Estate Agents: Property Marketing and Pricing

We've been analysing the local property market to feed back to a local, independent estate agent. 

Starting with Rightmove, we noticed that their website favours areas with more properties (understandably but unfair); it highlights 'popular' towns and postcodes. Properties and estate agents in 'other areas' are listed in 'other areas', which is where village and rural properties will be found. For example, Welwyn village, Oaklands, Tewin Wood, Digswell, etc. are some of the most desirable areas, but these are in postcode AL6, which is not in the 'popular' list - perhaps they should extend the page information to include 'desireable'. Residents and past residents in this postcode include Lewis Hamilton, Kim Wilde, Marty Wilde, Alan Brazil, Keith Burkinshaw, Frank Warren, H.G. Wells and Vincent van Gogh's sister Anna, to name but a few.

Searching on Rightmove for Flats/Apartments in Hertfordshire, there are 25 properties at £500,000 (at the time of writing).

We have selected some 'exclusive' properties for a comparison, as shown below:

Four of these properties are in the same price range. Some offer more than others in terms of internal space and layout and their annual charges vary accordingly; some may be shared freehold or leasehold. External facilites, such as the size of shared grounds, amenities (e.g. tennis courts), landscaping and ponds maintenance, parking, etc. also vary; annual fees may include insurance, gas, water, sewage, cleaning, building repairs and maintenance, etc..

The fifth property will appeal to someone who can afford over well over £1m for an opulent set of rooms with an unusual layout. If it's right for someone, there is very little competition.

The key to successfully Marketing a Property is to cast as wide a net as possible. Opportunities for listing them on the four major property search engines plus social media (YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and more) are supplemented by paid advertising in local newspapers and, of course, a good agent keep in contact with people who have contacted them regarding buying a property. The problem that many agents have with social media is that they pay little attention to it, claiming that very few enquiries arise from that area, which is a chicken-and-egg scenario.

Pricing for a unique property also poses difficulties as there are no 'markers' other than historical sales. It's almost a moot point because, as with everything, it's value is determined by potential buyers making offers. The government of the day has some influence, too. 

If you're looking for a different kind of home, check out some of those shown above. Feel free to comment with your opinions on the ones you'd like to live in. 

Manage your Website or use a Professional?

To run a small enterprise, your first task is to learn to juggle. Also, flexibility helps. Flexible thinking because you don't have to be an acrobat, but you do need to keep an open mind.

These days, it's so easy to generate a small website yourself but many forget to visit their own site each month to check that it's still suitable. News posts are often forgotten after the first couple which causes two major issues:

1. Visitors may think "This website is neglected - is the company/charity still a going concern?" Or they may just assume so and pass it by. Not only visitors but search engines, which takes us to...

2. Search engines regularly look for updates and if there continues to be none, they move on, possibly demoting the importance of the website.*

The monthly check should take only a few minutes...
Do not put it off. A monthly news post will take a little longer but is essential to keep the site fresh, particularly as it then provides a landing page for linking to, particularly from your social media posts. You do post regularly to social media, don't you?

We created a website for a client who holds regular events, at least monthly. The person responsible for uploading these often runs out of time, therefore none of the events had been posted for this year. As they realised that this lack of information was detrimental to numbers attending, we were approached to do the updates, which are now completed for the foreseeable future.

Another client, a start-up enterprise, has been slow to add content to their new website and has added only an occasional post to their social media. When advised to post more regularly, there was reticence, as they did not want to bother their Facebook followers unless there was something significant to say. This shows that the person responsible is not a big user of Facebook. Those followers will be sent hundreds of posts every day, mostly not even from anyone they follow, so the chances of seeing one post every few weeks are negligible.

Note that we are all for website owners updating their own content and social media. We are not so impressed by those who neglect it or who won't admit that they need help.

*assuming the website has quality content, of course

Try being different...

Marketing professionals and employment agencies are very good recyclers - of words. No matter who the client is, the professionals use the same words to sell the product or service. It becomes a bit samey.

Employment Agencies.

For example, we receive 'junk' mail that advertises job vacancies. Yesterday, 9 of the 11 received were looking for candidates who were 'passionate' about the roles to be filled. As an employer, we are not looking for passion in that way because it seems, frankly, quite weird. We prefer to employ someone who gets on with their designated projects whilst being happy to engage in office banter, who is happy to suggest ideas and whose passions are found outside of work, whether it's music, sports or whatever. Maybe it's because we're a small company of creatives where work is an enjoyable challenge - rather than a corporation whose a 'passion' is to grow rapidly, make tons of money and sell to the highest bidder. No, that's not us. 

Marketing terms.

A few years ago, Google was instrumental in promoting certain keywords and larger-budget companies took advantage of this, incorporating the keywords into key pages on their websites. Smaller companies cannot compete in this way but they can exploit their other qualities, using genuine keywords to describe what they do. 

Do you prefer a company that says "We have a large, dedicated team with a passion to provide our clients with an excellent service by utilising leading-edge technology " or "We talk to our clients to agree the best way forward to work together"? It's the same service but one describes it without the over-used buzz-words.

You may counter that, without the buzz-words, you're losing out on search results - but how many people use these terms to search? It's better to focus on real search terms - ask your clients what words they would enter into a search bar and make sure these are covered in the first couple of paragraphs of your key pages. 

AI: using this to write your unique message is never going to work because there is nothing unique about the AI process - it recycles words and phrases that it finds on the world wide web. By all means, try it to get you started but never publish AI text direct to your website - it's very easily obvious.

Recycling may be a great concept for many things but when it comes to describing your products or services, originality and uniqueness is refreshing.

