What’s Your Mobile Strategy?

If you're like most real estate brokers or agents, you either don't have an actual mobile strategy or you've pieced together some kind of plan over the past year or so. It's not too late to build a plan.

You've all heard the NAR statistics (2012 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers) that 100 percent of consumers use the Internet to search for property and that 89 percent of new home shoppers use a mobile search engine throughout the home search. But, you may not have heard this: Google research (Google & Compete Home Shopper Mobile Survey, 2012) shows that mobile applications are being used by 68 percent of new home shoppers either in the onset or throughout their home-buying experience.

Here are some key questions and considerations when developing your mobile strategy:

• Mobile marketing is all about getting in front of your customer at the right place, the right time with the right information. By offering a mobile website with IDX, you're giving them real-time listings from your MLS.
• Your mobile marketing efforts should include the ability to distribute mobile virtual tours and mobile optimized single-property websites.
• Decide how to offer your mobile website—through a native app or a responsive website design. Each will have key benefits. Discuss these options with various mobile suppliers such as BestFit Mobile or Aumnia.

• One goal of your mobile plan should be to offer up-to-date content that is created once and published everywhere, including your other sites and social channels.
• Since the majority of your customers are using a mobile device to search for property, it's fertile ground for lead generation. I think mobile leads have a unique DNA. Mobile users are not just browsers; they're shoppers. They have destination in mind. That may result in a lead with higher urgency and increased potential.
• Your mobile leads need to be managed in your CRM system and worked with a special focus.

Get started today. A solid mobile strategy will net you more leads and more sales.

This article originally appeared on the REAL Trends Blog. Reprinted with permission of REAL Trends Inc. Copyright © 2013