Defining Your Core Marketing Area for Estate Agency Success
Choosing Your Core Marketing Area for Estate Agency Success
Before launching your estate agency, the first crucial step is determining the core area where you’ll focus your marketing. This requires taking a step back before making a significant leap forward. To do this effectively, we need to understand marketing touchpoints—those small yet essential interactions that build brand recognition and trust over time.
The Power of Marketing Touchpoints
Marketing touchpoints are the interactions customers have with a brand—be it a leaflet, a social media post, or a TV advert. With enough exposure, these touchpoints help consumers associate a brand with its product or service. A clear example of this in action is a recent cinema experience I had.
I chose an early screening for a three-hour film, ensuring I’d be finished by 7 pm—prime time for grabbing food. During the pre-film adverts, McDonald’s didn’t just appear once but four times. As a well-established multi-billion-dollar company, you might wonder why they invest so heavily in repeated advertising. The answer? They understand that the more marketing touchpoints they create, the greater the chance of influencing a customer’s decision. Studies indicate that it takes at least 11 touchpoints for a client to know and trust a brand—and estate agencies are no exception.
The Scale of Marketing Touchpoints in Estate Agency
Imagine targeting an area with 100,000 residents. While this sounds like an enormous pool of potential clients, each of them needs multiple interactions with your brand before they even consider your agency. If we assume 11 touchpoints per person, that’s 1.1 million marketing impressions—an extremely costly endeavor.
Since most new estate agencies don’t have the budget for such broad outreach, a more strategic approach is necessary. Instead of targeting an entire city, the best practice is to define a core patch of around 5,000 households per staff member.
For example:
1-person agency = 5,000 households
2-person agency = 10,000 households
3-person agency = 15,000 households
This focused approach allows you to create consistent, high-impact marketing within a smaller, more manageable area. By concentrating on one region, you become a big fish in a small pond, positioning yourself as the local authority in that area.
Selecting Your Core Patch
So how do you choose your core patch? It depends on your positioning in the market:
If you cater to high-end clients, focus on areas with premium properties.
If your brand appeals to working-class clients, target neighborhoods that reflect this.
For most estate agencies, family-friendly areas with good turnover rates offer the best opportunities.
To validate your choices, analyze market activity using property portals:
Select potential areas.
Check how many properties are currently listed for sale.
Compare with the number of properties under offer.
Calculate the percentage of properties selling (e.g., if 50 out of 100 listings are under offer, that’s a 50% success rate).
Higher percentages indicate areas with active buyers and sellers, making them prime locations to target. If your core area consists of smaller segments, aim for geographic proximity to minimize travel time and maximize brand presence.
When to Expand Your Core Patch
Expansion should be strategic, not rushed. A good benchmark is having at least 10 active listings (either on the market or sold) in your core area before considering an expansion. If you’re a solo agent content with a steady income, your core patch may remain the same for years. However, if you plan to grow, ensure you’ve dominated your initial area before branching out. Expanding prematurely can weaken your presence, leaving you with two underperforming patches rather than one stronghold.
Next Steps: Maximizing Marketing Efficiency
With your core area defined, the next phase is exploring the most effective marketing channels. Which strategies will offer the best return on investment? By optimizing your marketing efforts in your chosen area, you’ll build strong brand recognition, increase trust, and ultimately grow your estate agency successfully.