- Mobile messaging apps have built successful strategies for monetizing their services and have taken a lead in finding innovative ways to generate user engagement.
- According to Business Insider, "Chat apps boast a number of distinct characteristics that make their audiences particularly appealing to businesses and marketers, including their size, retention and usage rates, and user demographics."
- Making a community and expediting the buy, sell and rent processes by being in touch with all involved parties in real time are ways in which messaging apps have changed how we look at real estate.
In a very short span of time, messaging apps have become the next big thing in social media. Today, names such as Google Chat and Facebook Messenger as well as other messaging apps have reached an altogether different level.
The device we use to connect through real-time texting and instant messaging apps are more economical than ever before, the apps themselves are so much easier and faster to use, and in general, they are being utilized by people more than ever.
To understand the full potential messaging apps can bring to the business sector, we first need to understand their impact on how people are now communicating with one another on a daily basis. According to the Pew Research Center’s 2015 report on mobile messaging and social media:
- 85 percent of adults are internet users, and 67 percent are smartphone users
- 49 percent of smartphone owners are between 18 and 29, and they use messaging apps
- 37 percent of the smartphone owners between the ages of 30 and 49 use messaging apps
- 24 percent of smartphone owners aged 50 or older use messaging apps
- 36 percent of smartphone owners surveyed report were using messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Kik or iMessage
With messaging apps having surpassed the total number active users of social media, the business world is seeing a rise in the number of messaging apps being launched. How can messaging apps influence real estate?
Messaging apps are providing businesses across all industries the opportunity to bond with people on a more convenient and personal level. The one area of messaging apps that promotes productive connectivity is the group feature that allows users to connect with people based on their shared interest.
The feature that messaging apps offer real estate is real-time communication to boost loyalty, close deals and drive more appointments. It is time for you, as an agent, to move a step ahead from social media and venture into the messaging apps market.
Here are three reasons messaging apps can help real estate agents communicate better with clients.
1. Make a close community
Messaging apps are generating a huge prospect for agents to improve collaboration and communication between the other agents and the clients they work with.
Messaging apps have now become the centralized communication medium that allows everyone to collaborate effectively with the suitability of just one platform overseeing the traditional communication mediums such as email, telephone and face-to-face communication.
2. Expedite the process in real time
Messaging apps are making it easier for agents, their clients and other agents to gain information at anytime from anywhere. Before the whole process of bringing a deal to be signed and sealed was much slower because it required many telephone calls, paperwork, faxes and meetings.
But today, messaging apps have brought everything to one place and have allowed people to pass data in much less time.
The best part of the real-time messaging apps is that decisions can now be made anywhere; one no longer needs to meet in person to coordinate with clients, interact with other agents or expedite the buying and selling process.
3. Give parties comfortable space
The stress associated with buying and selling a house can be overwhelming for anybody. As an agent looking to make long-term contacts and differentiate from the competitors, it is paramount for you to ease the anxiety by being accessible on the one device and medium the users are most accustomed to: a smartphone with messaging apps.
For something that has become a natural part of our mode of communication, messaging apps are on the verge of replacing other ways of communication such as voice calls and emails.
With such a surge, it’s easy to see the messaging platforms as a mode to enable improved communication rather than just for regular back and forth messages.
The need to be connected with people is a necessity for an industry that thrives on community as real estate does.
Have you started using messaging apps to close deals, yet? Share your experiences and stories in the comments section below.
Tripti Rai writes for 99acres.com. You can follow her on Google Plus and LinkedIn.
