It’s extremely common for estate agencies who invest in content marketing, to not get momentum and results, and instead get hundreds of unengaging blog posts, and not much else.

I’m Mark Reynolds and I help estate agents avoid the creation of boring, biased, salesy content that turns people off, and instead help them to create content that increases revenue by earning more trust, leads, sales and more sustainable growth.

Feel free to send me an email if you have a question: [email protected].

Right let’s get on and help you…

If you’re an estate agent, you know that to get more homeowners to market/sell their property with you, it’s crucial to establish trust and confidence.

It’s the trust, along with doubt, that plays a central role in every purchasing decision.

Written and video content used in the right way throughout your marketing and sales process will increase traffic, leads, sign-ups and revenue. This is proven across the globe, particularly, when it comes to selling property.

Not only that, but once a property-seller chooses you, your experience is going to be much better when you have a happier and contented customer.

When a property-seller signs up with you, they don’t always have full trust in you, and that can lead to rough conversations and outcomes.

But if you build the trust up in the right way, way before they first contact you, your whole experience with that customer will be better.

I’m going to assume your estate agency, property buying/selling advice and expertise is all sound.

Let’s imagine a property-seller:

who by the time they sign up with you to market/sell their home, trusts you more than most clients have ever done.
who mostly agrees with all your decisions and recommendations you, because they trust you, instead of their continual doubt they you’ve got it in for them.

If you use written and video content to earn more trust the right way, before property-owners even get in touch, that trust and confidence will continue throughout your agent-customer relationship.

Just imagine that perfect relationship, where you’ll get more agreement from the property-owner on:

setting asking prices
lowering asking prices
your selling strategy
advice about presenting their property in the right way
whether you’ve got their best interests at heart
you being the preferred agent to continue selling their property

Do you think you could handle more leads? Do you think you’d like happier and more content customers? And of course you’d like more revenue.

In this post, I’m going to share a business/marketing/sales framework that has the real potential to transform your business.

How much do property-sellers trust you?

As a generalisation, an estate agent is one of those professions that rightly or wrongly, isn’t necessarily trusted that much by the public.

We know there are many top quality agents out there. There are so many estate agents who do an amazing job, and are extremely trustworthy.

But the public’s trust levels don’t quite match it.

In this UK study, estate agents were a little more trusted than politicians, journalists, car salespeople, telesales, bankers, and paparazzi, but unfortunately estate agents still appeared alongside those ‘difficult to trust professions’.

So, for your profession, it’s even more important to earn the homeowner’s trust to extinguish any doubt throughout their journey of buying your services.

But don’t worry.

Even if estate agents may have some trust issues, this means homeowners who want to sell their homes are craving trustworthy estate agents.

You’re in a battle for trust, like all of your competitors.

And you need to do everything it takes to earn that trust.

But how do you become the trusted estate agency in your area?

You first need to understand how modern property-sellers ‘buy’ from you. What’s going on in their head?

Estate agency owners need to understand the significant shift in buying behaviour

We know that once your get a face-to-face meeting in the property-seller’s home, it presents a significant opportunity to build trust.

But, this must not be seen at your first opportunity to build trust. You need to be cultivating significant trust long before you get invited into their home.

Why?

Because over the last 15 years consumer buying patterns have changed significantly. The line between sales and marketing has become significantly blurred — the line between the two has actually almost disappeared.

In every industry, B2C or B2B, there has been a huge shift in buying behaviour.

Many different studies today (including major studies from the Forrester research group and Google) show that 80% of the buying decision is made before the buyer even first talks to the company.

Google calls that moment the zero moment of truth.

With estate agencies, changing consumer behaviour means 80% of the home-seller’s ‘buying’ decision (i.e. the decision they make when choosing you to market/sell their property) has already been made before your sales professional has even set foot in the seller’s property.

Even before you hear that the homeowner wants to sell their house.

The property-owner has done their research, and they have already seriously considered their favourite estate agents.

Worse still, if they’ve chosen an online estate agent, you may not even hear from them.

Of course, your sales professional can still influence the property-seller’s decision when (and if!) they meet at their home, as there’s still 20% of the purchasing decision to be made.

