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A big part of making sure that a marketing campaign cuts through is speaking to your customers at the right time. It doesn’t matter how clever the message is; it won’t get any traction if people don’t see it. 

Too often, timing’s an afterthought, and that’s a mistake – sending out messages at random is useless. By putting some thought into when a particular campaign will work best and planning well in advance, you put yourself and your business in the best position to reach people when they’re most likely to be thinking about buying and selling, and you stay top of mind at all times.

Consider the medium 

Depending on the format of your message, it’s more likely to be seen at particular times. For example, more people read print media from Friday to Sunday, so that’s the ideal window to advertise there. The web is used most heavily at the beginning of the week, while ipads and iphones are used more on the weekends. 

When it comes to digital campaigns, you can narrow it right down to the ideal times. Email newsletters will get more clicks at certain times of day – check when the most people are opening yours and schedule future missives for a similar time. On social media, people are more likely to be on Facebook  between 1pm to 4pm, Twitter between 1pm to 3pm, LinkedIn from 7am to 9am and 5pm to 6pm, and Google+ from 9am to 11am. Posting during those peak times means your message is seen by more people. When you post during the quiet times, your content gets swamped by all the newer updates that follow it.

Plan in advance

The majority of your marketing efforts should be planned ahead of time to ensure that they’re reaching your customers at the ideal moment. If other agencies are waiting until September to launch their spring selling campaigns, launch yours in August. That way, you’ve already make some noise, got attention, will be sitting comfortably top of mind when people are seriously considering selling. Meanwhile, your competitors who started their marketing efforts later will have a much noisier marketplace to contend with.

Generally, you want to be thinking 6-8 weeks ahead of your customers – for example, the end of financial year is when investors will be reconsidering their portfolios and looking at potentially switching property managers, so early May is the time to begin promoting your property management department. And always plan for major events like public holidays and long weekends. Marketing heavily around those times is pointless if people are going away and too busy to pay attention. If you do want to market around an event like Christmas or Easter, keep the 6-8 week timeframe in mind. Less organised competitors will send their messages out when it’s too late for them to be heard.

Don’t slow down

Slow periods can be a good time to raise general brand awareness. Use lulls like holidays or a slow market to your advantage. For example, winter is sometimes considered a dead zone for real estate, but often demand remains strong even when the amount of available stock is low.  That makes it an ideal time to ramp up your marketing efforts and take advantage of the competition’s inaction. It’s an opportunity to gain major traction with consumers because there’s nothing else to distract them. Remember that even in a difficult market, there are always people wanting to buy and sell property.

How do you time your marketing campaigns to ensure that they’re seen and heard by the biggest possible audience?