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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<title>Lead Metadata Specification - Version 1.0</title>
<meta name="author" content="FiveStreet.com (Eric Bashkoff, Rusty Klophaus)" />
<link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Raleway:400,300,600' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' />
<link rel="stylesheet" href="normalize.css" type="text/css" />
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<link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css" type="text/css" />
<body>
<div class="container">
<hr />
<h1>Real Estate Lead Metadata Specification</h1>
<h4>Version 1.0</h4>
<hr />
<h2>Purpose</h2>
<p>
The Real Estate Lead Metadata Specification prescribes
a way to transport lead information from lead
generating websites (such as real-estate search
portals) to downstream consumers (including but not
limited to CRM systems) by transparently embedding it
within human-readable email using HTML
<code>meta</code> tags.
</p>
<p>
Version 1.0.0 of this specification focuses on
the transmission of "new lead" events.
</p>
<p>
The source code of this website is on <a href="https://github.com/fivestreet/www.leadmetadata.org">Github</a>.
Make suggestions by opening a <a href="https://github.com/fivestreet/www.leadmetadata.org/issues">Github Issue</a>, or by forking and submitting a pull request.
</p>
<h2>Background</h2>
<p>
An increasing number of people search for their home
online. At some point, the potential homebuyer will
contact a real-estate agent through an online form on
a website. This could be a real-estate search portal
or the agent's website. (The potential homebuyer is
now considered a "lead.")
</p>
<p>
The website sends an email to a real estate agent with
the lead's information (e.g. name, email, phone,
property address, a brief message, etc.) The receiving
agent generally puts this contact information into a
database of leads. Historically, this has been a
manual process.
</p>
<p>
Recently, many real estate software tools have created
functionality to "parse" lead emails and automatically
extract the lead information. This is a difficult and
error-prone process for a variety of reasons:
</p>
<p>
<ul>
<li>Every portal uses a different email format.</li>
<li>Some portals use several different formats. (Perhaps different formats for different areas of the website.)</li>
<li>Email formats change over time. (Example: seasonal marketing copy, A/B testing)</li>
<li>Email clients introduce changes when an email is formatted.</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>
When a software tool cannot properly parse
the lead information, everybody loses. The real estate
portal appears to be handing out bad leads, the real
estate agent loses a potential client, and the
potential homebuyer does not get the service he or she
needs.
</p>
<p>
The Real Estate Lead Metadata Specification describes
an industry standard approach for portals to
communicate lead information with the goal of having
100% accurate transmission of lead details.
</p>
<h2>Embedding Lead Metadata</h2>
<p>
The key concept to this specification is the idea of
transmitting lead information through HTML
<code>meta</code> tags. A quick example serves best to
illustrate this concept. An email that contains lead
information should contain header fields as follows:
</p>
<pre><code>
<!DOCTYPE html ... >
<html xmlns= ... >
<head>
...
<meta name="lead_information_version" content="1.0" />
<meta name="lead_source" content="Realtor.com" />
<meta name="lead_type" content="Buyer" />
<meta name="lead_name" content="John Smith" />
<meta name="lead_email" content="jsmith@gmail.com" />
<meta name="lead_phone" content="703-555-1212" />
...
</head>
<body>
...
</body>
</html>
</code></pre>
<h2>Valid Fields</h2>
<table class="u-full-width">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Field Name</th>
<th>Notes</th>
<th>Required</th>
<th>Example Content</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>lead_information_version</code></td>
<td>Version number of the specification.</td>
<td>✓</td>
<td>"1.0"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>lead_source</code></td>
<td>
Primary source of the lead. Can be any
value, but a search portal or lead vendor
should choose a consistent value. If not
provided, it is up to the consuming
application to choose a sensible default
value.
</td>
<td></td>
<td>"Realtor.com" "AgentWebsite.com"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>lead_type</code></td>
<td>
The type of the lead. Consumer should
assume a value of "Buyer" if not provided.
Valid values are "Buyer", "Seller", and
"Renter".
