Rob Wilson likes a challenge.  It’s a good job, seeing as he has taken on arguably the most difficult task of his career: growing Rightmove’s overseas business in the face of cut-throat competition and the most demanding trading conditions the industry has ever faced. I caught up with him at an AIPP evening in London last week to see how he is settling into his new role.  

Ashley Rigg:  Hi Rob, thanks for meeting me today.  How’s the new job?

Rob Wilson:  Great, it’s a tough market but there’s lots of potential to make a difference.

AR: You said on your bio that you’ve worked for Rightmove on the UK side for 9 years.  How do you view the overseas property market?

RW:  One of the interesting differences is the fragmentation of the overseas property portal market.  We surveyed our overseas users recently and we found that the top 5 portals accounted for only 20% of the votes.

AR:  You don’t have the dominant position that you enjoy in the UK domestic market but you still maintain an aggressive pricing policy.  When you take into account minimum commitment, your prices are more than double the prices of your nearest competitors.  Is that sustainable?

RW:  Long-term subscriptions work in a positive climate, but the game has changed so we’re adapting. We’ve responded by ripping out a lot of the old constraints on membership like minimum property volumes and terms so we can support more tactical timescales and requirements. It’s now a lot easier for us to tailor a package that works for individual customers, bolting on upgrades as necessary rather than locking customers in beyond what’s required.

AR:  Can I get a free trial or maybe a commission share?  What about £10 a lead?

RW:  We are not doing that but we are certainly more responsive now to market needs.  We’ve begun to vary our rates according to levels of consumer demand so that in areas where there are lots of advertisers and buyers you can expect to pay more, but in less well trafficked areas, rates will be significantly lower. For example you could pay as little as £3 a property for 30 properties over 3 months in some territories.

AR:  So prices start at £90 for 3 months? That’s a significant reduction in your rate card.

RW:  It’s a more flexible rate card.  Our prices now vary according to the needs of the agent and the popularity of the region they sell in.  If you sell lots of properties in popular areas like Bulgaria or Spain, it’s more expensive. 

AR:  Are the board expecting you to make less money than you did last year?

RW: It’s about being flexible and providing value for money.  We’ll be introducing more features this year like showcase listings, similar to the ones we have in the UK which will provide excellent opportunities for agents. 

AR:  So in answer to my question?

RW:  This is year is really about keeping things on an even keel and responding to the needs of the market. 

AR: Well swerved!  You mentioned earlier that it’s a much more fragmented market than the UK.  Which overseas portals do you particularly admire?

RW: I think the specialist sites like www.andaluciandreamhomes.com who really own their markets and demonstrate local expertise are impressive and give a lot of confidence to purchasers.

AR:  Any of the bigger ones you admire?

RW:  Our sister site HolidayLettings.co.uk do a great job at managing their listings and traffic to maximise response for advertisers.

AR:  Nice plug!  Let’s put it another way.  If you were an overseas agent targeting the UK market, which portals would you advertise on?  Would you go some of the cheaper or pay-per-performance sites?

RW:  If I was selling properties overseas, I’d spread my budget sensibly between a strong branded portal, a few free local specialist sites and my own web presence. That way I benefit from the portal’s bigger spend and audience, I access the community strength of niche sites, and my own site can pick up the “long tail” remainder – and I only have to update two or three different places.

AR:  What about free and pay-per-performance portals?

RW: Ultimately, a portal has to generate traffic and in reality that costs money which has to come from somewhere. This market is massively competitive and achieving cut-through without budget just isn’t realistic.  Without upfront investment in your audience and brand, you just can’t build or sustain traffic.  Whilst it is free to advertise on many sites, it can still be expensive in time and effort. Taking a day off to manage your listings when you could be progressing sales or working your contact database just isn’t sensible in this climate.

AR:  You can use services like property portal feeder http://www.propertyportalfeeder.com/ and feed to many portals at once.  Don’t you think agents should try a number of portals and see which provide the best value for money?

RW:  To an extent yes but it’s a case of having to manage your time sensibly and there are lots of portals that have extremely low traffic levels and will not prove economic for most agents.

AR:  OK, it seems like a good juncture to move onto the subject of marketing.  Which are the strongest market segments right now?  Which buyers should agents be focusing their time on to try and sell property?

RW:  Compared to only last year we’ve seen a big drop off in investment-focused buyers. A recent consumer survey we put out revealed nearly 80% of buyers were looking for some kind of long term or permanent home abroad. Marketing to this sector has to be more about lifestyle rather than dry yields and investment returns.

AR:  Rightmove is a lifestyle site so you’d expect that.  I would have said that serious investors were now a bigger segment of the market than ever before.

RW:  It depends how you define an investor.  I think there are less casual investors now, people who say bought in Bulgaria because they wanted to make money and their friends were investing there.

AR:  I think that’s fair.  What about geographical purchasing trends.  Which regions do you think will fair best in the downturn?

RW: With the shift away from pure investment and people less willing to take a punt with their savings in the hope of capital appreciation, people will look to destinations and properties that appeal to their hearts first and heads second, so we’ll see the traditional destinations of France, Spain, Italy and the US performing strongly. Without investors in volume, it’s pretty hard to pick out upcoming destinations from the noise, but countries outside the Euro zone should do well where the pound is still worth something. 

AR: As you alluded to, ultimately a portal gets judged on its marketing. What are the best marketing ideas you’ve seen in the property sector recently?

RW: It’s expensive, but TV just works to generate mass market exposure. We typically see two or three times the traffic as a result of our TV campaigns. I really like engaging viral content like Channel 4’s “Mansion Impossible” game as an inexpensive method of boosting dwell time. Permission based email marketing, which we’ve just started offering to our customers, also works brilliantly to access a captive audience and generate actions. 

AR: What marketing have you got planned over the next 6 months?

RW: In 2009, Rightmove will be spending £10 million on generic brand advertising including heavyweight primetime Television, London Underground escalator panels and posters in key UK cities Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh and  Bristol. RightmoveOverseas will be specifically advertising at two of the UK's busiest European airports, with illuminated billboards in Arrivals and other prominent locations to put our brand in front of millions of passengers and visitors flying in and out of the UK.

AR:  Thanks Rob, best of luck with the new role.

RW:  Pleasure, speak to you soon.

About Rob Wilson

Rob Wilson has worked for Rightmove for nearly 9 years, starting out as a web designer and business analyst responsible for a large part of the flow of the consumer website and agent tools behind the scenes. Prior to joining RightmoveOverseas, he's launched and run several business units for Rightmove including Lettings, New Homes and their in-house Email Marketing operation.

Advertiser Message

Save time & money with Property Portal Feeder

Property Portal Feeder enables you to:

• Add a property once and then submit it to multiple portals that you are registered with
• Automatically optimise and resize images
• Manage all your properties in one location
• Add your property details to a growing number of free and chargeable portals at the touch of a button
• Reach millions of new buyers

With Property Portal Feeder you can stop wasting your time on repetitive tasks and spend more time on the things you are good at; selling property.

Visit Property Portal Feeder's website for more details – www.propertyportalfeeder.com