But your influence over their decision at that stage is weaker, because so much research has gone on prior without you evening knowing, and without you being a part of it.

Your sales people need to make sure they influence the buyer earlier, by getting their key messaging across earlier in the property seller’s journey.

By doing that, you have a better chance of:

being contacted in the first place.
being trusted at your face-to-face meeting as opposed to have to earn trust from ground-zero.

The importance of influencing the buyer earlier is only going to go one way

Let’s go back 15-20 years, what percentage of the buying decision do you think was made before the purchaser started talking to the sales professional?

What do you think?

Most people say 20-40% of the purchasing decision has been made before they reached out, which would be about right.

So if was 40% back then and 80% today, what’s it going to rise to within this next decade? 90%? 100%?

It’s only going to go one way.

This means marketing has more of a hold over the buying decision than your sales team.

To influence the home-seller’s decisions earlier, your sales people need to be more involved in how you’re communicating with potential clients throughout the purchasing journey.

No longer can you wait until you’re in the property seller’s house to do the significant part of earning their trust.

So what conversation is going on in the property-owners that you need to be a part of?

Property owners fear making the wrong decision – it’s your job to remove all doubt

When a property-owner is making a decision about which estate agent to choose, they often to do so from a place of fear.

Their home is one of the most valued assets they’ll ever have, and they don’t want to get this decision wrong.

If they choose the wrong or right estate agent, it could have a dramatic impact on their life.

With that fear comes a lot of uncertainty and doubt in their purchasing journey.

Instead of being seen as a trusted partner, you could initially be seen as the enemy.

Here are some of the fears that property sellers are thinking, but may never tell you.

Are you good enough to sell my property?
Are you just telling me what I want to hear?
Will you overvalue the property just to get the instruction? And then quickly reduce the price when progress is slow?
If I tell you my circumstances, are you going to tell the property-buyers that you think we’ll accept a lower offer, so you get your commission quicker and more easily?
Are you going to tell us to put our home on for a low price so you can get your commission quicker?
Are you going to sell to me on how amazing you are, but fall short when it comes to selling my property?
Are you telling me the truth that you have a list/database of people looking to buy similar houses to ours? Or will it never materialise?
Will you give me honest feedback from viewers?
Are your charging me a fair amount of commission? Why are you charging so much commission, when surely you don’t have to do much work?

As you can see, there are lot of potential fears and doubts and the property seller is doing lots of research to reduce this fear. They want to get to a point where they’re confident of making the right decision, choosing the right agent.

If a local high-street agent doesn’t convince the property-seller, then they might think they can sell it themselves and choose an online estate agent.

If you are going to get the property-seller to choose you, you need to do a lot to remove all their doubt, and earn their trust.

Google says: “A brand that answers buyers’ questions at just the right time scores a double win: It helps improve a consumer’s life and stands to gain a competitive advantage over brands that don’t.”

If you can use written and video content on your website and in the ‘sales process’ to instil confidence, you’re well on your way.

This type of approach to marketing and sales is neglected by most estate agents because they don’t know how to do what I’m describing well.

Maybe the huge amount of property-selling related content on Google makes you think there are no more opportunities for you to stand out? Maybe you think it’s all too competitive already?

There’s so much below-par content on the web, that you now have a big opportunity to stand out from your competitors – to make it a no brainer that home-sellers will choose you, or at least get in touch with you first.

It’s those estate agents who use the Internet to build trust in the right way, through the whole purchasing journey, who will have the best chance of making the most of the opportunity and come out top.

Make sure you stand out, to get more leads, and close more deals.

Or maybe you think your sales professionals already do a good job at earning trust already?

Selling homes is a perfect example of how your sales people need to get involved in the conversation earlier.

The importance for the sales team to influence the purchasing decision has become more evident in the world of home-selling, where many homeowners have been happy to choose online estate agents.

The whole decision of buying a package with an online agent, can easily happen without the property-seller ever contacting a high street estate agent.

This is of course an absolute nightmare that you should be working hard to avoid.

This situation is why it’s so important to make sure you make yourself a part of the conversation earlier.

