Everyone knows what it's like to spend your first year or so in real estate "chasing down leads."
New real estate agents need time to learn the ropes, figure out which side of the transaction they like to be on, and identify their ideal customers. But after the adjustment period, you need a shift in thinking — especially about how you keep your pipeline full.
Many a real estate agent identifies as a "people person," so a robust schedule of in-person networking and events might seem to make sense. But even if they are energizing, there's no getting around how time-consuming those engagements can be.
And when they're not delivering real business value, you can end up running yourself ragged.
Whether you're new or experienced, the key to bringing your practice to the next level is to reimagine how you build relationships with prospects and leads. Most agents go furthest by leveraging resources they already have in fresh, new ways.
That includes:
By combining these two approaches, you'll spend more of your energy and focus on high-value activities that move you forward toward your goals. That boosts motivation for individuals and teams alike since you spend less time grappling with the frustrating feeling that you're "going nowhere."
What does it look like in practice? Most real estate professionals don't need to completely transform their workflow, make big investments, or learn a completely new skill. Instead, focus on the wins you can get by incrementally changing your relationship with the people and tasks at hand.
Let's look at some examples that can offer worthwhile wins at any stage of your career:
Get Used to Asking for Referrals
Some of the most successful real estate firms in the U.S. get 50% of their business from referrals or even more. That isn't necessarily because they're so good people are beating down their doors. They make asking for referrals a top priority, doing it consistently and much more frequently than the rest.
Every time you ask for a referral, you're reminding the customer that you exist – and that itself is a win. While the majority of people report favorable experiences with their real estate agent, most forget that person's name within just one year. Requesting a referral keeps those embers of recognition burning.
Agents develop their own follow-up cadence, but it's clear most aren't connecting nearly as often as they could be. Instead of reaching out to former clients every three months or every six months, think about doing it every month. In time, they may start to proactively send opportunities your way.
One way to streamline this process is to use a real estate CRM for clear visibility into your network.
Revamp Your Real Estate Website
With Millennials and Generation Z making up the majority of today's homebuyers, more than 90% of all home searches start online. Your real estate website is your digital first impression – and it's the most versatile tool you have for deepening relationships with people who haven't reached out to you yet.
You already know it can take months for someone to go from their first thoughts about buying or selling to actually talking to an agent. Your website gives you the power to add value to others' lives. A modern, well-designed website positions you as a trusted advisor whose insights can make a difference.
Your website's design is essential to success. It needs to be polished, professional, and easy to use. One standout feature is responsiveness, where the appearance and navigation adjust automatically for ease of use with mobile. That's a must-have, as more people are browsing property listings on their phones.
Publish More Online Real Estate Content
Most of the time, when people go online, they're trying to solve a problem or answer a question. That problem might be something as simple as "I'm bored." For those browsing home listings without the intent to buy soon, the question could be, "what's around in my local area, and how much does it cost?"
As people grow serious about buying or selling a home, the questions on their minds get more precise. They turn into things you can help with, like "which is the best neighborhood for me?" or "how can I get financing?" Helpful, informative online content lets you share your expertise.
The core of any content marketing strategy is the simple blog. Blogs not only give readers a taste of the wisdom you can offer but also make it more likely you'll appear prominently in online searches related to your business. Consistency counts, so aim to publish one blog a week to start.
Use Email Marketing to Stay in Touch
With more than $30 of ROI for every dollar spent, email marketing may just be the most cost-effective digital marketing approach of them all. And those figures relate to all industries: When an email might lead to a $200,000 home sale, it's an even more attractive investment.
Most people are happy to get an occasional email from a brand like yours as long as they agree to it upfront and know what they're getting. Trade them a sophisticated piece of content, like a local market report, then contact them weekly with your most helpful new content.
With email marketing automation for real estate agents, you can deliver a high-touch experience while skipping all the hours of work. After initial setup, it might take only a few minutes a month to send out a bevy of potent, personalized email messages that retain a humane "one-on-one" feeling.
Define a Focused Social Media Strategy
Of all the professionals doing business online today, real estate agents stand out as the ones who can harness social media's potential to the utmost. Some agents source most of their clients from social media, and a few hours of online engagement every week results in a busy calendar.
In the world of social media, doing "a little bit of everything" results in a whole lot of nothing. Making the most of social means zooming in on the specific platforms where your customers are most likely to be found. A good place to start is Instagram, a hub for top-quality real estate photography.
If you're dealing with commercial or luxury property, LinkedIn can be a good way to find high-net-worth individuals ready to invest. Facebook, on the other hand, is a good all-around selection for building your own community through your branded business page, a terrific opportunity to stay in touch long-term.
Whatever you choose, social media automation is crucial. It lets you plan posts in advance, timing their release for whenever your audience is most active. It also makes it easier to see at a glance when your input can help guide a conversation — resulting in less time spent scrolling and more time connecting.
Technology equips you to dig deeper into existing relationships and plant the seeds of new ones. With the right tools and a winning mindset, you can achieve more than ever in your real estate practice. Contact us to learn more today.
Technology is becoming the key that separates the most successful real estate agencies and brokerages from all the rest. You do not need to be part of a huge team to take advantage of the latest artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning, however: It is within your reach right now.
Real estate agents have always faced this critical issue: When someone wants to buy, it isn't always easy for them to tell the difference between one agent and another. With the right technology, applied in the right ways, you can meet their needs proactively — that's the ultimate differentiator.
Making the Most of Today's Technologies Starts with Knowing Yourself
One of the most quoted aphorisms in history begins, "Know your enemy and know yourself."
It may seem counterintuitive that in a world overflowing with tools that aim to uncover more about your customers, you must focus on knowing yourself. But this is the step agents should take if they want to build a thriving practice that offers them the best work-life balance possible.
