Marketing and data: how they are applied to the day-to-day property market
It's not about becoming an analyst, but rather about stopping blind investment at every stage of the sales funnel
Estate agents invest time and money in marketing. On social media, on portals, on boards. And yet, we rarely stop to look at what return each action actually gives us. We make decisions based on intuition, on habit, on what worked for a colleague. That is almost always the origin of the problem.
After the interview with Fernando de la Rosa in the fourth instalment of our podcast Real People, I'll take an idea that I want to apply to my own field, marketing: data is a means to an end. It is not an analyst's exercise or a spreadsheet for the sake of filling it in. It is, quite simply, the difference between making an informed decision and deciding blind.
Brought down to our day-to-day, this translates into three very simple habits, one for each stage of the funnel: acquisition, sales and retention. No jargon. Just the actionable stuff.
Lead generation: record the source of each lead
We know that the main source of business for agents and small agencies is referrals: word-of-mouth from a satisfied client. But today, a property owner can reach you through as many channels as those in which you are present: Instagram, LinkedIn, your website, your Google business profile, a poster, your own performance area.
That is the data that really matters: where each lead comes from and how much the channel they arrived through costs you. Without that cross-reference, it is impossible to know whether you are investing properly or simply spending money.
A very simple example. In one month you have obtained 8 qualified leads from a poster that cost you 40 euros: 5 euros per lead. That same month, an Instagram campaign with 50 euros invested brought you 4 leads: €12.50 per lead. The data has already decided for you: you bolster the poster and revise your social media strategy.
Don't have a CRM? A spreadsheet will do. Old school? A notebook and a pen serve the exact same purpose. The only thing that won't work is not recording it.
Marketing: test only one thing in your ads
When our toaster doesn't work, we don't take it in to be repaired straight away: first we check that it's plugged in. The same thing happens with stagnant sales, and yet we are tempted to ask the owner to lower the price before having checked, one by one, the things that are wrong with our listing: the first photo, a poor description, poor positioning on the portal.
The habit that makes the difference is changing just a single element each week — the photo or the headline — and checking the analytics to see if clicks and leads improve. Changing several things at once is the surest way to learn nothing at all.
Week one: you change only the main photo for one that shows light and space, and you measure visits and leads for seven days. Week two: you keep that photo and tweak only the headline. You measure again. In the end you'll have something much more valuable than a gut feeling: you'll know which combination works, and you'll also know exactly what went wrong, so as not to repeat the mistake in the next marketing campaign.
Loyalty: short question, clear usage
We live, above all, on the recommendation of satisfied clients. A review, a good testimonial, builds the reputation that later works for you. And yet, in my day-to-day work with agents, I encounter the same thing over and over again: they don't ask for reviews. They don't dare, they feel embarrassed, They can't find the right time.
I recommend something that might sound daring and is actually pure common sense: let your client know, right from the start of the relationship, that at the end you are going to ask them for a recommendation. If you are sure they are going to be happy, that warning isn't presumption. It is consistency with what you know you are going to deliver.
The key is in the how. Ask them to answer this: On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend me? Whosoever rates you a 9 or a 10, ask them directly if they know anyone who is thinking of selling or renting out their home. They almost certainly do: every single day someone decides to sell their house. If you do not ask explicitly, that opportunity is simply lost.
Data is not the destination, it is the map
None of this requires more budget or more hours. What it does require is a change in habit: writing things down instead of assuming, changing one thing instead of changing everything, asking instead of taking it for granted that we already know.
The question, ultimately, is not whether you have enough data. Most of us do, scattered between the CRM, the portal, and memory. The question is whether you are looking at them before deciding, or only after, when it is too late to change course.
Listen to the full episode of Monapart's Gente Real podcast here.
