A marketing guide for estate agents this Autumn

By Miles Redgrave in Marketing

The leaves are starting to fall and we will be in prime conker season in the next couple of weeks. A new season heralds new questions including, what could you be doing in your marketing for the next three months, how will it differ from the last?

What is working for your estate agency?

We always start new challenges by reflecting on the past, what media channels have given you great results? Can you actually tell which marketing is being effective? You need to use these analytics and previous learnings to base the next few months on. If you do not have any reporting or history do not worry we can start with a fresh plan of attack.

Get your tracking locked down

If you have not got any tracking implemented, set the next month for getting that done, this could include:

• Google analytics is now a standard for website analytics it can give you some interesting insights to your website and what instant improvements you can make. It is free and simple to get going so get it done this Autumn
• Specific website pages or landing pages can give you an insight into certain traffic levels achieved from certain advertising
• Gathering the data on where your enquiries are coming from so you can expand on the channels that are working

Make sure your assets are up to date

This is always an ongoing task, make sure you have everything up to date. Be sure to remove expired offers and promotional material from your summer campaigns. This is also a good time to level up on the consistency front, when people see or visit your business are they getting the same experience is the design correct from all points of view.

Plan your communications for the next few months

You’ve now got a blank canvas and things are very consistent, what are you going to send?

• An offer to cover the Autumn season, do you need to act quickly to boost your numbers for the Autumn upswing?
• Could you try and get some PR? A local newspaper might want to run an article on your agency if you can give them a compelling story to tell
• Do you want to do some advertising, online or offline? What was effective before and how could you improve it?
• What emails are you sending out to your database this quarter? A property market update is always welcomed by homeowners
• Do you want to tackle that video you have been talking about for the last few months
• Is the time of year right to hold an event for landlords to give them an insight to what the property market is going to be doing next year

Start simply and build in complexity

It’s always a bit daunting when you look at new things or starting from fresh so it is best to start with something simply. The easiest part will be email, get your email sends sorted then you can add in more complex executions and channels as you go. Make sure you have a clean email database for your agency, then start by sending out relevant local information (local property market analysis works well), the key is frequency and this is an area you can experiment with. Send too many emails (or too many uninteresting ones) and people will unsubscribe, not enough and you won’t become the first name they think of when some says estate agent. Monthly seems like a good balance and should serve as a good starting point, you can always add in extra emails in between when you have promotions or extra content but the foundation should be at least a monthly email send.

The key to marketing is the content

As with most things it is not the action of promotion but what you are saying that’s going to get and keep people’s attention. This is why the content is key, most people in your area will know your agency so beyond simply shoving your logo under their noses once a month what can you say that’s going to appeal to them? Property markets insights benefit from being highly interesting to local homeowners as well as showing off you agency as the local experts, and you do not even have to write them! You can make the content go further by using it in multiple places:

• Direct mail piece sent out in the local area
• Website page, news article or blog post
• Email promoting the above web page
• Social media snippet pointing to the same web page
• Email footer to the news section or blog with the content on

Make the most of Autumn

Start making your marketing moves this Autumn to get new business coming through your door before Christmas. Even if it is as small as sending extra emails out there is no reason not to start doing it.