In BoomTown, automated new listing email updates are called e-Alerts.

e-Alerts regularly send out lists of properties to your leads based on specific search criteria that you select, or the lead selects themselves as a Saved Search while on your website.

e-Alerts build loyalty because they display your branding, and are one of the top drivers of traffic to your BoomTown website. Setting up an e-Alert for your clients will keep you top of mind, and keep them subscribed as leads.

The types of properties available to send and display in different sections of the e-Alert are:

- New

- Price Reduced

- Under Contract & Pending

- Sold (depending upon your MLS)

Your leads will receive properties based on your search criteria, with your picture, and contact information.

They can click on any property to view it on your BoomTown site for more information.

Upon clicking links in the e-Alert, your lead will be taken to your site, already logged into their account.

The listing e-Alert box in the e-Alerts section of your lead's profile gives you a brief overview of the e-Alerts you have set up for the lead and their current status.

Here, each Listing e-Alert will have its own entry, noting the search name and the creation date. There are three possible statuses of e-Alerts:

If you’d like to check the status of a specific e-Alert you’ve set up for a lead, go to the e-Alert box in their lead profile, and find the specific e-Alert.

If the e-Alert status has said "Pending – initial blast will be sent within the hour” for several days, most likely your e-Alert has not returned any results. It will be sent when listings that match your criteria get added to your MLS.
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To check if listings match your criteria, click on Edit this Search. The e-Alert will list at the top how many properties are found matching your criteria. If the answer is 0, broaden your search to produce results.

If you’d like to review which properties have been sent out for active e-Alerts, in the history section of the lead profile check off the box for e-Alerts.

You can un-check other categories to more quickly view the e-Alert history.

Within the results that display, click on the number of listings sent to jump to your BoomTown website and view which properties were included in a specific e-Alert email.
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When jumping to your BoomTown website from the e-Alert, keep in mind that you will not be signed into your lead's profile in your browser, and instead will view the site from the perspective of an unregistered viewer -- and thus may see another Agent display on the listing, based on your team's overall rotation.
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It's best to have all your leads set up with an e-Alert that relates to their property search.

Keep an eye out for the e-Alert warning box in lead profiles. When you do not have an e-Alert set, it will be located at the top of the profile for quick access.

Leads can be set up with an e-Alert through four different approaches:
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To set a new e-Alert up manually through the lead profile, navigate to the specific lead's profile page, and scroll to the e-Alerts box within the Summary tab.

If you'd like to create a new e-Alert for your lead, you'll have the choice between creating a Blank e-Alert, a System e-Alert, one based on the lead's Search History, or a Template:

Select the option you'd like to move forward with for your e-Alert, and then you'll be taken to the e-Alert creation page.

Choose the criteria on the page based on your conversations with your client, and create a search that will keep them interested by providing properties that best fit their needs.

Each change in criteria will adjust the number of properties that match. This is an easy way to tell if your search is narrow or broad.

First, when selecting to create a blank e-Alert, the template will default to Polygonal Map Tool, if you'd like to dial down by location select Location Tags.
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You'll be able to decide which location data you'd like to send out. This will be determined by the tabs located under the Search By header: Map, Location, Area, City, County, Zip Code, Neighborhood & School.
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Navigate to each tab, or a combination of them, and select your location data from the drop down under each applicable preference.

Each chosen location data tag will populate beneath the drop down on each section:
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When combining selections from the Location, Area, City, County, Zip Code and Neighborhood tabs, they will function to increase the overall results count. However, if you include information from the School tab, this will narrow the results to only those that combine the other information selected, with the school districts indicated.
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The Map tab will function independently from the other seven tabs, and if you make a selection on the Map tab, it will be isolated to the results on that page. If you toggle to another tab, the results will reset. This will also apply if you make selections on the other tabs, and then navigate to the Map tab -- the listing results will reset.

Once you've selected your location information, you'll be able to select the price range, property type, and bedroom and bathroom information -- among other criteria.
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From there, you'll be able to further customize the search through the Property Features, Community Features, Exterior Features, Interior Features, Style, Financing, View, and Waterfront sections.

