A number of our agents tell us that they want to get more involved in social media but they don’t know what to post.  They don’t know where to get content or what to say.  With this in mind we created a “Real Estate News” section in the Digital Home Info dashboard.

On a daily basis we go out and scour the Internet looking for Real Estate related news and articles.  We then post excerpts and links to these articles in the “Real Estate News” section of the dashboard.  You can read the excerpt or click on the link to read the article.  If you decide that you like the article and it is worth sharing we have placed social media sharing icons under the excerpt for easy sharing.  Just click on the desired social media network (Facebook, Twitter, and Linked In) to share the article.

About 5 years ago we were deep into research about the commercial use of text messaging.  At this time there weren’t many companies that were providing commercial text messaging services.  We actually managed to find about 5 in the country at the time, none of them had a product specifically designed for the real estate industry.  So we set out to create the best real estate text messaging system possible.  We wanted to create an easy to use lead generating system that REALTORS would love.

Along the way we learned a number of things abut what REALTORS want and need and how to generate leads for REALTORS.  As it turns out we didn’t create the best real estate text messaging system possible.  We ended up creating what we consider to be the best real estate digital marketing system available on the market.

Why is Digital Home Info the best Real Estate Marketing system?

Customer Service- Yes, Customer Service is the number one reason we are the best.  Our customers are the most important part of our business.  Without them we wouldn’t have a business.  So we listen to them when they have an issue or request.  Many REALTORS work everyday of the week, so do we.  When our customers have questions they can pick up the phone and get a live person.  When you send in an email we guarantee you’ll get a response and the issue/question will be addressed. This level of customer service has enabled us to grow and retain our customer base.

Technology- Second only to Customer Service is our technology.  We have yet to find a competitor that offers the same combination of technology that Digital Home Info does.  Some of them have some of the components but there isn’t one that does everything we do:

• Text Messaging
• Toll Free Call Capture
• Virtual Tours
• Mobile Virtual Tours
• Social Media Integration
• Automated Video Creation
• Syndication
• Lead Reporting
• REALTOR.COM Posting

Value- This is the final piece of the puzzle that makes us the best.  While our service and technology are enterprise class our pricing is not. We know that many of our competitors charge double or triple what we do and all they offer is just one of the services included in Digital Home Info.  Our philosophy is that by providing a great service at a reasonable price everyone wins. This is value.

Want to learn more?  Try giving us a call, 877.250.5277

]]> http://www.digitalhomeinfo.com/real-estate-marketing-blog/the-best-real-estate-text-message-marketing-system/feed/ 6 http://www.digitalhomeinfo.com/knowledge-base/unbranded-virtual-tours/ http://www.digitalhomeinfo.com/knowledge-base/unbranded-virtual-tours/#comments Fri, 16 Apr 2010 18:04:05 +0000 Adam Small http://www.digitalhomeinfo.com/?p=678

Many of our customers know that we are constantly releasing improvements to our Digital Home Info Real Estate Marketing system. Today we are releasing our latest enhancement to the service, Unbranded Virtual Tours. Every listing now has an unbranded virtual tour link that can be found in the Digital Home Info dashboard. The link is under the Social Media sharing icons in the Active Listings section.

This link can be clicked on to view your unbranded virtual tour and copied to other systems requiring unbranded virtual tour links.

Check it out and let us know what you think. We are always looking for great feedback and ways to improve our product.

Since we launched our Referral Program earlier this month, we have had a lot of agents ask us for a quick explanation of what Digital Home Info is.  We tried to put it in writing but we felt that a video just says it better.  So, below is a video explaining the Text Message / Mobile Marketing, Internet and Social Media aspects of the Digital Home Info Real Estate Marketing system.

As always, if you have any questions please feel free to contact us.

Our latest addition to our ongoing efforts to bring new features and enhancements to our Digital Home Info Real Estate Marketing Service is the ability to push your real estate listings to different social media services on demand. On your dashboard you will now see the social media icons on each listing (see photo above). In addition to automatically pushing your listings to your Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube accounts, you can now post whenever you want as well. For example, when you change a price on a listing or a major upgrade is done to a property, you can let everyone know right away.  Just click on the icon for the service desired and follow the instructions on the window that pops up (it is different for each service).

