Mobile Marketing for the Real Estate Professional
Advertising real estate used to be easy. You put up signs in front of the property, held a few open houses and showed up to let people in when they wanted to check out the property. Life was good. Things began to get a bit more complicated as technology progressed. Eventually prospective purchasers wanted to access information about the property from home. You needed a website with property and contact information. As technology progressed you eventually needed to understand social media and be active on sites like Facebook and Twitter. Now with the rise in popularity of mobile devices (“smart phones” and tablet computers like the iPad), Real Estate professionals are now expected to know and use that medium as well. Technology is progressing so quickly, where do you even start? Don’t worry, I work with (and build) mobile marketing tools everyday, and I’m here to provide you with a brief primer on the essentials of mobile marketing for Real Estate professionals.
QR Codes:
The biggest new trend in mobile marketing is Quick Response Codes, or QR Codes for short. These square barcodes can be scanned by a mobile device and display a website or video on the scanner’s device. QR Codes work best as a way to provide additional information to prospective buyers. They work well on property signs, sales literature you pass out as well as on your business cards. Let’s take a look at some of the dos and don’ts for QR Codes, as well as the steps necessary to get started using these.
The hardest part of using QR Codes is deciding how to generate one. There are two main options, each has it’s tradeoffs that we’ll cover here. QR Codes can be generated for free (a google search for free qr code generator shows many fine choices, bit.ly offers QR Code generation along with URL shortening and is an ideal choice for free QR Codes). The process for free QR Codes is fairy easy, you enter the web address of a mobile friendly page containing the information you’d like to display, and the program generates a QR Code for your site. You save the image file and use it wherever you’d like. The downside is that the code is always linked to that specific page. This technique isn’t recommended for places where the linked information will need to be changed (like property signs). The free methods also require you to have your own mobile friendly page.
Paid QR Code alternatives generally offer more flexibility. You can reuse a QR Code, and change where it points to, or change the content of the mobile page. Some of these paid versions allow you to easily create a mobile friendly webpage (without requiring you to be a web developer). The paid versions generally also offer an easy way to track how many people are scanning your codes.
The choice comes down to free but limited or paid and flexible. You’ll ultimately need to weigh the pros and cons for each method and decide which works best for your needs. There isn’t one “right” solution. We’ll take a look at some of the potential use cases for QR Codes next, so you can make a better, more informed decision.
Property Signs:
This is a good first place to start with QR Codes. The code can point to a mobile website with additional information about the property. Adding options to share the information via email (this is included on several of the paid QR Code generators) and a contact form to collect prospective buyers contact information are great options to include. Including images of the house, or a property walk through video can be effective as well. Walk through videos don’t need to be fancy. Many Real Estate professionals find it easy enough to shoot video on their cell phone or an inexpensive Flip cam. These codes allow you to provide additional property information to anyone who happens to pass by.
Business Cards:
QR Codes can be effective on business cards. These can direct scanners to a list of all your properties, your Facebook or LinkedIn page or a short video of you explaining what you do. There are a lot of possibilities, and it pays to be creative with it. Make sure to keep your audience in mind. Who do you give your cards to? What additional information would you like to make easily available to them?
Sales Literature:
You’re likely already passing out property information to people who visit your properties. This is a great place to add QR Codes to provide even more information. The code can point to a photo tour of the house or give them an easy way to share property info. In general, the use case here is very similar to how you’d use QR Codes for property signs. The key is to figure out what additional information would be valuable to prospective buyers and give them that. Different information works best for different property types. It pays to think through what information a prospective buyer wants. Put yourself in their shoes and use that insight to create an informative mobile page linked to a QR Code on your sales literature.
Conclusion:
These are a few of the easiest and most effective ways to get started with mobile marketing. QR Codes and the free and paid generators, make getting started easy. If you already have a mobile friendly website, you’re ahead of the game, and getting started is really easy. If you don’t have a mobile friendly website, a paid QR Code generator that helps you create a mobile site can get you up and running quickly.
