The leader of Best Nest Property Management, Alison Hatch, has been named the winner of Transform XII after devising a 2022 marketing plan that focuses on rebuilding market presence lost during Sydney’s lengthy COVID-19 lockdown.
Ms Hatch scored the coveted award, including $5000 in prize money, after completing a 30-day challenge concentrated on all things digital, including attracting new customers through leveraging digital traffic sources such as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Ms Hatch said she was surprised, but delighted, to be named the winner of Transform XII against 11 other high-calibre finalists with Jess Hunter, from RE/MAX Results, the runner-up.
“I was looking at all of the candidates going, ‘Wow,’ the skills that have come out of it, what people have learnt, and what people have absorbed, is gobsmacking,” she said.
“It still hasn’t sunk in (that I’m the winner).
“You put so much into it and you focus on the work and what you’re getting out of it.
“I think anyone who is participating in a program like this, the goal isn’t to win. The goal is to get as much out of it as you possibly can.”
Ms Hatch said she had taken part in Transform earlier in 2021, but when she saw Transform XII would be focused on digital marketing, she knew she had to take part again.
“Transform came at the perfect time as our team had been assessing how best to lift our digital profile, including reflecting on our relationships, relevance and presence to correct referral drop,” she explained.
Ms Hatch started Best Nest Property Management in late 2018 and built the rent roll via referral, with consistently high growth.
But during Sydney’s lengthy lockdown earlier this year it slowed right down.
She said creating happy and delighted clients was the cornerstone of the business and while existing clients knew this, potential clients did not know the values Best Nest stood for.
“Referral growth gave us value alignment and a positive scalable rent roll, so we never felt compelled to market ourselves to foster people into our system.
“But our presence is now underperforming as we fail to showcase our USP and the dimensions of our business to the broader market with the reliable frequency that’s needed to show our expertise,” she said.
Ms Hatch said Transform had enabled the four-member strong Best Nest team to reflect and analyse their current habits and develop enough knowledge to devise a consistent, reliable and relevant digital marketing plan to make sure their relationships, relevance and presence all work together.
The 30-day challenge also covered how to nurture leads with simple but relevant digital content and convert prospects to clients with targeted messaging throughout their whole property journey.
Ms Hatch said the biggest takeaway from Transform was that content could be repurposed across different social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.
“We had stopped going across all platforms because I felt I wanted to do one thing and do it really well, and I didn’t want to do a lot of things and not do them as well,” she said.
“Repurposing content was a game-changer for saving time to cover the platforms we align with.
“Our focus is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube, with an extra commitment to Homely.
“Transform showed us to look at each platform from a user perspective so our content would reflect the personality of that platform to meet consumer expectations in each space.
“Facebook is perfect for covering the dimensions of our business story, Instagram our brand and personality, LinkedIn our professional voice, and YouTube can showcase marketing and informative content.”
Ms Hatch said they now had a marketing plan that would be measured against key metrics including rent roll growth and retention, client happiness in reviews and referrals, as well as interaction, shares, follows and feedback across social media platforms.
To put the plan in place, Transform taught how to time block and devise a content strategy, which the Best Nest team has linked to their calendar to ensure they are committed and consistent.
They also plan to leverage the Homely market by doing street and suburb reviews every fortnight.
Ms Hatch said the $5000 prize money would go towards a social media consultant to analyse their plan and give them the tools to optimise its implementation.
A portion would also go towards a “unique idea to digitise and personalise” their letterbox drops, and buying equipment such as lighting, a gimbal and microphone.
“The plan we have created is consistent and holistic and embeds our client focus,” Ms Hatch said.
