Talking digital during your marketing pitch to a vendor can be an uncomfortable task for some. Who can blame them.. the networks, audience targeting and social media jargon is confusing, especially when you’ve got 101 things to do. But, it doesn’t have to be.
The Rex Reach product research team spoke to a slice of top performing agents who place a Reach listing campaign with every new listing they sign to see what their ‘special sauce’ is to get digital VPA signed off by a vendor.
Here are the top 5 tips:
1. Keep it simple
Forget the tech and social jargon, it’s confusing. The most successful agents use simple, relatable examples to do all the heavy lifting… for example:
Vendor: “What’s this on the schedule, ‘digital marketing?’
Agent: “Everyone is online by default nowadays – Just think about how often you use your phone or see people scrolling social and browsing when you're out and about, it’s a no brainer to put ads for your listing in front of people where they are, online.”
Typically that's enough for most vendor’s to ‘get it’, but agents also use more specific examples to help the idea resonate too:
The coffee shop – order your drink and look around, almost everyone, even people out with other people, tend to have their phones to hand for a cheeky scroll. Think of all the times that happen in a day, it’d be crazy to ignore that opportunity, so that’s why we want digital ad’s, so their cheeky scroll includes your listing.
‘Ever since you Googled’ – that ‘thing’ the other day (shoes, smartwatch, dress etc), notice how you’ve seen loads of ads for those and similar items since? ‘It’s that’, you say, ‘but for your listing, to people specifically looking for property’.
For the sharp-eyed agent who notices the vendor has new <thing> on the way into the house, this is also an opportunity to personalize the examples above which creates a sense of trust – you understand a little piece of their world and must be the guy/gal for the job. Nice.
2. Leverage their expensive REA or Domain listing.
This is usually a significant expense when listing a property, and it's seen as a necessity. With that in mind digital campaigns can be seen as ‘bolt on’ or ‘optional extra’, which isn’t the case. It’s true that most buyers go to REA and Domain to shop for property, but here-in lies the problem. There are thousands of properties to choose from, yet the average browser only spends 8 minutes a day on portals, making it less likely they will come accross your listing.
Unlike other options such as Audience Maximiser, Reach digital ads are shown to audiences where-ever they happen to be browsing on the web or social media and drive traffic from that huge audience to the listing your vendor spent thousands on. Position this to the vendor as investing in their listing. You wouldn’t plan an Open Home without telling anyone about it – The same is true for a portal listing, Reach ad's drive a whole new, highly targeted audience at the listing.
3. Include Digital Ads in the schedule
Many agents we’ve spoken to do this and report it’s effective at eliminating objections almost entirely. Consider any bill you receive; electricity, council rates, your car service. It’s a list, and each item get’s scrutinised. The same happens when vendors examine the listing schedule. An item called ‘Marketing’ is a given, but an item labelled ‘Social Media Marketing’ may raise questions about it’s necessity. By incorporating digital marketing within your overall marketing package, it simplifies the conversation and leaves less room for debate.
From our conversations with agents, wrapping digital marketing with Rex Reach up into your package is probably the quickest and easiest change you can make today.
4.Handle objections elegantly
There are always going to be vendors who want to trim the price of the marketing schedule. We spoke to an agent who frequently found his Reach ad’s picked at by vendors looking for an easy way to trim off a few hundred bucks. His solution was not to labour over the benefits, but to express his confidence in the strategy and offer to cover the cost himself. This creates a win-win scenario, leaving vendors feeling valued and cared for. Imagine the referrals they’ll bring in.
5.Confidence is key.
True for selling anything, speaking confidently can be more compelling to a vendor than any fancy slide deck or point of difference your agency claims. To deliver a confident pitch, you need to understand and believe in your strategy.
It doesn’t have to be a long burn though. You’ve already read this article, so you have some best practices in your head.
So, it’s time to come up with relatable examples, practice your pitch and create a simplified marketing schedule with digital rolled in. Then get out there and start selling!
Craving for more insights into digital marketing? Check out our short video series, 'Reach Bites,' for a quick and straightforward overview of the broader opportunity that lies within.
