Apologies for the lack of daily updates over the past week and a bit. Being busy isn't a good enough excuse, I know.
Eric Woodhams from Consortia Marketing (and also well known to estate agents as part of his role for the National Homes Network) posted up a link on his blog about the latest marketing gimmick that Andrews Estate Agents are using to launch a new branch in Bristol. Innovative enough to be worth a mention I think.
They've dropped 250 keys through local letterboxes, with one of the keys opening a box in the branch with £250 in. If nothing else, it should generate a bit of positive PR (twice - once to launch and again for the winner!) and brand awareness.
It probably also offers a little more bang per buck than the similar idea of posting several halves of £5 notes through each door and asking them to book a valuation or visit the office to collect the other half and a bit of sellotape!
Unless this was targeted it seems a bit pointless. There would also be an embarrassment factor of having to turn up at the office with your key and test it while all the staff are staring at you - my guess is that about 90% of the keys, and probably the one that fitted, got binned.
Thanks for taking the time to comment Justin.
Martin
Martin
One thing I would say is that you do have to be careful about how you decide on the houses that get the keys. People may wonder (after reading about it in the paper) why they or maybe why people in their area didn't get the keys. You don't want people to begin to think that you don't care about them.
Almost better to go for a random drop, at least that may it can make it seem more fair to people.
I'm not sure that people are really that sensitive to this sort of thing. I'd focus on the business reasons for doing it, rather than being hyper-sensitive about reaction personally.
Martin