If you do not strive to know yourself, even the best real estate marketing software will not unlock your full potential. But when you begin by understanding exactly what kind of business you plan to build, technology becomes the facilitator you need.
That begins with two key questions:
In their first year, agents may spend all of their time chasing down leads in an effort to understand these two questions. They are learning the ropes, trying out various transactions and client types. Once you're ready to identify your core customers, then technology can equip you to exceed their expectations.
What Are the Most Important Technologies in Real Estate Today?
Thanks to the forward-looking innovation of top real estate thinkers from decades ago, our industry has access to vast quantities of data. Before anyone else realized just how important that was, the MLS was making virtually all U.S. properties and real estate transactions available at a glance.
Much can still be done to improve on and optimize listings — features like virtual tours, to give just one example. But improvements in individual listings are truly only the beginning. You must embrace a technology-driven shift in how you conceptualize your workflow and business.
Three emerging pieces of technology are transforming real estate as you read this:
Let's take a closer look at them and what they mean.
Adopting an All-in-One Real Estate Center of Excellence for Your Practice
Not that long ago, even basic artificial intelligence was the stuff of science fiction. It was worked on in the most exclusive universities and think tanks, and no products took full advantage of it. Today, your ability to use AI is limited only by your ability to envision a better future for your business.
At Delta Media Group, our all-in-one real estate solution puts the most powerful artificial intelligence available in the industry directly into your hands. Our customers are already using it to save time and money, zero in on opportunities with their leads, and help properties close faster and at better prices.
The centerpiece of our strategy is in real estate marketing automation.
Marketing is crucial to defining and growing your business, but it often falls down the priority list. Our seamless, AI-driven approach ensures machine learning integration in every aspect of digital marketing.
From email marketing to social media and everything in between, Delta Media Group customers can deliver highly valuable content targeted to the precise needs of their leads and customers. Once you're set up, you'll often spend only minutes a week ensuring helpful, informative contact that gives a "high touch" experience to your network — without the hours of effort on your part that high touch implies.
Contact us today to find out more or get started.
Every year, billions of dollars are invested around the world in developing new tech that improves the real estate experience for agents, clients, and real estate firms. Millennials are quickly growing into the largest real estate demographic, and catering to a young, tech-savvy clientele will only accelerate the desire for new technology. And it's not as if people under 40 are the only ones glued to their favorite devices.
When new technology emerges, everyone involved in the real estate industry can benefit. Here are some potential tech breakthroughs that could emerge in real estate in the coming years, along with a few recent breakthroughs that are likely to stand the test of time.
The Continued Development of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI has already helped the real estate industry accomplish some great things, whether you want to send timely, personalized reports to clients or develop a more accurate analysis of real estate market trends. But in many ways, we're only scratching the surface. The global investment in AI is immense, just like the future potential of the technology.
Consider the benefits of robust virtual assistants that can help guide clients through the process of buying or selling a home, taking some of the workload off of agents while providing a valuable service to clients. Already, some of the biggest real estate websites are also using AI to help match clients with the perfect loan, or the perfect home. Some of the biggest tech breakthroughs in the near future are very likely to involve AI and machine learning.
Streamlined Technology
With so much new tech emerging in recent years, one big breakthrough that we're already beginning to experience is the streamlining of real estate technology. With a real estate all-in-one solution like DeltaNET®6, you have the technology for managing leads, marketing properties, connecting with clients, and analyzing data in one convenient package. Expect the streamlining of real estate tech to continue as new tools are introduced, allowing agents to save time, increase productivity, and focus on what matters most.
Digital Documentation
Clients and agents alike dread the pile of paperwork that comes with closing on a home. Wouldn't it be nice if documents could be securely, reliably read and signed anywhere, from any device? The technology to do so is already emerging and should play a major role in real estate transactions in the coming years.
Taking Advantage of the Latest Tech
Focusing on the future is fun, but not at the expense of the present. Some of the tech that has risen in popularity during the pandemic is likely to remain important and be improved upon for years to come.
Where Will Real Estate Tech Take Us Next?
Just 5 or 10 years ago, it would have been hard to predict all of the game-changing tech that has shaped the real estate industry today. And that's part of the fun! While we can make educated guesses about AI and other new tech, there's always the possibility of a breakthrough that almost nobody saw coming. With such a substantial investment of brainpower and funds in creating breakthroughs, it will be exciting to see where real estate tech takes us next.
How often do you reach the end of the workday feeling like you accomplished everything that you set out to do when the day began? The life of a real estate agent is filled with surprises and unexpected demands on your time. It's so easy to end the day feeling like you missed opportunities to market properties, promote your business, generate new leads, and nurture existing leads.
But it doesn't have to be that way. With the right real estate technology, you have access to reliable, easy-to-use tools that allow you to automate key tasks, make your day more productive, and free up more time to focus on the things you love most about being a real estate agent.
Email Marketing and Lead Nurturing
Email marketing is one the most important places where automation can increase your productivity. Creating and sending email marketing manually takes so much time, and there are so many tools available to automate the process while still sending effective, appealing email marketing materials.
Lead Segmentation and Tracking
Pursuing dead-end leads is a serious drain on any real estate agent's time, but segmenting leads takes time as well — at least, segmenting leads takes time when you do it yourself. Your real estate CRM should provide automated tools for segmenting leads, so that you know which leads are hot, which ones are cold, and where your leads are in the purchasing/sales process.
In addition to lead segmentation, you should be able to rely on your CRM for tracking lead activity with IDX search tracking, as well as tracking saved properties, property searches, and views. All of this information can save you time and allow you to focus on leads that are ready to convert.
