Realtor.com will be announcing later today that they plan to pull the plug on internet portals to focus on their own portfolio of online and offline channels, representing the first of the Big Three (Realtor.com, Zillow, and Trulia) to make such a move, effectively ending their agreements with all portals, including MSN, so you’ll no longer see Realtor.com-powered listings on various sites across the internets.
The strategy shift means that the company will be focusing on their own mobile and desktop products to drive traffic, which sheds light on their finally agreeing with our long-held assertion that the best proof in the pudding is if consumers actually visit your native website rather than counting traffic as people who saw your listings somewhere floating around the web, even without knowing the source.
A shift in tone and wording
Realtor.com operator, Move, Inc. is using phrases like “the most accurate U.S. residential listings,” which saves consumers from the “anguish wasting time with listings that are off the market or priced incorrectly,” and they assert that their marketing is the effectively attracting “transaction-ready consumers” to their services.
Sources inside Move tell us that they’ve been in research mode for some time, and Move, Inc. CMO, Barbara O’Connor tells us, “In my role as CMO, I’m responsible for driving brand, audience growth and engagement. This strategic shift in our marketing acquisition strategy has been taking place for well over the past 12 months. My recommendation to shift our strategy was based on key metrics…
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