The real estate marketing is always fluctuating. Some months may be a seller’s dream market where demand for houses is high but listings are scarce; while other months may be more beneficial to buyers who have their pick of listings to choose from.
This means that real estate agents often have their work cut out from them in trying to find new leads in order to ensure their own security in this market that can dry up in a flash.
As well, real estate agents don’t necessarily want to spend a large amount of cash in order to gather these leads through marketing and advertising that will always be competing with that of other brokerages and agents who are trying to do exactly the same thing.
Real estate agents need a novel way to attract new leads to supplement their existing self-promotion efforts. This new method could be as easy as implementing a SMS shortcode keyword campaign!
What is a shortcode keyword?
First off, let’s go over what a shortcode is. A shortcode is a five or six-digit phone number that is easy to remember and is most often used with SMS text messaging to provide automated information to the texter.
But how does the shortcode know what information the texter is looking for?
That’s where shortcode keywords come into play.
Shortcode keywords are words or short phrases that have been associated with a specific shortcode number and can be used in the creation of these automated, two-way SMS campaigns. A shortcode keyword is used to identify what information the texter is looking to receive and will trigger the associated information campaign to begin sending to the texter based on the replies they provide.
How can keywords be used to attract new leads?
Alright, let’s start with an example.
Say a real estate agent is looking to attract leads who are looking for assistance with selling their home.
A young family is driving downtown and they pass a bus stop where the real estate agent has an ad asking people to call them if they want help selling their property. Nowadays making phone calls seems to have become a stressful task for many (especially the younger generation), and people will go out of their way to avoid doing it at all costs. This young family is of this persuasion, and so the real estate agent has probably lost this potential lead.
Alternatively, picture this.
The same young family drives by another bus stop where there is another real state ad offering to help them sell their property. However, this ad tells passersby to text the word “SELL” to 123456 for more information about how they are able to help. The young family texts the keyword into the shortcode and immediately triggers an automated information campaign, resulting in the collection of a brand new lead for the agent.
A real estate agent could have multiple information campaigns set up using multiple different keywords for people looking to sell property, buy property, and even for those who are just looking for information about the process in general. Each keyword could be used to trigger its own campaign and all contact data received from texters would be fed automatically into a connected CRM where the real estate agent can use it to reach out to them.
Why should real estate agents use shortcode keywords?
Texting has become the norm for many people. As mentioned above, people generally gravitate toward texting each other rather than picking up the phone to call them. So why wouldn’t that logic carry over into the world of real estate?
By providing people with the option to initiate contact with real estate agents in a way that does not involve meeting face to face or even so much as a phone call, agents can gain more leads than ever before without having to put in a great deal of extra work!
Once the front-end work of setting up the shortcode keyword information campaigns is finished, a real estate agent would have to do next to nothing to maintain the campaign other than reviewing the leads and reaching out to them once they are ready to be contacted.
In addition to the sheer facility in implementing these automated information campaigns, using shortcode keywords can be an economical way to supplement a real estate agent’s existing marketing and advertising efforts. The agent would only have to pay for any text messages that are sent using the keyword, meaning that if no one texts the keyword into the shortcode, the real estate agent does not have to pay any usage fees.
Is there a tool for creating automated shortcode keyword campaigns?
Yes! SimplyCast’s 360 marketing automation platform allows real estate agents to register keywords with one of its designated shortcodes and use them to build out automated information campaigns in order to easily collect new leads.
With SimplyCast 360, real estate agents can use SMS automation technology to increase the number of leads they can gather for as low as 10 cents a lead!
If you are a real estate agent looking to attract new leads, click the button below to request a demo of SimplyCast 360 to see just how easy it can be with the help of shortcode keyword technology.
