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In the world of digital transformation and marketing, chatbots have quickly risen in status from quirky gadgets to the new must-have automation tool. The technology behind them is helping businesses of all sizes engage effectively with their customers, and estate agencies should be taking note! 

If you’re new to the world of AI and chatbots, a bot is basically a computer program that simulates human conversation through voice commands, text chats or even both. For example, voice chat bots are now commonly used by businesses with large customer service operations – banks being a prime example – that are automated programs built to interact with customers like a human would, and cost very little to engage with.

The job of a chatbot is to engage with your customers and quickly deal with day-to-day enquiries – better yet, they can work 24-hours a day, 365-days a year and are not limited by time or a physical location. For estate agents, this functionality should certainly be piquing their attention as an effective chatbot can essentially deal with their business’s customer service right around the clock; meaning vital human resources can be freed to focus on more business-critical activities.

How an effective chatbot can help estate agents’ lead generation activities

Of course, a good chatbot can do far more than simply deal with day-to-day customer service enquiries; they can also help support effective lead generation tactics – and here’s why…

• Chatbots can help with accurate data capture

We’ve all had one of those days; the phones are constantly ringing, you’re dealing with enquiry after enquiry, and you’ve only got so many notepads to hand! Missing out or incorrectly capturing vital customer details can write off the quality of a lead – and this is where Chatbots can prevent this from happening.

Text chatbots are a genuinely effective and accurate data capture tool; encouraging the user to provide the details you need to help serve them better. For new sales generation, a chatbot can accurately capture the vital information you need to help deliver a bespoke, personal service – and all automatically, too!

• Chatbots can help build brand engagement and awareness

Effective PropTech and software such as chatbots can help your estate agency stand out from your rivals because, as we all know, customers are fickle and will often go with the agency that makes things as easy as possible for them. Chatbots can provide a qualitative solution that requires minimum customer effort or input any time of the day or night; plus, chatbots are less prone to human errors, meaning a better overall customer experience that can help support better brand engagement for your estate agency.

• Chatbots have relatively low development costs
  
  

Chatbots have been at the cutting edge of accessible artificial intelligence for some time now that means for even small businesses and start-ups, they can be a cost-effective asset. Much of a chatbot’s functionality requires less development costs in comparison to a bespoke application development; in fact, most of the back-end functionality is simple to use for even tech novices!

Take our Chatbot, Shortcut – which is based on the Landbot platform. This system has simple template-based functionality and pre-programmed functionality in-built – meaning that the job of creating automated question-based responses is truly simple! Plus, it’s interoperable with virtually all the big estate agent software solutions; meaning that enquiries are captured effectively with very little additional development requirements.

• Chatbots can initiate better user interactions
  
  

Did you know that 59% of consumers don’t like to use the phone when first engaging with a business? The virtual and social worlds are now the preferred first touchpoint of choice for the public, and this is especially true of the Millennial generation! So, using a chatbot can help encourage first contact from phone-shy consumers by initiating and maintaining those initial enquiries and conversation.

Going beyond initial front desk enquiries, many chatbots can ‘learn’ how to best respond to queries based on ongoing user-based input. This means that the more a bot is utilised, the more it learns and can tailor its responses – enhancing both the user experience, building trust and creating more accurate lead data for you to use in your customer nurturing activities.

• They can streamline and speed up your agency’s back office processes
  
  

Finally, chatbots are magnificently efficient and can effortlessly multi-task. For example, human agents are only capable of handling limited conversations at any one time, whereas chatbots can handle multiple conversations all at the same time. And, as we mentioned earlier, the information is generally captured more effectively too, thanks to it coming directly from the user.

Employing a chatbot at a busy estate agency to complement your human workforce is a fantastic way to boosting efficiency, reduce effort and reduce costs – meaning through one effortless solution, an agency can become more responsive, cost effective and engaging all in one fell swoop. Now that’s not bad now, is it?

The past year here at Webdadi has seen the company grow and achieve new levels of success; and as a result, we are looking to recruit a sales and marketing intern.

The role

We’re looking for a dynamic and enthusiastic intern to join our growing Sales and Marketing teams. This is the ideal opportunity for someone who’s perhaps finishing college or higher education and is looking for some real-world on-the-job experience working in a fun and fast-paced web development agency that encourages entrepreneurial spirit and project ownership.

This entry-level opportunity will give you the chance to work with experienced digital marketers and business development managers; learning the ins-and-outs of working for a fast growing and successful digital agency, and undertaking a range of roles with a focus on sales lead generation, digital marketing and online content creation.

