WEBSITES CAN MAKE OR BREAK NEW PROPERTY INSTRUCTIONS.
An estate agent’s website is all about the seller these days, not the purchaser. That’s the view from Bespoke 4 Business, a Dorset-based digital marketing agency that specialises in web design and development for estate agents.
“From talking to agents across the country, we’re hearing that the key objective of their website is now all about generating new instructions from vendors first and not necessarily interest from potential purchasers” remarked Anthony Tilley, Director at Bespoke 4 Business.
“An estate agent’s website can literally make or break a new property instruction. It’s not enough these days for agents to have an average website. With increased competition coming from online estate agents, sellers are doing their research when it comes to choosing an agent and they’re demanding that their property is going to be marketed to the hilt to get them the sale”.
With this in mind, estate agents are now being advised that their websites must fulfil the criteria set by the seller.
“Agents we speak to now realise that it’s not feasible anymore to just have one or two photos of the property and a brief description as sellers are demanding multiple images, floor plans and even videos to provide a virtual tour of their property”.
“We’re also finding that agents are having to become more social media savvy as sellers want their property to be seen by the maximum number of people as possible, which is why we’ve developed a new software platform for estate agents that includes social media integration so that agents can quickly and easily post new property details across social media such as facebook and twitter to increase opportunities to see”.
And with research by Google revealing that the number of property search queries being performed on mobile devices increased by 47% in the first quarter of 2015, it’s critical that an estate agent’s website is fully mobile responsive so that it displays and functions correctly whether on PC, tablet or smartphone.
“We would urge agents to do a quick health check of their current website to check that it’s fit for purpose. They should put themselves in the shoes of a potential seller and ask is their website presenting their agency in the very best way to generate new instructions?” advised Anthony.
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