Property Ad Guru » Advertising Property

Email Newsletters: How Does Yours Stack Up?

Alice Allan — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 23:31:40 +0000

In an era when social channels such as Facebook and Twitter are growing at such phenomenal speeds, the humble email newsletter might sound like an outdated concept. But while social media is important, it can’t reach everyone, and tools like email newsletters still have a role to play. That is, as long as they are well executed.

At propertyadguru.com, we receive nearly a hundred email newsletters a month, so we know the range of quality that’s out there. There are some common mistakes that plenty of email marketers make, most of which have easy fixes. To find out how your email newsletters stack up, consider these questions:

1. Does your newsletter make sense, even if pictures are blocked? Many people will choose not to display email images by default, and if you don’t offer something else to grab their attention, chances are they won’t turn on the images to see your whole message.

2. Are you writing too much? Just like a blog post, email newsletters need to be structured with scanning in mind. Long blocks of unbroken text will make readers’ eyes glaze over, so break things up with plenty of headings and links.

3. Are you writing too little? Readers will switch off if shown too much information at once, but they will never engage in the first place if your message isn’t clear. State who you are and what you’re offering within the first few lines to ensure people don’t give up in sheer confusion.

4. Are you going overboard with colour and/or bold text? It’s true that breaking up text with bold and colour will keep people scanning, but use too much of either and your readers won’t know where to look. Keep things consistent, using bold text sparingly and just a few well chosen colours.

5. How are you using subject lines and snippets? A good subject line will obviously help your email stand out in the inbox, but the snippet of text that tells readers what’s inside the email is also key. Make sure you’re telling people enough to get them to open the email in the first place, or it could end up in the trash, unopened.

For more email tips, check out our in-depth look at email newsletter creation, along with our Top 10 Tips for Email Newsletters.

ListGlobally Launches Giving Agents and Developers Global Exposure

Simon Baker — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 03:26:51 +0000

ListGlobally, a new and innovative global marketing tool for agents and developers around the world, has just been released. Backed by Simon Baker, the ex-Managing Director of the REA Group (realestate.com.au) in Australia, ListGlobally allows all agents and developers globally to market their listings to over 25 million buyers around the world through a network of leading property portals.

With a few simple clicks, a property listing is uploaded and displayed on 10 leading property portals in key markets. This will shortly grow to 25 leading portals. There are no contracts or set-up fees, just one low price for each listing which is active for 90 days.

ListGlobally currently publishes to leading sites in the United Kingdom, Germany, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates, Canada, Japan, and India. In the next few weeks, ListGlobally will also publish to leading sites in Mexico, Russia, and South Africa.

Country	Partner
United Kingdom	Rightmove.co.uk
Germany	Immobilienscout24.de
Malaysia	iProperty.com.my
Singapore	iProperty.com.sg
Hong Kong	GoHome.com.hk
Japan	Realestate.co.jp
Global	Enormo.com
India	99acres.com
Canada	Canadahomeguide.tv
United Arab Emirates	Propertyfinder.ae
Coming Soon
South Africa	Privateproperty.co.za
Russia	Domavin.com
Mexico	Metroscubicos.com

More partners will be announced shortly in markets including Australia, Spain, France, Belgium, Greece, Italy, Brazil and the US.

Announcing the launch of ListGlobally at the Real Estate Connect conference in San Francisco, CEO Simon Baker said: “Most agents and developers have sold properties to overseas buyers without any international marketing program. With ListGlobally, agents and developers everywhere can now effectively market selected properties on real estate sites with a combined audience of over 25 million visitors each month. On rightmove alone, there are 1.6 million international searches conducted each month by UK house hunters.”

To find out more, go to www.listglobally.com or if you have any questions, send an email to info@listglobally.com

ListGlobally is owned and operated by Classified Ad Ventures, the publisher of Property Ad Guru.

Looking for Realtors to Test a New Application – ListGlobally

New Widgets from frontdoor.com

Alice Allan — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 00:16:38 +0000

frontdoor.com, the real estate website of cable network channel HGTV, has introduced a set of free, self-serve widgets offering access to video and real estate content.

