Technology plays a big part in the life of a real estate agent. As a modern realtor, it’s imperative to become knowledgeable about the various platforms and apps that help you generate leads, connect with clients and make sales.
Potential buyers use online methods to find agents, read reviews and contact their realtor of choice. Here are the six most effective apps and platforms you can use to make sure your real estate business thrives.
Pro Agent Solutions helps agents up their marketing game and automate tasks to save time and money with its suite of software products.
- Digital Flyer is a sign rider texting app for lead generation. It’s a great, contactless tool for marketing listings during a pandemic. Interested buyers are texted property details including pictures, price, description, website and virtual tour. Simultaneously, the listing agent is texted and emailed the prospective buyer’s contact information.
- Showing Pro -Feedback automates the showing feedback follow-up by automatically texting and emailing buyers’ agents customizable feedback questionnaires after showings. Sellers can be copied on the feedback replies and/or listings agents can create one easy one-touch reports summarizing the showing feedback.
Think of your Facebook business page as a listing. You must make it inviting for prospects to interact with.
Update the page with an engaging cover photo and profile pic. Use high-quality images that create brand appeal. Here are the most important Facebook business page features to pay attention to:
- About Section/Page Info: Prospects read these sections and they provide you an opportunity to sell yourself as a real estate professional. Include your niche in these sections and allow your personality to shine through.
- Call-To-Action Button: Use this area to increase your lead flow. Link to an opt-in landing page that provides visitors with a relevant lead magnet resource.
- Custom Tabs: Add additional content without cluttering up your page’s news feed. For example, use a “Reviews” tab to highlight the great things clients say about you.
Use Facebook ads to super-charge your Facebook marketing efforts. Location targeting is an excellent FB ads feature that allows you to target prospects by zip code. Ad targeting is an important consideration because it avoids showing ads to younger people who aren’t close to buying their first home yet.
Make use of these additional FB ad targets:
- Income
- Ownership status
- Likelihood of moving
Don’t build your entire marketing plan around FB ads because sometimes they shut down ad accounts for confusing reasons. Use it along with other methods so that your marketing doesn’t suffer if you ever experience a shut down.
Instagram – IGTV
IGTV is a feature on Instagram that allows you to share extended video content to your followers. Create videos anywhere between 15 seconds and ten minutes. Verified accounts can create videos that run up to one hour (read Instagram’s guidelines for how to verify an account).
IGTV creates a presence on your prospect’s phone with a dedicated app and lets you communicate why leads should do business with you.
Use vertical-style videos when shooting content for your IGTV account. Vertical video helps because viewers typically hold their phones in the vertical position when viewing content. You don’t need to get any fancier than smartphone camera video shots. If you want to do major edits, then use iMovie for Mac or QuickTime on a PC.
Here are the types of IGTV videos to consider creating:
- Neighborhood tours
- Listings
- Testimonials
- Behind the scenes
Cross promote your IGTV videos on other social channels such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
Zillow Premier Agent App
Use the Zillow Premier agent app to nurture leads and close more deals. The app itself is free to use. However, it’s a good idea to sign up for Premier Agent Advertising so that you get agent exclusivity on listing promotions.
The Premier Agent app provides an excellent way to improve response times and manage your contacts effectively. It works out-of-the-box with leads generated via Zillow, Street Easy, RealEstate.com and Trulia. You can also integrate it with over 35 other third-party apps so everything flows into this one easy-to-use resource.
Three of Premier Agent’s best features are the ability to:
- Categorize & search all of your prospects
- Review communication streams
- Quickly respond to leads
You should see your customer service skills and ability to close more deals increase when you’re able to easily find prospects and quickly keep up with their needs. The app also helps you see:
- Where your leads originate from
- Which leads convert to clients
- How many deals each lead source provides
Real Geeks
The Real Geeks platform gives you IDX (Internet data exchange) website templates, lead capture forms, CRM (customer relationship management) software and marketing tools that help attract qualified prospects.
You need a real estate website designed to attract leads. Use the Real Geeks website options to build out your online “homebase”. Point your social media platforms to the website and use the opt-in landing pages to build your subscriber list.
The website editor makes it simple to build pages and add images and videos without design skills. Easily add other elements such as:
- Contact info
- Search box
- Sidebar
- Logo
- Page content
A Real Geeks website comes with mobile-ready features. This means it shows up well on smartphones and tablets.
Make use of the Real Geeks CRM to track your lead flow. Their system helps you score leads so that you know which leads are the hottest prospects to follow-up with. You can schedule follow-up reminders, analyze prospect behavior and handle client expectations effectively.
Other important features include:
- Property valuation lead form tool
- Drip email marketing functionality
- SMS text messaging
YouTube
YouTube gives you the opportunity to communicate via one of the most important content mediums: Video. Prospects love the opportunity to visually see listings, client testimonials and company information.
Use YouTube to create property walk-through videos so that your leads see exactly why they must see a listing. There’s nothing better than highlighting a property’s best features via clear video content.
The potential negative to YouTube is expecting to see amazing traffic numbers out of the gate. Have patience as your build out your channel. Focus on quality content to repurpose on social media and your website. You’ll see organic traffic rise over time.
Wise Pelican
Did you know that direct mail campaigns have the ability to set you apart from competitors? Putting large postcards in the hands of prospects provides a tangible experience that online marketing simply can’t accomplish.
Wise Pelican offers a wide array of real estate postcard templates and helps you get postcard mailings out to your most targeted local prospects.
There are no minimum orders required and you can send direct mail pieces at only $0.70 per postcard. Each mailing uses full-color 6×9 jumbo postcards. Combine these tangible marketing pieces with social media advertising to create the most recognizable brand in your local area.
View Wise Pelican’s real estate postcard templates, choose your favorite and then use their proprietary tracking system to ensure that every postcard reaches the desired location. Wise Pelican’s system tracks all the way through the USPS system so that you are confident your direct mail campaign postcards get properly delivered.
You don’t need a mailing list when using this platform. Instead, use their list builder to create mailing campaigns. Of course, you can also upload your own list to use with campaigns.
There’s no need to struggle as a real estate agent. Use these apps and platforms to successfully build your brand, attract targeted leads and close more deals.
