Agents are failing to use local property advertising effectively, says an industry consultant.
Richard Rawlings, who runs Estate Agency Insight, said “many” agents are failing to adapt their marketing content in order to win business.
Last week 376 agents responded to a survey by the consultancy that sought to identify the validity of agents’ continued use of advertising in their local property newspaper.
Rawlings said: “I’m a great believer in the continued use of local newspaper advertising alongside other forms of marketing.
“Pre-internet, newspaper advertising was primarily intended to attract buyers, but agents have not recognised the need to adapt their content in order to attract instructions, not buyers.
“The results of the survey certainly indicate that agents are massively failing to harness the opportunity to impress the very people they seek to attract – local home owners.
“Over half (51%) of respondents said they regularly advertise at least one page in the local newspaper. Only 8% of these stated that their main reason for doing so was to attract buyers, while 83% said that their primary reason for advertising in the paper was to either attract instructions or to maintain visibility/brand promotion.
“Yet 70% of these agents simply continue to promote their instructions through traditional style property ads – with no meaningful market comment, no relevant selling advice, and no expert opinion.
“In a massively competitive environment where distinction is everything, how can you expect to gain instructions if your advertising fails to convey your agency’s expertise, style and personality?
“Today’s public, especially millennials, expect generosity at every level with no strings attached. It’s no longer about getting, it’s about attracting.
“Additionally, many agents would agree that this is a people business and that instructions are often won due to an engaging instruction-earner.
“Yet some 61% of respondents’ ads did not make any mention of the people involved in the business – no name or photo! This is completely at odds with agency advertising in other countries and surely essential at a time when high street agencies need to ramp up their ‘people presence’ alongside their faceless online competitors.”
| 376 total responses | |||
| number | % | ||
| Q1. Which of the following best describes how often you advertise in your local property newspaper/magazine? | 109 | 29.0 | Never |
| 74 | 19.7 | Occasionally | |
| 42 | 11.2 | Monthly | |
| 52 | 13.8 | Bi-weekly | |
| 99 | 26.3 | Weekly | |
| 376 | 100.0 | ||
| Q2. If you do advertise, how many pages do you typically take per edition? | 159 | 60.7 | A single page or less |
| 66 | 25.2 | Two pages or a double | |
| 11 | 4.2 | Three pages | |
| 26 | 9.9 | Four pages or more | |
| 262 | 100.0 | ||
| Q3. Do you also provide regular comment, opinion, advice etc within your ad? | 82 | 30.1 | Yes, our pages cover a range of topics |
| 130 | 47.8 | No, we just tend to promote our instructions | |
| 60 | 22.1 | Our pages are quite traditional but we’re open to change | |
| 272 | 100.0 | ||
| Q4. Do you or any of your colleagues feature in your ad? | 22 | 8.0 | Yes – with name |
| 21 | 7.7 | Yes – with photo | |
| 63 | 23.0 | Yes – with name and photo | |
| 168 | 61.3 | seldom/never | |
| 274 | 100.0 |
Rawlings is right to highlight this and the value of local papers as instruction getters. Printed media can also still pull in buyers too. Those who wrote off local press as having had its day so far as agency is concerned were always wrong. I know several area papers very well indeed and they are thriving. Just because the internet/proptech was/is the shiny new thing doesn’t make it the be all and end all.
‘Oh but it’s too expensive compared to internet listing’ I hear some bleat. Well, if you charged a proper fee for your service you might have enough to afford both.
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How much is the paper in your region AI?
For us £280 plus VAT per page.
If i do just 2 pages per week across my branches that is over £2,500 pcm
In 2017 with RM Banners, PPC, Emailers etc there are much better ways to invest that money and get a greater return.
I for one am glad our local rag is all but dead, a pittiful number of agents propping it up. Mostly the paper is now made up of free editorials than paid pages.
Only reason for newspaper advertising is vanity.
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We are screwed basically… who needs an office, who needs the paper, who needs rightmove, who needs staff, who needs no sale no fee….You have to offer everything ( if you are an honest agent with no tv advertising)
purplkebricks now taking over in our town..like the black death did…no good will come from it,,just less tax, less people in work, less on your house price, less fun….
RIP agency – Does the Rightmove business plan hope that purplebricks have every house on market so they actaully have less reps looking afer their customers and make more money.
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Where are you based?
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Those that still bang on about the importance of newspaper advertising will eventually disappear, or lose any market share they may have. Not because they advertise in the newspaper, but because of their mindset. It honestly shows how behind they are in their heads. If I’m honest, it sounds like Richard Rawlings just wants some attention! Or maybe he is being lobbied by the newspaper industry. I’d say it’s both!
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More like he wants to sell content for agent to put in the paper.
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I’ve met Richard, nice bloke, knows his stuff, was very inspiring on the day.
