Activating a Large Local Audience to Build Authority, Trust and Market Presence

Nutrien Harcourts Wangaratta entered their engagement with Propel with a strong market presence and a sizeable social following, but social media wasn’t working hard enough for the business.

Key challenges included:

- Low team visibility across social channels, making the brand feel distant and transactional
- Confusion around the dual brand (Nutrien + Harcourts), with inconsistent messaging in the community
- A largely passive audience, consuming content but rarely engaging with it
- Increasing pressure to remain visible, competitive, and authoritative in a crowded real estate market

Importantly, this wasn’t about “getting more followers.” The team knew they needed to show up more confidently, tell their story better, and use social media as a tool to build trust, familiarity, and long-term market leadership.

The Objective

Together, we aligned on a broader view of what social media could do for the business:

- Increase team familiarity and recognisability
- Clarify and consistently reinforce the Nutrien Harcourts brand
- Shift the audience from passive to engaged
- Position the business as a trusted local authority, not just a listing platform

Lay foundations for stronger commercial outcomes over time, not just short-term promotion

‍The Strategy

Rather than overhauling everything at once, Propel worked in tandem with Nutrien Harcourts’ existing approach.

The strategy focused on three core pillars:

1. People-Led, Confidence-First Content

We supported the team with content creation and filming formats they were genuinely comfortable with. The goal wasn’t polished performance, but authentic visibility. Team members were introduced through approachable video content, community moments, and behind-the-scenes insights.

2. Brand Clarity Through Consistency

We refined how the Nutrien Harcourts brand showed up across content, ensuring consistent cues and messaging to reduce confusion around the dual brand and reinforce the full breadth of services across residential, rural, and rentals.

3. Awareness-Led Paid Media, Not Just Promotion

Paid Meta Ads were used primarily to support ongoing awareness, featuring team content, thought leadership, and rental updates. This was complemented by ad hoc auction and sales awareness campaigns to support specific property moments.

The focus was visibility, familiarity, and staying present in-market, rather than forcing lead generation prematurely.

‍The Execution

Across the five-month period, we delivered:

- A consistent organic posting rhythm across Facebook and Instagram
- Increased use of video-led content, especially people-focused formats
- Thought leadership content positioning the team as local property experts
- Always-on Meta awareness campaigns to maintain brand presence
- Ad hoc auction awareness campaigns to support key listings
- Hands-on support with content creation to reduce friction for the team

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The Results

Across the five-month period, Nutrien Harcourts saw strong momentum across both organic and paid channels. Facebook performance lifted significantly, with reach up 318% to 1.04M people, post engagements up 105%, and engagement rate up 93%, signalling a clear shift from passive viewing to active interaction.

Instagram also showed steady growth, with follower numbers increasing to 886 and higher shares and saves indicating stronger content resonance, particularly with a local female audience.

Paid Meta Ads delivered 648,326 impressions, supporting always-on brand visibility and reinforcing team-led content and thought leadership. While auction campaigns were run on an ad hoc basis, results highlighted a clear opportunity to further structure campaigns to better convert awareness into action in the next phase.

What This Means

This period demonstrates a key shift: social media doesn’t only exist to generate leads.

For Nutrien Harcourts, social media is now:

- A trust and familiarity channel
- A platform for brand clarity and authority
- A way to activate an already large audience
- A foundation for future pipeline and lead generation

Early indicators suggest improvements in enquiry readiness and brand recognition, with anecdotal signs such as increase new-seller leads through calls and the website.

What’s Next

With awareness, engagement, and authority established, the next phase is about commercial leverage:

- Introducing structured vendor-focused lead generation campaigns
- Converting social attention into owned assets (email lists, databases)
- Planning auction and sales campaigns more strategically
- Using thought leadership to support market education and listing confidence

Most importantly, this case study proves a bigger point:

Social media can solve more than one business problem -visibility, trust, clarity, confidence, and competitiveness - when it’s approached strategically.