NEW YORK — Leads drive real estate businesses. Agents need a constant pipeline of potential buyers and sellers to thrive.
But how to get that pipeline? One option is to attract leads from third-party real estate portals such as Zillow and realtor.com.
Another option — not necessarily exclusive of the first — is for agents to generate their own leads from among the people they know.
Real estate software company W+R Studios is betting agents will choose the latter.
The Huntington Beach, California-based firm launched Cloud Attract at Inman Connect New York last night.
Greg Robertson
“According to a study in 2014, real estate professionals were already spending over $33 million per quarter buying leads (in the form of traffic) from online listing portals,” Greg Robertson, W+R Studios co-founder, said in a press release.
“But what most agents don’t know is they are already connected to an untapped network of potential sellers and buyers.”
What it does
Cloud Attract buyer landing page
Cloud Attract is not offering agent websites. Rather, agents can embed the product’s landing pages in their website if they choose. They can also share them on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest.
Cloud Attract sharing options
“Organic leads, generated by the agent themselves, are more cost effective than any high-priced listing portal can generate,” Robertson said.
With Cloud Attract, agents can create as many landing pages as they want.
Cloud Attract seller landing page
They choose their target audience, buyers or sellers; decide what information to collect from each; and select what to deliver to those that submit their information.
Cloud Attract landing page options
Cloud Attract lead capture options
“I think what makes our products special is that they are so easy to use,” Robertson told Inman via email.
“So [agents] will not be afraid to make as many of them that are specific to neighborhoods they work in.
“So not just a headline like ‘Find Out What Your Home Is Worth,’ but ‘Find Out What Your Mission Valley Home is Worth’ or ‘Find Out What Your Condo In Castro Is Worth.’
“They can even use these to announce open houses if they want. I happen to believe that the best use case for these aren’t even apparent to us now. Agents have shown us time and time again how creative they are.”
Cloud Attract delivery options
For sellers, agents can opt to immediately serve up an automated “Home Value Range” or, if an agent also subscribes to W+R Studios’ Cloud CMA, a comparative market analysis with a suggested list price prepared by the agent.
The home value range is provided by a third-party AVM (automated valuation model) company Roberston declined to name.
Agents can also choose to follow up themselves later.
For buyers, agents can also respond directly or, if the agents are subscribers of W+R Studios’ Cloud Streams, offer MLS-powered listing alerts. The company is planning to add other integrations for buyers, Robertson said.
“Whenever a client requests information from you its always a conversation starter,” he said.
Agents don’t have to subscribe to the company’s other products to use Cloud Attract, but if they do, they’ll see increased functionality, according to Robertson.
The integrations allow agents to make “valuable introductions” to keep them “top-of-mind” with clients, the company said.
What’s different?
There are many agent and broker sites that offer free home value estimates in an effort to attract sellers.
What makes W&R Studios’ landing pages different?
Robertson named multiple features.
First, the product’s design. “Not only how the landing pages look, but how easy the software is to set up these pages,” he said.
Second, customers get the instant gratification they want. Many other landing pages are just a way to get prospects into a complicated customer relationship management system (CRM), Robertson said.
“[Cloud Attract’s] home value range is delivered instantly. A Cloud CMA report is chock full of real estate info straight from the MLS,” he said.
“These are compelling things consumers can get quickly by entering in their property information. You can always put them on an email drip campaign later. You need to wow them first.”
Third, Cloud Attract integrates with Google Analytics and agents can export their leads in a CSV file to import them into other systems.
Cloud Attract offers “basic” stats on how many visits its landing pages receive and how many visitors fill out the form on the page with their contact information, but “you can also have Google Analytics give you much more detail if you wish,” Robertson said.
The company also plans on using APIs (application programming interfaces) from other vendors, including CRMs, to make integration more real-time, he added.
“Like all our products Cloud Attract, it’s very focused,” Robertson said.
“We aren’t trying to be an agent IDX website, manage agents’ ad budget, or trying to be a full blown CRM.
“One of the reasons that Cloud CMA has been successful is that we created an easy way for MLS system and other vendors to work with it. Going forward we are going to make sure that vendors have an easy way to import/sync with Cloud Attract and the leads it generates.”
How much does Cloud Attract cost?
Agents can try Cloud Attract free of charge for 30 days, and then it’s available on a subscription basis, the company said.
The company is offering “launch special” prices that will last until March 31.
The “special” monthly price will be $99.95 per month and go up to $149 after the first quarter.
The “special” annual cost will be $999.95 per year and rise to $1,499.95 per year.
The “special” cost for a two-year subscription will be $1,799.95 and increase to $1,999.95.
“We think this is very competitive with similar services,” Robertson said.
He cited a $389 per month cost for a seller and buyer package from Bold Leads and a $699 per month cost for a seller and buyer package from Prime Seller Leads.
Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to note that the special launch price of a one-year subscription to Cloud Attract is $999.95, not $899.95 as previously stated.
