Marketing – The Property Writers

Behind the scenes, Copywriting, Marketing, Tips

What I learnt at Jane Austen’s House

September 14, 2016 No Comments

I’ve been on a journey of sorts whilst working from the U.K. and Paris throughout the last three weeks. Change is as good as a holiday and this working holiday has meant a dramatically different work backdrop.

It’s been a treat writing up marketing copy for properties in Australia, whilst the Seine river and English country gardens have been just beyond my laptop.

Tanya was born in England and spent her childhood here, whilst I lived here previously in my early twenties for a short time. While here I enjoyed a fancy-free extended working holiday, with more trekking about Europe than work.

This time around, it’s been different. In addition to chasing dreams, forming goals and applying myself to research/bettering our business, I have been inspired.

What inspires people is of course dependent on individual taste. Me? Each time I visit Paris, I visit Joan of Arc in Notre Dame.

In London, I see the Globe Theatre on the Thames, even if it’s just passing by on foot or river cruise.

Writers typically are habitual folk by nature and I’m no exception, so these places need to be ticked off.

For the first time however recently, I visited the Jane Austen House Museum in Chawton.

14383454_10154582317963413_926525969_n — An informal portait of Jane

Well, as a writer and particularly a female writer, I scolded myself for not having gone sooner.

I took my time and wandered through the gardens, watched the introductory video in its entirety and took in plenty of details in the house.

Her bedroom!

I looked upon the home and information within it from the perspective of a writer.

As someone who is hired to provide marketing content, which I/we seriously enjoy, I do typically feel the need to separate this work from my additional creative works.

SO much harder than my iPad

Immersing myself in Jane’s world however, I took on board a few lessons. Upon leaving, I realised that all can be applied to both realms of work.

What I learnt “from Jane” can be considered when creating both professional marketing content that we produce for clients and my own projects.

These are my lessons I took on board:

1> Your environment affects your work

Jane had a recognisably unproductive period when she was upheaved from the comfortable, familiar family home and moved to Bath. Whilst in Bath, she didn’t actually write much and certainly didn’t have work published. Even though in this day and age we are fortunate to be able to “work/write on the go” and anywhere really, it’s true that our surroundings and circumstances play a big part in what we create. An inspiring environment, or perhaps just a familiar one, depending on how you are inclined, is key to producing good work.

2> Walk!

Jane would walk in and around Chawton for around two hours every afternoon, rain or shine, mostly with her sister, Cassandra. The exercise, fresh air and time to brainstorm and discuss her ideas was paramount to her moving forward with her works. Interestingly, at the recent and BRILLIANT London Screenwriter’s Festival that I attended here in London, two very prolific screenwriters advised the same habit. With four-five decades of work and success between the two of them, they both swore by a daily walk. Each cited this as one of the best methods to work through problems, cure writer’s block and generally be inspired. I have been all too guilty of putting off a walk most days because of an array of excuses, mostly deadlines, or general busyness. No more! If walking can aid my work, then walking it is!

3> Even Jane Austen made (spelling) mistakes

I SO loved seeing at least one example, in a hand-written letter, that Jane Austen misspelled words. I’ve agonised over infrequent but noticed (by me!) mistakes and face-palmed myself long after I’ve rectified them. Proofreading is paramount and I still stand by that. But I recognise that although we do our darndest to prevent them, if one or two mistakes happen, as long as we fix them promptly and recognise how they happened, it is not worth the high blood pressure to dwell on them!

4> Keep working and don’t stay stagnant waiting

Jane worked on several drafts of her books at once, rearranging chapters, changing titles and revising even some published works. Given her outstanding success, I really take this to be a positive thing and have noted that it is best not to totally focus on one job/project for too long and singularly. Once its done and whilst awaiting the next step, moving on to something else is a good thing.

5> Enjoy a routine

As above, writers tend to be set in their ways and are often habitual folk. Jane was no exception and had the same routine day in, day out, in terms of when she wrote. She wrote in the morning, for several hours. I took on board that having set hours of intense focus may make for a better balance on the whole, as opposed to the sporadic set-up with time that sometimes happens throughout the week due to the times that jobs come in and what else springs up in my day.

And in closing, Jane’s reported close-knit family were some of her biggest fans. The letter I read on the wall to a cousin after Jane’s passing from her sister Cassandra, was heartfelt and was testament to their closeness.

