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Steven Cross
Australia is at the forefront of e-marketing, but agents are reluctant to accept it despite one agency selling a property over Facebook every week in June.
“There’s no other country that does it more than we do,” said Russell Taylor, CEO of iRealty.
“But we have difficulty with agents who are unable to get their heads around it, because there is this constant disbelief that it actually works.”
“Ray White Mackay sold a house, a block of land and two apartments over Facebook in June, and from LinkedIn they got a listing. That is just huge considering most agents write social media off.
“We know that it works, but some agents just can’t imagine how it could work. But it’s the most powerful, cost efficient tool a real estate agent can have.
“If the market is flat, it’s the best source of leads because it’s very cost efficient. And in a buoyant market it’s the best because it means they can maximise their sales and listing efforts.”
Mr Taylor describes iRealty as a vehicle for delivering html property e-newsletters to a client database.
“Our clients have all their contacts on the iRealty servers. We create the templates for them and they create and send their own property newsletters. Initially that’s all we offered, but we’ve since grown.
“We’ve transitioned iRealty from an e-newsletter solution to a real lead generation device.
“We have an interface that allows people to post their e-newsletter to their Facebook page as soon as they send it out. When somebody on Facebook or Twitter looks at that post, we’re tracking them and they’re a lead.”
Clients claim they are adding about five per cent to open rates simply by posting e-newsletters online, and linking them through Facebook.