The sections listed above search for listings based on an AND and not OR basis. For example, by selecting Marsh View and River View, you're searching for only properties that have both marsh AND river views. There are most likely very limited properties that include both these features, so if you have clients that are looking for both, you will want to set up one e-Alert for River Views, and one e-Alert for Marsh Views.

You'll have some additional choices regarding Title Status and Keywords in the search, as well as the Listing Status.
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Depending upon your team's settings, and your MLS, you may have access to including Active, Under Contract, Pending, Sold, and/or Price Reduced properties in the e-Alert.

All the Listing Status check boxes available to you will be checked by default -- so if you'd like to remove any of the statuses from a lead's e-Alert, you'll just need to un-check the appropriate boxes before saving the changes!

Once you have customized the property search, it’s time to save the alert, and fill in some final important settings:
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If you’d like to preview the listings that match the criteria you’ve selected before sending, click on view next to the amount of properties found.
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Click the Save Search button.
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You will be returned to the Summary tab, where you should receive confirmation of the e-Alert’s creation!

System e-Alerts are automatic listing emails that can be enabled so that the system creates searches for leads, based on data from their visit habits.
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While automated e-Alerts are advantageous to save you time, it is still important to be in communication with your lead to fine tune the e-Alert criteria, and make sure the listings will be of interest to them.

System e-Alerts will only be created for new leads that do not already have an e-Alert, and have never had one created for them. These leads are also required to have:

Although leads have to be registered on the site for at least 18 hours before an System e-Alert is created, e-Alerts may not be sent out until up to 24 hours after the lead registers.

As a Broker/Admin, you'll have the choice whether to allow System e-Alerts to be enabled for your entire team.
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To make changes to these settings overall, navigate to the Lead Emails Settings option in your right-hand drop-down menu.

At the top of the page that displays, within the e-Alerts Settings area, you'll be able to make your selections.

As a Broker/Admin you'll have four settings choices:
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Once you've made your selections, be sure to select the SAVE button to complete the changes!

Creating an e-Alert from the Searches tab in a lead's profile allows you to select a search already conducted by the lead, and set up an e-Alert based on those predefined criteria.

To set up this type of e-Alert, first navigate to the lead's profile, and select to view the Searches tab.

Select the row of the search that you want to use as your starting point, and click the Create e-Alert link on the left side.

You will be brought to the e-Alert creation page, where you can review the search criteria that has been pre-populated based on the lead's search and make adjustments as you see fit -- based on your conversations or insight into the lead.
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At the bottom of the e-Alert setup page, complete the following information:
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If you’d like to preview the listings that match the criteria you’ve selected before sending, click on view next to the amount of properties found.
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Click the Save Search button.
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You will be returned to the Summary tab, where you should receive confirmation of the e-Alert’s creation!

You can also set these types of e-Alerts up by selecting create under the e-Alert column in Lead Central, as well as by selecting to create an e-alert from Search History in the e-Alerts box of the lead's profile page!
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When a new visitor or a lead accesses your website and performs a search, they'll have the option of saving that search, so that they can come back to it easily on the website, and receive e-Alert emails about listings pertaining to the criteria.

When the search is performed, and the option to Save This Search is selected, for existing leads in your account, they will be prompted to name the search, and select a frequency for receiving e-Alerts associated with the search. Their primary email address will already be populated, along with the criteria selected.

Once they choose to Save This Search! the information will then populate in their account under the Saved Searches area in the top, right-hand corner of the page.
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Additionally, it will be added to their lead profile in your CRM, as an e-Alert for you to be able to view and edit at your convenience!
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If a new visitor performs a search, and then selects to save it, they will be prompted to create an account in the system -- and once they do, they'll be given the choice to name it and select the frequency. The information will then be added as an e-Alert in their new lead profile page.

If the lead would then like to view their saved search, they can select the name of it from their Saved Searches drop-down, and the most up-to-date listing data will display accordingly!

To make changes to the frequency of their e-Alerts, leads can select the Manage Saved Searches option in the Saved Searches drop-down menu. They'll be taken to a list of their saved searches, and be able to edit their preferences accordingly!
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Creating a Map Search e-Alert will be very similar to the normal process for creating an e-Alert from scratch. The first step is to go into the lead's profile and click the Blank e-Alert button in the e-Alerts box on the right side.

