The real estate industry is always innovating, and new technology often alters the way that agents serve clients. Today's real estate clients are typically much better informed than they would have been in years past, but that doesn't change the fact that they still rely heavily on their agent throughout the process. So while your role may have changed due to technology, that same technology also holds the key to putting people first and generating a steady pipeline of referrals from satisfied clients.
Putting people first starts with providing easy access to the information they need to make informed decisions when they're buying or selling a home. This is one of the key ways that the role of an agent has evolved due to technology. In the past, the agent was the primary, direct source of information for clients. Today, you can provide much of that data through your real estate website and other online resources, which frees up more time to put your clients first in other ways.
Leverage Technology to Be Responsive and Share Your Expertise
Providing all of that data, information and market analysis, up front leads to more informed clients, but that doesn't mean that they won't still rely on your expertise. Technology also makes it much easier to communicate with modern real estate clients who expect speed and responsiveness from their agents. Whether you're communicating through SMS text messaging, instant messaging apps, social media, email, or video calls, being available to clients is still a key part of the job description. Clients have questions, you have answers, and technology makes it easier to handle those communications in a quick, convenient manner.
Technology Unlocks Time to Be the Trusted Advisor Your Clients Need
While technology has changed the real estate industry, it doesn't change the fact that buying or selling a home is a monumental, potentially life-changing experience for your clients. They don't just want an agent who will provide them with the facts and then get out of the way. They want someone who understands where they're coming from, values their time, and advocates for them at every step of the process.
By taking advantage of the time-saving benefits of real estate technology, you have more time to be the trusted advisor that clients need in order to buy or sell a home with full confidence that they're making informed choices. They count on you to help them negotiate, navigate the closing process, and handle the key details from the start of the process to the day that they sign the paperwork. Technology makes it easier to focus on providing the best possible experience for your clients, and that's truly what it means to put people first.
Does Your Real Estate Tech Make It Easy to Put People First?
If you're still devoting too much time to tedious tasks that could easily be handled by the latest real estate technology, there's a better way. DeltaNET®6, our all-in-one real estate solution, puts at your fingertips all of the tools you need so you can put people first. Make life easier for everyone by choosing the best real estate tech for the job.
Communication is one of the most important skills for any real estate agent to develop, and there are more ways to communicate digitally today than there have ever been. Effective communication can make all the difference in landing a new client, building trust, and helping your current clients achieve their real estate goals. With young, tech-savvy buyers and sellers making up an ever-growing slice of the real estate market, mastering digital communication is critical. Here's how to communicate with confidence and what tools you'll need for the job.
Before we get into digital communication tactics, it's worth remembering some of the tried and true communication tips that apply to any situation. No matter how you're communicating, it's crucial to put the focus on the person you're communicating with, listen carefully, ask questions, and be responsive to their needs. Always aim to be courteous, punctual, reliable, and considerate of the client's time.
While body language doesn't matter in most forms of digital communication, tone does — especially for text-based conversations. Before you send a message, make sure that you're saying exactly what you're trying to say, and that your tone is appropriate for the situation. By remembering the basics for good communication, you'll be better prepared to master the many channels available for communicating digitally.
Mastering the Many Digital Communication Tools in Your Toolkit
With the basics out of the way, let's dig into some of the key tools that you'll be using to communicate digitally. Remember that it's helpful to make communication as seamless as possible and be available through a variety of digital platforms to suit the varying needs of your clients.
Simplify Communication By Leveraging Real Estate Tech
With so many different ways to communicate digitally, it can be easy to fill a bit overwhelmed with the possibilities. That's why it's so important to have the right real estate tech on your side, to streamline communication and ensure that you have the tools you need to build great relationships with clients. DeltaNET®6 is a real estate all-in-one solution that puts all of the latest tools at your fingertips, making it easier than ever to master digital communication.
Digital marketing might sound complicated, but it doesn't have to be.
