Cold Calling - offering free advertising

[db281]

Hi

I'm in the process of starting a property portal/marketing business.

To pad out our e-newsletter and site - I need properties to advertise. I assume it's not good practice to just take properties from agents/landlords sites etc and advertise them on their behalf? They might not want associating with ourselves.

Opinions on calling sellers/landlords (from the number on their advert) and asking whether we could advertise their property for free? I've got a short and sweet pitch, plus it's free advertising for them.

My main intention is to pad the website out with a variety of properties before I seek to charge for new listings.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Andrew46]

I have opinion to offer on your business idea as such except that it is a tough call (no pun intended!).

I agree you should not "just take properties from agents/landlords sites etc. and advertise them on their behalf"; not only not good practice, but probably illegal. I have come across more than one estate agent who are not above using this practice.

You should be aware of marketing regulations and good practice. As to cold calling, there is no general ban on the making of unsolicited (i.e. not requested by the recipient) telephone calls for direct marketing purposes. However, the caller must give his name to the recipient. If the recipient requests it, the caller must give him either the caller’s address or free telephone number on which he can be reached [Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (“PECR”) reg.24].
There are two circumstances when a person may not use public telephone or other electronic communications services for the purposes of cold calling:

* if the line called belongs to a subscriber who has previously notified the caller that such calls should not for the time being be made on that line; or

* if the number of the called line has been listed in the Telephone Preference Service for 28 days or more..

I take it that you have checked the laws about estate agents business. The exception for property retail websites is quite limited.

 

[beasty]

Hi, this is an area that is of interest, I would be keen to chat (It is free)

 

[db281]

Thank you Andrew, your advice is very helpful indeed.