The number of real estate agents has increased and you’re competing with big tech realtor companies. Housing inventory is fluctuating depending on the market and since COVID the market has become a little tougher. You’re juggling sellers, buyers, lenders and inspectors. To stay competitive in the realtor market, you need to constantly reevaluate the effectiveness of your marketing activities. Today The best real estate agent is using marketing tools that help in generating leads, measuring performance, streamlining transactions and managing a team. Todays Marketing tools for Realtors and real estate professionals are more valuable today than ever before. In this article, we will shed light on Real Estate Marketing Tools for Agents.
Heropost with the help of our real estate clientele we have identified some real estate marketing tools that will:
- save you time
- simplify your workflow
- increase productivity
- help you get more clients.
I broke down the Real Estate Marketing Tools for Agents into the following categories… ( in all honesty we just asked our Realtor Clients 😃)
- CRM and Contact/ communication tools
- Social Media Tools
- Analyse your performance
- Website builders
- Lead Generation
- Staging tools
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM) and CONTACT TOOLS
Active Rain (the world’s largest online real estate community) and Salesforce state that “The most successful real estate agents are approximately two times as likely to adopt CRM and lead management solutions when compared to their less-successful peers.” You need to use adopt a CRM if you want to get ahead of the pack.
FollowUp Boss
Our real estate clients state that it’s easy to use and understand. They state that it helps you to respond faster to your leads. What this, then does is that it turns contacts into listings. Which is why you’re in business as a realtor. Overall its a great CRM tool for Realtors at any level. An agent told us that all your leads from every source, are in one place, therefore, making it simple and organized. This ultimately is an asset in this fast-paced industry.
DocuSign
DocuSign is an easy-to-use eSignature tool and it helps realtors by replacing manual and paper processes with automated, digital technologies.
The beauty of DocuSign is that it sends out notices and reminders to help keep time-sensitive paperwork on track. This tool is a must-have for a Realtor whos always on the go. You never miss anything with this tool on hand.
SALESFORCE
Salesforce is a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) software that helps businesses connect with and get more information about their customer base. The user interface is very clean and simple and it takes very little time to make changes.
As a realtor, you will only be successful if you have a systematic and efficient way of gathering leads so that they can be converted to sales and ultimately happy clients.
Salesforce provides out-of-the-box solutions. This leads to the growth of your business. Salesforce easily implements cutting-edge technology and connects all your solutions that are important. Businessnewsdaily believes Salesforce is the best CRM around.
They even have a specialist CRM for realtors, which proves its importance in the CRM field. Salesforce continues to grow and expand its software and we believe that it is one of the best CRMs around.
TRELLO
Trello is a must-have. How does it work? When an appointment is set in Trello, a checklist card is created for the client until the deal is done and closed. For example, after an appointment is set, it will be added to a checklist. The checklist ensures that all the details are handled, including calling 24 hours after the appointment to provide the post-appointment promise script.
Trello’s card-based project management system helps you to break down your projects and transactions into manageable tasks. Every team member has checklists therefore their tasks can be ticked off or assigned to another team member. That means work begins on the client’s card long before the agent returns to the office.
SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS FOR REAL ESTATE AGENTS
HEROPOST
The successful agent is on INSTAGRAM, FACEBOOK, TWITTER, LINKEDIN, PINTEREST and YOUTUBE these are the tools that get eyeballs on your property inventory.
That’s a lot of social media apps. How do you manage them all? You do it with HEROPOST. With Heropost you can schedule social media posts for any time during the day or in the future. You can connect Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest and more. You need to be constant when you post and Heropost does this for you.
With Heropost you can Manage multiple social profiles. Having Heropost as your social media partner and tool is crucial to your marketing success. It is an easy app that doesn’t confuse you.
Analyse your performance/ or social media
Google Analytics
Always start with Google Analytics. Out of all the Real Estate Marketing Tools for Agents listed in this article, Google Analytics is a must. Google Analytics is for web analytics. What Google does is that it helps agents and brokers measure the traffic and performance of their real estate website. Its what we also use and more specifically most people refer to it if they have a website. With Google Analytics’ as a realtor, you can see where your website visitors are coming from, as well as how long they spend on your site and which pages and posts they’re most interested in. You need to understand if they are interacting well with your new listing.
HEROPOST ANALYTICS
Once you become a Heropost user, you will automatically have access to our analytics feature for your social networks.
This feature will allow you to track the progress of your social media accounts with day by day analytics of followers, uploads, engagement rate and much more. You receive weekly email reports of your social media accounts progress by email. This tool will help measure if your social media is working or not. It will help you target the right audience. As a realtor, you need certain information to gauge your social media posts and in Heropost Analytics you can. It’s a simple way to fully understand your social media.