Another reminder that whilst writing can be a solo act, whether you are a copywriter in industry, freelance, or a creative writer in another realm, you’ve got to keep perspective and not shut out your loved ones.

After all, what is it really all for?

Even if you go for the garden, it's a perfect outing — Even if you go for the garden, it’s a perfect outing

If you are in the U.K., or travelling there in the near future, make a trip to Chawton!

Have you visited Jane’s house? Let us know on Instagram or Twitter!

Behind the scenes, Business, Copywriting, Marketing

Why we deleted our Facebook business page

July 21, 2016 No Comments

Do you ever tick boxes for things, despite them not sitting quite right with you? But because it is a common step and a universally acknowledged and sensible thing to do, you just run with something anyhow.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. It seems like today, more than ever before, people have less and less free time and more things demanding time and attention.

Having a Facebook business page was a box that we ticked for some time. We had a page, it had our credentials on it, contact information, you know the rest.

We know that it is deemed to be a crucial, essential presence for a business.

We know that Facebook is a powerhouse and owns many apps that we love and use, such as Instagram.

We know that Facebook folk may find out that we removed our neat, friendly little business from its community and give us a big digital thumbs down (read: limit our reach on other apps!).

We know that it can be a phenomenal online space and community for businesses, groups and people to communicate from all corners of the globe to drum up business and projects.

We know that one day we may have more reasons to have a page, than not to, and may start one up again. This decision is reversible.

Facebook can do AMAZING things for people and businesses, we get it. Perhaps just not for us…

We even tried Facebook’s advertising, with several targeted campaigns. But – it did jack for us in terms of reach and numbers.

And really, although this lovely business of ours is growing and we find ourselves just loving new opportunities and where they are taking us, we just weren’t feeling Facebook as being key. It just isn’t key to our growth or an enjoyable facet of our work, if we are being honest.

We often gain new clients in person, through word of mouth, or by random chances. Tanya does plenty of work for clients in far-off places, such as the U.S.A. and India. These clients didn’t pop up on our Facebook Page.

Instead, we felt as thought our page was impeding on our family and friend’s feeds.

When people put their feet up and scroll through their feed for some mental down time and a switch-off from the real world, we didn’t feel like they wanted to see our latest listings, or musings about life as a hired writer.

Our clients and industry colleagues didn’t really need to spend time on our page – we have plenty of other means of communication. So really, getting a ‘like’ from my Mum, as kind as it was, felt like an indication that we didn’t have the reach we wanted, or needed really.

As copywriters, we sell a service, not a product. What we were showcasing on our page, specifically our organic content, really wasn’t being seen by anyone and wasn’t going to change anyone’s lives. Seriously.

We love our work, we are good at what we do, but we weren’t being rewarded by our time on Facebook and it didn’t feel like it was an avenue worth continuing.

We live in a world where people are shuffling around the streets like zombies with their heads down, finding imaginary anime characters (another post in itself!). We daresay that people really don’t want to trawl through the business page of someone who isn’t offering them a service relevant to them, when they can be spending time doing things they enjoy in their free time.

There are plenty of articles floating around that weigh up the pros and cons of businesses breaking up with Facebook. Some of them had some really resonating points, but there was no particular literature that cemented the decision for us.

It just felt like a box we had ticked, but that our heart wasn’t in.

So we made a business decision to say goodbye to it!

Because when you run a business yourself you make these decisions and wear the consequences or rewards yourself. And it feels damn good to be authentic to our own thoughts and experiences.

So, we work in advertising.

We are professional marketing content writers.

We do use Facebook, in terms of having personal pages. It can provide a really wonderful space to make loved ones on different continents not seem so far away and, of course, to share messages, ideals and raise awareness.

But –

You won’t find The Property Writers creeping into your feed on Facebook (for now, at least!).

So see you elsewhere, folks! (Some not so subtle links below.)

Business, Marketing, News, Real Estate

How to get attention in real estate marketing – light it up!

July 8, 2016 No Comments

How long is the average person’s attention span?

This is what I found on Google:

How long is the average person’s attention span?

If your audience is still paying attention after the first 8 seconds, you have approximately 4 minutes and 52 seconds until their attention spans are exhausted. The average adult attention span has plummeted from 12 minutes a decade ago to just 5 minutes now, according to a Fortune.com article.

Wow, not long! And what has caused the plummet?

We could certainly take a wild guess. The (rising) influx of technology and tidal waves of services that are designed to make our lives easier are perhaps contributing factors. No one has any time any more.

