Ditch digital - use handwritten letters to win business, say agents

The estate agency industry is besotted with digital canvassing to try to win business - but that’s the wrong approach to take right now, according to two successful agents and marketing experts.

Sam Ashdown and Phil Jones are co-founders of marketing firm Firewave and also run the Lake District estate agency Ashdown Jones; they have given Estate Agent Today an exclusive insight into their marketing approach which is distinctly old-school but offers a potentially remarkable return on investment.

They believe the scope for digital canvassing for properties is flooded, leaving the way open for those agents who put the effort in to skilfully-written, well-targeted handwritten approaches to people who are flattered by the individual technique.

“Going after properties on the market was our easy route in when we opened four years ago, but going after NOT on the market homes is very speculative. You send out 1,000 letters and you might expect to get just one back” explains Ashdown in the video which you can see below.

But Jones goes on to reveal that recently, a smaller mail-out of some 500 letters produced an amazingly successful response which if they come to fruition could produce literally hundreds of thousands of pounds in fees. “So the return on investment is quite good” he tells Estate Agent Today interviewer Chris Buckler, himself an agent in London.

Ashdown and Jones offer viewers practical tips on how to target homes, what key elements to put in the letters, and how to flatter the homeowners into putting their properties on the market.