Real estate professionals can choose from four continually-updating widgets to add to their website, including “first home buying tips”, “cool houses”, “real estate videos”, and “best of frontdoor.com”.

Each widget displays frontdoor.com’s branding. Branding on widgets can sometimes deter users, however 100wattconsulting.com’s Brian Boero argues that the popularity of the HGTV brand may actually make the widgets more popular.

frontdoor.com itself has experienced a jump in popularity recently – the website moved from 37th to 17th place on the Hitwise list of real estate websites for May.

Nestoria’s Tips for Great Listings

Alice Allan — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 00:09:48 +0000

In this guest post, Nestoria Australia’s Kat Parr Mackintosh shares her tips on what it takes to make a listing rise above the rest.

When you feel responsible for a property, it must be hard to get away from the idea that each person who sees it is a potential buyer, so more is more, right? But if you step around to the other side of the property hunting experience and see it from the point of view of buyers or renters, then you’ll be reminded of the bombardment of choices – in the form of hundreds of listings – that have to be sifted though in order to coax out the ones you’re likely to buy or rent. In this case, more equals more wasted time and more frustration.

At Nestoria, because we’re a vertical property search engine, our priorities are our partners and the house hunters using the site. So we’re able to see the advantage to potential buyers in helping them find exactly what they want as quickly as possible, which at the same time means that each property is put in front of the people most likely to be genuinely interested in it, saving everyone time. In order to give house hunters the best results, we have to know what differentiates a great listing from a more pedestrian listing.

So what do we know about how to create better listings?

Over the past four years, Nestoria has built up an audience of around two million visitors a month, and from monitoring and analysing how these people have used our site we’ve learned a huge amount about what makes a listing more enticing. We’ve tested multiple ways of presenting listings and there are a few key, common sense principles that dramatically improve the quality of a listing.

1. Tell it straight.

Most people have some idea of what kind of property they’re looking for, and the more detail you can provide about it, presented in simple terms, the better. Vagaries about how many bedrooms or bathrooms a property has, for example, often results in a disappointing surprise for the house hunter and a dead end for the agent, which is a waste of time all round. So keep it simple and provide as much basic detail as you have if you want every lead to count.

2. People love photos.

If you’re considering a place where you and your family will live, you’re going to want to know what it looks like – the more pictures of it the better. If you can take a photo on your phone and upload it to the Internet in seconds to sell something on eBay, then it doesn’t make sense that anyone would try and sell a home without supplying pictures!

(At Nestoria we make sure we let people know which listings have more than one photo by including a number in the corner of the picture.)

3. Provide all the information.

Opinions on whether or not to include the price and address in a listing differ. Not having an exact price isn’t ideal, but if the sellers are just testing the market then having an approximate price or a “between” price is better than not including a price at all.

People’s main concern about including their address is security, but having your address listed online isn’t that different to having a big FOR SALE sign strapped to your letterbox, and people don’t seem to object to those. So it’s worth weighing up the owner’s concerns against the value of providing more information – information that will help people work out where the property is located compared to schools, transport links and other local facilities.

4. Embrace technology.

There are all sorts of new ways to bring properties you’re responsible for to the attention of buyers, and embracing those new technologies to improve listings is another way to allow house hunters to fine tune their options before going out to view properties. Sellers will also appreciate the fact that you’re taking advantage of all the technology available to get their property listed in the best possible way, and in front of the right buyers.

At Nestoria our aim is to present people with the right property on the first page of their search results, so we rate the most complete listings the most highly, because those are the properties we’re most confident will tick the house hunter’s boxes. Beyond that, we use a mathematical algorithm we call Nestoria Rank to decide how to arrange listings on the page. This algorithm takes into account a few more of a listing’s metrics, adding relevancy, freshness and usability to quality and comprehensiveness. This is just one of the technology-based tools at the fingertips of agents and portals: augmented reality apps, 360 degree video and Sobox, the social media tool for estate agents, are some of the others.

