Are Other Letting Agents Stealing From You?

Write stuff about the local property market and you will have landlords flooding to your lettings agency .. yeah that’s about it. Of course it takes time, you have to be patient, the articles have to be written in a certain fashion and you have to get them out to the great and good in your town .. all techniques I show you how to do

Until someone asked me last week, what if my competitors steal and use what I write to get landlords? Just how do you come to terms with writing the right stuff, knowing that your competitor letting agents would have access to what you write and say? I say this, this is why many agents fail at getting new landlords, fail at following through and understanding this landlord farming thing I preach … quite simply, its fear.

If you, as a letting agent are going to try and implement this landlord farming strategy (in marketing terms it has a name in fact .. yeah, can you believe it .. its called ‘content marketing’), the biggest mistake you can make is withholding what you write, to only show it to the few. What you write, what you say (i.e. your content) is not going to be interesting, persuasive, or helpful to landlords or potential landlords, if you withhold your ideas, your thoughts, your skills and most importantly, YOURSELF.

If you write good stuff that people like to read ‘i.e. content marketing’, it creates such an successful strategy is that it allows you to be known. By writing good articles (i.e. good content), that provides you with a chance to be seen by your prospective landlords or homeowners that might want to sell in the future. In essence, writing good content creates awareness.

…. and if you to know what good content looks like, here are some letting agents I work with …

If you want new landlords to use your lettings agency, it is not enough to be known. You have to be known for the worth that you create. This is what makes your different and what defines you in a marketplace with a glut of letting agencies that look like yours. When you withhold good content, you deprive your prospective landlord of understanding how you create value. You deprive them of the experience of what it might be like to work with you or buy what you sell. They can’t tell what you believe is important and why.

Come on, do you really think what you have to say is so unique and original, that is too valuable to ever publish in the outside world? Hell, look at what I do, I almost tell you how to use landlord farming, you don’t have to pay me one penny to start the process.

Even though everything is just about known about everything, what is not known is your point of view. All of you letting agents tell me, lettings is a people business. They only thing that makes your agency different is YOU. You have ideas and opinions and I bet you believe that some things are more important than others. That is what people want to hear .. doesn’t need to fancy or whacky .. just your thoughts on the local property market.

… and don’t worry about the competition. You might be surprised to hear that your fellow letting agents in town have their own ideas. Some of them believe their ideas are better and more powerful than yours, whilst some will believe you are wrong and would never dream of “nicking” one of your ideas. Trust me, you do not have to spend much time worrying about copycat letting agents borrowing your content.

Sometimes we fear the wrong thing. We fear looking a prat, writing stuff and publishing it because it might be wrong, or as this article suggested at the start, because we worry about telling the world our ideas, where our competitors will either poke fun, steal and even use. But that shouldn’t worry you, because I can teach how to write the articles for you, or I can even write them for you. Now I only write for one agent in one town, and you can see from all the Linkedin endorsements/ Recommendations (in excess of 40), this stuff works.

Your concern, Mr and Mrs Letting Agent is better saved for your competitors who might start writing their own articles about the local property market (either themselves writing it or me ghost writing it for them) before you do, because there can only be one ‘Local property Market Guru’, and if they start first, it will be YOU who is seen as the copy cat as they have a head start growing attention and establishing themselves.

Christopher Watkin

I teach, guide, support, mentor, consult, counsel, partner many hundreds of UK Estate and Letting Agents in their quest to grow their estate and lettings agencies business. Old school techniques of touting, landlords wanted leaflets, ring us for a free valuation, we have sold this in your street leaflets don't work anymore. There are too many competitor agents .. meaning cheap fees are epidemic, overvaluing is almost a norm to get the stock and don’t even mention about the online/hybrid threat. So a few years ago, I set about looking around the UK and spotted that certain agents (not many mind you) in certain towns were still seen as the ‘go to person on property’, the person the newspaper editor rang up every week for a comment and I looked at what they did and they were doing some thing quite remarkable…. Only one thing but they were doing it so well .. and reaping the reward in terms of decent listings and decent fees, happy staff, decent sales pipeline and exchange income, managed lettings portfolios in the many hundreds .. but more importantly, they really enjoyed the job… they enjoyed getting up in the morning and people looked up to them Over 400 agents around the UK are on a mission to change the way our Estate and Lettings agency profession is perceived and looked upon, doing it town by town, city by city. I guide these 400 agents, teach them, mentor them and support them to be seen in a different light, to be seen as the ‘go to person for property’, actually be the ‘local property expert’ and prove it. Christopher Watkin 07950 147 572 christopher@christopherwatkin.co.uk

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