Content Creation for Your Blog and Marketing Materials
At the end of a long day of serving your clients and pursuing new leads, how often do you feel like sitting down to write a blog post for your real estate website? Save time by integrating custom content creation for your real estate blog by professional content creators and taking advantage of automated tools for creating marketing materials. Keep your website stocked with content, your clients/prospects informed, and free up more time for productivity.
Quickly and Easily Promote New Listings
When you have a hot new listing, speed matters. You want to get the word out quickly on multiple channels, reach a wide audience, and start generating interest in the property. Take advantage of automation by automatically creating flyers for your new listings, and automatically promoting new listings to your social media pages. Once the word is out, you can easily let clients tour homes from anywhere with tools like virtual open houses and showings.
Are You Using Real Estate Technology to Become More Productive and Make Life Easier?
If you want to make your life easier and enhance productivity, then you need access to a seamless, high-performance real estate technology platform. In addition to tools for automating tasks, your real estate CRM should also include an extensive suite of tools for making so many other tasks easier to accomplish. Does your real estate CRM provide everything you need to thrive? DeltaNET®6 includes all of the automation features mentioned in this article and so many more tools that can boost your productivity as a real estate agent.
I can't speak for everyone, but I can tell you that, at Delta Media Group®, we learned a lot this year. We learned that deer will go out of their way to climb onto an expressway and jump in front of your car even in broad daylight (maybe only I learned that). We learned that working remotely really does work, but it's not for everyone. We learned that when big hedge funds are involved, the stock market looks a lot like a casino. Lastly, and most importantly, as far as this article is concerned, we learned that simplicity is one of the most important elements when it comes to making something that people want to use.
I don't mean to make things simple at the cost of functionality. It's more about knowing how your clients will use whatever it is that you're building so that you can know what functionality to put right in front of them, and what can be tucked into the background. It's also about recognizing — and, in some cases, eliminating — any unnecessary steps in a process. There's little more frustrating than performing the same task repeatedly, being asked the same question as part of the process of completing that task, and answering it the same way every time. The easy remedy is to just use that answer automatically so that, in 99 out of 100 tries, it's already correct, and the user gets to skip a step. For that 1 out of 100 anomaly, there just needs to be some alternative way to change that answer in that single case.
This has all been pretty abstract so far, so let's look at some specific applications. In the DeltaNET®, it's possible for an admin to customize what buttons appear on the landing pages and Welcome page for their agents. If you can predict the most common actions, your agents take when logging in, you can add the necessary buttons to develop a workflow there that will take them where they need to go in the least amount of time. For example, let's say that the thing your agents do most when logging into the DeltaNET is add a customer and send them a "Happy to be Working With You" e-card. You can put an Add Customer button at the top of their Welcome page, so that's the first thing they see when they log in. They need only click it and enter their customer's information. You can put a Send e-card button right next to it that will take them straight into Creative StudioTM so that they just need to choose their template and click send. The button that links to Creative Studio could even take them to a page that's already filtering the templates to those in the category of e-cards they're most likely to want to use.
The same principle can be applied to every landing page in the DeltaNET. If users are usually looking to create or modify their custom pages when they click on the Website tab, why not give them a button right on top that takes them straight there? If they're generally interested in adding a blog article every time they click on Marketing, give them a shortcut there. You get the idea.
The other side of that coin is to avoid presenting a lot of extra buttons and options that the majority of users won't be interested in using. Of course, you still want those things to be available, but putting them right at the same level as "Add Customer" is going to add clutter, distraction, and sometimes even confusion. Fortunately, the DeltaNET allows you to make something called a Tile Collection. It basically allows you to put a button on the Welcome page that simply opens a modal that contains other tiles. With this, you can put your Add Customer, Send e-card, Send Email buttons on the Welcome page, then have a single, additional button labeled something like "Advanced Features" or simply "More...". Clicking on that would then pop up a window that contains tiles to the other equally valuable but lesser-used features. This allows you to cater to the power users while keeping it simple for everyone else. The easier you can make it, and the fewer distractions and extra options the user needs to read through to get to what they want, the more everyone will use it. This, in turn, leads to more agents sticking around for the tools that make it easier for them to run their business.
This really translates to the public website side of things as well. At Delta Media Group, we have ongoing projects to assess the usability of various features of the public websites that are shared throughout the system. However, especially when it comes to the individual sales associate websites, there's a lot you can do to make it a more friendly experience for clients that are coming to your website to search for properties. Nobody knows your clients and your market better than you do. As a real estate sales associate, you're the expert there. So why not use that expertise to drive your clients' experience on your website? Your quick search stays front and center for those users that know what, or where, they're looking and want to jump straight into the results. For those that might not be so sure, you could put links to common searches right on your homepage or in your top navigation. Maybe there are some popular school districts or subdivisions in your area. You could put obvious links to search results pages for those areas right on your homepage. You can even go a step further by creating dedicated landing pages for those areas. This has the added benefit of setting your website apart (for those clients and search engines) by adding some valuable, unique, market-specific content to it. You can put a search results section right on that page as well. That presents customers with a single page of dedicated listings in the area they want that gives them information and highlights about that area as well as a display of all of the available properties there.
Just how a well-structured and intuitive DeltaNET helps with agent adoption and retention, a user-friendly and intuitive website leads to better client adoption and retention. Your expertise in the markets you know gives you an edge over all the big portal sites by allowing you to make a website and real estate search experience that really caters to those interested in your market. If you can provide those clients with the superior experience, they'll keep coming to your site. They may even tell their friends, thereby driving more traffic and leads to you. It's all about providing the best and easiest experience.
Let's face it, the reason people are lined up around the block for the small, locally owned, one-room restaurant instead of heading to the nearest big chain restaurant is because that local place does it the best. The best food and the best experience. In real estate, you can't do much about the "food," but you can provide the best experience, and that's what's going to get them to come to you instead of the portal sites.
