Brand v Lead Gen: What should real estate agents focus on?

We recommend a mix of both and here’s why.

Question: Can you name a trusted sportswear brand or tissue brand? 

If you listed Nike, Reebok, Adidas and Kleenex (or another major brand) you’ve just seen brand building at work. 

As we all know, success in real estate is built on a combination of outbound marketing and prospecting and establishing your name to be top of mind when someone starts to consider selling their property.  

This is known as the long and the short of marketing, famously depicted in Les Binet’s book, The Long and the Short of It (2013). Both are needed to build a valuable business.

The yellow – This shows short term campaigns aimed at people ready to engage (lead generation Facebook/Instagram ads, appraisal letterbox drops, and all direct ads). Given the nature of this targeting, you’ll see ups and downs; customers may see your ad, and then based on a range of factors choose you (or not). 

The red – This shows longer term campaigns, aimed at creating a lasting impression and brand recall in as many of your target audience as possible. In short, this means that your brand is more likely to come to mind when someone is ready to sell.  

While it sounds counter intuitive, it’s suggested in professional service businesses that 50-80% of budget be allocated to brand building campaigns – over time this makes you an attraction business, and also strengthens the short-term lead campaigns, as you have built trust in your customers’ minds. 

As Tom Roach explains using the above graph “It shows growth initially being driven by always on activity in performance channels, and the impact of that activity reaching a plateau which often happens when saturation point is reached. Then it shows the impact of a successful decision to layer in ‘brand-building’ activity. Note that this brand activity both delivers its own short and longer-term sales impacts, as well as improving the sales generated by performance channels. It also shows the compound effects of all this marketing activity working together and becoming stronger over time as the brand-building activity is further optimised.”

So, when running your next marketing campaign keep the above in mind. Don’t be too quick to switch it off if leads appear to ebb and flow. Ongoing brand campaigns will drive recall of your brand and work hard in the background while you’re busy prospecting.