Custom Design
Our graphic designer will work closely with you to design a website that will reflect and enhance your company image. You will receive mock-ups to review which can be changed and tweaked to suit your specific needs and vision for the site.
We will create up to 3 designs or revisions (mock-ups) based on the materials you supply and feedback you provide. We can provide further mockups if needed but we have found that due to our experience in website design, we usually are able to produce a design that exceeds your expectations within the first or second mockup.
We do not use templates or pre-built designs. Our graphic designers have many years of experience in designing websites for a variety of industries and know how to easily reflect your image in a beautiful, functional and user friendly website design.
Content Management System
Your website will include a full featured, easy to use content management system. This enables you to log into an 'admin' area from any computer connected to the internet and modify certain aspects of your website. The content manager will let you manage listings, content on your site, contacts, property alerts, etc. via a simple, intuitive menu system.
This gives you great power and flexibility, allowing you and your staff to update information on the website immediately without going through a website designer.
The content manager will also include a ‘page editor’ system allowing you to lay out pages in an interface very similar to Microsoft Word. The page editor includes the following features:
- Microsoft Word compatible editor.
- Spell Check (including customisable dictionary).
- Upload / insert images, PDF files, videos, flash and documents.
- Add, edit and remove an unlimited number of pages and subpages
- re-arrange the order of pages shown on the menu and add pages an infinite number of levels deep.
- Easy to use visual editor – what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG).
- specify titles and Meta tags for each page you create which will help with your search engine optimisation and rankings.
- Works on all modern browsers and computers (PC's, MAC, IPAD, etc.)
Check out the screenshots or watch the demo of the content management system by clicking on these icons in the top right of this page.
Support for unlimited pages, listings, news items, etc.
We don't believe in limiting your potential so your website easily supports unlimited pages, unlimited listings, unlimited enquiries and unlimited visitors.
Finally a website solution that will handle the growth of your agency, no matter how small or large you are.
Visitor Reports
Your website will be integrated with Google Analytics reporting.
This system gives you a wealth of information about your visitors. Some of the reports you have access to are:
- How visitors found your website (email, search engines, links from other sites, etc.)
- Which pages people are visiting on your website.
- Most popular listings, pages, etc. (this is great for identifying what people are looking for on your site).
- And much more.
All of these reports can be generated over a date range of your choice.
Online blog / news / articles
Having a blog or news / articles section in your website can provide the following benefits:
- Keeps your website up to date with fresh news and information.
- Search engines such as Google love news/blog sections on websites that have new information added regularly and can really help boost your search engine exposure.
- Adding news, articles or blogging can help boost your image as a leader and expert in your field and encourage existing and potential vendors, purchasers and tenants to keep returning for new information.
Your website will include this system to allow you to add, edit and delete news or articles whenever you want.
Contact form
By making it easy for your customers to contact you, you are showing that you provide great customer service and will help instil confidence in potential clients.
This all results in a higher number of sales on your website.
The contact page of your site will feature the contact details of your choice (which you can update at any time via the content manager) and an enquiries form that clients can fill out which will be emailed to you. This form features spam resistant technology to ensure it is not used by hackers to send spam.
We can also put an interactive Google location map on this page if you wish for customers to be able to easily find your location.
MantisMail integration for email and SMS marketing
A trial subscription to the MantisMail email list management system is included in this package.
MantisMail is the easiest yet most feature rich email and SMS marketing solution around. You can quickly and easily create and send attractive email newsletters and SMS marketing campaigns to your target market.
Email marketing is the single most effective way of promoting your products and services to new and existing clients. Since 2001 MantisMail has been helping businesses from all over Australia manage their online marketing.
This will allow you to use MantisMail to send promotional newsletters, special offers and other emails to your customers.
MantisMail features the following:
- Create unlimited 'groups' for your contacts
- Add, edit and remove contacts in one or multiple groups
- Store notes, phone numbers, addresses, etc. for contacts
- Create, edit and send email campaigns to one or multiple groups
- Build and save email templates to be used at a later date
- Send pre-built web pages as actual email campaigns
- Manage and send SMS campaigns to groups (Australia only)
- Access comprehensive statistics on email and SMS campaigns
- Fully integrated with your website contacts database
- And much more!
More information can be found at
www.mantismail.com.au
Please note that MantisMail is not a requirement to run your website but a useful add-on if you decide to utilise it.
Links & FAQ's
A frequently asked questions page can help customers by answering the most common questions about your products or services. This area can be updated with new questions and answers at any time via the content manager. Having a frequently asked questions page helps market your services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by providing extra information about your services instantly.
A links page enables you to easily add links to other websites that may be of interest to your customers.
Site Map
Site maps are an excellent way for impatient people to find what they are looking for. The site map is a page that shows all of the sections of the website in a ‘tree’ format, allowing the visitor to quickly find and go to the page they are looking for.
