November 2010 IDX Broker Agent Newsletter

Welcome to our November newsletter!

Each month, we will send you 2-3 tips to help you understand more about the powerful features available in IDX Broker.

This month's newsletter will cover new ways to promote your myAgent iPhone app code, both online and off. We've also added a new QR code to the mobile tab - something you may add to your flyers and flyer boxes. We will also talk about how to manage your "Hot Leads" and add custom subheader content to your saved link results.

As always, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email or call us!

Best regards,
The IDX Team
help@idxbroker.com

New myAgent IDX iPhone App Links & QR Code

This month we've added a couple of new items to your Mobile tab.

We've updated the link from the iPhone Widget so that it automatically opens iTunes. The previous link sent visitors to a webpage on iTunes.com. With this new link, you can send people directly to the iTunes App Store rather than the marketing page on iTunes.com. You may also email this link to your contacts, along with your Agent ID. This will ensure that your name, logo, phone number, and website display on every listing when people use the myAgent iPhone App to view listings.

Please note that if you have already placed this Widget on your site, you will need to replace the myAgent link if you want to ensure that visitors arrive at the App store (especially those browsing your site using an iPad or iPhone). If you don't already have the Widget on your website, you can easily add it:

Login to your control panel and click on the Mobile tab. Here, you'll see the snippet of code for the widget displayed in red in the middle of the screen. This snippet of code has been updated with the new link.

iPhoneBadge

Copy the snippet of code provided, and paste it into your website HTML. Most people place the Widget into their left or right side navigation. If you are using a custom graphic to link to the iPhone app, you can just replace the URL link for your graphic with the new URL: http://itunes.com/apps/myagentbyidx.

We've also added a QR (short for "Quick Response") code that will send mobile users to the myAgent web page on iTunes.com.

For the uninitiated, a QR code is a visual image that stores a URL. Smartphones that use a QR code reader are able to open the QR code link simply by snapping a photo of the image using the QR reader.

In the Mobile tab of your IDX Broker control panel, you'll find a QR code image, as well as a snippet of code you can use to display the QR code on a web page.

You may also download this QR code and add it to printed brochures, business cards, or other marketing materials.

Note that you will want to test this QR code in your reader before ordering printed materials that contain the code provided by IDX, Inc. Alternatively, you may use a 3rd party QR code service to create your own QR code in a higher resolution (for printed materials).

iPhone App QR Code

Hot Leads: Track Your Most Active Leads

In your Control Panel, under Lead Management, you have the ability to filter by "Hot Leads." Hot Leads are any leads that have signed up, logged in, or received an email update within a given period of time. You can specify this period of time in your control panel under Lead Management -> Manage Leads. In the Hot Leads Definition field, enter the number of days since the lead was last contacted. Then, you can use the Hot Leads filter in the Jump To menu to display "Hot Leads."

Using the Hot Leads filter allows you to quickly see which leads have recently engaged with your IDX pages. When you filter leads by "Hot Leads" you have a quick sampling of the people who are your most likely prospects.

A Closer Look: Sub Headers

Search engines and visitors both appreciate any extra information you can add to an IDX page, including custom results pages. Sub Headers are a great way to accomplish this. Sub Headers are located in your control panel under Customize -> Sub Headers. Here you will see one Sub Header for every type of IDX page provided in your account. Anything you add to a Sub Header will appear directly above the IDX content on that page. Sub Header boxes will accept text, html, css and javascript, which means you can add not only text, but images and custom styling and formatting.

Many agents use the Sub Header to display contact information above the listing information on the Details Page. This is especially handy if your contact information is not displayed as part of your global wrapper. We'll walk through this example below.

The Sub Header for the Details Page is located in IDX Broker under Customize -> Sub Headers -> Listing Pages. Here, we can enter in anything we want to display directly above the listing information. In the screenshot, below we've entered in a heading for the details page, as well as a call to action including contact information.

Sub Header for Details Page

Here's what it looks like on the Details Page:

Sub Header Details Display

You can also add unique Sub Headers to your Saved Links. Use the "Special Link Sub Header" area to add a description for the community or area you are highlighting in your custom search results. The Special Link Sub Header is located on your Saved Links customization screen. This gives search engines and visitors unique content, adding to both the usability and "indexable" value of these pages.

A content editor is provided so you can add and format the content of the Sub Header. If you don't want to use the editor or need to add HTML/Script, you may turn off the editor using the link at the bottom of the form. Once you save your changes, this Sub Header will appear on this saved results page only.

Special Link Sub Header Display

There are additional ways to use the Sub Headers, aside from the examples described above. Sub Headers give you the flexibility to customize your standard IDX pages, as well as custom results links.

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