Social Networking for Estate Agents

There was an article in the Times on Friday 21st January entitled "OMG, it's perfect...I'll tweet you a link."

In this article, the effect that social media is having on the property profession is explored, and some of the findings are not new.

Susan Emmett, the article's author, talks about "research" as opposed to "search" and highlights FindaProperty as a website that features articles on the housing market as well as consumer guides.

Having been an estate agent in a former life, and advised many on the best ways to market their businesses via the internet, this idea of providing information is not a revelation. An estate agent's website is not just about featuring properties for sale and to let. The fundamental purpose is to gain the best property instructions in an area, and to be perceived as the best agent in the locality. By providing insightful information, you will be seen as being an expert, having a thorough knowledge of the specific factors affecting property prices and popularity. This, in turn, instils confidence and trust and any discerning vendor needs to have faith in you as a property professional.

Providing information on schools, shopping and leisure facilities, transport links and the like is the first step towards engaging with potential vendors and property purchasers. As a personal view, it projects the personality of your business and becomes an invaluable resource, enhancing your website and your corporate identity on many levels. Your insights are what makes you unique - a vital ingredient when it comes to standing out from the competition.

So, where does Social Networking fit into this picture?

As Susan Emmett identifies in her article, "Social networking sites allow portals to speak to "friends" directly, but also to advertise effectively and free of charge. Through Twitter, we know that Chantelle Gilbert "requested a house price evaluation on zoopla@6am, 5 estate calls by 10am!".

Emmett goes on to say: "By embracing the latest technology, property sites have permanently altered the rules of engagement between buyers and sellers, estate agents and customers."

This latest technology is the "new" way to extend marketing reach, and extending marketing reach is vital to the successful estate agent. Tepilo.com, Sarah Beeny's online property selling portal, sends out a Tweet as soon as a new property is added. When I was selling my own property, it was heartening to see that one of the first viewers came brandishing particulars printed off the Tepilo website.

Starting, and then maintaining the conversation with your potential clients is now becoming increasingly important, particularly if you want to be seen as the agent that offers something unique.

Argent Ram Media designs and develops website solutions for estate agents that help them explore the potential offered by Social Networking. For details, please call 0845 009 5396 or email lorraine@argentrammedia.com

Print Ad and Screen Ad - a Marriage made in Heaven

In these days of tight budgetary control, I am always urging clients to think creatively, and try new ways of marketing their business without increasing spend.

I would like to look, therefore, at the relationship between your print advertising and what happens when your customers visit your premises.

In Kent, we have a very popular weekly free publication called the Wealden Advertiser. Many local businesses advertise regularly in this, and other reagional publications, as they perceive it to represent good value for money. Certainly, over a period of time, there is no doubt that consistent visibility will generate enquires.

A 6cms single column advertisement will typically cost £40.50 + VAT per week. Over a 52 week period, this will total £2,106 + VAT, so not a small sum for the small business.

How many advertisers are able to track the return on that investment? To make it worthwhile, this advertising cost really needs to result in at least £4,000 worth of new business. If you do advertise in local publications, do you really know what business is generated as a DIRECT result of that advertisement?

I know that is being simplistic, as consistent advertising has other benefits: maintaining a profile, reminding existing customers that you are there etc., and this has great value.

But let's look at a low-cost addition to complement your print advertising.

Local, and indeed national advertising is about generating the enquiry. If you are a business with premises that are visited by your customers, what can you do to maximise end per head from those customers. At the end of the day that is what you want:

Profile - Enquiry - Sale - Customer Retention/Loyalty

From as little as £18.95 + VAT per week (so less than half the cost of your small weekly local advertisement) you could have a dynamic, direct-response digital screen in your showroom, at your trade counter or in your waiting room; indeed, anywhere where you need to engage with your customers and clients.

The printed advertisement has brought the customers in and the screen will maximise the spend-per-head opportunity.

Additional Sales:

“Just to let you know, Sheffield Central have just received the stock of the Fein MultiMasters. They have sold 4 already! Over £700 of extra, welcome sales thanks to it being promoted via the screens.“ Electrical Wholesaler

Customer Care:

“Our customers appreciate that we are far removed from the 'production line' world of the multiple optician chains; we provide them with a caring, professional service - personal attention that's combined with value for money.” Opticians

Increased Spend-per-Head:

"On the first day of playing our content in our waiting room we had four or five new enquiries into private treatments. It is a significant marketing tool for us.“ Dental Practice

Taking the Electrical Wholesaler above as an example, what would £700 of increased sales versus £18.95 weekly costs mean to your business?

For further information on digital sales and marketing screens, please call Argent Ram Media on 0845 009 5396 or email lorraine@argentrammedia.com.

