We make no bones about being a Yorkshire-based firm – indeed we’re proud of our roots and the no-nonsense approach to business which so often epitomises the region. We’re not really into sharp suits or flash cars. We try not to use clichés or jargon.

Put simply, our mission is to offer a friendly, honest and reliable service to clients who want to sell their homes. And our customers like that. Not only are we becoming the "go to" online estate agent in Yorkshire, but we are becoming increasingly popular across the whole of England and Wales. In London for example we have seen a big increase in demand and have been told that our offering makes a refreshing change to that of the competition.

Last year our new instructions increased by 247% and, from our offices in Harrogate, we’re delighted to say we can now offer homes from the Scottish borders to the West Country and everywhere in between.

With Neil Woodford listing Purple Bricks on the AIM market, Connells acquiring Hatched.co.uk, Savills investing in Yopa.co.uk, and Charles Dunstone / Roger Taylor having invested £13m in HouseSimple, the on-line sector clearly has further growth potential.

 At eSale we firmly believe we have everything it takes to be the viable, quality alternative to the larger online estate agents. We’re confident we can maintain our current customer satisfaction levels and still grow. We have a scalable business model which only requires investment to make it a reality. To make that happen, we need to enhance our profile, not just in Yorkshire but across the UK, and that means a comprehensive marketing strategy. 

Marketing

The managing Director of eSale is very passionate about testing and measuring advertising and marketing. As a result we believe we have identified which areas give us the largest return on investment. For example;

Adwords – Pay-per-click advertising is still very important to our sector of the industry. And while we do spend some money on Google Adwords we find we get better results through other pay per click sites. 

Social Media - We are very active on Facebook and Twitter. We realise the importance of a strong social media presence. We post several times a day and we’ve built up quite a following. As well as advertising our services and the properties we’re selling, we engage with our followers by commenting on industry news as well as occasional foray into more mainstream topics – particularly if they amuse us. We also advertise on Facebook and find this a particularly great source of customers.

SEO - Google’s algorithms are geared to reward firms which develop links or post quality content on their sites with a higher ranking, so any website needs to evolve constantly if a brand is to gain increased visibility online. The eSale website has been optimised and is continuously updated with relevant content so, currently; it’s ticking most of Google’s boxes. However, we’d like to take this to the next level and be on Page 1 for some of the more popular search terms, which means more investment in content and further investment. 

Comparison Sites - Another area where we will be investing is on the comparison sites which have started measuring estate agents costs and performance. As we compare favourably we find we get a lot of instructions directly from these sites.