More Than a Web Site, It’s an Experience

real.leads interactive marketing solution offers a

tailored consumer Web experience, including lead

generation, distribution and personalized

one-to-one marketing
By Beth McGuire

If you think about it, there is a lot to keep track of in real estate marketing:

Transaction management, client management, lead management, content management, contact management, not to mention all the technology you need: the Internet, voice-over Internet, e-mail and good old-fashioned print campaigns?these are all enough to make even the savviest agent organizationally challenged.

Nonetheless, these tools must be incorporated into a marketing plan in order to stay competitive. Real estate marketing has evolved and so has the consumer, who has developed a seemingly insatiable appetite for information.

Combining all these platforms into one product, serving both agent and consumer more efficiently, has been a challenge?one that The Personal Marketing Company was up for. The direct marketing specialists recognized the need for a convenient interactive marketing system that combines all of an agent?s technology needs into one. Their solution was ?real.leads,? a product TPMC recently launched throughout RE/MAX of New York?s 135 offices and 1,800 agents statewide.

?Technology is something the consumers want,’ says Carolyn Weber, vice president of RE/MAX of New York, based in Garden City. They want information and they’re going to get it whether we provide it or not. So the functionality and capabilities of real.leads make it very sophisticated and easy to use at the same time, and most important, we are the ones providing the consumer with what they want.

real.leads interactive marketing solution includes a personalized URL featuring a profile, photo, contact information and market facts plus the ability to post listings with standout features like photo galleries and virtual tours. The site also has an integrated IDX solution that allows prospects to search the MLS from your Web site, keeps you in constant contact with clients through automated notification, offers saved searches for consumers and Web leads from those who sign up.

A Premier Program offers an additional 12 business-building interactive features including more customization, secure lead management area, detailed reports on client activity, client listing tracking, target personal marketing e-mail and print campaigns and more.

?The whole idea is to give the agent one place to manage all his contacts and Internet and print-related inquiries,’ says John Wendorff, president and CEO of the Lenexa, Kansas-based company. One place so they don’t spend time and energy using different programs when one can do everything.?

Wendorff says what intrigued him the most about the product is ?the hands-off nature of how easy it was to get results. We have a robust management reporting tool that really allows them to see their return on investment, how everything is handled and where the information is coming from.?

The idea for real.leads was originally generated by TPMC?s Chief Technology Officer, Bob Fulton, while he was developing technology at Kansas City-based Talon Industries about two years ago.

?The most distinctive area we’ve identified in real.leads versus everything else out there is the integration between the consumer experience and the agent?s marketing goals,’ says Fulton. There are a lot of systems and products available to assist agents in communicating their message and building their brand, but they just help deliver the agent?s message and then they’re done. We are different in that we’re looking at capturing the consumer’s interest with a personalized message that we have identified through our program from their input regarding what actions they want to take.?

?Everything is automated for the agent and they get incredible results,? adds Weber. Clients click on a property and an e-mail is sent to them. If they want a more thorough approach, real.leads will send a personalized marketing campaign. For us, it’s the most sophisticated Internet marketing program out there today.?

Once Fulton and Wendorff discovered each other’s capabilities about two years ago, they knew they would work well together. Wendorff moved to acquire the assets of Talon Industries to bring the product in-house. It was a mutually beneficial merger, with TPMC already being the leader of the personalized mass-print direct marketing and Talon leading the one-to-one cross print and online marketing mediums. They began developing real.leads in the fall of 2005.

Fulton adds that an important aspect of real.leads is the intimate connection to the consumer it creates through the site, which helps agents tailor their messages to them. It’s not just automatic responses, but proactive marketing messages that engage the consumer and the agent.

?And this is hard to do by hand,? he adds. If you go into Outlook and try to tailor a message to every person, it’s hard to do that in any sort of volume. That’s where our value add is. And it’s one of the most important things to determine what a consumer’s preferences are and adhere to them.?

Another benefit for RE/MAX of New York is the way real.leads integrates with the national listings database RE/MAX International is currently rolling out throughout the United States. Lead Street? is a national IDX listing database available to consumers.

?When a consumer goes on a broker’s site they have access to listing data nationwide,’ says Weber. And the additional technology that The Personal Marketing Company brings to the table with this program is far superior than anything else out there.

?It allows the consumer one-stop shopping through remax.com,? she continues. Consumers can click on any state and have access to listing inventory nationwide. The Personal Marketing Company has the added feature of the follow-up perspective. It is ?Internet for Dummies?…agents just point and click and the computer does everything for them online. RE

For more information about real.leads, please call 800-666-7799.

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