Morning everyone and I hope I find you well.
For those of you who aren't lucky enough to be on a Spanish or Italian beach, holding fort whilst the other swines out of the office on their 'jollies', I want to show you some more techniques on article/story writing. I haven't mentioned it before on the blog, but on my courses when I teach agents how to write them, I talk about the difference between a 'Clarkson' story and a 'One Show' story. You need both, that is really really important. Clarkson's are hard hitting stories (with titles that are designed to make you turn your head) whilst One Shows are softer stories. Just as powerful, but softer in their approach
Today I want to show you how to write a 'Clarkson' story. The mix of 'Clarkson's' and 'One Show' stories is vital .... you should have no more than 25% 'Clarkson' story to your 'One Show' stories.
Clarkson's can be best described as rubbish (area/street/suburb/town) outperforms really nice (area/street/suburb/town) with a gutsy title to back that up. The example article below is 'rubbish street' outperforms 'nice street'. These become really powerful when you say 'rubbish council estate' outperforms 'really nice David Wilson yummy mummy BMW 5 series and Audi Q5 estate'. Getting the info estates is hard work and maybe we can cover that on alater post?
A word of warning though ... they should be written in the classic four part format (mentioned below). If you don't, you will create massive negative feeling towards your agency, as demonstrated when a friend (letting agent) of mine forgot to put in the third element of the 'four part format'. It went nuclear, people slagging him off on facebook .. it was a blood bath. So write them with caution. They create debate, they create phone calls and they make people sit up and listen .. but please please please, make sure you adopt the four part format .. nuclear fallout is a messy old thing that not even a Dyson can pick up (if you are unsure if you have got it correct and want to avert nuclear meltdown .. send me an email with your article and I will tell you if its nuclear proof!)(email at the bottom of the piece)
The article/story is in black writing, with commentary in the red. You will note the story follows the classic four part format (Intro>Tell the story>Counter>End). Good luck with trying it on your own town., and remember, if you want a hand or become stuck, pick up the phone (number is on column on the right hand side under my picture - if you are on a mobile - you wont see it so will need to see it on a tablet or PC)
So here we go ....
If you would like more information on investing in Shrewsbury’s property market, please call me on 01234 567890 or visit our office on Letsby Avenue
Anyway, I hope that helps .. and remember, you don't want landlords to buy in the rubbish area but this article doesn't say that. Every article is designed to capture the attention of the landlords, build the interest of the landlords to a point they decide they want to talk to you. All these articles do is make landlords want to talk to you.... and every agent says, just get in me front of the landlord and I will convert them .....
kind regards
Christopher
07950 147 572
.
.
PS Taking bookings for September for the courses plus one space left for the Monday, 18th August 2014 course on how to write these articles and how to implement them (including how to write a blog, newsletter and get most of the email addresses of the landlords in your town to email them the newsletter and blog etc). Details of the course (only £500+ VAT per person), with over ten agents video testimonials can be found on this previous blog post .... http://how-to-grow-your-lettings-agency.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/advertorials-can-get-you-more-houses-to.html
If you want to know what the course will cover, here is an agenda .. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0d59TaH3c33TVlEZFdvdHk4OW8/edit?usp=sharing
If you have any questions, you can email me on christopher@christopherwatkin.co.uk
For those of you who aren't lucky enough to be on a Spanish or Italian beach, holding fort whilst the other swines out of the office on their 'jollies', I want to show you some more techniques on article/story writing. I haven't mentioned it before on the blog, but on my courses when I teach agents how to write them, I talk about the difference between a 'Clarkson' story and a 'One Show' story. You need both, that is really really important. Clarkson's are hard hitting stories (with titles that are designed to make you turn your head) whilst One Shows are softer stories. Just as powerful, but softer in their approach
Today I want to show you how to write a 'Clarkson' story. The mix of 'Clarkson's' and 'One Show' stories is vital .... you should have no more than 25% 'Clarkson' story to your 'One Show' stories.
Clarkson's can be best described as rubbish (area/street/suburb/town) outperforms really nice (area/street/suburb/town) with a gutsy title to back that up. The example article below is 'rubbish street' outperforms 'nice street'. These become really powerful when you say 'rubbish council estate' outperforms 'really nice David Wilson yummy mummy BMW 5 series and Audi Q5 estate'. Getting the info estates is hard work and maybe we can cover that on alater post?