You can’t just wait for the property seller to get in touch. It will probably never happen.

I remember in 2011 when I used an online estate agent to sell my home.

Don’t hate me for it. I’ve recently used local estate agents to sell property too.

I went onto Google, did my research, and had a feeling that the online estate agent service was right for me. I hadn’t decided to definitively buy via the DIY options, but when I contacted a few estate agents to value the property, I was moving strongly towards the DIY/online option.

The three estate agents then had an advantage because they were going to come into my home and had the chance to build trust.

The online estate agent didn’t have this opportunity, so they were at a disadvantage.

The local estate agents did an okay job, but it was too late, as the online estate agent had already won me over earlier on in my journey.

They had all the information I needed on their website. Any additional information I need I had researched on other websites via Google.

It’s clear that if you can find other ways to do a better job of building trust and credibility, and reasons to choose you, earlier in the journey, you’ll increase you chances of getting more leads and revenue.

How do we properly stand out from the competition?

Standing out from other estate agents can be challenging since there are so many estate agents vying for attention.

It used to be that your competition was just on the high street, but now with the rise over the last 15 years of the national online estate agents, there’s competition coming from many different angles.

So, we know that trust is central to all purchasing decisions.

Without trust, we know there’s a risk of your prospects ignoring you for the cheaper DIY alternative, or for your high street competition.

Maybe this is happening to you already?

Just think about all those local home sellers on Rightmove, who never contacted you. Why didn’t they?

And we know if your marketing and sales efforts don’t communicate with your prospects effectively, it’s going to be significantly harder to earn trust and credibility.

So how do you earn trust and stand out?

You need to:

obsess about your ideal customers
and unbiasedly educate them.

The obsession of your ideal customer must get to a point where you know every question that your home-sellers are asking through the whole journey of choosing an agent.

If you’re an estate agent who is seen by homeowners as someone who’s not afraid to be honest and open, and address their deepest fears, you’re got a significantly better chance.

Obsess and communicate like never before

This content driven approach is about communicating like never before, with property owners who are considering selling—to get more leads and sales.

You need to obsess about your customer like never before.

You need to know everything about them and the questions they really want answering to help them make a buying decision.

Maybe you know that already? But you need to translate your knowledge into creating marketing and sales content then builds trust.

This isn’t about relying on flashy online ads, or relying on blogs posts that are either boring, or that cover vague subjects like “Top tips to help protect your property in winter”.

This is not about hiring a marketing/sales/content agency to earn trust for you in your marketing and sales process.

This is about using the resources you already have, including your sales professionals, to educate your target audience in an open and transparent way.

This isn’t about blogging.

It’s about creating truly unbiased, educational articles and videos on your website. Content that can also be used in your sales process.

It’s not blogging about company news, events, or some other dull subjects.

This is about creating a collection of articles and videos that answer all the buying questions your potential customers might have about you, your products/services, and your competitors.

If you don’t think your client-facing team have time to get involved, you need to have a fresh look at your sales/marketing strategy.

Hang on… back a few steps….

Why shouldn’t you hire an marketing/content agency to help you create this content?

Because your target audience wants to hear your authentic voice, not the voice of an agency. There’s no point in going through all the effort to create content, if that content is not going to resonate with the buyer.

I hear a lot of stories of agency-client relationships that fall apart because the content the agency creates is pretty mundane. It’s not written how you would speak, and it doesn’t really help your prospects.

And do you really want to come across like your competitors? Maybe the agency is creating content for them too?

And also, you’re at the mercy of the one or two blog posts a week that your agency produces. And often, that schedule eventually pitters out so you don’t even get the promised content. You need more control over how much high-quality content is produced, and it’s best done inhouse.

When I see quality website content, it’s often written by the experts in the business. The business’s authentic voice and knowledge really shines through.

It’s powerful.

This is about transforming your business from within, using the resources you already have to use written and video content for marketing and sales.

Your potential customers need answers throughout their journey.

If you want to become the voice of trust in your space:

You must be willing to talk about what others do not.
You must be willing to show what others do not.
You must be willing to sell in a way others won’t.

