In the last few posts we’ve talked about the importance of QR codes and real estate, especially how real estate mobile marketing can help you build your list. As your office has probably been telling you (at least if they’re up on these great 21st century techno-gadgets!) your list is one of your best assets. Unfortunately, getting people on the list is as far as many real estate agents go. How can you make your list valuable?

We discussed this a little bit last week, but I wanted to highlight the biggest mistake that I’ve seen realtors make after using QR codes in real estate to build their mailing list. We’re no dummies, so we know that each person on the list represents a prospect who may or may not come through. They may buy or sell within six months, a year, or never. Only a few at any given time will be ready to do it next week. So … what’s the worst thing you can do? You’ll cringe when you read it, but it really does happen!

The Worst Thing to Do With QR Codes in Real Estate

Marketers have known for a long time that the subject of the email is a big part of why people make the decision to read it or not. That’s why you can usually recognize a spam email before you even open it. Emails have a powerful advantage over regular snail mail, though. If you think you’re holding unsolicited snail mail, you’ll probably chuck it out. If you’re not sure about an email, you’ll maybe — gasp! — read it.

That “maybe” turns into “probably” if it’s from someone you have a relationship with, like your realtor. So what’s the worst thing you can do with that relationship? Well, just consider this subject line …

Subject: Hi! Let’s have a chat …

Nevermind that it’s not very specific. If it came from your realtor, you probably assume it’s for you, right? So you click it and what do you get? Nothing! Well, not “nothing.” You get automated information from your realtor, when what you were expecting was something personal and relevant to you. You’ve been duped! And you’ll probably unsubscribe, even if you are still looking for homes in the area.

After initial success with QR codes in real estate, a lot of people make the mistake of thinking that the close should be faster – in fact, that it should be as fast as building the list. But, no … the close is still going to be on the same old timeline, including many (many!) drop offs. If you use a trick like this to increase the read rate for one little email, unless it really is a personal message, you’ll probably see your numbers go down.

Instead, do things the old fashioned way and keep a roster of information that lets you know when the last time you heard from someone was. If someone is falling behind, send them a REAL personal note once a quarter or so. A lot of times, it’ll be ignored because it’s not the right time. But if it has a personal subject line, they’ll at least read it first!

~ Amy

Don’t worry — when I say “sticky” I’m not talking about honey! What I mean here is: Does your mailing list generate real value for your prospects? And are you using QR codes and real estate in the right combination to make sure that people get to your list?

Remember, when we talk about QR codes and real estate, we’re usually talking about the kind of real estate QR codes that show up on a billboard. That’s a great way to hook people who are window shopping — through the car window, that is! But what goes on in their heads after they look at your mobile landing page?

Well, sometimes the answer is “not much.” Lots of people are realizing that home buying is much cheaper than renting right now, which means a lot fewer “Lookie Lous” and a lot more serious buyers. But if you’re missing the chance to build your relationship from that billboard and its neat little Quick Response Codes, you might lose the customer.

How to Make Customers Care About Your Real Estate Mobile Marketing

So, the first thing is to make sure that, when they get to that landing page of yours (it is a mobile optimized page, right?) you’re asking them for their email address. That’s the way that you create a relationship and make it a lasting one. It works so well because once you’ve gotten their permission, they won’t think of what they get as spam.

But that alone might not be enough! In real estate mobile marketing, we really need to learn that the canned information about properties doesn’t keep people reading. In so many other industries, the mailings that you get aren’t just functional, aiming for the sale. They include a whole bunch of other, different info, making them a resource for readers!

So, what kind of things are people thinking about when they’re considering buying a new home? Well, financial planning is a big one and one that you probably already know a lot about! But there are a lot of other ways we can help them get the balling rolling in their heads! For example, interior decorating advice will make them yearn just that little bit more for a house of their own! Can you think of any other good topics?

You Say You Can’t Blog on Everything? Reach Out

Okay, so maybe you’re not an interior design pro. That’s okay! For a reciprocal link on your site, plenty of talented people would be willing to contribute articles to your page. Having more articles on your site, above and beyond your listings and other agency stuff, will help you rank better in the search engines. And it all starts with your list!

