How to Optimise Property Leads with CRO

The Problem with Unqualified Leads

Platforms like Rightmove and Zoopla are excellent for driving traffic, but they also often generate a high volume of unqualified leads. These might include casual browsers, individuals not ready to move, or those whose financial situations do not match the properties they inquire about. Handling these leads consumes significant resources, detracting from time that could be spent on serious prospects.

By deploying behavioural nudges such as Salience and Simplification, it is possible to drive actions from your key target audience. 

Deploying Salience refers to making key information more noticeable and prominent to help drive decision-making. Simplification involves ensuring that the information is displayed as clearly and concisely as possible to make the decision-making process easier for the user. 

Enhancing Listing Quality

By enhancing listings for the purpose of qualified conversion, multiple steps can be minimised during the qualification stages. This can be done in two key ways; 

#1 Optimised Headlines and Descriptions with Key Details

The first impression is crucial. By using compelling, keyword-rich headlines that capture attention it is possible to ensure that the listing is capturing the attention of the most relevant users. 

For example, using behavioural nudge wording such as ‘highly sought after’ can encourage users to take action due to the implied presence of competition. 

Descriptions should be detailed yet concise, highlighting unique selling points and key features, whilst clearly stating the qualifying criteria. Whilst this may reduce the number of enquiries achieved from this list, it does allow for self-qualification, meaning that many unqualified users will never require the manual action of staff.

For example, the following listing on Zoopla clearly draws upon the fact that it includes a pool.

Whilst best practice CRO methods can be deployed, ongoing experimentation can also ensure that optimal combinations can be achieved, finding the perfect balance between quantity and quality of leads. 

#2 Visual Content

Listings with professional photographs, virtual tours, and videos tend to perform better. CRO focuses on enhancing the visual appeal of listings, ensuring properties are presented in the best possible light. High-resolution images and engaging videos can increase the time potential buyers spend on a listing, making them more likely to convert. This is indicated by a number of case studies showing that high-quality images can increase conversion by up to 60%.

The order in which images are displayed can also be crucial to the success of the listing. It is tempting to lead with your best foot forward and display the most appealing feature of a property first. And whilst this is great for driving initial interest, it can lead to users making enquiries before viewing further information associated with the property. Human behavioural principles show that users draw their judgement within the first 7 seconds, therefore, if showcasing the most appealing feature of your property can result in users already deciding to make contact after viewing just the first image in your listing. Whereas more interested, qualified users are likely to delve deeper into image decks. 

Experimentation on image order can again determine the optimum image order to ensure that not only is the listing generating enquiries but that the enquiries are of value to the company.

User Experience Optimisation

User experience optimisation is often misconstrued as being the responsibility of the website owner, and whilst this is largely true, there are still some tactics which can be deployed by those listing on property search engines.

Mobile-Friendly Listings: With the increasing number of users accessing property search engines via mobile devices, it’s imperative that listings are mobile-optimised. This involves ensuring that headlines and descriptions are kept as short and concise as possible so that users can easily digest the information when it is viewed on a smaller screen.

Whilst a certain length of detail is required, making this content easy for the user to consume, will allow them to maintain the information they need to help self-qualification prior to conversion.

Imagery usage is also important when considering lead qualification on mobile. With over 90% of websites now being responsive, it likely highly likely the property search engine where a listing is present will also be responsive. This means that any imagery being used with alter depending on the size of the screen. Therefore, it is essential to consider that all important features are visible even on the smallest of screens to ensure users can clearly see the selling points of any listing.  

Key Takeaways

For estate agents overwhelmed by unqualified leads from property search engines, CRO offers a lifeline. By enhancing the quality of leads through targeted strategies and continuous optimisation, you can save time and resources, thus improving your bottom line. 

• By implementing the following CRO-focused points, you can ensure that not only do your listings generate leads, but they generate the right leads;
• Always use compelling headlines and descriptions, implementing key nudges for users
• Focus on the quality and order of visuals; showcase your most captivating imagery but ensure the opening images are not the only selling point of your listing
• Make your listings mobile-friendly; keep content short and easy to read on a smaller screen and ensure that your images are easily viewed on a small device and focus on key aspects of the property.

By focusing on attracting genuinely interested and financially capable clients, your agency can operate more efficiently and effectively, placing tenants and buyers with greater ease and success. Get in touch with our CRO experts to discuss how our team can help.