Sesome Websites for Kent and Sussex businesses

Sesome stands for Search Engine and Social Media-ready websites. Developed by Argent Ram Media in conjunction with the Digital Media Hub at the University of Kent, these feature-rich website solutions are ideal for the small business.

Why?

To answer this question, you first need to ask what every small business needs from their website, and the main ingredients are:

• Bespoke design that reflects the identity of the business;
• Clear messages that show they understand their target market;
• Easy navigation so their clients and customers can get to the information they need seamlessly;
• Facility to update the content themselves.

Above all, the website needs to meet the requirements of the marketing acronym, AIDA:

• Grab the ATTENTION of the website visitor;
• Create enough INTEREST to keep the visitor on the site;
• Generate DESIRE; make the visitor WANT to contact you for further details;
• Have a clear call to ACTION. Make it easy for your potential customers to get in touch.

Once you have the website, you need to make sure that it can be found, and a Sesome website can help with your organic search engine performance.

• Developed to latest Worldwide Web standards;
• Accessible and compliant;
• Allows you to update content yourself, keeping the text relevant and fresh.

Sesome websites are also designed to encourage businesses to adopt social media as a way of driving traffic to the site and exploring the massive diversity of new routes to market:

• Blogs;
• Twitter;
• Facebook;
• LinkedIn;
• YouTube

A growing number of Kent and East Sussex businesses are enjoying the benefits of a Sesome website:

Sesome is developed by Argent Ram Media, and a website costs from £299.00 + VAT.  If you would like further information, please call 0845 009 5396 or 01580 761000.  Email lorraine@argentrammedia.com.

Websites for Estate Agents

Estate Agents have always been a very busy vertical market for us, and we have helped many to get more productive websites that in turn work on many more levels than their previous internet incarnations.

What makes an effective estate agency website? This is not a rhetorical question; it is an invitation to share thoughts and suggestions, as it is always good to know the direction that the profession is following.

Having been an estate agent in a former life, I have a fairly good idea of what any estate agency would like to achieve:

Gaining the best instructions, at the right price and on a sole agency basis = the best possible chance you have of selling those properties.

That is the simplistic equation, and there are many other aspects to successful agency. I was always one of those firm believers that estate agency was about building relationships and not just the hard and fast sell. Perhaps I am a dinosaur!

• Understanding that every vendor thinks their property is a palace, and being diplomatic and positive when it comes to advising on the best marketing strategies;
• Being able to present your arsenal of marketing weapons so that your commission always represents excellent value for money;
• Building relationships with both vendors and applicants so that they come to trust you and your judgement;
• Remembering that a new purchaser could become a vendor in a couple of years and will undoubtedly share any horror stories with their new neighbours; give them reason to share the pleasant stories and spread the word.

So, how do the above manifest themselves in a website?

1. Always understand your target market and the way in which you want your company to be perceived. This is vitally important if you want to attract the vendors of the properties that you want to sell.
2. Think hard about what it is that makes your approach unique. Why would a vendor instruct you as opposed to one of your competitors? Most agents advertise on Rightmove, in the local papers, in their office windows. What do you do that is different?
3. What information do you need to present to prospective purchasers to get them in the door of a property? Marketing is all about creating desire, so remember that when presenting properties. Your material needs to make applicants feel that they MUST view. Don't give too much away; tempt the applicant with the relevant and factual details, but in a way that encourages them to pick up the phone.

Getting the above right will make the development of your website straightforward. The technology allows your website to respond to the demands of your clients, but the art lies in seducing those clients with the elements that make you unique.

We would welcome any feedback from anyone involved in estate agency or property letting, so do please share your views.

If you would like any information on website design and development for estate agents, please contact Argent Ram Media on 0845 009 5396 or email lorraine@argentrammedia.com

How can you make your existing customers spend more money?

If you have customers coming to your premises, how can you encourage them to part with a little bit more of their hard-earned cash in these straitened times. As one of our leading supermarkets never fails to tell us, "Every Little Helps"!

As I am sure you know, marketing is about creating desire. The message you send to your customers, be it through product display, posters or any other type of merchandising, needs to make the customer think "I MUST have that". If they think "I'd quite like that" or "that looks nice, but..." then in this climate you aren't going to get a sale.

So, think desire. Consider your actual point of sale and the moment the customer comes to part with their money. I am sure that if you had the inclination, or it didn't look too desperate, you'd whip out your best-selling product and shove it under the customers nose, yelling "Buy this now".

A small screen, strategically positioned by your till, can subtly do this for you. Direct response advertising does work when it comes to persuading the customer to make the impulse purchase. A static display will not necessarily tempt, but an evocative, tempting visual marketing message, on a digital screen will achieve so much more:

“We have had excellent success basically because the product is promoted via our screens.“

“9 of our branches have sold over £27,000 of the product YTD, and because this tool needs to be demonstrated, the screens have been a perfect ‘tool’ for promoting and selling this product."

