RealBird Blog

Never miss a buyer call again: SMS lead capture for any homes on your market, not just your own

We just launched a new standalone product and we hope you'll like it!

Introducing Homes By SMS™

Unlike the existing RealBird SMS text code marketing service which allows you to set up distinct text codes for your own listings or for specific website links, Homes By SMS extends the capabilities and you can now capture buyer leads for general location inquiries: Home buyers can simply text a location to a dedicated number and see all matching properties via your system and you get their details at first interaction.

Grow your buyer side business with seamless lead capture and stand out of the crowed.

Currently, the Homes By SMS service is available in 3 MLS markets: BAREIS, MAX/EBRD and MLS Listings in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, but we are working on making it available nationwide using the RealBird Property Search service and also with 3rd party homes search services. Stay tuned for more announcements soon. 

You can head over to HomesBySMS.com and see an overview, the all-inclusive pricing and submit the Getting Started form.

Let us know what you think !

Thanks

-- The RealBird Team

 

Caller ID is Now Available for the RealBird SMS Real Estate Marketing platform

Twilio - the service powering the RealBird SMS marketing platform - has some amazing new features using 3rd party Add-ons and we added support for them in RealBird as well.  This is just a quick post about this update while we are working on the full announcement, should you want to start exploring it today.

One of the most useful add-ons is the caller ID lookup feature. With that, you can now receive name, address, emails and other public, non-confidential information about your prospect via service providers like Next Caller. These are all actionable information and will greatly enhance your marketing efforts and best of all, it is a low, per-lead cost, so you only pay for it when you actually receive new inquiries. 

For example, adding Next Caller's add-on to your Twilio account will cost only an additional 5 cents per lead. The standard rate is 1.5 cent per lead and for a total of 1.5+5=6.5 cents per SMS inquiry, you can have access to the clients name, gender, address and email if publicly available.

To add this feature:

1. Visit your Twilio account's Add-on page
2. Select the add-on and click "Install" (e.g. Advanced Caller ID by Next Caller)
3. On the Configuration page of the add-on, under the "Use it" section, select the checkbox for "Incoming SMS Message" and click "Save" at the bottom of that page.

That's all. No changes are necessary in your RealBird account, assuming you already have the SMS platform configured.

We'll publish a more detailed tutorial for new RealBird members and in case you haven't setup the SMS platform yet. In the meantime, should you have questions, please do not hesitate to email or call us.

Important note: Caller ID and related data are provided by third parties via Twilio and RealBird in no way can guarantee accuracy. We are just forwarding that data provided by them to you. Please follow all local and federal regulations when marketing to your clients using these information.

Happy Marketing !

-- The RealBird Team

 

Special Webinar: Setting up and using the RealBird SMS platform for lead generation

We received many emails and calls asking about details regarding the RealBird Texting/SMS platform, so we decided to hold a short, special webinar this Wednesday so we can better clarify how this capability is set up and ways to use it.  This webinar will be only about texting and related topics, so we expect it to last about 30 minutes. Participants will be able to ask questions of course.

WHEN: Wednesday, November 12, 2014 from 8:00 to 8:30  AM Pacific Time

To register, please use this link:

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/472162560

The amazingly affordable RealBird SMS lead capture system

We have been promoting some new techniques for using the RealBird PRO platform with Twilio's SMS system for the last few days. To our surprise, many of our clients were not familiar with the incredibly low cost of this system.

So here is the cost breakdown:

For only $99 (RealBird PRO) + $20 (Twilio) = $119 / year,

you can market unlimited properties

and unlimited niche searches, links and forms and

receive up to 533 SMS leads
(and unlimited leads via email, web, social etc.) 

That is, only 23 cents per lead !!!

Or, by using the industry standard 1% closing rate on leads, you get 5 clients for only $119 dollars,
i.e. your cost is only $23.80 per closed, commission paying client.  

The numbers above demonstrate a ridiculously great return, the "only" job left is to make sure that you do generate enough leads with the system. See this page to learn what you can use the RealBird SMS AnyLink service for. We'll have more best practices posts and webinars coming up, but in the meantime, don't forget that you can use the SMS/text messaging platform, both on the street (e.g. with sign riders and stickers) and also online (e.g. text messaging call-for-actions on Craigslist, squeeze pages, tweets etc.)

Should you have questions, or need help with set up and lead generation, please don't hesitate to contact us.

-- The RealBird Team

 

 

Improved listing management, SMS with signature and Backpage syndication update

We released a few improvements over the weekend, before the rollout of some major new features in the upcoming weeks. Below is a quick list of these updates:

Improved Listing Management Page

Ideal for users who manage a large inventory on RealBird, the listing filter form now retains your settings, so upon subsequent visits (e.g. after updating a listing or log in the next day), the last filter will be applied again. As a practical case, you may have dozens or hundreds of sold listings published through RealBird, but you rarely need to edit or manage them once added. So setting and retaining, Active and "Published only" filters will make managing current listings much easier.

Backpage syndication update

The automatic syndication to Backpage now shows your broker/company name and your state license number for compliance with local rules. Make sure that you add these information to your profile in RealBird and we'll take care of the rest.

SMS marketing platform bug fix

A software issue has been identified and fixed over the weekend that affected text code handling for those client's whose text messaging app is configured to include their signature automatically. The RealBird SMS Text Message Marketing platform now correctly handles these specific cases as well. 

Advanced, lead capture webhook API

This is an advanced feature and it is valuable for those members who work with 3rd party developers. If configured, we are now posting the details of your lead as you receive them to any 3rd party webhook Url you set. This is a preliminary release of this feature and available upon request. More details about this including documentation and other API features will be posted in the upcoming weeks.

-- The RealBird Team
www.realbird.com