Have you used QR Codes? Do you plan to? Where do you think they’d be most effective? Let me know in the comments below.
_lifeisshort
Posted at 01:55h, 29 MarchWalk through videos don’t need to be fancy, but they DEFINITELY need to be professional. It’s your IMAGE. And cheap FLIP cameras or cell phones do NOT create a professional image. They’re awful. Always. Do it right or don’t bother. It’ll hurt you more than help if you come off looking like an amateur showing dark, blurry, shaky “Uncle Bob’s Home Movies.”
Anonymous
Posted at 02:13h, 29 MarchI agree, they need to look good. But this is in the context of displaying on a mobile device. Well done cell phone or flip video is more than good enough for viewing on a mobile device. I didn’t mean to imply that any old video will do. Proper lighting, some editing and a steady hand or steady cam go a long way. There’s an idea that you need “professionals” to shoot video for mobile devices, and that just isn’t true. Any decent 720p or better footage will do. I think you’d be surprised with some of the shots you can get with a flip cam and a homemade steady cam (total cost under $200).
San Diego Real Estate Agent
Posted at 03:23h, 29 MarchWhat is the benefit of using these vs. a simple URL? The average consumer has no idea what to do with the barcode.
thinkroth
Posted at 13:28h, 29 MarchThe benefit is in ease of use. They probably work best right now along with a short url (like bit.ly generates). They’re becoming more ubiquitous (on every product tag in best buy, and at least a handful in most major magazines). The most effective QR Code campaigns put a short description below the code explaining how it works. A sentence or two is all that’s needed to explain how it works. It won’t be scanned by anyone, but it can help to have additional information available for people who can access it and do want it.
drewmeyers
Posted at 04:37h, 29 MarchI’m a total skeptic on QR codes
Show me the data that proves people know what QR codes are and actually pull out their smart phone and scan a QR code they see with that QR code reader they probably don’t have.
I’m pretty tech savvy — and I don’t even have a QR code app installed on my iPhone. And the 35 – 50 year old buyer? I don’t buy it.
Anonymous
Posted at 13:39h, 29 MarchMobio recently released a study on QR Code usage. The 35-50 year old group actually scanned more often than any other group (they accounted for 47% of all people scanning codes). The study also showed that women were much more likely to scan than men, at an almost 2:1 rate. The study also indicates a 1200% increase in total scans from July 2010 to December 2010. That data, along with seeing businesses like Best Buy put them on every product suggests that QR Codes have some market penetration.
Ultimately the best thing to do (skeptic or not) is to test them on a small scale. I just don’t see a situation where someone would buy a property but skip it because there was a QR Code on the sign. It’s possible I suppose, but I just can’t imagine that conversation; “The house was fantastic but that weird barcode put me off, let’s pass up the house of our dreams”. It’s certainly not for everyone. I understand being skeptical of any new marketing strategy, but I think there’s value in providing additional information that’s easy to access, even if it’s only used by a small percentage of all property visitors.
Sam DeBord, SeattleHome.com
Posted at 14:12h, 29 MarchI’m with Drew on this one. I try to adapt to any new technology, and I actually have QR codes on a new site’s flyers, but I think it will be a fad that runs out like “Text me” numbers on sign riders and “1-800 talking tours”.
QR codes certainly have an application in retail merchandising, but I don’t see it being particularly effective for real estate. If a buyer is looking at my flyer or standing in front of my listing, they already have my URL. The desire to watch a video on their mobile handset isn’t nearly top priority, and possibly a bad use of my limited marketing space.
Anonymous
Posted at 14:20h, 30 MarchSam,
I think a URL can work, a QR Code just makes it easier to connect to. I think mobile video has it’s place, and it’s certainly a nice feature to have sometimes, but I think the real “killer” feature (of URLs and by extension QR Codes) is the ability to share a property listing. Being able to integrate with Facebook sharing is nice, and should be thought of, but being able to email the info is the real value.
