RealBird Blog

Coming soon listings and draft property sites for seller interviews

The RealBird property sites now shows a Google StreetView image for listing without uploaded pictures.

This small improvement goes a long way when using RealBird for these two popular business cases:

Draft listings for seller interviews

Prior to signing the contract with the seller, you most likely won't have photos of the property or if it was listed before, rights of the photos probably belong to the previous agent or broker. With the new automatic inclusion of the Google StreetView photo, you can create a property website on RealBird that is presentable, set up your SMS marketing codes, QR codes and listing address domain name.

As a summary, make sure you create a draft RealBird property site even if you don't have photos before the interview and take the following with you:

1. Create a draft RealBird single property website (it won't be syndicated as draft)
2. Buy an address domain name for it - Make sure you showcase your "investment" to the potential seller. You are one foot in the door :)
3. Setup your SMS text code for the listing - Make sure you tell them to try it out. Demo it to them.
4. Bring your text code marketing sign rider to the presentation - Again, make sure you present it as part of the outstanding listing marketing package you provide, showcasing your 24x7 property marketing, even when the flyer boxes run low :)
5. Print out the private labeled listing syndication and RealBird PRO marketing document in the member area and add it to your listing presentation kit

Coming soon properties 

Similar to draft listings, coming soon listings often lack photos for a while, but the nature of the Coming soon listing marketing is that you want to get the message out as soon as possible in order to test the market and also to build up anticipation. Having Google StreetView added automatically to RealBird listing sites with no photos, makes this marketing task a little bit easier and the presentation prettier while the property photos are being produced.

We hope you like this small but very useful upgrade. Much more is coming to your RealBird marketing toolkit, stay tuned !

-- The RealBird Team

 

 

SMS real estate marketing stickers - 40% OFF

The RealBird SMS real estate marketing stickers are 40% OFF until September 24, 2017 via this link.

Just head over to the RealBird store and use the coupon code ZAZZLESAVING

Make sure you customize the text on the sticker before adding to your cart, using your own SMS code and RealBird SMS phone number.  

 

The example above shows the 4.5 x 2.7 inch RealBird SMS marketing sticker. You'll get a sheet of 4 stickers for this amazingly low price of $6.75-40%=$4.05. Coupon expires September 24, 2017. 

Get yours here!

Happy Marketing

-- The RealBird Team

 

Tips for your sign riders: Keep your SMS keywords easy to enter on phones

Here is a small but important and easy to remember rule: keep your SMS keywords short for effective text code marketing.

If your first instinct is to pick a keyword that's representative of the property as you would with listing domain names (e.g. using the street number and street name), for text messaging marketing on sign riders and printed cards, the goal should be to make it as easy for users to enter your code as possible. In lead generation, every little barrier that you can remove, the more improvement your stats gain.

• Keep code short, preferable less than 10 characters. Shorter, the better. The default code generated by RealBird for your listings are 6 character long
• Decide whether you use numbers only or letters in the code. E.g. the standard keyboard on iPhones only shows numbers or letters only. Users have to switch back and forth otherwise. Extra work, more chances of an abandoned process.
• Same applies to switching between small and large caps. Use all smalls or all large letters. While the RealBird SMS applications are case insensitive, it ignores capitalization, home buyers may believe that they have to switch between small and large caps back and forth . Again, extra work, more chances of an abandoned process. 

As a summary, keep text codes short and try to avoid the need for switching back and forth on the keyboard of the phone.

So what would be an ideal text code that you can also reuse with different properties on RealBird?

You guessed it right: home fits all these criteria :) Of course if you are marketing many different properties with text codes on RealBird, you have to get a bit more creative, but these guidelines should help.

As a reminder, we provide two different SMS text code marketing services for real estate:

1. Do-it-yourself with RealBird's SMS add-on
2. All-inclusive with Homes By SMS - another RealBird service. We even give you free sign riders and postcards as part of the service.

Please don't hesitate to inquire about the different capabilities of the two services.

-- The RealBird Team

Homes By SMS now works with your existing IDX website

Homes By SMS - our all-inclusive buyer prospecting text code marketing service - can be configured with your existing IDX search service, in most cases.

As a quick overview: Homes By SMS allows you to provide a mobile home search tool to prospective buyers, going through a texting interface. You can use different call-to-action messages on print flyers, sign riders, postcards, sweepstakes and online landing pages, asking home buyers to text a location to your dedicated SMS phone numbers. The system then returns them a link to the search results and captures their contact information for your CRM, right away, at first interaction.

As an example, see the current capabilities of the Homes By SMS implementation for Sherrie Snideman's (of Century 21 Everest Realty Group in Midvale, UT)

Her website at UtahHomeDetective.com has its own IDX search feature and we configured her Homes By SMS service to handle the following location and keyword types, directing home buyers to deep linked result pages on her own site:

1. City – home buyers can text any cities to the Homes By SMS phone number
2. Zip code – similar to the city search but more targeted search result is provided
3. Neighborhood – neighborhood search is a great option for seller prospecting via postcards for example. Just ask them to text their neighborhood’s name to your Homes By SMS phone number and see what nearby homes are selling for
4. Full address lookup – buyers can look up properties on the MLS using the full address
5. MLS Number lookup – buyers can look up properties by their MLS number

As with the rest of the Homes By SMS implementations, the setup fee includes a free sign rider and 50 free postcards to jumpstart the marketing.The monthly fee includes the texting/SMS messaging costs for up to 100 leads each months ! It's all-inclusive and you can get started right away.

Learn more about RealBird's Homes By SMS service and ask for a demo

 

 

The Most Important Tool for Rental Marketing on Open Listing Markets Is...

 

The most important tool for rental marketing on open listing markets is the one that let you capture the leads contact information at the first interaction. Our recent post on Homes By SMS explains the value of lead capture early in the process with SMS text code marketing, and how it is crucial with open rental listings, where many can represent a property and compete for the business.

You can read the full post and get started on that blog, but here is a quick overviews:

Homes By SMS allows you to provide access to your home search application (rental searches in this particular use case) via text messaging. The main benefit for you is that you capture the lead at the very beginning of the search process, at the first interaction; and for your prospective clients the option provides a convenient way to easily start their search by simply texting (at places where that's the most convenient interaction)

In open listing rental markets, having access to lead information including name, email, demographics via the advanced caller ID option can be the difference between lead turned into a client and lead being lost.

Homes By SMS can integrate with the different RealBird search options (IDX, national search etc.) but it can be also set up to work with your existing search engine and application. We'll have more post about one of our recent custom search integrations, but you can get started with Homes By SMS with one of the many search engines it already supports.

-- The RealBird Team