How to make the most of your marketing spend this Winter

As we enter the winter months and a traditionally quieter time for the property industry - agents are still contending with challenging conditions in the market. Be it mortgage rates, which still remain stubbornly high - or reduced demand from buyers - it certainly feels like one of the more demanding periods to be an agent.

However, all challenging times present opportunity and when it comes to drumming up applicants and vendors, there’s still plenty of levers agents can pull this winter.

Here are some simple steps you can take to ensure your marketing is ahead of the competition…

Understand your audience

There’s never been more competition when it comes to being visible in front of consumers - with businesses of all types fighting for consumer attention via social media and other marketing channels. To combat this, agents need to evolve their marketing strategy and shift to a long-term approach to reach and convert more potential applicants.

A good starting point is sourcing insights into today’s key audiences and local nuances to really understand what makes them tick. Zoopla’s House Price Index can be a good starting point for these insights. For example, if you’re an agent in the North of England it may be worth focusing on the key message that it’s cheaper to buy than to rent. Alternatively, in Southern England - it’s very much a buyer’s market with the discount to the asking price for a newly agreed sale averaging 4.2%. 

You can also focus on cleaning your database and really mining it to reconnect with past and present buyers and sellers to understand their behaviour and views. Grouping them together in cohorts can also present a marketing opportunity for your agency to target them with key messaging.  For example, Zoopla’s consumer tracker tells us that first-time buyers are concerned about affordability (no major surprise there) - but also which area they should choose when buying a home. This is where the expertise of local agents can really make a difference.

Zoopla can also help when it comes to understanding your audience. Not only can you target movers by audience type (renters, buyers) and by geography, but you can also use our bespoke remarketing solutions to target audiences on social channels after they’ve left Zoopla’s website and drive traffic and leads to your business afterwards.

Don’t underestimate the importance of messaging

The average consumer sees a brand’s advertisement three to ten times* before being motivated to take action. Investing in building awareness of your brand, whilst balancing repeated exposures will serve to greatly improve return on investment in your lead generation activity over time. To boost this brand awareness, a product like Property Alerts Sponsorship can help you to drive greater reach with local high intent movers through our highly engaged email communications.

However, to ensure these marketing investments are really cutting through - it’s absolutely crucial to ensure that your messaging is relevant to your target audience. By understanding who is more likely to move, you can tailor your messaging and the accuracy of your targeting as a result.

Take a multi-channel approach

Buying a property isn’t a linear process and our research shows that buyer intent can ebb and flow over time. Help turn casual browsers who have spent time searching on Zoopla into buyers with intent by reaching them via a range of channels including email and social media channels. This will keep them engaged and coming back to search for homes on your site.

You can also inform your marketing approach by using free tools like Zoopla Pro to see what’s selling in your area (using Monitor Market) and help target your marketing spend efficiently as a result.

By implementing these three simple steps you can not only ensure you’re spending your marketing budget efficiently - but also that you’re standing out from the crowd and getting ahead of the curve. This is something that’s more important than ever this winter, and indeed into the new year as competition for applicants heats up. To find out how we can help you build your brand - visit https://advantage.zoopla.co.uk/estate-agents/grow-your-brand/

*Source: WARC marketing effectiveness