Getting the Message Right

One of the areas in which property portals need to tread carefully is the clarity of messages that they are going to market with.

There has been always a lot of talk within the industry about the confusion that is quite often created amongst estate agents by the property portals and the constant bombardment about who is the delivering the best.

One of the most important aspects of the B2B marketing process is to nail exactly what you stand for, what your unique selling points are and carefully and succinctly execute a communications plan that will engage and educate estate agencies about your offering.

Here are some key points that should be considered:

1. If you can’t compete on a certain metric or product – don’t try. If you are not the largest site for UB’s – don’t say you are. Look at what offering you have that is advantageous to a particular market or business type and concentrate on those aspects that you deliver well.

2. Don’t flood the market with too many different messages. Pick the top 4 or 5 key messages and educate the industry over a period to ensure that the recall of your brand is reflective of the positioning you crave. Too many messages and they won’t develop any specific opinion about you.

3. Be wary of jargon and ensure that you communicate in terms that estate agencies can relate to – not about “hits” or “browsers”. Agencies deal with people and portals should talk in similar terms as to the way they do and what is important to them. This comes from knowing your customers’ business back to front.

4. It is vital that your sales team is singing the same tune. Great results from sales and marketing normally come from a well executed integrated plan where from every angle the same message is getting through whether it be in marketing communications or from sales calls. The education, understanding and buy-in by the sales team to the marketing direction is vital otherwise some very good work can be unravelled quickly.

5. Like any company wanting other companies to do business with them, there has to be a degree of trust and confidence and it is incumbent on property portals to ensure that the marketing undertake reflects that.

In future posts we will talk about the importance of getting the right message to the right person.

John Hart is the Industry Sales and Marketing Manager and a Consultant at Classified Ad Ventures . John spent over six years with the REA Group most recently as their Group Sales and Marketing Manager working across 10 countries. Prior to REA John was with one of Australia’s largest real estate networks, First National for 12 years with more than 7 as their National Marketing Manager

[]image: flickr/Môsieur J.]

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