Greenlight Reveals UK Visibility Shares

Alice Allan — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 23:52:40 +0000

UK consulting firm Greenlight recently released a report that reveals the most visible property websites and advertisers in a Google search.

The report, which is based on Google searches from February 2010, show plenty of home hunters are looking for places to rent, with the term “for rent” accounting for 35 percent of all real estate-related searches during the month:

So where are these property hunters finding their listings? Greenlight also determined the best positioned and therefore most visible real estate websites, based on their volumes for each keyword and their respective ranking on page one of Google. Their top 10 most visible websites in a natural search are as follows:

1. primelocation.com
2. fish4.co.uk
3. rightmove.co.uk
4. findaproperty.com
5. zoopla.co.uk
6. torent.co.uk
7. yahoo.com
8. holiday-rentals.co.uk
9. leaders.co.uk
10. dreamvillarentals.com

“primelocation.com achieved 70 percent share of voice through ranking at position one for 23 of the 2,800 keywords analysed, including the most searched for term ‘For rent’, which accounted for 823,000 searches in February,” Greenlight says.

“Interestingly, rightmove.co.uk ranked at position one for 106 terms, yet it did not rank on page one at all for the keyword ‘For rent’,” the company adds. “Due to this it lost vital overall share of voice in natural search and attained position three in our league table.”

The top 10 websites in terms of visibility for generic lettings keywords were as follows:

1. primelocation.com
2. fish4.co.uk
3. torent.co.uk
4. holiday-rentals.co.uk
5. yahoo.com
6. leaders.co.uk
7. rightmove.co.uk
8. findaproperty.com
9. dreamvillarentals.com
10. ownersdirect.co.uk

It’s only when Greenlight ranks UK websites in terms of visibility for generic sales keywords that the list is more in line with the familiar ranking by unique visitor numbers:

1. rightmove.co.uk
2. findaproperty.com
3. primelocation.com
4. fish4.co.uk
5. zoopla.co.uk
6. home.co.uk
7. homesonsale.co.uk
8. globrix.com
9. whereismyproperty.com
10. mypropertyforsale.co.uk

Is visibility in Google searches important to you when choosing a property portal? Let us know your thoughts in our comments.

Easy Fixes for Video Listings

Alice Allan — Wed, 19 May 2010 23:42:01 +0000

Just like real estate photography, video in real estate varies widely in terms of quality. There are plenty of videos out there that could make even the most settled of home owners wonder whether they should consider moving, and plenty more that probably have even the most dedicated home hunter reaching for the pause button.

So which factors make the difference between a video that enhances a listing and one that does it no favours? Is it the vast amount of money spent on a professional video service? Not if you follow these easy tips:

1. Stabilise the camera if at all possible. Even if you don’t have a tripod available, using something to steady your arm as you pan through each room will go a long way towards reducing that seasick feeling in your audience.

2. Practice filming as often as you can and learn from the results. Are you standing too close to your subject? Are you moving the camera around too quickly? Of course, constructive criticism from others is another excellent way to get the answers to these questions.

3. Edit if at all possible. In the interest of getting a video online quickly, many agents forgo the editing process and simply upload as soon as they finish filming. The problem is that these videos would almost always have looked more professional with even a few dissolves between shots or a quick fade-to-black at the end.

4. Explain what we’re looking at. Another trend in real estate videos are those silent videos that simply show the exterior or interior of a property without any explanation. There’s no need to chat the whole way through, but a few details here and there will go a long way towards connecting your viewers with the property.

5. Enhance where you can. Music is an obvious but extremely effective addition to any real estate video as long as it’s kept subtle and unobtrusive. On the topic of sound, if you’re not keen on having your own voice in the video, try highlighting the property’s features by adding subtitles at appropriate points.

For Mac users, a simple program to edit and enhance your videos is iMovie, while PC users can get started with Movie Maker.

Once you’ve mastered the art of the perfect video listing, your next challenge will be video SEO, which you can read more about here.

