Nike doesn’t rely only on Zappos.com to sell its products; so why do real estate agents rely on portals to sell their listings? I’m a firm believer that tools like Rela — which will be featured at ICSF 2017’s Startup Alley — should be in the technology bandolier of every real estate office.
Have suggestions for products that you’d like to see reviewed by our real estate technology expert? Email Craig Rowe.
Rela is a single property website builder.
Platforms: Browser; mobile-optimized
Ideal for: All agents and teams; new agents, especially.
Top selling points
- Great looking listing sites done quickly
- Native Facebook ad campaign builder
- Unique template designs
- Video ads
Top concerns
Very few. Overcoming the stigma of single-property websites not being effective marketing investments could hamper agents from adopting. This tool could change that.
What you should know
Nike doesn’t rely only on Zappos.com to sell its products; so why do real estate agents rely on portals to sell their listings?
I’m a firm believer that tools like Rela — which will be featured at ICSF 2017’s Startup Alley — should be in the technology bandolier of every real estate office.
More specifically, your listings should have their own web pages. It’s good for SEO, it looks good in listing presentations and the tools are becoming exceptionally powerful and very affordable.
I spoke with Rela to learn more about its native Facebook listing advertising tool, which as of this writing, was set to launch today. However, if you’re not familiar with its single property website builder, know that its worth your time to examine.
A website account comes with a host of website promotion tools, such as email templates, custom domains and social outreach features. There’s also document storage and free hosting.
Overall, the website design templates are sharp. They have 12 available now, and expect to launch a new one every month or so.
Like Mailchimp’s, Rela’s Facebook campaign builder boils down the process to its most critical components, making it very clear what you’re spending and who will see the listing.
Whereas Facebook’s own campaign user experience is clunky and anxiety-inducing thanks to being accessed within the context of the social network itself, I found Rela’s user inteface to be clear and clean. I felt confident that users won’t be nervous to hit the “run campaign” button; in fact, the whole Rela experience feels “friendly.”
The process asks users the intent of their campaign, e.g., is it to generate leads or increase exposure?
It provides options for demographic targets, choices for broad or specific location reach, timing and, of course, budget.
Options for who will see your ad include, buyers, agents, lenders and investors.
Facebook’s algorithms are doing the heavy lifting when it comes to delivering the eyeballs, but Rela provides the fast, reliable vehicle and a very smooth on-ramp.
Ad creative is easy to set up with a headline, description and image upload boxes; they can be easily tweaked, too.
I enjoy how the ad creation experience is contained in its own page, away from the noise of Facebook’s back end.
Leads are registered when they click on the “Learn More” button and deposited into what Rela calls a “mini CRM.”
I’m wary of calling a captured Facebook entity a lead, but I’m happy to see that the company is not hyping this feature as a total CRM. Too many software companies are quick to label a mere list of contacts as such.
But, this personal annoyance of mine was alleviated when I saw Rela’s quick-response tool.
This super-smooth feature allows users to send personal emails to everyone who’s demonstrated interest in a Facebook listing from directly within the ad metrics page.
Users are thus offered a very practical method for keeping a listing top-of-mind amongst their web audience. Use this tool correctly and fewer buyers will end up as internet ether.
The reporting page shares clicks, impressions and your ongoing spend. There’s nothing to unravel when it comes to knowing how a campaign is performing.
Rela has quietly built what I think is one of the easiest and most effective property marketing tools available to agents.
The software elegantly confines its value to the most critical analytical and creative components needed to get the word out about a listing. There’s no noise or bloat: it’s fast, affordable and mobile ready.
Build a website for a listing. Advertise it. Follow-up.
Or, you can always pay multiple thousands of dollars a month for a portal to do this for you.
I know what I would do.
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe.
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