We?re seeing another shift in buying habits and it?s affecting everything from store coupons to selecting hotels to buying real estate. Yes, we?re talking about mobile marketing.
Ellis Team Virtual Tour on Smartphone
Years ago the Internet came along and everybody said newspapers and TV stations would no longer be needed. We found this wasn?t true; however the delivery methods have changed a bit since the advent of the Internet.
Ironically now some are saying the Internet isn?t needed because everything is going mobile. I?ve seen reports that there is now more traffic to websites via smart phones than computers. While it is a fact more people have the power of information literally in their hand wherever they go, there is no substitute for wasting time at work on a big screen surfing the Internet, at least for now.
Smartphone Market Share
The iPhone was a big player in bringing the mobile world to the consumer, but many would be surprised to know that Android is actually the bigger player today. Android just crossed over the 50% mark in January of this year and market share is still growing. The only thing constant is change. Years ago Netscape was The browser in the industry. Microsoft managed to knock off Netscape with Internet Explorer. Now Google Chrome is making inroads along with Mozilla, Firefox, etc.
Remember when Yahoo was the thing in search engines? Today it?s Google with Microsoft fighting for relevance with Bing. We don?t know what tomorrow will bring, however we do know what works today.
If you?re in real estate, you?d better design your website to work on a mobile phone. If you visit our website Topagent.com from a mobile device it recognizes the mobile device and gives you the option to view on a mobile optimized website. We?ve included a photo example of one of our virtual tours. All our virtual tours are optimized to play on any smart phone or phone capable of viewing the Internet. Of course we still have our full blown feature rich tours available for those old fashioned people viewing tours at work or home on a laptop. That sounds kind of weird talking about people on the Internet as old fashioned, but kind of fun I guess too. My how times are changing!
The point is, if you want to be successful in business, you?ve got to be where the customers are. If a business employs old technologies, they?ll get diminished results and wonder why their leads are falling off. They?ll blame it on the Internet and say things like the Internet just doesn?t work anymore. We heard that about newspapers, yellow pages, and radio advertising in the past. They all still work, but customers buying habits are evolving, and if you want to maximize your success, it pays to find out what the consumers are doing and provide solutions.
We have several websites. Even though Android is now king of the mobile market, we can tell you that the iPad is 74.76% of our mobile users on our Topagent.com site. These numbers change on various sites. As more tablets are released this year featuring Android, perhaps those numbers will change. The key is you have to know your market, design your marketing to work on the various technologies, and be available to answer customers in the fashion they like.
If a customer calls you speaking English, they generally would like to speak to someone in English. If a customer calls speaking German, chances are German is their preferred language and they?d like to speak with someone that speaks German.
The same is true with technology. Many people will contact you from their Smart phone. It doesn?t mean they?re ready to talk to you yet. If they ask you to email or send a text of a home, you?ll probably lose that buyer if you fax it to them because that?s more comfortable to you.
If you want to pick up more German buyers, it might help to learn the German language. If you wish to pickup more buyers today, it might help to learn to speak their tech language. If a customer texts you, I?d respond with a text. If you?re not willing to learn the technologies customers want, the real estate industry will pass you by. But then again, so will most industries.
If you don?t know what a QR code is, how to text, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, provide virtual tours, syndicate your listings, do videos on the market, etc. you might be well served to visit Best Buy and look around at how they market with Bar scans, and what devices will read them. Watch customers compare prices the store is offering versus the Internet, and listen to how these devices are shaping buyers decisions. If you can see all this in half an hour at the electronics store, just imagine what is happening on the street in front of the home.
RE/MAX has launched a mobile app that allows you to search all the homes on a map directly from your mobile phone. You can see what homes sold for, what people are asking, and photos of the home you?re in front of. Talk about changing the dynamic of house shopping. Customers can text, call, or email an agent directly from the street for more information. If you?d like this cool new free mobile app send us your email address and we?ll send you the link. Brett@topagent.com
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