At Delta Media Group, we're taking these ideas to heart. It's good to be driven by the feedback of the vocal, power users that make up the minority of the user base. But while that feedback is very valuable, if that's all you look at, you can lose sight of keeping it simple in favor of adding the newest great idea. The key is in adding those features without distracting from the simplicity that the other 99% want and need to run their business every day. The DeltaNET needs to remain as robust and powerful as ever, and we will always endeavor for it to be your one-stop shop for all of the tools and resources you need to run your real estate business. However, right on the surface for day-to-day use, the things that you need most, and most often, will stay right in your face so that you don't need to go looking for them or go through a dozen clicks, pages, or windows to use them. This year, we learned about "easy," and that's a lesson we're going to keep with us from here on out. We hope you do the same.
To view past Real Estate Marketing and Technology articles and read more from the December 2021 issue, click here.
Real estate has long been considered one of the best investments of all.
The sterling reputation of owning a home as a way of building wealth took a beating among Millennials after successive waves of downturns and crises. Now, it's on its way back. Up-and-coming Generation Z made a strong showing in homebuying during the pandemic.
Only a fraction of that generation is old enough to enter the market now. But general trends indicate they look at buying a home as an important life milestone — and a goal to be pursued at earlier ages than ever before. This is sure to shape the real estate landscape for years to come.
In short, they have a different view of their return on investment.
ROI is the ultimate goal of any investment. It stands at the heart of the concept of "putting your money to work for you." If your return on investment is flat, it's evidence that you could have gotten greater value from that money elsewhere. If it's negative, then you've identified a bad investment.
To succeed, real estate agents should put this concept at the forefront of their minds.
Real Estate Technology May Be the Best Investment an Agent Can Make
Every time you choose one solution over another for your business, you are making an investment. The goal is to make money or save money. However, it's not always easy to trace the path from the tools you use to your bottom line. To make the connection, go back to the simple maxim everyone knows:
"Time is money."
If you can save time, you can make more money. Even if you don't "reinvest" that saved time directly into work hours, it still makes a difference. After all, having more time for rest will enable you to do your best work longer and more consistently. This is always more productive than just getting by.
On its own, real estate technology can't promise you'll close more deals or get more leads. But it can serve as a platform to accelerate and simplify your use of the skills that yield those results. It multiplies what you are capable of. Imagine doubling or even tripling your productivity without making a hire!
Now is the time to seek out and implement the modern tools that make it possible.
Real Estate Technology Is on the Grow After Pandemic-Induced Slowdowns
The pandemic drove tremendous evolution in the real estate market in a matter of weeks. A rapid pace of change was imperative to keep transactions moving while maintaining safety for everyone.
With pandemic restrictions beginning to fade, it's clear that real estate won't be returning to "business as usual." Many pandemic-driven changes are here to stay, and technology facilitates it all.
All in all, real estate technology has two big effects:
There's no greater example of this than the virtual home tour. Virtual tours were gaining momentum before the pandemic, along with other types of interactive and video content. To expand buyers' search radius and protect sellers from dealing with crowds, they mushroomed practically overnight.
As a result, real estate technology solutions have evolved to make them easier, even for agents who have never been comfortable in front of the camera before. The tempo of technological innovation is sure to remain upbeat as work gradually returns to normal and teams can collaborate more easily.
Artificial Intelligence and Automation Combine to Make Real Estate Technology Work Better
Two core capabilities define the real estate technology of tomorrow:
For example, real estate agents from coast to coast use social media. It is the #1 source of high-quality leads for many agents and firms. But on its own, social media can be a time sink. Automation speeds up the process of using it, while artificial intelligence verifies the business value that it can offer.
DeltaNET™ 6 is the all-in-one real estate solution that unifies these two capabilities in a way designed from end to end with your unique needs in mind. It gives you complete visibility into all of your contacts, customers, and brand advocates, where they stand, and how best to connect with them.
Delta Media Group is constantly expanding and improving its product line. In 2021 alone, we've added dozens of additional free features to DeltaNET™ 6. By adding more value, we aim to become your best investment in the growing world of real estate technology.
Contact us to find out more or get started.
Artificial intelligence is poised to become the next big thing in real estate.
Lots of ink has been spilled about the potential of AI to replace jobs. But as the pandemic has shown, that future remains a long way off. Instead of displacing professional expertise, AI has the potential to serve as a highly versatile and adaptive "multi-tool" that can help real estate agents and their clients.
In fact, it is already affecting every stage of today's real estate transactions. To understand what makes artificial intelligence so exciting, it's best to begin with the basics.
What is Artificial Intelligence, Really?
Artificial intelligence enables a piece of software to make inferences and draw conclusions based on a set of data. Some AI, called Natural Language Processing (NLP) systems, have the ability to interpret and answer a question posed in the "natural language" that ordinary people use every day.
AI has been around since the 1950s. However, the processing power and bandwidth available today has driven it to new heights. Everyday people can now interface with AI-based systems using the supercomputer they keep in their pocket. This is accelerating AI development on a grand scale.
Automatic processing and data collection are where today's artificial intelligence tools shine. They aren't always great at solving complex problems alone, especially when that means applying creativity. But they help agents, buyers, and sellers "connect the dots" and gain deeper insight for more informed decisions.
Let's dive in and see what artificial intelligence is doing to improve today's real estate world.
Lead Generation
AI is especially crucial for real estate agents in their never-ending quest for lead generation.
These days, the vast majority of lead generation is bound to happen online. Agents' real estate websites and their social media are the two biggest planks in the strategy. Both can be enhanced by using AI to generate branded customer care experiences in a seamless and delightful way.
