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How NAR's CMO Bennett Richardson Is Building Trust at Scale with 1.5 Million Realtor Members
- Wendy Forsythe
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Bennett Richardson is NAR's new CMO. Learn how he's rebuilding trust, communicating at scale, launching the NAR influencer program, and humanizing the brand for 1.5M members.
Who is Bennett Richardson?
Bennett Richardson is the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
He came from Google, Politico, and Semaphore - an outside perspective. Less than a year into his role, he was promoted to CMO.
His job? Market to three stakeholders at once:
1.5 million realtor members
Capitol Hill and policymakers (advocacy)
The American consumer
"Realtors show up every day unemployed," Bennett says, quoting past NAR president Kevin Sears. "You have to re-earn that business with that next transaction."
How do you build trust at scale?
Bennett's philosophy is simple but powerful:
"Building trust with a brand is just like building trust with a person."
You show up when you say you're going to show up. You do the things you said you're going to do. You follow through.
"It's all of these basics," Bennett says.
NAR has been demonstrating this through:
Financial discipline (cutting costs, increasing revenue)
Transparency about changes
Accountability in communications
Promises made, promises kept.
"That's how day by day, brick by brick, we start to show the accountability that hopefully rebuilds trust with our members," Bennett explains.
What's the NAR Influencer Program?
Launched at the beginning of 2025, the NAR Influencer Program now has about 1,200 realtors and is growing every week.
How to join: nar.realtor/influencers
What you get:
Newsletter of latest NAR updates
Opportunities to share your voice
NAR connects media with realtors in specific markets
"We can share the microphone," Bennett says. "If there are realtors around the country who want to talk about their experience as a Realtor, what the market is like in their area, the challenges they're seeing - we can help give them a voice."
When media wants a quote or a Zoom interview with a realtor in Portland or Las Vegas, NAR has a Rolodex of informed realtors ready to connect.
"That's where the rubber meets the road," Bennett says.
How does NAR communicate with 1.5 million members?
The challenge: If you tell them about everything you're doing, you're sending them too much.
"We're probably getting that mute button, that unfollow button, that unsubscribe button," Bennett says.
The solution:
Personalization and diversification
Segmentation by interests, engagement levels, seniority
Different communications for brokers vs. agents vs. appraisers
NAR just launched a broker-specific newsletter. "We want to make sure the unique challenges of brokers and leading their teams are addressed intentionally."
How is NAR humanizing the brand?
Bennett walks down hallways with NAR economists, research leads, and advocacy experts. He gets them on camera for reels.
"Realtors are natural communicators and connectors," Bennett says. "We want to meet them in that authenticity."
It's not just NAR staff on camera. NAR is investing heavily in membership voices through the influencer program.
"Making sure folks are not just hearing from NAR staff and volunteer leadership, but from actual realtors in their communities," Bennett explains.
What book does Bennett recommend?
Think Again by Adam Grant (organizational psychologist at University of Pennsylvania)
Bennett gave this book to all his team leaders at the end of last year.
It's about how major historical milestones - winning wars, gold medals, Nobel Peace Prizes - happened because someone wasn't afraid to fundamentally change strategy mid-course.
"Maybe this strategy was 50% right, but there's a new 50% I can dig into," Bennett says. "Not being afraid to pivot when you start to find some success is so important."
What's Bennett's X-factor?
"I love people. I'm really a natural extrovert."
He always remembers there's a human being on the other side of that screen, dashboard, ad campaign, or social media post.
"Keep it human and keep it friendly," Bennett says. "That's allowed me to have some success."
Bennett breaks down NAR's consumer ad campaign, why Kevin Brown (NAR president) hadn't been home in six weeks, and how to balance science with the human art of connecting.
Let's grow,
Wendy
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