Well, a few days
ago I was talking to a good friend of mine who is a letting agent in the North. I don’t charge him for my advice, because that is what friends do (to a
point). He doesn’t take the ‘michael’, takes on board what I tell him and in fact has given me something in
return that is far more valuable to me in my business than the £100 a month I
would charge him for the advice I give (One of my things I give, is a biz gen
mentoring service to letting agents for £100 a month).
Anyway, back to the
story. He has given me something that will earn me 10 or 20 times that a month.
My other friend from Middlesex is the same, he doesn’t get charged a penny for
my advice and he also have given me something back that will earn me 20 or 30
times back in return .. funny that .. but givers do receive. Anyway, less of
this Grasshopper wise old words and sayings rubbish (Those of you in your late
30’s to late 50’s will remember a TV program from the 1980’s called Kung Fu ..
here is a great 90 sec clip of Grasshopper! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGblsNXkJog )
Anyway, he told me
he had started a few months ago. He decided to take my advice scraping all the email address of the
solicitors and accountants, but instead of sending them a newsletter once a
month, he decided to send a weekly link to his blog on the property market. Now both newsletters and blogs are important, but it is how you use both, together in partnership, to get you (the letting agent) the new business and landlords from your efforts. There is point in doing blogs and newsletters if you get any more new business.
He now gets phone
calls from solicitors, asking his advice. Blogging works, but it has to be the
right content and the right audience ..
but why does it work?
You see, getting more business online is not an option for cold start
and small lettings agencies these days – it’s a requirement, because online
marketing is critical to your business success. One of the ways you can ensure
that your business gets more online leads is to be consistently blogging. Think
about it, you are reading this blog. Within 4 months, over 350 people a day
come back to this blog to read it. Why, well I hope its because you find it
interesting .. So you have to make your blog interesting
Although the term ‘blog’ is well known, some letting agents still aren’t
sure what it is or why it’s of any value. The short version is that a blog is
like an online newspaper for your lettings agency. You write posts and
they appear on your website, and you can share each individual post with the
world and get more people to find and read your site.
You see blogging is great for SEO.
One of the things that Google is continually looking for is fresh, relevant,
ethical content. To test this, pick a random phrase and type it into
Google. No doubt the first five or six links are websites that have a
recent blog post on this very topic. Blogging means that your site has fresh
content, frequently – not just inert pages that haven’t changed since you set
up your website five years ago.
Your blog encourages more landlords to visit your website. The
goal of all online marketing is to drive landlords to your site. If you send
out an email, keep the content short and sweet, with buttons to direct people
to your site. When you post a new blog, you share the link on facebook,
twitter and linkeeekidin and prospective, new and existing landlords should
click on it and come to your site. (but only if it is of interest to them)
Blogging gives you something to share on social media. Many lettings
agencies have accounts and profiles on ‘Twiter-book-din-facebook’, but after the first few posts, perhaps you haven’t
said anything for months or even years. When a landlord looks at your website,
one of the first places they go is your social media links. If those social media links are old and obsolete, and
it’s obvious you’re not posting regularly, you may lose out to a competitor letting
agent. You see, when you are
blogging regularly, you have an instant post to share on facebook or twitter or
Linkedin
A blog draws in the right kind of landlords. When you blog, you’re
writing about things that you (and perhaps only you) know about. Talk
about your local property market, so the landlords who read your blog are the
ones who are interested in you, your business, and your letting agency services.
Probably the most important is that a blog helps you establish
expertise. No matter what type of business you are, you’re most likely an
expert in something. And when you start sharing what you know, the world
gets impressed. If you’re doing anything in the online marketing world,
you will have read the books these people have written, and will be seriously
impressed.
So, start a blog .. but please do it right. If you have been blogging
for over 3 months and not seen a discernible difference in phone calls and
interest, sorry but you are doing it wrong. If you have such a blog, and you aren’t getting any business, and if you have the balls
to send it to me (a link that is), I am more than happy to give you my HONEST,
no punches pulled opinion on it .. then tell you what you should do. (IMHO).
I wont charge for that because you cant charge someone for someone
asking you their opinion. I can show you tried techniques that got one letting
agents turnover up from around £450k a year to £650k in two and bit years ....
all down to his blog, together with other techniques that secured one letting agent
between 10 and15 properties within 4 months of starting a blog... that was £18,000 per year in fee
income .. and the best bit .. only took
the letting agent 10 minutes a day to do.
If you want to know how .. email
me a link (if you dare!) of your blog to christopher@christopherwatkin.co.uk