RealBird Blog

Custom, transferable SMS keywords, call capture, QR code analytics and more

Our first set of new features for 2012 was launched yesterday:

Custom, transferable SMS keywords for your listings

This one was one of the most requested features after our initial launch of the SMS keyword marketing add-on for your RealBird listings. By default, your RealBird listing ID is the automatically assigned text code for your property. The problem with this - as we learned from you - that many of you create a sign rider for your SMS marketing and pay for each sign rider individually. Since the RealBird listing ID is not reusable for a property that you'll have in the future, it meant that you have to buy a new sign rider for each of your listings and discard old signs of your sold listings. You were right, this sounds like a big waste of money. Not any more: With the new release, you can now assign a custom SMS keyword for any of your listings, create an SMS marketing sign rider, market the property, sell it and then reassign the same keyword for your new listing. No more throwing away your old rider, since the keyword remains active, only transferred to your new RealBird listing, you can freely reuse the same rider. 

You can access this new feature from your Listing management page. Below the SMS keyword and example call-for-action block, there is now a "Set custom SMS keyword" link. You can enter and save your custom text code on that page. If the text code is already assigned to another of your listings, the system will ask for your confirmation to transfer it to this property. 

Some notes about choosing the right custom SMS code:

1. Make it short. End users will have to enter this code on their cell phone, so the shorter it is, the easier for them to do so. We suggest to make it less than 5 characters long.
2. Use letters and/or numbers only
3. The SMS keyword is case insensitive, so don't worry about uppercase or lowercase letters. Enter it in a way which will be easy to read on your sign and print ads
4. The keyword M is reserved for your RealBird Mobile Real Estate Website (see below)

Call capture

We also added a call capture to your SMS phone number. If a prospect calls your SMS phone number, rather than texting the SMS code to it, we will still capture their phone numbers for you. Currently the system hangs up the call automatically and notifies you about the caller instantly. More voice features are coming soon so you'll be able to configure how to respond to phone calls.

QR Code analytics

You asked for it and now you have it: The QR code for your mobile RealBird single property websites are now tracked and you can see the analytics of how many times those QR codes were scanned. There is now a link below the QR code on the Listing Management page, called "QR Scan Stats". It takes you to the analytics page, powered by the bit.ly URL shorting service. The special link behind your QR code now also contains Google Analytics Campaign tracking parameters, so you'll be able to get custom, detailed analytics via Google Analytics (assuming you added Google Analytics to your RealBird account already)

Text code for your RealBird Mobile Real Estate Website

As an additional SMS keyword marketing feature, your RealBird Mobile Real Estate Website can be accessed by end users by simply texting the keyword M to your SMS phone number. RealBird will return an SMS message with a link to your mobile website.

There are way more features and upgrades on their way, so stay tuned !

Enjoy !

-- The RealBird Team
www.realbird.com 

 

What's happening on RealBird? In Real-Time !

In the name of transparency - and also because we are serious geeks :) - we put together a live map application that shows the visitors as they arrive to different RealBird services of our members. It is embedded below and since it is an HTML5 app, you have to use modern browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, IE9 etc.) to see it in action. Android and iOS tablets and smartphones work as well.

You can see the RealBird Real-Time Traffic Map in full screen mode here

Summary of new RealBird features launched in 2011

Today is the last business day of 2011 and we thought it is the good time to summarize the main new RealBird features that we launched in 2011. 

Switched the RealBird Property Search from Google Base to Oodle data

As you may recall Google suddenly announced in January '11 the discontinuation of Google Base. Because the RealBird Property Search was based on data from Google Base, we had to find another solution. We successfully ported the application to use real estate data from Oodle, soft launched in March and made it available for all RealBird members in June. The new search application has been working great ever since and has delivered thousands and thousands of buyer leads to RealBird members.

New listing inventory widget replaced the old version, with color themes and custom transition effects

We retired one of our legacy sidebar listing inventory widgets and replaced it with a brand new one, which can be configured with custom color theme and custom transition effects.

The first version of the RealBird Mobile Real Estate Website was launched

In March, we launched the first version of the RealBird Mobile Real Estate Website service with vanity domain name and QR code support. Within weeks, thousands of mobile sites were set up by RealBird PRO members. It also received coverage from Inman News.  