The main duties will be:

• Conducting lead research and data entry for our Sales Team
• Analysing postcodes countrywide for sales and marketing targeting
• Clarifying lead data via telephone and email communications
• Database management and administration, ensuring the information contained on our Salesforce system is accurate and kept up to date
• Responding to and referring business enquiries to appropriate sales teams
• Assisting the Marketing Manager in the development of digital and direct marketing campaigns
• Developing our brand across social channels, including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
  • This includes developing social campaigns, content calendars and building an active social presence
• Researching Google keywords for top searches and building content campaigns around targeted search terms
• Understand and develop our targeted customer’s user intent and journey.

This is a year’s internship and if you do well and develop your skillsets in this time, there is the opportunity for a permanent position within the company either with our sales or marketing teams.

The person

• A positive, professional attitude with confident communication skills (both written and verbal)
• Ability to work in a team or independently
• A keen eye for detail and a creative mind
• The ability to quickly and successfully build rapport
• Confident and outgoing personality who’s not afraid of the phone

Skills & Experience

Must haves

• Is legally allowed to work in the UK and is willing/able to commute to Putney once lockdown measures are lifted (WFH in the meantime)
• Is prepared to work hard to achieve success and career development 
• Is excited about personal and professional development
• Has a keen interest in Digital Marketing, Business Development or Sales
• Is comfortable with using social media platforms
• Is comfortable using MS Office programmes such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook

Desirables

• Has experience with database, sales or lead management software (desirable, but not essential)
• Has a Marketing, Advertising, Media or Business-oriented qualification (desirable, but not essential)
• Is able to use Adobe software, such as Photoshop or Illustrator (desirable, but not essential)

Benefits

• On-going training and mentoring in both marketing and business development
• On-going professional and career development opportunities for the successful candidate
• Opportunity to work with an innovative and growing digital development agency in the heart of Putney, London
• Supportive and fun working environment that recognises and rewards hard work and success
• 20 days of paid holiday per year, plus the usual public holidays in England. In addition, the company generally grants an additional 3 bonus days’ extra holiday, at its discretion, specifically during the Christmas festive period between the 26th of December and New Year, and closes the offices accordingly
• Discretionary bonus scheme
• Company pension scheme
• £19,000 per annum

To apply for this position, please follow the link below and send a covering letter and up-to-date CV via the link below, or directly to paul.bauer@webdadi.com. The closing date for this role is Tuesday 11th May 2021.

As we’re all too painfully aware, the past 12 months have been like no other: lockdowns, distancing, endless zoom calls and a distinct lack of toilet roll for some reason… But, despite all this upheaval, the property market has remained buoyant and as the economy begins to thaw from its deep freeze, estate agents now have a huge opportunity to capitalise.

Back in May last year, we wrote about the post-lockdown challenges facing estate agencies and that last year, there were still a huge number of factors potentially holding back a full-on boom in the property market. However, with the country now seemingly approaching the light at the end of its pandemic tunnel, everyone is now gearing up for a summer like no other – and the property market is expected to really hot up!

It’s predicted that 2021 will see the property prices soaring and that this boom is expected to last around five years. Driven primarily by the relaxation of the Stamp Duty, the market is expecting to see an influx of new house buyers eager to jump on the housing ladder, and vendors all equally eager to take advantage of rising house prices. For estate agents, the immediate future looks bright; but this surge in activity should come with a warning…

Get The Easy Stuff Right First Time, Every Time!

For those Estate Agents who’ve weathered the past 12 months, now’s the chance to make hay whilst the sun shines; but it’s also a time when you should focus on improving your business, and this is where it’s utterly crucial to not forget the easy stuff. But, what are the small, easy things an estate agency might be overlooking that could be damaging their lead generation activities?

• Striking Whilst the Iron is Hot

We’re sorry to tell you this, but if you’re still relying on a pen and paper to capture critical lead information, or just a simple email inbox to capture enquiries, you’re really missing a trick. Ask yourself: How are leads into your estate agency captured? Do they go to a singular lead generation inbox? Do you have an auto response acknowledging their enquiry?
 
Those issues may only seem like little things, but that initial email, call or form fill is a critical moment in your marketing funnel. At that point, your lead is good to go – they’re in the right mindset to talk business with you! The longer you leave that lead hanging, the quicker the cooling off process can set in - undermining any positive pre-conceptions and quickly damaging your chances of getting a vital instruction!

When a new lead is generated by your agency, you need to ensure that your lead management software captures all relevant information about the lead, and that you’re able to easily nurture them with a mix of targeted and timely sales and marketing content. You need to ensure that your software gives you the tools to not only see your latest leads and where they’ve come from, but also action your response instantly – all whilst tracking and managing your contact history.

