Here’s the problem: you’re not getting through enough doors, so you’re not getting the opportunities you need to show vendors and landlords you’re the best.
Seeing surprise boards go up? At properties you’re not even getting chance to value?
Running low on stock means you’re operating from a position of fear – you feel you need to drop your fees to compete and attract new instructions. The problem is, it’s a downward spiral and trying to increase your fees again later can be really tricky.
And then there are the online agents, and the ‘sell-for-a-fiver’ agents. Vendors think they can do it without you, so why should they pay 1.5%, or even 1%?
Maybe you’re doing some canvassing here, and some door knocking there. Perhaps you have tried print advertising, and even some Rightmove Premium features. But it’s all a bit haphazard, and because of this, new enquiries come in fits and starts.
I was talking to a young, dynamic agent in London, who told me that they canvas “when it’s quiet”. But that’s too late! He’s just creating an unmanageable cycle:
Are you up for a challenge?
I want you to take a long, honest look at your current marketing. Write a list of all your current marketing activities, and give yourself a rating out of 5 for each one. For example, if you think your website is pretty good, but your social media is patchy at best, you might want to rate yourself 4 for your website (probably some room for improvement) and 2 for social media (we need a plan).
I like to plot these scores in a kind of pie chart, like this:
I’ve divided this one into eight, but you may have fewer sections, or perhaps more. Creating a visual representation of your current marketing allows you to easily see where the gaps are. And each gap is an opportunity!
Rate your activities
Now’s the time for honesty – rate your marketing activities out of 5, and total the scores up. I use this scoreboard:
Take the total score, and multiply it by 2.5, and you’ll have a percentage. Something like this:
Keeping score of lead sources
Rating your marketing activities is a great start to getting your lead generation on autopilot, but you also need to know how your activities are working for you. I want you to ask every person who answers the phone in your business to make a log of where new leads come from. The simplest way is to just ask them to keep a tally, like this:
These figures won’t show the whole story, but they may surprise you. When I ran this test in a small agency in Northumberland, the owner was pretty sure she knew what to expect: that most of her new market appraisal enquiries came from her local advertising. What she actually discovered was that her blog was a great source of leads, and social media was much higher than she’d thought. Of course, the actual trigger that motivates a seller to actually pick up the phone and call to book an appointment with you, may be only the last in a series of touch points they have had with your company: maybe they saw a for sale board, asked a friend for a recommendation, walked by your office on their way to work, and saw a print advert. This just means that your marketing activities need to be consistent, and varied. However, the actual motivating communication to make that call to your office is what we’re looking for here. What’s the last thing they saw before picking up the phone?
Why you need a system
If you just approach your marketing in a haphazard way, canvassing when you’re quiet, cutting the budget when you’re not, your leads will never be there when you need them. You’ll constantly be running on an exhausting treadmill of realising you have no market appraisals in the diary, doing a big marketing push, dealing with the rush of leads and market appraisals, getting them all on the market, then realising you have no more market appraisals booked in – again.
Marketing can be overwhelming.
In larger companies, there is usually someone responsible for all the company’s marketing activities. When you’re an independent, that person is often you; the owner or manager of the business. Whereas only a couple of decades ago, your primary role would have been to manage the company, now lead generation is your most important focus.
WHAT TO DO NEXT:
Would you like to pick my brains about your content marketing, and anything else you need to know? I have a handful of free call spots this month so go ahead and tell me a bit about yourself here and if I have a spot left, we’ll get a call booked in.
Sam
What to do next: Do you get my Supertips? They’re jam-packed full of great tips and marketing strategies just like this one, and best still – they’re free! Get yours here -> www.samashdown.co.uk/samsupertips
Speak to Sam: If you’d like to know how I think you could improve your marketing, just answer a few short questions here and I’ll tell you if and how you could be more effective.