If you communicate well, using written content and video, you become a trusted source of all the information that your local home-sellers need, and you become the first estate agent that people start having conversations with. If you do it well you should start to get more property-sellers signing up with you.

This is about building trust to make the selling easier, to transform your estate agency business for ever.

One of the key dangers to be wary of is it’s extremely common for companies to invest in content marketing, and rather than get momentum and results, they get hundreds of unengaging blog posts.

That is generally because the business create biased, sales based content which turns people off.

Instead, you need to create content that solves your audience’s problems, leading to more trust, leads and sales.

This is not about creating content like “Top tips to help protect your property in winter” – it’s about addressing the fears of buyers, and answering the questions they are asking themselves, and asking you, in the purchasing journey.

If you want to learn more about this, it’d be a good idea to take a look at They Ask, You Answer by Marcus Sheridan. It’s one of the best marketing/sales book I’ve read and will help you to get more of the right customers, to generate more revenue. I coach estate agencies how to implement the teachings from the book. Feel free to send me an email if you have a question: [email protected].

What questions should we be answering on our website?

The questions you want to be answering on your website are questions that your potential clients are asking on Google.

It’s the questions that Marcus Sheridan in They Ask, You Answer, calls the Big 5. These are the types of questions that all consumers are thinking about whey they’re getting ready to buy a service or product. It doesn’t matter what you sell, these are the five subjects that move the needle.

The Big 5

Cost and pricing.
Problems (yours).
Comparisons and versus.
Best of lists (best in class, best practices).
Reviews.

The opportunity for you is that other estate agents don’t like to talk about these five things. They don’t like to educate their target audience about these five subjects.

As businesses we don’t like to talk about money, perceived problems with our service/product, we don’t like to compare our service to others, even though your buyers want to know. We don’t like to give unbiased reviews, even when the buyers want to find out the best estate agents in their area. Even if we don’t sign up to the best, we want to know where the estate agents are regarding value.

Don’t be scared. Don’t run.

The more you talk about uncomfortable subjects, the more you resonate with the buyer and the more you stand out, because your competitors don’t like talking about these subjects.

What types of questions are property sellers asking Google?

Start off by brainstorming.

Ask the estate agents in your business who go out and meet property-sellers face-to-face — what questions are they being asked?

Get the top 20 questions, and then answer them on your website. If you don’t know, then you need to get obsessed about your target market.

Once you have those questions, simply start writing.

t’s time to look on Google, and/or using services like AnswerthePublic.com. There’s a wealth of information you can write about that your target audience want the answers to.

The following list I quickly got from the Google search results:

How do I price my property?
Is now a good time to put my house on the market?
What is the best day to put a house on the market?
How can I get my house valued without selling?
Are houses selling for asking price?
What to know before selling a house?
When should I reduce the price of my house UK?
Can you negotiate house price after offer accepted?
Will UK house prices fall in 2023?
How long do most houses stay on the market?
Is it worth improving our house before selling?
Are houses overpriced right now UK?
Are UK house prices heading for a fall?
Do all houses sell eventually?
What brings a house price down?
What are the first things to do when selling your house?
How do you properly sell your house?
What are the stages of house sale?
What should you not do when selling a house?
What should you not fix before selling your house?
Can I sell my house and keep the money?
How soon after selling a house do you get money?
What documents do I need when selling my house?
How do I make my house look good to sell?
When you sell a house where does the money go?

But remember, it’s the Big 5 questions that you really want to answer, as they’re the questions that you competitors are less likely to answer.

If you answer this questions honestly, you’re much more likely to attract new clients, than turn them away.

Remember, property-sellers are yearning for open and honest help and advice.

I’ll give some examples for estate agents of each of the Big 5 categories:

What are the Big 5 Subject Areas for Estate Agents?

