interest Blog - HomeTruths

If you’ve never heard of this winning little acronym, it stands for…

Attention – Interest – Desire – Action

… it’s a sales formula used by salespeople to sell everything from double glazing to kitchens, and acts as a reminder of what a sales message needs to address.

So what has this to do with selling houses? Everything!

Remember (see blog Your Rightmove Property Performance Report) there is a distinct correlation between the number of buyers who click on your property to get extra details (your click-through rate) and the numbers of viewings generated.

Typically, you need a click-through rate in excess of 10% to get enough viewings for an offer to be made. So, if you aren’t getting the viewings, chances are your rate is below this.

Let’s apply AIDA to your online property advert, to see if we can improve it, and increase the number of enquiries from buyers:

ATTENTION – What does your main photograph show? Is it attractive? Has it been taken on a blue-sky day? Are there any cars/wheelie bins/road signs in shot? Your main image is the most important component of your online advert, so make it count. Encourage your estate agent to try different photographs as your main shot, perhaps just the front door or the house name plate. Browsers will then have to click to see what the front of the house is like and hopefully look at the rest of the photographs too.

What does the text say about your house on the summary page? (i.e. the page where your house is listed with any others in a search). Has it been written especially for that page or has it simply been ‘lifted’ from the detail page? Try writing a punchy ‘strapline’ – in other words, no more than about 10 – 15 words as a headline to encourage buyers to click. Here’s one of mine:

“A beautiful bolthole nestling in rolling hills” and another…

“Calling all urbanites – a truly chic studio flat surrounded by the trendiest coffee shops and eateries”

The text on your detail page need to be concise and impactful. I favour bullet points, like this:

4 beds
2 bathrooms
huge games room
carriage driveway

A couple of very brief paragraphs can summarise the location and description, but your browsers won’t read chunks of text online.

INTEREST – In order for you to really capture a browser’s interest, you need to show them that your house has what they’ve been looking for. This really comes down to knowing your buyer ( see blogpost Know Your Buyer). Try this – write down 10 -20 key words you think your buyer will be hoping to read about your house and sprinkle these liberally around your online text e.g. views, country walks, 2 minutes from station, real fire.

Now look again at your photographs – are these telling the same story? Your advert should be delivering strong and consistent messages to make sure your buyer feels excited enough to book that viewing. Remember a potential buyer is particularly looking out for features which they currently do not have!

Once you know your buyer – their motivations and aspirations, you can show them – via a carefully designed online advert – that your house is the one they have been searching for.

DESIRE – Your photographs show all the lovely feature and lifestyle your house will give them; your text reassures them with specially chosen key words and phrases. They want your home. They desire your lifestyle.

Once they want it enough, they will naturally and willingly take the next step of…

ACTION – What you really want your buyer to do next is to pick up the phone and call your estate agent to arrange a viewing. Simple!

Testing – once you have made changes to your online advert, it’s really important to test the results. Compare your click-through rate from the old advert with your rate after the changes. If there is no improvement, make some more changes, and test again.

Next time you have a chat with your estate agent, ask him of he’s ever heard of AIDA. If not, maybe direct him to this blogpost……

If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.

“The flaws in the intelligence are plain enough in hindsight.”

~ Edward Kennedy

Have you been trying to sell your home for months, or even years, without success? You’re certainly not alone; did you know that only half the properties on the market last year actually sold?

Did you decline an offer in the first month or so that, in hindsight, you now would take? It’s a familiar story. In fact, around 75% of sellers who contact us would now accept that offer – gladly – and now regret having rejected it.

A property is never more desirable than when it first goes onto the market. The initial flurry of interest can even occasionally generate an offer in excess of the asking price, such is the draw of a newly-marketed home. The interest curve for those all-important first few weeks looks something like this.

However, once all the buyers who have been searching for a while for their next home have seen it, then it’s only the new buyers coming to the market who are around to show any interest, and this may be only a handful a week, at best. This just isn’t sufficient to instill any sense of urgency in a buyer, who may view 15 – 20 or more properties before making an offer on one.

Once your property has been on the market for more than a couple of months therefore, the interest curve looks more like this:

If you drop your asking price, and keep dropping it in an attempt to counteract this downwards trend of interest, all you’re doing is ‘chasing the market down’, in effect.

So what’s the answer? Here’s my expert guide to keeping your property marketing fresh, and avoid it becoming stale and forgotten:

1. Don’t dismiss out of hand any offer you receive in those crucial early weeks of marketing. It will probably be the best offer you will ever receive on your home;

2. If you’re several months (or years) down the line, you need to break the vicious cycle that is no one wants a house that no one wants. Take it off the market completely for at least two months, and preferably up to six months.

3. Re-launch at the right time of year for your property, ie at the time of year when your buyer is most likely to be searching.

4. Don’t scrimp on your re-launch: engage a professional home stager, commission a professional photographer, and choose a proactive agent who believes in quality marketing.

5. If you get an early offer when you go back to market, take it! Within reason of course…. As a general rule of thumb, anything in excess of 85% of your asking price is definitely worthy of consideration in this market, and over 90% is a terrific offer.

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If you’d like my help to sell your home more effectively, please answer a few short questions here and if I think I can help you, I’ll be in touch.