- Big data is changing every industry out there, and SmartZip is aiming to do it in real estate.
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SmartZip’s SmartTargeting combines a fully-functional prospect management app with predictive lead generation and marketing outreach.
Platform(s): Browser-agnostic; iOS, Android
Ideal for: Larger offices and teams looking for a fully integrated marketing and sales system.
Top selling points
- Automated marketing after lead identification
- App integration with existing predictive analytics tech
- Very little manual management of prospect data
Things to consider
This is big software that requires full buy-in to provide the most benefit. It’s not at all complex, but it is an every-day-login type platform with an array of features intended to streamline sales and marketing.
Full review
Fans of SmartZip’s much heralded predictive prospecting capabilities won’t need much convincing as to the value provided by its latest add-on.
Big data is a big term encompassing an array of concepts about how information is collected and utilized by business and government. It’s what makes SmartZip’s predictive analytics possible.
The company is now applying that foundation to direct marketing and lead cultivation.
I’m hesitant to call this new product a CRM because it focuses on action-based management of carefully selected buyers or sellers, not necessarily a database of phone numbers and maiden names.
Typical sales databases often lose value as agents bypass data entry. Data sent via text fails to make it into a record, or the source of a new lead is considered non-essential.
I’m hesitant to call this new product a CRM.
In contrast, SmartTargeting ensures the health of your prospects by contextually embedding every action ever associated with a person, which all starts with its native ability to wield all that big data.
The system looks at the homes in a neighborhood as a giant troth of ones and zeros. It filters that data by age of occupant, time in home, recent sales activity, income, education, consumer activity, home equity and several other demographic and consumer data points to arrive at a homeowner’s “intent to sell.”
Nutshelled, that’s big data.
The smart-label search interface makes finding potential customers much easier than sorting by names or dates.
When a homeowner takes some sort of action that qualifies them as a member of your saved search, the boulder starts down the marketing side of the mountain.
The four homeowners in that 100-home subdivision that match your search become your top prospects. You are provided a concise breakdown of the homeowner’s information and an action list of recommended touch-points.
Email marketing, postcards and phone calls are all teed-up. Digital flyers of the property are generated automatically.
SmartTargeting even encourages you to door knock and creates personalized letters to be mailed with customizable “hand-written” notes.
Every action is tracked in a sharp timeline format and made part of the record, even when the prospect updates a home search, changes an email address and leaves a message for you.
SmartTargeting also provides general branding tools, like Internet display ads.
However, instead of re-marketing, which holds on to a relevant cookie after a person has stopped at your site, SmartTargeting scans the Web for those same cookies to “pre-target” them with your banner ads. Thus, you’re in front of a relevant audience before a direct action is taken.
It also uses Facebook timeline and sidebar ads.
Nutshelled, that’s big data.
The included Checkin App ensures users are never out of sync with a prospect’s activity. Thus its name.
Each “check-in” is an action you take based on an action taken by prospect somewhere in the relationship, whether it’s an email follow-up or home search settings change.
The app measures the likelihood of a sale, your progress with a customer and when you need to check in with each one.
The app’s user interface and user experience are as impressive as what’s offered on the desktop browser. Few products have made this much functionality so visually compelling and navigable.
A small example: users can instantly recognize a prospect’s level of intent to sell, your relationship status, and depth of interest in your marketing materials via three dynamic icons that change automatically when the contact takes an action.
In essence, three small icons summarize a significant portion of the software’s value, driving user interaction, and representing much of how the software is orchestrated.
In summary (hard to do for this product), SmartZip’s SmartTargeting update was clearly designed to get under the rug of the market to mine for pieces of information that no one else thinks matter.
It takes that seemingly infinitesimal characteristic of a homeowner’s existence, uses it to find others like it, then hands you a map to closing.
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe.
