What is the best way for agents and developers to advertise their properties to ensure maximum return on investment?  TheMoveChannel.com recently conducted its first annual Partner Marketing Survey to explore this question, and the results were very interesting indeed.

Logic would seem to dictate that agents who spend huge amounts of money marketing their properties automatically receive the most leads. After all, the more you saturate the market, the more responses you will receive…right? 

Wrong. 

The main finding of the TheMoveChannel’s Partner Marketing Survey was the surprising fact that beyond a certain point, spending more money did not necessarily produce more enquiries or more sales. 

Internet leads bonanza!

More and more of the average property marketing budget is being directed online, with strong results, but just how much should advertisers spend online, and what other elements are the best choices to form part of the marketing mix?

With the rise of cost-effective internet marketing and the endless possibilities available for expansive, low-cost advertising strategies, cost-intensive multiple-media marketing may not always be the most profitable way forward. 

This was reflected in the Partner Survey, with the online marketing proving to be the most effective marketing method, producing the best Return on Investment (ROI).

Chart 1: Overall Leads generated per medium

Web advertising has now caught up and overtaken both magazine and newspaper advertising, but unsurprisingly, still lags behind the average spend on property exhibitions.

Exhibitions still offering good value

Expos are clearly a high cost marketing activity compared to other media, but on the plus side, they do seem to yield a high number of leads, which makes them a very worthwhile enterprise.

Chart 2: Average amount of money spent per medium

With our survey showing that agents spent twice as much on Expos as on any other medium, it’s clear that agents still value the impact and lead generation capability of exhibitions.  And why not – as chart 1 above illustrates, the cost effectiveness of exhibitions far outweighs that of newspapers or magazines, though online marketing is still some way in front.

Internet advertising leads the way

When it comes to generating leads, web marketing outperformed the other media significantly, with nearly double the leads from Expos (from less than half the expenditure) and 4 or 5 times as many leads as compared to either newspapers or magazines.

Chart 3: Average number of leads generated per medium

Generating leads is fantastic, but the whole process means nothing if the leads are poor quality and difficult to close. Most salespeople don’t mind spending more time dealing with their leads if a strong percentage of them will eventually end up closing.  However, spending copious amounts of time following up on leads that will probably not result in a sale is a waste of both time and money.

Sealing the deal: Online marketing wins again

On that basis, on which sales medium should agents be spending the most time?  In terms of closing leads, web marketing came out on top again:

Chart 4: Average number of sales generated from leads

 
*Not based on overall amount spent

Newspaper marketing performed particularly poorly, with an average of 3 sales for every 49 leads. Magazine marketing proved to be marginally more effective, but once again, Exhibitions and online marketing were by far the most effective advertising methods, with online marketing generating almost four times as many leads as newspaper advertising.

Online marketing works!

Overall, TheMoveChannel’s Partner Survey emphatically concludes that online marketing is the most powerful method of attracting potential buyers.  Exhibitions continue to offer good value lead generation at a slightly higher cost and print advertising is effective to a point, but in terms of generating actual sales, online marketing is clearly the way to go.

The results are to be expected given the fact that Investors have an increasingly voracious appetite for seeking out bargains on the net. With functionality improving all the time and new exciting new innovations such as video listings on the horizon, searching for property on the internet is becoming the easiest and most convenient method available.

Dan Johnson, Managing Director of TheMoveChannel.com, commented: “A tough year ahead for Agents could accelerate the move online, with more money being spent on Internet marketing. Expos should remain part of the marketing mix, but it's likely that print advertising will suffer as advertisers look for better returns from their expenditure.

“Our partners’ success in selling their properties through our online property portal is fuelled by the limitless possibilities of web marketing, and we work hard and smart to present our Partners' properties to the highest standards on our site and throughout our marketing partner network”.

Jaimie Kanwar