If your lead management software doesn’t do all this, you really could start lagging behind your competitors…
 

• Enshrine a Set Call-back Process for Enquiries

A call-back isn’t just the act of calling potential customers back on their phone. It’s intrinsically linked to the customer experience; and the better overall customer experience your estate agency offers, the better the chance you’ll have of creating a brand advocate who’ll be more willing to use you again and recommend you to others. No pressure then!

If you offer a call-back service, ensure that the process for completing them is set in stone at your agency. Remember: that one of the most important attributes of good customer service is a fast response time – in fact, research has shown that 88% of customers expect a call-back within 60-minutes of their enquiry. Anything more, and you could be letting that hot lead cool off or, worse still, speak to a competitor!

• Ensure Your Marketing Comms are Personalised

No one likes receiving spam – be it through their letterbox, their email inbox or in their dealings with businesses! People want to be seen as individuals, with their own unique requirements and needs; so sending personalised emails and following up on past messages can build crucial customer engagement at every stage of the buyer’s journey. Plus, there are also some fantastic benefits of offering personalised communications, including:

• They can help you stand out within your target audience’s inbox with content tailored around their needs, requirements and pain points
   
• Build trust! Remember, the expected property boom is expected to see an influx of new buyers and sellers, and being seen as trustworthy can give you the edge over your competitors
   
• Your emails will be more likely to be opened and clicked-through if the content engages with your audience. Plus, it can also be beneficial to your own website’s SEO performance
   
• Improve the customer experience and awareness of your brand – especially if your content is sent to the right people at the right time.

This part also links nicely back to how you interact with your leads – if your lead generation software doesn’t have the facility to create and implement personalised comms to your customers, you may never build true customer engagement.

• Make Sure Your Website SEO is on Point

Finally, a prime factor in good website SEO is the use of content and wording on your website. Basically, the content on your site is what a search engine ‘reads’ when a user types a search phrase into its search function. Based on what is written on your site, it’ll be ranked according to relevance of the search, the number of instances of the phrase being used on the site, and its popularity with users visiting the site when typing in similar or identical key phrases or search terms.

Now, at this point, you may be saying to yourself ‘but I publish lots of content thanks to our sales listings!’ And to an extent, you’d be right; however, these listings tend to be list-based content (so not search-term driven) and removed from websites once properties are sold – meaning they’re only visible to search engines for a potentially short amount of time.

Good quality SEO-supporting content should be evergreen in nature and based on the subjects and search terms your prospects are actively looking for. This way, you stand a better chance of being visible on search engine results for the audiences you want to reach.

Webdadi is helping Estate Agents across the country make and save money through class-leading estate agent software – find out more by hitting this link.

With so many of us spending our free time scrolling online, a website is often the first touchpoint a person has with a business or service.

So, how is your website performing? Is it really generating the leads your agency needs to flourish? Or are you having difficulty capturing all the vital information you need to help nurture your leads into fully-fledged customers?

If you need to up your lead gen game, don’t worry: the team here at Webdadi is here to help…

Join us on Friday 23rd April 2021 from 10am - 12pm GMT for our free Webinar that will help you win more website leads.


Along with Spec - one of the country's leading PPC and SEO consultancies - we’re holding a free webinar on Friday 23rd April from 10am - 12pm GMT which goes into detail about how you can implement effective lead generation tactics at your estate agency. If you’ve never given much thought to lead generation strategy, or simply looking to improve your new business tactics; then this is the webinar for you! We’ll be providing you with all the industry tips, tricks and actions you’ll need start driving more leads for your estate agency.

Here’s what we’ll be covering:

• How to identify key challenges facing your website
• How to generate more leads from sellers (and buyers)
• How to increase your website conversion rates
• Real-world strategies and examples
• Tips, tricks and insights into enhancing digital marketing activities to support successful lead gen.

Don’t have time to watch live? No problem! When you register, we’ll send you a copy of the recording straight to your inbox, where you can watch it at your leisure.

To register for this fantastic free Webinar, just hit either of the Register links on this page, and we look forward to seeing you on the 23rd April!

In the increasingly crowded virtual world, an estate agent’s website has one heck of a remit. It’s your shop-front, your stock list, your content library, your brand identity… And that’s even before we start talking about its part in website lead generation!

The fact of the matter is, that your website is the hub of all your marketing activities: a critical asset that can help you build genuine engagement with visitors, and help them make informed purchasing decisions that, ideally, they’ll want to make with your business.