The website also includes an automatically generated XML site map which is used by search engines such as Google to find all the content on your website easily.
Logo Design
If required, our team can develop a professional logo for your business and website. A high resolution EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) version of the logo will be also supplied which can be used for printed material (such as business cards and other stationery).
We will create up to 3 designs or revisions (mock-ups) based on the materials you supply and feedback you provide.
Examples of logos we have designed
Twitter, Facebook and newsletter design
Twitter
If you use Twitter, we can design a custom background and avatar for you that will reflect your business and tie in with your website design.
Facebook
If you use Facebook, we can design a custom image and avatar for you that will reflect your business and tie in with your website design. We can also design a custom welcome page and newsletter subscription box to get the most out of your Facebook page.
Newsletters
We can design professional newsletter templates that you can simply type your content directly into and send. This will give your business a highly professional look and feel.
Interactive brochures
If you have prestigious clientele or are marketing high value listings then interactive brochures can give you the edge in your marketing and really impress both vendors and buyers
We can custom design interactive brochures or give you the ability to build them yourself via the content management system.
Click on the brochure below for an example of interactive brochures we have created..
Ongoing search engine marketing
Once your site is launched, it is important to continue ongoing search engine marketing to dominate your search engine rankings and ensure you get the most relevant traffic you can.
We can advise on and assist with putting together a complete strategy for ongoing search engine marketing to ensure you remain ahead of your competitors and enjoy ongoing success with your online business.
Property Listing System
Both the content manager and the agent/advertiser login areas include a very easy to use property listing system, allowing you or your advertisers to add, update and remove listings on your website.
Once a search has been performed in the website, a list of matching properties is displayed with a brief description, location and thumbnail photo. Visitors will click on the property of their choice to view the full details of the property.
When viewing a property, visitors will have access to the following details:
- Full property details (price, number of rooms, size, car spaces, bathrooms, etc.).
- Photo gallery for property (and automatic slideshow).
- Printable / Downloadable brochures for property.
- Fill out expression of interest form (which is then automatically emailed to you).
- Automated Google location maps.
- Support for residential properties, land, commercial (for sale and lease) and rental properties.
You and your advertisers will also be able to mark a property as sold or under contract (or leased if a rental). This will then move the property to the relevant section of the database and the public website. You can also mark listings as 'archived' to hide them from the public site but still have access to them to relist or just for information purposes.
The system will also send listings to realestate.com.au, domain.com.au, homehound.com.au and myhome.com.au (or your choice of any of these). This means you can manage all your properties from your website administration area and have these portals automatically updated with your listing information whenever you make additions or changes. This also means that you can offer your advertisers the benefit of feeding listings to these portals as well as advertising their listings on your site.
This is a fully integrated system that means you will not need to use 3rd party portals or other software to manage your listings.
Open for inspection
You and your advertisers can easily add open for inspection times and dates to listings. When doing this, these listings will show on the public website under the 'open for inspection' page, showing upcoming open for inspection listings in chronological order.
If you are using any of the portals such as realestate.com.au, domain.com.au, homehound.com.au and/or myhome.com.au then these open times will be automatically sent to the portal to show on these listings.
Listings are automatically taken off the 'open for inspection' page once their open time has passed. This will save you a lot of time managing your open times and listings.
The open for inspection page on your website can also easily be split into 'for sale' and 'for rent' if you are doing open times for both types of listings.
Property Search and Map Search
An easy to use property search facility will be included in your website.
The home page will contain a map of Australia with the States and Territories outlined and clickable.
Then a viewer can select a property Type (i.e. Residential). This would then allow a viewer to see every residential property listed in Queensland (for example) with only 2 clicks.
The viewer can of course also select COUNTRY, STATE, PROPERTY TYPE, PRICE, SUBURB (or POSTCODE) etc. to narrow down the search. They can even search by real estate agency.
Once a search has been performed by a visitor in the website, a list of at least 10 matching properties is displayed with a brief description, location and thumbnail photo. Visitors will click on ‘more info’ button (or the thumbnail or title) of the property of their choice to view the full details of the property.
Your site will also feature a 'map search' section which is a large Google Map showing the local area that you cover.
All your listings will be marked on the map and visitors will be able to zoom in and out of the map, scroll around, change between ‘street directory’ or ‘satellite image’ mode and also be able to click on a listing to find out more details. Visitors will also be able show or hide properties for sale, sold properties and rental properties.
This is a great feature making it easy for visitors to find what they are looking for in a new and exciting way.
When viewing a property, visitors will have access to the following details:
- Full property details (price, number of rooms, size, car spaces, bathrooms, etc.)
- Photo gallery for property of up to 8 photos (and automatic slideshow)
- Download/print brochure for property
- Contact seller (which is a form that is automatically emailed to the advertiser)
Wishlist
When browsing your site, visitors will be able to add listings they are interested in to their 'wishlist'. At any time they can click on the wishlist icon to view their current wishlist and print it.
