Written by Fernando Maciá
Índice
Although the real estate offer is concentrated in large vertical search engines that bring together a large number of properties, local real estate websites emerge that through a great depth of information, a greater adaptation to the profiles of their clientele and a more refined use of online marketing tools such as the organic search engine positioning, are successfully defending their market niche against the big leaders in the sector.
After a timid start and several years of continuous development, the real estate sector is beginning to glimpse the enormous opportunities offered by its presence on the Internet, and many companies have already decided to make a firm commitment to this powerful customer acquisition channel. Several figures corroborate this impression: according to Nielsen/NetRatings data, in May of this year more than one million people consulted the offer available in the different Spanish real estate portals, doubling the number of registered users only a year earlier; the cost per click of a sponsored link in search categories related to the real estate offer is around, and sometimes exceeds, the not inconsiderable figure of 1 euro, which gives an idea of the enormous competition in the sector; and in recent years, small real estate portals with a much more specialized and localized offer compete fiercely with the leaders in this market through search engine positioning, a greater depth of information, multiple language versions and a better understanding of your target audience.
The implementation of the real estate sector on the Internet has gone through the same classic phases of development of the Web as a whole:
Static real estate websites
The use of the network is limited to copying the showcase model of the real estate agency or developer. The product offer is displayed with the aim of reaching a different public profile and complementing the communication in traditional media: brochures, magazines, radio… Interaction with the user is practically null: the potential buyer hardly gets more information on the Web than what he/she would get by looking at the agency’s shop window. Similarly, the company does not receive any information on the interests of its clientele. The Web is nothing more than another bait whose only objective is to get a first phone call. Translation into other languages allows small agencies to get in touch with potential foreign clients at a lower cost than previous advertising media.
Interactive Web
The Internet can help us to interact with our potential customers and build loyalty with our current ones. In this phase, more sophisticated ways for users to find what they are looking for are developed through the use of internal search engines. By introducing some simple criteria that serve to define the type of property, the preferred area and the money you are willing to spend, the interactive website is able to make a query against a database and filter the results, so that it shows us only those that meet those criteria. Interaction is also present in the inclusion of pages capable of calculating the amortization installments of a loan, simulating the costs associated with the purchase, etc. At the same time, the information presented on the products themselves increases. It is complemented with a quality report, more photographs, virtual tours, 3D views, plans, images of the progress of the works, information on the surroundings… This interactive phase is completed with the development of extranets, where additional services are provided to registered users. Sometimes, access is exclusive to homebuyers. At this stage when we start interacting with customers “1to1” (one to one) is when we are really starting to take advantage of the full potential of the Internet as a marketing tool and the flow of information increases in both directions, both what the user gets about the company and the product and what the company gets from him as a potential customer.
Transactional Web
The large supply and demand aggregators that have become the current audience leaders in this sector are appearing: fotocasa.es, globaliza.com, yaencontre.com, idealista.com, etc. These are large portals capable of concentrating a huge audience thanks, above all, to the breadth of the offer presented. In this sense, they differ from the real estate portal belonging to an agency or a developer in that their business model is radically different. While the purpose of an agency or developer’s portal is to attract a potential client and its profitability is expected to be obtained from the profit margin derived from the possible sale, these large portals are intended to act as a marketplace.The main objective is to create large bulletin boards that serve as a point of contact between supply and demand, and in which profitability is generated from the publication of content (both from individuals and other companies) as well as from the monetization of screen space in the form of advertising insertion. In contrast to generalist horizontal search engines such as MSN Search, Yahoo! or Google, they are specialized vertical search engines.
Online marketing
We are currently immersed in this phase in which we move on to a company that uses the Internet to develop its own Internal Network but soon realizes the advantages offered by the configuration of an External Network. Thus, initiatives are multiplying whereby companies are able to share their databases in a multi-site environment (Internal Network) and then move on to share their databases with other companies so that they can compete in other markets with a minimum level of supply that guarantees a profitable level of traffic. Something that each of them separately might not be able to achieve.
We see, then, how the real estate sector has developed through two major trends:
- Portals that bring together offerings and have enormous power to attract traffic aimed at large audiences and supported by a business model based on advertising/fees per insertion.
