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There are two things you can do to appeal to more renters – but too many property managers let them slide.
Floor plans
When people are looking for a new home, floor plans are provided – I am talking about buying existing properties/display homes, as opposed to buying off-the-plan.
These floor plans engage potential purchasers and tenants, as they get a feeling for where their furniture might fit and, for example, where the study might be located compared with bedrooms or perhaps entertaining areas; how close the children’s rooms might be to the parents’ bedroom, etc.
However, once properties are sold and become ‘second-hand’ or ‘lived-in’, the floor plans tend to disappear in advertisements for those properties – why?
It would seem to make sense to include floor plans to sell those properties and get the potential purchasers engaged – and many progressive agents and groups are doing just that.
And to get potential buyers and tenants really involved, you can use interactive floor plans with little icons in the rooms and outside. Then, every time an icon is clicked, it pulls up a photo or video of that room – great interaction.
Photography
Question: should I use a professional photographer?
If you have the budget, it would seem to make sense to use a professional, as it should guarantee the quality of the photography – and photographers are aware of things like shade and light, the angle of the sun and the time of the day, which will all make a difference.
However, with the cameras available these days, agents can take some excellent photographs themselves. Either way, the content of the photograph is more important than just the photographic quality.
All too often I see agents and groups focusing on high-quality professional photography that makes their ads very ‘pretty’ – but sadly, if you make make bad advertising pretty, all you are left with is ‘pretty bad advertising’.
So, my advice would be to focus on correct advertising procedure first, then look at the photographic quality. That means writing the ad first, then taking the photographs to match; but all too often agents and their photographers snap away before the ad has been created.
Photos must match headlines (and also the body text), not the other way around. If the photo doesn’t match the headline, then while the photographic quality may be perfect, the advertising certainly isn’t.
Back to the original question about using a professional photographer – you’ll notice that most of the best agents and groups always use professional photography, to maintain a professional consistency, so there may be a lesson in there for you.
If you do decide to engage a professional photographer, you should ideally just include the cost in your advertising contribution proposal, and you will always know that lighting/exposures/propping and staging are correct.
But one more important thing to remember: don’t just let your professional photographers take photos as they see fit. Just like in an advertising agency, you need to direct them – ensure they know which photograph you need to match your headline and body text.
Then they can focus on the quality of each photograph, knowing what it is they have to capture, and can input their own ideas and creativity.
