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Unread 19th Oct 2012, 10:57 AM   #1
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If SMS for Car Dealers/Realtors Works, How Come No One is Using it...
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I have been thinking about getting into SMS Short or Long/QR codes for car dealers and realtors...where the customer texts a code or QR code to get more information about a car or house and the car dealer/realtor gets info on who looked at that car/property

But I haven't seen one instance of people using this service in the northeast in Auto Trader magazines or Real Estate for Sale ads or books. It looks like a good idea so shouldn't at least 1 or 2 dealers/realters in the stack of ads I have be using it?

Some realtors use QR codes but they usually go to their full website.

Any thoughts?

Ray
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Unread 19th Oct 2012, 12:43 PM   #2
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Re: If SMS for Car Dealers/Realtors Works, How Come No One is Using it...
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The problem is that there are a lot of big marketing companies that cater to those industries. They rolled QR & SMS and did it in ways that didn't produce ROI that they really should have agents, brokers and dealers.

SMS campaigns run correctly for auto dealers in particular can result in huge profits.

As mentioned,

Some realtors use QR codes but they usually go to their full website.
I am seeing the same thing in the auto industry even with SMS...really poor implementation.
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Unread 19th Oct 2012, 12:46 PM   #3
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Re: If SMS for Car Dealers/Realtors Works, How Come No One is Using it...
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Most people don't know how to use the QR reader application on their smartphones. I've done a couple of campaigns with stuff like this and non-tech savy people don't even have the QR code reader on their phones.

It would be good if that was a application that came with smart phones by default, but for iPhones you need to download that from the app store.
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Unread 19th Oct 2012, 01:13 PM   #4
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Re: If SMS for Car Dealers/Realtors Works, How Come No One is Using it...
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Originally Posted by ClientGrabber View Post

The problem is that there are a lot of big marketing companies that cater to those industries. They rolled QR & SMS and did it in ways that didn't produce ROI that they really should have agents, brokers and dealers.

SMS campaigns run correctly for auto dealers in particular can result in huge profits.

As mentioned,

I am seeing the same thing in the auto industry even with SMS...really poor implementation.
How would you describe great implementation for this industry?

Jay Traylor
Houston, TX
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Unread 19th Oct 2012, 02:17 PM   #5
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Re: If SMS for Car Dealers/Realtors Works, How Come No One is Using it...
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Originally Posted by tracourt View Post

How would you describe great implementation for this industry?
For the auto industry, I'll share an example from one of my clients. I work with a medium sized used car lot that also has a service department. They use my SMS services (through Avid Mobile). I advised them to set up two groups in their back office. A group of potential clients and a group of sold customers.

Every potential client that comes in, they hand them a piece of paper asking for their name and phone number to be signed up for the SMS list. Same thing with the sold customers. Each month we send out a text to each group. The potential sales customers get a text with either inventory specials or a simple "$500 off your purchase" The sold customers receive a text with a discount on service.

I don't have official numbers, but the owner has told me it is working. I tried to offer doing landing pages for all of their vehicles, but he wasn't interested.

One suggestion to try with new car dealers that already have mobile sites is to show them how instead of printing a QR code in their regular media advertising, throw in a mobile call to action. If its a big enough dealer they can grow a substantial list in no time. Then they simply push out a text on Saturday at 10:00am (research shows that's when people are starting their shopping day) and boom, get customers in the door. I am in talks with a fairly large dealership group in the Boston area, trying to nail this down.

In regards to real estate I found a number of offices on the south shore and south coast of Massachusetts using a canned texting/ landing page service. One broker told me she was paying only $70/ month for it, but there is no branding for the business. All of the branding goes to the service.

I found a real estate office in Boston whom I am now working with doing both landing pages, sms AND a mobile website. I did the site for $350 plus $100/ month for maintenance and updating. For the landing pages, the owner purchased 15. I charged $5 to set up each page and it $19/ a month for hosting/ updates and such. As an added bonus I threw in 400 sms messages a month. I also found a company in the Chicago area that prints bulk sign riders so I paid for those myself as part of the service, but the setup charge for each landing page took care of most of that cost.

Just a few ideas. I'm actually starting to branch off into doing more than just strictly mobile marketing. Getting in adwords, website building and Google+ setup/ optimization. The more you can offer, the more you can potentially make

I hope this helps

-Todd

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Unread 19th Oct 2012, 03:40 PM   #6
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Re: If SMS for Car Dealers/Realtors Works, How Come No One is Using it...
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Originally Posted by toddfromboston View Post

For the auto industry, I'll share an example from one of my clients. I work with a medium sized used car lot that also has a service department. They use my SMS services (through Avid Mobile). I advised them to set up two groups in their back office. A group of potential clients and a group of sold customers.

Every potential client that comes in, they hand them a piece of paper asking for their name and phone number to be signed up for the SMS list. Same thing with the sold customers. Each month we send out a text to each group. The potential sales customers get a text with either inventory specials or a simple "$500 off your purchase" The sold customers receive a text with a discount on service.

I don't have official numbers, but the owner has told me it is working. I tried to offer doing landing pages for all of their vehicles, but he wasn't interested.

