When you are running an estate agency business, it is easy to get bogged down in today’s tasks rather than focusing on long term growth.

While keeping valuations and sales flowing right now is what “keeps the lights’ on, neglecting to consider future growth is a mistake that can cost dearly if the property market hits a down period.

However, the truth is, one of the biggest benefits you can add to your agency is growing your brand awareness so that when it comes to homeowners choosing to sell, you’re top of mind and one of the first ports of call for them to list their home.

Be the first choice

When choosing any type of service provider, most individuals will create an initial shortlist of businesses that they wish to contact. Most often this will be based on calling to mind brands of which they are already aware. So, if you’re not known by potential sellers in your local area, you are already on the back foot when it comes to winning instructions.

While these days it’s usual for vendors to look for estate agents online, they are most likely to go with a name they are familiar with in the first instance.

Keep a local presence

Traditionally estate agencies would keep in the front of local minds by having a high street presence and ensuring that wherever possible they have outdoor media and boards.

However, the world is changing and now a local presence often means keeping a visible online profile. From social media to map listings, increasingly being at the top of Google is more relevant than being in the high street. This is particularly relevant for the more hybrid agencies who are opening in locations without a shopfront.

Recommendations and reviews matter

Peer to peer recommendations are often a key factor for vendors when it comes to shortlisting an estate agent. Where homeowners would have previously asked friends and family, increasingly they are opening these questions to a wider audience, asking on local Facebook groups, Nextdoor or even large forums such as Mumsnet.

In addition, nine out of ten consumers will check online reviews before committing to a provider.

This means that your prior customers matter more than ever before, so ensure that you have appropriate systems set up to garner reviews from happy customers and make it as easy as possible for them to leave reviews for your business.

Keep your brand consistent

Being “brand famous” is a key advantage in being the first port of call when someone wants to sell or let their property. While not every agency is going to be the estate agent equivalent of coca cola – keeping your communications consistent across all media will help your potential customers remember you.

So, think about how your email communications, signage, social media pages and website all work together to maintain your visibility.

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As an estate agency, whether you know it or not, your potential vendors are always in some stage of the marketing funnel.  

While marketers may use several different ways of explaining what the funnel looks like but, in essence, it’s the way in which customers are filtered from being simply aware of your agency, down to instruction.  

We look at how the marketing funnel really looks for estate agents.  

Top of Funnel (Awareness)  

For estate agency, the top of the marketing funnel is all about building awareness of your business and your brand in the areas which you serve.  

This is the longer-term marketing work that needs to take place on an ongoing basis so that, when it comes to an individual deciding to move home, they know to come to you.  

Building top of funnel awareness can consist of a wide range of activities. From sponsoring a local sports team, to posting in local Facebook groups, this is how you “get your name out there”.  

It’s vital for estate agents to not overlook this stage. While it’s tempting to always be looking at immediate lead generation activities, the businesses that last longest are those who keep the top of funnel in mind when planning marketing activities.  

Middle of funnel (Interest) 

Think of this as the “consideration stage”. A potential vendor knows that they are looking to move, and now are in the process of selecting an agency.  

In general, sellers will usually select around three to four agents to get in touch with, which is why your top of funnel activity is so important. Now in the middle of the funnel, it’s time to really show them why they should choose your business over the competition.  

Middle of funnel activity often focuses on marketing materials around the valuation process – such as online valuation checkers, website copy and of course your valuation teams skills and knowledge.  

Building out a great content strategy to move potential buyers from the middle of the funnel through to the bottom can really help to increase your conversion rate.  

Bottom of funnel (Action)  

The bottom of funnel is the stage at which a person makes their decision. From an instruction perspective this is where they choose your agency.  

Creating a fantastic experience around your valuation and follow up process is key to winning more instructions from your valuations.  

Estate agents that do well are those who can provide lots of added value to their potential sellers. From great materials at valuation to a personalised follow up email campaign.  

How Brief Your Market can help  

Brief Your Market offers a total top to bottom of funnel solution for your content marketing. Our email marketing helps you to increase awareness at the top of funnel and build out strategies to take a potential client all the way through to instruction.  

We help you to identity opportunities within your existing database and ensure that you are sending the right message at the right stage of the marketing funnel, helping you to win more instructions.  

Get in touch

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Content marketing continues to grow in popularity. In 2021, 82% of marketers reported actively using it – up 70% from 2020.

You’re likely already using content to attract attention, but how do you know that you are doing the right thing?

We explore what type of content works best for estate agents.

What is “content”?

Put simply, content is any information that your business puts out into the world. It could be written articles, social media posts, videos, designed images, website copy or even podcasts.

