Real estate website vendor Tribus is branching out with a new offering that bakes a real estate search website, lead generation system, customer relationship platform and targeted marketing program into one product.
The new product’s flagship Internet data exchange property search site, LoveLiving.in, features a collaborative search component and converts visitors into leads for the agent and broker advertisers once they fill out a registration form. IDX refers to the pool of listings brokers in specific markets make available to each other for display to consumers.
The LoveLiving.in site, which is branded to the advertising broker or agent using a unique subdomain URL in each ZIP code, also includes lightweight customer relationship management and email marketing platforms that help brokers and agents turn leads into clients, Tribus founder and Director of Strategy Eric Stegemann told Inman.
Eric Stegemann
The CRM allows brokers and agents to see where leads came from and what they did on the LoveLiving.in site, even before registering, and to set them up on drip-email campaigns, Stegemann said.
In addition, the LoveLiving.in site features a five-star rating feature for each listing that’s designed to engage consumers and give brokers and agents more insight into consumers’ interests, Stegemann said. Users can also collaborate on searches by linking their accounts once they register, he added.
By rolling multiple marketing and lead gen features into one, Tribus is following in the footsteps of other firms that have been blazing a trail with similar offerings like BoomTown, Kunversion and TigerLead.
Screen shot of a LoveLiving.in property detail page.
One of the highlights of the new Tribus offering that may differentiate it from competitors is its ad-targeting component, Stegemann said.
Tribus helps build traffic to its broker and agent advertisers’ LoveLiving.in sites with custom display ads targeted to consumers whose online behavior suggests they may be likely to buy or sell a home within the next 90 days, Stegemann said.
The platform tracks more than 100 types of browsing behaviors, including searches for home valuations or research on big home improvement project like a pool, to target consumers who will see the ads, Stegemann said.
By purchasing ad space through a collection of online display ad exchange networks, including the Google Display Network, Tribus claims that the ads will show up on 98 percent of the top 1 million sites that feature display ads, including some of real estate’s most popular like Zillow, Trulia and realtor.com.
Sample LoveLiving.in display ad
Many sites across the Internet make display ad units on their pages available to advertisers through ad exchanges when they have open inventory. This is the ad space Tribus makes available to its LoveLiving.in clients.
The targeted nature of the Tribus ad product resembles AdWerx’s, which launched in November 2013 with a product that allows agents to target display ads to consumers based on their browsing history by ZIP code. Tribus’ product differs in that it directs users to a lead conversion site, LiveLoving.in, which, Stegemann said, some clients choose to make their primary website.
Tribus sells LoveLiving.in on a ZIP code basis and requires a minimum ad spend per ZIP code of $500 per month, Stegemann said. More than one agent or broker can sign up in a ZIP code, but the firm caps its sell per ZIP code at $5,000, he said.
For a minimum of $1,000 in a ZIP code, advertisers gain the ability to place ads on “premium” sites like Zillow, Trulia and realtor.com, and multiple listing service consumer-focused sites, which typically charge up $10 to $12 for 1,000 impressions via the ad exchanges, Stegemann said. Other sites like The New York Times cost in the range of $5 or $6 per 1,000 impressions, he said.
Eventually, Tribus wants to shift its fee model to charge clients for access to the LoveLiving.in website and back-end CRM and away from charging for the placement of ads, Stegemann said. That revenue model would bring it more in line with other all-in-one lead gen marketing platforms like BoomTown.
