Over the years we have seen the real estate industry use social media platforms to grow  their following, stay in touch with local audiences and help them sell listings. 2020 saw social media consumption increase further meaning agents had the perfect platform to reach interested buyers (and sellers). 

Last year, we detailed why our team has developed Vendor Paid Advertising packages (VPA). In this article we want to help real estate professionals know how to work with vendors to secure more VPA, ultimately leading to better sales outcomes. 

So you have your branded VPA brochure and are ready for your listing presentation. How do you answer your vendor’s questions?

1. Social media consumption

The first step is to contextualise the rise of social media and how the market has slowly moved away from print media. For many, this will be a well known fact however, some may not make the link between readership decline and expenditure on weekend advertisement in the local paper. Take Australia’s most read weekend newspaper, Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph for example. With an average issue print readership of 613,000 it has seen a decline nearly 15% in the past 12 months. 

Secondly, show the sellers the options and let them know the potential reach of each package. Then explain that any methods they exclude from their package, will eliminate the reach of those buyers you suggested to target.

 2. Opportunity cost 

Describe VPA as an investment and the opportunity cost that comes with opting not to advertise on social media. Explain that social media advertising allows you to nurture buyers and target them much more effectively than passive methods of advertising like large real estate portals.  

3. Measurability

VPA provides measurability of interest. When speaking with our property of the year (2020) winner, Brad Cole of Northside Realtors. He discussed how VPA has allowed him to be more targeted in advertising listings ultimately gaining more cut through from interested buyers and avoiding the cost of advertising to non specific audiences. Brad gave an example of an investment property in the Inner North of Sydney, due to the smaller size of the apartment, it did not qualify for a first home buyer opportunity. Brad and our team were able to focus the budget of his vendor’s campaign on an older demographic of property investors. Once your VPA campaign is finalised a detailed report is provided to the vendor. This report displays outcomes of the campaign making it easy for the vendor to determine return on investment without creating work for the agent. 

Below we have created some simple scripts to answer your vendor’s questions:

How VPA can achieve a better sales outcome: 

• “What we’re looking to achieve from social media is to reach as many interested parties as possible through channels other than the obvious real estate portals.”

Why you outsource to marketing professionals:

• “We outsource our social media campaigns to a company called iRealty. They’re digital marketing experts who monitor and optimise all of our campaigns in real time and update us on all incoming leads.”

The target audience are buyers looking for properties like yours: 

• “We are able to reach a client base looking for a property like yours based on their behaviours and allow them to express interest quicker and faster than any other channel.”

Why VPA is cost effective:

• “A strong social media advertising campaign is one of the most cost effective ways to promote your listing. Not only can we reach tens of thousands of people, but we also generate strong expressions of interest over the length of the campaign.”

How VPA increases buyer interest:

• “What a strong social media campaign can do is boost enquiries, increase open home attendance, generate more buyer competition and in turn increase the sale price of your property. Social media campaigns target the people most likely to make this happen.” 

How VPA benefits the agent

Gaining VPA should be a privilege not an expectation. Although, the focus should be purely on selling your vendors property, VPA will inherently have great benefits for the agent as well: 

Brand awareness: Most digital marketing that is delivered to a relevant audience will contribute positively towards your brand awareness with VPA being no exception. While the aim is to advertise the property, the selling agent needs to be evident and accessible for interested buyers to be able to contact (much like agent profiles being on REA listing pages). 

Listing leads: Usually in the form of expression of interest requests, listing leads are generated through enquiry forms. Interested buyers can submit their contact information when interested in learning more about the listing. This increases your knowledge of local buyers and begins conversations with those who could have a property to sell.

Key takeaways: Vendor paid advertising provides an opportunity to secure better sales outcomes for your sellers. When approaching the conversation about VPA with your vendors it is important to be confident in explaining the key benefits of: Cost effectiveness, measurability, and targeting whilst, demonstrating the opportunity cost of not using VPA.