Help guide for IFP agency advertisers

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This help guide is designed to assist our agency advertisers. If you have any questions which are not detailed here or would like some more information please contact our support team at support@french-property.com.

1. Introduction to your IFP account

• Introduction to IFP

2. Navigating and using your IFP account

• Property Management
• How to view enquiries
• Viewing a printable portfolio
• Featured Properties
• Online Invoice System Guide
• Online Billing Payment
• Advertising Features
• Creating a microsite
• Viewing microsite statistics
• Marketing Tips

3. Images

• Uploading and resizing images
• Resizing batches of images

4. Automatic property uploads

• Update your own properties with XML

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Introduction to your IFP account

Navigating and using the IFP Property Management System.

Follow the instructions below to add, edit and delete your property listings on the IFP web site.

1. Logging into your account

Firstly log into your account using your username and password, you will have received this information when your account was created.

Access the IFP homepage and log in using the quick login boxes on the left hand side of the page. Alternatively you can access the login page at the following address: www.french-property.com/login/

Username: Your agency username

Password: As requested

If you experience any difficulties logging into www.french-property.com please contact our support team on +44 207 135 2222 or support@french-property.com

Go to the agency property management page

2. Your Account Page

Once logged in you will access Your Account Page, as shown below:

Please note: If you are logging in for the first time, it is important to change your initial password to something more secure. To do this click on Edit Account, listed under the heading of Account details. Now input a secure password into the password and confirm password fields. To save your new password, click update personal settings.

Also please update your Personal and Address details if necessary.

To return to the Your Account Page click on Your Account Home at the top of the left-hand column or alternatively click on Your Account in the top right hand corner.

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Property Management

To maintain your property listings, click on Manage Properties, listed under the heading Advertising on Your Account page, this takes you to your Active property portfolio

1. Active Property Portfolio

You will first be presented with the active property portfolio; this is where the majority of your property management will take place.

Property status - A property can be listed as one of the following:

• Online
• Offline
• Featured

Both Online and Offline properties are stored in the Active Property Portfolio. Online properties are listed with a white background, offline properties are listed with a grey background and featured properties are listed with a yellow background. For information about featured properties please go to the Featured Property section of this manual.

2. Archived Property Portfolio

Archived properties are stored in the Archived Property Portfolio. To access your archived property portfolio click Manage Archived Property Portfolio.

3. How to add a property to your Active property portfolio

All newly added properties are stored in your Active Property Portfolio.

Click on Add a Property.

Obligatory fields are denoted by an asterisk. It is not possible to add a property without inputting these details.

Some fields have a maximum number of characters that can be stored. This is stated in square brackets following the field, for example (20 characters max).

Your Reference

- Enter your reference number for the property.

Title

– Enter the property title.

Price

- Use numbers 0-9 only with no letters, spaces or other punctuation mark.

- Price on Application (POA) - enter the price as 999999999, the property price will then display as POA and the property will be listed at the bottom of the property listing page when ordered by price.

Price comment

- Enter a price comment for the property, for example Reduced by 10000 euros, Reduced for quick sale etc.

Location

- Enter the property location.

Department

- Specify the department in which the property is located. Please note that the region is automatically calculated using the department specified.

Nearest Town

- We recommend setting the nearest town for the property. The nearest town criteria allows users to make more localized searches and improve the indexing of your properties in the search engines.

Number of Highlights

- Use the highlights to promote key features of the property.

- Select the number of highlights that you would like to display.

- Enter the highlight information.

Description

- Enter the property description

Property Type

- Specify the property type, select one of the following: Residential, Commercial, Investment, then select a sub type of the above.

Sale Status

- Specify the property status, select one of the following:

• For sale
• Under Offer
• Sold Subject to contract
• Sold
• Withdrawn from market

Position

- Specify the position of the property, select one of the following:

• Unknown
• Isolated
• Rural
• Village
• Town
• City
• Ski
• Beach
• Golf

Other

- specify whether the property has any of the following features:

• balcony
• terrace
• disabled access
• outbuildings
• swimming pool
• tennis court
• lake
• river
• wood
• double glazing

Number of bedrooms

- Specify the number of bedrooms.

Floor space

- specify the floor space of the property in m2

Land size

- specify the amount of land with the property in m2

Condition

- specify the condition of the property, select one of the following:

• Unknown
• New
• Old – Fully restored
• Old – part restored
• Old – unrestored

Drainage

- specify the drainage system, select one of the following: None, Unknown, Septic tank, Mains, organic.

Electricity

- specify the electricity system, select one of the following: None, Unknown, Mains, Generator

Heating

- specify the heating system, select one of the following: None, Unknown, Central heating

Roof condition

- Specify the condition of the roof, select one of the following: None, Unknown, Bad condition, Good condition, New.

Water

- Specify the water system, select one of the following: None, Unknown, Mains or Well.

Key Property Facts

Please note that the number of bedrooms, land size and living area criteria are displayed in the Key Property Facts section of each advert. Please ensure that this information is inputted if possible. This is important information for site users and will also be searchable in the near future.

