PORTALS
INTELLIGENCE BEHIND THE SCREEN While consumers only see the front of the portal, the back office is of increasing importance for many agents. Alex Chesterman says, “Agents are after three key things: enquiries, or leads; exposure, or eyeballs; and expertise in terms of market intelligence and back end tools.” Portals are just as important in providing
market intelligence as they are of providing a route to that market. Not only do the portals provide agents with data about their own performance, but also about comparisons with their competitors. For instance, Zoopla can show an agent whether its properties are selling more quickly than competitors’, whether they are missing out on higher value instructions, or how their inventory compares with rival firms. Alex Chesterman believes all three major portal groups can offer similar products, but, he warns, some of the smaller portals can’t, meaning that while they might be useful add-ons to marketing through a major portal, an agent would be ill advised to use them exclusively. TDPG divides its data service into two products, Insight and Market View. Mark Milner says that Insight is basically “a stats engine that shows how well the agent’s properties are performing – click through rates, how many enquiries,” while Market View provides a full market comparison.
Social media will be having more importance at Rightmove over the next
12 months’. MILES SHIPSIDE RIGHTMOVE
He believes it’s a powerful tool for agents; for instance, by looking at properties that have been on the market for six months or more, agents may be able to target instructions where the properties are now out of contract and the vendor may be tempted by a fresh approach.
MORE PORTAL INPUT – AND OUTPUT What’s next? Portals are currently investing in the mobile web, which is generating an increasing share of total traffic. Rightmove puts mobile access at five per cent of its total traffic, but Mark Milner says it’s getting on for 30 per cent at TDPG. So far, it’s been iPhone and iPad which have made the running – Rightmove’s iPhone application has been downloaded one million times – but other smartphones are now getting in on the act. Zoopla has announced an application for Android phones, and TDPG is working on other mobile platforms too. Mark Milner says bringing new platforms and devices onstream is quick; “We simply drag and drop logos and copy into a builder. It doesn’t matter what the platform is.”
The rich, local info in TDPG’s Market View Pro enhances our customer relationships and
wins new clients.” PETER ROLLINGS MARSH & PARSONS
18 APRIL 2011 PROPERTYdrum
Property seekers use social media channels 24 hours a day!
Social media is also becoming increasingly important as a means of leveraging the portal. Rightmove has seen traffic from Twitter and Facebook triple in a year. It has added Facebook ‘like’ buttons to listed properties, getting 15,000 ‘likes’ in January, as well as stacking up 5,945 Twitter followers. “Social media will be having more importance at Rightmove over the next 12 months,” Miles Shipside says. “We have always been ahead of the curve in pushing our member agents’ properties onto the latest consumer trends, and we are confident that social media can have a similar impact to the huge successes we have seen on on our mobile platforms.” He notes that according to Hitwise, around one in every four web pages viewed by UK consumers in January were on Facebook – “making this a key channel for us to use.” He also notes that the Facebook ‘likes’ are giving consistent traffic and have led to around 2.5m people seeing a Rightmove agent’s brand through Facebook as a result. Meanwhile portals are expanding to offer the consumer more than just property listings. For instance Rightmove Places, now in beta, will offer user-generated hyperlocal content. “This will provide a great opportunity for agents to
demonstrate their local knowledge and engage with the home-moving public,” Miles Shipside says.
Zoopla’s acquisition of
houseprices.co.uk
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