With more than 60% of website traffic coming from outside the U.S., the new sothebysrealty.com features human translations in more than 15 languages and nearly 60 currency conversions to continue serving the brand’s growing international clientele and fuel referrals worldwide.
“With an international presence in 72 countries and territories around the world, Sotheby’s International Realty is the preeminent global luxury real estate brand,” said Brad Nelson, chief marketing officer for Sotheby’s International Realty.
“The new sothebysrealty.com reflects the brand’s international identity and provides our sales associates the best platform to promote their listings and themselves on a global scale.”
The evolution of the website delivers an amplified experience that stays true to the Sotheby’s International Realty® brand’s commitment to rich, high-quality content. The launch of sothebysrealty.com is being done in collaboration with global experience design agency, Huge, which has previously worked on campaigns with leading brands such as Four Seasons and Google.
“The approach to real estate search today can often rob joy for the sake of convenience. Users are either working harder through overwhelming content to find their ideal property or missing out on the little details that make you fall in love with a home,” said Jon Judah, group vice president strategy of Huge. “At Huge, we’ve always been about making things users love, so we were inspired by the Sotheby’s International Realty brand’s vision of translating their immersive approach into a modern brand experience for selective clients of all backgrounds. They’ve always seen a premium experience as much more than just price and we’re excited to bring that idea into this initial phase of their digital initiatives.”
With nearly 70% of traffic coming from mobile users, the website was designed with a mobile-first approach to emphasize the method in which today’s clients are now buying and selling homes.
To directly connect agents and potential clients, mobile users will have the opportunity to text an agent directly from an agent’s profile or listing page, enabling them to forego the generic industry approach and communicate with agents, in the same manner, they communicate in their personal lives.
From a design perspective, homes featured on sothebysrealty.com will be presented to consumers as engaging editorial-style, Instagrammable content to mirror consumers’ desire for rich, high-quality content and reinforcing the brand’s efforts in making high-resolution photography a standard for property presentations and listing pages.
“At the heart of the Sotheby’s International Realty brand is a commitment to quality and service,” said John Passerini, global vice president of interactive marketing. “We pioneered high-resolution, quality-controlled photography 10 years ago, 3D virtual reality four years ago, and the launch of this new website is the next step in our commitment to those values. Consumers are seeking visual and social media-worthy content, and our fully responsive mobile website reflects this behavior enabling us to market extraordinary properties around the world.”
To foster the client-agent relationship, sothebysrealty.com now makes it easy for a buyer or seller to discover the best local agent for them by virtually bringing agent profile pages to life and cultivating connection through direct communication. The website’s enhanced profile pages enable agents to present their personalities, current listings, and sales successes, allowing consumers to determine which trusted advisor is right for their buying or selling needs. Properties are also easily accessible using visual experiences such as high-definition video and photography, virtual reality and staging, and shop-the-room functionality – a feature exclusive to the Sotheby’s International Realty brand.
To experience the new website and learn more about Sotheby’s International Realty, click here.