The second version of the Mobile Real Estate Website added Property Search support

Soon after the initial launch, we also completed the mobile user interface for the RealBird Property Search and added to the RealBird Mobile Property Website service. Update to the platform (and the new desktop IE support) also made it possible from then on to embed the mobile real estate website on regular blogs and pages with the handy RealBird widget, including the inclusion of the QR code and a call-for-action message.

Default Property Website Theme editor added

One of the powerful features of the RealBird single property websites has always been the versatile theme editor. We realized however that even with the easy-to-use interface, it has been an unnecessary hassle to set up the custom design for each listing one by one, so we introduced the same powerful theme editor tool as a global configuration option. In other words, RealBird members can now set up a default custom design once and all new property sites will inherit this theme.

Introduced 3 Facebook Real Estate Page applications

Just in time for Facebook's application platform overhaul during the summer, we released three Facebook applications for different RealBird services. You can now easily add your listing inventory widget, map-based property search and your mobile real estate website to your Facebook business page.

Diligent SEO work brought major results: video thumbnails of your property websites are now shown on Google

We've been always focusing on SEO best practices, but 2011 brought some break throughs: Finally, over 1 million pages on RealBird has been indexed by Google and to our great surprise, RealBird became one of the few real estate information providers whose pages have been enhanced with video thumbnails on the Google search result pages. This is a very positive and stunning SEO news and together with the high ranking of the RealBird property websites, it represents a major improvement in visibility for our members.

Tighter integration of your RealBird featured listings and map-based property search

We also introduced a small, but powerful feature for RealBird PRO members. The RealBird map-based property search can now be configured to show your own featured listings as "sticky", highlighted icons on the map. We call them "sticky" icons, because they are shown on the map independently from the actual search criteria, as long as their location falls within the current map boundaries. This a great, non-intrusive advertisement of your own properties to home buyers using your map search.

United Kingdom coverage added to RealBird

We also extended support for most of the RealBird services for estate agents in the United Kingdom. With this launch, RealBird now provides online marketing services to US, Canada and UK agents and brokers. 

Brand new, major redesign of the flagship RealBird single property website platform launched

It's been a long time coming and finally, in October, we launched a major redesign of our flagship RealBird Listing Publisher property website platform. The system has many, many improvements and new features, while remaining fully backward compatible: new layout design, improved SEO, improved load speed, deeper social media integration, better lead capture, more automatic integration with 3rd party services such as Walkscore, ability to add more custom pages and content and many more features. We were very happy to receive an overwhelmingly positive response from all of our members regarding this major update.

New Craigslist property ad generator released

A revamped Craigslist property ad generator was launched in November, making it much easier for RealBird members to create a Craigslist ad with unlimited color theme options. Craigslist is one of the most popular classifieds ad platforms and this new tool makes it way easier to create much better looking ads for your RealBird listings. 

SMS keyword property marketing added to your mobile marketing toolkit

Just in time for the holiday season, we added a new listing marketing service to the RealBird mobile toolkit. We integrated RealBird with the leading SMS technology provider, Twilio and introduced SMS keyword marketing for your properties with an amazing, automatic lead capture feature.

Last but not least, 7,616 real estate professionals joined RealBird in 2011. This is our highest yearly registration number ever and we thank you all very much (long time and new members as well) for trusting your real estate marketing on the RealBird platform. 

We Wish You All A Very Happy & Successful New Year !

-- The RealBird Team
RealBird.com 

Upcoming SMS marketing features for RealBird

Since we launched the first version of the SMS keyword marketing tool for your RealBird listings a few days ago, we have received many positiv replies from RealBird members and also some feature requests. We thought it's easier to summarize the upcoming SMS features in a blog post and then share this article. Below are the upcoming SMS features that we are planning to add very soon:

