I recently had a long discussion /debate with a highly regarded estate agent Mr Adam Sparks of SparksEllison in Chandlers Ford, Hampshire.
We discussed in depth the domination of Rightmove and his opinion that an agent just needed said portal and a good website of their own.
He was very open and shared his RM stats with me along with his own website.
On first viewing he was impressed by the amount of times his property had appeared in search results, my opinion was to see how many of those people actually opened and viewed more details on one of his properties.
Of the 106k people whose search results he had been included in, had produced 55 requests for further information or a viewing, meaning that he gets one enquiry for every 2000 search results he appears!
My point was made that RM have some fantastic stats this million visitors per month etc, but the agents really (and he in particular) only care about their own properties and their own areas.
The reason for having regional/local portal then made more sense. With our stats in the thousands rather than millions we can prove that we are able to compete with a big animal like RM and in certain circumstances and areas even out perform them.
Adam was also astonished that people would search on Google for something like a “House in Chandlers Ford”. until we started our conversation he was in the belief that all home searchers would just go to RM find one of his properties and call him, and that RM was infact good value for money!
I very much enjoined taking to an agent that is willing to open his mind and see what other channels he can use.
I also urged him to analyse stats on a a cost per click basis, again we and others are so much better value for money!
Adam is someone who I highly regard and I am pleased that I have managed to open his eyes to how the Internet can work for the property sector, and left him analysing his google analytics…… asking what a “Bounce rate is”
He and I both enjoyed the discussion and my feeling is that there are thousand of agents out there that do not analyse their business and internet marketing closely enough.
Seems crazy that agents spend thousands of pounds on websites and portals and any other marketing, that they don’t measure a response and success rate.
In these times and when markets improve it is a basic business ethic to test and measure.
![Mar. [Explore]](http://static.flickr.com/4083/4950621171_7bcd1ab457_t.jpg "Mar. [Explore]")
Send him to Juicy Red Apple where there are some good videos and tutorials about google stats and the like. Also an ongoing debate about measuring stats.
For those that read these articles I would like to help you with some clarity as the information is incorrect / selective / biased…you decide.
106k was the amount of times property was seen and not individual people. So if an agent in an area had 10 properties appear within a search you are already down to 1 in 200 and no where near 2000.
Add to that the average cost for membership of rightmove is £100 per week you will not get this return from any other site or google for the same investment.
Sorry to burst your bubbles…but hopefully have saved you money!
Just work out your costs per lead… if you pay £500 for example to be on Rightmove per month and get x50 enquiries then they cost you £10 each. Forget all the other stats of how many times appeared in searches etc. just measure the facts that relate directly to you and your business.
As for last comment that Rightmove can outperform Google – thats just ridiculous!
and… there is plenty you can do with £100 a week spend online to get good leads and deliver traffic to your own website.
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You say: ‘my opinion was to see how many of those people actually opened.’ Opinion? What on earth are you talking about? Do you mean that your GOAL was to see how many of those people actually opened?
yes ‘opinion’ is the wrong word Nick but he still gets the point across?