Imagine a situation where a husband and wife are shopping for a home. The wife passes by your property on her way to work and sees the sign. She loves what she sees from the street and wants to share as much information about it as possible with her husband. Being able to do that with a scan and a push of a button makes it very likely that she will share that info. Now she could always just give you a call and schedule an appointment to walk through the place, but being able to access and share that info helps speed up the process.
You know your properties and your market better than anyone else. So you obviously want to tailor to that market and audience. If property videos aren’t appropriate, then don’t use them. I’m big on testing everything with marketing. I’d test to see if anyone is scanning first, by doing a couple quick and easy QR Codes. Then if anyone is scanning, I’d start to test content and see if anyone is watching videos, if they’re sharing info via facebook or twitter or email, etc. I’d first look at the data, then start testing things to see which things made a difference and tweak things from there.
Sam DeBord, SeattleHome.com
Posted at 14:36h, 30 MarchI totally agree that you should try it out–which is why I am, in a limited form. It’s certainly easier for those few that are tuned in. I’m just expecting it to burn out before it gets a large enough following.
Chris Adams
Posted at 16:51h, 30 MarchQR codes are definitely cool, and a good way to get people into your funnel. But there’s still the basic problem, a majority of home buyers have no idea what a QR code is or how to use it. Although if a company like Best Buy is integrating QR codes then that will help increase the overall usage because most people will need to “walked through” on the QR code usage a couple times before they get fully understand its purpose.
Chris Adams
Posted at 16:51h, 30 MarchQR codes are definitely cool, and a good way to get people into your funnel. But there’s still the basic problem, a majority of home buyers have no idea what a QR code is or how to use it. Although if a company like Best Buy is integrating QR codes then that will help increase the overall usage because most people will need to “walked through” on the QR code usage a couple times before they get fully understand its purpose.
dowelltaggart
Posted at 02:17h, 01 AprilI have been using QR codes for 9 months. After spending lots of time promoting my QR Code I would like to share all of the prospects I have received with this new technology. Whoops, there is nothing to share. Yep, after having QR codes on my facebook page, twitter page, website, marketing materials and brochures I have had 9 people use the qr codes ( I actually have them assigned to a url shortener to view traffic). 8 of the people using the qr code were me. I’m scratching my head on the 9th. Maybe it was another agent checking it out?
Sam DeBord, SeattleHome.com
Posted at 04:54h, 01 AprilGreat info Dowell. This was my fear. Agents need to be on the leading edge of “accepted” technology, but maybe not on the bleeding edge.
QR Codes – The Data Doesn’t Support The Hype | | GeekEstate BlogGeekEstate Blog
Posted at 07:02h, 01 April[…] QR codes, where is the data that supports the hype? Here’s a comment by Chris Dowell on the Mobile Marketing post which is quite telling if you ask me: I have been using QR codes for 9 months. After spending lots […]
Judy McManus
Posted at 18:09h, 03 AprilI publish The Real Estate Book here in Vancouver Wa. If you have a page in print over a period of months
explaining how the codes are to be used, I think consumers would catch on.. Would you agree?
Sam DeBord, SeattleHome.com
Posted at 18:56h, 03 AprilIt’s a good thought, Judy. I just wonder if it’s worth using up valuable advertising space, over a long-term period. At a certain point, we’re trying to force a new technology on consumers instead of just selling our products. When consumers have already adopted QR codes in general, it will make financial sense for brokers to use them.
Hina Khan
Posted at 11:59h, 20 AprilThis figures are clearly indicating that the coming years are belong to mobile marketing industry those products and services well represented via mobile advertisement will get the maximum market share and will sustain their growth for longer period as the proper execution of any mobile marketing campaign can generate numerous new customers who are desperate for respective service
Majoritain Veller
Posted at 17:39h, 06 AugustMany Real Estate professionals acquisition it simple abundant to shoot video on their corpuscle buzz or an bargain Flip cam.
Commercial Real Estate
Posted at 11:57h, 09 AugustWhat all of this means to you, our customers and clients, is very simple.