And that starts with your Quick Response Codes … so, if you don’t have that part of your funnel all set up yet, be sure to do it soon! Real estate is all about relationships, so why not spend the time to get started on yours just as soon as you can?

~ Amy

Hi, everyone! Well, I think it’s safe to say — as if we haven’t been saying it already — that QR codes are here to stay when it comes to real estate mobile marketing. For over a year now, QR codes in real estate have been expanding so fast that I’ve wondered in earlier posts whether we really know what we’re going to do with them. Just a quick look over the latest headlines turns up a lot of this kind of stuff:

* Urbane Apartments Launches QR Code Campaign to Reach Out to Residents: I know, a life-long real estate agent cheering for something an apartment complex did? It seems too good to be true, right? But this is an example of how all of us in real estate should be thinking about generating QR codes.

Urbane is working together with a local pizza place to distribute their QR codes to residents when they order pizza. This is great user targeting, and finds the customer at a time when they’re much more likely to actually scan that code. Good work!

* Local QR Real Estate Usage Grows Slowly: From Memphis Daily News, there are a lot of pieces like this out there right now. Joe Spake, a local broker, has a lot of the same thoughts about QR codes in real estate that I do — they only work if they lead to an optimized, truly mobile experience! And that’s a fact.

The article up there makes a reference to a neat little piece of software that optimizes pages for mobile. I haven’t looked it up yet, but if that’s the case, it’s a great idea! It’s a WordPress widget, and WordPress is a real resource for people who aren’t veteran tech heads. With a little work, you can build a really beautiful site!

That brings me to another thought. Software companies are starting to work on QR codes for real estate, and putting together “platforms” so agents can get new sites fresh out of the box. The thing that worries me about this? That all of them will look like boxed sites! The nice thing about QR codes is that they’re sticky marketing and really creative.

For an example, check out this little release from a company called Clikbrix. It bills itself as a “mobile site and QR platform.” I have to admit, I can’t wait to look into a little more, but I’m wondering if the market is going to become saturated with “platforms” that are all the same. Are real estate agents being consulted for the features?

It’ll be interesting to see how many different companies jump into the process now that more and more people know how to generate a QR code. But I’m still on the fence about the idea and what these companies can do to help real estate folks. Maybe I’ll make a post next time sharing a few design thoughts for them!

Wow! QR codes and Near Field Communication really have taken off since I blogged last! Nowadays, David and I are spotting those (sometimes pesky) QR codes just about everywhere. With QR code generator software more widely available and more folks generating QR codes than ever before, they’re on everything — QR codes for real estate have become QR codes for soft drinks, books, shoes, and a whole lot more.

So … about now, we should all be thinking about what makes QR codes work.

Here are three rules I hope will catch on for QR codes in real estate and all the other ways people are using them. It’s great to see the explosion of creativity … but pure, unbridled creativity doesn’t always view well on your mobile device! Here are a few ideas I’m kicking around — you can let me know in the comments section below if you think they’re good, bad, or indifferent!

1) QR Codes Should be Mobile Optimized

I love scanning codes. Scanning QR codes is part of the fun of using them at all. But in the last month, as I’ve gone hunting for codes to scan — or they’ve been hunting me, as seems to be the case lately — I’ve noticed an odd trend. Marketers know that QR codes are especially for your phone, but the sites they lead to aren’t mobile optimized.

If you’re leading visitors directly to your non-optimized website, you’re making it harder than heck for them to get through to your message. So first things first, unless you’re sending them directly to video or audio, you’ll need a totally optimized, mobile-friendly landing page. That could go a long way toward making QR fun for everyone.

2) Let Them Know What to Do With It

QR codes look a lot like barcodes, so they can easily blend in to whatever they’re riding. If someone doesn’t know what a QR code is all about, then seeing it on a Cheetos bag or a Pepsi Big Gulp isn’t going to help them get the picture. We’re especially bad at this in QR codes for real estate. We assume people will figure it out on their own.

But people aren’t motivated to understand or play with marketing messages that leave them hanging. A code should always be coupled with some idea of what it’s going to do. I’m much more likely to scan if I see “Scan this code for a discount” or to win a prize or something else like that. For real estate, “Scan to learn about this property” would do.

