Commercial Agents! Website tips for 2012

Any old website is not enough in todays media rich, wired and socially connected business world. Even in the traditional, conservative and oh-so conventional world of the commercial agent and chartered surveyor

Tired, unfashionable, out-dated, slow and poorly designed websites will do your business a disservice. More importantly they will communicate the very same about your business to the wider commercial property sector.

So what little tips for 2012 could rejuvenate your company’s web presence, capture online attention and reduce your bounce rate?

The Wonder Of HTML5

Lets get the techie one out of the way first. In web design, HTML5 has been heralded as a game changer. Exciting as that may be for us Nerds, “what has it got to do with us” I hear you shout.

Well HTML5 can deliver a much more visually rich website, with greater flexibility and functionality.  It will enable the entrepreneurial commercial agent to make better use of all the new and wondrous multimedia tool that are now available. Giving you a far more interactive website with things like dynamic message posts, embedded video and drag-and-drop interfaces.

Lost you? Well get in contact and we’ll enlighten you further.

Stand Out

When you look at as many commercial agents and chartered surveyor websites as we do, you sometimes feel you’re getting a hit of déjà vu. So many of you not only look the same, but even talk the same.

In 2012, be bold; make your mark. Be brave enough to establish a difference from all the other commercial agents in your market. You are in the people business, so if you have a personality why not reflect it in your website!

Move with the times

Commercial property clients are consumers too. They are moved by good design; respond to colour and form; and engage with great imagery in their private life. They don’t stop when they get to work.

Make 2012 the year that you refresh your brand and move with the times. Clients will perceive you as a commercial agent that it current, dynamic and enthused.

Cut The Waffle

Get to the point with what you are saying on your website. We consume copy differently on the web. We don’t read, we scan.

Stop being so self absorbed gentleman (because its usually the chaps). Look at your website from your clients perspective and deliver them the type of experience that they want. Think about what you say on your website.

Get Social

You can keep putting it off, you can keep saying that it’s got nothing to do with commercial property; you can keep claiming it’s a ‘youth thing’. Reality is social media is hear, its not going away and its ideal for a knowledge and relationship based industry like the commercial property sector.

Social media is the number one activity on the web now, even more popular than porn! And the fastest growing segment on Facebook for the past couple of years has been 55-65 year olds.

So integrate your social media activity into your website, start imparting some of that huge mine of knowledge and show what a leading authority you are in your market place.

 

Philip Burrows, Marketing Consultant