Running an estate agency business is many things. It is hectic, chaotic, stressful, varied, interesting, and busy, but certainly never dull. It's also very unpredictable.

There is no way to know how the market will change. With so many factors that can affect the housing market that are almost entirely out of your control, it's nearly impossible to predict how many new properties you will take on each month and how many will sell.

When deciding to make estate agency your career, you agree from the outset that you'll take the rough with the smooth, the highs and the lows. Sometimes the work is extremely fruitful, with excellent fees and delighted customers. But at other times, you can work tirelessly for almost no recognition and very little revenue.

It is the thrill of the job. You never quite know what the day will bring you. It could be a completion that nets a colossal cheque that maybe you've worked for months to hold together. Or it could equally be a neighbour dispute you need to rectify or an anti-social tenant. No two days are ever the same, and you will often hear an estate agent say that they could write a book about all of the scenarios they've encountered, from the sublime to the ridiculous.

The absolute lack of predictability in estate agency means it can be impossible to plan and prepare for growth within your business. If valuation figures and sales numbers are unpredictable, your company revenue will be too. How can you plan for future business growth, recruitment, or marketing campaigns if you don't know how much money you will have to spend? How do you know if you can sustain another salary when you need to recruit more staff? How do you know if the revenue can support opening another branch or signing up for some new technology?

One way to ensure some predictability with regular instructions is to have consistency in your marketing. Adverts on repeat, not just once in a while. Content, nurturing those sellers of the future that are not ready to make direct contact just yet.

The key is generating leads consistently, leading to consistent valuation appointments and consistent new instructions. It isn't an exact science, but the more leads you generate, the more opportunity you have to list properties and sell them, and ultimately the higher your revenue.

So, how can you ensure that you can predict the figures for your business and keep a constant stream of leads?

Leaflets & Newspapers -

You need marketing methods that can be tracked and measured. Leaflet drops and newspaper adverts definitely work, but they can not be measured accurately, so you can never be 100% sure they have been successful, and there is no way to calculate the ROI.

Of course, if you have plenty of budget, you can spend it here, but there are ways to communicate with the homeowners in your local area for less money with more accurate insights. This is such important information because if the insights show the method wasn't so successful, you'll know not to waste your budget on that method in the future.

Direct Mail Letters -

Direct mail is also an excellent tool, and there are ways to measure and monitor the success of your letters. But still, there is a significant cost involved with sending direct mail, and there are cheaper options available that could perhaps be more successful.

The issue with these two options is the tracking and monitoring. Yes, you know your output. You know the streets or addresses you've contacted, but how do you know if the homeowner read it?

Leaflets are often put in the recycling bin quickly alongside the pizza menus. We don't get many letters anymore, so the homeowner would likely open a letter, but how do you know they read it? And more importantly, how do you know that the letter has reached the homeowner at the right time to resonate with them?

Content marketing -

In contrast, technology allows us to market to our audience digitally and efficiently, giving detailed insights into our emails' open rate or the engagement on social media posts.

In addition to the significantly lower cost of digital marketing methods, you will steer clear of the old-fashioned way of interruption marketing. You're not interrupting the homeowner's day with your message in the vain hope that they might be interested in selling their property just at that moment. Instead, you're offering helpful information that a homeowner will find for themselves at the right time for them.

Of course, if you could pinpoint the households in a particular street considering selling their property, a well-written, well-timed letter would probably have a fantastic response. But how on earth do you know when a homeowner thinks of selling their property before they've called you?

The Answer? -

So what is the answer? By posting informative blog post articles and tips to social media and your mailing list, the homeowners thinking of moving will come to you like a magnet—attraction marketing.

Consistency is key because you never know when the message will resonate with a potential client.

This consistency helps build a predictable agency with a constant stream of valuation leads and revenue you can rely on, nurturing those potential sellers that are not ready to speak to you yet.