From when we rise in the morning, until our heads hit the pillow at night, or even the early hours, we have information directed at us, choices to make and information to process.

It certainly is tiring.

When it comes to marketing, specifically real estate marketing, the key is standing out, while not demanding too much from weary home-seekers or investors.

My husband is an electrician. He has always said that lighting is everything. We’ve renovated numerous houses together and he has always done the lion’s share of the major changes, including lighting. I must say, his choices have been spot on.

Modern lighting has a way of evoking different vibes and moods, depending on the look you are going for. And is such a value-adder.

At The Property Writers, we just love fawning over a lot of the stunning lighting that we see in property photographs that come through our inboxes.

Indoor lighting, outdoor lighting – even candlelight! To be able to see anything, the first port of call for our eyeballs is processing light. Our eyes are drawn to light. It’s instinctive.

Perhaps one of the best examples of utilising lighting for advertising and marketing is Times Square in New York City. I remember I visited in 2006 (Ten years ago?! It’s been way too long between visits) and I felt just like a character in a movie. Cliche, but true. I was totally smitten as I took in the immense lit-up signs. I bet they’re even more spectacular ten years on.

So it was only a matter of time until these mammoth, illuminated billboards trickled down into real estate/realty marketing.

I know they’ve been popping up all over the country lately and have been showcased at trade shows. But I must say it was a real treat to recently spot an illuminated sign at night, out the front of a property.

I spotted it whilst driving, around a week ago. It was a listing for Ray White, in Largs Bay, South Australia. And it looked magnificent!

This lit-up sign made me slow and pull in to the curb to read it.

The image and words were perfectly and crisply illuminated, the darkened street around it providing the ultimate shadowy backdrop, much like a stage.

These solar powered and otherwise real estate signboards are only going to become more prevalent and accessible – that’s our prediction.

Fast forward a year from now and I’m thinking they will be absolutely everywhere.

An image from "Digital Central", a company offering illuminated signboards. Copywright lies with Digital Central Real Estate Signage Company. — *An image from “Digital Central”, a company offering illuminated signboards. Copyright lies with Digital Central Real Estate Signage Company.*

It’s awesome to see the industry utilising such technology to stand out and do the absolute best for their vendors. It would be great to see costing eventually become accessible across a spectrum of price ranges.

I think these signs should capture up to the 4 minutes and 52 seconds allotted for average adult – plenty of time to note the name and number of the agent and phone them!

Does anyone else have any thoughts on these innovative signboards? Or are you a business who offers them as a service? Let us know on Instagram or Twitter.

Note: this post is NOT sponsored or endorsed by any company or business, it is our expressed view on a product and service.

Business, Marketing, Real Estate

Making Lemonade: Finding the Fizz in a Sour Listing

June 30, 2016 No Comments

A real estate listing popped up on my Facebook feed yesterday. It was, from the outside, an unassuming brick maisonette in a nondescript Adelaide suburb. So why was my friend, who lives interstate with no plans to move, sharing it? And then it popped up again. And again. It popped up on Twitter by that afternoon. I clicked on the link and looked at the home.

It was extraordinary, for all the wrong reasons. The carpets were brightly patterned and clashed spectacularly with the walls, which in every room were papered with pictures of cats. More pictures dangled from the ceiling in makeshift mobiles. There were shelves and cupboards lining every wall, stuffed full of dolls, toy cats, and more dolls. Bright frilly decor added to the effect, which should have come with a warning for anyone prone to epilepsy.

Kurralta Park 1/realestate.com.au — Wilson Real Estate West Richmond via realestate.com.au

Don’t believe me? Here it is.

Looking at it, I wondered what the real estate agent was thinking. Had he tried to persuade the vendor that she’d do better to clear out the personal items and pull down the ‘wallpaper’, only to be met with refusal? Or – and this is what intrigued me – had he decided to keep it as it was?

We all know the standard wisdom for home staging. Paint the walls a neutral colour. Rid the rooms of personal items. The less you have inside the house, the bigger it looks. People want to be able to see past your life and superimpose their new one onto the rooms. It’s usually good advice.

But those homes, unless they’re spectacular in their own right, don’t generate social media shares. So, faced with a completely ordinary home in a completely ordinary suburb, did the real estate agent make a very smart decision to leverage the one extraordinary thing about it?

