Marketing
News covering the marketing of residential property, lead generation, buying and selling and business development.
-
Do you measure up?
Curiosity definitely did not kill the estate agent! Maybe you’ve just invested a fortune in a stunningly designed website and you’re convinced it’s generating valuations for you. Great! Or maybe you suspect it’s not so good and you’re about to upgrade in order to win some instructions. Or maybe you’re just curious to know the truth. You’ve looked at your Google Analytics, so you know how much traffic you have. 6,500 visitors last month, viewing an average 5.5 pages each. Fab, you think. And you know that 35 per cent of your traffic visits on a phone. Great? Well, maybe. It’s certainly better than last year; you had 28 per cent last year. But the truth is you have no idea if these numbers are good or bad, and if they’re helping build your agency, relative to the agent down the road. Do they have more traffic? Do they get more customers from Google than you or engage potential vendors more deeply? Are you missing a trick, or performing really well? Frankly, anyone who cares about winning more instructions in their local market, needs to understand how their principal marketing vehicle is performing, so you can work on improving it…
Read More » -
Blow for Zoopla as Chestertons leaves the portal
Zoopla was dealt a blow last week as Chestertons, one of London’s largest estate agencies with 30 offices across the city, announced that it would be leaving the site in to list its properties with Rightmove. The firm, a founding member of Agents’ Mutual, continues to list properties on OnTheMarket (OTM) and is therefore not permitted to list homes on more than one other rival website, under OTM’s ‘one other portal’ rule requiring, in effect, their member agents to stop advertising on either Rightmove or Zoopla. The typical scenario has an agent sticking with Rightmove and choosing between OTM and Zoopla, so Chestertons is unusual. “We had more and more of our clients telling us that they expected to see us on Rightmove and you have to listen to your clients,” said Chestertons Chief Executive Robert Bartlett. The launch of OTM earlier this year had an adverse impact on Zoopla’s business. A number of agents have cancelled their subscriptions with the online property giant in order to list homes with OTM. OTM is now claiming to be on course to replace Zoopla as the number two property portal by the end of 2016 on its way to achieving their medium-term…
Read More » -
Zoopla returns to growth
Zoopla ended last week as the one of the highest risers on the FTSE 350, as it returned to growth, the portal announced last week. According to its latest trading update, the property website has attracted a net rise of 213 branches in the four months to 31st July. The news triggered a ratings upgrade for Zoopla from ‘sell’ to ‘buy’, with Broker Panmure Gordon suggesting that shares in the portal look undervalued. Zooplalost a significant number of agency subscribers due largely to the launch of OnTheMarket (OTM) earlier this year and its restrictive ‘only one other’ portal rule. However, the group said that it had won back 100 agents in recent months – many from OTM – with market churn also nearing historic levels, according to Zoopla. The group also announced that the volume of people visiting its website remained flat at 45.6 million, which is significantly below Righmove, but towers above OTM’s 5.2 million visitors. Panmure Gordon analyst Jonathan Helliwell told the press that “near-term, OTM’s growth appears to have stalled.” He added, “Zoopla’s inventory and traffic are holding up pretty well, and the housing market looks to be picking up. We think the stock could continue to…
Read More » -
OnTheMarket posts record traffic
OnTheMarket (OTM) reports that the level of traffic and unique visitors to the portal hit a record high in June. Based on Google Analytics data, the property website claims it recorded 4.4 million visits, with more than 2 million unique visitors. Ian Springett (left), Chief Executive of OTM, said, “We are continuing to see strong engagement from consumers in terms of pages viewed per visit and time on site and a high percentage of repeat visitors. “This reflects both the quality and range of agents and properties listed with us and the usability of the portal. “Our ongoing multi-million pound national TV, press and online advertising campaigns continue to work really hard at driving active property seekers to OTM.” With membership now at more than 5,000 offices and growing, and with around a quarter of member offices uploading their properties to OTM ahead of any other portal, Springett insists that OTM “is already a must-view website for the key audience of serious property-seekers”. Springett remains confident that OTM will replace Zoopla to become the number two portal by the end of January 2016 on their way to achieving their medium term objective of challenging the market leader, Rightmove. But for…
Read More » -
Online marketing strategy vital for estate agency success
A new survey of over 4,000 homeowners by Zoopla Property Group (ZPG) reveals that 94.2 percent expect their agent to automatically maximise the marketing exposure of their property, which includes listing the property on the major property websites.
Read More » -
Up Periscope!
