This week, Hitwise UK (a provider of online competitive intelligence data) reported that Facebook usage in the UK has reached an all time high. According to a blog post by Research Director, Robin Goad – Facebook now accounts for 1 in 7 of all UK web page views. This figure, that equates to 14.5%, makes Facebook the second most visited page in the UK, with the only page receiving more traffic being Google UK.

When you consider page views and time spent on the site, Facebook has no equal, even overtaking Google to be the most “used” site in the UK. Facebook accounted for 49.2% of all UK visits to a social networking site during September 2009 with the average user spending over 26 minutes online for each visit during the same period.
Is this a one off? A blip in the statistics? It seems unlikely as over the last 12 months UK visits to Facebook increased by 86.1%. This coupled with the ever-increasing amounts of time that users are spending sharing photos, swapping links and chatting about their daily lives indicates that Facebook is becoming the social network of choice for many consumers.

What does this mean for advertisers? Well in some respects this is excellent news – you now know where a significant percentage of people will be spending their spare time online. You also know that these people won’t just be quickly logging in and then leaving – many will spend a lot of time using the service. This knowledge means that for many, choosing to advertise on Facebook will be an easy decision.

Facebook advertising allows for a targeted advertising campaign. You can specify exactly the type of people that you want your advert to be visible to, keeping costs to a minimum and ensuring high quality results. It is possible to link the advert to your own web page or to something on Facebook like a Page, Application, Group or Event.
Facebook provides detailed metrics that allow for simple analysis of any campaign. This allows for greater control over costs but also provides an opportunity to continually monitor the success of the current campaigns and adjust the messaging according to current trends and developments in a given industry. For example a change in base interest rates may prompt a new incentive for homebuyers that could be linked to an adjusted campaign for a house builder.

Facebook is a great vehicle for driving a viral campaign, or for drawing additional users to your website or online store. If you would like to discuss marketing using Facebook, or social marketing in General then call BradleyDyer today on 01737249479.

In my spare time there’s nothing I like better than get up (or is it down?) and boogie with my band. It’s great fun and we all get to live the rock star fantasy life for a few hours. Recently we played at a local open-air charity event and I was a little perturbed when after our set we were approached by two policewomen. Had we been too loud? Not loud enough? Did the audience want their money back?

It turned out the officers liked us so much they wanted to get our contact details to pass on to some friends who were planning a party. Now if this isn’t ‘Word of Mouth Marketing’ in its purest form I don’t know what is.

WOM, to give it its acronym, isn’t particularly new – marketing professionals have known about its effects for about fifty years – but new forms of communication such as Twitter and viral are harnessing its power as never before.

Apparently most of it is done face-to-face (or in my band’s case, ear to ear), with phone, email, texts and blogs also providing conduits. It’s really no more complicated than someone recommending or being critical of a product/service/experience, something we all do in everyday conversation or if we’re asked ‘do you know a good garage?’ etc. Generally people are more likely to pass on positive experiences, although credit card companies, private health insurance companies, airlines and providers of TV and internet services are much more likely to be knocked than praised.

According to consulting firm McKinsey & Co, as much as 67% of consumer sales could be influenced by WOM. Marketers shouldn’t rely solely on the traditional media but in McKinsey’s words “create waves of communication that spread from a small number of lead users through consumer-to-consumer interaction.”

As a marketing professional I am always ready to investigate new ways of reaching an audience (when I’m not on stage!) and even when we’re creating more traditional advertising or DM campaigns, we are consciously helping to create powerful brands that engender positive WOM and create added value for clients. And, in the current economic climate, I think it’s fair to say that our clients need every weapon in the armoury!

If you’d like to find out how we can use our expertise to get your customers saying good things about you, why not give me a call on 01737 249479.

Yes it’s officially true… people are out there looking and some of them are even buying!

The National Association of Estate Agents reports that every house for sale is being chased by four prospective buyers, and more people are registering with them than at any time since the halcyon days of September 2007. Furthermore, there is an increase in the proportion of sales being made to that endangered species, the first time buyer.

So there’s a bit of a surge in sales, but you have to set that against a shortage of properties actually FOR sale, which on average per estate agent, has fallen, and may be propping up prices artificially according to some pundits.

Ho hum. Another case of misplaced optimism?