Kurralta Park 2/realestate.com.au — Wilson Real Estate West Richmond via realestate.com.au

But Tanya, you say, if you’re inclined to talk to blog posts, what is the point of exposure if the house puts people off? Well, you’d be surprised what attracts people, for a start. I’ve already seen someone comment on how bright and kitsch the home is, and if she was looking to buy it would be right up her alley. For people who value quirky kitsch in their lives, it’s easier to imagine themselves in a home someone else has already demonstrated can be made to stand out. With hipsters entering the market, retro or ironic furnishings can be a drawcard.

And there’s a second group of buyers that listings like this attract: the bargain hunters. Never underestimate this group. They’re on the lookout for homes that are presented badly, in hopes that they’ll be the only ones who look past the decor to the bones of the structure. Ironically for them, there are so many people in this group that homes which look like bargains can sometimes go for more than the equivalent.

In February of 2016, a Sydney home made the national news when it was discovered that a dead body had been inside for eight years. The place was completely derelict, as the deceased owner had lived there alone and increasingly unwell until her lonely death. Photographs of the home’s interior, with layers of grime, mould and grim disrepair, were shared widely.

The place was auctioned as-is, with no attempts made to clean it up (save, of course, for removing the body). Bids started at $600,000 and were expected to finish at around $700,000. Instead, the tidal wave of publicity saw ten interested bidders turn up and compete fiercely, all believing that they were about to grasp a bargain – after all, how many places in inner Sydney would be in this bad a condition? In the end, the house sold for $1.1 million, not far below the median price for an equivalent home in tip-top condition.

Sometimes, a house which is poorly presented looks more attractive to bargain hunters than one which has been done up. So next time you’re landed with a vendor who doesn’t want to spend the money on staging, or a plain old ugly duckling, think outside the box. If nothing else, you’ll get a reputation for honesty, and you might just walk away with a fat commission to boot.

~ Tanya Ashworth-Keppel

Business, Marketing

How to shine when you get online: propinquity #2

May 10, 2016 No Comments

So a couple of weeks ago I wrote about the concept of propinquity, which basically says that the more people interact with you, the more they’ll be inclined to both like and trust you. Useful to keep in mind in an industry which is always struggling against the perception of untrustworthiness, right?

And I also said that I’d talk more about how to do that in the online environment. Because it’s no longer enough to sponsor the local Christmas Pageant or have your face on the side of a bus: both millennials and Gen Xers, are living their lives on the internet, and plenty of them are also looking to buy houses. They want to see that you’re a real person, and that you know your stuff, and you can do that by putting in some time online.

1. Make your website compelling

You no doubt have a website, with your current property listings available for searching. But what is drawing readers to your site in the first place? Why will potential new vendors click on that URL as opposed to the one down the road? Maybe they’ve seen your name on billboards around their areas or your shopfront has caught their eye, but you can also do a lot to make sure that your site pops up at the top of a generic search using great web copy with SEO-optimised content and a good web designer.

But great web copy only gets you so far. Remember, the aim here is to make you seem familiar before the vendor decides to find an agent. You already do this in the real world, so what you’re going for here is the equivalent of driving down a street and seeing your thoughtful, eye-catching billboards every day.

2. Make your content fresh

This is where content marketing comes in. Before a vendor has decided whether to list their properties, they’ve been researching online. They’ve costed out a renovation (too pricy!), they’ve looked at how much their area’s appreciated, they’ve done some thinking about where the best schools are or whether there are any beach suburbs that are still affordable. If your site is offering information on those peripheral issues (and the list is endless!), and they’ve read your articles, then you’re becoming both familiar, and an expert, in the back of their mind.

3. Write for other sources

It doesn’t just have to be your own website on which you’re sharing all of this: plenty of larger, high-traffic site will accept sponsored content from contributors. That means that instead of paying for an advert on a website, you’re providing them with an informative article. They save on staff writers and have quality to offer their readers, and you as the contributor have got your name out there for people to remember.

And if you’re blanching at the very idea of writing for a high traffic website, here’s the biggest secret of all: ghostwriters don’t just work with books.

4. Maintain a social media presence

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram…the number of social media platforms is growing all the time. Depending on your goals and objectives, you can maintain a social media presence across several platforms or just a few. The important thing is that you understand how each platform works, and you’re prepared to post regularly. The etiquette of social media requires that you interact with your audience, rather than just posting links: try and stick to an 80:20 rule where no more than 20% of your posts are promoting native content. Respond to posts by other people, thank them for their interactions with you, and forge connections. You’re showing people who you are, and the more natural that comes across, the better. You can outsource this work as well, by the way, but it’s important to maintain your voice, so if you can find the time to do it yourself, all the better.

