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Many agents on forums I visit have been dismayed at the changes released this month for realestate.com.au.
No longer do headlines or first sentences appear on the first results page. So with less information to entice a buyer to click through from the first results page, how do we achieve just that?
Although the forums seem against the changes, we need to regroup and consider the following:
- What can we control?
- Can we capitalise on the changes? If so, how?
Agents can’t control what realestate.com.au decides is best for the marketplace. However, we can use these changes to our advantage with a little know-how.
There are three areas to be taken advantage of.
1) Hero shot
The hero shot is more crucial than ever before. Many agents in the same area are using the same photographer. Many are already employing stylists. Some are doing twilight shoots. All these factors add up to hero shots that tell a story and stand out from the pack.
2) New icons
Don’t forget the new icons for videos and floorplans. The more info a buyer can see is supplied, the more likely they are to click through on your listing.
3) Details page
It’s unlikely that buyer behaviour will change – they’re not going to spend more time browsing. So the trick is to grab their interest once they click through to your listing with a story-driven property description that puts them in the picture, so they linger on your listing, fully immersing themselves in the copy, the images, the floorplan and the video. That’s going to feed them into the next step – coming to the open or contacting you. You’ve got to reward them for clicking through. That’s the key.
It’s this third point that offers the greatest potential for gain. You need to turn that ho-hum headline into something that’ll immediately hook your buyer. You need to create a deep connection within your first paragraph, then finish with benefit-rich bullet points for the reader who likes to scan.
So perhaps we can make these changes work to our advantage with some savvy refinements to the way we do things.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Karen Hutton
Karen Hutton's mission is to create useful communication products for sales and rental agents that inspire, delight and create a memorable experience for their clients.
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