The real estate, like most other industries and small businesses, has been put on hold for the time being, and rightly so! But after working with estate agents for the last 5 years, and still having many clients across the UK, how can we be proactive with our marketing?
Now, this article isn’t going to go into the complexities of the housing market, when is going to be good to sell, the right time to be moving after the crisis has settled down a bit or anything like that. If you wanted to find out more information about that feel free to check out this link here.
What this article is going to briefly discuss is what we have seen regarding traffic to the site from our clients, new ways of dealing with business while we remain on lock down and what steps you can be taking to secure and increase your current position and keep yourself in the game while everything is slowing down.
What do the analytics say?
The UK has been in lockdown for about 5 weeks now and everything started to slow down a few weeks before that. So, we have more than enough data of our site analytics to see what exactly is happening. Now obviously we are expecting to see a dip in traffic, especially organic traffic.
Industries and businesses all over the country are going to be experiencing this same dip in traffic so don’t try to worry about it too much. What you need to focus on now more than ever is the way these users are engaging with your site.
What we have noticed across the board is that there has been a significant spike in the user’s session duration time, so this is something we have taken into consideration. Making it easier for your users to be able to spend more time on the site is key.
Obviously, the way users engage with your site, a s well as the amount of traffic you are receiving, can have an impact on your rankings. So why not spend this time making sure that everything you can possibly do to your site is running as s mooth as possible. People aren’t in a rush so much and are willing to spend a little extra time looking around, so make sure that this can be an enjoyable task for them.
A factor to consider which often gets overlooked by marketeers is your site speed. Take this time to make sure all these small and seemingly insignificant elements which affect your site speed as listed on the google site speed thing are being addressed.
How virtual can you take it?
With it not being possible right now to arrange viewings, people are still thinking about selling their house and are still thinking about buying new houses. For most people it won’t be the most important thing on their minds right now but there is only so much you can do when locked in the house all day, so when it does cross their minds and they take that step online, perhaps to get a valuation of their house or see what properties are around them, make sure you are offering all that you can to make this as engaging and easy as possible for them.
What some of our clients are starting to roll out to keep them at the forefront of the industry with new levels of tech and engagement are virtual and 360-degree viewings. Obviously, this is something that has to be arranged with either an empty property or already carried out beforehand but it can be a great way to keep those users engaged and offer your customers something new to help them get a greater understanding of the spaces that they aren’t able to visit at the moment.
Of people are thinking of selling, make sure it is as easy as possible for them to find a valuation for their property. Follow up any information you recieve with as much detail as possible and try to be as personal as possible as well. Make it easy for your audience and keep them engaged with your brand. It will prove to be very helpful in the future and also help with your site statistics as well.
Focus on your brand
The number 1 rule for marketing companies is that you are your own most important client. Now, at first, this might seem like not the best thing to be saying to people, and I wouldn’t suggest you go telling your clients this, but it is something that is very important.
How can I expect my clients to have faith in my skills if I can’t display them myself? And this is the exact thing estate agents should be thinking about and if your clients are estate agents, this is what you should be doing!
The real estate industry is very competitive and cities can have 100’s of different agencies that are all doing the same thing. Take this time to focus on your brand. Make the improvements that you have been thinking about, run some brand awareness campaigns on AdWords or Social platforms.
Get people familiar with your brand, reach out to your local community, so when it is time to pick up business as usual again you are the first company that are on their mind.
Now I hope this article has briefly covered some things that could be of use for you weather you are an estate agent yourself or if you are wondering what steps you can take to further your clients while everything is taking a slowdown. Stay safe and if you have any questions about how you can take advantage of this time then feel free to drop us an email today.
