A “MailChimp” for text marketing, VoxDirect is a mobile app for both major operating systems, helping agents schedule and leverage text messaging for lead capture and nurture.
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VoxDirect is a text marketing and virtual phone system app.
Platforms: iOS, Android, browser
Ideal for: All agents, teams and brokerages
Top selling points:
- Sharp, intuitive user design
- Custom responses per number
- Easily edited voicemail menus
- Sort contacts per text number and campaign
- Zapier links for CRM integration
Top concern:
Many of today’s popular CRM solutions leverage text marketing, so a stand-alone app for it will have some challenges to adoption.
What you should know
I wrote in my demo notes for VoxDirect: “This is for those agents who want to fully embrace text marketing.”
For the sake of comparison, this is MailChimp for text marketers. Different phone numbers can be created and leveraged in a number of marketing environments. Naturally though, most users would want to limit their management commitment to a couple at most.
The easy-to-use app makes arranging voicemail menus easy by entering text commands next to each number. The virtual receptionist can push callers into different text campaigns according to number, such as “press 2 for new listing announcements” and “press 3 to be added to our market updates list” and so on. It can also be used for general business purposes like business hours and location.
What stood out to me was how easy it is to design and control the text campaigns. The function interface consists of simple icons and a clear delineation of each step in the campaign’s progression.
Having been on the receiving end of some bad text campaigns, I feel it should be every agent’s goal to ensure touches happen when they should as it relates to time of day and the overall cadence of the sales cycle. VoxDirect instills in me a great deal of confidence that it can achieve both.
You can create as many stand-alone text lists as you need, which helps in the all-important rule of push-marketing: segmentation. Dividing up buyers and listing prospects by market segment goes a long way toward communicating to them that you understand their needs.
VoxDirect connects with Zapier so users can link to their greater CRMs. This is critical stuff. You never want valuable marketing data existing in disconnected software tools.
Another sharp feature to VoxDirect is its keyword scanning. Responses are actively monitored for indicators that can trigger new messages. You have an unlimited number within your account, but I caution against over-using them at first.
Create only a few to connect them to your more effective campaigns to best understand how they flow. Otherwise, you’ll be following a hundred different threads based on a single keyword when more there’s more value in seeing how multiple keywords come together to give more data on a lead’s intent.
Text message marketing is growing more commonplace and accepted by consumers. Look around, and you’ll notice that text campaigns are being used across industries, and in fact, across society.
I signed up to be notified on my phone for COVID-19 vaccine updates. I have subscriptions to get snowstorm alerts, local police announcements and political campaigns. It’s only going to grow from here.
Text marketing hasn’t hit its stride yet, but it’s rounding the corner with a chance at the lead. VoxDirect is a good option to get you into the race.
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe
Craig C. Rowe started in commercial real estate at the dawn of the dot-com boom, helping an array of commercial real estate companies fortify their online presence and analyze internal software decisions. He now helps agents with technology decisions and marketing through reviewing software and tech for Inman.
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