It’s no good being a property expert if your attitude stinks
Have you ever heard the saying “It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it”? That’s what I’m going to be talking about here. If you’re struggling to win the likeability factor in your local area, it might be worth considering how you’re presenting yourself online. You might think you’re delivering your expertise, but there’s a reason professional copywriters exist – it can be really hard to present your voice accurately online.
Who are you talking to?
You might keep up-to-date with every piece of legislation and be an absolute expert in your field, which is really important. However, how you present that is really important too, especially online if you’re relying on the written word and still haven’t jumped aboard the video bandwagon.
First and foremost, consider your audience! How would a tenant, landlord, buyer or seller view the information you’re putting out – are you constantly talking about making the most money for your landlords with no tenant-focused content? This could be a red flag for them wanting to rent through you. Are you always talking about achieving well above the asking price for selling properties? This could be a red flag for your buyers.
One way you could get around this is by keeping social posts fairly generic, but running ads for each of your audiences and targeting them to the right social media profiles. We’ve had great success taking this approach in the past.
Brand voice vs knowing your onions
When you really know your stuff, the danger can be sounding quite big-headed and slipping into talking in jargon without explaining it. Should landlords know what section 21 is? Sure! Are they all going to? You bet your life the answer to that is no.
This is where having a strong brand voice is important. Are you aiming to be helpful to everyone? Are you a friendly family-run agency? Do you specialise in more exclusive, rural properties? Getting the tone of your content output right is just as important as the knowledge you’re imparting when it comes to reaching potential customers.
Authenticity
Being authentic with your written output is also really important. People can see through it a mile off when they feel someone is trying to pull the wool over their eyes.
Is it a tough time to be a landlord right now? Yes. Only focusing on the high number of tenants looking for rental properties would be a mistake, and makes you look like you’re trying to cover up the hardships.
Finding a way to talk about the downsides and frame yourself as valuable support with things like legislation changes would have much more of an impact, and is more likely to win favour with potential customers who take the attitude “I like that agent, they didn’t try to feed me a load of BS”.
People buy from people
Ultimately, people buy from people. Yes, showing your expertise is really important, but it’s not the be-all and end-all when crafting a brand voice online. People want to see your humanity, and that can be a hard thing to get across in a blog post.
Need help with your brand voice? Get in touch.
Katie Gillingham
Katie is a Freelance Copywriter living in rural Dorset with her daft old Labrador. She first started writing content for the property industry back in 2015, and loves nothing more than bringing brand voices to life!