Having a clear content strategy for your estate agency is about more than just creating great content. How you choose to distribute it to your audience is vital. There’s no point having an amazing blog post written on your website if no one is going to be able to see it. So, consider how you would like to “push out” your content pieces. It could be via your social media platforms, by guest posting on websites or by sending direct email to your target audience.

Creating a clear content strategy – knowing what you want to say, what medium you will use and how you will push out your content will help you to achieve your goals. With that in mind, we explore content themes that work well for estate agents.

Educational content for estate agents

It will often be the case that your potential customers are looking for answers to specific questions prior to making a move. Being a source of information will help you to be the “go-to” agency.

Educational content can take many forms; you may choose to give up-to-date information about the local property market, or provide long form guides for sellers or landlords answering their common questions.

A good start is to get the team together and write down your ideas for educational content. Are there questions you get asked time and time again? Put them together in a great blog, or an explainer video.

Look at your own sales statistics, is there data there that will interest your ideal clients – such as what local areas are selling the fastest, or where there is a specific trend?

Brand content

Don’t confuse brand content with your sales content. This is the content that will help to differentiate you from your competitors.

This is where you “pull back the curtain” on your business. Tell people who you are and what you do well. Let them meet your team and give a bit of background to who you are.

Trust and authenticity are becoming ever more important to all types of consumers, and the property sector is no different. Consider how you can leverage your content to show a bit more about your brand. From “meet the team” style videos, to showing a day in the life of your agency, giving your audience more of an insight into who you are will help to engender trust and increase conversions.

Sales content

We have put this last for a reason. Constantly bombarding your audience with sales content is not likely to give you the results you want. While of course you do need to sell – it’s what makes your business work – when it comes to pushing out content, you need to ensure you don’t “lose your audience”.

Instead, mix up all three types of content to keep people coming back to your social platforms, keeping subscribed to your email list, and revisiting your website. This means that, when the time is right for them – they are far more likely to choose you as their agency.

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Is the run up to Christmas a quiet period for your agency? Vendors feeling unmotivated? Valuations gone quiet? If so, here’s how you can motivate your sellers to get ready before Christmas. 

The run up to Christmas is often a quiet time for all types of businesses and estate agents are no exception. With all eyes on the holidays, it’s natural for things to slow down. Anyone thinking of selling their house, tends to do so, in the new year. However, the truth is that now is an ideal time for your potential customers to get ready for the post-Christmas rush. If your sellers want to get the best deal possible, they could really do with getting on the market now ahead of the holiday season. Here are a few arguments to get them ready. 

Get ready for Boxing Day Rush  

If the pre-Christmas period is slow, then things change quickly come Boxing Day. According to Rightmove, this is one of the busiest times of the year. Last year there were 51 million visits to Rightmove between Boxing Day and the first day of the year. In total visits were up by 54% on the previous year – an indication perhaps, that the pandemic had prompted some people to start seriously thinking about moving to pastures new.  

This is the start of the 2022 buying season, with people flooding onto the web to search for their next home. By getting a property on the market now, your buyers will be in pole position when the rush happens.  

New Year – New Start  

If your vendors get a sale agreed on their house early before the start of the new year, they will be in a great position when it comes to choosing their next home. This will help them to become what’s known as a ‘power buyer’ – someone who already has their home sold, subject to a few conditions and is in a position to get the process moving quickly.  By making this clear to your vendors you can get them on the books faster.  

So hot has been the market recently that buyers face stiff competition, especially for the best houses. If sellers know your client is in a position to move on, they’ll be a little more motivated to sell. 

Get the prep done 

Be sure to let your potential sellers know that starting the process now doesn’t mean that they are about to sell. It just means that they are getting things ready. It’s the perfect time to instruct you, get their photos done and the property on the market,  

They don’t necessarily have to get people in straight away – you could schedule viewings for early January – this gives buyers enough time to finish off the Quality Street, digest that turkey and get the house clean and ready. You might also generate a bit of a buzz in the meantime.  

Christmas then, needn’t be a write off. Although it’s quiet, people who do the groundwork to sell now, can find themselves in a much better position when the time finally comes. You can use one of the quietest times of the year, to get your sellers ready for one of the busiest.  

How we help you craft your message 

As experts in the property Market, BriefYourMarket, can help you communicate with your buyers, to outline the advantages of getting ready now and showing them how you can help. We can remove some of the uncertainty involved and point you and your buyers in the right direction.  

Get in touch

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You already know that email marketing can work wonders for your estate agency. In fact, research shows that email marketing has an average ROI of 4400%.