Website Building Tools for Realtors
WIX
Wix is one of the easiest website builders for anyone. It allows people with very little technical skills to build their own website from the ground up. The website builder states that WIX is better Squarespace, Weebly and Placester however all are great in our opinion. We personally use WordPress.
The website builder states that you should go for
Squarespace – best for design
Wix – best all-around website builder
Weebly – best for small businesses
Placester – inexpensive for basic websites
When it comes to building a Website, we recommend sourcing a freelancer because usually, you want someone who understands how to bring out your website in order for it to be user friendly. We are all for DIY website building but usually, a talented freelancer can do this for you.
Think about this. If we gave you a pencil would you be able to draw something artistic? Chances are, No! You could be doing something else with that time. In the Real Estate game, your landing page speaks volumes. You want a website that interacts well with potential clients and other agents, therefore, take that time to outsource a freelancer.
LEAD GENERATION TOOLS
Zillow Premier Agent
Zillow Premier Agent is a lead generation tool. With Zillow Premier Agent you can be the only agent advertised on your own listings (exclusivity), as well as advertise your business on other local listings (reach).
As a realtor you need to understand that each month, close to 200 million unique visitors spend time on Zillow’s website looking at homes, reading content, and searching for real estate agents to work with. In addition to Zillow’s flagship site, Zillow Premier Agents also have premium placement on Zillow’s network sites: Trulia, StreetEasy, and RealEstate.com, therefore, making Zillow a great tool in your arsenal.
LEADPAGES
Leadpages is a platform for creating landing pages, which are website pages optimized for conversions. Our Real Estate Agent client states that its easy to use, loads of templates, easy intergration and there are loads of lead boxes. What you get with Leadpages is an affordable platform for setting up nice landing pages, quickly and effortlessly.
REALGEEKS
Hooquest states that REALGEEKS “ Real Geeks occupies a middle ground among lead generation websites between agents websites and broker websites. It can be a great website solution for either level of organization.
It has all the tools of a complete real estate platform, including a CRM backend and a pay-per-click marketing service. REALGEEKS is great if you want to rank on Google and if you want Facebook and Google Adwords marketing. Ultimately it is best for real estate agents who want basic lead generation tools and those looking for both buyer and seller leads. The downside is that the mobile app cannot send or manage messages.
STAGING TOOLS
SPACIO
Spacio is great for a paperless open house registration and furthermore it lets agents abandon the messy open house sign-in sheet and collect contact information in an app. Spacio works seamlessly with Propertybase, BoomTown, Contactually, Moxiworks, Realvolve, Top Producer, Adwerx, BombBomb, Cloud CMA, Docusign and other apps. Importantly the signup form can be customized. This customisation allows you to capture important data. For example, it may be their budgets, features or property size.
These next Real Estate Marketing Tools for Agents below, I believe are great especially now that we are in the COVID Pandemic.
Spotless Agency
Spotless Agency is a leading virtual staging company. They have clients such as DouglasElliman, Nest Seekers and Sotheby’s. Just these names alone should tell you how good they are. We really like how they have represented themselves on their website with exceptional images illustrating their work. We really recommend checking the company out.
VRX STAGING
Moving furniture in and out of a property is costly and is a hustle. VRX Staging enables real estate agents to “virtually” stage a home by digitally removing existing furniture and adding new furniture to listing photographs. Virtual staging provides buyers with a strong reference point so when they walk through the vacant space they can see the endless potential.
BoxBrownie
BoxBrownie is also a great company to consider. They have quality photo editing, floor plan redraws, virtual staging & CGI renders at fair prices. All one has to do is to give them your photos and 48 hours and they’ll do the rest. The image above illustrating their before and after render demonstrates how good this company is for your virtual staging.
Virtual Staging Solutions
Virtual Staging Solutions offers remodeling and restyling virtual staging in which they change the flooring, walls, cabinets, and more. A feature that we are most impressed by is their removal service. Basically, they will remove existing furniture and virtually stage with new options. With Virtual Staging Solutions, you can easily digitally furnish any home and sell real estate faster.
We have named a few virtual staging companies however there are a few of them you can still check out below.
VisualStager
VHT Studios
Real Tour Vision
IBD Luxury Home Staging
The Take-Away
The above tools are a great way to keep you afloat in a competitive industry such as real estate. With the COVID Pandemic taking residence in our lives I believe strongly that the virtual staging tools are a must-see. Our realtor-client states that there are still deals during this pandemic but the number has significantly dropped. Sales are happening because the buyer would have seen the property through a virtual stager or the seller has dramatically dropped the price. We also understand that potential sellers are holding on to their properties because the market is expecting them to lower their price.
The above real estate marketing tools for agents will enable you to establish a healthy presence even in this tough climate. We hope we helped a little in shedding light on some real estate tools that you may use today.
