Getting The Message Right When Selling Your Property Has Never Been More Important

Selling a property in a softening market can create a host of challenges, but perhaps the most significant of these is the marketing. During a boom market, you can get away with a set-and-forget approach to marketing. The buyers are going to come anyway and, if anything, cutting through the noise to negotiate with the serious bids is the challenge.

You need to be more active during a cooling market. Finding the right agent is, of course, crucial – you’ll want an agent that is able to align with a broader vision for marketing. During a boom market, you can rely on one or two channels, but in this kind of environment, you’re going to need a broader mix, and your agent should be able to help you with that.

Here are a couple of effective strategies for marketing a property that all sellers should be aware of:

1. Understand the competition – Just as we advise buyers to have an intense and deep understanding of the real-time market dynamics and pricing in the area, so too should you keep an up-to-date understanding of what is going on in your area. Keep close tabs on what other properties are selling for and what agents are achieving, and use that information to inform your own go-to-market strategy.      
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2. Understand the full marketing funnel and make sure you have a strategy for each stage. The marketing funnel is a three-stage process that describes how a buyer moves through towards a sale:      
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3. Attract – At the first stage the buyer first learns about the property, having not been aware of it previously. In the “attract” phase in-depth information is less important than being sure you catch their eye with the right presentation of the property.      
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4. Qualify – At this point, the buyer will want to learn more about the property. This is when inspections occur and the buyer will do their research into the area around the property that they’re interested in.      
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5. Convert – This is the deepest stage of the funnel, where the buyer is already interested in the property, happy with the information that they’ve found and, with the right push, willing to enter contract negotiations.

The approach that you take to marketing at each of these stages needs to be fundamentally different, and it’s important that you “leave no gaps”, so that, at each stage of the funnel, the buyer can find information tailored to their needs at that point.

1. Collect data on your marketing efforts. You should work with your agent to get an understanding of just how effective the marketing of your property has been. There are a couple of key metrics that most marketers pay very close attention to, including:      
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2. Reach – How many people is your marketing reaching in the first place? In raw numbers, how many people are seeing your advertisements, visiting your website, or reading the emails that you’re sending? This is a core metric for marketing, and a good agent will help you spread the message wide, across multiple channels, each tracking their own reach data for you to review and adjust your priorities in line with what is most effective.      
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3. Cost – Following on from reach, you should also keep a close eye on CPA (cost per action). After seeing your advertisement, how many people are clicking on it? How many people are following up on the website for more information? One of the great things about modern marketing is that you can get granular and understand the percentage of people that are interacting with your marketing after seeing it. If the percentage is unusually low, this is a sign that you need to recalibrate the message or the channels that you’re using.      
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4. Engagement – how many people are watching the virtual tour video right to the end? Are you getting requests for more photos, or inspections? How long are people spending reading your listing? The greater the level of engagement, the more likely it is that you’re drawing buyers through the funnel, so make sure that your marketing is presented in such a way that it inspires interactivity.

Finally, don’t be afraid to experiment! There’s no such thing as “one size fits all” when it comes to marketing a property. One of the most critical things that a seller can do to ensure the success of their property sale is to find an agent that isn’t rigid when it comes to marketing and will develop creative solutions to help your property find its audience and present the property to them in the right light.

Need more information on how to best prepare a property for sale? Hello Haus has the experience and expertise to assist! Contact us today.