When It Comes to QR Codes, What About Clikbrix?

QR codes are addictive, especially for those of us who like to walk around entertaining ourselves with our high tech phones. Each time you scan there is a sense of excitement and anticipation – especially with those QR marketing campaigns that purposely hold back information that is ultimately translated to your phone. It’s like getting the white mystery flavored Skittle in your bag of colorful candy and finding out a whole new flavor like root beer!

If you are curious, go to m.clickbrix.com on your mobile browser. It will magically pick the right reader for your phone. Once you have loaded the QR reader to your phone (as mentioned in the first part of this series), scan the QR code to the left for a special offer. A great site to find the QR Reader of choice is http://www.mobile-barcodes.com/qr-code-software/

QR codes are popping up everywhere now: billboards, price tags, websites, newspapers, blogs, and other marketing mediums. Now they’re also popping up in the real estate space! And tech savvy vendors to the real estate industry are embracing this technology in a variety of ways – linking to profile pages, linking to property pages, linking to virtual tours, linking to neighborhood tours, etc.

This week we were able to preview the Clikbrix QR code solution for real estate professionals. We spoke with Erik Goldhar, co-founder of QR marketing agency, ‘QRe8 Mobile Experience’, the parent company of Clikbrix.com. Goldhar has a background in Canada’s digital marketing and ad world. Clikbrix and QRe8.com have been working on QR codes for the past 2.5 years and saw a gaping opportunity for this technology in the American real estate space.

During this call we were able to understand several of Clikbrix’s points of view regarding the following:

1.) What are the benefits of using QR codes to promote real estate business?
2.) What are some industry challenges you see with QR codes for marketing?
3.) What solution is Clikbrix offering to the industry?

What are the benefits of using QR codes to promote real estate business?

QR codes are a technology that’s quickly catching on. Whether printed big or small, QR codes can fit within virtually any marketing application. Even beyond the obvious ‘For Sale’ sign, QR codes can be added to property flyers, business cards, direct mail pieces, email signatures, and websites. They can even be Facebook profile pictures and displayed on almost any online medium and communication.

QR codes are also a “Green” technology and help agents show their commitment to supporting green initiatives. By using QR Codes effectively, they will help REALTORS® save resources by avoiding excessive printing, paper and ink and also the associated cost. Most importantly, marketing “Green” can be a point of differentiation that can help the REALTOR® align what they value most with their prospective sellers and ultimately win listings.

What are some industry challenges you see with QR codes for marketing real estate?

One of the primary challenges with using QR codes is actually not with the QR technology itself, but rather, where the QR code resolves once it’s scanned.  Many QR codes, especially those generated by free services typically point to a webpage that is not optimized for the mobile web. While Smartphones certainly can open a normal website via their mobile browser, it is often laborious to navigate through websites that were designed for larger screens and keyboards.

Goldhar says, “The number one rule when integrating QR codes is that it is mandatory for every QR code to point to a mobile website…this is the very reason we developed the Clikbrix solution. The benefits of using QR codes that point to a mobile website is that homebuyers and sellers won’t have to use a mobile browser to weed through non-mobile optimized websites. This is not only time consuming and annoying to navigate, but it also affects download times and will therefore cut into users’ mobile data plans.”

Goldhar also points out the fact that Smartphone users will not type in long URL’s into their mobile browsers, which is why he says homebuyers and sellers are becoming more comfortable with scanning QR Codes to connect directly to the mobile website.

What solution is Clikbrix offering to the industry?

Clikbrix has created a turnkey QR Code marketing solution for real estate agents and brokerages. More than merely generating a QR code for each property listing, the Clikbrix solution provides each user with the ability to create his or her mobile website, which consists of an Agent Profile Page (where people can learn about the Agent) and mobile property pages for each of their listings. The system then automatically creates the QR Code that resolves to each of these page types.

Goldhar informs us that each QR Code also has its perfect application. For example, the QR Code that resolves to your property listing is best suited for the For Sale sign for that property, whereas the QR Code that resolves to a Profile Page is best suited for your business cards where you want to highlight yourself, versus a specific property.