Today's digital marketing is inbound, meaning it attracts leads the moment they are most in need of your services. With that in mind, every piece of online marketing you do should help your target buyers or sellers reach their goals. Understand this and you're halfway to success.
What can give digital marketing a feeling of complexity is the wide variety of techniques involved. However, it's not necessary to be everything to everyone. You can focus in on a smaller selection of marketing methods you perform consistently. Plus, real estate marketing automation lets you do more faster. When you dig a little deeper, you discover digital marketing can be easy.
Digital marketing approaches usually fall into one of two categories:
Knowing that, marketing's dual nature becomes obvious: marketing itself is a marathon, but it can be broken down into a series of sprints. Those sprints, in turn, are easier to stick with and produce real results. As you gain more momentum, marketing develops into a series of habits.
Let's cut through the clutter and look at some effective digital marketing methods:
Marketing has many moving parts — but with the right technology, most of them can "move" themselves.
Delta Media Group makes the best in marketing automation accessible to everyone, from solo entrepreneurs to nationwide brokerages. To learn more, contact us.
It wasn't that long ago when most phone service providers enforced strict limits on text messages. Most users could send 500 or even just 100 a month. Now, such rules are unthinkable — the average American sends and receives around 85 texts a day. With 96% of all U.S. adults owning a cell phone, virtually everyone sends and receives texts. What's more, the average text message is read within three minutes.
Those facts are of great interest to relationship-driven industries like real estate. 75% of consumers surveyed say they are okay with receiving texts from brands. With its astonishing 90% open rate, texting shows signs of giving email a run for its money as the marketing technique with the lowest costs and highest campaign ROI.
If you're not using text marketing yet, it's not too late — but now's definitely the time to start!
The Benefits of Texting for Real Estate Professionals
Real estate is all about relationships. Once you incorporate it into your workflow, text marketing is a natural extension of that mindset. From leads to clients to former customers, all can benefit from and respond to texting.
Let's consider some of the top advantages:
Texting is Personal
The great majority of texts are legitimate, one-to-one communications from the people your leads genuinely want to hear from. When contacts opt in, they invite you into a much more casual and personal space than their email box. You, in turn, can speak to them with clarity and authenticity, making a real connection.
Texting is Responsive
Real estate pros have long understood the faster you can respond to a lead's first attempt to reach out, the more likely you are to get an appointment scheduled. Texting allows you to answer others even faster than a phone call. Plus, you can do it without completely interrupting the flow of your busy workday.
Texting is Universal
Consider the stats above — 96% of American adults have a cell phone. They don't need the latest fancy Apple smartphone to send and receive texts. Even the simplest phones with the most budget-friendly plans can generally receive unlimited texts. You never have to make any assumptions about your contact's technology.
Texting Uses Automation Effectively
Some marketing techniques, like email, are a natural fit for automation. Others, like a phone call, had better be done manually. Text messaging falls somewhere between the extremes. While a personal text is often the best bet, you can automate certain "event-based" texts, and they will still feel perfectly natural.
Text Message Marketing: From Beginner to Advanced
If you use texts in your day-to-day life, you have skills that will serve you well in text marketing.
For example:
The key to text messaging is context. If you send messages only when it makes sense, you'll avoid having contacts opt out. Texting is a two-way street: your goal is to combine great timing with interesting content that will get recipients to respond more often. To do that, you need to know your clients well.
Let's look at ideas for taking texting to the next level:
Automate Your Initial Opt-In Texts
To stay on the right side of the law, it's crucial to ensure contacts affirmatively opt in for ongoing texts. You can automate this process using CRM data, ensuring that open house attendees and those who register for updates on your local listings receive an opt-in invitation right away — when they're most likely to consent.
Make it Easy to Set Appointments by Text
Many people prefer the convenience of text to the rigmarole of a phone call. Some people dodge phone calls to avoid high-pressure sales situations. By texting leads a link to a scheduling app, they can put themselves on your calendar in a low-friction environment.