On the e-Alert creation page that displays, the criteria at the top will default to the Map tab.

Before you begin to draw your search area, use the zoom control slider on the left side of the map to move the map to the desired location.
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You can use the hand tool to drag the map to the area you want to search or use CTRL + Scroll to zoom

Once the map is in the area where you want to set the search, click the arrow icon (next to the hand tool) and ensure that it displays as highlighted, like this:

Click once on the map to start drawing your custom area, and then start clicking points on the map to draw your search shape.

To finish the search, you'll want to close the shape you've drawn by clicking on your starting point -- when you do so, white circles will display at the connection points, which you can click and drag if you'd like to edit the shape!

The Properties Found number in the upper right corner, as well as at the bottom of the page, will reflect how many listings are found in your search area -- or the shaded shape. To view the matching listings, select the button to view next to the number of properties found.
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While viewing the search results on your BoomTown website, the map pins or icons will not display in the search area. However, the boundaries created in the e-Alert are being respected still!

To delete the area that has already been drawn on the map and select a new area, simply click the drawing tool and start clicking on the map to draw a new custom area.
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When you complete the drawing by clicking the starting point, your new selection will be saved and the previous one will disappear. If you'd instead like to utilize a different parameter outside of the map, select the appropriate tab, and the search results will reset to the total available listings!

If your lead already has an e-Alert created within their account and you just need to update the existing e-Alert, this can be done through the lead's profile!

Before moving forward with the changes, it's important to note that the system will only send an initial blast of all matching properties when the e-Alert is first created.
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All subsequent e-Alerts, even if there are changes made to the criteria, will only include any new New, Price Reduced, Pending, Under Contract and/or Sold (if applicable) listings matching the selected criteria, as they arise.
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In other words, listings matching the updated set of criteria that aren't New, Price Reduced, Pending, Under Contract and/or Sold will not be sent to the lead. In these cases, you can do one of the following:

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To move forward with the changes to the existing e-Alert, simply navigate to the appropriate lead profile, and scroll down to the e-Alerts section of their profile page.

Once there, you can either click on the title of the specific e-Alert that you'd like to target, or select the Edit this Search button.

You'll be taken to the e-Alert creation page, where you'll be able to add new criteria that meets your lead's needs, or remove any outdated information from the e-Alert parameters.

When your updates to the e-Alert are complete, just be sure to select the SAVE SEARCH button, and the new criteria will send out any New, Price Reduced, Pending, Under Contract and/or Sold (if applicable) listings that match for your lead's new preferences moving forward!

If you have a lead that would like to receive another copy of a specific e-Alert, a good way to approach this is to resend the lead all the listings that match their criteria currently.
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While this won't be specific to the exact e-Alert that they received, it will ensure that the lead is not missing any of the properties that match their search!
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You can do this by navigating to the lead's profile page and accessing the specific e-Alert in the e-Alerts box.
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To view the results, select the title of the e-Alert, or the Edit this Search button.
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Then, on the e-Alert page, select the choice to View the listings associated with the criteria.

You'll be taken to your BoomTown website, and you'll see a list of all the properties available for the lead's search.

Copy the URL and paste it into a new email to send to your lead through their lead profile.

If you'd like the link to look more visually appealing, type a word or sentence into the email body, highlight it, and then use the link button to hyperlink to the URL instead!

e-Alerts are the #1 source of return traffic to your BoomTown website. They provide valuable listing data that nurtures leads into real opportunities. This is why it’s so important to make sure that all your leads are set up with an e-Alert that relates to their property search.

If you find yourself regularly creating e-Alerts for Leads with similar customizations, you can now save a ton of time by saving that e-Alert as a template.

For more details on creating e-Alert searches for your Leads that will keep them interested by providing properties that best fit their needs, check out our e-Alerts - Create an e-Alert

From e-Alert Template Page

To view your existing e-Alert templates and create new ones, click on Marketing in your left-hand navigation menu and select the e-Alert Templates tab

Once on the Manage e-Alert Templates page, select the + Add Plan button in the top right-hand corner of the page
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On the Create an e-Alert Template page, you will create a new e-Alert from scratch

For more details on creating e-Alert searches for your Leads that will keep them interested by providing properties that best fit their needs, check out our e-Alerts - Create an e-Alert

Once you have customized your property search, it is time to save your e-Alert Template, by first filling in some important fields at the bottom, including the following

* will denote *Required fields required to save the e-Alert Template

From Lead Profile

To save an existing or new e-Alert as a Template through the Lead Profile, navigate to the specific Lead's profile page, and scroll to the e-Alerts box within the Summary tab.