But not all campaigns are created equal.

Throwing content out into the ether without a clear understanding of your audience and a plan is unlikely to get you the results which you are hoping for.

Therefore, it’s key that you consider where your existing and potential customers are in their journey in working with your business, and what you offer which is of value to them.

However, there are some email campaign types that are always beneficial – whether you are speaking to potential vendor, existing landlord, or a customer who made a sales enquiry.

We look at three campaign types that can really make your email marketing work harder for your agency.

Welcome emails

It’s likely that you put a huge amount of effort into your website copy. But in many cases, your potential client has barely skimmed the surface of your site. Therefore, your written communications are likely to be what provides them with their first impression.

Creating a “welcome email” gives you the opportunity to quickly and efficiently deliver a message about who you are, your services and how you can help.

This isn’t the place to deliver your hard sell – but an ideal way to introduce your agency, your team and let your potential customers know more about you.

This is also your opportunity to “warm up” a potential lead, to ensure that they open more emails from you in the future. In fact, it’s been shown that subscribers who ready at least one welcome email read 40% more content from the sender over the next 180 days.

Newsletters

Newsletters provide you with a perfect platform to differentiate yourself from your competition, display your culture and show your expertise. 

Forget sending long sales listings here – this is about creating content that people really want to read. Have you sold a home super quickly? Tell your audience. Is there an interesting local news story going on? Put forth your opinion?

The art of creating newsletters that people want to open is to always provide something that is of value for your subscribers. Whether it’s a great piece of local insight, or simply an entertaining story – consider your newsletter a place where you can show your company’s personality and professional values.

Lead nurture emails

The fact is that not every enquiry is going to turn into an instruction or a sale straight away.

Understand the steps that a potential vendor might take before choosing their agent, and the objections you may face along the way is the key to the success of your lead nurturing campaigns.

Generally seen as collection of emails as opposed to a single piece, lead nurture emails may consist of several email sends, sent over a specific period to “get your vendors over the finish line”.

How we can help

At Brief Your Market, we have the knowledge and expertise to design not just great campaign types, but emails that are designed to maximise conversions from your customers.

Thanks to our in-depth industry knowledge, and data – we know exactly what works to trigger your enquiries and turn them into clients.

Get in touch

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Valuations are a core activity in any estate agency business. But what if you’re finding that you are spending considerable time undertaking valuations but not necessarily winning the instructions?

To be successful, it’s vital that when you are undertaking market appraisals for potential vendors, you have a robust system in place to ensure that you are not frittering away the opportunity. While it is important to pre-qualify potential leads to ensure that they are ready to sell, often it’s the post-valuation process that lets agencies down.

If you have low conversion rates from your market appraisals, it’s worth considering what steps you can take to ensure that vendors ultimately choose to instruct your agency.

Compete on your value – not price

As the market becomes awash with online agents who can offer incredibly cheap fees, many agency owners feel that they are not winning instructions based on price.

This is rarely the case.

The reality is that vendors are happy to pay for the level of service they expect to receive. And their impression is formed long before a member of your team steps foot in their property.

So, how can you ensure that you are perceived as being of exceptional quality?

First impressions count – from the moment a potential client visits your website or walks past your office they will get a feel for where you sit within the market.

By providing a good first impression you start to ready the seller to expect a premium service, which can be matched with a premium price. By positioning yourself as an expert in your location, and your industry you can subtly build a great reputation before the vendor is even looking to sell.

So, consider both your online and offline presence. Does your social media show your team and your skills – or is it just a list of properties? Does your website copy fully reflect the breadth of services you offer? Remember, first impressions count.

Stay at top of mind

While many sellers are motivated to get going straight away, it is often the case that the valuation is really what cements a potential vendor’s decision to go ahead and put their property in the market.

This is an excellent window of opportunity to continue to engage with your potential vendors by showing them great content.

Creating considered email campaigns for post valuation is what sets a good agency apart. It’s about more than just a simple follow up. This is a time when you can add more value and really show your expertise.

The Power of a positive message and your brand

Offering a superior customer journey post valuation will help you to stay on top of mind with your potential client. Even if, for whatever reason, the client chooses not to instruct you – by giving a great customer experience and showing a professional face through your emails, social media channels and web content, they will remember the positive experience.

This means that, if they don’t sell via their chosen agency, they may come back if they do not have a good experience elsewhere. It will also make them more likely to recommend you to friends, family and even on social media groups.

At BriefYourMarket we can help you produce tailored post valuation campaigns to help you to turn valuations into instructions. We send quality campaigns across email, SMS, and direct mail to help you convert more valuations and ultimately grow your business.

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