Small Business Case Study: Rebranding a Lettings Agency
MEET THE CLIENT:
One Stop Properties are a lettings agency in Glasgow. This case study is provided by Anna-Marie Taylor of Taylor Communications, who started work with One Stop Properties back in 2018.
At this time, One Stop Properties had no social media presence, an out-of-date website and dated brand. They realised they needed to ‘do something’ to reach the rapidly growing digital audience of landlords and tenants.
Customer service was, and still is to this day, their prevalent USP, so they wanted to reflect that in their online presence. Internally they had a fantastic team of lettings agents, but no-one with marketing or digital skills.
They commissioned Taylor Communications to develop a marketing strategy that would springboard them into the digital world and provide an online presence that reflected their high level of service.
THE REBRAND:
After identifying the client’s target customers, Taylor Communications addressed their branding.
One Stop Properties logo was outdated and did not reflect their excellent customer service. Taylor Communications introduced the strapline of “Glasgow’s Letting Specialist” to better reflect their client and how they wanted to project themselves.
This new brand was to be reflected throughout print, website, signage and digital channels.
Here are the logos, before and after.
“A NEW WEBSITE PLEASE”
Taylor Communications managed the tender process for One Stop Properties’ new website and reached out to three Glasgow agencies to participate in the bid.
The focus of the new website is to get users to engage with the company and the people behind the company.
They focused on being honest while communicating about how the company started and the story behind the brand.
Anna-Marie from Taylor Communications managed the full tender process, customer journey mapping, web development, content creation, implementation, training and testing elements of the project, focusing heavily on usability and ensuring the client’s specific requirements were incorporated.
WEB RESULTS:
Since launch, website visitors have doubled. As an additional feature during the coronavirus government lockdown, One Stop Properties now offers virtual tours which have increased website traffic by an extra 15%.
THE SOCIAL MEDIA PLAN:
Four leading social media channels were identified to help One Stop Properties promote themselves.
Facebook and Instagram are being used for tenants searching to find Glasgow rental properties.
Twitter and LinkedIn are being used to engage with landlords looking to source a property agent to manage their property, and the broader network of business contacts.
Taylor Communications worked with One Stop Properties to set the accounts up and create a content and engagement plan for all four channels.
Anna-Marie also set up and managed Google Ads campaigns to help drive traffic to the new website.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
This is Anna-Marie’s advice for agencies and freelancers to consider when undertaking a full marketing rebrand.
1. Develop a marketing and digital communications strategy as your starting point. Identify who your customers are, what are their needs and wants, your offer and the channels that will best engage those customers.
2. Ensure your brand reflects your business values, purpose and ethics and is applied consistently across all your marketing and digital channels — your brand is what your customers engage with, so you need to get it right!
3. Customers, stakeholders and partners will check out your website before they engage with you, so ensure your website is informative, user friendly and has clear calls to action. Regularly track the activity on your site and tweak it to maximise engagement.
4. Pick the social media channels that best engage your target customers. It is not good practice to post the same content on all channels. Target your content and aim for maximum engagement.
5. Create exciting content through social media and blogs. Use these to ‘tell the story of your business’ and incorporate your keywords to help with SEO.
6. Create a Google AdWords strategy if your clients are in a busy marketplace and organic search is low.
7. And finally, analyse your insights and analytics to maximise your campaigns.
This case study first featured on Hi Social, a newsletter for marketing freelancers and small marketing agencies. You can subscribe at hisocial.org.
