Call Capture Helps Real Estate Agents Maximize ROI

Call Capture Helps Real Estate Agents Maximize ROI

Real estate agents know the value of every dollar in every part of their business, especially in a serious economic downturn with overflowing competition. Advertising budgets, in particular, need to be carefully scrutinized, as they're typically a very high expense and need to be assessed and justified as a reasonable cost of business. Call capture systems are one way that some agents are adjusting their ad budgets, and the technology is certainly an interesting and innovative way to approach ads in Homes magazines, mailers, sign riders, online and more.
Call capture systems, for the uninitiated, are phone systems set up to manage the incoming calls for a real estate agent. Separate extensions can be assigned, which allows an agent to set up audio tours for different houses, collect basic information from callers, and allow serious inquiries to be forwarded directly to their cell phones, complete with information about which house a caller is referencing to help an agent make a sale. The indications of a call capture system on an agent's advertising budget aren't immediately apparent when learning about call capture, but they're actually extremely beneficial for agents that are looking for a way to maximize their advertising returns.

The major disadvantage to traditional advertising is that the process is firmly rooted in chance, if not properly researched. Real estate agents need to have a thorough knowledge of markets, demographics, and reach for their advertisements to be profitable. Taking out ads in a large variety of publications is a sure way to ineffectively advertise, so it becomes necessary for real estate agents and companies to consistently evaluate their advertising budget to try to maximize returns and cut out unnecessary expenditures.

This is precisely where a call capture system may be beneficial for an agent. It allows an easy way for real estate agents to track advertising leads by assigning different extensions to different advertisements, areas, and homes, so that an agent simply needs to look at call volume to a certain extension to determine whether or not advertising has been particularly beneficial in that area. This avoids the need for rigorous and time-consuming research. Further, it can save an agent money that might have been used to hire an advertising analyst, as a basic but accurate form of analytics is already intuitively built directly into a call capture system. It's a simple yet innovative and effective way to go about marketing, when set up and used correctly.

Exactly how effective the real estate call capture systems are, though, is up to the individual agent and office employing the technology. Assigning different numbers for different properties is a good, obvious start, but enabling a direct extension for certain ads can quickly give an agent an idea of an ad's effectiveness. Direct extensions can even be used as an attention-getting technique in the ad itself. By advertising a home and offering a call capture number (and individual extension), an ad can tempt potential buyers by offering an audio tour of a home, pricing information, a quick way to set up an in-house tour, and more--whatever can make the potential buyer feel that he is getting some type of advantage for free.

Call capture systems also offer call forwarding and recording, allowing an agent to directly and immediately interact with serious buyers who found a property through a certain ad. Agents can also use the call capture systems to gather information such as name and address from callers, which generates a consistent set of leads that can allow the agent to put less time, energy, and money into active advertising.

Real estate call capture systems are a direct and instant way to assess a real estate advertising budget, and can help many agents put their advertising dollars into ads that work while pulling ads that aren't very effective. Since call capture works automatically via an automated system, it can even act as a secondary form of advertising. It can function as a way to hook potential buyers after a postcard, flier, or billboard grabbed their attention in the first place. Of course, the intuition and ingenuity of the agent are equally important when assessing an ad budget, but many real estate agents are finding call capture systems to be a welcome change in how the industry approaches ad effectiveness.