When it comes to prospecting, every agent has one goal in mind, generate more instructions.
In order to achieve this goal, you need a strong and successful marketing strategy. But what does that look like? In this blog, you’ll learn how to develop the prospecting element of your marketing plan and more importantly, what a successful prospecting strategy looks like within Spectre.
During my two years at Spectre, I’ve had both the opportunity and pleasure of working with many of the best agents in the country. Additionally, Spectre reports back to every client on it’s RoI, which gives me a unique insight into the marketing material and content that really work and which prospecting strategies are the most successful. This can differ due to many different factors, such as location, market conditions, brand presence, etc, however there are some clear correlations that result in success.
Based on my observations and questions that I’m asked most frequently, I’ve put together a guide on what best practice looks like within Spectre.
The first question I get asked by agents:
When do I send out letters?
There are two elements to Spectre, Sales and Lettings, therefore the timings and content for these letters differ. To make it simple, I’ve broken the answer down into two sections.
Spectre Sales
Unfortunately, there isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ timeline. There are, however, some key things to consider when building your timeline that will allow you to build the most effective timeline to suit your market. A fast-paced market requires a high touch timeline of letters, for example every 2 or 3 weeks, compared to a slow moving market which may require a monthly approach and softer content.
An important event to bear in mind with your timeline is when vendors in your area are able switch agents. I would suggest identifying your main competitors’ sole agency periods end, and increase the frequency of your letters around that time.
Always include letters between the 12 and 20 week stages of your timeline These vendors are most likely going to be frustrated that their property remains unsold and are therefore more likely to switch agents. Use this to your advantage and use a more direct approach in your messaging at this stage.
Spectre Lettings
When creating your marketing plan for Spectre Lettings, ensure you have great letter content in both your ‘Tenanted’ timeline and your ‘Live’ timeline.
Have you ever wondered how you could identify a rental property that is about to come up for renewal? This is exactly what the Tenanted timeline’s purpose is. Spectre gives you the ability to reach landlords who have tenants approaching a tenancy renewal.
This is also your opportunity to inform the Landlord of your unique selling points. If you offer differentiators such as rent guarantees, make sure you include this in your letters and really highlight the benefits of switching to you.
Agents I speak to often aren’t aware how effective this feature can be (or that it even exists), but spending some time to create letters to send at these points in time can increase your success rate, and make Landlords aware of you before their own agent has been in touch.
The second most popular question agents ask is:
What content should I be sending out?
It’s completely normal to be overwhelmed by writing your letter content, however, if we break down which points you should be focusing on within your letters, this should make the writing process easier.
This first thing you need to focus on is having up-to-date, relevant and personalised content.
If you are writing your letters from scratch, this will be a different process as you will be referencing the current market. However, if you’re reviewing content that was written last year, you may need to update this to reference how the market has changed. Ensure you are addressing the precautions and measures you’re taking to keep both your team and your customers safe. Some vendors won’t actually be aware of how the property market is performing during this time, so offer some friendly advice and let them know what to expect.
As with anything, the more time and effort spent perfecting your marketing plan, the stronger it will be. As much as we can guide and advise agents on what works well and what doesn’t, it’s ultimately the Agent who knows and understands the market in their area, their brand and their USPs the most. It’s imperative that you are injecting your expertise, knowledge and USPs into your letters, as tailored letters consistently yield the best results.
Once your letters are set up and active within your Spectre account, and the instructions start coming in, it’s easy to then forget about them going forward. Try to ensure that you always keep your letters relevant, up to date and ensure any statistics are accurate, otherwise your letters become stale and lose impact.
Once you’ve got the basics of ensuring your regular letters are ready to send out, it’s time to explore what else Spectre has to offer.
The Vault
The Vault is a hidden gem within Spectre that can set you apart from other agents in your area. This feature allows you to stay in contact with vendors who have withdrawn from the market with your competitors without selling, with triggers starting at 3 months after withdrawal, all the way through to 24 months after withdrawal at 3 month intervals.
Since Lockdown, we have seen an enormous amount of instructions won directly from Vault letters, which are being sent to all properties that withdrew during the lockdown period. Now is a great time to send letters to these vendors who may be considering coming back to the market.
Share your success
One of the most important things about prospecting is social proof. You have the ability to show prospective vendors, buyers and landlords that you can do what you say you do - sell and let, from within your Spectre account. Share your success through the use of a ‘sold in your road’ letter, both to on and off-market properties near the property you sold.
First, create unique content for your 20:20 letter in the Letter Settings tab on the left hand menu. Then head over to the 20:20 feature and send to properties on the market but close by to the one you’ve recently sold. Spectre even tells you how long those properties have been on the market for, so you can filter it down and send your letters where it matters most.
Sharing your success in this way has proven to be effective and reliable marketing. With Spectre you can send both letters and postcards as part of your sold-in-your-area campaigns. Spectre postcards are fully customisable, ideal for adding images of your recently sold properties to send out as part of your sold-in-your-area campaigns.
Statistics and facts are also vital to accomplish this. No one can argue with the hard evidence of an award logo, or a statistic on how many properties you’ve sold in the last month.
Having a clear, defined marketing plan is going to be vital to see success from Spectre, and our Customer Success team is always on hand to offer guidance and assistance to get you in the best position possible to start seeing results.
