviews. Instead of just requesting a five-star rating, JLG started asking clients to share their story. That small change turned short reviews into detailed narratives, first-time buyer journeys, downsizing stories, and more, which is free, searchable content that resonates because other consumers see themselves in it. Today JLG has over 4,500 unique five-star reviews across Google, Yelp, and Zillow.
Why Reviews Matter Even More in the Age of AI Search
Rebecca connects this directly to how AI search tools work. Platforms like ChatGPT and Claude cannot pull data from Meta-owned platforms like Facebook and Instagram, but they do pull from places like Reddit, Google, and LinkedIn. That means content locked inside Instagram and Facebook posts is largely invisible to AI search, while reviews on open platforms remain highly visible and trusted.
JLG has also built its own technology to host every review, across every platform, directly on its own website, so the content is fully owned and searchable no matter what any single platform decides to do with its data.
Building a Business That Isn't Dependent on Any One Platform
Rebecca and Justin also discussed JLG's shift away from Zillow lead dependency. At its peak, JLG closed around 125 transactions a year largely fueled by Zillow leads. When Zillow changed how it distributed leads, the team saw the shift coming about a year and a half in advance and made a deliberate choice to stop depending on any single third-party platform. That decision, combined with the review strategy, has paid off. Last year JLG closed 550 transactions without using Zillow at all, with roughly 45% of business now coming through team-generated leads.
The Real Lesson: Keep Researching, Keep Adjusting
Asked what she has learned most over the last six or seven years of building JLG's marketing engine, Rebecca's answer is simple: things change daily, so you have to keep researching how they work. Sometimes a strategy works, sometimes it does not, but the agents and teams who stay in the game are the ones who keep testing and adjusting rather than standing still.
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Justin Landis is the founder of Justin Landis Group and Bolst, two of Atlanta's leading real estate companies. He lives in Atlanta with his wife and three daughters and has been selling Atlanta real estate since 2008.
