Unfortunately for brokers, there’s a scenario that often likely plays out in the house-hunting hustle: A passerby sees a home for sale, toys with the idea of learning more about it, and then, unmotivated to go through the effort of doing so, just doesn’t.
But that’s not how it has to go down, according to Rob Wachter, inbound marketing manager at Seattle-based brokerage Coldwell Banker Bain. He claims that brokers have special tools at their disposal that can prevent those fleeting leads from slipping through their fingers: SnapTags and QR codes.
Phil Faranda’s business card uses a QR code
Brokers and agents may print the codes onto marketing materials to enable consumers to immediately pull up a Web page, ideally one with a video, that paints a richer portrait of a listing, simply by scanning the codes with their smartphones.
The smartest brokers who use the tactic might “gate” the additional information behind a form that asks for a user’s contact information, said Wachter, who won the latest #madREskillz by tweeting about the tactic. That would put the person square in a broker’s crosshairs, enabling that broker to ping the person immediately as well as track the person’s future activity on websites and pages whose backends the broker may access.
“As the broker, you know where they are,” Wachter said of consumers who scan QR codes or SnapTags. “[Buyers] could get a call from the broker by the time they’re finished watching the video.”
There is an array of marketing materials that would pack a bigger punch if equipped with QR codes or SnapTags, including fliers, for-sale signs, newspaper and magazine ads, brochures and open-house literature, Wachter said.
Video would be the the ideal landing page for a consumer to reach after scanning one of these codes, according to Wachter. And the type of video most suitable for the experience would probably be a home tour, he added.
Phil Faranda, co-owner of Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.-based broker J. Philip Real Estate, has been cooking up that marketing recipe for some time now.
“It’s instant gratification for the consumer,” said Faranda, who actually previously tweeted the strategy for #madREskillz. “It positions us as being technically competent.”
If broadcasting digital savvy is part of the goal, brokers should probably go with SnapTags over QR codes.
SnapTags are basically next-generation QR codes. Unlike QR codes, which Wachter says “looks like digital vomit,” a SnapTag can be a logo.
