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you have saleable stock then you’ll attract buyers by default. Your ability to attract sellers is critical to your success in agency. But what does dumping Tweetyspam properties on them achieve? All it does it annoyingly inform them that
you have some houses on your books! So what? Does a restaurant advertise the fact that they sell food? Of course not – but they might advertise how enjoyable it might be to dine with them. If you are going to influence sellers you
should provide them with something relevant, meaningful and of value – on their terms. Smart agents recognise this and are starting to handle their followers with kid gloves. I suggest that you regard all your subscribers as if they were friends or relatives. Do you phone your sister to tell her that you have just listed a three bedroom house in Belvedere Road! Of course not. But she might be interested in the fact that prices in her area have risen 27 per cent above the national average. Or she might like to know that confidence is returning to the buy-to-let sector, or that interest rates are unlikely to rise in the foreseeable future. She might even be wondering whether it’s worthwhile extending her property before selling it, whether her old EPC is still valid, or whether she should instruct a corporate or independent agency when her time comes to sell. There are hundreds of topics that are
potentially of interest to homeowners (each of whom is a prospective seller) and your ability to express these in an informative, and ideally entertaining, way is critical to how you are perceived in your market. Surely if you can demonstrate that yours is the voice of authority, then you quickly become the obvious agent of choice. Vendors know that estate agents sell houses. Your job is to convince them that they would prefer to do so through you. In doing so you add value to your service meaning you secure more instruction opportunities and can charge higher fees. A caveat would be that there is a significant
comfort factor for prospective vendors seeing that you do indeed handle the sale of properties like theirs, so it is always worthwhile ensuring that three or four of your best properties feature in any pages to which your Tweets link.
QUANTITY
In terms of numbers, 95 per cent of the Tweeting agents I reviewed had fewer than 350 followers. I’d guess that half of these could be friends, family, staff and competitors. The remainder probably comprises a high number of existing clients/applicants, meaning very few new business prospects are being influenced. Given that most estate agents operate in areas comprising 40,000- 100,000 residents, most are only communicating with a target audience of fewer than 0.5 per cent of these. Pathetic! Your target audience may be sellers, but in
24 l May 2012 l TheNegotiator
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For example, from a marketing perspective, your current database is not simply the 237 active buyers and sellers you currently have registered, but everyone who has ever registered with you in the past. Could this be say 5,000 people or more? The very fact that they have previously engaged you in communication confirms you already have some form of relationship with them. Yet most agents just let them go. Madness – especially when these prospects probably still have a strong connection with your area and may well live round the corner from your office. Another way of capturing
prospects is by offering free local property market reviews, undertaking street surveys, running competitions, etc as well as adding some form of viral content to your Tweets or Emails such as a humourous videoclip or interesting local photograph. These approaches, regularly
delivered, certainly tick the boxes
in terms of the marketing advice suggested by Prof. Robert Cialdini in his book “The Psychology of Persuasion”. These are:
“Twitter is no longer new but the
opportunities to harness profitable benefits are still wide open.”
practice you don’t really know which homeowners in your area are thinking of selling. The key here is numbers. The great thing about social media is that it is free, irrespective of the number of followers (or prospects) you have. So don’t accept a few hundred subscribers – aim for thousands, and ideally tens of thousands, and keep drip-feeding these valuable local prospects with useful stuff, as you never know whose “turn” it will be next. But don’t overdo it. Some agents who
recognise the value in providing relevant newsworthy content send out email newsletters (of which I’m a huge fan) that are so long and content-laden that they devalue themselves and end up in the deleted folder before even being read. The key is to consistently provide just one or two snappy and engaging topics on a regular basis.
HOW DO I GET FOLLOWERS? The reason why so few people follow most Tweeting agents should by now have become obvious. Rubbish content! Nevertheless it is an apparently huge step to move your subscriber database from 150 “real punters” to 10,000. But there are many ways of doing so.
l Liking (ie they have to like what you are saying, especially when you connect on their level), Commitment (you believe in what you do),
l Consistency (your advice is regular and reliable),
l Authority (you clearly know what you are talking about),
l Social Proof (the more people who like/ know/use you, the more likely it is that others will do the same) and especially
l Reciprocity (by giving generously you earn the right to receive in return).
Such prospect marketing also fits with Hedi Bernstein’s advice in her book “The Uninvited Canvasser” (now out of print) which suggests that the best prospect canvassers “Give something of value, ask for nothing in return, and leave before they expect you to”. Most people are not currently moving, so
we need to start positively influencing them before their time of need so that you are the “professionally attractive” agent who is front of mind when their time comes. Your views will also feature in their conversations with others. Whilst the concept of Twitter is no longer
new, the opportunities to explore and harness the profitable benefits it can provide are still wide open to those who are keen to drive their estate agency to new levels of influence and profitability. This is not about Social Media – it’s about Reputation Management!
Richard Rawlings is a specialist estate agency consultant, trainer and content provider.
www.EstateagencyInsight.co.uk 01452 750 900 l
www.the-negotiator.co.uk
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