Home » Features » Why agents must measure their digital marketing
Marketing

Why agents must measure their digital marketing

One in every three estate agents Nelly Berova meets, invests in digital marketing but doesn’t know what results they get. And that’s rather worrying.

Nelly Berova
Even more worryingly they don’t know what they should be achieving from those campaigns. Yet tracking any type of digital marketing activity is easier than ever before.

WHY ARE AGENTS IN THE DARK?

Nelly Berova image digital marketingEven the wisest agents may be enticed by cheap prices, industry jargon and a lack of understanding. This often leads them to engage with suppliers who convince them they should do something because everyone is doing it, rather than investing in a campaign which they know works.

 digital marketingAgents who pay £50, £100 or £200 per month to a company for SEO work alone are wasting their money without realising it. It is not possible to run a results-driven campaign on such little investment, as attractive as it seems. These suppliers are either not doing anything, or worse, doing things that may harm your business.

Equally worrying were a few cases where the agents were paying a small amount – £100-£300 per month – to a supplier to run a PPC campaign with Google, and the supplier was paying for the clicks as part of this fee.

Agents who pay £200 per month for for SEO work alone are wasting money without realising it.

In this instance, the supplier is most likely bidding on one or two phrases, with a low search volume, but not providing a clear breakdown of the results generated. Ultimately, this results in no real business for the agent.

GOALS AND RESULTS

Running a proper digital marketing campaign which generates results starts with a proper strategy, clear goals, tracking, regular reporting and analysis. Every penny invested in a digital marketing campaign should have an aim, be it to increase brand exposure, sales leads or repeat business.

Spending £300 may not sound like a lot, but if this £300 brings you £0 in business, you are wasting your money.

A successful campaign is not about what you spend but what you make.

If, for example, for every £300 you spend you make £1,500, how many £300 lots will you invest?

HOW DO I PLAN A SUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGN?

I often follow a simple seven step process:

1 THE FIRST STEP to a successful campaign is to define the business goals. Defining the goals helps with the direction of the campaign, and in turn, drives the results you want. For example, you may wish to increase your sales by 30 per cent. This is a goal.

2 THE SECOND STEP is to establish the benchmark. For example, if you want to increase your vendor and landlord enquiries, before investing in any marketing activity you need to understand how many leads you have been generating over the past 6-12 months.

Make an average – this is your starting point. In theory, any marketing activity you invest in going forward needs to aim to generate you more than this number.

3 STEP THREE is to set up your tracking correctly, across all the channels, from form enquiries to phone calls. Most websites are now connected to a Google analytics account, which provides data about the usage of a site (traffic, bounce backs, goals, visited pages). In addition, you should have proper phone tracking in place to identify how many calls you get from your campaign each month, and from which campaign.

4 STEP FOUR is about reaching your potential clients on the right channels with an engaging message, driving them to your website.

5 STEP FIVE is measuring and reporting. This is the process of organising data into informational summaries to monitor how different areas of your business are performing as a result of the campaigns you have been running.

6 STEP SIX is analysis. This is the process of exploring data and reports to extract meaningful insights. These insights can be used to better understand and improve business performance. The goal of analysis is to answer questions by interpreting the data and providing actionable recommendations.

7 STEP SEVEN is to make improvements to your campaign based on the recommendations from step six.

When you engage with a marketing company, your brief should clearly state your business goals and benchmark figures. You should know what to expect to see each month in your reports, allowing you to monitor progress. If you are already running a marketing campaign and are not sure what you are gaining from it, I suggest you define the goals and then jump to step six.

A good data analyst will be able to tell you what you are gaining and make recommendations for improvements in order to achieve your goals.

March 21, 2017

What's your opinion?

Please note: This is a site for professional discussion. Comments will carry your full name and company.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.