Once all the above fields are complete, click Post. to add the property to your Active Property Portfolio. Once you have posted the advert you will be directed to the Upload Images page.

Select the number of images that you would like to upload and click Post. You can upload 5 photos at any one time. There is not a limit for the number of images that can be uploaded for a property.

Please note that each image requires a description to identify it, please add this then click the Browse button to search for the correct image file on your computer. Please note all images must be in JPEG format and at a resolution of 1024x768 or below. You may experience difficulties with other types of images..

The thumbnail image for the property will be created automatically.

4. Edit a property

Open your Active Property Listing.


Find the property that you would like to edit and then click the Edit Property.

Change the property listing and click the Update button to save the changes.

To edit Images click Edit Images at the top of the property edit page. Use the Move down and Move up buttons to change the order of your images. To delete an image click the Delete button next to the image.

5. Delete a property

If you wish to remove the property from your Web site, click the Archive link for it in the Active Property Portfolio. This will move the property into your Archive Property Portfolio.

The Archive Property Portfolio allows you to move properties offline whilst keeping them in the system in case they need to be re-instated at a later date. Properties are reactivated by clicking the Activate button.

Please note that it is possible to edit the properties in your Archived property Portfolio. To do this, please follow the instructions given in the previous section.

(If you are certain that you will not need the property advert in the future, there is the option to permanently delete it from the system. Please be careful as choosing to do this as all data for the property and images will be removed).

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How to view enquiries

You can view any enquiries made about your property advertisement by clicking on the "View enquiries made to your properties" link.

From this page you will be able to see:

• Who has enquired about your property
• The property reference of the advertisement
• A thumnail of the property
• Contact details for the enquirers
• The time and date of the enquiry

This will provide you with all the information you will need to contact the enquirers to follow up their property interest.

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Viewing a printable portfolio

You can view a printable portfolio of all of your properties for sale, this can then be printed out for office use or for clients.

The property thumbnails will appear along with a small description of the property, its price and its location. The printable version is tailored to suit A4 size paper, which, makes it ideal for most office printers.

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Featured Properties

Featured properties are the perfect way for you to promote specific properties within your site.

A Featured Property includes the thumbnail picture of the property and is displayed on key pages of the IFP site, including the Homepage. Each page that displays Featured Properties will only display a certain number (up to 8).

When you allocate a Featured Property, it is placed within a pool of Featured Properties. Every time a page displaying Featured Properties is viewed, it will randomly display the featured properties, thus ensuring each Featured Property is given equal exposure. A maximum of 10 properties can be featured at any one time.

Featuring a property directs users of the site towards your adverts helping to generate interest and leads. See the right hand column of our homepage for examples of current Featured Properties on the IFP website: www.french-property.com

When a user clicks on a Featured Property, they are directed to the full property detail. There is also a prominent link to the agent’s property listings page. This link encourages the user to look at all of the agent’s properties.

1. How to create a Featured Property Advert

Log into IFP. And access your company management page. Access your Active Property Portfolio by clicking on Properties . Click the FEATURE PROPERTY button.

Featured properties are highlighted in yellow and display featured in the status column. You will only be able to click this button if the property is already online.

You will be prompted to purchase clicks if you do not have any clicks in your account or if you balance is less than 100 clicks. The minimum number of clicks you can allocate to a Featured Property is 100. You can purchase clicks in the following denominations:

• 1000 clicks – 50 Euros
• 5000 clicks – 200 Euros (20% discount)
• 10,000 clicks – 300 Euros (40% discount)

All prices exclude VAT. A purchase of clicks is non-refundable and an invoice will be raised to your account statement.

You can also purchase clicks by clicking on the Purchase more clicks link on the Add Featured Property page.

The following information must be filled out when creating a featured property advert.

Display title

Is the title is displayed above the Featured Property thumbnail image. You have a maximum of 35 characters to use, including spaces. Please do not use ALL CAPS. If you wish to state the price, please do so here, because it is not displayed automatically. The location of the property is automatically shown above the Featured Property thumbnail image.

Click to allocate

Is the number of clicks that you wish to allocate to the property. It is imperative to specify the number clicks required before creating the featured property.

2. Editing a Featured Property advert

It is possible to edit an existing Featured Property advert. You can adjust all the advert details and reduce/ increase the number of clicks allocated to a Featured Property.

• Access the Active Property Portfolio page.
• Click on the Featured property button.
• Make the changes to the featured property advert and save them by clicking Add.

3. Cancelling a Featured Property advert

• Access the Manage your property page.
• Click on the Featured Property button.
• Click Stop featuring this Property to remove the Featured Property and credit any remaining clicks back to your click total.

Please note that if you take a property offline or archive it, any Featured Property clicks previously allocated will be automatically credited to your click total.

