marketing new letting agent

[charlotte elliott]

Hi everyone sorry if i am posting in the wrong forum i am new to this.
i would just like some help from you all, i work for a new up and running letting agent we are doing well.
one of my jobs is to get more landlords to our facebook page and twitter to notice what we do! we dont charge landlord to advertise their property on portals such as rightmove, zoopla and primelocation.
i just want some help on ideas how to get more likes on facebook and get more publicity from landlord overall as we are offering a free service to advertise their property!

please help it would be appreciated

 

[tony84]

Dont underestimate the power of charging.
The saying you get what you pay for exists for a reason.

What are you currently doing?
If you were a landlord would you sit on facebook and twitter looking for letting agents?

 

[charlotte elliott]

yes i know, but we want to make it more appealing to landlords to come to us! we are currently advertising for just under 800 landlord! we charge the tennant instead to do all the normal things an letting agent does! no as a landlord i wouldnt, i understand you there

 

[namesweb]

Couple of things I noticed when I experimented with starting up a small lettings agency, (I have since left it as a sideline focus which is self funding, but focus no time on growing it)

I found the best success came from door to door, actually discussing with landlords what their issues are, and being a credible face. This is time consuming, but I found far more targetted than trying anything with social media. I had hundreds and hundreds of likes and follows, but zero leads and enquiries from the social side.

Perhaps I was doing something wrong on that side, but it means little IMO to have a follower the other side of the UK who might be interested, but won't take my offering up seeing as I'm not local to them.

Keep an eye out locally for houses that might have skips outside, or clearly have been let out in the past. Finally, even though it probably won't be possible with the bigger developers, have you reached out to any commercial developers that do multiples of flats at a time? Could be worth getting in touch with them if you have a credible offering.

 

[ethical PR]

Most landlords charge both the tenant and landlord. Rather than trying to get more likes on FB and followers on Twitter, advise your boss s/he needs to have a proper marketing plan in place which starts from an understanding of how to differeniate yourselves from your competitors and offer a service that landlords want and need.

Once they have established this they need to invest in marketing and advertising through communications channels landlords use.

Businesses seem to like social media as they see it as a free channel...it's not time equals money and your company would be better off focusing on channels that will engage their target audience.

 

[charlotte elliott]

okay thank you, this letting agent is very unique though, there is none like us that do not charge the landlord to have their properties advertised on such good portals like stated.

 

[charlotte elliott]

Couple of things I noticed when I experimented with starting up a small lettings agency, (I have since left it as a sideline focus which is self funding, but focus no time on growing it)

I found the best success came from door to door, actually discussing with landlords what their issues are, and being a credible face. This is time consuming, but I found far more targetted than trying anything with social media. I had hundreds and hundreds of likes and follows, but zero leads and enquiries from the social side.

Perhaps I was doing something wrong on that side, but it means little IMO to have a follower the other side of the UK who might be interested, but won't take my offering up seeing as I'm not local to them.

Keep an eye out locally for houses that might have skips outside, or clearly have been let out in the past. Finally, even though it probably won't be possible with the bigger developers, have you reached out to any commercial developers that do multiples of flats at a time? Could be worth getting in touch with them if you have a credible offering.

we are based in nottingham our office is but currently we are marketing properties in london and all areas around london as this is where we first started up so we do have relationships with landlords who have multiple properties

 

[Sam Richards]

Have you thought about Facebook paid advertising

 

[Valentina Howe]

Facebook advertising will not be as effective as Google Adwords will be, moreover select the keywords carefully even optimize your facebook page to make it rank and compete in SERPs

 

[greenshaw]

Have you tried cold calling private landlords that advertise on Gumtree (or the likes) to bring them over to your services?

 

[John Austin]

There are at least 4 letting agents in my local high street. The competition is fierce. How do landlords decide which to use?
By the way, are you saying you charge tenants for services that other agents charge landlords for? Such as?

 

[Bill1954]

Sorry but if I was looking for a house to rent and you were charging me fees that other letting agents are charging to the landlords, I wouldn't be using you.
You can sign up as many landlords as you like but if you can't get tennants you basically, don't have a business.

 

[John Austin]

Bill1954, my thoughts exactly. Many people who rent privately do so because they are on a low income and / or don't have the deposit for their own home. Anything that makes it even harder for them to make ends meet is a pretty poor business strategy IMO (and perhaps a questionable thing to do).

 

[Vectis]

yes i know, but we want to make it more appealing to landlords to come to us! we are currently advertising for just under 800 landlord! we charge the tennant instead to do all the normal things an letting agent does! no as a landlord i wouldnt, i understand you there

If you're charging the tenant rather than the LL then I would guess you are the tenants agent rather than the LLs?

Most agents will charge the LL a percentage (i.e. make a deduction from the rent collected each month) as payment for managing the property. How are you achieving this by charging the tenant? And how do you justify charging the tenant for things which are the LL's responsibility?

As you'll see, I don't understand your business model (and this from an exLL who has used agents and also handled the management himself).

 

[Barnes Thomas]

You can contact with a professional SEO agency to get more likes in a genuine way. You can also increase the number of Likes by using tool addmefast.