How much does property leasing really think about the customer journey?

We’ve produced hundreds of leasing brochures over the years.

And there’s something we’ve always questioned.

Why do we feel the need to tell potential tenants absolutely everything at the first point of contact?

Every statistic. Every demographic. Every transport connection. Every catchment figure. Every tenant. Every detail about the scheme.

Of course those things matter.

But so does the person receiving them.

At Chocolate Ltd, researching an audience goes further than establishing who they are. We try to understand what they actually do.

What’s their working day like?
How much time do they have?
How many other opportunities are competing for their attention?
What do they need to know now – and what can wait until later?

Because that’s part of the customer journey too.

Years ago, British Land asked us to produce a leasing brochure for Meadowhall following its £60m refurbishment.

The audience was predominantly senior decision-makers and property professionals. People who were already being bombarded with leasing opportunities and marketing material.

So we deliberately didn’t produce another conventional, copy-heavy property brochure.

Our idea was:

LOUDER THAN WORDS.

The £60m transformation had put Meadowhall in a position where, to a large extent, the centre could speak for itself.

The brochure still contained everything a potential tenant needed to understand the opportunity – footfall, catchment, investment, tenant performance, demographics, location, existing brands and the commercial story.

We just made it incredibly easy to consume.

Big numbers.
Bold statements.
Powerful photography.
Very few words.

In fact, the entire brochure contained only around 250 of them.

Because we didn’t believe the job of that first piece of communication was to answer every conceivable question.

Its job was to make someone think:
“I need to know more about this.”

Then comes the conversation.
Then comes the detail.
Then comes the data needed to make the decision.
That’s a customer journey.

And it’s something we still believe property marketing sometimes gets wrong.
Good communication isn’t about giving people as much information as possible. It’s about giving them the right information, in the right way, at the right time.

Sometimes saying less really does say more.