Cost and pricing.
How much should I accept as an estate agent fee when selling my home?
The key is answering in a 100% non-salesy, unbiased way. Pretend you have not vested interest, how would you really answer this question?
Problems (yours):
Should I trust my estate agent when they suggest I reduce the asking price?
The key is to write it in a 100% unbiased way, because that’s what your target market want. I’m sure there are occasions where you should questions the estate agent. Be honest.
Comparisons and versus:
Online estate agents vs High Street Estate Agents (Pros & Cons – Which is better?)
The key is to write it in a 100% unbiased way, because that’s what your target market want. Don’t be scared that you’re drawing attention to the competition. You’re more likely to attract more property-sellers. Lots of websites mention this topics, but they do it in a biased way. Your target market craves honesty with unbiased pros and cons. That’s how you earn trust.
Best of lists (best in class, best practices).
Which are the Best Estate Agents in Solihull, Birmingham?
The key is to not mention yourself in the list, and to be honest about the rest. You won’t earn trust if you put yourself in this list, or if you talk down the competition. Make it clear who wrote the article and give a non-salesy call-to-action at the bottom. If you’ve written it well, readers will contact you first. And suddenly you’ve give yourself a chance to show up in Google when people are searching for “Best Estate Agents in Solihull”
Reviews.
Buyers want to hear from other buyers about their experience with a product or service.

When estate agents invest in content but leave a lot of opportunities on the table

I was doing some research for this article online and typed “estate agents lowering price” into Google.

The third organic result down was this small estate agency:

That was impressive I thought.

An estate agency that is writing content using the exact same language as their ideal clients would. And such a powerful question to answer! So many of your target audience will want to know whether they should reduce the price to sell.

Yes, they may already be in an agreement with another estate agent, but they may be coming out of it, or they may have come across this content before signing up. This helps set you apart as a leading educator in your space

But when I looked at all the other posts this small estate agent had written, their content didn’t carry this pattern on.

Below are around 30 of their posts that they’ve invested time and money into.

I’ve marked posts bold if I think they’re more likely to be asked by a potential client – and would make it into their learning centre.

The reality is that most of the content would sit in a blog, rather than a learning centre, and wouldn’t excite many property-sellers.

Selling your house, reducing your asking price
Is Stamford Heading Towards a House Price Crash?
Is it a good idea to be chain free when buying a Rutland home?
Is Stamford Too Densely Populated?
Will the Rutland Property Market Crash in 2021?
Stamford estate agent, first time buyer advice, 5% deposit …
Thinking of Changing Estate Agents? Our Smooth Move Guide
Selling your home in the autumn…
How will the new energy regs affect Stamford buy-to-let …
No Deal Brexit – The Prediction for Stamford House Prices
Stamford Homeowners Have Turned to the Rental Market to …
A history of house buying in Rutland over the last 150 years
Whether you’re thinking of upsizing, downsizing or extending …
Rutland planning permission, Rutland property market …
What will happen to the value of your Rutland home next year?
The £489 million mortgage debt of Oakham homeowners
What’s happened to the Stamford housing market over the last …
Why buyers love Barrowden in Rutland
How to choose the right estate agent to sell your home in …
Are Stamford Builders Constructing the Wrong Types of Homes?
Oakham Property Market Update Summer 2019
Switching Estate Agents
Selling your home in an uncertain time – Pelham James Estate …
171 Stamford Landlords each risk a £5000 fine in Spring 2020
As 32.9% of Oakham property on the market is ‘Sold’… are …
How will the Brexit deal affect Stamford house prices and your …
Why Savvy Rutland Buy-to-Let Landlords Don’t Use 10-Year …
Unpaid rent in Rutland and how buy to let landlords might react
Oakham House Prices up 25.8% in the last 5 years
What will happen to the Rutland property market in 2022?

There’s a lot of boring, wasted content on the website above. They’ve invested money in topics that won’t really move the needle.

Sometimes that’s the fault of the estate agent, or sometimes that’s the SEO agency or content marketing agency.

Hopefully you’re starting to realise that you need more than just any content to earn the trust of your prospects and set you apart.

You need to get inside the minds of your prospects, and assume they know nothing. Answering questions like those below in your learning centre will put you well on the way.

How much do estate agents charge?
What do estate agents do?
What questions should I ask estate agents when selling?
How do estate agents value a house?
How to complain about estate agents?

Don’t assume that just by answering these questions, that you will suddenly get floods of traffic. Firstly it’s about building trust with your current site visitors and using content to educate throughout your sales process.

