Part 2: Listing properties

• Content is King
• The power of photos
• Size matters
• Keep it short
• The teaser description
• Call to action
• Summary

Content is King

People visiting your web site are actively looking for a reason to leave it, and you only have a few precious seconds to persuade them not to do so.

If your web site allows them to find what they’re looking for, they’ll stay a bit longer, if not, they’re gone – 90% of them within 10 seconds of arriving.

The power of photos

Your search results page probably shows a small image of each property. Check out any search results page on Kyero.com as an example.

Each image in your search results has one purpose only – to get the visitor to ask for more property details – it’s like a mini c.v. for the full property details.

The reason an image is important is because most people will notice an image first and only when they’ve been attracted by the image will they read the description and possibly decide to view the full details of the property.

Size matters

There’s always a trade-off between picture size and quality. Use a thumbnail photo, as small as possible that succeeds in ‘selling’ the next step – the property details page.

As long as it encourages a visitor to make that next crucial mouse-click, that’s all it needs to do. On your property details page you can show much higher quality images.

Remember, this one, tiny image, is your first opportunity to grab the visitor’s attention. It is vital to make this image count – choose an inviting, attractive image of each property and tempt prospective buyers to ask for more information.

When a visitor clicks through to your property details page, this is the time to show them more photos of the property, probably in a larger format and of higher quality.

The general consensus is that the more photos, the merrier.

You can also use photos quite strategically to control your response and enquiry rate.

A true story about two estate agents

Two estate agents both market the same property at the same time and at the same price on Kyero.com. Estate agent ‘A’ receives 20 enquiries for this property in a single day, while estate agent ‘B’ receives none in a whole week – what’s going on?

‘A’ is a large agency, with multiple offices and a comprehensive marketing and sales resources. They have sales people manning the phones and sifting email ready to convert the slightest glimmer of interest into a warm prospect and eventually into a client.

‘B’ is a husband and wife team working from home. They too provide a professional service but are less well resourced than ‘A’.

Surprisingly, both agents are happy with the response they received – each of their marketing strategies is appropriate for their different situations. Here’s what they did:

‘A’ marketed the property with a single, captivating photo and a brief description that highlighted the positive aspects of the property.

‘B’ featured ten photos that clearly showed it as requiring some attention. Their description too, longer in length, highlighted the potential of the property but also pointed out the need for some works to be carried out.

Neither ‘A’ nor ‘B’ sold the property yet both were happy with the response from their marketing. ‘B’, mindful of their resource limitations, cannot afford to invest in prospects at too early a stage. They need to focus their available time and energy on the deals they are likely to close.

That’s why they feature the ‘warts ‘n all’ photos of every property they market. They’re actively trying to qualify out prospects that aren’t looking for exactly this type of property.

Does this mean they lose deals? most certainly, but it also gives them the edge in a deal that they are able to close, because they’ve already qualified the prospect that little bit harder.

On the other hand, ‘A’ is delighted with their 20 enquiries – even though 75% of them were simple requests for more photos! Even so, they now have 20 more opportunities of cultivating a relationship and nurturing each one toward a close.

They deliberately made the property easy to enquire about to increase their response rate, knowing that these new prospects would need further qualifying – something they are geared up to do.

They’re not worried that they’re unlikely to sell this property to these particular prospects but they are interested in establishing and nurturing the relationship until they’re in a position to close a deal, any deal.

So, both ‘A’ and ‘B’ are happy with quite different strategies and response rates because they have different business and marketing objectives. That’s how powerful selecting the right property photo can be.

Keep it short

Back on the search result page, most also show a brief description of the property and the first few words from the description. Refer again to these search results from Kyero.com as an example.

Make sure that you include at least three pieces of information about the property in the results page. Visitors expect to be able to easily see:

• Where is it?
• How much is it?
• What kind of property is it?

The teaser description

On Kyero.com, the first 200 characters of a property description are displayed in the initial search results. Most other property portals do a similar thing and you should use something along the same lines on your web site.

These few words need to contain a strong ‘call to action’ statement. It’s what most people will scan after they have noticed the photo, and read the property headline. This is your last chance to get them to request more information, so use it wisely.

There is no need to repeat basic information like price and number of bedrooms at the start of the description. If you do, you’re wasting this valuable opportunity for a compelling ‘call-to-action’ description. The single function of the results page is to encourage the visitor to click through to the property details page.

You need to make sure that your results page is ‘selling’ the property. Use it to concentrate on distinct features of the property or selling points that will draw in property buyers.

If they are not attracted by the first couple of lines, they will get no further and will never read about the finer features that you list in the rest of the description.

Is your content compelling?

Now that you have succeeded in getting the visitor to look at your property page, use the images and description to encourage a response - this is your main opportunity to get them to take action.

On Kyero.com, the description field can accommodate an unlimited amount of text – so you can go wild! Beware though, a long description is not necessarily a good description, and a few succinct phrases can be more than enough to convince a prospective buyer to make an enquiry.

In general, the fuller the description, the better the response rate and, if you are looking to cut down on time- wasters, a full and accurate summary of the property’s features and benefits can save you time in the long run.

If you are also able to enter descriptions in a number of languages to appeal directly to a non-English audience, so much the better. The Kyero.com control panel contains an auto-generator for foreign language descriptions for this reason.

If you are already using a system which allows you to enter foreign language description – why not use the free auto generator tool?

Simply check a few boxes and the auto generator provides accurate, translated descriptions in English, Spanish, German, Dutch and French.

Summary

1. Decide what response you want each property advert to create and design each one accordingly. Are you casting a wide net to trawl the market or are you angling for a very specific kind of fish?
2. Don’t forget that your primary content is your property portfolio – focus on that and build the extra content around complimenting the searching, finding and displaying of your properties.
3. Photos can be used in a number of powerful ways – you can use them to create a lot of raw requests for more information or to narrow in on a very specific type of prospect.
4. Use the search result description as a teaser trailer for the full property details. Use it to sell the property details page.
5. Experiment and tweak. Change one aspect at a time and monitor any change in results. Don’t be tempted to change a lot of things at once – it’s easy to do if you’re impatient but if your results improve or take a dive, you’ll have no idea why.

Next: Part 3. What’s wrong with your web site?

Article Contents

1. Introduction to Internet marketing – why market on the Internet at all?
2. Listing properties – making the most of your most valuable content
3. What’s wrong with your web site? – 10 mistakes that keep visitors away
4. Making sense of statistics – hits, pages, cookies, visits and visitors
5. Saving time managing properties – exporting and distributing property details
6. Property photos that sell – professional photography tips

 

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