“A customer wanted some cable to be cut, and whilst waiting he saw the advertisement and bought the product. £26.10 for the cut cable plus an additional £179.00 for the Fein MultiMaster.“

“Just to let you know, our branch has just received the stock of the Fein MultiMasters. They have sold 4 already! Over £700 of extra, welcome sales thanks to it being promoted via the screens.“

Many of you may have noticed that Camelot have little 10" screens positioned above the Lotto tills in store. Why? They act as an eye-catching aide-memoire to remind queuing customers to buy their lottery tickets. If it works for them, it will work for you.

For details of Point of Sale digital screens, please contact Argent Ram Media on 0845 009 5396 or email lorraine@argentrammedia.com

Marketing Screens in Trade Counters Increase Sales

One of the UK's largest Electrical Wholesalers uses digital marketing screens in 65 of their trade counters in the UK.

By displaying products, and demonstrating their uses on the screens, sales of these products have increased. One of the products, the Fein MultiMaster, is so multi-functional that it's true versatility cannot be appreciated without a demonstration.

"We have had excellent success basically because the product is promoted via our screens."

"9 of our branches have sold over £27,000 MultiMasters YTD, and because the tool needs to be demonstrated, the screens have been the perfect 'tool' for promoting and selling the product."

"A customer wanted some cable to be cut. Whilst waiting, he saw the advertisement for the MultiMaster and one. £26.20 for the cut cable plus an additional £179.00 for the Fein MultiMaster."

"We have just received our stock of the Fein MultiMaster and have sold 4 already! Over £700 of extra, welcome sales thanks to the advertisement on the screen."

If you have a trade counter, increase your sales opportunities and spend-per-head simply by getting a digital marketing screen to do the work for you.

If you are interested in having a marketing screen installed in your trade counter, contact Argent Ram Media on 0845 009 5396 or email lorraine@argentrammedia.com

Happy Optimistic New Year!

I don't know about you, but for some months I have been getting increasingly fed up with the media's negative slant on the ongoing state of the economy. Whenever I saw or heard the News yesterday, the increase in VAT was being forcibly rammed down our throats as this was the end of the world. I think we all knew that VAT was rising to 20% on 4th January, but this relentless bombardment by the press is so draining.

Today came the start of the Christmas trading results, with Next and HMV highlighting the effect that poor December weather and general austerity had on pre-Christmas sales. This is no surprise, so why did the BBC sound so down-in-the-mouth about it this morning?

2011 is not going to be easy.

That said, I have always been a great believer in the addage that we have to make our own luck. From experience, I know only too well that it is up to us as indivduals and small businesses to create our own opportunities.

So; start of a New Year, what can we do to create out own opportunities? This is my little list of "resolutions" that you can try in order to give your business that valuable competitive edge.

Digressing slightly, I remember hearing a story told by an estate agent. There were 5 estate agents on his High Street, and all of them had approximately 20% share of the market. They all did much the same in terms of advertising and marketing, but one day, one of these agents decided to make a few very subtle changes to the way they promoted themselves. These changes were so slight that they were imperceptible to the competition. However, by increasing their marketing activities, the agent gradually started to take a percentage of the competitors' business. A year later, 4 of the 5 estate agents noticed that their turnover was down on the year before, and their profits were less. The 5th estate agent's turnover was up, as were the profits, and the company's image had been boosted as the leading agent in the area.

There - a little parable for 2011! Think of a few little changes you can make to the ways in which you market your business, and see what a difference it can make. You don't need to increase your marketing spend; just think creatively!

1. Your website. Please make sure it does what you want it to do! Is it generating enough enquiries? If not, ask yourself why. This is an easy fix and one that you can't afford to ignore. Your website is one of the most cost-effective sales and marketing tools you have, so make sure it performs.

2. If you have customers visiting your premises, either to buy something or to wait to see someone, then promote yourselves to those customers while they wait. Why miss this valuable opportunity? A marketing screen can increase your sales, simply by highlighting your products and services to existing customers.

3. Engage with your customers and prospective customers. Engagement is a major key to success in these tricky times, and making people feel valued can make all the difference in terms of customer loyalty and spend-per-head. A simple email reminder to customers can prompt a positive response, and keep your name at the top of the pile.

So, three suggestions, none of which will break the bank, but all of which will help you to strengthen the relationships you have with your existing clients.

Try choosing one of the above as a New Year Resolution and get it working for your business; don't accept a "that'll do" solution. Be creative and innovative and don't follow the pack just because it feels "safe". To make our own luck, we occasionally have to stick our heads above the parapet!

Here's to a very successful and optimistic 2011.