A change is as good as a marketing strategy

How often do you update your property listings? Earlier this year I wrote a post with some ideas for how to refresh the marketing of properties that have been on your books for a while (see previous post here).

Having attended a seminar with Rightmove recently, it appears that I made things overly complicated. Feedback from one of their surveys showed that the majority of customers thought that property photos should be updated every fortnight! This is in stark contrast to the agents' response who for the most part ticked the 6 months to never category.

Of course, actions speak louder than words and to put this to the test, we looked at properties with low click through rates (the number of times someone clicks on the property in search results to see the full tour). Changing the lead picture to another image from the existing photos caused, in some cases, an 8,000% improvement in the click through rate! By the law of attrition, more click throughs should equal more enquiries and to see what a profound effect such a simple change can have on the attention a property receives was a real revelation.

When you think about achieving stand out from other properties, it makes perfect sense. People trawl the portals regularly and will see the same properties over and over again. Using a different photo will provoke the reaction, "ooh, haven't seen that one before". Even if they have seen the full tour, will they remember? Have their circumstances changed? Have they softened that uncompromising stance on having a south facing garden?

I think this idea is just as applicable to other media too. I've often advised agents to vary their property photos in newspaper ads. You get wallpaper syndrome if your ads are filled with 30 images of similar looking 3 bed terraces. Be brave, use internals, show off what will make someone fall in love with a property and most importantly, use a different shot next week.

With some agents apparently using the old PR stunt of claiming to have sold out of properties, vendors who have been on the market for a while are likely to feel pretty miffed that their door is not being beaten down by hordes of applicants. Just rotating your lead image seems to be a simple way of generating a better response and getting some new leads to prevent having to put a "SOLD OUT" sign out of the window.

We're number 1! So what?

SpicerHaart got wrapped across the knuckles by the ASA last week for claiming to be the number 1 agent in Harlow. A claim that one of their competitors, Kings Group took exception to. Despite a lengthy disclaimer on the ad, the sources of data were called into question by Kings Group and the ASA upheld the complaint that the claim made by the ad broke their guidelines in relation to substantiation and truthfulness. You can read the full detail of the adjudication here.

The measurement for being number 1 in Harlow that SpicerHaart used was market share. Probably one of the most important benchmarks an agent should look at in assessing their performance against the competition. In a constantly expanding and contracting marketplace, market share is the only constant point of comparison.

From a marketing perspective, being number does 1 matter. If you've got more listings and sold more properties than anyone else, your success will influence others choice of agent by virtue of what they see around them. In certain circumstances being number 1 helps win more business in itself. The best example of this is probably on Google. If you're number 1 in search results this will attract more traffic to your site. You get to be number 1 because consensus took you there though, not the other way round. Consensus can be a powerful factor of influence. If enough people do something or say something, then others will follow the crowd. That is why we queue. That is why millions of us signed up to Facebook without much idea about what it was or why we should be on there. It's just that everyone else was doing it.

Perversely, many estate agents' efforts to stand out from the competition; claiming to be number 1, claiming to be the local experts, often lead them to being perceived to be just like the competition. Why? Because, they're all making the same sort of boastful claims about themselves. If you're doing this, you're actually conforming to the consensus that this is how agents should talk about themselves.

Be careful before you hang your hat on being number 1, especially if others are also trying to use the same peg. As I have written about previously, it's no good you talking about how good you are, you need to find somebody else to do that for you. The market share numbers may speak for themselves, but if they're not credible, and I mean 100% irrefutable, you run the risk of appearing to be another arrogant agent making boastful, unsubstantiated claims.

Sometimes, number 1 isn't favourable anyway. BT are number 1 in their marketplace. British Gas are also top dog in theirs. Does that make consumers more or less attracted to these brands? They're big. Does that mean they're clever? Does that mean I can expect a personal service? Does it make you feel valued as a customer when a company devotes their marketing spend to boasting about their own success rather than talking about their customers?

Being number 1 should actually be a byproduct of being the best. If you do everything better than your competitors, you should naturally enjoy greater success. Focus on the aspects of your business that will make you or keep you at number 1 and market the benefits of those separators to customers rather than your domination of a particular postcode.