Early this year, I wrote about how innovation has and will always be a key fundamental to the iProperty Group. In this ever growing industry, success of any business is constantly measured. Being in the online industry, our metrics are measured by the number of leads we generate for our customers, amongst the many other factors.
So, in order to deliver only the best to our customers, we have put in a lot of effort in finding avenues to innovatively generate more leads for customers. At the same time, we wanted to focus on building relationships with our customers and look for ways to engage more creatively with our consumers and make property search easy.
Here’s what we have embarked on over the last two months:
Singapore
I would like to introduce you to Howard, our friendly mascot in Singapore. He is a patient, wise owl with a keen sense of hearing and listening. Howard is inviting consumers to “Be iN The Know” about the property market and not be left behind.
Enthusiast property buyers know the importance of being in the know about the latest development in the property market before embarking on a purchase. As such, with Howard, we have made getting this information much easier and more exciting!
So, you will not only be seeing Howard on the iproperty.com.sg website but also on taxis in Singapore. Do drop by and say hi to Howard.
Another buzz of exciting news that has recently taken place in Singapore is our partnership with MediaCorp’s TODAY newspaper, the country’s largest free newspaper. The paper will be publishing a dedicated property classifieds section in full colour, which will be sold to our agent customers. These classifieds will appear every Friday.
We see this collaboration as a way of maintaining and improving our pole position in the online property market, while enabling our customers to reach and engage with a wider market and at the same time offer our consumers a another avenue to look for their dream home or next property investment.
Malaysia
REACH, ENGAGE and CONVERT! That’s what the Malaysian team is focusing on doing in 2012!
The Reach, Engage and Convert programme, or REC for short, has been put together as a platform to provide customers the opportunity to reach a wider target market and engage these consumers into learning more about their property developments with the hope of converting them into buyers.
The team kick-started thier first event recently and had the opportunity to meet, mix and mingle with major clients. All with the objective of building rapport and develop a buy-in on new opportunities.
On a separate note, if you are looking at investing in property in Penang, then do join us for the MAPEX 2012, The Most LAU JUAK Property Expo in Penang!
Held from the 23rd to the 25th March at Straits Quay Convention Centre, MAPEX 2012 will be bringing you THE REAL PROPERTY DEALS in town! You will get huge discounts on properties by property developers and even stand a chance to win prizes valued at over RM 700,000!
Lock in the dates in your calendars, iPad, iPhone, Tablets, Androids and etc Today!
We look forward to seeing you there!
Indonesia
To complement our business in Indonesia, I am extremely happy to announce that we have rolled out our very first property ads tabloid in Indonesia. Named Rumah123.com Property Ads, the publication will serve as a form of media information for the property seekers.
We believe that this 32 page full colored monthly publication will take Rumah123.com to greater heights as property hunters now have another avenue to search for properties and obtain the latest news in the property market aside from the Rumah123.com website. It will also serve to provide agents and developers another platform to reach out to consumer and to generate more leads.
Officially launched this month, this publication will be one of the flagship publications in Indonesia to contain information on the Ten Most Wanted property location in Greater Jakarta.
So, if you are in Jakarta, do grab a copy for free or click here for a copy!
The Outcome – BIG LEADS! The Love Affair for Property Continues
Overall, these initiatives undertaken by the respective teams have paid off immensely. Since January this year, data generated from across our four portals showed a surge in the number property buyers searching for property, hence increasing the number of leads generated for agents.
In Malaysia, we saw a 45% increase, that’s over 291,000 leads generated for our agents from the month of January to February alone. In Indonesia, while the property market is slowly picking up pace, we have seen an increase in the number of real estate agents advertising on the site has increased by 112%, bringing the total of agents to 3, 463. The number of listings has also increased by 90% to 87,000.
In Hong Kong, the market sentiment also reflected a market rebound. Data gathered from GoHome.com.hk showed a significant increase of 38% in the number of leads recorded in February compared to the month of January.
In Singapore, data from email and SMS leads alone, generated by the portal, have shown a substantial 60% year‐on‐year jump in February 2012 as compared to February 2011,even as the market comes to terms with recent property cooling measures introduced in December 2011.
Our CommercialAsia.com portal also saw a 82% increase in the number of unique visitors to site, with a majority of visitors from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and Hong Kong Hong.
Looks like a very positive and healthy property market!
Have a great week!
