Rightmove’s decision to enter the mortgage market presents a very real threat to financial services leads, estate agents have been warned.
The property portal revealed its strategic expansion this week, with ambitions to break into the direct lead, broker lead, and remortgaging lead generation, after identifying substantial revenue growth potential.
The proposed focus on financial services is to provide consumers with direct access to brokers, with Rightmove projecting a surge in mortgage revenue from circa £2m to an estimated £25m over the next three years.
This development has “significant implications for estate agents” who offer financial services, intensifying competition in the sector, according to Richard Combellack, chief commercial officer at nurtur.group, emphasising the need for agents to adapt and enhance their lead generation and lead nurturing strategies to navigate what it going to become an even more competitive landscape.
He said: “As Rightmove increases its focus on the mortgage lead generation sector, estate agents providing financial services must develop robust plans and systems to generate and nurture leads effectively. With a smaller share of the market pie, agents need to pull out all the stops to remain competitive and sustain lead generation efforts.”
He underscores the need for a comprehensive lead nurturing process, highlighting that lead generation is a journey, not a moment. Combellack advocates for a strategic approach supported by automations to ensure efficiency and responsiveness.
Moreover, response time to incoming leads is identified as a critical factor in lead qualification success. Combellack notes the impact of PropTech elements, such as live chat services, in responding promptly within the crucial five-minute window.
Key recommendations for estate agents aiming to thrive in this competitive environment include optimising their online presence. Combellack stresses the importance of having a website that is search engine optimised, citing statistics that highlight the significance of appearing on the first page of Google search results.
“Around 30% of customers choose a business that is within the first three positions on Google search, with the top position generating a Click Through Rate [CTR] as high as 28%. The rate drops to around 15% for the business in the second position, while dropping to tenth position gets about 7% traffic only,” he commented.
In conclusion, Combellack emphasised that, as competition intensifies, businesses in the financial services market must adopt innovative solutions that enhance efficiency and drive revenue.
‘I feel like I’m working to pay Rightmove’, says disgruntled agent
This is just normal competition in my opinion
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If anything like their woeful valuation leads, advisers should steer clear of wino’s clicking the wrong button
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In the scale of things, this adds very little to the value of RM but sends a warning shot to agents that they could cut across any income stream that agents depend on.
Other than constantly raising subscriptions, RM needs to find a significant area of growth, which it has so far not done. This is reflected in the share price.
Costar’s arrival could be the impetus for more aggressive corporate action.
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Is this just like “OnTheMarket Money”? I.e. monetising agent’s data that they charge agents to supply them with? 🙂
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