One suggestion to try with new car dealers that already have mobile sites is to show them how instead of printing a QR code in their regular media advertising, throw in a mobile call to action. If its a big enough dealer they can grow a substantial list in no time. Then they simply push out a text on Saturday at 10:00am (research shows that's when people are starting their shopping day) and boom, get customers in the door. I am in talks with a fairly large dealership group in the Boston area, trying to nail this down.

In regards to real estate I found a number of offices on the south shore and south coast of Massachusetts using a canned texting/ landing page service. One broker told me she was paying only $70/ month for it, but there is no branding for the business. All of the branding goes to the service.

I found a real estate office in Boston whom I am now working with doing both landing pages, sms AND a mobile website. I did the site for $350 plus $100/ month for maintenance and updating. For the landing pages, the owner purchased 15. I charged $5 to set up each page and it $19/ a month for hosting/ updates and such. As an added bonus I threw in 400 sms messages a month. I also found a company in the Chicago area that prints bulk sign riders so I paid for those myself as part of the service, but the setup charge for each landing page took care of most of that cost.

Just a few ideas. I'm actually starting to branch off into doing more than just strictly mobile marketing. Getting in adwords, website building and Google+ setup/ optimization. The more you can offer, the more you can potentially make

I hope this helps

-Todd
Good thoughts!

Jay Traylor
Houston, TX
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Unread 21st Oct 2012, 06:36 PM   #7
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Re: If SMS for Car Dealers/Realtors Works, How Come No One is Using it...
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This is great information.
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Unread 31st Oct 2012, 03:10 AM   #8
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Re: If SMS for Car Dealers/Realtors Works, How Come No One is Using it...
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Hi,

Has anyone examples of a real estate broker (we call them estate agents in the UK) using SMS ?. Such as they got x% more sign-ups for their list (property alerts) in z months, over a period of y they sold x% more properties. Anything like that would be very useful.

(I have an agent asking me)

Thanks - really appreciate any input

Si

PS - I think any stats for other niches would also be useful
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Unread 3rd Nov 2012, 10:42 PM   #9
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Re: If SMS for Car Dealers/Realtors Works, How Come No One is Using it...
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Originally Posted by raferj View Post

I have been thinking about getting into SMS Short or Long/QR codes for car dealers and realtors...where the customer texts a code or QR code to get more information about a car or house and the car dealer/realtor gets info on who looked at that car/property

But I haven't seen one instance of people using this service in the northeast in Auto Trader magazines or Real Estate for Sale ads or books. It looks like a good idea so shouldn't at least 1 or 2 dealers/realters in the stack of ads I have be using it?

Some realtors use QR codes but they usually go to their full website.

Any thoughts?

Ray
I have not seen anyone using a system like this in any industry. I also have not seen a SMS provider that has a system in place that would allow the car dealer/realtor to get info on who looked at that car/property. Do you know of any SMS providers that can offer this service?
Jim
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Unread 3rd Nov 2012, 11:57 PM   #10
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Re: If SMS for Car Dealers/Realtors Works, How Come No One is Using it...
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Originally Posted by Wild Card View Post

I have not seen anyone using a system like this in any industry. I also have not seen a SMS provider that has a system in place that would allow the car dealer/realtor to get info on who looked at that car/property. Do you know of any SMS providers that can offer this service?
Jim
This type of system is easily setup using Twilio and OpenVBX. I would suggest making videos of the cars or homes for sale, then having prospects call a phone number which allows them to press "1" for X, press "2" for Y, etc. Or they could text in a house number, or whatever. Phone calls with prompts are so easy though.

When they make the call and choose an option, an SMS with the video URL is sent back to their smart phone, their number is then added to a list in the database, and the car salesman or realtor is immediately sent a text letting them know the phone number of the person who just requested information.

Its really just a matter of setting it up to deliver the information (i.e. a mobile web URL or video URL) information the prospect is looking for, while at the same time adding them to a list and then alerting the salesperson that someone is interested in "X" property or car at that moment. Its easy to setup, but explaining it and selling it is another story!
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Unread 4th Nov 2012, 05:38 PM   #11
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Re: If SMS for Car Dealers/Realtors Works, How Come No One is Using it...
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Originally Posted by xlfutur1 View Post

This type of system is easily setup using Twilio and OpenVBX. I would suggest making videos of the cars or homes for sale, then having prospects call a phone number which allows them to press "1" for X, press "2" for Y, etc. Or they could text in a house number, or whatever. Phone calls with prompts are so easy though.

When they make the call and choose an option, an SMS with the video URL is sent back to their smart phone, their number is then added to a list in the database, and the car salesman or realtor is immediately sent a text letting them know the phone number of the person who just requested information.

Its really just a matter of setting it up to deliver the information (i.e. a mobile web URL or video URL) information the prospect is looking for, while at the same time adding them to a list and then alerting the salesperson that someone is interested in "X" property or car at that moment. Its easy to setup, but explaining it and selling it is another story!
Thanks for your reply. This sounds like a great idea but something tells me that you are right - easier said than done! Are you doing this or do you know anyone that is?
Jim
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