So, here’s the big question: is your estate agency website doing all of that… or, is it just sitting there doing virtually nothing?

A Critical Asset, or a Critical Waste of Money?

For estate agents, the role their website plays really can’t be underestimated. It’s a place where people will most likely be making the biggest purchases of their life, and as for vendors, they’ll be looking to entrust the sale of their property to a company they barely know to get the best possible deal they can. These are hugely important decisions which aren’t solely based on flashy, aspirational imagery or punchy sales patter – they have to be a lot cleverer than that.

This is where the lead generation aspect comes in. In its rawest form, lead generation is all about creating good quality customer leads for your agency’s sales teams, and helping your visitors down your own company’s sales funnel. Your aim should be to convert your website visitors into good quality leads, and it’s the job of your website to inform, educate and persuade your visitors that they should take an interest in both your properties, and your brand.

Basically, it’s not enough for your site just to ‘look good’, or display a wide array of properties or have just a contact form – anyone can do that! Your website has to be the hub for all aspects of your lead generation activities. If it’s not, then honestly, it’s really just a waste of cold hard cash – both in terms of development costs and all the leads you’ll likely miss out on, too.

Simple things you can do to help your website lead generation activities

Now, we won’t beat around the bush here: there are a huge number of factors that can affect your company’s website lead generation activities; including its search rankings, it’s mobile responsiveness, its content… even where it’s hosted can play a part! However, before we get too deep down those rabbit holes, there are a number of simple things you can do which can help your lead gen activities, and also help drive more targeted traffic to your website.

Ensure Your Site uses Clear Call to Actions

A Call to Action (CTA) is, well, exactly that! It acts as a prompt for visitors to take an action you want them to take – in lead generation terms, a CTA can prompt a visitor to do something which starts them off down your company’s sales funnel; so that action could be completing a website contact form, downloading a piece of content (a brochure, for example), or completing an online instant valuation.

CTA’s should give the path of least resistance to your prospects to engage with you, but also help you to understand what they’re looking at on your site. They should also be simple, use great call to action phrases and ideally, be measurable too – which brings us nicely onto…

Raise your Software Game

Your website should be tied into an effective content management system and your lead generation software; this way, you can track your visitors all the way through your sales funnel; from first-time visitors, to fully-qualified sales leads! If your website doesn’t have one or the other, then you are seriously missing out…

To give an example, let’s take the CTAs we mentioned previously. A genuinely effective CMS should allow you to track how many user clicks they get, allow you to split-test variations, and allow you to track the type of CTAs and content your users are engaging with. For lead generation, this is absolutely critical as this type of data can mean you can create more targeted content for your visitors – and this even includes your more traditional print-based activities.

Use keyword research to define your content

How are visitors reaching your website? If they’re using your company name to find you, great! But, what about the ones that don’t know your company name, or even know you exist: how do you attract them to your site organically through search engines such as Google?

Conducting keyword research is a great place to start when it comes to defining your site’s content; plus, it can tell you:

• What are people searching for
• How many people are searching for it
• And in what format they want that information.

Keyword research will allow you to create more targeted website content to your desired audiences, and this – if done successfully of course – will not only help your website rank better on search engines, but also communicate more effectively to your target audience.

Share Informative and Engaging Content Often

Following on from your keyword research, you should be updating your website with keyword-driven informative and engaging content – not just sales listings. This is why we recommend having a blog on your website, and not just dismissing it as a ‘nice to have’ – it can actually be the lynchpin of your site’s online presence!

Still not convinced? Well, Inbound Marketing gurus Hubspot conducted research that found businesses who actively blog enjoy on average:

• 55% more visitors
• 97% more inbound links
• And 434% more indexed pages…

…Compared to online businesses who don’t. In short, having an active blog can make a MASSIVE difference to your website traffic… and more traffic, means more leads, and yup – more sales.

Don’t Inundate your Prospects with Email Marketing

Email marketing is of course one of the most effective lead generation techniques a business can use; however, you should be careful not to use a scattergun approach or, worse still, overloading your leads’ inboxes.

The emails you send should contain targeted content based on where they are in your sales funnel. It should also be based on similar content they may have interacted with on your site (this is where a decent CMS and lead gen software comes in); so, if a visitor has been looking at a 2-bedroom property in a particular area on your website, then send them content based on similar criteria – not just property stock you have on your books!

Easter is nearly upon us! We hope you all have the opportunity to relax, unwind and indulge in some sweet treats over the upcoming long Bank Holiday weekend.

