MARKETING
He says his company’s success rate is
high, last year averaging eight mentions a week in the press. Bell Ingram’s marketing manager Paul
Wakefield, says it is noticeable when the Mayfair Office gets them into a national newspaper story. The phone calls pour in. “It makes a big difference,” he says.
WhAt DoEs thE AGENt ExPEct? Like Rachel Colgan, independent property PR Lana Wrightman thinks laterally. Lana worked as part of the in-house PR team at Knight Frank for four years, before leaving to set up an independent agency, with estate agent and buying agent clients, including Finders Keepers in Oxfordshire. What do her clients expect of her for her fee, is it all just down to column inches? “Clients tend to say ‘here is a property,
how can I get it into the press?’ I am looking at how that property fits in with what else in happening in the news and how topical it is. You can’t just ring up a journalist to ‘sell’ a story about a property, it’s not that easy. Clients who understand that get the most success out of PR,” she says. “We are also looking at cross branding, where we tie up with a local shop or interior designer to do events. I always explain that journalists want to write about people, not property.” June Inglis of Finders Keepers explains
why the firm decided they needed to employ the services of a PR. “We have eight letting and management offices and we have newsworthy stories to tell the national press, with a non-Metropolitan angle,” she says. “However, we are not a national agent who can justify having a PR and marketing department. Lana Wrightman has been able to achieve exposure for the firm through her contacts. We have been able to provide comment and case studies and enabled us to be on the press radar.”
‘Editorial property features in the press are the most cost effective way an
estate agent has to publicise a property. The coverage is wide and costs nothing.’ NIcK chURtoN thE MAYFAIR oFFIcE
You can’t just ring up a journalist to ‘sell’ a story about a property, it’s just not that easy any more.’
Many estate agencies feel more
comfortable with a mix and match approach, handling local or regional PR themselves, but buying expertise to deal with the national press.
thE NEtWoRK APPRoAch The Mayfair Office in London acts as the national press contact for 115 UK estate agencies from as far apart as Scotland to the South Coast. Some of their clients, like Bell Ingram in Scotland and Sanderson Young in Newcastle upon Tyne, like the joint approach. They have in house PR to deal with local contacts, but all their biggest stories are handled by the Mayfair Office. Says MD Nick Churton, “Editorial
property features in the press are the most cost effective way an estate agent has to publicise a property. The coverage is wide and costs nothing. However, many smaller firms simply do not have the time, expertise, resources and through-put of suitable property to build and sustain working relationships with the leading national property journalists.” Churton points out the difficulties for
small firms competing against the big agencies who employ very effective in house PRs, mainly at the upper end of the market. “It becomes doubly difficult for the small independent – not matter how good they are as agents – when this is not a main feature of their work,” adds Churton.
“That’s why we invest, and it’s not cheap. Our local in house, part-time PR handles Scottish contacts, but liaises with the Mayfair Office, which gives us a London footprint and enables a midfield player like ourselves to compete with the Strutt & Parkers and Knight Franks. At the end of each year, we are given a list of all the press mentions we have had, put against a value of what it would have cost in advertising space. We don’t have the time or the expertise to do that in house.”
thE WAY It ALL WoRKs For agencies considering employing a PR for the first time, the CIPR offers detailed advice, but warns against expecting instant results. Personal chemistry as well as
‘When the Mayfair Office gets them into a national newspaper story.
The phone calls pour in. It makes a big difference, that’s why we invest.’ PAUL WAKEFIELD BELL INGRAM
professional competence should be taken into account. Working out clear objectives and expectations, and communicating them to the PR, as well as listening to what they are saying, is the baseline for any successful outcome. But, as many an aggrieved estate agent
has discovered, even if their prized property does make a splash on a news page in the morning papers, the agency name will have usually been edited out. The readers don’t care who the selling agent is, only the identity of the seller and the price. Increasingly, it’s taking a celebrity name to sell a story. As any PR will tell you, nobody can
control the media, so if the story takes a turn and an agent – and his seller – isn’t happy with, you have to live with it. That’s showbusiness.
Add your own opinions to the debate:
www.propertydrum.com/articles/PRapril
PROPERTYdrum APRIL 2011 39
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