Text Message Real Estate Marketing

1. Using a mobile sign like “TEXT REAL 1 to 95495″ in front of the property to provide information and pictures to prospective buyers. Agents are notified when a message is sent.

2. Use in Classified ads. “TEXT REAL 2 to 95495″ Using a different code with the same information can help you determine where to spend your advertising dollars. Textreal.com has a very detailed interface to allow tracking of requests.

3. On your Business Cards. “TEXT REAL 1 to 95495″ Have a seperate code for your business cards. Need a realtor? Text real 1 to 95495 and I’ll give you a call!

4. Aviod Foreclosure TEXT REAL 1 to 95495. These can be put at intersections and around town. Investment Property, Short Sales… you name the subject you could use text messaging to capture leads.

Textreal.com can be used for all of these options and more.

Text messaging has become a great marketing medium because of how personal the phone is. Unlike email or snail mail, each text message is considered important to the receiver. A “junk” filter hasn’t been built yet. And there is a cost associated to sending each message unlike email. This alone has a huge impact.

Textreal.com can help you use text messaging to generate leads and give buyers the information they need. Try our service out free @ http://textreal.com/free

Textreal.com has increased its services with the ability for Realtors to now provide pictures to prospective buyers. The sms sent to the prospect buyer includes a URL that can be accessed via mobile phone. The Realtor can add as many pictures as they like with captions for each one.

With this additional offering textreal.com continues to lead the way in Real Estate Marketing.

Exerpt from Real Estate goes Tech in Idaho

“Some people get into the business and don’t adapt to what’s needed,” she said. “Honestly, they’re not going to make it. … (Buyers) want to see homes for sale. When they’re searching for a home, they want to see them. They want answers to their questions, they want information freely given.”

And they want it fast. That’s why text messaging is becoming more and more a part of real estate. When a client wants quick information about a property or a meeting, the generation that grew up in front of a computer screen instinctively wants to skip the small talk and simply text their realtor. That agent can then immediately send out a quick reply without stopping what they’re doing, be it sitting in a meeting or shopping at the mall.

Text messaging is also starting to fill in where fliers and info lines left off. With smart phones and PDAs finding their way into more and more hands, realtors can set up a system where a potential homebuyer can stumble across a for-sale home and text a number on the sign for more information, including a link to a Web site with interior pictures. And the texted information method appeals to buyers for more reasons than one.

“The same generation that texts is the same generation that is really conservation minded,” Ethridge said. “It saves plastic flyer boxes, it saves paper for fliers and it saves gas from driving out to refill the box.”

It’s not just the younger realtors that are seizing the new methods. Agents with decades of experience have been known to give younger realtors a run for their money.

“They are texting maniacs,” said Sarah Kestler, communications director for the Ada County Association of Realtors. “They can text with the best of them from what I’ve seen. I’ll be online and look over and see (a more experienced realtor) texting and be like, ‘are you writing an essay? I’m not sure.’ You have to keep up with technology or you’ll stop”

Credit: Dani Grigg

(Copyright 2008 Dolan Media Newswires) (c) 2008 Idaho Business Review, The. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.Source: Idaho Business Review, The

This is quick case study of a text message listing in uptown charlotte using textreal.com as the response system.

Listing: Uptown Charlotte, foot traffic during lunch hours, not much drive-by traffic

Number of Requests for Information: 12 (in 1 month)

Result: Each request for information created a positive response. All 12 responses were followed up with phone calls to ensure the potential buyer had all the information they needed.

• 9 leads just wanted to see what would come back / how much the place was listed for
• 5 leads thought the response was neat. They liked the fact they had the information.
• 1 lead was interested in a showing. 

Conculsion

Text Messaging works for some listings and not for others. Listings in rural areas, end of col de sacs and other places without high visability will not perform well. Charlotte is a great market because of the younger populations ability to work with technology. Providing the information is only a small part in making the system work. Its the follow up that closes the deal.

This is a video I put together to show how to use real estate text messaging auto responder for listing information.

Its very important for realtors to know how a new client got in touch with them. Use textreal.com to create multiple listing ids that can be used in all marketing mediums. A different id can be assigned to each campaign to see the effectiveness.

Questions? Just ask, I’d be glad to help

Want to sell your home with a realtor that uses technology, specifically text messaging? I have realtors in every state right now. Send me an email and I’ll get you in touch with a great realtor.

brad@textreal.com

The current dropout rate in real estate is incredible… 50% out within 6 months and slightly more than 80% by the end of their first year.