I’m not sure that it is. Everyone with any interest in the housing market, whether it’s personal or professional, is tracking these minute signs of change with eager interest. And speaking for my own business, in recent months we’ve certainly seen some increased marketing activity from several of our property clients. New (and mothballed) developments are now coming onstream and any existing sites with a quality product, are continuing to sell if the pricing is realistic.

Another piece of research carried out for the Building Societies Association shows that 59% of people think now is a good time to buy.
This is good news for housebuilders as well as for those of us involved in property marketing. At Bradley Dyer we’re certainly ready to tackle new projects with fresh ideas… in fact, it’s what we have continued to do throughout these recessionary months and I’m happy to say that our clients are seeing results from it.

To discuss how Bradley Dyer could help you develop a strategy that maximises opportunity in an economic downturn please give me a call on 01737 249479.

This week saw the launch of the latest incarnation of the iPhone, the 3GS. This seemingly minor upgrade managed to gallop to an incredible 1 million handset sales in the first 3 days making it one of Apple’s most successful product launches to date.

The success of the iPhone product family has meant that there has been a huge uptake in the numbers of people browsing the web from mobile devices. Currently the iPhone accounts for 65% of all mobile web browsing which considering it is still a fairly new product is very impressive. What Apple has succeeded in doing is making the whole process of mobile browsing much simpler, and more importantly incredibly user friendly.
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Not one but two articles in April’s Show House magazine about how affordable homes are increasingly filling the gaps left by repossession, high prices, and shrivelling mortgage lending. Richard Blakeway, the London Mayor’s Director of Housing, sees the affordable sector as the kick-start the housing market so desperately needs, with a shortage of tens of thousands of decent homes in the capital alone. He also points out what a major source of employment the housing industry is for London, potentially paying the wages of about 300,000 people. The affordable sector, according to Blakeway, is fulfilling housing need by being more flexible about finance for the homebuyer, is getting empty properties sold and in the process keeping many people in gainful employment.

In another piece, the magazine’s writer Simon Graham takes a slightly more downbeat approach, seeing affordable homes as a first-aid measure for those who’ve been unfortunate enough to be repossessed and are facing homelessness. The Government’s Mortgage Rescue Scheme and Homeowner Mortgage Support Scheme will help a few of them but many more will have to join council housing lists and wait for a home to rent or part-buy.

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Spring is here, the blossom’s out and it’s Budget Day - with a bit of hope that we might see the sap rising in the housing market soon. For the third month in a row there have been a few glimmers of positive news.

Apparently there’s been a slight decrease in the number of estate agents reporting falling rather than rising prices. The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors reports that sales have stopped falling, and the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ figures indicate that new lending has picked up a bit, although it’s still only a third of what it was in the good old days between 2002 and 2007.

Baby steps perhaps, but perhaps Chancellor Darling’s measures will help a bit more. There’s £600 million earmarked to be spent on reviving new homes building programmes that have ground to a halt, and an extension of the ‘stamp duty holiday’ for properties up to £175,000 until the end of the year. There’s also help for buyers with a new scheme, Home Buyer Direct, which will bump up deposits with an interest free loan when mortgage lenders want to see a larger downpayment. This, it is hoped, will help about 3000 more people to get mortgages.

Admittedly the Budget is pretty grim but if you’re involved in the new homes or affordable homes sector, you might be permitting yourself just a little twitch of a smile. Maybe it’s time to start thinking afresh about how you can benefit from these initiatives. At Bradley Dyer we’d certainly like to help you, and we’ve got some fresh ideas of our own that could enable you to attract some of these new customers.

…it all depends on what you read.

Hardly a day goes by without someone making another announcement about house prices.

Are they up, down or bumping along the bottom? It all depends on whose announcement you read. For instance, yesterday (2nd April) Nationwide Building Society said prices in March rose by 0.9%, cautiously describing it as a ‘surprise bounce’. But at the same time, Richard Donnell of Hometrack said they had fallen by 0.6%. The Bank of England reports a rise in mortgage approvals for February. But that has to be set against the stark fact that this improved figure is still 44% less than in February last year. Read the rest of this entry »

As someone with more than a passing interest in the marketing of new homes, I read with interest London Mayor Boris Johnson’s ideas for boosting the housing market in the capital – announced on 3rd March.
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This week we were all amused by the news story of that housing developer who fitted out a bedroom in one of their showhomes to look like a real teenage boy’s lair…complete with mouldy leftover pizza and smelly trainers under the bed. As mum to a 13 year old son, it looked rather familiar to me. Not that I’m calling my dear boy a slob!
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