Despite 91% outsourcing some or all of their marketing, seven in ten (71%) admitted to having no visibility on their Return on Investment (ROI).
From our analysis of the property industry, we have found that over two-thirds of agents are currently in the dark about their marketing input and output.
With over 150 responses, our survey shows that only 29% of respondents have any confidence that they can see tangible ROI.
So, how are estate and letting agents making informed decisions about where to prioritise their time and resources?
Quite simply, they can’t make those choices with any depth of accuracy. Every decision that they make with their marketing would be based on pure guess work. Whilst any results – if they can be attributed to the correct source – could only be a product of sheer luck.
Agencies across the UK are investing time and money into marketing without any certainty that what they’re doing will lead to more leads, valuations or instructions.
%
Outsource some or all of their marketing
%
Can't track Return on Investment
%
Only communicate with their database once a quarter or year
Why is measuring ROI such a prevalent issue with agents?
Although business owners are now recognising the importance of digital marketing, the honest answer is that many don’t know what they should be doing or what’s even meant by good Return on Investment.
This finding is at odds with agents’ business goals for 2020. Generating new leads (84%), winning more instructions (76%) and increasing market share (71%) ranked as the top three priorities for respondents.
Followed by more appraisals (67%), reviews (54%) and cross-selling opportunities (47%) from their marketing.
Without measurable Return on Investment, however, tracking the progress of any of these milestones cannot be achieved.
When faced with a lack of marketing experience, business owners adopt a ‘trial-and-error’ approach. In most cases, this results in an inadvertent negative impact.
Allocating your budget without the right measures in place to track ROI could mean you spend weeks, months or even years investing in a strategy that leads to lost leads and a boost to your competitors.
The difficulty is that doing nothing at all is even more detrimental in the long-term.
Half of agents (49%) say that repeat business is key to their success this year.
Yet the number of agents communicating with their database each week sits at a staggeringly low 6%, with 74% marketing to them as infrequently as once a quarter or year.
Repeat customers have a 60-70% chance of converting. As they’ve had a relationship with your business, they’re also more cost-effective to target than new leads.
This means that the 74% of respondents not regularly communicating with their past clients are missing out on significant revenue opportunities.
“From one email, we generated 145 online valuations. Of those, 10% converted to appraisal and six to instruction.”
“I love the way it is easy and transparent to gauge your Return on Investment – both in BriefYourMarket.com overall and for each individual campaign.”
“BriefYourMarket.com is regularly delivering conversions for us. It’s easy to use with some great ready-made content.”
Part of agents’ problem tracking ROI can also be attributed to poor lead generation.
Just 31% of agents rate their follow-up process as ‘excellent’, with 35% as good, 29% as average and 4% as poor.
Even when leads are generated from an agent’s marketing or portal activity, that Return on Investment is lost for at least 33% with insufficient follow-up journeys.
Similarly, almost four in five (77%) fail to cross-sell their fully-managed and financial services to clients in their database.
A cross-selling strategy offers businesses an easy route to generating additional and more permanent revenue streams.
Realistically, homeowners will move into anything between four to eight properties across a lifetime. When you’re not helping them to buy or sell, it therefore makes sense to communicate with them about mortgages, insurance or utilities.
Whereas for landlords, you have a wealth of information to share that will convince your let-only clients to consider a fully-managed upgrade.