It’s More Than Just An Ad On A Portal

John Hart — Tue, 18 May 2010 23:00:02 +0000

Real estate clients’ expectations of online marketing are continuing to grow, so it’s vital that we give them access to a wide range of advertising options, particularly on property portals.

Having a basic listing on a property portal can only provide limited exposure. It’s vital that portals have product provisions that give agents the ability to not only maximise the exposure of their listings on behalf of their customers, but also to expose their own brand.

At the same time, part of any agents marketing presentation should be focused on how their sellers can obtain the best possible result online. Agents spend a great deal of time doing this around offline marketing, but too few really put the emphasis on new media. Yet a rapidly growing percentage of their potential customers are extremely Internet savvy.

So what are the main areas of product that property portals are (or should be) providing to assist an agent’s business?

Listing Placement: products that provide prominence to individual listings.
Push marketing products: electronic brochures, email alerts distributed to targeted portal databases.
Display advertising: banners, skyscrapers, advertorial, pop-ups and other items designed to promote estate agency brands and drive traffic to agent sites.
Web design: Agency websites, individual property mini-sites.
Back-office tools: Online products designed to increase agency effectiveness.

It’s my view that the “depth-of-product” available to agents from a property portal should be one of the considerations for agents selecting which portal to advertise on and how much of their marketing budget to allocate to each.

Depth-of-product has the ability to increase the average leads received from a portal quite substantially by providing relevant and effective advertising products. But an agent needs to think strategically about how they can utilise and leverage these products.

If an agent approaches this seriously it could also be a key factor in a prospective customer choosing that agent over their competitor (see our related article: Selling Online Advertising to Vendors).

Along with these products, support should also be available to enable agents to on-sell them to their customers, and to provide agents with the conviction to develop an effective online marketing plan.

To sum up, some of the points agents should consider when choosing a portal include:

Promoting their brand and business:
1. What products are available and what are the benefits?
2. What is my approach and budget?
3. What do I want to achieve?

How can I better promote my customers’ properties?
1. What products are available?
2. Do my sales people understand the benefits?
3. How do I sell and leverage these products?
4. Do I charge the customer? If so, how much?

John Hart spent over six years with REA Group, operator of leading Australian property portal realestate.com.au. Prior to REA, John was with one of Australia’s largest real estate networks, First National, for 12 years, with more than seven as their national marketing manager.

[Image: flickr/aussiegall]

AdWords Tips from Google

Alice Allan — Sun, 09 May 2010 23:23:52 +0000

If you’re a fan of Google’s AdWords and you have one and a half minutes to spare, you might want to check out this latest video that gives some handy tips for AdWords campaigns.

Google uses digital cameras as their example in this video, but the same principles can be applied to text-based campaigns for real estate. This is what Google’s advice boils down to:

- Imagine what your audience is searching for, then use those words in your ad text. It helps to be more specific than “real estate [location]“. Even using the words “Buying a home in [location]?”, for example, tells people more about what you’re offering.

- What makes you stand out? Do you focus on a particular area, or have detailed knowledge of the local market? Mention your unique value proposition to give users a reason to click.

- Include a strong call to action in your text. Click here for a closer look at how calls to action work.

- Give people what they’re looking for after they click. If your ad is for homes for sale in a certain neighbourhood, link it to a section of your website that covers that neighbourhood. Similarly, if the ad is about you as an agent, link to a page that describes you and includes your contact details.

If you’ve never used AdWords before, spend some time on Google searching as if you were looking for real estate in your area. You’ll soon have plenty more ideas about which ads are enticing, and how you can make yours stand out from the competition.

Which Portal is Right for You?

Alice Allan — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 23:30:23 +0000

The question of which portal to advertise on – and how many – is one that real estate companies will always struggle with. Trying to get the best return on your investment along with maximum coverage is tricky.

Adding to the issue is the fact that real estate portals have a tendency to appear like weeds in many markets. So how do you make the right choice and not waste your marketing dollars?

It goes without saying that you need to research your own market carefully to start with. What’s right for one agency might not be right for yours, even if you do operate in a similar area or are part of the same franchise.