Machine learning is on display in a modern real estate all-in-one solution like DeltaNET™ 6. By continuously learning about buyer and seller behaviors based on past transactions, it finds patterns within millions of data points — patterns invisible to even the keenest human analyst.
This saves time by automatically scoring leads and facilitating effective follow-up.
Home Search
Home listings are already searchable in massive quantities in any market you care to name. But buyers in particular depend upon real estate agents to sort through the oceans of listings and find those that meet their criteria. Agents, in turn, can look to artificial intelligence to accelerate the process.
Yes, the process typically begins with the AI system pulling in data entered by the real estate agent or directly by the buyer. By monitoring details like how long was spent on each listing and which photos were looked at, however, it highlights factors that allow it to surface additional listings faster.
This equips agents to send a curated round-up of listings to their buyers so they can act faster.
Transactions
Real estate transactions aren't as confusing or complex as they might look from the outside. Still, there can be many twists and turns – and there's a lot both buyers and sellers don't know. The right AI can streamline transactions, making data searchable and easy to reference when you need it.
One of the biggest advantages to artificial intelligence is how it can cut down on human error. While it's always a wise idea to double-check every document, you no longer need to worry about tedious data entry that can introduce problems. Instead, software auto-populates forms contextually.
Property Valuation
We all know of an AI-driven valuation tool that's notoriously off the mark in many of the estimates it gives. Despite that, AI-driven property valuation is growing better by the day. One key to making it work effectively is to cross-reference data from multiple vetted data storehouses.
By doing this behind the scenes, a machine learning tool can determine how much weight to assign to different sources. Ultimately, estimates continue to improve. Instead of spending hours developing a list of comparable sales, you can quickly generate a report and double-check the figures.
Lending
The lending landscape will always affect real estate agents and their clients, so it's crucial to know what changes are around the corner. Mortgage lenders have jumped into AI with both feet, using it to tame the ferocious process of underwriting — which can involve hundreds of documents.
Artificial intelligence can highlight key points within an entire corpus of documents, allowing lenders to make an initial determination in a matter of hours rather than days or weeks. As the process continues to get faster and more accurate, lenders stand to double or even triple their productivity.
Contact us today to learn how you can capture AI's power with confidence using DeltaNET™ 6.
You're working too hard. But then, I don't have to tell you that, do I? What you might appreciate me telling you is that you don't have to.
Automation is taking over the world. You can use smart home products to turn on your coffee maker in the morning and turn on your bedroom lights when your alarm goes off. You can use your phone to wait on hold for you and have it ring when the other party picks up. Complaining about your phone bill has never been easier. So why not use that technology to help you maintain relationships with your customers too? Of course, there will always be the need for your personal touch here and there, but when it comes to informing your customers of new listings when they come on the market, keeping them up to date on market stats, and just generally staying in touch with relevant information and articles, save yourself the time and let the machine do it for you.
If you're just diving into the world of automating some of your marketing and customer communications, there are several features I can suggest that make it easy to get started. First, go turn on the Market Watch Report automation. It basically amounts to flipping a switch. Once activated, every customer that asks for information or a showing on your website will automatically have a Market Watch Report created based on the listing they made the request on. The system will then send them an email once a month with data related to that market.
E-card automations are equally simple. You can turn them on independently for new listings, open houses, and listings that have just sold. When you list a new property, schedule an open house, or sell a property, respectively, an e-card will be sent to whatever group of customers you choose. That means you can focus on that actual property listing while the system handles telling your customer database that it's on the market.
In addition to sending e-cards automatically when something happens with one of your listings, you can trigger e-cards on holidays or even customer-specific dates as well. We all love getting birthday and Christmas cards, but not everybody loves sending them. Even if you do, time is our most precious commodity, so free up as much as you can by having the DeltaNET® remember those dates and send them for you. The DeltaNET will remember, and can work with, some less obvious dates, too, as long as you enter them into your customers' accounts. Purchase anniversary? Sure, that one's easy. How about a wedding anniversary? It can handle that. Pet birthday? Now that's the fun one. You can bet that I'm going to remember the name of any real estate agent that sends me an e-card on my dog's birthday. I don't even know what day that is, so I'm impressed if you do (actually, you could probably just make up a date, and I'd believe you). Just being the name that pops into a person's head when they think about real estate is most of the battle, after all.
Another easy one is social posting automation. You can now have the DeltaNET automatically post your new listings, blog articles, customer reviews, market watches, recently sold listings, and about a half dozen other things to your social media accounts on your behalf. We're not just talking about Facebook, either. It can now post to LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter too. It's not always easy to maintain a social media presence, so the more of your posting that happens automatically, the better.
Some of the less obvious but equally easy to set up automations are the Behavioral Alerts. When activated, these will send an email or SMS message to your customers when they perform certain actions on your website. For example, if they visit your website for the first time in a couple of weeks, it can welcome them back. If they view enough properties on your website in a day, it can ask them if they need help. If they view the same property more than once, it can ask them if they'd like to get a showing scheduled.
The My Customer For Life system is another one that essentially just needs to be turned on with very little additional configuration. Just switch it on, set it to work on all new and existing customers, and let it run. It will send emails to your customers as frequently as weekly, though it can be configured to go out much less often, and the best part is that you don't even have to write the content for the articles it sends. We take care of all of that. It's even smart enough to keep track of which articles your customers click on when they get the email so that it can send them more similar articles each time it emails them. The result over time is that every customer receiving messages from your MCFL system gets a message that is uniquely catered to them. Simply getting your name in front of them is beneficial, but then associating your name with content they're really interested in, that isn't purely informational, like a saved search email, is that much more powerful when it comes to customer retention.
Those are just the automations that can be turned on with little to no actual configuration. They only scratch the surface of the automation tools available. You can also save searches for your customers (or they can save them on your website themselves) so that they're automatically notified when new listings they might like come on the market. It takes a little configuration to define precisely what your customer is looking for, but what's a prospective buyer more likely to respond to than an email telling them their dream house just came on the market?
