Text Message Marketing – The Next Wave of ‘Green’ Real Estate Marketing Tools

Real estate agents are always looking for a new method to increase their marketing effectiveness while reducing their efforts. Digital flyers via SMS text messaging is the way to go!

SMS (text message) marketing is poised to see ten-fold growth during 2010, and triple digit increases through 2012 (according to data from the Yankee Group). Through the use of mobile short codes and keywords, real estate agents can use this technology to deliver comprehensive data about their listings directly to prospective clients.

An example of the use of the system would be if an agent advertised Text HOME123 to 69302 for more details. That could generate a message that could outline the info on the property and provide a link directly to the MLS listing like this

54 Meadowhawk 4 bed7bath. Great entertaining home! Call Rob 702-555-1212 Full MLS [link would be here]

By embedding the tiny URL into the text message, the agent can deliver a link to the full MLS listing, or a custom landing page (digital flyer), without the hassle or expense of printing hundreds of flyers. Plus, the text messages don’t use any natural resources, so you are deploying a ‘green’ solution as part of your marketing efforts and it can be easily forwarded to the buyer’s spouse, friend, or buying agent.

Current ‘green’ solutions are available by way of voice recordings or short distance radio broadcasts, but these methods of advertising have the following limitations

They don’t permit the perspective buyer to save the information
They don’t provide pictures
The agent doesn’t get to collect the buyer’s contact information

With real estate text message marketing, the agent gains the following benefits

Always Working – A system that is working for them while they eat, sleep, or close other sales
Full Details – Can deliver a link to the full MLS listing or custom digital marketing flyer
Data Collection – Collect the cell phone number of every user so that they can reply to them in person
Flexibility – Allows for instant changes to the response message (unlike printed marketing materials)
Cost Effective – Is far more cost effective than print (about 7 cents per message compared to 20 cents per printed flyer)