If all of this seems overwhelming, remember you don’t have to do it all at once. Pick a quiet time of year – winter is coming! – and put aside some time to improve one avenue first of all. A neglected social media presence is almost worse than none at all, so start with the thing you’re confident you can maintain and add things as time permits. We’ll be publishing more how-to articles on each of these subjects, so check back in with us as you go!

~ Tanya Ashworth-Keppel

Business, Marketing, Tips

Help us help you

April 19, 2016 No Comments

This post is penned by a total film tragic, so straight up apologies for the quite obvious reference. That said, this quote and its use was flooding plenty of different creative industries after the 1996 film in which it was featured. We just thought it was time to bring it up again.

Yep, we are referring to Jerry Maguire’s spiel to Rod Tidwell. (See below, if you need a refresher. Note, all Copyright of clip remains with owners/proprietors of the original film.)

Don’t get us wrong, we aren’t in the habit of ranting at our clients, or bothering them whilst they are attempting to dress. And we pride ourselves on our really positive relationships with all of our clients.

When you communicate with a client purely via Emoji, that’s when you know you’ve built up a solid working relationship!

But what we love about this “help me help you” ethos is that in the marketing world it’s easy for pressures and strains to compete to get in the way of taking a deep breath and going back to basics.

Asking the really simple (seriously, very simple) questions of a client at the beginning of a brief, we have found anyway, have ensured that we are providing the best possible service (read: help) that we can.

Questions such as:

Who are you trying to reach with this?
Do you have any documentation that can give us a unique insight? (For example, vendor’s statements about what they love about their home, why they first built in the area, etc..)
When do you plan on publishing this and/or having your other material complete?
Can you describe your ideal “buyer”, who would read this copy and be enticed to pick up the phone and call you?
Can you cite an example of a listing/catch-phrase/campaign you’ve seen recently that has sparked your interest and what did you love about it?

We have found that when providing our service for the first time to a client, whether they are an agent from a boutique agency, or someone from a powerhouse agency, questions like these help so much.

All it takes is this initial ten-minute or so conversation and we are in the best possible situation to help and to produce something tailored, unique and exactly what is required by the client. As a result of them helping us. Win-win!

It can also save a stream of emails back and forth following a brief, which may be a hindrance on time, on both ends.

So whether you’re a copywriter reading this, or a business owner/agent/agency who currently outsources to writers such as us, it’s a good little tagline to embed in your brain for the day.

help me help you

Simple right? But effective! Have any other tips for that first efficient, effective copywriting briefing? We would love to hear them.

Marketing

Propinwhat? How to build trust with vendors

March 29, 2016 1 Comment

We’re entering an age where digital marketing has become one of the most powerful tools in the sales toolkit…and yet where are the real estate agents? In our business, we make it a point to follow as many Australian real estate agencies and businesses on Twitter as we can, and the number of times we’ve searched for a name only to find that the agent doesn’t have an account astounds us. We know it’s a busy industry, and taking the time to develop a social media presence can feel overwhelming, but if you don’t, you’re missing out on more than the opportunity to share an Instagrammed brunch. You’re missing out on sales.

There’s a concept you should understand, taken from social psychology, which is known as propinquity. It refers to way that physical or psychological nearness between two people leads to a closer relationship. The co-worker you see every day, your neighbours, the other parents around the school gate; by making contact regularly, and passing the time of day, you develop close, meaningful bonds even if you aren’t natural soulmates.

With the growth in social media, researchers have found that physical proximity isn’t the only way to develop those bonds. Virtual propinquity also exists.

And what on earth does that have to do with you? Well. Marketing and sales are all about building relationships with people. Especially for real estate agents, who are already working against the perceptions that they are untrustworthy , building trust is a critical part of landing the listing, and it’s part of the sales process that starts well before the vendor decides to sell.

Most of a customer’s decision making process happens before he or she even speaks to you. Whether they pick up the phone and ring your office instead of your competitors depends entirely on what they already know about your service and about you. That’s why referrals are so powerful.

But as the Age of the Internet grinds steadily across the horizon, the marketing landscape is changing. More and more, vendors do their research online. They’re not deciding that you’re the right agent for them based on their neighbour’s opinion anymore, they’re basing it on what they know of you online. That, combined with the need to influence their decisions before they speak to you, represents an enormous opportunity. By mapping out contact points – places where your prospective vendor is likely to go online and where you can interact with them – and then creating those interactions, you create a virtual propinquity effect.

