We live in an age of marketing. Everything from political parties to bottled Thames tapwater is ruthlessly marketed to a public that is becoming ever-savvier to the marketeer’s way.
Even the smallest property companies and surveying practices have to face up to the need to improve their marketing. But many have never sought external advice. Which type of marketing advice is needed? And how does a firm choose between in-house staff or external agencies? How does it select a good agency?
If marketing is a relatively new concept, or if a firm thinks it starts and ends with brochures and adverts, it may be necessary to get some training on the scope of marketing first.
“There is often a misunderstanding about what marketing is, which leads a lot of property companies to appoint the wrong kind of consultant,” says Erik Brown, managing director of Publishing Business. “Marketing is the creation of the next generation of customer and the definition ‘adapting your product or service to meet customer need at a profit’ is useful because it emphasises research.”
He also suggests that there are only two groups of customers: the old and the new. The old you already know, but you need to keep your relationship fresh. The new customers you may not yet know and you have to research your market carefully.
What do you want to achieve with your marketing? Increase income and/or profit, expand profile, attract more work from existing customers, new customers, introduce different products or services, or enter into new markets or different types of work?
Too often marketing advice is wasted because the company is not clear, beyond a desire to make more money, on its aims. Without defined and measurable goals, it is impossible to measure the effectiveness of any marketing. Those who need help in creating a strategy may need the assistance of a business or strategic marketing consultant. Although most decision makers will resist the idea of having someone help them in this area, without a business plan or strategy to guide marketing, anything undertaken is unlikely to be effective.
An alternative to traditional forms of training or consultancy at this strategic level is to select a coach-mentor. This is a valuable way to guide senior non-marketers through the various stages in developing a plan of action – based on research, analysis and selecting appropriate options – that identifies what type of marketing help is needed. The additional benefit is that the knowledge and skills of the coach-mentor are usually transferred to senior members of your company.
Having identified what you want marketing to achieve, the question is then whether to hire marketing specialists in-house or to purchase services from external agencies.
Daniel Innes, a director at specialist property consultancy Halogen, says: “The biggest problem the industry has in dealing with all the different consultants is how to co-ordinate their differing skills and ensure everyone’s communicating with each other.”
Even relatively small property companies can find themselves employing as many as six or seven companies handling web design, PR, trade marketing, graphic design, consumer marketing, research, media relations, advertising, media buying events or even lobbying – a situation that can lead to too much management and wasted resources.
A failure to integrate marketing activities effectively – including the often-overlooked aspects of internal communication – can lead to a fragmented brand and image. All the different elements need to work together, reinforcing each other, if consistent and clear messages are to be conveyed to the market.
Geoffrey Osborne, a construction solutions business, has in-house business development managers who have many years of experience in the industry and work within client- or market-focused teams. There is also a central core of marketing expertise, which supports market research and strategic planning.
Although in-house teams offer consistency and in-depth knowledge of your business and markets, they can be expensive and inflexible. Only the largest companies are able to afford and make full use of experienced marketing advisers on a full-time basis. Sometimes internal teams can get bogged down with day-to-day operational matters rather than strategic and mission-critical initiatives.
Some companies choose instead to blend in-house and external advisers. Trevor Silver, chief executive officer of Akeler, says: “We have a small in-house marketing team and use external PR and creative agencies. It is similar to how we work with architects and engineers – we tend to have a fixed idea of what we want but don’t have the skills to turn it into something great. We explain why we think a development is different and special and then they work the magic.”
If you decide to use an external advisor, you are then faced with the daunting task of choosing one. Margaret Emmens, the partner who heads marketing and PR at Knight Frank, says: “You need to approach getting external advice in the same way as you do getting a good plumber. Ask around – find out whom other people value,” she says.
Independent consultant Margaret Preston advises that you choose your marketing partner as you would choose any other professional. “Make sure you like them, feel comfortable with them, and, perhaps most important, be sure they understand your aspirations. There is no substitute for experience and size is not important. Large consultancies may well lose their edge.”
Rhoda Katz, chairman of the Profile Property Network, which is a networking club for people involved in property marketing, adds: “Small property companies should not be frightened by pitches. You can get marketing advice on a project basis or by training in-house people — it does not have to be a long-term retainer. Smaller firms appreciate help to get a programme kick-started, and then need further support on a quarterly basis to prompt action, with the ability to be on call.”
In other professions, the use of marketing freelancers is common. Bernadette Williams at accountants RSM Robson Rhodes is recently reported to have said: “Hiring a freelancer from an agency makes life easy as the hard work of filtering is done for you. Also, if you have an urgent project, you can get someone within 24 hours who can hit the ground running and achieve the task in hand.”
Clare Owen, managing director of Stopgap marketing recruitment consultancy, says that average day rates for a freelancer range from £100 for a marketing or PR assistant to £250 for a marketing manager and up to £1,500 for a marketing strategy consultant.
Katz suggests that you speak to like-minded people regularly because even in larger companies the marketing people may be isolated and marginalised. Talking to peers in other organisations means they can swap ideas. People who are new to marketing can quickly get up to speed by talking to those with more experience at industry events.
So, with a wide array of marketing advice available there is every opportunity for property firms to raise their marketing game. As usual, those who seize it will benefit from the market advantage they obtain
.Kim Tasso is a freelance marketing consultant and journalist
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Free marketing? It’s worth looking for. Sean Tompkins, executive director of brand and marketing at RICS, says: “We run a ‘find a surveyor’ service, making some 13,000 referrals to member firms each year. Of these, 60% result in a business instruction. We also operate consumer helplines which offer the public about 30 minutes of free advice and often result in instructions for participating members. “Tied in with the helplines are public information leaflets that are available for members to use for their own marketing purposes”. Further information is available from www.rics.org/marketingyourbusiness. |
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Margaret Emmens, partner at Knight Frank, offers the following advice for practices looking for a marketing agency. ● Remain impervious to mailshots offering services ● See a range of potential suppliers — get them to talk you through work they have done for others ● Check out how potential suppliers are resourced ● Chemistry is important, but don’t get blown away by the hype. As with bad plumbers, be suspicious of people who promise the earth for little money ● Don’t rush the process and make sure the brief is as thorough as possible ● Don’t start work without a written document, which is agreed by both parties ● Figure out in advance what the project is worth to your business and what the budget is. If you are a big brand name, the assumption is that you have big bucks to spend – so you must set the parameters early to avoid wasting everyone’s time |