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IFP Advertising features

There are a number of important features of www.french-property.com that are important for all advertisers on the site. To make your advertising even more effective we recommend you take advantage of the following:

1. Newly Added properties

To generate maximum exposure on IFP please ensure that you regularly rotate your online property portfolio. We recommend adding at least 1 or 2 new properties every week. Newly added properties can be found using our property search engine as well via our latest properties pages ( Latest 90 IFP Properties ). Our newly added property pages are extrememly popular and generate significant interest with our loyal client base. Maximise your enquiry levels by properly maintaining your online property portfolio and by uploading new property adverts at every opportunity.

2. Weekly property spy updates

Every Monday we send an email update to over 8000 registered members who have subscribed to our weekly property updates. They receive a weekly email update of new properties matching their search criteria. We advise agents to take advantage of these updates by uploading at least 2 new properties every week. By ensuring a good rotation of property adverts you can maximise your advertising return from IFP.

3. Statistics

Since the beginning of December 2006 www.french-property.com has been logging statistics about your property adverts. You can view this data by simply logging into your account and selecting “View Statistics” from your account page. The statistics will help you to determine which properties are generating interest and which properties you should replace.

4. Automatic Updates

IFP now supports automatic updates of your property portfolio. If your web site is database driven it may be possible for your web designer to output adverts in XML format. We are then able to import this information, including photos, into our database in a matter of minutes allowing you more time in contact with clients.

The service is free of charge and we can provide full documentation, examples and assistance where needed. Please see the link below or contact our support team for further information.

• Update your own properties with XML

5. Featured clicks

We allow all agency advertisers to purchase featured clicks, these are properties which rotate on our homepage and you can add clicks to each property from our “Property management page”. If for example you assign 500 clicks to one of your properties it will remain featured until 500 site users have clicked the advert to view more detail.

Use featured property adverts to promote good value properties. Ensure that only properties with eye-catching thumbnail images are used for the featured property adverts.

• 1000 clicks – 50 Euros
• 5000 clicks – 200 Euros (20% discount)
• 10,000 clicks – 300 Euros (40% discount)

All prices exclude VAT. A purchase of clicks is non-refundable and an invoice will be raised to your account statement.

You can currently purchase featured clicks by contacting our support team using either support@french-property.comor +44 207 135 2222

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Creating a good microsite

A microsite can provide you with more property enquiries, a lot of our microsites gain a good search engine placement on search engines such as Google.

To create a good microsite you should submit to us the following information:

• Images: Logo, location images, surrounding area of properties
• A description about your company
• Directions to your main office
• Staff
• Languages spoken
• Agency history
• Locations of where you offer property
• Local information

Please note: Logos should be resized to around 550 x 100 pixels

Location and property images should be resized to around 320 x 240 pixels

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Viewing statistics for you agency microsite

You can view statistics for your agency microsite by clicking on the "View microsite statistics" link in the "Properties and Advertisements" section of your agency account.
By clicking on this you will be taken to the statistics page for your IFP microsite. We can give you information on:

• Number of clicks on the "view properties" link
• Number of clicks on the "latest properties" link
• Number of clicks on the "Visit my home page" link
• Number of visits to your microsite

In addition to the above information we can tell you the number of unique viewers to your microsite in total and over the last 30 days.

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Top tips for marketing your property

These top tips will allow you to maximise the effectiveness of your advertisements with Internet French Property, we are also offering free advertising for rental property at the moment click here for details.

1. Taking a good property photograph

Taking good photographs is essential to promoting your property, the first thing an IFP user will see is a thumbnail of your property, so having good property images will allow you to grab the users attention. For your default thumbnail image IFP recommends that you use a good exterior shot.

• When taking photos of properties for sale it is best to take both external (outside) and internal (inside) photos of these properties; the photos should be in a well lit environment so the prospective buyer can view the property in detail.
• It is advisable to take some good scenic photos from near the property or the surrounding area to allow a prospective buyer to see the surroundings of a property.
• Thumbnail images are displayed on all search results pages, enusre that you select the clearest and most eyecatching photo as your thumbnail image.

2. Improving the performance of your adverts

There are a few ways to maximise the effectiveness of your adverts...

• Include as much information as possible about your property, be sure to mention any important attractions, activities and highlights of your property and the area in which it is situated.
• It may be advisable to do some research into your competitors and other agents to see if your property is being marketed at the correct price, buyers will check around to find a good deal, so if your property is overpriced they may well pass you by.
• Provide detailed information about the facilities of the property, this will help answer users queries about the property so they will not need to email you. Most users will just move onto a property advert that does answer their questions rather than emailing you with their enquiries.

3. Microsites

Internet French Property microsites are an integral part of estate agency advertising on IFP. They provide an excellent platform for promoting your estate agency and properties. They are also an invaluable resource for IFP users and potential clients. They provide quick access to your contact details and contact forms as well as detailing important information about your agency and the region in which you operate. A personalised microsite provides extensive branding opportunuties for your agency and maximises your internet exposure, even extending your rankings in the main search engines e.g. Google, Yahoo etc.

• If you provide us with good content and images we can implement them into a personalised microsite for you.
• Be descriptive about your company. Tell the users what regions your offer property in, and why they should choose you as their property agent.
• Provide information about any attractions in the region(s) you offer property in.

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