3) Give Them a Reason To Stay

Once they’ve scanned, they’re in — you have their attention. If they went to the trouble of picking up the phone and scanning the code, then in a weird way you’ve already gotten them to opt in, which is very important. For at least a few seconds they’re thinking about your offer. This is where too many ads drop the ball — with an end result that’s boring, like your home page. They could’ve gotten that at home!

This ties in with number one above, but it’s a more general principle. If you want your codes to work, they should do something great for the user. Maybe even something they can’t get through your site normally. And, of course, they should be properly segmented — meaning that you’re tracking your QR code results so you know what works and what doesn’t. That’s how you make your mobile campaign better over time.

What do you think? What other rules for the road would you like to see mobile advertisers adopt?

Well, the future is officially here. In the previous post, I was discussing Near Field Communication (NFC) which a type of communication between devices that uses short-range radio frequencies. There are all sorts of different type of potential uses for Near Field Communication, including using it as a way to make payments for purchases at retail stores. Well, I had heard and read about this before, but I had never seen it, until yesterday.

I was at the mall and stopped in to buy some clothes at American Eagle. After finding what I was looking for, I stood in line behind a young man who made his payment simply by typing his pin into his smartphone and then tapping the phone onto a small pad that was right near the register. I couldn’t believe it – I almost did a double take. It was so quick and easy – he didnt have to swipe anything, there was nothing to sign, there was no clerk checking signature or IDs. Bing, bang, boom – done.

I of course had to stop him before he left the store and ask him what type of payment system he was using. We had a pretty interesting conversation for close to 10 minutes; I made sure to tell him about my blog, and gave him my QR code business card in case he’s ever looking for a real estate agent. But mostly I just drooled over his smartphone, lol.

Turns out he was using Google Wallet, which is being rolled out at thousands of places that use MasterCard PayPass terminals. It works right now on the Nexus 4G, the phone he had, but there’s plans to roll it out soon to any smartphone running Android. He got the phone only a few weeks ago himself, and Google Wallet was one of the first apps he downloaded for the device. He had already used Google Wallet at a few other stores and admitted he was getting frustrated at the stores that didn’t have it set up for NFC payments. I guess once you pay that way, its hard to go back.

I’ve always been such an Apple fan, the type of person who waited outside Apple stores like a groupie every time they released a new product, but now I’ve got another reason to rethink my smartphone commitment when my contract runs out at the end of the year. If Google Wallet gets rolled out to other smartphones for this holiday season, I know what I’m going to be asking my husband for Christmas!

If you’re looking to buy a cool new toy for the technolgy lover in your circle of friends or family, you should look into a smartphone that is NFC enabled. Even if it doesn’t have a Google Wallet app, I’m positive there are going to be plenty of other alternatives down the road. I mean after all, if Visa and American Express can coexist and if there are dozens of banking giants, I don’t think Google is going to monopolize the NFC payment market. They’ll just be among the first to the party.

So far I’ve used a lot of entries in this blog talking about QR codes and different ways to use them in marketing, but like I mentioned in an earlier blog post, QR codes are really just a form of mobile marketing. So I’d be remiss if I didn’t spend a little bit of time and space talking about something that might prove to be the next new big thing in mobile marketing: Near Field Communication.

Near Field Communication (NFC) is a technology that allows for communication between devices such as mobile phones that utilizes radio waves that travel a very small distance, typically a few inches or centimeters. It also allows for passive, non-powered devices such as keychains, cards, pads, mats, stickers, etc. to interact with a powered device that utilizes NFC.

Near Field Communication can do many things that are similar to QR codes, such as direct someone to a website, friend someone on social network, or exchange contact information like a business card. But it also can do things that QR codes cannot, like pay for purchases at stores using a mobile device.

Near Field Communication is based off the same technology as Radio Frequency ID (RFID) chips and essentially works the same way as Bluetooth does, but only over a much smaller range. Because it only works over a range of a few centimeters, its much harder for the signal to be intercepted and/or hacked, making it far more secure of a signal and more viable in commercial enterprise. A user has to hold their NFC enabled device directly near or on the device or target it is going to interact with. This alleviates security concerns that many people have with Bluetooth and other forms of wireless communication.