Thomas Morris Sales & Lettings are claiming to have held the world’s first ‘Virtual Open House’ on the recently launched social media platform – Periscope. The event was broadcast live from St Neots in Cambridgeshire and attracted 54 viewers at the time – a further 10 people watched a replay. “We held the Virtual Open House just before the traditional Open House,” explained Thomas Morris Director, Simon Bradbury. “We had 5 people turn up for the traditional version and over 10 times as many viewed live on line via the Periscope app! We were genuinely surprised not only by the number of virtual viewers, but the level of interaction and questions about the property.” Earlier in the day, Thomas Morris had conducted a live broadcast from a local food and drink festival which attracted over 60 live viewers, “I really do think that this Periscope app has a massive future in our business,” continued Simon. “Not just to promote property, but by showing support for our local communities, giving them a voice and an opportunity to publicise their services, products or good causes, all at no charge, we are able to demonstrate real integration with the local area. This is…
Read More » -
Zoopla loses nearly a quarter of its agents
Despite a significant increase in web traffic, a growing number of estate agents are cancelling their subscriptions to Zoopla to join rival site OnTheMarket.com (OTM). Shares in Zoopla Property Group (ZPG) dropped last week, after the firm reported that the number of estate agents listing their properties for sale and to let on the Zoopla website had dropped by 23 per cent over the past 12 months, largely due to the recent launch of OnTheMarket.com (OTM) which continues to have an adverse impact on its business. OTM, solely owned by the agents that list on the website, with more than 5,000 estate agency offices now signed up, has had a dramatic early impact on the market with its ‘one other portal’ rule requiring their member agents to stop advertising on either Rightmove or Zoopla, with the vast majority of agents opting to drop Zoopla. Ian Springett (left), Chief Executive of OTM, said, “Since our launch four months ago OnTheMarket.com has already taken almost one quarter of the estate and letting agent members from Zoopla Property Group. Less than 10 per cent of OnTheMarket.com’s member firms are using Zoopla as their other portal.” “In addition, OnTheMarket.com has already overtaken Zoopla in…
Read More » -
OTM is here to stay, says Ian Springett
OnTheMarket.com (OTM) has hit back at claims that its portal is struggling to establish any meaningful audience levels. Just over three months since the launch of OTM, competitor portal, Zoopla, has claimed that OTM is failing to have a significant impact on the market by citing data from independent web monitoring firm Hitwise which shows that website traffic to OTM fell by 13.5 per cent in April. But Ian Springett (left), Chief Executive of OTM, has described Zoopla Property Group’s (ZPG) claims as “inaccurate and speculative.” He said, “It is a fact that less than 10 per cent of the agent members of OnTheMarket.com have chosen Zoopla as their other portal. And it is a fact that the Hitwise figure showing a reduction in traffic of 13.5 per cent in April is wrong.” OTM reports that it has attracted more than 10 million visits since launching over three months ago, and that traffic levels have remained buoyant in May to the extent that OTM has just experienced its highest ever number of weekly visits. To date, OTM says that its users have viewed an average of 9.3 pages and spent an average of 6.5 minutes per visit. What’s more, with…
Read More » -
Zoopla acquires price-comparison website uSwitch
Zoopla Property Group (ZPG) has announced that it is to buy online price comparison site uSwitch in a deal worth up to £190 million. ZPG, which also owns a number of other websites such as Prime Location and Smart New Homes, said the agreed deal, at £160 million plus a performance-based earn out of up to £30 million, believe that the deal will help it deliver a wider property service to people seeking the best deals online. uSwitch, owned by Ulysses Enterprises Limited, enables consumers to find the best deals from utilities such as electricity and phone bills. It had revenues of £62.9 million and earnings of £16.2 million last year with 50.3 million online visits. It claims to have saved customers £112 million last year on energy bills alone. ZPG said that the deal to acquire uSwitch will allow its members to benefit from increased engagement with home movers and greater insight into their property requirements along with enhanced exposure to the further differentiated ZPG audience. ZPG is also developing new products that will create revenue opportunities for its members around home services switching. Alex Chesterman (left), Founder & CEO of Zoopla Property Group said, “This is a transformational…
Read More » -
Agents happy with OTM
Three months on from the launch of OnTheMarket (OTM) it has been claimed that the property portal is struggling to prove a hit with consumers, but estate agents listing properties on the website insist that they remain happy with OTM. Citing the latest data from Hitwise, the Zoopla Property Group (ZPG) claim that OTM’s website traffic has been in decline for the last few weeks, after peaking in mid-March, and that those agents that list their properties on the website are not receiving good value for money. Lawrence Hall (left) of ZPG commented, “At the end of the day, OTM is simply a marketing channel like any other and will need to ensure that its audience levels justify its fees. This is even more the case for OTM given that it has required its members to give up a huge audience. It is hard to see how agents can justify paying anything meaningful for marketing on OTM at these current traffic levels.” Ian Springett (right), Chief Executive of OnTheMarket.com, insisted that claims by ZPG that traffic to OTM is falling are “simply inaccurate both in terms of absolute numbers and trends”. “As flattering as it is to receive so much…
Read More »
