Marketing
News covering the marketing of residential property, lead generation, buying and selling and business development.
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Over 800 OnTheMarket agents have returned to ZPG, says Goddard
ZPG has today claimed that 808 branches have returned to its portals over the past two years from rival OnTheMarket.com since Agents Mutual launched it in 2015. And ZPG senior figure Mark Goddard (pictured, left), who heads up its Property Services division, has gone on the attack, saying that agents who spend their marketing budgets on OnTheMarket are doing so “inefficiently”. Recent returnees include 16 agency branches which ZPG says have moved over during the past week, helping increase its returning total by 58 since it last reported on its attempt to persuade agents back from OnTheMarket. This was within its 24th May half-year results. “We do not comment on individual agent relationships but the facts remain the same as they did last week when Zoopla gave a similar update,” says Ian Springett, Chief Executive of Agents’ Mutual (pictured, right). “OnTheMarket.com continues to have a positive material impact on the property portals landscape.” “Many thousands of agents switched from Zoopla/Primelocation to join us. Many thousands of agents continue to support the objectives of the business by creating a genuine alternative portal for consumers and agents alike. Many thousands of agents have not returned to ZPG portals with their advertising budgets…
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Rightmove chairman sells shares worth £4.23m
Rightmove chairman Scott Forbes (pictured, right) has sold shares in the company worth £4.23 million, taking advantage of a recent spike in its share price. It has jumped in value by £2 to £43.63 or five percent since the 19th May, valuing the portal at £4.03 billion. Scott sold 100,000 of his shares yesterday at the peak of the current surge, which eased off today. This leaves him with 219,000 shares in the company worth £9.3 million. This is not the first time that Scott has cashed in his Rightmove shares. In 2007, just two years after joining the company from worldwide property services company Cendant, he sold shares worth £7 million to finance a home purchase in Kensington and in 2012 shares worth £4 million. Constant growth He joined Rightmove and was appointed to its board in 2005 and has overseen almost constant share price (see graph, right) and business growth at the PLC. This includes last year, which its most recent figures show saw revenue and profits that both jumped by 15% compared to 2015, and total dividend payments that grew by 19%. Agents listing on Rightmove currently spend £832 a month and the website has 20,121 branches…
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New property portal partners with US franchise network
A property portal that claims to be making the first steps towards being a global version of Rightmove says it has made a key strategic move to achieve its goal. The World Property Network (TWPN) has struck a deal with billion-dollar US franchise network Realty World that will see the two businesses join forces and together offer three million properties across the world. Realty World has been around since 1973 and has 400 offices worldwide while TWPN launched in September last year with a TV channel, website and several full-page adverts in the Sunday Times. Property portal The deal between TWPN and Realty World will go live in two or three months and will, TWPN claims, make the partnership a “powerful and influential new force on the international property stage”. It also says the combined forces of the partnership will be a disruptor in the global property marketing market. In the UK TWPN’s main rivals are the Rightmove Overseas and A Place in the Sun websites but internationally, TWPN founder Peter Mansfield says the partnership – which joins his website’s European and other properties with Realty World’s North, Central and South American as well as Caribbean inventories, will be a…
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ZPG reveals record growth, 750 returning agents plus lettings and mortgage launches
ZPG has reported record results in its half year results for the six months ended 31st March. This includes revenues up by 22% to £117.9 million, and profits that have increased by £25 million. The company also says it has seen “accelerated win backs” from OnTheMarket.com and that over the past two years the number of agents returning to the fold now totals totals 750. Over the past six months ZPG has also grown its branches list by 6% to 14,271 and its inventory by 9% to 928,000 listings. This caps a busy year for the company which has been expanding its vertical integration through the industry with the acquisition of data firm Hometrack, which ZPG say now services 17 out of the top 20 banks, and agent software outfit ExpertAgent. But these acquisitions have cost it dearly – debt at ZPG is now £209.3 million, borrowing which has also reduced its profits for the six month period. Mortgages ZPG has also revealed that it now has a mortgages team, part of a plan to expand its presence in the home financial services market. Traffic to its website and apps grew by 5% to 314 million visits and the company also…
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Revealed: how Viewber’s pricing and agent payments work
Details of how Viewber, the outsourced property viewing company, works have been revealed within an article published by a national newspaper today. Daily Mail online property reporter Myra Butterworth (pictured, below) turned sleuth and signed up to join Viewber even though, apart from writing about property, she has no experience as either an estate agent or of showing people around properties. Myra’s report on how she fared as a Viewber agent make for amusing reading – particualry as she locked herself out of the building for her first appointment – but do reveal more details of how the Viewber model works. Ed Mead, one of the co-founders of Viewber and to date its main spokesperson, has always been keen not to give too many details away about its service, but the Daily Mail article does. Viewber expects agents to turn up 15 minutes prior to a viewing to ensure the property is showcased in the best possible light. In Myra’s case she was also hand-held by an employee from agent Aucoot, which was established last year by a former sales director from upmarket agent The Modern House, John McDavid. But in most cases agents will be flying solo. Bank account…
