Mobile Strategy: Don’t Forget Dumb Phones

Let’s get something out of the way: we love our Smartphones. Love them! In fact, we sometimes wonder how we could live without them. Am I being clear? RE Technology team + Smartphones = love. And we’re not alone. According to a recent report sponsored by HubSpot, 31% of all mobile users own a Smartphone. But we’re not here to talk about ourselves. Let’s talk about the other 69% of mobile users who use a “Dumb Phone.” A dumb phone is a mobile phone that does not have fancy applications like the iPhone. Dumb phones have minimal features of telephone and maybe text messaging.

The Present
“With all the hype about Smartphones, I think some people have forgotten how many people are just using a standard cell phone,” explains Randall Standard, President and CEO of VoicePad®. “That’s why we’ve built our products so that they’re accessible to all mobile users, not just one-third of users.”

VoicePad® is one company that offers solutions for mobile marketing. They integrate 3 mobile technologies: voice, text, and mobile Web. I called Mr. Standard to learn more about the logistics of mobile marketing in general and his products specifically.

Here’s how VoicePad® works. To begin, a consumer calls a broker-branded telephone number to listen to an audio presentation in English or Spanish. Clearly, this works on 100% of mobile phones. VoicePad creates the audio presentations directly from listing data using its “Perfect Diction™” specialized speech platform. Callers can also search for information on other properties from any phone.

From the initial phone call, the home buyer can also request more information via text message. Again, mobile users without a Smartphone can still get the information they want. However, text may not be an option for people who have phone plans that don’t include messaging. Now, if the caller has a Web-enabled Smartphone, they can click on a link in a text message and they are directed to property pictures on a VoicePad MobileIDX® Mobile Website, where they can also continue searching. “VoicePad,” says Mr. Standard, “allows the consumer to control how they receive the information. In addition, because the consumer initiates contact with a call or text message, it allows us to provide the consumer’s contact information to the REALTOR®. These are valuable ‘curbside leads’ from motivated buyers.”

Additional companies that offer audio and/or text mobile marketing services include: Ifbyphone, Mobile Real Estate ID, and Goomzee.

The Future
It would be foolish to ignore the large percent of mobile users who don’t have a Smartphone. But it would also be foolish to ignore the fact that more and more people purchase Smartphones every day. The number is steadily growing. So, forward-thinking brokers will be focusing on integrating mobile Web with voice and text. “We see that Smartphones are swiftly gaining market share,” says Mr. Standard. “So we definitely wanted to integrate Mobile web into the mix. We created our MobileIDX® Mobile Websites specifically for Smartphone users. MobileIDX® Websites allow anyone with a mobile browser to gain access to real estate property information on the Web. The good news is that they do not need to download an application on their phone to start their search. They just open the URL of the broker MobileIDX® site and search. These sleek sites integrate seamlessly with our other mobile solutions.”

Effective mobile Web marketing requires an educated approach. Brokers need to ensure that their site is mobile-ready and they need to find ways to send mobile users to their site. An example of one of the latest ways brokers are bringing mobile users to their site is the use of QR codes. To learn more about mobile Web for real estate, you can investigate companies like Hillside Software, iHOUSEWeb, RealtyTech, and Boopsie.

We love this video from Google. It really puts mobile use in perspective: http://youtu.be/CjUcq_E4I-s.