Radio Advertising for Estate / Letting Agents works still?
Many Estate and Letting Agents will state Radio Advertising as part of the marketing services they offer when it comes ‘how they go about selling / renting’ their clients property. I would say though that many agents do not use radio advertising, I certainly haven’t heard many estate agents advertisements on my local radio station recently.
Is there really a case to use radio to promote your estate agency? Some obviously do, ie here (turn speakers down!) and yet many will have researched newer ways to spend on marketing their agency locally ie social media. The surge of innovation to the industry, ie online estate agents and hybrid agents will state that radio will play part of their marketing drive, ie Purplebricks, which means that radio is still seen as a marketing option I assume?
Some tips when it comes to radio advertising:
- Most estate agencies will be small businesses so radio advertising needs to offer a ROI – Only national companies can afford to create brand awareness only from radio advertising.
- Who are you looking to talk to and where? Locally you will have radio stations that will perform better as they have the more preferred audience for you business – Research them and choose the most appropriate. Take time to visit Rajar website to obtain listening stats.
- When is the best time to have my adverts running? This will be down to the audience you are looking to attract.
- Will you run advertising campaigns or branded content (ie your estate agency sponsors the weather or prize give-aways).
- Set up a unique promotion as an advert campaign so that you can monitor the success. Use a promotional code as part of the radio advert that listeners will have to use when contacting you.
- What content should your advert contain and what length? Should you design your own music / jingle or go with using a well know musical track (which of course can cost a lot more). Should you simply let listeners know about your services or do you run with stats re your sales? Maybe a competition give-way grabs the details you require ie emails / footfall to your offices.
- How long should you advertisement run for? Many radio stations / PR companies will say it has to run for several weeks in order to catch people’s attention as not everyone will listen first time round. Maybe discuss a short term contract to monitor results closely. This can be complicated as you want to reach as many listeners as you can without listeners resenting hear your adverts as it runs too often – Of course, if you put together an award winning advert then listeners maybe happy to hear it repeatedly. Is 1/2 times your advert needs to be heard before registering or is it 5+ times?
Ultimately, what will decide if your radio campaign offers you back any ROI is the strength and creativity of your message and the amount of times that message is played out at the correct time slots your target audience is most likely to be listening.
Does your estate agency use Radio Marketing and does it work?