If you'd like to create a new e-Alert for your lead to save as an e-Alert template, you'll have the choice between creating a Blank e-Alert, a System e-Alert, or one based on the lead's Search History.

Select the option you'd like to move forward utilize for a new e-Alert to open the e-Alert creation page.

If your Lead has an existing e-Alert created within their account and you would like to save the existing e-Alert as an e-Alert Template, this can also be done through the Lead's profile by clicking on the title of the specific e-Alert that you'd like to target, or by selecting the Edit this Search button, which will also take you to the e-Alert creation page.

On the e-Alert creation page, you'll be able to save the e-Alert as a Template by utilizing the bottom portion of the e-Alert creation page.
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Utilizing Templates

Templates can be utilized on individual Leads, or in bulk if you have our Core, Grow or Advance platform!

Add to Individual Lead

To apply an e-Alert Template an individual Lead Profile, navigate to the specific Lead's profile page, and scroll to the e-Alerts box within the Summary tab.

Select the Template button.
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Use the drop-down to choose the applicable e-Alert Template by name.

After you select your template, click the blue Select Template button to add this e-Alert Template to the Lead Profile.
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Add to Leads in Bulk

Users on our Core, Grow, and Advance platform types can also utilize Bulk-Actions to add e-Alert Templates to Leads.
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If you have a group of leads that you'd like to add to an e-Alert Template in bulk, this can be done through Lead Central!
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First access Lead Central, then utilize the Advanced Lead Filters in the left panel to compile a targeted group of Leads (such as all those that have registered today, etc.)
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Once you've narrowed down your list of Leads, select leads in bulk by clicking on the Select button towards the top of your lead list or check the box next to specific leads to select them individually.

To add an e-Alert Template to the above-selected Leads in bulk, click on the Bulk Actions button at the top of your Lead Central, and then select Add e-Alert from the drop-down list.

A pop-up modal will display with the e-Alert Templates available to select.
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Only e-AlertTemplates available to all of the Lead Types selected will display in the drop-down, where you will also choose the Frequency.

Frequency determines how often an e-Alert executes a search to find listings that match your criteria. The default value is daily, but you might consider setting the search to run less frequently if you have a very large results set to avoid overwhelming Leads with listings every day.
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Select the red Confirm button to add the e-Alert Template to the chosen Leads.

Since e-Alerts are the #1 referral source for traffic to BoomTown sites, we want to be sure to provide Buyers and Sellers with as much information as possible.

In addition to New, Price Reduced, Under Contract & Pending listings, e-Alerts will also have the option to send sold property data to your leads through BoomTown!

Sold data is not available through all MLSs -- if you have questions about availability, our Support Team is happy to assist!

Sold Data in e-Alerts

Within the e-Alert emails that are sent out to your leads from the criteria input in their search, if there are any newly sold properties that match their search criteria, an e-Alert will be sent out (according to the set frequency), and display up to four of the listings, with a link to view more on the website.
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This will be shown within the Recently Sold Properties section of the e-Alert if there are matching results. Each listing will show the date of the sale, the address, as well as the sale price for the property.

Sold data will be provided from up to 90 days previous (on a rolling basis).

Property Details Page

Once a specific sold listing is selected in an e-Alert, it will redirect to the Full Details page for that property, and display the images and details of the property, along with a sold sash with the date of the sale, the sale price, and the listing history (complete with price reductions).

Including Sold Data in e-Alerts

Sold data for listings will be included in any system-generated, or new Seller Agent-created e-Alerts by default.

Saved Searches created by leads on the front-end website will NOT include sold data listings by default, and instead any additions to this will need to be made by the Agent within the lead's profile.
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To add or remove sold data from e-Alerts sent to leads through the system, simply navigate to the lead profile used like to edit, and click on the e-Alert of choice.
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Within the body of the e-Alert criteria, scroll down to toward the bottom to focus on the Listing Status section.
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Choose to un-check or check the boxes for each of the listing statuses you'd like to include in your lead's e-Alert email -- and save the changes!