Ask Questions in Your Texts
Every time you get a response to a text, you open the door to extending that relationship. The best way to incorporate questions is to make them meaningful, like "What do you like most about the house you just toured?" Most recipients prefer to dash off an answer rather than risk seeming rude.
DeltaNET customers have the opportunity to deploy text messaging campaigns with confidence from right within our high-performance, AI-driven real estate CRM. To find out more or get started, contact us today.
As you read this story, four out of five Americans own a smartphone. Include in that number those folks who use phones that aren't app-friendly, and you get 96%.
It's a sure bet nearly everyone who needs your real estate services also uses a mobile phone daily. And although not all phones can play Angry Birds, virtually all are designed to receive text messages.
Formally called SMS text––the acronym stands for Short Message Service, text messaging has exploded in popularity over the last decade. And texting isn't just for teens any longer.
During 2017, experts estimated that about 26 billion text messages were sent each day in the United States. That adds up to over 780 billion texts monthly and more than 9.3 trillion every year.
People of all ages use text messages. Because they will often text with friends and loved ones instead of calling, texters are likely to check their messages within minutes of a new notification.
Sure, there are some caveats. Most people aren't checking texts in the middle of a meeting at work––we hope. All in all, though, mobile research firm MobileSquared says 90% of people read a new text within three minutes of getting it. Three minutes!
Not surprisingly, this means text messages rock for real estate professionals. In a report published by the National Association of REALTORS®, 94% of REALTORS® said the method they preferred to communicate with clients was text messaging.
In 2020, there are huge horizons for growth. And there are plenty of good reasons why you should take advantage of text messaging for your real estate business.
If you're a real estate agent reading this, then there's already a good chance that text messaging is one of your favorite ways to communicate with clients. According to the National Association of REALTORS®, 94 percent of real estate agents prefer to communicate with clients via text – edging out the email and phone calls as the most popular channel for communication. But are you making the most of your texting communication opportunities? With the right tools, text messaging can do even more to grow your brand and serve your clients.
In this episode of Tech Tuesday, Harley Wolfarth covers how to opt your clients out of the email and SMS subscriptions in DeltaNET 6.
In this episode of Tech Tuesday, Harley Wolfarth shows you how to setup a Virtual Phone Number so that you can start utilizing DeltaNET's built-in SMS functionality. You can send bulk messages as well as set up automated campaigns!
CANTON, Ohio — Michael Minard, CEO and Owner of Delta Media Group, announced today his company's recent launch of SMS Texting in DeltaNET 6.
"We're thrilled to introduce SMS texting found in DeltaNET 6 to the forefront of the real estate industry," says Minard. "Our Tech Team outdid itself with the deep integration of texting capabilities throughout the entire DeltaNET 6 platform."
DeltaNET 6 allows real estate professionals to use direct text messaging, SMS blast messaging, and SMS messages with email campaigns to share their expertise with clients and build long-lasting relationships.
It's no secret as real estate professionals you've had to adapt to our changing times to keep your businesses going strong. From mastering the art of virtual open houses to guiding your clients through the uncertainty of real estate during the coronavirus, you adopted new methods to close more deals.
At one time or another, you've also inevitably faced the challenge of dealing with people who don't answer your calls and emails. Often this isn't because they're trying to avoid you, but they're too busy or don't want to feel put "on the spot."
So what's the answer?
Real estate is a time-sensitive industry.
People expect quick, substantive responses to their questions; however, many would-be clients prefer not to communicate by phone call. They want to be reached in a way that's most convenient for them.
It's a given most people check their smartphones regularly throughout the day. That's why real estate professionals choose text messaging as a reliable tool to communicate with clients.
Here is a simple guide to text message marketing for your real estate business.
Join Franklin Stoffer (Sales Manager & Senior Accounts Consultant) during his next upcoming webinar on Friday, June 26th at 2:00 PM EST. He will be discussing the new agent texting functionality rolling out in DeltaNET 6.
Register Here to attend.