Of all the business-related questions confronting real estate agents and brokers, one takes precedence overt everything else: How would you, as an agent or broker, like to build a large email database, collect Facebook "Likes" for your website and have your potential clients spread the word about properties you have for sale?
For real estate professionals, marketing is an essential component of reaching current and prospective clients. This task may encompass a variety of tactics - from traditional print advertising to radio spots and TV commercials to online promotion and mobile communications - but one thing is clear: without an effective tool, something that creates opportunities and motivates people to act, marketing can be a failed enterprise.
Nowhere is this point more relevant than in the use of Quick Response (QR) codes, which contain important information about existing offers and newly launched incentives. And, unlike traditional QR codes (which are more reactive, and thus fail to collect valuable customer data), there is a new way to instantly gather names and email addresses of every person who scans a specific code.
That material can then go into an exclusive, secure database; brokers and agents can leverage this information, where they automatically generate "Likes" on their companies' Facebook pages, thus creating more social credibility. Most importantly, an application like GrapevineQRTM system delivers client-driven posts on a real estate agent's Facebook wall, which that agent automatically shares with all of his or Facebook friends. Any of that client's friends can then scan the GrapevineQRTM code again, and the process begins anew. One scan can turn into a viral online campaign.
This scenario, which is a mere snapshot of the broader possibilities of intelligent QR marketing, enables real estate brokers to - finally - enter into a new realm of business exposure. For example: a potential buyer may scan a broker's GrapevineQRTM code on virtually any media (venues include: online advertising, websites, print media, message boards about available properties for sale or lease), which allows GrapevineQRTM to automatically collect and secure (in a data locker) that potential customer's information for future marketing campaigns.
These actions result in increased exposure through social media, followed by more people seeing the Like (for the broker) on Facebook, followed by more potential clients scanning the QR code, climaxing with a viral marketing phenomenon. All of which means that a simple scan can grow exponentially: soon enough, brokers have their own sales-generating resource for the collection - and targeted marketing - of leads.
The latest patent-pending QR technology even goes one step further. In this situation, an individual may see a specific offer ("A free house value appraisal"), and, after scanning the QR code from a newspaper ad or elsewhere, the client provides his or her email address and name. The application then requests the person who has scanned the code to 'Like' the relevant Facebook page concerning the broker from the advertised promotion.
The user can then 'Share' the information on his or her Facebook page about this offer. The last step is the key for a viral promotion: all of that person's friends on Facebook can also see and accept the offer, and so on and so forth. Thus begins a truly viral campaign, which collects data and automatically promotes a real estate firm or broker.
Think of this circumstance as a more convenient - and successful - brand of promotion. In fact, these tactics update the most respected forms of marketing (personal endorsements) for the twenty-first century, where Likes - the social media equivalent of a recommendation - result in attention from those who take your opinion most seriously: your friends and family. In the real estate industry, those recommendations act like a form of word of mouth marketing; each Like is a testament to the credibility, influence and intelligence of an individual broker or agent. These factors are critical in an economy where the housing market, optimistic forecasts to the contrary, continues to struggle; and where brokers vie for the attention of potential buyers and sellers.
Without a way to capture that audience - without the proper tactics to motivate people through social media - prospective leads become nothing more than a lost assemblage of names and numbers: a broker becomes a mere observer of patterns and events; he never establishes an interactive relationship between himself and the clients he can (and should) serve.
These points can change for the better with the intelligent use of QR codes, which can be a catalyst for the recognition many real estate professionals deserve. This embrace of new technology is both sound and reliable. Meaning: the combination of a proven system, backed by a system that delivers results and makes marketing more scientific, is the ideal solution for all industries. With this approach, we can make QR codes the principal tool in a new age of promotion and increased business. Let us move forward with renewed purpose, so successful marketing is no longer a mystery.
Published: November 16, 2012
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