Blog / Winning Business
Standing out in Agent Search
with Aimee Gleeson realestate.com.au
It’s a brave new world out there and the web has opened up many opportunities for agents to market themselves directly to a captive audience through realestate.com.au. Aimee Gleeson from realestate.com. au says, “In the first 12 months of having our agent profiles live, we saw just under 10 million profile views and raves for our agent customers, phone reveals got 1.45 million and e-mail leads just under a quarter of a million. We're hoping that with the introduction of agent search, we'll be able to really start boosting the profile of individual agents and create leads for our customers.”
At the end of January, in a really exciting development signaling how rapidly the playing field is changing, realestate.com. au introduced a new search tool – Agent search.
Through Agent search, highly engaged sellers looking for an agent can now punch in what they are seeking in the areas of:
• Location • Property Type and • Price Range.
The search results will then link to agents’ profiles that match the search. Research from realestate.com.au indicates that people using this function are highly motivated to find an agent.
Aimee explains, “There are two really key statistics that drove the creation of agent profiles as a new element or new function on our site and these absolutely drove us to then develop this next feature of agent search. These are that over 70% of vendors who are using realestate.com.au have not yet chosen an agent. They know that they're wanting to sell their property but they haven't yet selected who they're going to list it with.” She continues, “The second key statistic was that of those same property owners, 67% said that choosing an agent was the most stressful step in their selling journey. We had a huge amount of feedback from our property owner audience saying that we could do a bit more to help them in shortlisting and selecting an agent. Then of course we've got our customers who are looking for ways to connect with this same audience.” Importantly, to make the most of this new function, agents need to know that in order to be most accurately represented in the Agent search results, they need to provide prices on their sold listings. The onus therefore is on individual agents to move their listings to the sold section. The information does not update automatically. It is the responsibility of the agent to provide that information. Aimee says, agents have to “…ensure that any listing that has been entered on realestate.com. au is moved to the sold section once it's sold. That will ensure that you're best represented in agent search. It's very much a representation of our sold data, but instead of just identifying the property that's recently sold, it's also identifying the individual and the agency that actually sold that property.”
Aimee emphasises, “It’s important for our agents and agencies to make sure that they're represented really well in our sold section which is of course a really valued resource on realestate.com.au for buyers and vendors alike. That same action of moving a property from our buyer section to our sold section when the transaction is complete is what fuels Agent search and will make sure that they're best represented and able to be found by those property owners searching for an agent.”
She says, “Our property owner audience are really wanting to short list an agent. They're still wanting to get agents in their home to hear and meet them, hear about how they would market their property and meet them one on one and face to face. However, they did tell us loud and clear that the criteria they're using to short list an agent in the first place is really around local area knowledge and history or experience selling properties like theirs.”
It’s vital therefore that agents update their profiles and maintain an active social media presence. Aimee says, “They're very low maintenance. There's not much upkeep that an agent needs to do to be best represented in this space. However, hopefully when the leads start coming through, they'll be very, very aware of their profile and maybe update it a little more frequently than they may be doing today.”
At this stage, there are no ratings and reviews. Aimee says, “Our first introduction of Agent search doesn't include ratings or reviews. However, in future we hope to introduce the ability for testimonials and endorsements to also appear on an individual agent profile. Ultimately, we're introducing a really simple search. It enables a property owner to short list agents based on criteria that is most important for them which of course is that they've got local experience with properties like theirs. It also allows our customers to really showcase their sales performance to those prospective vendors.”
What agents should do to make the most of this feature:
1. Ensure that all of your sold listings have correct information, including sold prices, on www.realestate.com.au/sold. 2. Update your Agent Profile to showcase your capabilities and expertise to a highly engaged audience.
To access, claim and populate your Agent Profile, visit Agent Admin on the Agent Marketing Centre at www.agent.realestate.com.au. Don’t miss out on business - the consumer's got access to these tools and they’re a great lead source for you. Contact your realestate.com.au account person, get a demonstration and make sure you're up to date with these great features that are available. Agent profiles have a large impact, so it is imperative that you remain at the forefront of new technology and update your profile to highlight your experience, expertise and personality.
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