Boost Real Estate Lead Generation With This Killer CRM Feature
It’s not an exaggeration to say that lead generation, networking and nurturing leads are the most crucial elements in real estate.
You still can’t beat traditional strategies like handwritten thank you notes and developing an in-person rapport, but there’s one feature your CRM has that can help you generate more solid leads, give you more time to be out of the office with current clients, and make your job easier and your clients happier.
Whether you’re a single agent or an established brokerage, marketing automation can help you generate more leads to help your brokerage grow.
How Does Marketing Automation Work?
According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), 50% of home buyers find the home they purchase online rather than through a real estate agent.
Knowing that, picture this scenario: A first-time homebuyer is searching through Trulia or Zillow and they indicate interest in a home. If your CRM is integrated with those platforms, its marketing automation feature will pull in that person’s contact information and automatically send them an email within 30 seconds.
Why Is Marketing Automation So Effective?
You might have been able to send that email yourself, but not if you were swamped following up with current clients. Or out of the office networking with clients. Or showing listings. Or with a seller.
Marketing is the cornerstone of any successful real estate business. With that in mind, having a CRM that has some marketing automation built in—or, at the very least, integrates with whatever marketing software you use—is incredibly important.
Correctly enabling your CRM to automate some of your more tedious tasks like sending an email to a lead that pulls in from social media, Zillow, or Trulia can lead to big dividends.
If nothing else, an automated CRM buys you some time to send a more personalized follow up. And if the person looking for houses doesn’t have an agent yet, you might be the first person to contact them.
The NAR found that 66% of buyers used the first agent they interviewed, so getting your name in front of a buyer is crucial to developing and nurturing leads. In that same survey they found that 90% of buyers said they’d refer their agent to their friends.
The first automatic email you send could be the start of a beautiful and lucrative relationship for decades, so making sure it’s personal and engaging is crucial.
Pro Tip: Optimize Your Automated Emails for Better CRM Lead Generation
You may hear automation and think “I don’t want to sound like a robot,” and you’re absolutely right to have that concern. Even if you’re juggling 10 different listings and working with a few sellers, your clients expect you to make them feel like they’re your top priority.
You’ve become an expert in doing this, and that expertise is transferable to your CRM.
Most CRMs with marketing automation capabilities allow you to customize the email you send, how many emails you send and when you send them—so you’re in charge of the language used and how you present yourself.
You can also set up multiple different templates and trigger them depending on what type of lead pulls in. If you want to appear more casual to a certain type of buyer, you can, but if you want to appear more upscale to a buyer with a higher budget, you can: it’s up to you.
Here’s an example of what a marketing automation campaign might look like:
Example marketing automation flow from Soffront (Source)
The bottom line is that the more time and effort you spend planning these messages, the better off you’ll be.
Next Steps
Many businesses purchase a CRM thinking it will magically solve their problems. While a well-implemented CRM solves many efficiency and scaling issues growing companies encounter, you need to come in with a plan about how you’ll best utilize the software.
You also need to choose the right CRM for you.
Do you need a real-estate specific CRM that has been built specifically with brokerages and agents in mind? Or do you have the time and expertise to take a more general CRM with a lot of customization options to set up one tailor-made for your business?
If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our advisors at (855) 998-8505. They speak to hundreds of business owners every day. In fact, our recent data showed that the 25% of business owners who call us searching for CRM software come from Real Estate, so they’re especially equipped to help you find the perfect software solution for your business.
Note: The applications selected in this article are examples to show a feature in context and are not intended as endorsements or recommendations. They have been obtained from sources believed to be reliable at the time of publication.