But over time, Google will start to send more visitors your way, and if you’re clever in how you mention your towns which you serve, then you increase the chances of appearing in local searches.

How much do Solihull estate agents charge?

That’s a great question that local property sellers would love to know and all your competitors will be too scared to answer. But if you answered this on your website, just think of the increased profile you’ll get with your local target market.

There are people out there searching for:
“[insert your area] estate agent fees” – who’s showing up now in the locations you serve?

Remember, if property sellers aren’t coming to your website, they’ll simply go elsewhere.

To stand out, you must be willing to:

Talk about what others to not
Show what others do not
Sell in a way that others won’t

And remember that Cost and Pricing is No.1 in the Big 5. So starting with lots of cost/price related content, including how much you charge and your competitors charge would be a very sensible thing to do.

How do you compare to your competitors?

If my experiences are anything to go by, there is a lot of opportunity for you, as an estate agent, to stand out against both real-world agents and those online.

I’ve experienced poor estate agents, and some very impressive ones, but even the impressive ones have fallen short.

When a property-seller finds an estate agent who does the marketing and selling well, the agent really stands out and earn trust.

This is what I want to help you do.

When as estate agent is so good at building trust, it’s almost a no-brainer to choose them to sell your house.

If you want to learn more about this, it’d be a good idea to take a look at They Ask, You Answer by Marcus Sheridan. It’s one of the best marketing/sales book I’ve read and will help you to get more of the right customers, to generate more revenue. I coach companies how to implement the teachings from the book. Feel free to send me an email if you have a question: [email protected].

Obsess over your clients through the purchasing journey

In the world of marketing and sales, the purchasing journey is an important concept.

It’s usually called the buyers’ journey, but in the world of selling and buying homes, all this buying and selling terminology can get a bit confusing. So here I’ll call it the purchasing journey (the property-seller purchasing your services – via commission down the line)).

It’s your job to convince the property-seller to choose you to put their property on the market with.

The example of a homeowner choosing between estate agents to sell their property illustrates trust building perfectly.

And to build trust with your clients, you need to understand the purchasing journey and how you can add value at every stage.

The purchasing journey of a homeowner looking to sell their home with an estate agent can be broken down into four main stages:

Awareness,
Consideration,
Decision,
and Post-Purchase.

In the Awareness stage, the homeowner becomes aware that they need to sell their home. This could be for a variety of reasons, such as a job change or a growing family, or they simply want a better house. They may start doing some research into whether an online estate agent is a good idea.

In the Consideration stage, the homeowner begins researching their options and evaluating which estate agent is best for their needs. They will start by comparing high street estate agents online and via word-of-mouth, and consider things like fees, services offered, and reputation.

Once the homeowner has decided to use a high street estate agent, they will enter the Decision stage. This is where they will choose a specific agent to work with.

The property-seller will talk to the different estate agents, and often, one of the first steps being to ask for a property valuation. This is then the opportunity for the estate agent to promote their services face-to-face.

The house seller will also decide on things like what price to list their home at and what repairs or improvements need to be made before putting their home on the market.

Finally, once the sale is complete, the homeowner will enter the Post-Purchase stage. This is when they will evaluate how satisfied they are with the process and service they received from their estate agent, leading to the leaving of reviews online.

Your job isn’t done yet, as the Post-Purchase stage is one of the most important stages where you need to make the most of recording successful customer journeys. With these stories in your locker, you can support future prospects in their buying decision with visual customers stories – wow video can be so powerful!

By understanding this buyers’ journey, estate agency owners can tailor their marketing and digital sales efforts to better meet the needs of homeowners at each stage of the process. By doing so, they can increase leads, conversions, and customer satisfaction.

If you need bespoke 1-2-1 advice to earn trust in your marketing and sales process to make the selling easier, feel free to arrange a non-salesy call with me, or learn more about me here — Mark.

You can find out more about They Ask, You Answer here: Book / Audiobook / Kindle). I’d love to have a chat once you’ve read it.

As a UK high-street estate agent, how can we get more property-sellers to choose us?