Spring Statement: Manchester’s digital connectivity boost – time to act

In the Spring Statement, Chancellor of the Exchequer Phillip Hammond has allocated his first wave of funding to help roll out high-speed broadband across the UK in a bid to upgrade the country’s digital infrastructure. Greater Manchester is one of the key regions that will feel the benefit of this.

On a property front, this means two things:

1. You’re now at an advantage against your regional competitors
2. Your online presence is more visible than ever

So, what actions do you need to take as a property developer?

Assess your marketing strategy

First and foremost, it’s time to realign your marketing strategy so that your building’s digital connectivity is at the heart of your messaging.

It’s so important that businesses have access to high speed broadband to ensure they can facilitate and grow upon their client offering – if your building offers this on a stronger level than its regional counterparts, you should be shouting about it.

Additionally, research shows that poor broadband can wipe up to 20 per cent from the cost of a property. With the new high-speed broadband coming to Manchester, you can solidify your offering and put your property on the market at a competitive price.

Take a look at what your current marketing strategy is for your property and amend it to ensure one of your key USPs against your competitors is your digital connectivity.

Refresh your digital presence

As well as you being able to use this new digital connectivity to your advantage, you’re now going to be more visible than ever to both interested parties and competitors online.

This basically means that if your online presence is lacking, dull or non-existent, your likelihood of securing new tenants will drop, regardless of your impressive connectivity.

These are they things you need to do to improve your social presence:

1. Decide what you want to achieve with your social media channels
2. Decide which platforms suit these objectives best
3. Create a social media plan for one month, six months, or a year ahead and begin posting daily with the aim of achieving these objectives
4. Undertake daily follower strategies to ensure you’re following your target audience

In addition to your social presence:

1. Do a website audit to assess the strength of your messaging and how user friendly your site is
2. Do a general online search for your property to make sure the sentiment is positive – if it isn’t, you’ll need to start releasing good news to push the bad news down on search results

Are you ready?

This piece of the Spring Statement is giving you a huge opportunity, so make sure you utilise it.

If you think you may need help with any of the above, get in touch with us at Roland Dransfield and find out how we can help you.

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