Ignore your web site at your peril!

In a government survey, over 28 million adults accessed the internet in the 3 months prior to the survey with 84% of usage relating to information search on products and services. Translate this into your business and 84% of your prospect base could be looking for properties online. Companies who ignore the importance of their web site will be losing business. And it doesn't stop at property searching. Many vendors are now looking at how well their properties will be marketed online as a criterion in deciding who to sell their property through. South Western based chain Marchand Petit endorse this. "We have received emails stating that we have won the instruction based on the back of our web site alone. The vendors could see how well the property would be displayed and gave us the instruction," said MD, Marcus Lucock.

Good web site design is one thing but it's the information contained within it that customers want to see. At the leading edge of exploiting web site content is London based agency London Executive. Having changed to Aspasia from their former server based system, they then looked to see how they could use their data to improve their web site. "Aspasia offers 3 options to our customers which gives a high level of flexibility depending on what they want to achieve," said MD for Aspasia, Stewart Anderson.

London Executive elected to opt for the most sophisticated option which delivers XML data into their site. "We could play with the feed, testing out different designs and do what ever we wanted. With most web sites, customers see pictures of the property first and then go on to see a virtual tour but, with the XML feed, we could put the virtual tour first and differentiate ourselves from the competition," enthused Georges Verdis of London Executive. But that was not enough for them. They believe they are one of the only agencies in the country that has integrated the Microsoft technology Virtual Earth which provides a virtual aerial view of properties allowing customers to view properties at a phenomenal level of detail. "Our customers couldn't believe their eyes when they saw what we are able to do on our site to market their properties," added Georges, "Aspasia has given us the possibility of carrying out every dream of ours."

Marchand Petit used the advanced option within Aspasia which gives them data in HTML format and they manage much of their web site in house. "Our main motivation was to keep things simplistic for people looking for property. They need to be able to find what they want quickly and through Aspasia we are pushing in front of other agents," stated Marketing Manager for Marchand Petit, Justine Andrews.

Many agents are still fearful of technology but for those that are willing to exploit what products such as Aspasia can do for them, the benefits are clear.

March 2008