Although the property portals like Rightmove and Zoopla are essential tools in an estate agent’s marketing drive, they are only as good as the requirements a potential buyer puts into the search fields. They don’t reach beyond those rigid formulas into the world of inspiration and imagination.

Part of an estate agent’s job is to be resourceful and creative in how to find a buyer for a client’s home. A key part of that is to inspire people who may not have considered a particular location or type of property before, and to show them how well it could work for them. Another is to reach beyond our existing audience and into the wider world.

For us, one of the best ways to widen our reach is to gain editorial the national press. Getting a property in the papers immediately sends it into people’s homes without them needing to log on and begin the search process. It finds people whether or not they are actively looking, sometimes inspiring people to move who would otherwise have stayed put.

We’ve had a really remarkable couple of weeks with PR, with no less than five properties appearing in the national press.  From a converted mill in Biggleswade at £425,000, to a mews house in in Balham at £925,000 to barge at St Katherine Docks for £3.5million, there is a hunger in the papers for beautiful content served up to them on a plate. It makes their lives easy, and it increases our clients’ chances of a successful sale.

Obviously not every estate agent is going to get their listings in the papers; the press is most looking for aspirational homes with a particular angle or story. In short, and most conveniently for us and our clients, properties that are unique.