Many estate and letting agents believe the biggest challenge they have is creating more brand awareness. If you could only get on the radar of potential homeowners and landlords, then many of your problems would disappear… wouldn’t they?
And yet very well known companies/brands like Austin Reed, JJB, HMV, Comet, Nokia Blockbusters, Woolies and BHS that had built awareness for decades struggled to remain viable and went bust or were gobbled up by their competitors.
These companies’ biggest problem wasn’t getting on the punter’s radar, it was keeping the punter on their radar.
Companies/brands like Virgin, Apple, Aldi, Lidl, John Lewis, Dyson and M&S have thrived and become important to us in recent times. They have kept us, the punter, in their mind .. not the other way round. These companies/brands remain relevant because they see us as people, not because they made us more aware of their company or brand.
Leaflets through the door or newspaper advertising saying ‘Hi we are an agent’ ..ie brand awareness is quite frankly a waste of time, money and effort in today’s 21st Century British society .. let alone in estate or letting agency.
As Estate and Letting Agent .. we will only succeed in the 21st Century by understanding how to be more relevant to our potential clients (landlords and house sellers).
To be more relevant, we need to create stuff that is so good, so interesting, so intriguing and most importantly, helpful to all the home owners, (ie potential property sellers) and landlords (ie our punters – the ones that pay the bills) in our town, they will take us to their hearts like the John Lewis’s and Apple’s of this world.
… and people wont take us to their hearts by simply being more visible.
So if any of you are doing any form of marketing to get you ‘brand awareness’ .. then ask yourself .. does it really work? is it money well spent? .. because whilst that type of marketing worked 5 or 10 years ago .. it doesn’t work today and it certainly wont work next year or the year after … because just being more visible wont get you the free vals, the listings, the sales, the lets you need to survive
.. but I will tell you what will get those free vals, those market appraisals, those landlords walking through your door … all you need to be as estate or letting agents is to be more relevant.
Want to know how to be more relevant as an estate or letting agent in the 21st Century and how that relevance will, I guarantee it, get you loads more free valuations, lots more market appraisals, more landlords and more managed properties on your books .. you might this article of interest? (click on this link to go to an article on Linkedin) https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/estate-agents-3-easy-steps-get-more-properties-your-watkin?trk=prof-post
kind regards
Christopher
PS .. The £9,500,000 figure was a very basic assumption that the 19,000 estate and letting agents in the UK all spend £500 a year in marketing themselves (excluding portals costs). To be honest .. I think that figure could be a hell of a lot higher that £9,500,000 - but I would rathe robe conservative (with a small 'c')