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How to unlock the landlords

Marketing specialist Nelly Berova’s seven-step guide to finding more landlords for your letting agency, post-lockdown.

Nelly Berova

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As Britain emerges from lockdown, we reckon that building your landlord list is one of the best things you can do to re-establish your business and help it grow.

While new vendor instructions are vital to the success of your estate agency, property sales are a one-off source of income. Landlords, who stick with your business, will generate cash flow month-on-month – bringing the stability you probably crave right now.

The fundamentals of agency marketing haven’t changed much. It’s still about knowing your audience and targeting them.

Nelly Berova image

Nelly Berova

But what will be the best techniques for finding new landlords in the post-COVID world? The fundamentals of estate agency marketing haven’t changed all that much. It’s still about knowing your audience and targeting them. Think carefully about what motivates the type of landlords you are looking for – in particular the pain points that keep them awake at night. If you can help them solve these issues, you’re almost there.

All of that said, here are seven solid suggestions for building up your landlord book:

1 Get the basics right

Give your website a reality check. Make sure it looks appealing and has current, accurate information, great images and is easy to navigate for landlords. Check that it is properly optimised for search engines too. A regular blog with high quality content of relevance to landlords is a must. And if you have an online valuation tool, which you should, make sure your content keeps landlords on the site once they’ve received their valuation figure.

2 Join groups on social channels

Many tenants use Facebook and LinkedIn and will most likely be following either local groups or investment related groups. Try and join as many of those groups as you can and share valuable tips and advice with the members.

3 Become a local property expert

Get known locally by positioning yourself as an expert – both on landlord issues and your area. Write good, sharable, content – namechecking the great local businesses currently getting back on their feet, for example.

Produce well-written articles, which help landlords fulfil their role. Make sure these are geared to your ideal landlords and their pain points – dealing with arrears and getting their finances on track are likely to be hot topics at the moment.

Combine your articles into a comprehensive landlord guide and issue it as an e-book in return for sign-up to your newsletter.

4 Be creative with social media

Decide which social channels you will use and commit to them, planning content in advance and updating and sharing regularly. Don’t be afraid to use video to bring your posts alive and improve your visibility. Paid traffic is an essential way of getting your content seen and can be highly cost-effective too.

Use social media to establish you as a credible voice for local landlords. You could, for example, create a Facebook group where landlords can discuss issues together. As well as getting you noticed, this will be a helpful source of topics to address in your blogs and videos.

LinkedIn is a great tool to help you target professional landlords. Use it to publish your best, most thought-provoking articles and drive traffic to your website.

5 Prioritise word-of-mouth

Don’t underestimate the power of personal recommendations – or online reviews. Begin by making sure that you really are offering a great service by being there when your landlords need you, responding to queries promptly and generally getting things done. If they are happy with the service you provide, don’t be shy about asking for reviews on platforms such as Nextdoor, Google My Business, Trustpilot or your own website.

6 Network like crazy

Attending networking events is a crucial part of getting your name – and face – known locally. Not so easy during lockdown, so until things revert to normal, look out for every opportunity to join local business or chamber of commerce events taking place virtually. Whether online or in person, offer your services as a speaker or host or consider teaming up with other local businesses for joint events.

7 Target the properties as well as the landlords

While so much of an agent’s business is done online, don’t forget traditional channels, such as the humble leaflet drop or direct mail. Target new developments where there are likely to be high numbers of buy-to-let landlords as well as recently-sold properties. Look too at properties to let – the landlords may be open to switching agents.

If you are using printed materials, don’t go with the same old – invest in good design to create something which will get you noticed. Look on sites such as Pinterest to get ideas.

Got a question? Visit www.artdivision.co.uk

August 22, 2020

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