Mobile Marketing for Real Estate

More and more consumers are getting accustomed to using their mobile phones as their main, and sometimes only, device for the majority of their communication, both personal as well business, needs. Although baby boomers (45 years old and over) still prefer computers over mobile phones (51% & 21% respectively), Gen Years (18 – 24 years old) prefer their mobile phones over their computers (47% & 38% respectively) according to a study conducted by Accenture.

This may not seem enough to force Real Estate professionals to shift their attention to mobile marketing, but this trend is growing faster and faster as better, smarter and more affordable mobile phones continue to hit market.

Gen Years will quickly become the target demographic for many Real Estate professionals over the next decade, which means that you, as a Real Estate professional, must start changing your long term plans accordingly to keep your growth intact.

As it is with any business, the first to enter/tap a market is usually most remembered and always has, which in this case means that if you are one of the first to market/promote your Real Estate business on the devices that are selling by the millions each year, then your business will be extremely well positioned in the coming years.

Mobile marketing is the future and we are going to tell you how to leverage it to help your grow your Real Estate business.

How Does Mobile Marketing Apply to Real Estate?

Real Estate is arguably one of the most tech savvy industries when it comes to using new technology and new forms of media to market, advertise and sell product. This has provided Real Estate professionals with numerous tools to promote their business. They can use these in marketing, selling, tracking and managing existing clients and prospects effectively.

One of the main, and most effective tool of the trade has been the mobile phone, more specifically, the Smartphone. These devices have changed the way customers can be found/contacted and selling Real Estate.

It has become a necessity for Real Estate professionals to market their products & services more effectively. Mobile phones create two main platforms for Realtors: Branding & visibility and reaching out to prospective customers.

Text Messaging( SMS)

People love their mobile phones, but one thing that they might love the most about their mobile phones is the ability to send text message. We love being able to get information as fast as possible and in its simplest form. Text messaging allows us to communicate with just a few brief words that are delivered instantaneously.

Text messaging (SMS) is used frequently between home buyer / seller and Realtor as it allows both sides to communicate efficiently and often without time lag. Best of all, text messaging can be automated, like E-mail Marketing.

Mobile Web Browsing

Mobile phone users spend a lot of time on their device. One of the main uses of these phones, specifically smart phones is to surf Internet. This makes mobile phones yet another point of contact with consumers. It should be capitalized for maximum visibility and branding.

Many websites are NOT built to open on a mobile phone as they do on a computer. For example, your great looking website may not open at all on an iPhone, especially if it is 100% in Flash, as iPhones do not Flash. This means that you will need have your web developer / designer make your site “mobile friendly” or  create a Mobile Version of your site.

Top Mobile Marketing Ideas for Real Estate

Mobile Marketing is the future. Mobile device sales continue grow very rapidly with each passing day making them more and more useful in everyday business and personal life than ever before.

For this reason alone, we strongly advise Real Estate professionals to start focusing on mobile marketing now while it is still relatively new to the industry.

We conducted a small survey with Prospective Customers to know Top Mobile Marketing Ideas for Real Estate. Here is what came out of that survey :

IDEA #1

Connect Home Buyers with Property Info via SMS

One of the most convenient uses of SMS in Real Estate is to quickly take property information to prospective buyers without a call or email.

A mobile marketing company will provide you the data of your  prospective clients and even shoot messages to them on your behalf. All this at a very nominal cost. From the date available with these service providers , you can choose the type of prospects whom you want to send this message.

IDEA #2

Create Mobile Friendly Real Estate Websites

With more than 100 Million people in India and spending a significant time on their phones, gives Realtors a valid reason to have a mobile version of their website.

If you don’t have one already, we recommend that you get fast so as to allows people to search properties, read about the services you provide and contact you easily through your mobile site.

One thing to know though is that many existing or older Real Estate websites are not optimized to look and work properly on a mobile phone as they do on a computer.

Even on newer, more advanced phones like iPhone, flash heavy websites will not run. Knowing these things in time will allow you to make the right decisions with your mobile marketing initiatives.

IDEA #3

Syndicate Your Listings to Top Real Estate Websites

If you do not have the luxury, or money, to get your own mobile website for your Real Estate business, then a simple and effective option is to make sure that you have your business listed on the top Real Estate websites like 99acres.co,magicbricks.com & so on. These large websites usually have excellent mobile applications that are fully functional and feature-rich. If your listings are available on these websites then mobile application users will be able to find you from these.

IDEA #4

Run Campaigns on Social Media

Social Medias like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+ are immensely popular with net & mobile users. Presence on these will not only give immense visibility to your business but will fetch you clients also.

Creating presence on these is not a very expensive process. You just need to have one person in organization who is dedicatedly focusing on these. Take the example of a Facebook page for your business. Regularly upload content on it so as to maintain curiosity of people visiting your page and try to get as many likes & shares for this or for every new post as possible.This will increase the visibility of your page many folds. 

Mobile Marketing is the Future

People are becoming increasingly busy. As a result, mobile phone usage continues to grow, and will eventually overtake, computers very soon as the source to gather information or entertainment.

Allowing people to do much of what they need to  like check email, browse the web, shop, read reviews, entertain themselves etc. right from their hand-held device, mobile phones will continue to gain attraction of users. With the availability of high speed net on mobiles, makes them more attractive. So this provides marketers with fortuitous opportunities to get their brand in to a large number of prospective customers.

Real Estate professionals must also capitalize on this opportunities while it is still gaining popularity and is relatively new. As more marketers realize the importance of mobile marketing in the coming times, delivering ads and marketing messages to mobile phone users will only become overcrowded & saturated newspaper ads.