| Let's face it, putting money into newspaper advertising sometimes feels like pouring money down the drain. It's so hard to know which ad's are working and which are not. If only 50% of advertising is effective, how do you know which 50%? Coupled with this frustration, many Agents and Brokers are justifiably concerned that incoming calls from buyers and sellers are being lost. With no way of knowing who has called and when, it's hard to know if all the leads have been handled correctly. Well the good news is that technology has come to the aid of frustrated Brokers and Agents. Call response systems allow you to capture the source of all incoming calls and to ensure they are directed to the right place. In addition, the key to figuring out the effectiveness of your advertising is to adopt a call response real estate voice response and ad' tracking system. How does it work Whenever you place an ad for a property (or service), you include an ad reference number along with your toll-free phone number. When the buyer calls your number, they enter the ad reference number to hear recorded information on the property and, if they choose, talk to an Agent. Behind the scenes, software utilities are recording information on every call received, detailing the ad reference given for the call, the duration of the call, and the caller's phone number (plus any message left by the caller). Online reports provide details of how many calls are received to each ad, providing you with the knowledge of which media outlets offer the most effective response and which ad copy creates the most calls from buyers. The use of mirrored extension numbers allows up to five ad locations per recording so there's no need to make multiple recordings for each property. One message can be used to serve information to five newspapers or to a combination of newspapers, websites and yard signs. Armed with this analysis, it's easy to justify your directed ad spending to your seller clients and you can rest easy knowing your advertising dollars are being spent in the right place. For general inquiries received through your toll-free number, directed responses from your automated voice response system will ensure the call gets through to the right person on time, every time. To learn more about Real Estate Ad' response tracking and voice response systems, click here. | 
