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How to create a digital footprint for a property business

Introduction

I am Louise Reynolds, a Chartered Marketer and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing with an Honours degree in Marketing with French. My background was in line roles in marketing, sales and then management consultancy before I created my own property investment firm, Property Venture® which helps Expats invest into the UK and UK-based entrepreneurs and executives invest in key cities in Continental Europe e.g. Berlin, Krakow, Barcelona.

In this blog post I explain how I have combined my knowledge of marketing models with the way a modern property business works in a digital world. It highlights useful pointers on how to take a different approach to creating a digital branded presence and what works and doesn’t work so well.

There’s no better time than now to build, or set up, a digitally-oriented business, which can level the playing field with the bigger branded organisations. It doesn’t mean you can skip a lot of business fundamentals, but it does mean you can be a key player in your chosen niche with the digital channels available to you.

Many individuals and companies get confused by digital marketing and think of it only as social media, in a tactical, disjointed way. The approach I highlight here does the opposite.

What’s my story?

I used to work long hours in Management Consulting in the city, which didn’t work very well when trying to bring up a young family. I had an innate interest in property – as many of us do, because it is tangible and something we all think we understand because we live in a property of some description – so decided to apply my marketing, sales and management consultancy skills to the property industry.

It has been a long road to finding the right niche for my business, my skillset and finding the sweet spot in the market where I can add the most value. But I have used digital marketing channels, tools and techniques to achieve national press coverage which has resulted in sales; create an online presence in my European niche and enjoy having a role on the Advisory Board of the AIPP.

7 Point Digital Marketing Model – an overview

This digital model works on the basis that, on average, a potential client goes through seven touchpoints before they are convinced to use your services, or product, and during this time they go through a number of ‘buying’ stages. There are plenty of models and theories out there, with more steps or less, but this is a good model to work with.

So first a prospect has to know of your existence before they can even form a view, as to whether they like what you offer, or are comfortable enough to engage in some form of transaction with you as a supplier. Then there needs to be a ‘bite-size’ offer where they can try your services or product out. This does not necessarily mean it has to be cheap, or free, or a cut down version, but it does mean it has to be as de-risked as possible for that buyer.

By de-risking, I mean that for that individual as much of the risks has to be taken out of the transaction, so for example that could be that you have done a lot of upfront due diligence on the property transaction, or that you are a member of a professional body (so that there is some recourse should things go awry), or there is some money-back guarantee, or that part of the payment is contingent on a successful conclusion of a transaction.

The digital marketing doesn’t stop there because you need to make your service as ‘sticky’ or as indispensable, or as valuable as possible, so that the client buys more and lets their friends and colleagues know about what you do too.

3 Do's and Don'ts in creating a digital footprint in a property business

3 things you ought to be doing:

+ Start with who you are communicating with, your ideal client and mirror their habits

+ Consider their touchpoints with your company and figure out where the key times of leverage are

+ Use a combination of relevant digital channels – the ones your client uses throughout their journey

3 things you ought not do:

– Don’t just think ‘Oh I need to be on Instagram or Pinterest….’ if your ideal clients don’t go there

– Take one digital channel or tool in isolation of your other activity, during your customer’s journey

– Expect too much from one channel in isolation e.g. sell product immediately on Twitter

If you would like to stay in touch with what I do and connect on a property level then please go here to get my regular monthly property e-insights

Don’t worry I don’t bombard you and there is an easy unsubscribe if you don’t get value from it.

Here’s to enriching your life through property!

All contents Copyright © 2018 of Louise Reynolds

Our thanks for Louise for this article.

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