Often the purchase of a rent roll can mean a real estate business has acquired another location and office. Part of the success of a rent roll transition in a situation like this, is what happens after the ink has dried on the contracts.
Not only does the agency have to integrate the new rent roll, landlords and staff into their existing business, there is the issue of branding. Most established agencies understand the value of a consistent brand across multiple offices, however the one place we consistently see brand degradation is on social media and on Facebook in particular.
Facebook business pages have always posed a problem for multi-office or multi-location businesses such as real estate agencies. Often they are not a franchise, nor are they a dictatorship, but rather each office hovers in the area of being under one brand but needing to operate locally and with autonomy.
One way to get around this problem and create a global/local Facebook marketing strategy for a multi-office agency is to use the lesser known Facebook business page feature called Locations.
Locations allow a business like a real estate agency to have globally branded presence - or ‘parent’ with as many “child’ locations as required.
What this means is you are able to create both global content for the brand as well as allowing your individual locations the ability to post local content and use Facebook to build relationships within the local area without diffusing the brand or confusing the audience.
For real estate businesses who are actively growing, a global/local strategy is an essential framework for their online marketing.
What is global content?
Global content is anything which is relevant to everyone. Annual ‘state of the market’ reports are global content, general interest articles, financial information (ie rises in interest rates) which affects everyone and real estate trends are all global content.
Global content is good for both general awareness, establishing expertise and credibility as a brand. It is not very good at building community connections and growing relationships within a local area. Too much global content can turn an audience off and disconnect them from your brand.
Local content
Local content is anything which would be of interest to the people living in the area covered by one of your offices. The content can be to do with community groups, sporting groups or local events, fundraisers or business groups. Even local sales data is relevant to the residents of your area - or anyone researching a suburb.
Local content is great for building relationships with the local community, staying front of mind even when people are not buying, selling or renting a property and for creating ongoing customer nurturing campaigns based around local knowledge and community engagement.
When it comes to the ‘value’ of a real estate agency, brand integrity is something which can present a ‘hidden cost’ if it is not well done - and can assist in a smoother transition if you are selling.
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