Will Near Field Communication be the future of business? Only time will tell, but I’m going to be looking into how I can start using NFC in conjunction with QR codes and other forms of mobile marketing to enhance my real estate practice.

I can’t tell you how many of my colleagues and competitors in the real estate industry have custom screen printed cars with their photos, logos, and contact information on them. I’ve never been a huge fan of them myself, only because I think its kind of weird for me to drive around in a car that has my face, only bigger, printed on the side. I’d find it weird to pull up to a traffic light and see someone in the next car glance over at me, glance down at my car, and realize they’re seeing the same face twice. It also seems kind of, I dunno, self-absorbed to me. But I know a lot of great real estate agents who are also great people that swear by the practice. So to each their own.

But if you’re driving around all over town in a car that has your name, face, logo, phone number, and even website information on it, but you don’t have a QR code, I’d recommend you add one right away. Here’s a few great reasons why:

1) A parked car with a QR code on it can basically be a really big and mobile business card. People who see the parked car can scan the code and get directed to your website or the most recent listings.

2) A lot of QR codes are tiny and dense and hard to scan. It’s one of the main complaints and drawbacks, I have to admit, to this amazing technology and marketing tool. Imagine, however, a really big and easy to scan QR code, one the size of a door. Someone could scan it from across the street and it would probably work.

3) If you run or manage a real estate practice with multiple agents, you could provide them all different QR codes to put on their cars and then track the data. Is one agent getting out there more often than others? Is an agent getting a lot of scans in a particular neighborhood? As I mentioned in a previous post, better data leads to better decisions, which is one of the main jobs of a manager and/or business owner.

So if you’ve got every piece of contact information imaginabile printed on a car or fleet of cars, but you’re missing QR codes, do yourself a favor and add them right away. You’ll be glad you did!

In my last blog entry, I mentioned how direct mail campaigns can be unpredictable in terms of return on investments, especially in real estate marketing. I’ve learned, however, that QR codes used on your direct mailers offer the promise of greatly reducing the uncertainty associated with direct mailers. Here’s how: analytics.

There are variety of ways to measure and track which QR codes are being scanned, when, and how often. If you do set it up correctly, you can even learn where. That data can be used to improve the efficiency of not only your direct mail campaign, but many different aspects of real estate marketing. Here’s a few suggestions:

1) Find an analytics solution. Many people I know prefer to use Google, since they’re a major search engine to begin with, but I do know that there are some reliable analytics services out there besides Google, even ones bundled into other QR code applications. Since Google is pretty familiar to most people, though, lets use them as a sample analytics solution for this blog post. If you’re not familiar with Google Analytics, here’s a link to get you more acquainted with what it is.

2) Use Googe analytics to create a urchin tracking codes to append to your URLs. An urchin tracking code is something Google uses to track where people are coming to your website from. Most people use them to figure out which websites are sending the most traffic, but you can do the same thing with QR codes.

3) Use several different URLs or create different tracking codes to create unique QR codes. Print the unique Qr codes on different flyers and mail them out to several different neighborhoods. You can be as wide or as narrow as you wish – one QR code for each zip code or one per street – its up to you!

4) Mail out the flyers and then start tracking the data. After the flyers are mailed out, within a few weeks, you will have a better idea of who actually scanned the codes. Every time someone scans the codes, Analytics will track that data and tell you which QR code sent you the traffic.

5) Use the data to make better decisions. Once you have enough data, you can start making better decisions. Did you notice that one neighborhood or street had the highest amount of scans? Did you see that others had very low amounts of scans? Now you know who’s looking to buy or sell a home and who’s not. You can beging using that data not only for your next round of mailers, but other aspects of your marketing as well. Over time, you will become far more efficient using your marketing funds and see a greater return on time and investment.

This method may sound complicated, but its really not. Even if you’ve never used Google Analytics, you can sign up for free and learn the basics within a few hours. Once you start using the method, you’ll find once you set it up, the data basically tracks itself and you’ll wonder how and why you ever made marketing decisions before without such valuable data!

