TECHNOLOGY
MOBILE USER BASE BY PORTAL
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pages, and on your Rightmove profile page. Simply print or save this code and display
it in your window cards, your newspaper adverts, your For Sale boards, or anywhere else you advertise your properties. Users of some of the newer smartphone handsets can be taken straight to the property particulars or your branch listings by merely pointing their phones at the QR code, if not it is easy to download a QR code reader to read each code.
Jan 2011 Feb 2011 Mar 2011 Apr 2011 May 2011 Jun 2011 Jul 2011 Aug 2011 Sept 2011
FindaProperty.com RightMove.co.uk PrimeLocation.com via Browser Zoopla via Browser Mobile audiences – portals provide an easy way to view homes on the move.
USE PORTALS WITH GOOD MOBILE PRESENCE Portals arguably provide the best value for money for lead generation and also for brand exposure. Portals have the resource and technical expertise to invest in mobile technology. Portals are used by massive numbers of home hunters and homeowners. Choose ones with a good mobile presence. More than 600,000 people access Rightmove’s mobile website every month, more than twice as many as any of the other portals. A further 500,000
use Rightmove’s iPhone app every month. If you are a member of Rightmove, core
membership includes representation of your listings on Rightmove Mobile. If your own website is not yet up to scratch, make sure you tell people to find your properties on Rightmove. Rightmove has recently introduced QR
codes. QR codes provide a handy link to a list of all your properties, or to any individual property. Look out for these codes (and instructions on how to use them) on the Rightmove property details
FAQS – SOME ANSWERS FROM MOBILE WEBSITE ExPERT, IAN LAvERTy
Q: I’ve noticed that when using my iPad, I can’t access websites that use Flash. Do mobile optimised websites automatically remove this issue - or not? A: We wouldn’t recommend using Flash in a mobile site. A Flash video can significantly compromise the performance of your site. This is where the content of your mobile site needs to be very carefully considered.
Individuals using the mobile web behave in a very different way to those on a desktop. It’s action oriented browsing – giving people the information they’re looking for when they want to do something with it. For property agents, that means the ability to search for properties and get in touch with you. Q: Is it possible to put a ballpark figure on the cost of optimising a website for mobile use? A: How much do you charge to sell a house? It depends on the house and it depends on which of your services they want to engage in. It’s the same for web design. Hundreds of pounds not thousands of pounds in short. Q:Have you noticed an increasing flow of agents who invested in their own app, now looking to develop a mobile site? Are apps finished? A: The app market is flooded with apps that people don’t use.
38 JANUARY 2012 PROPERTYdrum
Only 18 per cent of smartphones sold in the UK in the first half of 2011 were iPhones. If you build an iPhone app you are ignoring 82 per cent of your customers. Unlike a mobile website, you would need to build an app for every mobile operating system (Android, Blackberry, etc). There is a more compelling reason for the failure of apps however. Think about the way you use your phone to search for information…. Is your first port of call the app store, or is it Google? Google. If you have a mobile website you are visible on Google. If you have apps, you’re not. Your customers won’t find you. Q: What are your top tips for going ‘mobile’? A: Speak to a company that has experience of developing mobile websites for your type of business. They will guide you regarding the content that will work best for you on your site. Importantly, don’t replicate all of your desktop website content on mobile. Q:Can you give three examples of details on your clients’ sites that demonstrate how important mobile is? A: Three of the best property mobile sites that I’ve seen (in terms of content, layout and functionality) would be: Hunters in the North of England
http://m.hunters-mobile.co.uk Fitz-Gibbon in London
http://m.fitzgibbon.co.uk and Bidwells in the South Midlands
http://m.bidwells.co.uk
Ian Laverty, Sales & Marketing Director, Intelligent Mobile Ltd
ian.laverty@
intelligentmobile.com
AN IMPORTANT QUESTION: MOBILE APPS OR MOBILE WEBSITES? Apps have certain advantages over mobile websites. In general you can present a better user experience, slicker functionality and better workflows. If this is important to you, and if the branding prestige of having an app is part of your marketing strategy, by all means consider developing one. However, keep the following in mind: If you develop an app, you still have to
have a mobile website. Some homehunters might search for your app on the various app stores, but far more people will search for your brand on their mobile browser. You have probably worked very hard to
get yourself as high as possible in the Google search results for various search
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