I think it is time all agencies started looking into actual results from major portals and comparing their value. There is an easy way to do this for email enquiries and property views. Finding out where the source of your phone enquiries comes from is another matter that we will also explore. But first let’s look into the marketing and press releases from the major portals.
The majority of press releases/marketing from the major portals are really aimed at two distinct groups.
1. You the agency – letting you know just how darn popular the portal is is an easy way to get your attentiuon.
2. Your Vendors – They know you live and breath (and spend) by your vendors, so getting into vendors heads is a sure way to make you spend money with them.
I mean, why would you risk losing a potential $15,000 commission just because you are not on either of the two major portals? They know this and they are very clever with their marketing, if they can get vendors to ask you the questions – they in turn get you to spend money with them.
Getting them to understand the difference between a premium and platinum package is left to the agencies, who are always looking at ways to differentiate from their competitors.
So here are a few hints to get you to reach through the hype and understand the real benefits.
Results Count – Create a spreadsheet and sample the amount of page views a property gets in first 30, 60 and 90 days with each portal and your own website.
Then also add a field for the amount of email enquiries generated for each property through the portals and your own site.
Incoming – Have your receptionist ask a few questions for each enquiry. “Is this a property enquiry? May I ask which property you are enquiring about? Where did you find this Property?
This will help you to understand which portals have strengths and also help you to understand how you can improve your own sites performance.
Another hint – Do not spend too much money promoting your own site in traditional media. It does not work. If you want to promote your site do it through a Google Adwords Campaign. You should always include your web address prominently in traditional advertising but if you are going to run a campaign just promoting your website, then do it where your market is – and that is online!
As for measuring performance from portals, this will help you to ask questions when they hand down their annual fee increases. If they are not improving for you, then why should you pay more!