Campaigns are another powerful tool to stay in touch, not only through email but via text message as well. Our prebuilt campaigns are often all you need, but if you want to go down the road of creating custom campaigns, you can really tailor the messaging in a way that speaks to customers based on how they came to know you or what they're looking for. You can segment customers into groups based on the general area they're interested in buying in, then add them to a campaign populated with messaging specific to that area. You can have a campaign pick up on the fact that the customer came into your database from a request they made on Zillow (it's a dirty word, I know, I'm sorry) and send them messages that are sensitive to that fact. You can even have a campaign that automatically sends only to customers that were added to your database because they signed on using Open House Connector at an open house you were hosting. It's not quite the same as a personal message sent directly to a prospect, but it's pretty close and, once you complete the initial configuration, you don't have to spend any time on it.
If you haven't gathered it yet, we're all about automation around here. The most important thing you can do in the name of customer retention is to make sure those you've worked with in the past don't forget about you. Sometimes, however, that can occasionally create a bit of a roadblock for growth. If you spend all your time trying to stay in touch with past clients, when will you prospect new ones? When will you pick up new listings, let alone market those listing and get them sold so that the current clients remain happy clients? The answer is automation. Not just form letters either, but real, intelligent automation. Form letters drive people to the 'unsubscribe' button. Automations that provide valuable, relevant, and even just interesting information drive people to become repeat customers.
In 2020, a survey by global consultancy KPMG revealed just over half of real estate firms surveyed had a digital strategy in place. Yet, the years since have seen an acceleration of technology's role in real estate, even the most informed analysts could not have predicted.
Factors are converging to make technology more prevalent:
As a whole, these three factors have created two big pressures on agencies and brokerages:
These concerns are understandable — especially in the era of rapid change and deep uncertainty we find ourselves in today. In the long run, however, real estate experts have much to gain and nothing to lose from embracing technology. While it can increase productivity, it can never replace the human touch.
Technology Facilitates What Real Estate Agents Do Best
The human factor has always been critical in real estate — and it always will be.
Whether you use an overflowing filing cabinet or a modern Customer Relationship Management suite for real estate, your goal is the same: Find good leads, reach out at the right times, and create a human connection. Relationships are built on trust, and that's what real estate success requires.
So, what's the real difference between the sleek CRM and the filing cabinet?
There are many, but they come down to three basics:
Use the Right Technology to Bring Stability to Your Business
Let's be real: We are all a bit exhausted of the pace of change since 2020. But rather than "disrupting" everything, the right technology anchors your business, so you have repeatable and reliable processes. That shortens the time it takes to build the practice you've always wanted. Contact us to learn more.
Is marketing your top priority?
For most real estate pros, the answer is "no" — and with good reason!
Marketing is an essential part of building your business. In the long run, few other activities contribute quite as much to the trajectory of your unique brand. If you want a lucrative practice that nonetheless offers the right mix of work-life balance, marketing needs to land on your radar consistently.
On a day-to-day basis, though, it's no surprise you have other things to think about.
Buyers and sellers alike are growing savvier and getting more demanding in the level of customer care they expect. The youngest movers in the market — whose lifetime value is highest – are also the most likely to say they will lose interest if they do not hear back from a real estate agent immediately.
You are your biggest business asset. To work on deals and build relationships, you must be present.
So marketing slips down the priority list. Or does it? No marketing resource can replace you, nor should it try. You need assets that extend your reach. The solution is digital marketing automation for real estate agents.
Spend Less Time Marketing and More Time Engaging Your Customers — Without Sacrificing Either
By automating away routine tasks, you free up time and reduce human error. But there's more to it.
With end-to-end digital marketing automation, you create something just as valuable: Consistency. Your email, social media, and more can deliver personalized communication in your own warm and relatable voice. No matter if you are talking to ten, one hundred, or one thousand leads, it can always sound like you!
This is crucial because trust is the foundation that real estate success is built on.
Fostering that trust begins long before you ever meet with a potential client. They are already out there on the internet, comparing their different options for a real estate agent. It may take weeks or even months for them to jump in. Your marketing messages between now and then can make the winning difference.
With the digital marketing center of excellence offered by DeltaNET 6, you can present your expertise with full confidence. Our all-in-one AI-driven platform empowers you with seamless integration and dependable high performance on all the core marketing tasks that drive your business forward.
That includes:
No matter what the future brings, digital marketing is an essential part of the equation for real estate experts at all levels. DeltaNET 6 keeps you on the cutting edge by giving you real estate marketing automation capabilities that can save you thousands of hours every year, all without sacrificing the human touch.
Contact us today to learn more or get started.
The central challenge of real estate marketing is serving more people without losing the human touch.
Many real estate agents are solo performers. As their business scales up, increasing headcount isn't an option. Instead, they need to find ways to utilize their resources more efficiently. The most cost-effective approach in modern real estate is automation, especially digital marketing automation.
And automation isn't only for one-agent shows.
Teams of any size can achieve more by taking a hands-off approach to repetitious but necessary tasks. That's indispensable to having more time and energy for what really matters. By accelerating what you can achieve in one day, you are prevented from falling into the trap of working ever-increasing hours as business grows.
In other words, real estate marketing automation is the key to work-life balance. It's also one of the most versatile assets you can have at your disposal.
Real Estate Marketing Automation Helps Your Business Scale Effortlessly
If more real estate marketing meant you had to "turn the crank" more every day, the result would be a disaster:
But marketing is a crucial part of growing your presence in the community. Without it, you can easily end up chasing referrals for years to come. The alternative is building a steady stream of leads that will find their way to your website at the precise moment they're most interested in what you have to offer.