For the team here at Webdadi, we’ll be taking some well-earned time off between Friday 2nd April to Monday 5th April; meaning our (virtual) offices will be closed during this time.

However, if any of our customer experience any business-critical issues over the upcoming Easter break, we have a dedicated email address you can reach us on at outofhours@webdadi.com and our Out of Hours team will respond to your email as quickly as possible.

In the meantime, we wish everyone a happy, peaceful and relaxing Easter break.

Got five minutes to spare? Then why not check out our portfolio? We've done some amazing work for estate agents across the country - and they've all led to fantastic long term results... Just hit this link to take a peek.

Yes yes yes… We all know that digital marketing is possibly one of the most effective generators of leads when it comes to growing your business; but do printed marketing materials and direct mail still have a vital part to play in how you raise brand awareness and win new customers for your agency?

As you’re no doubt aware, printed marketing materials – such as flyers, leaflets, direct mail pieces and brochures – have been around for centuries. They can instantly grab your audience’s attention, and unlike your web-based activities, printed materials can be picked up, put down and referred back to instantly at a later date. They can also be passed onto friends, family or colleagues, meaning your messaging can reach even more potential customers… for free!

Now, on paper (no pun intended) this all sounds great: but in recent years, digital marketing has been seen as the successor to your conventional print ads. Virtually everyone now has a smart phone, or spends at least a portion of their days browsing the web – meaning many businesses have shifted their advertising and marketing activities online.

It’s also the case that digital marketing is seen as a more efficient, cost-effective and targeted way to reach your audiences. For example, when you can target users with Facebook ads at a granular level – using their job titles, age, locations and interests in order to reach them – a direct mailer may just seem a little, well, old fashioned…

So, here’s the thing: should you continue with your printed marketing activities? Or should you put all your estate agency’s efforts into effective digital marketing activities instead?

Your Digital Activities can Support Successful Print Marketing Campaigns

Yup! As you might have guessed from the blog’s title, your digital activities can actually support successful print campaigns, rather than consigning them to the marketing dustbin. Whilst online activities can be extremely cost-effective when it comes to lead generation, printed media still holds tremendous power over people – and there’s a few core reasons behind this:

• Printed media is seen as more ‘trustworthy’ – We’ve all experienced annoying pop-up ads when browsing the web. And we bet you’ve probably got some form of AdBlocker on your browser, too? They can often be seen as intrusive or, worse still, misleading – especially if the ads lead to a nefarious or unsecure website. Printed adverts, however, aren’t generally seen in the same way as they give readers a choice between engaging with them or not.
   
• They allow more creativity – Unlike an online advert, Printed media is tangible, whilst the messaging can be direct and even beautiful! If aimed at the right audience, it can create genuine resonance – and that’s something that online adverts can often rarely do.
   
• It’s direct! – Regardless of how you view flyers or leaflets that come through your door, it’s very hard to simply ignore something that is actually in your hand. Emails can be ignored or simply deleted; but printed materials can illicit a more direct response from the recipient.

With so many strong positives as to how print media can be effective, it’s crucial that if you do decide to have a flyer printed or a direct mailer sent out, you know it’s going to an audience who’ll truly engage with it. And this is where your digital marketing activities come in…

Use Lead Management and Marketing Software that Accurately Identifies your Audiences

Before you start mailing out flyers or posting leaflets through letterboxes, how do you know the people receiving them are actually interested in your agency’s services? A good website with strong lead management software behind it can help you do just that.

Good lead management software will not just capture data that comes in when and if a prospect completes a form: ideally, it should be able to show the popular areas requesting valuations on your website, and allow you to export an address list of all properties in those areas. These can then be used as targets for your print-based activities – encouraging buyers to use your services should they wish to sell their property, or sharing new properties for sale to areas who may have been actively searching your website.

Have continuity of brand and messaging
 
Whilst you’ve got the opportunity to be more creative with your printed materials, it’s important to have a continuity of brand, look and messaging across all your materials.

The main idea behind brand continuity is that your potential customers should get the same approach and experience from any touchpoint they may have with your business – be it your website, your digital ads or even your telephone calls. So for estate agents, this can be particularly important as continuity in your brand and messaging can ensure that your agency gains crucial market visibility, a reliable image and the competitive edge it needs to thrive.

Ensure your prospects are given the path of least resistance

Flyers and direct mail pieces are great for building brand awareness; but to make them truly successful lead generators, you need to ensure they encourage clear and easy actions you want them to take – mainly, engaging with you directly.