- Real estate portals of the agencies and developers themselves with a smaller offer focused on niche markets and whose profitability is calculated on the basis of the contacts/sales obtained.
At first glance, it would seem that this second group of websites, with a smaller product portfolio and a much lower traffic attraction capacity, has little chance of competing with the more generalist portals. However, we believe that there are numerous business opportunities for more specialized portals, provided they are properly managed and take into account certain key aspects that are common to any marketing initiative. online: Generalists versus specialistsThere is a common trend in all sectors whereby the general offer always tends to fragment into a more specialized offer. For example, in television, we went from generalist channels, which offered a little bit of everything, to specialized channels (do I want a cooking recipe, to watch a documentary or learn how to prepare sushi?) The same happened in radio and press. In retail, we went from Corte Inglés to Ikea, MediaMarkt and LeroyMerlin. It is therefore to be expected that users will prefer to use specialized portals capable of providing a more in-depth level of information about their area and product (luxury housing, golf courses, Mediterranean arch, etc.) than large generalist portals with little depth of information. Focus on knowing what your niche market is and offer them what they want.
Real estate websites in search engines
The starting point for any web surfer is always a search engine: according to the latest Macro-survey of Internet users by the Association for Media Research (AIMC), the most frequent activity of Internet users is searching in search engines and directories, cited by more than 97% of the sample. This means that most browsing sessions start in a search engine. The large generalist portals have until recently been competing in the branding arena, trying to generate brand recognition in potential users to ensure that they would type in your URL rather than go to a search engine. However, experience shows that in those sectors where there is no clear leader, users tend to perform a search rather than directly enter an address (no one searches for coca-cola in Google to go to Coca-Cola’s website, but if you are looking for a townhouse in Guardamar, you might go to a search engine and type exactly that to start a search). It is only in the last two years that we have seen significant efforts to be well positioned in search engines. But the very breadth of their offerings coupled with the shallowness of their content make them very vulnerable to compete in this field. Any local or regional real estate portal properly programmed and with an adequate level of content management can appear above them in search engines for the search categories that match your potential customer. Again, this is a bet on the niche market not to gain in traffic, but to gain in results.
65% of Britons choose Spain as a destination for their second home and 38.5% indicate it as their only option when buying a property. Although foreign real estate investment in Spain has decreased in recent years, in 2005 it amounted to 5,538 million euros, according to data from the Bank of Spain. Foreigners from the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy accounted for 35.8% of the first residence market. Of the large generalist portals, very few have versions in other languages. Do you know how many results Google returns when we search for “apartment in Benidorm”? More than one million. If we repeat the search on Google.no in Norwegian, the figure drops to less than 20,000. In languages, then, we find a much less “crowded” space in which to compete on the Internet.
Content specialization
And where will my children go to school: when it comes to relocating our residence, many questions arise that are as familiar as this one. So if the first question in a real estate acquisition is: “I want a “type of property” in “geographical location”, then many other questions arise such as: “How professional, formal and serious is the company I am going to deal with, what is the neighborhood where the property is located, what infrastructure does it have, what kind of schools, sports facilities, health facilities, shopping centers, leisure opportunities are close to my future residence? Offering a depth of information only available and profitable for a specialized or localized offer is a safe investment to become a leader in a niche market, in “the best Web of second hand properties in Cabo de Gata”, “the best Web of holiday rentals in the Marina Baixa alicantina” or “the Web that offers more information about the different possibilities that a foreigner has to move his residence to Torrevieja because it informs about work, legal, education for children, etc.”. Depth and specialization in content, essentially content that is of interest to your potential customer, is a powerful traffic magnet.
In conclusion, it should be noted that there is an enormous potential for agencies and promoters who are willing to make a serious commitment to this medium to attract customers. Although it is one of the sectors where competition on the Internet is fierce, it is also true that there are still many market niches to be exploited. By way of example, we have outlined just a few guidelines to follow in order to make a niche market profitable. The important thing is that everyone is able to extrapolate these examples to their own customer segment in order to properly identify what their expectations, concerns and desires are. Where they are, what they are like, what language they speak and why they might like our offer. If we are able to identify these factors and give an adequate response to each one of them in our real estate portal, we will be able to compete on equal terms with the largest companies.
