Property marketing is a fundamental part of every estate agent’s day-to-day, but it can become easy to forget the little things.
Property photography
Buyers spend 60% of time on a listing looking at photos, and vendors look at the quality of listings before choosing whether to instruct. This is a really solid argument for hiring a professional to take your images for you. They’ll also be able to make small tweaks like lightening the sky on dark days, to make the phots more appealing.
If you can’t hire a professional then it’s important to really think about the photographs you’re taking. There are lots of ways to make sure you’re taking the best possible shot that you can, but definitely avoid the following mistakes (all things we’ve seen very recently).
- Bins in front door shots
- Cars driving past
- Broken garden furniture
- Dark and dingy rooms with very little natural light (blinds not open)
- Unmade beds
If you find it too awkward to mention things to a seller, or move bins, that really is another argument for hiring a professional – they know exactly how to approach it.
Social media
When it comes to promoting your properties on social media, it’s not all about dumping them on and running, hoping that the right person will see it. When you post, it’s important to treat each one slightly differently depending on what platform you’re posting to.
Facebook allows for long form posts, which means you’ve got some words and some space to tell a bit of a story. Is the property in an interesting area? Does it have a great story (e.g. has it been a happy family home for 40+ years? You can ask the vendor’s permission to share little details like this). Are there any quirky features?
Facebook users love a story, and if you can accompany it by adding a few great photos, you’re on to a winner.
Instagram is by its very nature, much more visual. It’s all about beautiful photography, and people scrolling through their feeds or chosen hashtags, daydreaming. This is one social platform where you’re not selling a property, you’re selling a lifestyle, and to hark back to our first point, it’s also where professional photography comes into its own again.
Google My Business
Google My Business straddles the line between social media and Search Engine Optimisation (more on that in a sec). It’s a place to once again showcase lovely pics that your customers and potential customers will see in their searches, but being a Google product, it’s favoured by the Google algorithm and will help you with your Google rankings.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Talking of Google rankings, if you haven’t got a blog, it’s a great idea to get one. Regularly publishing relevant long form content will help attract website visitors and also improve your SEO.
This might not be advice specific to one property listing, but by building your websites SEO in general, it will benefit all of your listings.
Paid social advertising
Lots of people pooh-pooh the idea, but honestly? If you’re not doing it properly, then you’re missing a trick. It doesn’t cost very much, and it can yield great results.
I’m not talking about boosting here, I’ve written before about why using the boost button can be a dangerous game, but would you rather drop a tonne of leaflets hoping one will land in the lap of someone who just happens to be looking to buy a house identical to the one you are selling, or send more carefully targeted leaflets to people who are definitely looking to buy similar properties in the local area? That’s the difference between the Facebook boost button, and creating targeted ad audiences and a specific advert.
Now, we know that there have been, and continue to be a lot of changes to Facebook advertising and how you can target, but you still have the ability to narrow your audience much more than if you just pressed boost.
Do you have a property that’s near a good local school? Look for people outside the catchment area who have children the right age. A small property in a quiet village close to amenities? Why not send a targeted ad to those who are of retirement age and might be looking to downsize?
You might not think of social media being a platform that you’d find many people aged 65+ on, but actually, they’re a very active group. My grannie is in her 80s, and we chat on Facebook pretty much daily – don’t cut off your nose to spite your face!
Your campaigns may need some tweaking at the start, but once they’re reaching the people you’re looking for, you can use the same audience and also create ‘lookalike’ audiences if you need to widen your target for future campaigns.
Build trust in everything you do, to back up your property marketing
We’ve already written a post looking in detail at 3 ways to build trust in your estate agency online, but it’s worth mentioning here, too.
You could have the best marketing in the world, with the loveliest photos, most luxurious words, and virtual tours your competitors are all jealous of, but if you’re renowned locally as being rude, abrupt, and not giving a fig about your customers then it won’t work.
Having good marketing is essential, but it’s also essential that you live and breathe it, and it becomes integrated into the way you work for the truly stunning results you’re looking for.
Jane built and sold an incredibly successful letting agency utilising everything social media had to offer, and her knowledge underpins everything we do for our clients. If you’d like someone who’s been through the same experience as you, and knows what works looking after your social media, then get in touch.
Katie Gillingham
Katie is a Freelance Copywriter living in rural Dorset with her daft old Labrador. She first started writing content for the property industry back in 2015, and loves nothing more than bringing brand voices to life!
