Entreprise

Zillow Group is a leading online real-estate marketplace that provides customers with an on-demand experience for selling, buying, renting, and financing homes. Operating as a popular website and mobile app, Zillow has become a trusted resource for millions of users across the United States, with over 110 million US homes in its database. 

Défi

As the largest and most trusted marketplace for real estate information and services, Zillow knows home ownership is a multifaceted and long-term process. While the company’s most active users are those searching for a new home, they find a lot of its success comes from nurturing long-term relationships to meet the needs of its users wherever they are in the buying cycle. 

Zillow était à la recherche d'une solution qui réponde à ses besoins. Elle souhaitait passer à l'échelle supérieure, avoir la certitude que les courriels atterrissaient dans les boîtes de réception des clients et mesurer des paramètres clés tels que les taux d'ouverture afin de contrôler l'engagement.

L'équipe avait besoin d'aide pour relever les défis suivants :

• Délivrer des courriels de manière fiable : Given how important email is to Zillow’s business, it was essential that time-sensitive messages are delivered to users’ inboxes when they matter. If these messages are delayed, they miss a key window of opportunity. 

• Gérer l'afflux de courriels : Zillow required a solution capable of handling sudden surges in their email volume anytime a burst occurs, particularly during time-sensitive events like weekend open houses and busy buying cycles.

• Suivi des paramètres clés de l'email : the team needed to measure key metrics such as opens, clicks, and unsubscribes to gain a comprehensive view of customer behavior. 
  
  

Solution

In 2015, Zillow migrated to Bird and leveraged its Deliverability and Analytics solutions. Over time, Zillow has customized its use of the platform to improve email deliverability, monitor customer behavior, and scale out. They now send, on average, 200 million emails per month. 

Garantir la livraison en temps voulu et la fiabilité
It was crucial to Zillow that time-sensitive messages were delivered to users’ inboxes right when they mattered. For example, if a realtor was hosting an open house on a weekend, their users must receive emails about the event with enough time to attend. If those messages are delayed, even by a few hours, they quickly become useless à la recipients and the sender. Zillow chose Bird for its robust API and reliability, ensuring that time-critical messages, such as notifications for weekend open houses, reached users in a timely manner.

"L'API et la fiabilité deBirdont été solides. Cela a permis à notre équipe de se concentrer sur la création de fonctionnalités qui sont des facteurs de différenciation pour l'activité de Zillow".

Justin Farris, gestionnaire principal de produits pour la croissance

"Bird peut gérer les hausses de notre volume d'e-mails à tout moment, par exemple lorsque nous devons envoyer des messages pour les visites libres du week-end et le cycle d'achat, dont le délai est très serré.

Justin Farris, gestionnaire principal de produits pour la croissance

Améliorer les performances des courriels grâce à l'analyse

Le Zillow team was leveraging email to deliver important notifications for their users—for example, new activity listings or activity on flagged homes. By leveraging Bird’s Signals, they are able to analyze user patterns, such as indications that someone has purchased a house or stopped looking for one. Doing so helps email deliverability metrics by reducing unread rates, deletes, and the number of messages reported as spam because Zillow can remove unengaged users from that segment. 

Le team can also identify opportunities for re-engagement, such as when someone rents a home, and the lease expiration date approaches, strengthening the brand relationship. 

"L'e-mail est le moyen le plus simple et le plus rapide d'aider nos utilisateurs dans l'instant. Cela fait partie de notre mission globale qui consiste à donner aux utilisateurs les informations et les outils dont ils ont besoin pour acheter un logement de manière plus intelligente."

Tara Clark, directrice du courrier électronique

Amélioration de la délivrabilité des courriels
With the adoption of Bird, Zillow has a centralized platform that empowers anyone to track email deliverability and analytics effectively. This enhanced capability allows them to easily measure vital email metrics such as open rates, click rates, unsubscribes, spam flags, and more. This has helped them shape customer conversations more effectively. As a result, they increased email open rates by 161% within the first month of using Bird. 

“We connect email with downstream funnel metrics, which lets us get the whole picture,” says Tara Clark, Director of email. Tara notes that the company segments its audience based on actions and personas, including buyer, renter, and seller. 

Résultats

Bird has provided Zillow with a reliable, high-performance infrastructure for delivering emails to users' inboxes. The team can now track essential email metrics, including open rates, click rates, unsubscribed, and more. By leveraging Bird’s Signals, Zillow can analyze how their email campaigns are performing and make smarter decisions. 

Zillow experienced a 161% increase in open rates within the first month of using Bird’s email solutions. This improvement helped them scale up their email sending, especially during busy times, knowing that Bird can handle the increased volume. 

Justin Farris, gestionnaire principal de produits pour la croissance, highlighted the solid API and reliability of Bird, which allowed their team to concentrate on developing unique features that set Zillow apart in the real estate industry. Bird proved capable of managing surges in email volume, particularly during critical events like weekend open houses and buying cycles.

"Il s'agit d'un accord de collaboration dans le cadre duquel nous construisons une solution ensemble -Bird fournit l'infrastructure technique sur laquelle Zillow ajoute de la valeur.