In effect, automated real estate marketing plants seeds that come to fruition over time to enhance your results.
Let's look at some of the most significant ways it can change your work life for the better:
Real Estate Marketing Automation Is a True Game-Changer
If you're not using real estate marketing automation, you could end up working morning through night and still falling behind. Luckily, the best automation technology — especially for real estate — is within your reach. Contact us to learn more and get started today.
As the pandemic spread, few industries changed as quickly or as completely as real estate. In many areas, public safety protocols meant real estate was effectively on pause for several weeks. During that time, agents and brokers all over the country worked around the clock to figure out safe and effective ways to continue serving clients. Never before had there been so much risk.
And those professionals rose to the occasion. Real estate transactions have continued at a brisk pace, giving buyers the chance to access historically low interest rates. At the same time, sellers have benefited from rising home prices in some of the most desirable markets. Now, at last, there are optimistic signs of coming out the other end of the pandemic. But things won't simply go back to the way they were.
Many of the real estate trends accelerated by the pandemic were already percolating in the background. Virtual home tours and showings, remote work, marketing automation, and more have gained traction faster than anyone predicted. The benefits of these fresh approaches remain very attractive. Real estate experts often thrive on face-to-face interactions. It will be a relief to see clients in person more frequently. But the top pandemic trends have unlocked ways to get more done and serve more people — all without having to sacrifice the personal touch that makes relationships work.
Let's look at some game-changing real estate trends that have staying power:
Real Estate Is Undergoing a Digital Revolution: The Right Technologies Are Essential to Success
The pandemic has been a challenging time for everyone. It will pass, but the lessons learned will endure.
Today's most effective real estate agents are using technology to adapt, overcome challenges, and add value to their communities. Modern real estate technology is the key to building a practice that lets you deliver sterling customer care while making space for the work-life balance you want in the long term.
To learn more from the real estate digital marketing experts, contact Delta Media Group today.
It seems like technology advances and integrates into new aspects of our lives every day. Even the jobs in which in-person communication and physical interactions are relied on, somehow, technology seems to find a way to connect. The real estate industry is no exception; technology has dramatically changed the way agents, buyers, and sellers accomplish their goals. While at times it may seem like these new systems and software may overly complicate certain processes, technology like automation can immediately improve existing practices. Agents will quickly discover that automation improves the real estate industry in more ways than one.
The Newest Trend in Real Estate Technology
Though automation is not a new concept, its application in the real estate industry is relatively young. Many real estate agencies, even industry-leaders, have been hesitant to adopt certain technologies that would dramatically alter these transactions. It's fair to assume that some buyers and sellers were hesitant as well. Since buying a house is one of the largest financial transactions a person will make in their lifetime, the thought of conducting parts of these transactions online may be uncomfortable.
However, many agents realize automation can present significant advantages to the real estate industry. Technology will continue to advance the way we live and work, which means these solutions will inevitably continue to integrate into the real estate industry in unique ways. By adopting automation in certain processes, agents can reduce the time, money, and effort they put into tasks that can be easily accomplished with a hands-off approach.
4 Ways Automation Improves the Real Estate Industry
As a real estate agent, your tools and your team are your greatest resources. With so many technologies at your disposal, the tools you choose must benefit you and those you work with. Automation is one of the most versatile resources you can add to your repertoire.
While some technologies are nice but not essential, real estate agents are discovering the many benefits of automation integration. By automating certain tasks like lead generation and customer management, real estate agents will have more time to focus on touring homes and closing sales.
Marketing for real estate agents is about to become more challenging.
Real estate agents have long looked warily at Zillow, a media firm that aggregates data on 110 million American homes through its website. Since its launch in 2006, it has diverted many home buyers and prospective sellers to begin their research on its homepage.
Zillow's next move will be more disruptive: It's hiring real estate agents.
Zillow Offers customers in Atlanta, Phoenix, and Tucson will now work with Zillow employees licensed through Zillow Homes, the company's real estate brokerage. Homes will be listed by Zillow employees.
Zillow employees won't represent sellers outside the Zillow Offers program. However, it will be much easier for Zillow to make that decision in the future as market conditions change.
Plus, the company's expansion threatens to "suck the air out of the room" when it comes to marketing for real estate agents. Independent agents and smaller brokerages will find themselves competing with a juggernaut in America's hottest markets.
What should real estate agents do to prepare?
Technology and Automation Are Essential to Successful Marketing for Real Estate Agents
A recent NAR report showed successful real estate agents get nearly 66% of their business from repeat and referral customers. After the first two years of practice, referrals should begin to grow substantially.
The key to capturing that growth is to deliver personalized, high-touch care during the customer experience and after. However, as your business scales, it becomes more challenging to devote time and attention. The key is automation through reliable, AI-driven real estate technology.
Today's machine learning tools integrate seamlessly into your workflow, enabling you to communicate with one, one hundred, or one thousand clients with the same combination of warmth and precision—everyone receives relevant, useful messaging enlivened by personal touches that build trust.
A CRM is Step One for World-Class Client Care in a Competitive Environment
Without Customer Relationship Management software, your clients are invisible.
A modern CRM enables you to see at a glance where every prospect, lead, and client stands in their own individual buyer journey. Through integration with email marketing and social media tools, it empowers you to deliver the most helpful and informative content at the push of a button.
If you are not using a CRM yet, now's the time to make the leap. The industry's top brokerages already have. A growing number of new agents are starting their career with streamlined, high-tech processes.
Once you add existing customers and contacts to your CRM, it unlocks opportunities to recognize and meet their needs at every stage of the process. Even if leaps lapse or take months to dive into the market, you'll always have follow-up options.
