Your Rightmove profile – are you wasting it?
Your Rightmove profile can be a great opportunity to connect with and engage your audience. Here are my tips to make every word count.
I’ve been working with some clients recently on their Rightmove profiles. As I’ve been clicking around, checking out examples on Rightmove, I’ve seen some horrors! Some agents don’t know how to spell, (it’s not independant, it’s independent!!) and others have basically copied and pasted all the text off their website – YUK!!
Your Rightmove profile should be a showcase for your company and services – after all, it probably gets a ton more visitors than your website, so make it count.
Here are the absolute basics you need to have on your Rightmove agent profile:
- A photograph that isn’t your logo or your office
- Less than 300 words long
- Full of emotional, exciting words, not boring corporate lingo
- Includes the words you or your at least 5 times
- Written in the first person, ie using we or I
- Includes a call to action at the bottom of the text, eg ‘Call us now’ or ‘Get in touch to arrange your appraisal’
If yours passes the Sam test, well done!
If not, read on…..
Think about this from the client’s point of view: they are searching for a prospective agent to sell their home, or let their property, for them and so are filtering the likely candidates. The only possible ways they could know of or find out about your agency are through:
- Word of mouth/local knowledge/used you before
- Seeing your boards
- Seeing your print adverts or marketing
- Finding you online
Research tells us that on average, we – the great British public – have to see a brand seven times before we take any action. This means that most of the interaction with your brand is completely invisible to you. By the time a prospective vendor finds your agent profile on Rightmove, they are probably filtering, based on your portfolio size and type, and the way your agency comes across in the profile piece. Here is your opportunity to make sure you’re on the shortlist of three that we know around two thirds of people will invite to give a market appraisal.
So let’s look at how you can optimise every part of your agent profile, to really wow those readers and encourage them to pick up the phone – now!
- Your profile photograph – if you use a self-promotional photograph, say your office, your logo, or a liveried car, you’re not going to really engage a vendor and interest them, are you? What’s important to them? Remember – people buy people – so show them a photo of you or your team, and let them see who you are.
- Your text – a quick check through some of the agent profiles on Rightmove shows that most agents’ profiles are just too long. 150 words are plenty. Your readers aren’t going to read any more anyway.
- Them versus you – I just looked at a premium independent agent in Oxford and found they had used 13 instances of we and their name, and they didn’t mention you or youronce. (None of the others are any better, by the way.)
- Who’s speaking? Remember that you are talking directly to your potential customer here. Why not say “Hello, I’m Tom from Downton Estate Agents and I’d like to welcome you to our page” or something similar. You have a great opportunity here to make that connection, and it works much more strongly if you talk as a real person.
- Call to action – what do you want a vendor to do when they have read your profile? Keep your request simple and add a benefit to them. Eg“Call me – Tom – on 01823 345678 to find out exactly how you could sell faster and for more through Downton Estate Agents.”
Let’s look at some agent profile examples; I’ve picked Coventry at random. (sorry, Coventry)
The good – the photo is great – smiling and human, but still branded
The bad – not enough about their clients, too much about their company
The ugly – THE SHOUTY CAPITALS AT THE BOTTOM
Hawkins Estate Agents, Coventry
The good – the mention of the professional bodies they belong to, with the benefits
The bad – the formatting is all over the place – a bad copy and paste
The ugly – that photo! Soooo cheesy. Don’t use stock images!!
The good – strong image, punchy text with good opener
The bad – not enough copy to hold my attention
The ugly – focuses way too much on price, and none of the other emotional triggers that motivate people to sell.
Berkeley Knight Estate Agents, Coventry
The good – I like their ‘what we don’t do’, and natural, conversational tone. Very friendly.
The bad – Would have been much stronger written in first person, ie ‘we’ and ‘I’
The ugly– what’s the point in that photo? Is it a house they’ve sold, or their offices? And it’s just not good enough quality to showcase their brand online, especially not on the UK’s biggest property site!
The good – love the photo (not sure why they both have their hands in their pockets, but otherwise great). Also really like the strong and personal opening: “Hello…and a warm welcome from Concentric Sales and Lettings. So, why should you choose Concentric Sales and Lettings as your preferred choice of Agency?”
The bad – the last line has a call to action but no website address
The ugly – lots about them, and not enough about me, the reader
Have I made you think about your Rightmove profile? Are you going to change yours, and sex it up a bit? I would!
Rightmove has given you a mini website here, with a potential monthly readership of around 3 million unique visitors. Make the most of it!
What to read next: Estate Agents Websites – My Top 5 Tips
What to do next: Do you get my Supertips? They’re jam-packed full of great tips and marketing strategies just like this one, and best still – they’re free! Get yours here ->www.samashdown.co.uk/samsupertips
Speak to Sam: If you’d like to know how I think you could improve your marketing, just answer a few short questions here and I’ll tell you if and how you could be more effective.
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