In my last blog entry, I was discussing how to collaborate with other types of businesses that are partonized by the same type of customer. In my case, real estate, I like to give flyers with QR codes on them to business like banks, credit unions, moving companies, and home renavators, because they often deal with people looking to buy or sell a home. I know there’s a strong chance that if I work with these companies and give them some promising leads they will do the same for me. I use my QR code flyers like a hook and bait, dangling them in a pool of water that I know has enough fish in them to make it worth my while.

Sometime, though, you need to fish in bigger waters. You’ve fished all the promising leads from those smaller pools, and now its time not to use a hook, but a net, and a wider net at that. I’m talking direct mailers. Direct mailers are the fishing net of the real estate world – sometimes you cast them out and they reel in tons of customers. Other times, you’re not so lucky. Most real estate practices use direct mailers to some degree, and some use them more than others. Everyone who uses them, however, is aware of their fickle and unpredictable returns on investment.

I’ve figured out, however, to make direct mail campaigns a little more predictable and less frustrating, and the secret is, you guessed it – QR codes. I make sure to have them on my flyers, the same ones I drop off at the places of businesses that I mentioned in my last post. One neat little thing about QR codes that even people who use them for marketing may not realize is that every time someone scans one, you can track that scan and start accumulating data. With better data, you can make better decisions, especially when it comes to marketing. Stay tuned and next blog entry, I’m going to talk about the ultimate application for QR codes: analytics.

Throughout this blog, I’ve been teaching people how to use QR codes in marketing, especially for real estate. I’ve been so focused on growing one’s own business, however, that I’ve forgotten the importance of working with other businesses and industries that are related to yours or have similar customers.

There are many different types of business that have what I could a synergistic relationship – they are not direct competitors nor in the same exact industry, but occup similar “niches” in business ecosystems. For example, a store that sells maternity clothes isn’t a competitor to a business that baby proofs homes, but they have the same customer base. Now imagine if those businesses helped each other out by marketing the other one within both of the places of business. Over time, both businesses would find they had increased their revenue by “sharing” leads with one another.

So how does this translate to real estate? Well, what other types of businesses do people who are in the market to buy or sell a home patronize? What if you asked them to help market you in exchange for you marketing them, a little quid pro quo? Here’s a few thoughts of the top of my head:

1) Banks, credit unions, and mortgage lenders – I’ve never sold a home to anybody who paid cash. Every single home I’ve sold was purchased with the assistance of a mortgage. Most real estate agents know this, of course, but not all of them work to develop relationships with their local banks, credit unions, and other mortage lenders. If you haven’t done so, I would recommend you start doing so.

One thing I like to do is stop at a few places that deal in mortgages that I’ve developed relationships with over the years and make sure they have a stack of flyers for my business and have QR codes on the flyers that lead potential home buyers to the most recent listings on my website. You can even generate a few different QR codes based on how much a future home buyer has been approved for at the mortgage lender – that way, you can really tailor the experience to the home buyer and their income level and show them houses that are only in their price range.

2) Moving companies – Of course people in apartments move the most, but a for every home buyer, there’s a seller, which means they need to move all of their possesions. Since home owners have more space and income relative to apartment renters, they also tend to have more stuff and need the services of professional moving companies. I’ve made contacts at the two biggest ones in my local area and always recommend them to home sellers. In return, they do the same for me by keeping a stack of my flyers with QR codes on them.

3) Contractors and renovators – Many home sellers looking to make their home more appealing to buyers do some renovations to their homes before selling them. Also, many home buyers buy fixer-uppers that need a little work but come with a reduced price tag and also renovate the home after purchase. Making a contact or two with a contractor or company that specializes in home renovation could pay off huge dividends down the road. I have one in particular who I know keeps a flyer or two with QR codes on them in his truck for leads, and I keep a business card or two of his on me.

It’s not often what you know, but who you know, that makes all the difference in the business world. I’ve worked hard over the years to learn who interact and deal with the people who could be my next customer, and I make sure to throw them leads. In return, all I ask is they return the favor by having some flyers of mine with QR codes printed on them.