Adding QR codes and personalised URLs to your printed materials is a really effective and simple way to monitor engagement with your print campaigns, add vital leads into your lead management software, and also contribute towards accurate lead generation – helping you create more effective and target digital campaigns in the process! The easier you make it for prospects to take the action you want them to take, the more chance there is they’ll do exactly that.

Include strong calls to action

Finally, if you’re going to send direct mails to encourage people to contact you, ensure it has a strong call to action that leads to a dedicated landing page that replicates the messaging of the mail you’re sending – don’t just send them to a generic page on your website or just include a telephone number.

Building a dedicated landing page on your website for people to visit from your mailer means you can accurately track the success of your direct mail campaign. If you also include a contact form on the same landing page, you’ll then be able to capture vital prospect information that you can then look to nurture and engage with.

Find out how our tailored property and marketing software is helping estate agents across the UK win more website leads – just hit this link.

Generating new sale instructions is possibly one of the most labour-intensive and profitable aspects of running an estate agency. After all, new instructions means new business and vital income!

However, whilst agencies will undoubtedly plough a lot of time and effort into securing new sale instructions, it’s often the case that up to 50% of new sale instructions will sell through a second agent. That’s 50% of your hard work, nurturing, time and money all potentially lost to a near rival, and basically completely wasted. For any estate agency, this is bad news; but for start-up agents who are still finding their feet, this is potentially catastrophic.

There are of course a couple of obvious factors which may contribute to losing that new sale instruction which revolve around price; in particular, the over-valuation of the property by the original selling agent, or perhaps unrealistic expectations of the vendor. However, there are also a multitude of pain points which can lead to a vendor deciding to enlist a second agency – and they’re not all as obvious as you may think.

So, what can be done to reduce the chances of you losing vital new sale instructions to a second agent, improve your business and build genuine customer engagement that will lead to those vital sales?

Up Your Agency’s Marketing Game

When you talk about estate agent marketing, this isn’t just how you present and sell yourselves to your customers: it’s also about how you market your vendor’s homes, too. You have to give as much attention to their properties as you would your own marketing campaigns, otherwise, there will be a disconnect between how your brand, and your stock of properties.

Ask yourself:

• Are images of vendor’s homes created with a ‘that’ll do’ mentality? Or are they visually impactful, stylish and portray your vendor’s properties in the best possible light? If your answer is the former, then it might be time to change your approach.
   
• How impactful is your marketing content? When it comes to online marketing, words play a hugely important role in reaching and engaging with your audiences. Do your property listings blend factual and emotive language that highlight key selling points, and generates a lifestyle description for the reader? And do your listings match the tone and feel of your core company content? If not, it simply may not be generating that critical buyer engagement needed to sell properties effectively, or raise your own brand awareness.
   
• Is your website visible and intuitive? A great looking website is one thing; but is it easy for visitors to find what they need an engage with you accordingly? Whilst you may be promoting properties via portals like Rightmove, it’s easy to overlook your own site’s organic search visibility – if you can’t be found on search engines, it’s unlikely buyers will be able to see your marketed properties.

Build True Customer Engagement

Are your vendors regularly being updated as to property views on your website? Are you taking the time to make recommendations as to how they can increase their chances of selling in your position as property experts? Are you returning their calls or emails in a timely manner? All these aspects revolve around customer engagement and the bottom line is, is that if you’re failing to communicate with your vendors effectively, you’ll never build a trusting partnership that’ll ultimately help sell properties.

Be Active on Social Media Channels

Customers are savvy, and will have more than likely done their research on your agency before instructing you to sell their property. Part of this research will often involve checking out not just your website; but also your social media channels. In fact, social is usually the first touch point in which a consumer connects with a business, and it can have a significant impact on how your business is viewed and evaluated by both vendors and buyers.

For vendors, seeing their property being actively shared and promoted on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter will give them confidence and trust that you’re using every available channel with which to sell their home. If social doesn’t play a part in your estate agency marketing, it’s time to make a change…

Accurately Identify and Nurture Your Customer Base

How do you know there’s a market for the vendor’s property? Are you able to track the specific geographical areas people are searching in on your website? And are the leads you receive accurate, relevant and up-to-date? Many of these aspects will depend on what type of content management system (or CMS) or estate agent software you’re using, and if it’s able to give you crucial lead data on who’s viewing your website and properties.

As an example, the estate agent software we offer to our clients has features that allow agents to capture user postcode searches even if it’s not submitted into the property site search. This means you can get a true idea of what people are searching for, and if the properties you’re selling are really fitting their search criteria.

And Don’t Forget the Basics!

