I was forwarded the following infographic the other day entitled “Things to consider when finding a roommate” – a suitable title I thought of context to the property portal industry. However as I read through the presentation in the Infographic; I reflected on the somewhat stellar rise of this form of marketing over the past few years.
Have a read of this one and then let me share my thoughts.
“Things to Consider When Finding a Roommate” brought to you by ForRent.com
So here are my thoughts
This Infographic was developed as part of digital marketing programme on behalf of ForRent.com (a division of Dominion Enterprises that manages a number of real estate portals including Homes.com) by Social Monsters.
The strategy for this campaign is very clear and well executed, providing a piece of tangible media that conveys a story of interest to a wide audience and therefore will likely be of interest to media in general and online publishers in particular. The digital marketing company also ensured that the impact of such outreach to share the Infographic could be tracked by personalising each Infographic embed code so thereby allowing post-campaign analysis.
The medium of the Infographic is the key here though. An Infographic is able to be embedded in its entirety and by so doing this ensures that the message (as a branded advertising message) is not diluted, truncated, hijacked or in any way changed from the original state. The embedded structure also carries with it the hyperlinks to the “author” being the sponsor of the Infographic.
Clearly as ever, with any piece of marketing the success lies in the content and the execution. Many Infographics are data rich and for success, the data needs to be visually presented in a way that is easily read and understood. In this case the Infographic is in the form of a flow chart and the imagery and process flow suits perfectly the long visual seeking to carry the eye towards the bottom of the image.
As with any form of advertising / advertorial the key is subtlety – the information needs to be contextual, the imagery needs to be eye-catching and non branded and the information imparted needs to be rewarding.
The real estate industry is a rich repository of information and data that appeals to a very wide audience and I suspect that we will see more Infographics from property portals. Rightmove have begun to complement their monthly House Price Index with an Infograhic which is more easily understood and shared than their pdf version of the monthly report.
We propose to discuss this approach to property portal marketing as well as other marketing developments and initiatives at the forthcoming Property Portal Conference to be held in July in San Francisco – check out the conference details and register now.
