In marketing it’s well known that the right data can mean the difference between success and failure.
Whilst most businesses are now very knowledgeable about the targeted data that’s available in the marketplace, many are still overlooking the valuable prospects that are left languishing in their own CRM.
Every day companies interact with individuals who for whatever reason do not become a customer at that time.
For estate agents this might be the owner of a property you valued that ultimately listed with a competitor, a buyer that viewed one of the properties you are marketing, or even vendors you sold for in the past. Then you’ve got the scores of existing landlords and tenants who you only interact with if there’s a problem with the property or issue with the service.
Retailers have got this nailed. You land on their website and straight away you’re offered a discount to sign up to their mailing list. Then you become part of a well-oiled marketing process. They remain in constant contact with you, sending you details of offers and products that they think might pique your interest.
They will tie a scattering of emails in with a smart direct mail piece, either their latest brochure or details of the upcoming sale. The really savvy ones will then use external data to further match their activity to your current requirements – a specific offer because they know you have a garden, or a perfectly timed message since they know you’ve just moved into your new home. They apply this strategy whether you’re a regular customer, or someone who’s not yet made that first purchase.
So, why are a large number of estate agents still missing the trick?
In the world post GDPR, everyone is so careful to ensure that they’ve got the correct permission to hold an individual’s information and to contact them in the future, but many then fail to actually use it!
At the very least, those people whose house you’ve valued and the ones who’ve viewed a property, are a very wide audience for you to market your stock to. And what’s even better is that in most cases, you even know what type of house they are looking for.
Hands up if you’ve got tenants and landlords who just sit on your books month in, month out until suddenly they get in touch to say they’re moving out or taking their property to another management company?
Staying in regular contact with your tenants could mean that when they’re ready to move on, they’ll look to you to find them another property. If they’re ready to buy their first home then you’ll be on hand to guide them through the mortgage process and recommend conveyancers.
Have you maximised the opportunity with your landlords, or do they have other properties that you’re not managing – have you asked?
Once you’ve realised exactly what you’re missing out on by not maximising the potential of your existing data, you can implement a communication journey for each of the types of audiences you have;
When you’ve got that sorted, then it’s time to start thinking about getting the timing right, tailoring your message to key milestones in your prospect’s moving journey.
Whether it’s knowing that someone whose property you valued is now out of their sole agency period with your competitor (and still haven’t sold!), or that the couple who have done viewings with you have just reduced their property price as they’re struggling to sell with their current agent, or even that one of your previous clients is starting to think about moving house.
It’s all about using key triggers to ensure that you’re sending the right message, to the right person, at the right time.
Augmenting your existing data with this kind of invaluable information will not only increase response rates as you’re talking to people at exactly the right time, it will also improve your ROI as you’re not wasting money communicating with individuals who’ve just moved or enrolling every person on your database in every campaign.
Hopefully this should give you some food for thought, but if you want to know more about how to generate valuations and instructions from the data you already hold, just get in touch with TwentyEA.