The estate agency website isn't enough
A few days ago I was speaking with Óscar Villanueva, co-founder and CEO of Inmogesco, a small, serious technology service provider for estate agencies.
Monapart and Inmogesco have in common that both represent interesting and reasonably priced options for those small agencies that need to rely on third parties to compete more effectively. For those looking for a brand and continued support, franchising is a good option. For those who want to preserve their brand and exclusively need technological and digital marketing support, providers like Inmogesco are an excellent alternative.
Some of you will be wondering why it is more necessary than ever to rely on an expert. For me, the reasons have to do with the ever-increasing speed at which innovations occur, particularly in technological matters; the naturalness with which demand adopts these innovations (portals 10 years ago, social networks as a way to get informed a little less time ago, WhatsApp as a communication channel in the last couple of years, virtual tours today…); and how this forces agencies to have an ever-increasing capacity and response speed.
That said, it's clear that it's very difficult to address the strictly real estate aspects of our profession and simultaneously become an expert in SEO, social media management, and the like. This is where the role of expert support becomes enormously relevant as a means of staying up-to-date in real time.
Many agencies consider that to be up to date It comes down to having a property website. And that's it.
The problem, and Óscar was telling me about this, is that many agencies consider that to be up to date it comes down to having a Property website. And that's that. They forget that feeding the website with proprietary content, optimising it for good SEO ranking, linking it to the agency's social media profiles, or updating it to make it responsive—accessible from tablets and mobile phones, adapting to different consumption times and locations—is already standard. Having a website that cannot be effectively viewed on a mobile phone is, almost literally, not having a website. What's more, the message sent to those consumers who access a company and find that it hasn't made the “mobile landing” is that the company is completely out of date. Do we want to take that risk in front of potential clients?
Now, having a responsive website whose sole purpose is to be an expanded business card is also a waste of money. It's no longer enough to inform about our location, team, and mission; instead, we must strive to deliver value at each and every point of contact a potential client has with our brand. Isn't our website often the “place” where the first contact with our agency happens?
Likewise, small agencies cannot ignore the need to carry out continuous marketing activities, both offline and Online. It so happens that the former are known to everyone (whether they are carried out or not), whereas to carry out the latter it is necessary to have knowledge which the majority of agencies lack and which they can outsource through companies like Inmogesco. It is impossible to be in two places at once, and if you have a small team, it must be doing what it does best: acquiring and selling. Those agencies with a larger volume may be able to hire someone part-time to continuously design, implement, and measure online and offline marketing actions, but what is more common is not being able to afford this luxury. The alternative, of course, is not to stop doing it, but to find an external provider who can cover this need.
In Spain, due to the particularities of our business fabric, we are often late in incorporating technology into the workplace. This is even more pronounced in the real estate sector where we continue to refer to future about technologies that, for example, in the United States, began to be applied yesterday.
It's time to catch up.
In Spain, we are frequently late in incorporating technology into the workplace. This is even more pronounced in the real estate sector, where we continue to talk about technologies for the future that, for example, in the United States, started being applied yesterday. It's time to catch up.