Four More Ways to "Zillow-Proof" Your Career and Set a Course for Success
Once your CRM is up and running, you can stay engaged with both current and past customers. CRM will help you water your garden, but you still need to plant the right seeds. Here's how to do it:
As 2021 dawns, marketing for real estate agents is inseparable from digital technology. Never has it been easier to build long-lasting relationships not only with new clients, but previous ones who will power your referral engine.
Delta's all-in-one real estate CRM is the premier proptech solution built on years of feedback from real estate agents. With tools like pre-populated email drip campaigns, automated social media, and the My Customer for Life newsletter, what once took hours every month can now be done in minutes.
To learn more, contact Delta Media Group today.
Being successful in real estate means finding ways to keep the conversation going long after the first handshake is over. However, with all of the people you meet, it's nearly impossible to grow those relationships, run your current business, and still have time to sleep at night.
What's the Answer?
Delta Media Group comes to the rescue with the latest addition to its DeltaNET 6 toolbox with pre-built, automated email drip campaigns. We make it easy to stay in front of your clients with targeted email campaigns, offering them precisely the information they want to see.
Email drip campaigns add a dose of high-octane to your current marketing strategy. Stay in touch with clients by sending timely, relevant messages to your client base.
Anyone can find more "stuff" to do. But are you making the best use of your time?
Real estate pros often get sidetracked by time management or productivity systems that don't deliver. Why? One reason is that low-level tasks can be so numerous and time-consuming.
All those things that "have to get done" subtract energy from strategic tasks. At the end of the day, you could find all you've done is tread water without getting closer to the practice you want.
Automation is the solution.
Automation helps you define the workflows to do your job faster, easier, and more efficiently. The must-do items are accelerated and streamlined based on proven, industry-leading techniques.
COVID-19 has changed how we do business in all aspects of the real estate industry, but it certainly hasn't brought that industry to a halt. Buyers still want to search for homes, sellers still want to safely market their homes, and sales associates want to do the best possible job for their clients. The good news is there are many effective ways to engage with clients during COVID-19 and after.
Promote Properties with Virtual Showings and Open Houses
With in-person open houses off the table in many areas, buyers remain eager to tour potential new homes from the comfort of their current home. Virtual showings and open houses make it easy for buyers to fall in love with a home, no matter where they're currently located. Adaptability is the key to success. As a sales associate, that means adapting to what each client needs from you with confidence.
How often do you find yourself wishing there were just a few more hours in the day? It's a common refrain for anyone who works in real estate because there's always something more to do to grow your brand, generate new leads, and keep in touch with existing clients. Fortunately, with the right tools, the right mindset, and time management secrets, you can use your time more efficiently without ever compromising on the quality of your work.
Customer Relationship Management software transforms the way you do business. Our CRM software is the Pipeline Manager found in DeltaNET 6, and it has been designed for the real estate professional to make your life easier.
A CRM automates workflows throughout your day so you can perform your job faster, easier, and more efficiently. You'll no longer need to spend hours every week, determining where your leads stand in their home buying or selling journey.
What's more, you'll end up with a higher quantity of qualified leads. Pipeline Manager helps you build a repeatable, reliable process for attracting, qualifying, and converting more leads overall.
CRM is particularly effective at keeping you "top-of-mind" and establishing you as a trusted local real estate expert. It may take months for leads to move forward on their real estate plans – but once an agent adds a prospect to their CRM, they can receive ecards & flyers to help them stay motivated. Pipeline Manager provides a full suite of efficient follow-up technologies.
Let's look at some of the ways sales associates are using CRM for lead generation.
In real estate, there are thousands of important tasks you could complete on any given day--but there's time for only a dozen or so. As your real estate practice grows, it becomes even more important to leverage technology so you can make the most of your time.
As our previous post on real estate automation shows, the number of ways to automate day to day real estate tasks is expanding. Built-in artificial intelligence allows software to streamline your workflow and perform tasks that once required personal attention.
For sales associates, one of the most powerful ways to use automation is digital marketing. By making your marketing efforts more consistent, you'll attract more leads. You can also cultivate more of those leads into customers while still managing your time effectively.
Let's look at the most powerful ways real estate automation software can help:
Email marketing is one of the most effective tools for building lead relationships.
In the weeks or months before leads move forward, the real estate agent that's been building a relationship with them has the greatest chance of winning their business. Email allows you to do it. With it, you can speak to ten or ten thousand people with the press of a button.
The question is: "Where's that button?"
More than half of marketing professionals surveyed say video is the content with the highest ROI – and if you're in real estate, marketing is one of your biggest jobs.
Here's another fact: Marketers who use video grow revenue 49% faster than those who don't. This applies to a wide range of industries, including those where a single expert or small team provides advice to clients.
For getting established in real estate, video is a clear winner.
Video marketing for real estate is an intimidating prospect for many sales associates. Most firms do not have in-house resources for making videos. Although there's a learning curve, conquering it is worthwhile: Video is one of the most powerful digital marketing tools, bar none.
If you're not using video marketing in real estate yet, here's why you should:
It's often said that everyone gets the same 24 hours in a day. The trick: Not everyone has the same tasks to perform or the same obligations to attend to.
When you think about it, people who have a large staff to take care of things actually have a very different 24 hours in their day: One that lets them stay focused on high-level tasks.
Most sales associates don't have a dozen people to help them reach their goals, but anyone can have the next best thing: AI-driven business automation.
When it comes to automating tasks in real estate, one area stands out above all the others: Marketing. After all, marketing is a very complex topic. Many sales associates launch a career not knowing anything about it, and few want to reinvent the wheel by learning it all.
Marketing is essential to growing your practice. It builds your brand and helps you get a steady stream of leads. Luckily, there are more ways than ever to automate real estate marketing.
Let's look at some easy, effective real estate automation approaches: