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Montana H

Business Development Director

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Why agents must convert online enquiries to capitalise on marketing spend

Estate and letting agents' digital marketing spend has certainly increased over the last decade.

Estate Agents, Letting Agents, Gnomen, Software, Property Websites, Leads, Enquiries, Customer Service

The rise in the use of the internet among property consumers means that having a good website is now a necessity.

What's more, agents are now spending on social media, digital advertising and web tools to help them convert digital traffic into leads.

That's not to say that traditional marketing methods have become obsolete.

There's still clearly a role for targeted print advertising and For Sale and To Let boards.

In fact, a recent study carried out by Which? Mortgage Advisers found that many property buyers still find their homes the 'traditional' way.

According to the survey of 2,000 home buyers, 22% found their property through an estate agent, 10% through a For Sale sign and 6% through a local newspaper.

This reinforces the need for a strong local presence and clearly defined brand.

When it comes to online marketing, the same rules apply regarding branding, ethos and company message.

The same can be said for customer service, which covers all contact you and your team have with clients.

It's fair to say that in the vast majority of cases inbound phone enquiries, or prospective clients visiting your premises, are dealt with immediately.

The same practice should be followed for online/email enquiries. However, a recent research project has shown that this might not be the case.

According to lead management service Callwell, during July only 64% of email leads sent to 85 estate agency branches were answered within 48 hours.

On top of this, of those prospective clients who were contacted, it took the agents an average of seven working hours and eleven minutes to get in touch.

If agents are spending money on shiny websites and costly portal subscriptions and not speaking to potential prospects, they could be missing out on lots of new business.

As we all know, estate and letting agency is a customer-facing business and those agents who put their customers' needs first, and respond to enquiries quickest, are likely to increase their chances of success.

With all this in mind, as well as responding to inbound enquiries, it's also important that an agents' website is designed to attract the attention of prospective clients.

Once these leads start coming in, it's vital that your property software allows you to manage them effectively, splitting them up between your sales team.

Here at Gnomen, we provide cutting-edge, all-in-one property software for agents, allowing you to manage staff, offices, customers and multi-channel marketing through our cloud-based system.

We also design property websites, which you can find out more about here.

All of our software clients receive free training and are entitled to a free demo. For more information, get in touch with us on: 0208 123 9019.

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Montana H

Business Development Director

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