</td>
<td></td>
<td>"Buyer" "Seller" "Renter"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>lead_name</code></td>
<td>The name of the lead.</td>
<td></td>
<td>"John Smith"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>lead_email</code></td>
<td>The email address of the lead.</td>
<td></td>
<td>"jsmith123@gmail.com"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>lead_phone</code></td>
<td>The phone number of the lead.</td>
<td></td>
<td>"703-555-1212"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>lead_property_address</code></td>
<td>The property address about which the lead is inquiring.</td>
<td></td>
<td>"123 Main Street, Alexandria, VA 22314"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>lead_mls</code></td>
<td>The MLS number of the property address.</td>
<td></td>
<td>"A5712345"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>lead_message</code></td>
<td>A message from the lead to the agent.</td>
<td></td>
<td>"Hello, I am interested in... I have the following question..."</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan=4>
<b><i>The specification also allows for up to 100 custom fields as follows:</i></b>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><code>lead_$FIELDNAME$</code></td>
<td>
A custom field, such as
<code>lead_min_bedrooms</code> or
<code>lead_max_price</code>. Use of a
custom field requires coordination between
the producer and the consumer of the field
in question.
</td>
<td></td>
<td>Any content.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h2>Consuming Lead Metadata</h2>
<p>
Below is the recommended approach to consume lead information from emails that conform to the Real Estate Lead
Metadata Specification.
</p>
<p>
Note that in practice, some vendors erroneously put
<code>meta</code> tags in the <code>body</code> tag
rather than the <code>head</code> tag. While this is
not strictly valid HTML, the consuming application
should still account for this case and search for
<code>meta</code> tags anywhere within the HTML
document.
</p>
<p>
To consume:
</p>
<p>
<ol>
<li>
Parse the HTML body into a searchable document
object model.
</li>
<li>
Search the document object model for
<code>meta</code> tags.
</li>
<li>
Locate a <code>meta</code> tag named
<code>lead_information_version</code>.
</li>
<li>
Verify that the value of
<code>lead_information_version</code> is equal
to <code>1.0</code>.
</li>
<li>
If successful, look for any other
<code>meta</code> tags beginning with
<code>lead_</code>. This is the lead
information.
</li>
</ol>
</p>
<!--
<p>
You can use the following emails for testing:
</p>
<p>
<a class="button button-primary" href="http://github.com/fivestreet/LeadMetadata.com">Test Email #1</a>
<a class="button button-primary" href="http://github.com/fivestreet/LeadMetadata.com">Test Email #2</a>
<a class="button button-primary" href="http://github.com/fivestreet/LeadMetadata.com">Test Email #3</a>
</p>
-->
<h2>Industry Adoption</h2>
<p>
<a href="http://move.com">Move, Inc.</a> and other companies' products are rapidly adopting the specification:
<ul>
<li>
<a href="http://www.fivestreet.com">FiveStreet</a> (Move, Inc.),
<a href="http://www.topproducer.com">TopProducer</a> (Move, Inc.),
<a href="http://www.tigerlead.com">TigerLead</a> (Move, Inc.),
<a href="http://www.boomtownroi.com">BoomTown</a>,
<a href="http://www.dakno.com">Dakno Marketing</a> and
<a href="https://www.followupboss.com/">Follow Up Boss</a> can consume emails with lead metadata.</li>
<li>Most outbound <a href="http://www.realtor.com">Realtor.com</a> (Move, Inc.) lead emails include lead metadata.</li>
<li>All <a href="http://www.tigerlead.com">TigerLead</a> lead emails include lead metadata.</li>
</ul>
</p>
<h2>Acknowledgements</h2>
<p>
The Real Estate Lead Metadata Specification is supported by
<a href="http://www.fivestreet.com">FiveStreet.com</a>,
<a href="http://www.move.com">Move, Inc.</a>,
<a href="http://www.realtor.com">Realtor.com</a>, and
<a href="http://www.newscorp.com">News Corp</a>.
The original specification was drafted by Eric
Bashkoff in June 2014, with contributions from Rusty
Klophaus.
</p>
<p>
This document is designed using the <a
href="http://getskeleton.com/">Skeleton</a> CSS
framework.
This website is hosted on <a
href="https://pages.github.com/">Github Pages</a>.
</p>
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