That only works if the interactions are positive, of course: we don’t like everybody we see every day, after all! But if you’re willing to create high quality branded content (you don’t have to write it yourself!) and get that content placed in places where a contact point is likely, then your prospects will start to know who you are even before they know they’re looking for an agent. And that means they’ll walk through your door first.

How and where to place that content and optimise your social media presence is a whole post on its own, so we’ll follow this one up with more details on content marketing strategy next week. Until then, happy selling!

Marketing, Tips

Why sophisticated language sells homes

March 22, 2016 1 Comment

As we often tend to splash about, we really:

a) Love what we do
b) Revel in how much time we give back to real estate agents
c) Feel that fresh, colourful words are essential to selling property

To anyone who really thinks there isn’t the need for sophisticated language in real estate marketing, we would love to change your mind.

Think on it; how much work goes into the purchase of a home? Whether a property in question is targeted at investors, home-buyers, of the first or seasoned variety, so much work goes into the sale.

It’s a big deal.

Before you even get to that chapter, from a real estate agent’s perspective, you need to put your best feet forward, in a very competitive market. Designer threads, impeccable grooming and warm smiles are only a fraction of how to make a solid impression on your prospective buyers.

Compare the marketing of a property to that of well-known soft-drinks. Billions of dollars worldwide is spent every year on the marketing of these products. Products that, individually anyway, can cost as little as $1.50AU.

And all a buyer needs to do to acquire one is click a few buttons on a vending machine, insert coins, or wave a card – and the drink is theirs.

SO much simpler than the mountain of meetings, paperwork, hoops and phone-calls it takes to buy a property, right?

Not that we are strictly comparing apples with apples, but the cost of a home these days can be upwards of $300,000 and obviously way beyond. A very expensive ‘product’, a very important decision and one that requires much more of a comprehensive decision-making process than a can of Sprite.

So, why should you not invest a little in your marketing content? What you are selling is worth several hundred thousand beverages, in a competitive market. This means at the very least, the property needs to have features and benefits highlighted, in a sophisticated and direct way. Seeking some outside help (such as the likes of us ‘adladies’) is a brilliant decision.

Think of us as the people who come up with those insanely catchy, yet very precisely thought out, key words for those colourful and appealing drinks. But for property.

Sophisticated language, weaved into web titles, content for online and print marketing and even signboards for your properties allows your listings to, like you, have their very best feet forward (now there’s an image, a house with feet!).

What sounds BETTER?
– Three-bedroom home in Manly
– Seeking somewhere tasteful in Manly?

Then of course, there are real estate agents out there who love nothing more than taking the time to craft the words for their listings themselves and they do it well, time after time. Cudos to them, we love their work and some could seriously give us a run for our money in marketing content.

But if you fall into the more common category of being time-poor, or inspiration failing to strike for piecing these listings together, then we encourage you to contact us to let our sophisticated language really help you sell.

Marketing

Google is changing its algorithms: here’s what you need to know

December 29, 2015 No Comments

In November 2015, Google released an update on how its search engine algorithms work. Clocking in at a huge 160 pages in PDF form, I feel pretty safe in betting that you haven’t read it, and you’re not going to.

But if you want your agency to come up in web results, this is a document you need to understand, because Google has drastically changed the way it ranks searches. Long gone are the days where you could put up a website with the words ‘real estate’ in the title and hope for the best – these days, it’s all about expert advice and original, content-heavy content. That’s not discounting the other factors, of course – Backlinko enumerates a huge 200 factors taken into account to determine Google rankings, which you can read here if you’re so inclined.

You’re not? That’s fine. Luckily for all of us, we here at The Property Writers love this kind of stuff. So here’s a summary:

Clear, concise writing is favoured over duplicate, ‘scraped’ or badly written content. The stuff that’s generated through high volume content mills by writers working well below minimum wage tends to be careless and come across as lazy. The writers themselves aren’t lazy, of course – they’re writing as fast as they can just to buy groceries. But that means they don’t have time to stop and revise their copy, much less to research their content and interview experts. Which brings us to our next point.