Covid-19 may have meant we’ve all spent more time at home, but that shouldn’t stop you from the real-world activities every vendor expects from a good estate agent! This includes putting up sale boards outside the vendor’s property, and also ensuring you’re updating your window or digital signage.

With the housing market on course for huge levels of growth over the next five years, there’ll undoubtedly be huge volumes of new vendors all keen to take their next steps up the property ladder – don’t lose them to your rivals!

Find out how Webdadi is helping Estate Agents across the country make and save money – just hit this link to find out more

Despite Covid-19 playing havoc with everyone’s lives right now, the property market appears to be booming – with many industry insiders forecasting that the next 5 years in particular will see both house prices and transactions heading into the stratosphere.

This bold prediction means that for estate agents, the market is going to be more competitive than ever. There will undoubtedly be an influx of new buyers looking to take advantage of the Chancellor’s extension of the stamp duty holiday and, with interest rates looking on track to remain at their record lows, the housing market is certainly shaping up to be extremely lively!

This is of course great news for estate agents up and down the country; but, in order to fully take advantage of this new property boom, agents can’t afford to rest on their laurels and simply sit back in the expectation of customers walking through their (virtual) doors. Now’s the time to take business improvement seriously and make some simple changes that will maximise your lead generation activities and, most importantly, generate more successful sales leads for your agency.

The 5 things Estate Agents Need to Change to Improve their Business

The average conversion rate for websites is globally around 2-5%; now this does of course depend on what constitutes a ‘conversion’ for you, but with the housing market going through its latest growth spurt, it’s time you really give some thought to how you categorise and convert those leads into paying customers effectively. Ask yourself: is your website really generating the leads you need for your business to flourish? Or is it just a ‘doing a job’?

Whilst your website may look great or get plenty of traffic, it’s how you capture, manage and nurture your leads that will really give your business solid and sustained growth. People will of course always need homes to live in; but savvy estate agents will use effective lead generation tactics to build their own brand awareness, nurture vendor and seller prospects, qualify their leads, and ultimately, generate sustained and significant long-term revenues.

If improving your conversion rates and lead gen are something you’re looking for some in-depth advice and guidance on, why not download our comprehensive guide on the subject? It’s free, and can be downloaded right here.

When people make an enquiry via a website, it’s often the case that their intentions are fresh in their mind and they’re in the right mindset to start talking business. So, the longer you leave that person hanging, the more chance there is of that intention to diminish – or worse still, lead to a rival business. Remember, if you’re getting an enquiry from someone, they’ll most likely have sent a similar enquiry to a rival of yours, and research from InsideSales.com shows that 35–50% of sales often go to the business that responds to their leads first.

With housing sales on the rise, ask yourself: are potentially hot leads being lost in email inboxes or complicated by unintuitive enquiry forms? Do you make it easy for a customer to reach you when they’re ready to talk? Are you capturing lead information accurately so you can offer the best possible service to your client? And, do you have an enshrined process as to how you turn enquiries round to become genuine qualified leads?

Missed opportunities are perhaps the biggest growth killers a business can experience. If you’re working hard to generate good quality leads for your business, but are unable to respond to enquiries quickly and accurately, you’re potentially leaving money on the table…

We know that in a busy sales-based environment, keeping track on your team’s performance can be difficult – and this can be made doubly difficult if you don’t have effective, dedicated estate agent software.

A decent customer relationship management system (or CRM for short) should make the business of managing all aspects of your business easy: including managing your team’s own performance. Your estate agent software should actively prompt you and your staff to take actions that boost your own  business’s performance, whilst at the same time, give you the visibility of your negotiator's daily activities. This will mean you’re never in the dark about how things are really going!

This aspect of business improvement also links nicely back to improving your conversions, too. A truly effective estate agent CRM should allow you to view your conversion rates of both valuations to instructions, viewings offers and deals ratios, plus your average selling price compared to your market price, all across your branches and your individual negotiators. If your system doesn’t do this, it may be time for a rethink.

As a leading developer of estate agent websites, one of the most common questions we get asked is ‘How do we get onto page 1 of Google?’ And it’s a valid question!

As of January 2021, there are some 200+ ranking factors that can affect how a page ranks on Google: and whilst that may seem like a daunting number, many of the factors simply boil down to good practice and good content. The best part about this is, that improvement is not particularly difficult to achieve, either; you just need the right tools for the job, and a little persistence!
 
In order to start improving your search rankings, you need a website content management system (CMS) that allows you to update, add and evaluate content to your site easily and regularly. With the housing market becoming increasingly crowded, being readily visible on search engines has never been more critical – so, if your website’s CMS is unintuitive, difficult to use or not giving you vital user intel, perhaps it’s time to look at a more effective alternative.