1. SMS notifications for important events
   Often, timely response to an online prospect is what turns them into actual clients. Currently we notify you only via email on important events such as request for more information on your listing or from your RealBird search, client registration on your website etc. It may takes hours before you see these emails. We are going to add an option so that you can receive an instant SMS notification as well on your own phone with the contact's phone number if provided so that you can contact them immedietaly, even from the road.
2. SMS keyword for your RealBird mobile site as well
   Adam Waxler from uKeepCommision asked for the same SMS keyword marketing option to be available for your RealBird Mobile Website. It's a great idea and we'll implement it ASAP.
3. Adding your call-to-action SMS marketing message to your print flyers and online ads:
   While the biggest value of the SMS keyword marketing is at offline locations, where users can't click on your links at all (print flyers, sign riders etc.) there can be some home buyers who would send the text code to your number for more information and with the contact's phone capturing ability of SMS marketing, it only makes sense that we add your SMS call-to-action message to your online ads as well. There will be a configuration option for this, in other words, you'll be able to turn this on and off, but we should provide you with this option should you decide to add SMS capability to your Craigslist ad for example. Jim Nealis from Re/Max asked for this feature. 
4. More customization options of the text message returned to your home buyer prospect
   Currently, when a prospective home buyer sends your SMS keyword to your Twilio phone number, we return your RealBird listing's basic information (type, beds, baths, price, status), a short link to your RealBird mobile property website and your phone number, which is your default number in your RealBird profile. With the new configuration options, you will have a different phone number option (other than your default RealBird phone) and you'll be able to add a nickname to include in the message. E.g.: Please call [agentname] at [custom phone number] for more info. Thanks for Daniel & Jasmina Zivkovic for this request.

Did you know? A cool feature of the current RealBird SMS keyword marketing tool is that if home buyers mistype your code or the listing is no longer available on RealBird, we still capture the lead for you and return a special message to the home buyer with your RealBird phone number included.  

 

-- The RealBird Team
RealBird.com

Text message (SMS) marketing, new Craigslist ad template, Contacts and Leads export

Just in time for the holiday season: we completed and launched some new features for RealBird, some pretty cool ones in fact. Let's see the details:

Text message (SMS) real estate marketing for your RealBird listings

We integrated RealBird with Twilio, the leading and most cost effective voice and SMS messaging platform. The RealBird Text Message (SMS) Real Estate Marketing Service enables your prospective home buyers to send a short code (text message) via their mobile phone to your dedicated number and receive your property information instantly on their cell phone. The automatically returned text message will contain the brief information of your property, your phone number and a link to your RealBird mobile property website. The RealBird service will also capture the phone numbers of the prospects, notifies you instantly and save these leads for you. This is an additional option to the existing RealBird QR code marketing tool to supports mobile consumers who can not or do not want to scan your QR code. Together with the RealBird QR codes, you can now reach all different type of mobile users.

It's quick to get started and it is very cost effective:

• RealBird PRO membership (US and Canada): only $99/year for unlimited listings - if you are a PRO member, no additional RealBird fee applies
• Twilio local phone number: $1/monoth . That's right, only a buck per month
• Twilio text message charge: 1 cent per SMS received and 1 cent per SMS sent back to the consumer. So a captured lead is only $0.02 ( 2 cents/lead ). This is only due when you actually received a lead

 You can be up and running in 10 minutes: 

• Log into RealBird (if you are a free member, you can upgrade to PRO instantly from the member area)
• Follow the instructions in this tutorial to set up a Twilio account and to configure it with your RealBird service. 

New Craigslist ad template

As a follow-up on the new RealBird single property website platform that we launched in October, the Craigslist ad template is now upgraded as well. Not only the ad looks much nicer, it also provides you with unlimited color themes and an option to turn particular links on and off. The RealBird code generator is also improved to reduce the time it takes from start to finish to post your RealBird listings on Craigslist.

There is nothing new to learn: You can access the code generator from the Listing Management page in the RealBird member area or through your RealBird Quick Share page. Just click "Post to Craigslist" and the new interface opens (example above). Just follow the onscreen instructions and your custom and beautiful ad can be on Craigslist in a few minutes.

Contacts and Leads export

A simple tool has been also added to your Contacts and Leads database on RealBird. You can export those databases now as comma delimited files (CSV) and then import the contacts and leads into your 3rd party CRM or newsletter service. Visit the "Contacts" and "Leads" tab in the RealBird member area and click the "Export" link. Just as a reminder, prospects in the Contacts database are those who created their own account on your RealBird Property Search and Leads are those who explicitly requested more information, market stats from you or asked to schedule a showing. These are leads collected through all of your RealBird applications, including your property websites, property search modules, your RealBird browser toolbar, mobile sites and so on.

Well, that's probably our last major launch this year, but there are much more to be introduced in the upcoming few months. Should you have questions about any of these new add-on features, please do not hesitate to ask.

Thanks and Happy Holidays !

** The RealBird Team **

RealBird.com