E-A-T. That’s the new acronym for the pages Google looks for to rank as high quality. It stands for Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness. Complex topics such as finance, health and legal requires expert opinion. Relevantly for real estate agents, advice pages that “may affect a person’s finances or well being”, a category that ranges from financial advice to home remodeling and parenting, should also be written by an expert. The writer should be an authority on the topic, providing content that is useful and can be trusted for accuracy.

That means that agents who are using content management strategies to establish themselves as trusted authorities in the field need to make sure that their content is authoritative and correct. A real estate agent is an expert in the property field, and can give advice on a range of topics from preparing your home for sale to renovating for profit. But if you don’t want to write it yourself, you need a professional copywriter who can use your authority to present crisp, authoritative prose that Google will rank highly.

Here’s another acronym: YMYL. Your Money/Your Life. That refers to pages where bad advice can cost people dearly, and includes e-commerce, detailed health advice and financial how-tos. If your content includes advice on how to finance a home purchase, for example, Google is likely to put your page under extra scrutiny to make sure that it contained qualified expert advice.

If any of this sounds daunting, don’t worry. The algorithm changes are excellent news, because they represent another step towards favouring real experts offering real quality services. And that’s what you are, after all. You don’t have to compete with the hacks and the content mills: just make sure your content is written by someone who can do justice to your knowledge of the industry, and you’ll find your business goes straight to the top of the page.

Business, Marketing

A customer in the hand is worth two in the bush

October 28, 2015 No Comments

Or, why repeat business is good business

A lot of agents focus on getting the listing. After that, you sell the house, and you move on. Home buyers aren’t very good repeat clients compared to, say, technology consumers. By the end of 2013 the average Australian home owner held onto their house for 10.1 years (or 8.4 years for a unit), so once the contract is signed and the commission collected, that’s the last you’ll have to do with that customer, right?

Maybe not.

Here are some statistics every business owner should know.

A dissatisfied customer will typically tell 9-15 people about their bad experience, with one in six telling 20 people or more. A satisfied customer, by contrast, will mention it to only five;
For every customer complaint you know about, there are another 26 dissatisfied customers who have remained silent. 25 of those will leave and not return to your business; and lastly
It costs six to seven times more to attract a new customer than to retain an existing one.

Your vendor might not sell again for a decade, but their family and friends probably will. And if they’ve raved about you, that’s new business that you haven’t had to spend a dollar to attract. If they felt that you were dismissive, only focused on the money or outright trying to rip them off, however (and remember, the perception of real estate agents is pretty low to start with), they’re likely to tell everyone they know. That’s a lot of potential business down the drain.

So given all of that, why do businesses continue to ignore the importance of a consumer-centric approach?

Consumer-centrism is the idea that customer service is central to a successful business model. They don’t just aim their marketing at getting customers to buy their product; they find out what the customers want and tailor the product to those needs. They focus on retaining customers and gaining repeat business, often by initiating user surveys and interacting with customers on an ongoing basis. As contrasted with customer focused businesses, who take a short term approach to gaining and providing for customers, consumer-centrism looks to the long term. These businesses interact with their customers before, during and after the sales event. They don’t wait to receive feedback; they go out and solicit it. And if it’s negative, they set up the pathways to be able to fix it, and they let the customer know that they’re changing their approach. Customers dealing with consumer-centric businesses feel heard.

While these are examples of retailers, not service providers, it’s useful to compare and contrast two big retailers in this arena:

Bunnings, a huge DIY/trades warehouse, doesn’t just concentrate on great customer service and decent prices. They offer DIY workshops which empower people to use the products they’re buying, they hire people with knowledge of and passion for their trade, and they keep people coming back. By doing those things, they create an ongoing demand for their product, and they establish themselves as an authority in their field. Contrast that with Harvey Norman: with a huge advertising spend, regular discount cycles and a floor stocked with products and staff, the company puts a lot of effort into attracting customers and persuading them to buy. What they don’t do is generate ongoing custom.

What’s the result? In 2012 Choice published a report on customer service. Bunnings was a stand out performer, while Harvey Norman trailed at the bottom of the pack. Not surprisingly, that year Harvey Norman posted a huge 39.2% loss over the previous year.

Remember those statistics we started with? It’s easier and cheaper to retain existing customers than attract new ones. If you aren’t consumer-centric, you will spend more money on marketing and experience a higher turnover of customers compared to the companies who have a solid, loyal customer base and can concentrate on what they do best; running a business.

Next week we’ll look at some practical tips on how to create a consumer-centric business model. Until then, remember that your relationship with your clients should be a conversation, not a broadcast.

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