Here are a couple steps in creating a successful marketing campaign.
1. Determine your objectives
2. Set a budget
3. Determine your audience
4. Create an offer to meet your objective
5. Analyze the results.

Here’s some help to justifying setting up a text messaging campaign with textreal.com

1. Determine what you want out of it.
· More leads on current listings
· A way to generate more listings
· Turn listings faster
· Track response rates on listings

2. Budget
textreal.com’s service costs $15 dollars a month with the first month free for 3 active listings.

3. Audience
The largest part of the text message audience is persons between the ages of 18 - 35

4. Your Offer
Textreal.com!!

5. Analyze the results
· Textreal.com offers reporting on leads generated. But do the math….
· At $5 a month per property if you close one deal a week quicker you’ve probally paid for the service in interest earned on your comission.
· If you pick up one more listing (other potential sellers like to see what realtors are doing), it will pay for itself for years

Introduction

Mobile marketing benefits real estate agents in multiple ways. It is a new technology but is not pioneer, it has been around and has been proven to work in the market place. Imagine you are one of a few in a large demographic of real estate agents that uses this new, faster, more efficient form of real estate marketing to promote not only your business but the homes in which you want to help provide to the community. Studies have shown it is more time effective to text a number on a listing to get almost immediate detailed information regarding the inquiry they are after. It saves time which benefits them and they have the insight into a property before contacting you, the agent, directly.

The obvious other advantage is that you have real legitimate warm leads, these people have actively taken interest in your property and because it is so fast and easy you build a lead base that is astronomically larger than traditional marketing methods. Imagine business men being relocated to your area and need to find housing in a weekend. Suppose they miss your ad in the paper or online and are driving to another agents home that they had contacted. They drive by and pass your sign. They are already in the mindset to buy a home and your sign will trigger a response. The point of real estate signs is to directly market to potential customers who already are interested in buying. The marketing advantage is that 90% are going to pass on because they are not in the “home buyer” mindset.

With Textreal.com it is so fast and simple that you are more or less guaranteed to capture that 10% who are looking to buy but people who are throwing around the idea or simply just see a house they just love, will also text in. You now have a contact list from which you can use to market over time through eblasts, letters, phone calls and other soft sell techniques. The biggest advantage overall is that phone number. No one likes to be spammed via email but with the phone number you can follow up knowing the person already has not only looked at the house but has taken enough interest to text to find out the specifics. This is a good lead and a potential sale.

With the sheer volume text message marketing can provide it is, if nothing less and added bonus to your already established marketing plan. The cost is so minimal that testing the service for yourself has virtually no negatives. In fact, many new web companies such as www.textreal.com offer a no obligation free trial for a month. There really seems to be no downside except the 30 seconds lost creating your account. You will never be asked to commit to anything or to continue on with the service if you don’t agree it doesn’t work. Most of companies such as textreal.com are more interested in gathering data to essentially market the companies as a whole because it is so effective it would be easily implemented into a conglomerates business model. Gathering data with these companies like textreal.com are essential to building the case study to pitch to these businesses.

The choice is yours but I would try this out for free just to see how it goes. It is the wave of the future and you could jump on the movement in the very beginning and capture the market. The statistics on the success rate speaks for itself but sms text message real estate marketing companies just need to gather more and more data. Filing out the 4 or 5 question survey is more than enough for the company to validate a free membership to you to test and show you their success. In the process they gather vital data about the market and can work on constantly improving and innovating the system. No other marketing communication method will have such a profound impact as mobile because for those that prefer this method, they are successfully avoiding all other communication methods. Mobile provides a personal connection with the customer that provides an unbeatable competitive advantage. Our solutions have proven that that by integrating mobile into your existing marketing communication they play a vital role in creating an experience your customers will enjoy.

We do not expect you to know how today to engage your customers via their mobile phone but we would highly recommend you to start slow and start now. The two elements I personally have seen that ensure success have little to do with the technology but what you do best: knowing your customers and knowing how they prefer to communicate. By providing us that insight, the companies like textreal.com can provide you everything else to build a mobile campaign focused on your specific goals.

A perfect example of the effectiveness of testing in general is companies that have implemented texting for coupons or discounts. Companies like Kraft cheese and Velvetta now implement text messaging in the grocery store to get instant coupons. Think about it, it makes sense, if a customer can not only recieve a coupon or a special service that others do not by sending a text they not only get a VIP type reward but also get it when they all want it…NOW.