This video walks you through the basic steps of setting up a new listing in the Digital Home Info Real Estate Marketing system.

If you don’t see the video here you can view on YouTube.com at Digital Home Info How To Set up a New Listing

Step by step guide to setting up a new listing in the Digital Home Info Real Estate Marketing System.

1. Make sure that you are logged in to the Digital Home Info Portal and that you are on the “Dashboard” tab.
2. Under the Add New Listing section of the Dashboard select the desired property code from the dropdown box.  If the desired code is not in the dropdown box that means that it is assigned to an active property and you must deactivate the active code by clicking on the “Deactivate” link.  Once this is done the desired code should be available in the dropdown box.
3. Press the “Submit” button.
4. This brings you to a property information form.  At this point we need to fill in the relevant information on the property.  The more fields you fill in the better. You can copy and paste text into the text boxes.
5. Once you have filled in all of the desired fields press the “Save Listing and on to Step 2″ button.
6. This brings us to the upload pictures screen.  If you don’t have any photos of the property just yet you can click on the “Skip this Step” link at the bottom right of the form.  Otherwise click on the browse button to select photos. Multiple photos may be selected at one time.  Although there is no limit to the number of photos you may upload you can upload no more than 15 megabytes of photos at once.
7. Once you photos are selected press the “Save Files” button at the bottom left of the form.
8. The files will upload and once all the files are uploaded the screen will move to the “This listing has been assigned page”  At this point the text message, toll free and virtual tour are all completely set up.  You can visit the virtual tour, text in the property code or call the toll free number and get the appropriate responses and notifications.
9. If you desire you can actually edit the advanced features of the listing by clicking on the “Edit this Listing” link.  Check back on the blog and in the Resources tab for tutorials on the individual features.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact support at digitalhomeinfo.com

This week we thought it would be a good idea to post some tips for our realtors that we think might help them maximize the Real Estate Mobile Marketing tools at their disposal.

Is it really just as easy as placing a sign in the yard? The answer to that is yes and no. Placing a sign in the yard will develop leads and those leads will turn into customers, but in order to get the most out of your mobile marketing tools you should first exercise the full options of your mobile tools and then integrate the mobile tools into your overall marketing strategy.

The first part of this is utilizing the full options of your mobile tools. What does this mean? Well for the package that Digital Home Info offers this means using the Toll Free Call Capture, Email (adding attachments, pictures, MLS sheets, etc… to the email), Contact, More Information and Mobile Tour features that come with every listing.

Once you have set up the options you want to use, it is time to integrate the messaging tools into your overall marketing plan. This means setting up the Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Syndication features so that we can push your listings out to your social media networks and multiple real estate related sites on the Internet.  It also means including the property code and Virtual Tour links in your other advertising.

Here are just a few things that some of our clients attribute their success with using our service:

1) Include the property code in your newspaper, magazine and online listing ads. A great way to do this is to modify the picture of the property to include a small banner across the bottom with the texting instructions.  You will enhance your ability to deliver information to a buyer and your ability to capture lead information for follow up.

2) Remove the paper flyers from the property and place only the Text Messaging and Toll Free signs in the yard. This will encourage buyers to seek information through this service increasing your lead captures and driving additional traffic to your Virtual Tours.

3) Promote the Text, Toll Free and Virtual Tour service as a part of your marketing strategy to prospective sellers to let them know that you are up to date with the latest technology and using it to sell their home.

4) Include links to your Virtual Tour, web site, your email address and contact information in the Text Messages and Toll Free message. This will drive traffic to you through your site or direct contact.

5) Use the Text Messaging , Toll Free and Virtual Tour service on every property! The more visible your service is, the greater the usage will be.

Thanks to all of our realtors who have shared their success stories.  We look forward to hearing more.  How have you used mobile applications for real estate?

We’ve asked our current customers what new features they’d like to see as a part of our service. This is what they have come up with. What do you think? What else are REALTORS looking for in a digital marketing service?