We get emails every day from various companies selling their SEO or marketing services and we read almost every one of them, I immediately delete the ones that claim instant success etc. The other day I was sat at my desk when two emails came through. Both made me laugh.
It appears that a lot of “specialist property, estate agent, SEO, bloggers” are scrapping the barrel for content. They seem to be churning out the same old tired messages of “How to sell your home” through to “Get you page on the front of Google...FAST”.
The ones that had us laughing are the ones written by "experts" in the field of selling homes but with absolutely no idea of the luxury property marketplace. They extol the virtue of advertising on Facebook as a means of reaching our target audience. Come on and get a grip, how many millionaires do you know that read Facebook and actively seek out luxury homes for sale. Say that in my office and my PA will call for a doctor to help me stop laughing at you.
If you've the time to write 1,000 word diatribes about how to do it, that tells me you're not doing it and stuck at home or in the office scrapping about for work. If you're marketing worked you'd not have the time to blog..... I'm writing this as I wait for a flight to Manchester from Nice.
I can say with absolute certainty, no luxury home owner is remotely interested in having their home advertised for sale on Facebook, LinkedIn or any other social media portal you care to mention. I can most definitely say that luxury home owners will ask one simple question....... Will you put it on Rightmove? Failure to nod or look disgusted at the mere thought of not doing so will have you out the door in moments.
Home staging doesn't work, ever, and is a complete waste of time advertising it to an established home owner. Talk to new home builders, property developers etc and it's an absolute must do and no-brainer. We've spoken to over 20 home stagers in the past 18 months and 15 have gone out of business or converted to a part time affair.
The email that had us rolling around the floor in fits of laughter, did exactly what is was intended to do, have a headline that got most people to open the file and read it. Great marketing strategy. Not.
I can guarantee that it didn't get one single referral for new business. It ruined all the respect and credibility we had for the author. Why?
If you're going to email a headline that's inflammatory, best back it up with substance and fact and in this case it didn't. Instead this 1,054 word blog offered nothing but suggestions, the obvious advice and was more a poor mans attempt at selling their services than actually doing anything meaningful. Surprise, Google no longer works on word count and there were no backlinks to the main website. So no web crawling bots will know you've written anything.
The premise that estate agents over do it on social media is not a new one. I agree, people don't care if you've just sold a mansion, caravan or that you're scoffing lunch at the Ivy in London. Those estate agents that place their listings on Twitter do so because they lack the content to tweet or they've given the job to a 12 year old office junior.
I wholly agree that most vendors and landlords have no interest in knowing an agent's tie in period, their cheap fees or accompanied viewings. They want to know you can do the job and that you've done what you say you can.... plain and simple.
As a marketing professional, I wholly agree that having the company's URL plastered all over the estate agents car, business cards, leaflets etc is a total waste of time...... unless you're targeting those that live and breathe using their smartphone, Blackberry or tablet. When I'm watching a TV programme and they show the Twitter handle or hashtag, I very rarely look it up...... unless I've got my phone in my hand or I'm on my laptop. I wonder how many people are like me in that regard?
The comment “So how can you be interesting?” is when the red mist started to descend at Britain's Best Home.
It was followed by nothing...... absolutely nothing. Show me a property marketing person that can simply convert a branding exercise into a sale and I'll be looking at a very, very rich person.
The burning question from us is how do you engage wealthy clients and the answer provided was “talk to them”..... No Shit Sherlock. Ever tried talking to a busy, successful businessperson about property? No, didn't think so.
The ones we know talk about anything and everything and unless you're a walking Trivial Pursuit game, you've no chance of engaging them in meaningful conversation. Then the advice is to write to them about the subjects you spoke about. Show me a template of an email that's proven to get their attention and has them picking up the phone and calling you and I'll work for you free of charge for a year, in fact I'll pay you to work for you.
Traditional sales methods don't work any more in the world of estate agency. Modern sales methods are evolving on a seemingly daily basis. Anyone advising a business to use print to sell their services is a dinosaur. Leaflets, newspaper adverts are rarely read by those selling or buying luxury homes. It was stated that 91% of property searches begin online and I dare say 99% of those searches start at Rightmove, Zoopla, Prime Location et al.
So what kind of specialist property SEO, marketing, bloggers are we interested in?
Ones that blog about the new techniques to reach potential clients on social media. Ones that provide an interesting thought provoking read that actually has me coming away from the page actioning what I've just read.
So the next time you get an email from someone offering their services, ask yourself a simple question. If they are so good at what they're doing, why are they not doing it themselves?
As the saying goes “Those that can't, teach”.
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