The number of listing results displayed within the e-Alert will NOT reflect the Pending and Sold data from your MLS, as these are not active statuses.

How do I turn sold data off from displaying for a lead in their e-Alert?

In order to prevent a particular lead from receiving sold data, simply access the lead's profile and e-Alert, and then scroll down to the bottom of the e-Alert to un-check the box for Sold data -- and be sure to save the changes!

That said, before doing so, it's important to keep in mind that over 60% of home shoppers are not first time home buyers. This means those registrations are also a seller opportunity. We've already seen instances of leads who were dormant suddenly responding because of the new sold data.

Additionally, Buyer leads need the sold data to determine if an asking price for a property is fair. They can't get this data from the front-end site and Zillow is often very slow to update this. This sold data comes exclusively from you, the Agent, and helps promote your value to the client.

Why do e-Alerts only have sold listings from the past 90 days?

e-Alerts are time-based and designed to be a collection of changes to listings within your MLS. Anything more than 90 days would be outdated and would not appear in or trigger an e-Alert.

Can I use the map polygon tool with sold data e-Alerts?

Yes. All of the normal e-Alert settings and functionalities apply. The inclusion of sold data in the e-Alerts is simply an additional feature checkbox in the existing e-Alert criteria that will allow for the inclusion of this type of listing status in the emails sent out to your leads.

Why don't I have access to sold data for my e-Alerts?

Unfortunately, some MLS boards and states limit the access to sold data. If you have questions about the availability of sold data in your area, please reach out to our Support Team and we can get you in touch with the appropriate team on our end!

How soon is my e-Alert sent out?

The first e-Alert sent to the lead will include all properties that match the search you’ve defined. We call it the initial blast, and it will go out the next time your site is updated-- usually within the hour.
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After the initial blast has been sent, subsequent e-Alerts will only send out New listings that the lead has not already viewed on their own, as well as Price Reduced, Under Contract, Pending and/or Sold listings regardless of whether they’ve been viewed or not. Those e-alerts will be sent based on the frequency you've chosen.

When I select Marsh View and River View I get zero properties, but I know there are several! Why does it say 0 Properties Found ?

The Features sections on an e-Alert search for listings based on AND criteria, not OR. This means by selecting Marsh View and River View, you're searching for only properties that have both marsh and river views. Due to this, there are likely very limited properties that include both these features.
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If you have clients that are looking for both, you will want to set up one e-Alert for River Views and one e-Alert for Marsh Views.

The e-Alert I have setup for my lead is no longer being sent! What happened?!

Our database has parameters in place so that if an e-Alert has no activity from the lead, the frequency will be automatically changed. The parameters are:

These settings are in place to protect your email deliverabilty rate and reputation, as the messages are more likely to be marked as Spam by leads if they go unopened for that time frame.

Can I add a second e-mail address to my e-Alert?

Yes! To add a second email address to an e-Alert, click on Edit This Search in the e-Alert box from the Lead Profile.
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Next, scroll to the bottom of the e-Alert to the Save This E-Alert section. You’ll see a small blue link to +Add a new email. Select this, and enter the second email address, then click the Save Email button. The email will then be included on the e-Alert emails, and be automatically added to the lead's profile settings.

My e-Alert has said Pending for 3 days. Why has it not sent to my lead?

An e-Alert will only send out to a lead if there are properties that match the criteria selected, and if there's an email address selected for sending in the e-Alert. Due to this, when creating the e-Alert, make sure that the number of matching properties is above 0 -- otherwise, the criteria will need to be adjusted to have matching listings before it will send. Additionally, always ensure that the check box next to a lead's email address in the e-Alert creation page is selected!

How can a lead create an e-Alert on the website, and what's the default frequency?

A lead may set up an e-Alert on your website by clicking the Save this Search button at the top of a search results page. After clicking this button, they will be prompted to name the search, and specify the frequency with which they'd like the e-Alerts sent. The default setting for the e-Alert frequency is Instantly.
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What is the frequency of an automated System e-Alert?

The default frequency setting for a System e-Alert is Daily.