This helps visitors easily shortlist listings they are interested in.. especially if you have a large number of listings.
Agency/Seller Login and listing management
Advertisers will be able to register on the website and will be automatically issued with a username and password. They will then be able to log in to list their properties.
A 'forgot your password' feature will be included allowing users to enter their email address and automatically be emailed their password if they forget it.
Via the content manager, you will be able to access details on all users and suspend or enable their accounts at any time.
Users will be able to perform the following tasks:
- List properties
- Update / delete their existing listings
- Change their password and contact details
- Upload their business logo
- Add, edit and remove agents for their agency (if not a private seller)
- View statistics on their properties (ie. Number of visits for each property)
- Pay an invoice
This section of the website (and in fact the entire website) will be very user friendly and will allow people to find what they are looking for with the least clicks possible.
The CMS also supports an XML import facility that accepts the industry standard 'REAXML' format for bulk listings. This can be used if you bring on a large agency that wants to initially bulk upload their listings to get started.
We can also provide an XML feed interface so that they can send regular XML feeds of their listings (as they may do to other portals such as realestate.com.au and domain.com.au)
Downloadable / Printable Brochures
When viewing a listing, visitors will be able to click on a 'brochure' icon to download a custom designed PDF brochure for the listing. Brochures are automatically generated when requested to ensure all information, photos, etc. on the brochures are showing the most up to date information.
This saves you time and money as you will not need to design or produce brochures for your listings.. they will be automatically generated.
Click on one of the samples below to see examples of brochures automatically generated by MantisProperty:
Sample Brochure 1 Sample Brochure 2
Property Photo Gallery
When viewing a listing, visitors will be able to see automatically generated thumbnails of photos and can click on a photo to view full size and easily navigate through the photo gallery.
Photo galleries are a very important part of real estate websites and the MantisProperty photo gallery is sleek, professional and very easy to use.
Interactive Google Maps
When viewing a listing, if you specify for the address of the listing to be public then a Google map will show the location of the listing. This interactive map allows the visitor to easily see where the listing is in relation to local schools, public transport, shops, roads and other landmarks.
The map also allows them to find driving directions, see a satellite photo of the property (if available) and get directions if they wish to go to the property (this is very handy for open for inspection days).
Google maps greatly enhance your listings as it gives valuable, up to date information to help build interest in a listing.
Automated feeds to realestate.com.au, myhome.com.au, domain.com.au and homehound.com.au
MantisProperty Portal can automatically feed your listings (and changes to listings) to the following well known real estate portals..
We can also feed to any other 3rd party portal that accepts XML feeds.
This has the potential to offer your advertisers placement on these portals as well as your portal adding extra value to your service.
Please note : some portals may charge ongoing fees to use their feed service.
Property Alerts via Email and SMS
A property alert system will be built into the website which will automatically alert potential buyers of any properties that come on the market that meet their criteria. Visitors will be able to sign up for an automatic property alert at any time.
You can choose to have the system send alerts via email and/or SMS. You can set this specifically for advertisers so you can charge them differently for different types of alerts on their listings if you like.
SMS charges are 15 cents AUD per SMS. Emails are free.
Email a friend
When visitors are looking through your site, they may find a listing they like and wish to email to themselves or a friend or family member.
The 'email a friend' button will allow them to easily do this.
This will help busy people remember your website easily and follow up on listings they are interested in.
Home Loan and Stamp Duty Calculators
The built in home loan calculator allows visitors to easily calculate finance options for listings they are interested in.
The visitor simply enters their deposit, loan amount, interest rate, state and term of the loan. They will then be given the repayments, loan stamp duty, property stamp duty, total interest and total cost.
The built in stamp duty calculator allows visitors to easily calculate stamp duty on any amount.
They simply enter the amount to borrow and the purchase price and it will then give them the stamp duty, transfer fee, etc. for all states in Australia.
Works with all credit card payment gateways
The website will automatically send monthly invoices to advertisers for their listings. It will also automatically disable any listings for advertisers who have not paid their invoice by the due date.
We will connect your website up to the credit card payment gateway of your choice for processing of payments.
For more information on choosing a payment gateway, please visit http://www.mantistech.com.au/news-starting-an-ecommerce-website-choosing-your-payment-gateway-11.aspx
Banner Advertising and Feature Listings
Two ways of monetising your website are banner advertising and featured listings.
Banner Advertising
Your website will feature the capability for Banner advertising. You will be able to add and remove banner ads via the content manager.
Advertisers will then be able to log in and check the stats (click through and impressions) of their adverts at any time.
Featured Listings
A 'featured listing' section can be built into the home page and also at the top of listing pages. This will allow you to mark specific listings as 'feature listings' to gain more exposure.