You will most likely know who the biggest player is in your area, and you should have an awareness of some of the second tier portals as well. What you may not know are the actual success factors of those portals versus the marketing hype. It can be helpful to have a representative from a number of portals visit your office to present their case, and to ask them for specific, recent statistics.

Here’s some points to consider when choosing a portal:

- Look at where your competitors are advertising and decide whether you want to join them or try another tactic (and portal) to beat them.
- Listen to your customers. If they are continuously asking to have their properties advertised on particular sites, don’t ignore them.
- Consider the best value proposition from each portal in terms of cost of subscription versus the package you’re offered. This includes the number of visitors to the site, the amount of consumer promotion the site does, the reports and analytics the site gives its subscribers, and the extra advertising options available to you on each site that could help you trump your competitors. The most expensive subscription might be expensive because it offers far more than the others, but it may not.
- Think about your market carefully and consider whether a niche portal might actually suit your business better, for example if you specialise in executive leasings or holiday properties. Smaller, niche portals can offer better customer targeting.
- Take a trial run on a number of portals over the same period of time, advertising the same properties, and compare the results. This will give you a real apples-with-apples comparison.
- A good rule of thumb is that you advertise on the dominant player in your market, if only because you can’t afford not to be there. They’re usually dominant for a reason. You should, however, consider how you advertise on this site, possibly choosing a premium listing package to ensure you stand out from your competitors.

The next step is to evaluate all the other potential sites in the mix and probably choose one or two others that suit your needs. It may be a niche site or a key second-tier site that your customers keep asking for. Whilst breadth of coverage is important, it’s also necessary to consider depth of advertising – with only a limited amount of funds available, you’re often better off as a premium subscriber on two or three sites than a standard subscriber, getting lost amongst the rabble, on four or five.

As with any form of advertising, it’s important to be where people are looking and ensure your choices continue to make sense – what worked last year may not be as effective this year. So make sure you choose sites that are attracting the sort of buyers and sellers you want and can demonstrate success in your area with similar types of businesses to your own.

Once you are up and running on a portal, you should continuously monitor how you are tracking, reviewing your statistics on a weekly basis. You might be surprised at how well your properties are going on a small niche site versus the larger ones, or you may well be equally annoyed at how few results you are getting from a particular site that you invested a lot of money in. With market fluctuations and results from other forms of advertising in mind, you should be able to assess whether a site is working for you over a reasonable period of time.

Don’t be content to just do what your competitors are doing and advertise where they are. Analyse your marketplace and the portals within it and consider the best match for your business and your customers. The beauty of online advertising is the statistics and monitoring that can be done, so use these tools to make good choices up front and continue to make good choices down the track.

Finally, don’t be afraid to ask for case studies and comparative statistics, but be mindful of how they’re presented – some portals are good at twisting the stats to suit their needs! Better still, run trials with your own properties and let the results do the talking.

Listing Checklist: Don’t Leave These Out

Alice Allan — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 23:46:10 +0000

There’s plenty agents can do to make their listings stand out, but of course not everyone has the time to create a dazzling showcase for every single property. If you’re resources are stretched, aim to hit these five basic targets to ensure your listing isn’t overlooked:

1. Accurate details. You might not know everything there is to know about a particular property, but even still you can make sure the information you do include is correct.

2. Photos. Both trulia.com and zillow.com have shown that one photo, at least, goes a very long way in terms of attracting viewers.

3. A catchy headline. What’s special about this property? A great view? A quiet street? A drop in price? Rather than simply writing “new listing”, grab home hunters’ attention with your headline.

4. Contact details. It’s surprising how often important agent contact details are left out of listings. If you’re keen for leads, make it easy for people to get in touch.

5. Proofread. Spelling errors and typos are all too easy to spot on property portals. If possible, get someone who hasn’t seen your listing before to look over it and pick out any problems before it goes online.

Looking for more advice on how to make your listings the best they can be? Check out our series on maximising leads from portal sites, along with our advice on what makes a good property ad.