A word of warning though ... they should be written in the classic four part format (mentioned below). If you don't, you will create massive negative feeling towards your agency, as demonstrated when a friend (letting agent) of mine forgot to put in the third element of the 'four part format'. It went nuclear, people slagging him off on facebook .. it was a blood bath. So write them with caution. They create debate, they create phone calls and they make people sit up and listen .. but please please please, make sure you adopt the four part format .. nuclear fallout is a messy old thing that not even a Dyson can pick up (if you are unsure if you have got it correct and want to avert nuclear meltdown .. send me an email with your article and I will tell you if its nuclear proof!)(email at the bottom of the piece)
The article/story is in black writing, with commentary in the red. You will note the story follows the classic four part format (Intro>Tell the story>Counter>End). Good luck with trying it on your own town., and remember, if you want a hand or become stuck, pick up the phone (number is on column on the right hand side under my picture - if you are on a mobile - you wont see it so will need to see it on a tablet or PC)
So here we go ....
TITLE Rubbish Road’s property market outperforms Nice Road’s by nearly 45% (Clarkson stories need a title to say 'bad road' outperforms 'good road' OR 'bad housing estate' outperforms 'good housing estate' .. which goes against perceived wisdom .. thus grabbing people's attention. Also that big percentage has a turbo effect on the story)
( preamble .. soft intro ) Last week, a couple from the Churchdown area came to discuss potentially investing in property for Buy to Let. One of the most important considerations you will make before investing is the balance between annual return/yield and the annual value increase/capital growth.Nice Road on the Churchdown was built by David Wilson in the 1980s (local knowledge .. shows you know the town) , as one of Shrewsbury’s premier roads to live on. It is one of the most sought after places to live on the Telford side of Shrewsbury. The average three bedroom semi-detached house sells on Nice Road for £160,300 (Zoopla > Current values > Type in the Street> Drop menu under for Semis) and rents are on average £603 per calendar month.
(use RM+ Best Price Guide type in the street on the rental section and move the date back a year .. remember to include Invisible as well as Archived and Live)
With this in mind, it was a surprise to find that similar sized three bedroom semi-detached houses on Rubbish Road, off Not so nice Road in Shrewsbury, have outperformed those on Nice Road. This is because a three bedroom semi-detached house on Rubbish Road can be bought for around £78,100 (Zoopla > Current values > Type in the Street> Drop menu under for Semis) and the average rents on that street is currently £434 per calendar month. (use RM+ Best Price Guide type in the street on the rental section and move the date back a year .. remember to include Invisible as well as Archived and Live)The yield which could be achieved from property on Rubbish Road is around 6.7% per year. When we compare this to the possible 4.6% on Nice Road, it is nearly 45% higher on Rubbish Road. (6.7 divided by 4.6% is 1.45 on the calculator which as a percentage is 45% - so if was 1.33 it would be 33%)However, we must remember that yield is not the sole consideration when investing in Buy to Let properties. The average value of a three bedroom semi-detached house on Rubbish Road in 2001 was £49,050 (Go to Zoopla, then type in the street and click on Sold prices which puts them into date order, scroll down the page to 1995 and you find all the property sales on that street for that year, take an average figure of the sale prices achieved in the chosen year .. 2001 in our case), which has since risen by 59% in the last 12 years. A three bedroom semi-detached house on Nice Road in 2001 was £78,800 (Again ... Zoopla, then type in the street and click on Sold prices which puts them into date order, scroll down the page to 1995 and you find all the property sales on that street for that year, take an average figure of the sale prices achieved in the chosen year .. 2001 in our case) , meaning the value has increased by an impressive 103% in the same 12 years.(same method as above)
If you would like more information on investing in Shrewsbury’s property market, please call me on 01234 567890 or visit our office on Letsby Avenue
Anyway, I hope that helps .. and remember, you don't want landlords to buy in the rubbish area but this article doesn't say that. Every article is designed to capture the attention of the landlords, build the interest of the landlords to a point they decide they want to talk to you. All these articles do is make landlords want to talk to you.... and every agent says, just get in me front of the landlord and I will convert them .....
kind regards
Christopher
07950 147 572
.
.
PS Taking bookings for September for the courses plus one space left for the Monday, 18th August 2014 course on how to write these articles and how to implement them (including how to write a blog, newsletter and get most of the email addresses of the landlords in your town to email them the newsletter and blog etc). Details of the course (only £500+ VAT per person), with over ten agents video testimonials can be found on this previous blog post .... http://how-to-grow-your-lettings-agency.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/advertorials-can-get-you-more-houses-to.html
If you want to know what the course will cover, here is an agenda .. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0d59TaH3c33TVlEZFdvdHk4OW8/edit?usp=sharing
If you have any questions, you can email me on christopher@christopherwatkin.co.uk