Clikbrix offers its users the ability to brand their QR Codes that are generated from their platform (see photo).  Clikbrix designed their service this way to help take QR Codes away from the generic black and white codes you may typically see. Goldhar goes on to say that “the branded code helps our Agents further build their personal brand and to help make an immediate, and meaningful connection to the person scanning the code.”

“We have been involved with the mobile web and QR Codes for some time and we have learned a ton along the way,” Goldhar says. “We’re definitely here to help all of our clients launch their campaigns in the best possible way by sharing our knowledge and best practices we’ve developed and continue to develop.”
The Clikbrix solution is currently available to individual real estate agents and brokers, and Clikbrix is also rolling out a custom brokerage level solution early in 2011. This is something to check back with us for updates.

Can you walk us through how to use this solution?

Erik Goldhar took us through the entire process of signing up to the Clikbrix system platform, beginning with how to set up a user account.

To begin with agents are provided access to the Clikbrix Dashboard (see image).

Using the Dashboard, agents can set up their professional profile page by completing their contact information, company name, logo, about me (bio), email, social handles, and their photo. The mobile user utility (that is, what the user will see on her phone) instantly reflects the agent or broker brand. Below is an example of a profile page and property details page.

Once the agent has set up his or her branding and contact information, they have the opportunity to add all of their listings to the application using the Property Listing Manager section of their Dashboard.

Agents must update listing information on the website to keep the content fresh and accurate. One interesting point about Clikbrix is that with this solution agents do not need to resize images before uploading – the system does it instantly which saves a ton of time. Additionally, you can enter open house dates and fill in a section called the “Neighborhood Insider” which allows agents to really illustrate the perspective buyer that they are an expert in the area where the home is for sale. The system will also generate Google maps and directions. Further, the user can scroll through the color photos, share the listing via email, Facebook and Twitter and contact the agent via one touch dialing, email, Facebook or Twitter.  

Clikbrix has announced that agents will soon be able to include Welcome Videos to their Profile page and Home Tour Videos for each of their property listings. “Mobile video is huge and we want to provide agents, brokerages and users with the ability to capitalize on this quickly growing technology.”

With the Listing Manager, agents can sign into their Clikbrix account and at a glance see which of their listings is generating the most visits. We hope that the day will soon come when the property listings in Clickbrix are dynamically populated from IDX data.

There is also a more detailed tracking section of this solution that is designed to provide lead generation features through a dashboard option to Manage Reporting.

Once clicked, the agent can view traffic reports like the one below.

These tracking stats includes:

• The date/time the QR code was scanned
• IP address of the Smartphone used to view the mobile website
• The time is took for the user to scan the QR code
• The mobile browser used to view the websites
• The mobile platform used (i.e. Apple)
• The city, state and country

When asked about whether or not Clikbrix provides the lead’s phone number, Goldhar explains that they don’t (and in fact are not legally allowed to) provide the information because of privacy concerns. “When users scan a QR Code they have not opted-in to being contacted by the agent…our platform, on the other hand, and upside, provides 5 ways for a person to contact the agent when they are ready to do so.” Other solutions like VoicePad, Goomzee, KWKLY, Boopsie, MLS-Office, and Hillside Software offer mobile property information focus more on “call capture.”

Goldhar and his team believe that every QR Code put into the marketplace should include: a call to action, a short description of where the QR Code will resolve to, the short URL that will make your content available to everyone and simple instructions to get a QR Code reader on your phone.  

Once a user scans a Clikbrix QR code, they will be taken to a website optimized for the mobile web. The information is organized, detailed and meaningful. The images are big and bold and all pages can be shared on social networks or by email.

If you would like to learn more about Clikbrix, please click here.

If you would like to learn how you can try the Clikbrix solution for FREE for 3 months, please scan the QR code on the first page of this article or go to http://qre8.com/t/MzY5 on your mobile browser.

Stay tuned for next week’s edition on HomeFinder.com. To get a preview, click here to learn a little more about them.

If you have any questions you would like us the answer as we move through this series, please leave a comment below and we will be sure to address this in the coming articles.

This is part one of a five part series called "Cracking the QR Code." If you would like RE Technology's editor to create a similar series on a different type of technology, please comment below or email us directly, and if we get enough requests for a topic we will produce a similar series.

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