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Six reasons why Rightmove domination of market could soon end
Rightmove domination of the UK property could be about to end as its faces threats from multiple sources, says leading proptech blogger James Dearsley (pictured, below). He and his colleagues at PropTech Consult have looked at Rightmove and say the company has all the characteristics of a successful company that could lose its market-leading position. The consultants’ report says this includes Rightmove being at the end of its original growth strategy; having a large customer database; and delivering excellent returns for investors, including dividends per share that have risen from 22p in 2012 to 51p today. Needs to act Despite this apparently dazzling success, James says Rightmove now needs to act and start a second period of innovation to prevent its dominant position being eroded in the “medium to long term”. The main reasons for this include: The increasing number of new digital opportunities for agents making them less reliant on Rightmove for leads; Rightmove’s failure to develop new products or services beyond its core search facility; The rise of online agents such as Purplebricks who may become as well-known online as Rightmove; Contracting profitability among high street agents restricting Rightmove’s ability to increase revenue; The rising power of Zoopla and its bid…
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Trinity Mirror launches campaign to take on portals for agent spend
The UK’s largest regional newspaper and digital publisher Trinity Mirror says it is to “fight back” against the increasing slice of agent marketing spend being taken by Rightmove and Zoopla. Trinity Mirror has over 140 regional daily and weekly newspapers across the UK including big hitters such as the Manchester Evening News, Birmingham Mail and Bristol Post plus 80 websites. It is also publisher of the Daily and Sunday Mirror and three other national newspapers. The campaign is designed to persuade agents that Trinity Mirror’s online and print titles are the best way to ensure they are one of the ‘three’ that vendors and landlords traditionally ask to appraise their properties before deciding on which one to instruct. Campaign message Called #Be1ofthe3, the campaign message is that the major portals “don’t want agents’ brands to stand out – it’s not good for their business model – so they suppress them”. “Agents need to consider other forms of marketing to build their brand presence in the regions they operate within,” the campaign material says. Trinity Mirror, which bought rival regional publisher Local World in 2015 for £220m to make it the largest regional media company in the UK, says its titles reach…
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Company landlords surge to take a fifth of the market
The number of company landlords has increased by 6% over the past three months to a record 20% of the market, it has been revealed by Countrywide. The figure is the highest proportion recorded by the company since it began collecting data seven years ago. The punishing reductions in tax allowances that began being phased in earlier this month, as well as the recent extra Stamp Duty for buy-to-let properties are leading many landlords to bring their properties into a limited company structure. “Companies are generally taxed more favourably, particularly with recent changes by government to tax relief, so in many cases landlords can make cash savings by operating through a company rather than as an individual,” says Johnny Morris, Research Director at Countrywide (pictured, left). The trend is clearest in London where Countrywide says 27% of rental properties are owned by a company landlord, he says. Top and bottom The figures also reveal that the increase in company landlords is most evident at the top of the market, and at the bottom. This would suggest that large-portfolio landlords who own multiple properties in the poorer parts of the UK, and the those who own prime rental properties, are behind…
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Zoopla TV ad gets its claws into the property market
The new Zoopla TV ad has been released. And it’s got legs. Plenty of them. And the stars are hermit crabs with model homes stuck to their backs. Hermit crabs, it seems, are the only creatures that move house more than humans. Rather than struggle with the elements on Brighton beach in January, Zoopla’s ad agency 101 enlisted the help of David Attenborough’s director of photography Doug Allan and trekked to Costa Rica to find appropriately qualified and one assumes, Equity-licensed actors to star in the film. Zoopla’s Chief Marketing Officer Gareth Helm says: “This is an exciting moment for the Zoopla brand, which has long been associated with helping consumers to make smarter choices when it comes to moving home. “We are looking forward to revealing our fresh take on the topic and to showing how even the house-moving experts of the animal world – who, quite literally, carry their homes on their backs – can benefit from all the tools and advice that Zoopla has to offer. “The launch of our new campaign and the use of hermit crabs, who themselves are moving experts, provides an ideal platform to talk more about the evolution of Zoopla. We expect…
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Spark Energy announced as sponsor of The Negotiator Awards 2017
The Negotiator Awards always launches with a bang and this year we are delighted to announce that we have a new headline sponsor – Spark Energy. Entry to the Awards is now open – it’s the only awards programme for estate and letting agents that has no entry fee and as such is truly inclusive, making winning a Negotiator Award the most prestigious accolade an agent can receive. It provides the most powerful of marketing tools to drive your business. You can find out all you need to enter, with full guidance notes, by going to: www.thenegotiatorawards.co.uk The winners of The Negotiator Awards 2017 will be announced at The London Hilton on Park Lane at a black tie gala dinner on 31st October 2017. Spark brings even more energy to the UK’s largest and most respected property Awards.” Announcing the partnership, Awards Director, Sheila Manchester (right) said, “Spark brings even more energy to the UK’s largest and most respected property Awards. “We are delighted to welcome them as our headline sponsor. Once the serious process of judging is completed by our expert independent panel, we look forward to the most exciting event in residential property agency. We’re planning a sparkling evening and…
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