[self-sale]

Hi,

My local newspaper group have just made it almost impossible to advertise through them at a reasonable rate. Unless I have 10 or more listings, my advert will be triple that of anyone elses!

So, I need some other advertising/brand exposure ideas that would work for my business. What other avenues have you explored to be successful?

You can find me at: www.self-sale.com

My services are for Greater Manchester and Lancashire.

Thanks

[OldWelshGuy]

FIERCLY competitive arena. It depeds on your budget. Local radio, or targeted leaflet drop. OR you could slap up a handful of 'sold' borads, NOTHING gets people sigining up with an EA as quick as that

[Indizine]

chucking up fake sold signs could contravene the new advertising laws about misleading people maybe?? Good idea though if you are allowed to do it!

[Scottscd]

Surely there's more than one independent Newspaper in the greater Manchester/Lancashire area?

The most effective marketing strategy for this will be to utilise fewer, more targeted leads at a higher cost per lead - as you earn a large income per client. I rarely see much success with radio ad's but it works for some people so there's no harm in sampling it to measure the results. Advertising methods such as TV and local magazines may also work well.

However, it can be difficult to target home-sellers as there are no distinct demographics or features of that target audience. Because of this I'd also recommend lower cost-per-prospect marketing methods such as direct mail, telemarketing, flyering etc across a wide local area.

Getting into a more direct role can also work well as building up a few initial happy clients will work wonders when it comes to word-of-mouth selling. Stand around or near other estate agent storefronts, approach people who seem interested, have a chat and hand them a brochure. This is perfectly acceptable as long as you do it discreetly and at a distance, don't stand right outside the door.

Hope this helps.

[OldWelshGuy]

Sorry, i wasn't suggesting doing anything dogy, just that you need some sold boards up. I would try and get some people on board for free, then when their house sells, place sold on there. In fact i would scout the papers and look for 'under offer' properties

[self-sale]

Hi,

Thanks to everyone that has replied.
Estate Agents do put on sold signs in friends/family gardens but this is now against estate agent legislation and I'm not prepared to go down this route.

Direct marketing is something that I've done to some success by targeting those who already have boards outside and then speaking to the occupants(this is how I've won my first 3 instructions). I will continue with this but it is time consuming for a limited number of prospects approached.

I anticipated that local papers would resist a different type of estate agency as it directly challenged a lucrative and established revenue stream which they didn't wish to harm. I'm also aware that existing advertisers (high street estate agents) would challenge my inclusion and threaten to exclude theres. You could view this as anti competative but I need to get on with it and look at other avenues.

I do have the option of an advert for brand exposure but this would be outside of the property section and triple the cost of listing ads inside the section. Not a wise way to spend my money.

I did manage to advertise a brand ad in last weeks edition but following that the MD has decided to implement additional rules whether this is self motivated or with pressure from outside sources.

I'm currently do work on seo to help with organic ranking and have a pay per click campaign. I'm committed to advertising to 2 local business directories (paper, through the door) which will go to 8000 households and a relatively low cost.

Radio and TV are at the moment outside of my budget.

Thanks again and any other suggestions will be much appreciated.

[Fuzzy]

If you can't put up the sold signs to houses. Why not walk around the town centre naked with a sold sign attached to you. Now that would get publicity
On a serious note.............
I used to bombard the local paper with a press release every week until I got on first name terms with the picture editor. It was amazing how much free advertising I got - worth £1000's

[self-sale]

Walking around the town naked- good idea- I'll have to wait for a warm day in Bury though!

I like the idea of approaching people who are going in or out estate agent shops. I might even get a polo shirt designed and printed.

Thanks everyone.

[newrealityltd]

a friend of mine is an estate agent and does a leaflet drop to around 5000 homes a month (he has found some retired people who like to do it for free - something to do & a little exercise) and does it in a place were there aren't older people (people not willing to sell, ) and mainly younger people who might look to move on in the next few years
he doesn't even have printed glossy ones he just prints off thosands of simple paper ones from word.
you just have to have your wording spot on that people want to go with you.
he sells usually gets 1 sale a month because of it (but you really have to do thousands to make a difference.
expenses: retired leafleters - free (if you can find them find some reliable kids.)printing - cost of 5000 pieces of paper and around 10 ink cartridges (might be cheaper to go to a printer, what ever is easier for you)
he does pretty well for himself.
i hate him.