Marketing design for real estate agents and property businesses

An agent's marketing is a calendar, not a campaign. The same six things come round again and again, and the agent with a system for them looks more established than the one redesigning each from scratch.

• The listing post with the address, the key numbers, the agent and the inspection time.
• The sold post, which is the agent's best advertisement: the house, the word SOLD, the address, the principal's face.
• The letterbox flyer for an area: a market update, "thinking about selling?", an appraisal offer with a QR code.
• The testimonial, because reviews are what a vendor reads before they ring.
• Seasonal posts, such as Anzac Day, in the brand, not a stock card.
• The stationery and the sign board, so what is on the lawn matches what is in the letterbox.

In real estate the vendor is hiring a person. Waratah Estate Agents is built on that: the principal's portrait and number are on the sold post, the flyer and the appraisal campaign, in a pink and slate pair that is not used by anyone else on the street. A buyer or a vendor who has seen two of the pieces recognises the third from across the road. That recognition is the point of the system, and it is also why the photograph has to be good: it is on everything.

The same discipline suits the trades that live off property. SSK Property Services is a commercial cleaning company with a flyer, business cards, a fridge magnet, a service icon set and a steady run of social posts, including before-and-after pictures, which are the most persuasive thing a cleaner can show. MK Group is a builder of home extensions and kitchens, with a logo, email signatures and campaigns built on their own finished work.

Both are in the work above, and both follow the rule that works for agents: document the job, put a face and a number on it, and keep every piece in one system.

In Australia our print desk handles the physical side: real estate stickers for sold and under-offer riders, A-frame signs for open homes, and flyers and business cards, all quoted the same day. Its page for agents lists the lot: print for real estate.

Before any of it goes to a press, run it through our content proofing checklist. A wrong phone number on 5,000 letterbox flyers is the commonest and most expensive mistake in this trade.