Simple Strategies for Promoting Your Website

Link Building is still key

There are good and bad links so - beware. First, the links have to relevant to your website from relatable, legitimate high traffic sites and, in particular, from the individual pages that have traffic from real people, rather than machines. 

Be aware that some websites that Google’s recent 'Helpful Content Update' (HCU) affected appear to have rebounded after cleaning up their link profile, you likely want to be particularly careful about the quality of links pointed to your site, and the linking text.

Of course, all of the usual caveats in terms of ensuring that links are from reputable sites that have links pointed to them apply as well.

Industry or Local Contacts

If you have a good relationship with other website owners in a similar industry, suggest to them that links to each other 's website would be beneficial to you both. For example, you may own a Mexican food restaurant in your town and could recommend a Cajan restaurant in the next town (and vice versa, obviously). Ideally, these links should have similar words on the linking page and the destination page.

Perhaps the businesses in your locality bear no relationship with your offering other than a 'support local business' element. Again, enhance the quality of the link(s) by using words from the designated landing page within the paragraph containing the link. 

Social Media, News and Blog Posts

If the websites have News pages, links can be incorporated in a post on the website(s) otherwise the information can be submitted to blog sites, as appropriate to your target audience. These may include WordPress, Substack, Tumblr and, of course, Google. 

You should take advantage, if you haven't already, of free publicity in the form of Facebook, X-Twitter and LinkedIn. Instagram doesn't link to websites from its posts. Videos and image slide-shows can also be uploaded to YouTube and TikTok. There are other social media apps, the most popular are covered here.

Need support? Let us know in the comments.

Videos can help with your Marketing

Our recently watched YouTube videos average almost 6,000 views per month, globally. In the UK, there are 300ish views per month (10 views per day). 

One of our videos has been watched just shy of 60,000 times, no doubt helped by being accessible from the front page of a client's website. 

Today we published a quick-fire video, required urgently, as shown here: 

This video comprises a series of stills and messages, rather than shooting a movie with a smart-phone or from a drone. Given more time, that would be our preferred option. However, the pace of the video is critical - too slow may lose your viewers early but too fast means they can't blink or they'll miss something! I prefer faster rather than slow - you can always run it through again.  

Of course, everyone is on YouTube now - and Google is loving it! And you don't have to be a vlogger or podcaster if your primary reason is to market your 'widget' company. It's better for your products or services to be seen a little than be invisible.

If you want more information regarding the property above, visit Alexander Bond in Knebworth or go to the abc properties website.

Increasing your views on YouTube

Here is a YouTube visits chart from the past year, showing new (blue) and returning (green) visitors: 

A good many of the visits originated in India (mostly males, aged 25-40) so I checked and found that this is in line with general YouTube visits: 

 

As much as our target audience is the UK, this is a 'numbers' game therefore any hits could be considered worthwhile.

This is the breakdown by country:

1 year :July 2023 - July 2024

During the past year, there were almost 3,000 visits from the UK to our YouTube channel 

However...

10 years :July 2013 - July 2024

For the past ten years, the average of our UK visits per annum was around 5,550 and the Indian visits - excluding the past 12 months - was negligible, not even an average of 100 visits each year.

So, in fact, our UK average had been about 100% higher in prior years. Why is this? Well, the most popular video (more than 50,000 views) features a currently available product. The next three are not current (uploaded 2013-2015) and have had a combined total of 55,000 views to date. It's also fair to say that we have only uploaded 3 videos in the past 3 years so, yes, our viewing figures were bound to suffer.

So, why else might the YouTube views reduced? The answer is probably Meta. More people than ever are using Facebook, about 500 million more than YouTube. However, Over a billion hours of video are watched on YouTube every day, which is more than most other video media combined. 

If you already have a YouTube channel with existing videos, how can you increase their views? Well,  don't waste time asking Google - all their suggestions involve paying them! Here are our top ten tips for you to consider:

◻ add a watermark 

◻ enable embedding 

◻ include subtitles - videos are often watched silently at work 
◻ make the title interesting, include keywords  

◻ choose or create an interesting thumbnail
◻ create a playlist so that the video following yours is... yours    

◻ consider adding a transcript  

◻ encourage sharing, especially from other blogs and websites   

◻ email your contacts with the embedded video or link

◻ personal preference but, for a silent video, leave it so. Don't add free music!

   

These are the basics just to start you thinking. There is more help all over the internet but, remember, if your video is too long, not to the point (especially if the point is entertainment) or just plain boring, you will lose viewers' interest within seconds. Make a good start and maintain that level throughout.

Lastly, some current facts: Music videos account for more than a third of total YouTube views and, believe it or not, Peppa Pig is currently the UK's most popular video! 

Social Media Stats Update

There are approximately 8 billion people in the world (give or take a few) which makes interesting reading for the Social Media stats, below. Take the following 'facts' with a pinch of salt!

Top of the list, as always, is Facebook. Statista shows this platform as having 3,065,000,000 (probably rounded to the nearest million) meaning that 3 billion of the worlds population uses it. We are aware that many people have more than one account but it's likely that a quarter of the world's citizens are active on Facebook at least once a month.

Top Ten Social Media Platforms 2024, according to Statista.com

Other popular platforms are YouTube, Instagram and WhatsApp, each with 2bn or more active users. All of these top platforms are owned by Meta, except YouTube which is from Google. 

Accordingly, X (formerly Twitter) has 600 million monthly active users with competitors Threads at 100 million and Mastodon and Bluesky  fewer than 2 million. However, according to an NBC report, X's share is falling and was roughly 174 million earlier this year. 

Here's the link to the previous Social Media Stats post.