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Guest Blogs
Marketing is from Mars, PR is from Venus
As an estate agent, marketing is in your DNA. You are good at understanding what makes people buy, sell, rent and let property. In fact, if you’re still in business, having survived the recent recession, you must be spectacularly good. But whilst I’m handing out the plaudits, let me suggest something which is probably not your strong point. It is a skill which takes creativity, contacts and commitment to get consistently right. It is public relations – getting you and your properties into the editorial content of newspapers, magazines, websites, TV and radio – something we have been doing for the past 15 years. Mainly laid to lawn? Why estate agents talk in a way unlike anyone else on the planet eludes me. Although the two are closely related, PR is not marketing. And the problem for estate agents is that the things which encourage someone to buy or let a property are not the same things which encourage a journalist to write about it. In other words, when it comes to PR, you have to stop thinking like an estate agent and start thinking like a journalist. Buyers might be tempted by “a stunning property with a flexible layout…
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Features
E-brilliance
A really great digital marketing campaign can hit your target market at the speed of light, says Andrea Kirkby.
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Guest Blogs
Avoiding the void
Rental voids are an eternal worry for landlords everywhere. In many cases, the amount of money lost through a void period can be the difference between a landlord making a gain or a loss from their rental income. Similarly, for many property investors an inconsistent flow of rental income caused by extended void periods can result in a struggle to make mortgage payments. With a one month rental void accounting for over 8 per cent of a landlord’s annual rental income, there can be no doubt that minimising the amount of time a property lies void is an essential priority for landlords, particularly in a hostile economic climate. The good news is that with rental demand outstripping supply, landlords have the opportunity to significantly reduce the amount of time that their property sits empty. Monitoring the local market for demand and supply – and comparative rents, a bit of pro-active advertising, asking for, and listening to feedback are all routes to success. However, while many landlords feel that they can look after their investments perfectly well themselves, these ‘tasks’ can be challenging for landlords to effectively manage without the correct resources. So it makes sense for them to use a…
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