I cant say I disagree with what he’s trying to put across above, I agree with the principle of it but I also think news paper advertising has had its day IMO.
What millenials do you know that pick up the local paper for a read? That’s if they even receive it in the post in the first place. We don’t get out local paper through my door any more.
I think your time and budget would be better spent elsewhere personally.
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I agree that local newspaper advertising is not the be all and end all, and should be used in tandem with other forms of marketing for a “bunching” effect. There are however towns where the local paper remains very strong and if an agent does not feature in it then they appear to have disappeared, unless they replace their presence with hard copy newsletters (I’m currently analysing data to show what percentage of agents use their own newsletters). The key point about the paper is that it is seen by local homeowners with a passing interest in property. These are the people who are not necessarily seeking you out. Put something in front of them that attracts and engages their attention, then you have a connection that would otherwise have passed you by.
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Morning Richard, I think the news letter idea would work better, especially in my area where the local paper has become less prevalent but I do understand that in more remote areas the local newspaper is still a must to be seen by your target audience.
I personally wouldn’t go back to the local press having dropped it, but what works for my business isn’t going to work for others necessarily.
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I think the flaw in the argument is the targeting of millennials. Unless my maths is way out of line, this cohort is only coming up to late 20’s – too young for buying property isn’t it ? I thought that the average age was much higher ….
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Ignore millennials at your peril! Within three years, millennials are predicted to represent 50% of the workforce – the vast majority of the home buying public. The influence they have over the rest of us is huge, hence the success of Uber, AirBnB, Rightmove/Zoopla, Spotify etc – they all give generously to a consumer that expects it all, free of charge, 24 a day. Want to fix your washing machine yourself? – then some generous millennial will have done a YouTube video showing you how. Millennials crave free advice. My point is that newspapers/hard copy newsletters should offer this, not just advertise property.
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To put some figures on the age of newspaper readers. The readership of the Lincolnshire Echo is broken down by age as follows:
15-34 – 27%
35-54 – 32%
55-64 – 41%
Source: JICREG May 2017
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15-34? That seems a bit too inclusive, it mixes vastly different “age” attitudes which sort of ruins the statistic.
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In other news, a lot of teenagers are missing the benefits of carrier pigeons over text messages.
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Ha! My point is that if you do still advertise in the paper, at least write something interesting rather than just putting in pictures of property! And this applies to newslatters, blogs, website, social media etc too.
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Yeah, I’m totally with you, Richard. You’re spot on, of course. Newspapers are dying, there’s no doubt about thsat, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do something useful with them! Most paper ads are totally forgettable and lazy.
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It cannot be denied that newspapers are not as popular as before. Certainly the internet has knocked them down big time. However, marketing is very important for any business, brand awareness makes one stand out in the crowd. £Billions is spent each year on marketing. People need to realise that newspaper advertising for agents was never about selling houses, it was a by-product. You never had all your properties on a page or two! New instructions kept vendors happy. What you really were getting is your name known and depending on how you designed your page, (seen some pretty dreadful ones over the years which looked third rate as was the agent) looked impressive and professional operator. Someone woke up one day and looked at is purely as a cost saving (it is?) and stopped promoting their brand. I know many who have done this and others have followed and where most agents in a single location have done this, are not loosing out as the public have no choice between them. In other areas where a minority have done it, they are loosing out to those that realises the power of marketing their brand and doing very well with new instructions. Newspapers still get instructions, as does SSTC. The internet allows buyers to switch off SSTC and as many buyers are sellers, well your brand isn’t as prominent at being successful as you thought. The use of the newspaper has not changed and is part of your arsenal, it is for the individual agent to decide its effectiveness and costs but ignore marketing/brand awareness at your peril. The other very important facts to remember …. there are still many who do not use the internet and vendors love to see their property in the local rag.
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I completely agree with Richard Rawlings on this.
Newspaper advertising still has a place in an overall marketing strategy and Richard’s suggestions will definitely make your brand stand out in a crowded market place.
We’ve just added this as an item for discussion at our next managers meeting.
Thank you Richard!
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Ah how sweet a discussion about press advertising – a real piece of nostalgia!
The solution to getting agents to re-engage with press advertising is easy – reduce your charges!
One of our local publications charges nearly £1000 a page per week – pretty much the cost of a month’s RM membership.
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Still feel there may be a place for limited glossy local advertising, but not in the more ‘fish and chip wrapper’ type of publication. Not something to overpay on though. We recently cancelled our regular placement, but when offered a significant reduction decided to keep it going for a while longer, purely as instruction getter and keeping the name out there – whilst many older people are internet savvy these days, in our local area, we still come across quite a few that aren’t.
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Yeah it’s funny how the newspapers can afford to reduce their fee so much when you say you are going to stop advertising in them……..
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