Anything on the news about the Property market and guess who has a microphone in front of him .. Russell Quirk from eMoov. In the last 12 months a regular on the national radio station Talk Radio and Radio 5 Live, seems to be on BBC TV more often than EastEnders, a Sky News property market pundit, he has in the Sunday Times ‘Top 100 British Innovators’,and appears to have more column inches than Brexit in The Times, Daily Telegraph and the Evening Standard combined .. its like he has become the de facto spokesperson for the UK Estate Agency industry
Looking the exposure that Russell gets, you would think eMoov was the biggest estate agency player in town if you looked at media .. and even though you might not agree with Russell, his estate Agency model or what he stands for … I want to scientifically look at what I believe Russell is actually doing, his intent and the context he is doing it in and how you as a High Street Estate / Letting agent in your town or city that you operate in as an agent, can learn from him and become the ‘big dog’ leading authority of property market in your town.
Therefore,when I looked at the most noticeable and conspicuous companies in all the service industries today both in the UK and the world, I noticed one clear distinguishing factor allowing those ‘noticeable’ companies to rise above the homogenous, vanilla, uniform, sameness of their competition: they all have an influential and powerful Managing Director or Senior Representative (ie, a real mortal person) flying the flag for the firm.
Richard Branson, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, Lord Sugar, Mary Portas, Rupert Murdoch etc are people we are drawn to because of their strong, positive and encouragingly impactful personae’s —
You see … we always remember those people, because when you put a face to the brand … trust and loyalty are suddenly established.
If you look at airlines, for example, Virgin immediately comes to mind. Now, does Virgin essentially have a more superior airline service to it’s competitors such as BA, Emirates or Qantas? I would contend that no, it does not. But Virgin has established one of the sturdiest, most loyal customer bases in the world of Airline travel because they associate with their boss, Sir Richard Branson.
Sir Richard isn’t just a Boss of Virgin – he’s a father of two children, a husband, world record ballon flyer, owner of an island called Necker in the Indian ocean, a man who invites 4,000 Virgin staff to his UK mansion and spends 4 hours greeting each one personally. He is boy from the streets that set up a two-penny record label and is now a multi billionaire. Branson is someone whom his staff and customers can relate to and aspire to become, someone people are attracted to.
…and when I say attracted to (i.e attraction) … its not a game of good looks attraction either (and don’t get me wrong Sir Richard or Russell Q. are good looking lads, yet neither are model material) … no no my friends … the attraction is grounded on their looks as much as who they are as a person.
It is a personality and character that the most important thing … and Sir Richard and Russell have that in bucket loads
A person that the audience can relate to and say .. yep, I like that person ..
That is what we can learn from Russell and Sir Richard and that is what you can learn to be the top dog Estate and letting Agent in your town. Become the ‘face of your place’ and build your reputation as ‘the leading light in your town’s property market’.
Russell’s intent on all this coverage is to get the name of eMoov out there. Instead of spending millions on TV adverts like Purplebricks, he is getting millions of pounds of ‘free’ advertising by this media coverage.
I am assuming, unless you are the CEO of a nationwide Estate Agency chain .. you are a town/city based estate / letting agent. You dont need Sky or the BBC .. in fact .. its much easier for you. You are have a much smaller pond to go at .. its ideal
I have guided and mentored many agents to make the local BBC radio station come to them for anything property market related, create a local TV channel on YouTube, create local property market blogs, be interviewed weekly by the local newspaper editor on the local property market. (the clue is the word ‘local’)
I have taught them how to write articles and film and edit video using nothing more than an iPhone, £30 microphone, £20 tripod, £2.50 adapter, a post-it note and two pieces of blutack (the two most vital pieces of kit in all this!), £80 video editing software and an inexpensive laptop.
Now it’s true many agents employ me to ghostwrite articles on their town’s local property market for the local press/blogs and even create videos and shows for them (because they prefer to outsource this) … but remember, you don’t need me to do any of the stuff I mention.. you don’t need to give me one penny to do this … just copy what these agents I have taught and mentored .. estate and letting agents just like you … such as Lewis Thorogood from Lincolnshire, Luke St. Clair from Leicester, Steve Frost and Emma Roberts from Chelmsford, Michelle Gallagher from Lancaster, Lorraine Thompson from Tamworth, Steve Wayne from Bushey/Edgware to name but a few.
Thank you for reading
Christopher
PS … oh this FACE OF YOUR BRAND isn’t just relevant to Estate / Letting Agents … it’s also relevant to Estate Agency Suppliers (the CRM’s and PropTech firms) to our industry have their ‘faces’. Think of Rightmove and Miles Shipside comes to mind, think of the Property Academy and Peter Knight immediately springs to mind, Ed Mead is Viewber. … and only a few months ago, a well-known and prominent software supplier parted company with one of their larger than life directors … and it continues to be the talk of UK agency months later what his plans are for the future. Maybe you PropTech firms could a thing or two