There are two ways to can attract landlords to your lettings agency (and the
same is also true for estate agents trying to attract new vendors to their
estate agency).
Lets look at option 1, the option that 98.5% of letting agents use, day day in, day out .. In a nutshell, and 98.5% of the people reading this do this, they pump out messages that say,
All boring dull advertising. You see this advertising is something the lettings company wants to say, regardless of whether it’s useful, informative or relevant to the audience, the auidience being the landlord.
Option 2, is the other path. I call it ‘landlord farming’. It could also be described as storytelling. I couldn’t give a monkeys what it is called, but if you adopt its principles, adapt them to your local market, it will, I can guarantee you, it will increase your managed stock by 20% to 30% within 12 months The technique, whatever it is called, is useful, informative and relevant to the audience ( ie landlords), regardless of whether it’s something a company wants to say.
Advertising just bangs out some bullet points about your firm. What if a second hand car garage put a leaflet through your door, telling you how good they were, how urgently they wanted to buy your second hand car, how professional and friendly they were, how they were part of “ARCAR”, the professional body for car salespeople .. that’s going in the bin ...as is your leaflet.
You see stories are how learn and you know the type of stories I mean here, the ones where you compare one town’s property market against another, one housing estate verses another. (sorry comparing s8 and s21 isnt a story nor is Top 10 tips for landlords). One of my clients sent out his first newsletter last week, using the techniques I taught him to get the email addresses of the most of the landlords in his City (it will scare you how simple that is.. just takes forever to compile) and he had a 48% open rate on the email, loads of replies saying thank you and only 12 unsubscribes from over 1000 emails sent.
Stories are how to remember, great stories grab peoples attentions. People think in stories. If you think you can’t tell that story, think again. If you are passionate about property, you are 95% there. For the other 5%, teach yourself the art, read every post in this blog .. I tell you how to do it. If you like the idea but simply don’t have time, employ someone to. Get your bright spark of a neg to do it. I can teach them on training courses (I run between 6 and 8 per month). I can even put you in contact with people who will write stories for you.
Whatever you do though, just start doing it. Landlords are like you and I. They (and you) don't like to be sold to .. so why do you do just that Mr (or Mrs) Letting agent? ie Option 1
Option 2 (landlord farming) works (see my Linkedin profile and the testimonials). Anyone can tell a story about something they are passionate about. We aren’t selling boring plastic widgets or dull swimming pool pumps or even duller accountancy software... all of us agents are employed in an industry that the British are obsessed about .. property .. so lets get out there and start telling fab stories about the local property market.
Lets look at option 1, the option that 98.5% of letting agents use, day day in, day out .. In a nutshell, and 98.5% of the people reading this do this, they pump out messages that say,
- We are the most professional agent in town
- We are more professional than any other agent in town
- We offer free market appraisals, that are ‘free’er’ than anyone else’s
- We are ARLA registered and our ARLA registration is most ARLA’ist in town
- Our staff are the friendliest in town
- Our fees are very competitive
- X number of landlords cant be wrong
- We rent a property every so many hours
- Landlords wanted
- Half price fees
- Even more landlords wanted
- 0% for 6 months fees
- We soooooooo need landlords, now its urgent ...
fakereal tenant waiting
All boring dull advertising. You see this advertising is something the lettings company wants to say, regardless of whether it’s useful, informative or relevant to the audience, the auidience being the landlord.
Option 2, is the other path. I call it ‘landlord farming’. It could also be described as storytelling. I couldn’t give a monkeys what it is called, but if you adopt its principles, adapt them to your local market, it will, I can guarantee you, it will increase your managed stock by 20% to 30% within 12 months The technique, whatever it is called, is useful, informative and relevant to the audience ( ie landlords), regardless of whether it’s something a company wants to say.
Advertising just bangs out some bullet points about your firm. What if a second hand car garage put a leaflet through your door, telling you how good they were, how urgently they wanted to buy your second hand car, how professional and friendly they were, how they were part of “ARCAR”, the professional body for car salespeople .. that’s going in the bin ...as is your leaflet.
You see stories are how learn and you know the type of stories I mean here, the ones where you compare one town’s property market against another, one housing estate verses another. (sorry comparing s8 and s21 isnt a story nor is Top 10 tips for landlords). One of my clients sent out his first newsletter last week, using the techniques I taught him to get the email addresses of the most of the landlords in his City (it will scare you how simple that is.. just takes forever to compile) and he had a 48% open rate on the email, loads of replies saying thank you and only 12 unsubscribes from over 1000 emails sent.
Stories are how to remember, great stories grab peoples attentions. People think in stories. If you think you can’t tell that story, think again. If you are passionate about property, you are 95% there. For the other 5%, teach yourself the art, read every post in this blog .. I tell you how to do it. If you like the idea but simply don’t have time, employ someone to. Get your bright spark of a neg to do it. I can teach them on training courses (I run between 6 and 8 per month). I can even put you in contact with people who will write stories for you.
Whatever you do though, just start doing it. Landlords are like you and I. They (and you) don't like to be sold to .. so why do you do just that Mr (or Mrs) Letting agent? ie Option 1
Option 2 (landlord farming) works (see my Linkedin profile and the testimonials). Anyone can tell a story about something they are passionate about. We aren’t selling boring plastic widgets or dull swimming pool pumps or even duller accountancy software... all of us agents are employed in an industry that the British are obsessed about .. property .. so lets get out there and start telling fab stories about the local property market.