Lastly, when was the last time you undertook some serious marketing analysis? Whilst this is commonplace for estate agents who are just getting started, it’s something that should be done on a regular basis as part of any ongoing business improvement strategy – ensuring you can formulate a long-term plan on how to run your business successfully and most importantly, not get left behind by your competitors.

With the housing market ramping up in 2021, it may be time for you to revisit your own company’s SWOT analysis – this will allow you to see if your original observations are still accurate, or if there are elements which may need to be addressed in order to fully realise your own business’s potential. In addition, give some thought to the following factors that may affect your company’s growth in 2021; including:

• Market size and growth rate in your area
• Trends in the market
• Market profitability
• Key factors to success with your business
• Your own distribution channels.

Find out how Webdadi is helping Estate Agents across the country make and save money – just hit this link to find out more

For years, the estate agency industry has rallied against Rightmove’s ever increasing price rises. Agents feel continually squeezed to the point at which monthly budgets are at breaking point.

But what is the answer? Agents seem to be stuck in a never-ending cycle of “can’t live with you but can’t live without you” as they grapple to rally against Rightmove’s seeming stranglehold.

For years, the proclaimed answer was always “there needs to be competition.” Boomin’ is the latest challenger in a long line of self-proclaimed heroes stepping up to slay the Rightmove dragon. We’ve seen such portals come and go, so it will be interesting to see if Michael Bruce and his team can offer a genuine alternative for agents to turn to, or if they’ll simply be gobbled up by the monster that’s consumed all previous challengers.

But in all this wrangling about challenger portals and market competition, we forget the people who have given Rightmove such power over the years. The consumer.

The British public makes 127.5 million visits a month to Rightmove. It has become a brand that has successfully synonymised buying a house, with searching on Rightmove. The consumer seemingly knows no different than to search on Rightmove and find their happy.

Can an agent actually afford not to be on a portal that most vendor’s and landlords see as vital if they are going to sell or let their house?

Well, let’s break that down a second. 127.5m visits a month is how Rightmove justifies its monthly fee to agents, and to be fair to Rightmove, that is a hell of a lot of website hits. But for the individual agent justifying their spend, how many actual visits to your properties does exporting to Rightmove guarantee? Furthermore, how many leads does it get you, and what’s the quality of those leads?

The issue an agent has with their listings on Rightmove, is that your property stock is effectively homogenised. It’s just another property for people to view that either attracts them, or it doesn’t. Sure, you can affect the quality of the listing by using professional photography, video tours, and ensuring a good quality write up, but in essence your property simply joins a templated conveyor belt, a beauty parade for property.

I suspect an agent’s leads from Rightmove boil down to one metric; the more stock you list, the more leads you get. If I’m wrong about that, you can stop reading this article, but if that sounds like your business, carry on.

What if there was another way to attract those applicants? If Rightmove has no clear USP for your business, can you attract the same level of applicants elsewhere?

Yes. Through your website. We know that broadly, your website is to help you attract vendors and landlords (if you’re not doing that then you’re doing it wrong), and the portals are where you get the majority of applicant leads. But what if you could also attract high volumes of applicants through your website as well?

More and more consumers are turning to Google to simply search for “property for sale in X” to find their dream property. Search terms as “houses for sale in X” or “flats for sale in X” are targeted, specific searches by applicants with a clear criteria and intent.

Good SEO on your website can ensure your website appears at the top of these searches, increasing the likelihood of attracting that click and gaining the lead.

If you think about it, searching on Google is no different from people searching on Rightmove. Except, there’s one key difference. You can control the quality of your website’s SEO to influence how highly your website appears for those searches. On Rightmove, your property is being buried alongside your competitors without any way to flag your listing above any other.  Sheer volume of properties means your likely to get leads, but it’s no different from throwing mud at a wall and hoping some sticks.

With your website, you can specifically target and measure its performance to start converting those Google searches into leads.

Does it mean you can drop Rightmove? I’ll leave that decision to you. However, the tactic of challenger portals removing Rightmove’s power has been ongoing for 10 years and yet Rightmove are charging agent’s more now than they ever have.

So maybe switch your thinking, remember it’s the consumer who holds the power, and go to them directly to wrestle back control of your lead generation.

After all, you only need to find one applicant to sell a property, not 127.5m.


Want to find out more about how you can use your website to generate more applicant leads through Google?   You can find out more about this topic by joining our virtual online event hosted with our partners at Spec Digital. To register, click here

To find out how agent’s have successfully used Webdadi to rank higher in Google click here