Every listing counts. But it can be tough to hold to that motto when the market slows down, and vendors are getting anxious that their property is taking longer than expected to sell.

That’s particularly true when the market shifts after a long period of fast sales and good results. To vendors “stale” can suddenly mean properties that are still listed after only a few weeks.

Your challenge as their agent is to find ways to keep those listings relevant to buyers in the market, or find ways to source new buyers who might be interested - often when your vendor-paid marketing budget has already been stretched thin.

All is not lost. There are some tools and strategies to employ that can breathe fresh life into stale listings.

Extend your reach

It may well be that your traditional advertising methods just haven’t found those right-fit buyers where they are. If you haven’t tried automated digital marketing yet, now is the time to investigate. You can be sure your competitors are already advertising on popular platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, as well as Google.

The right campaign on the right platform can extend your reach well beyond those engaged buyers who are actively visiting real estate listing portals. The right approach to digital marketing can help you find potential buyers who are aren’t yet on your radar, but who are active on social media and open to finding out more about real estate in your area.

Different digital marketing tools can be very effective at turning softer leads into more engaged buyers. 

Products such as ListingLogic’s Dynamic Property Ads (DPAs), can be a very cost effective way to re-surface older listings to potential buyers who may have viewed the listing but not yet acted, or who haven’t seen it yet.

DPA campaigns are always on, and automatically place different listings from your entire listing catalogue in front of different buyers - all from within one campaign. 

Individual buyers are targeted based on their previous searches and interests, so you can remind them of listings they’ve shown interest in, along with others they’re going to like based on that. 

It means no listing gets left behind - and you don’t have to set up and pay for individual campaigns for each older listing.

Try new things

Some other ideas for reviving older listings are:

• Check your real time results. Use your dashboard to view the analytics from your ad campaign, and compare it to other campaigns. What’s different? This can help get reluctant vendors over the line in conversations about new marketing.
• Walk through the property, and view your marketing, as though you were a buyer, or ask a colleague to do it. A different perspective may trigger fresh ideas about who to market to.
• Talk to buyers who may have viewed the listing and gone cold. Can they give you any insight that you can action?
• Refresh your property description. Check for any errors or review it for new features to hero.