Automatic is the opposite of manual, and when it comes to automotive transmissions you’ll be able to get into top gear at least somewhat faster if you’re monitoring the RPM gauge and using your left foot and right hand to shift up. But if we’re to swing that around to real estate lead generation strategies then you may get your new client prospecting into top gear and producing greater numbers of quality leads if you go with automation rather than manual approaches. That’s what we’re going to look at with this blog entry, as there are real estate automation tools now that are accessible to realtors ready to invest in their success.
The one constant that will continue to apply even with more technology in real estate and ways for realtors to be more successful is that you still need to have hustle. That initiative may not be channeled into door knocking or other meet-new-client approaches like it used to, but you need to be pushing yourself and having a hungry eye on the prize with automated lead generation in real estate too. You need to see these tools as complements to your existing effort mainframe, and you’ll see that’s what best realtors do.
For some realtors a paid real estate lead generation service like ours here at Real Estate Leads will be the most valuable one at their disposal, and that’s more likely to be true for real estate agents working in hotspot locations in Canada like the Greater Vancouver and Greater Toronto areas. But the tradeoff in all of that is that real estate is a much more competitive businesses in major metro areas like these ones. You may well need to expand real estate lead generation strategies simply because there’s less of the pie to go around.
So let’s get into this look at real estate automation tools with an eye to helping you determine which ones might work best for you.
Exceeding Competition
It certainly isn’t easy for real estate professionals to achieve the career success they envision for themselves these days. And yes, that has everything to do with the competitive nature of the industry. It is not so simple to meet the needs of building a client base, finding listings, and establishing a strong reputation in a competitive market. Even in escrow, you’re never going to have a guarantee that a deal will close. In that event a lot of time, effort, and potential income are all squandered if it’s seen from the realtor’s perspective.
But real estate automation tools can help you both better gather leads, identify and classify them, as well as learn to convert real estate leads better if you spend enough time working with them. Real estate marketing automation can help you develop your network, follow up on leads, and ultimately grow your business and there is software agents can use to get started in the best way possible.
Real estate marketing automation aids realtors with the completion of repetitive tasks like sending emails, updating prospect profiles, and tracking website activity. And as you will already know all of this is tied into real estate lead generation strategies. Used correctly these tools can also help with moving leads down the sale funnel, and specifically by:
- Creating, scheduling, and implementing lead nurturing campaigns
- Streamlining appointment scheduling
- Doing lead management
- Creating automation for core processes in real estate businesses
Lead Generation
Automation impact on real estate sales is undeniable, and especially with the way we are increasingly seeing real estate professionals using automation to capture leads from more sources, including websites, social media, and MLS listings. Lead capture forms, targeted landing pages, and chat history are all excellent for allowing you to gather contacts into your database.
Lead nurturing is always going to be a huge part of combining real estate automation tools effectively, as ones like those listed above can help nurture leads through workflows by timely and relevant communications combined into those workflows. What you will see successful realtors do here is segment contacts into groups, such as ‘first-time buyers’, ‘investor buyers’, ‘referrals’ or ‘ready to buy’ types and then possibly having a real estate CRM software suite or something similar create content and tips that target them more naturally and effectively.
Good ideas can include tools that send personalized emails to first-time buyers with realtor insider tips from past buyers, detailed information about listings, or general market updates that apply to the area where you do most of your business as a real estate agent in Canada.
Oppositely, automated lead generation in real estate can also involve crafting different approaches to contact and stay in communication with leads that aren’t so warm and for homeowners who intend to sell but are not in a hurry to do so. These individuals or couples can receive email campaigns with property recommendations and market updates and you may also want to include satisfied client testimonials to build your reputation.
Remember that relevant and timely content keeps leads engaged and also builds trust in your services, and real estate lead generation strategies should always incorporate them.
Time-Consuming Tasks
Real estate automation tools are both powerful and rangy these days, and capable of handling tasks that were much more time consuming up until now. This includes the back-and-forth of scheduling appointments to sending follow-up reminders, and when you use them effectively you gain time – which is perhaps the most valuable resource of all no matter what profession you are in.
Meeting scheduling, follow-up messages, and reminder emails or text messages are all examples of tasks that automation workflows can handle for you, freeing you up to address the other priorities you have in growing your real estate business and establishing yourself as recognizable real estate professional in your part of the country.
Solid Automated Real Estate Lead Generation Strategies
Each of the ones listed below have the ability to improve your marketing efforts and enhance customer experience to the point that new clients will return to working with you for future real estate sales and purchases. Ones that are compatible with real estate automation tools should be given priority if you are already using certain tools that are conducive to finding new leads for real estate agents.
Email-Marketing Automation to Nurture Leads
Email marketing is a staple in this business because it is an effective way of staying in touch with prospects. You’ll struggle to find any established realtor who doesn’t have it as a core part of their real estate marketing strategy.
Email marketing makes it possible for you to automate welcome emails, drip campaigns with monthly tips and insights, and the creation of other engaging content for your audiences to enjoy and – ideally – participate and interact with via social media platforms or through your real estate agent website. Sending automated emails following open houses is standard practice, as is keeping your leads in the loop with real-time market updates and property listings. The automation impact on real estate sales is as prominent as possible here, because establishing a communication line between yourself and prospective clients that can go the distance as necessary is hugely advantageous for obvious reasons.
It is 100% a key tool for staying in touch and promoting better real estate lead conversion rates.
Signup Forms for Automated Lead Generation
Signup forms allow easier collection of contact information online in exchange for information. Obtaining someone’s email address, phone number, or other means of contact becomes much more doable when you offer them something of value in an email newsletter.
You can put signup forms on your website, landing pages, or link in bio on social media. Use them to get information specific to your goals, like what neighborhood a buyer or seller is located in, or if they already have a real estate agent or not.
With every new signup that person then automatically goes into your contact database, where ideally you’ll be using some sort of CRM to conduct smart, timely, and genuine communications with these prospective real estate clients.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software
CRMs are simply invaluable as tools for finding high-quality leads. Customer relationship management (CRM) platforms offer realtors powerful automation features and come with plenty of integrations for tools you’re already using. We’ve seen how they’ve become a must-have for real estate professionals over recent years, and there will be better and more effective ones likely arriving in the not too distant future.
With a CRM as one of your real estate automation tools you are able to segment your leads into groups based on the needs and preferences they told you about on your signup form. Agents can then easily maintain segments with automation. Using real estate automation to manage deal pipelines, email campaigns, and lead scoring models is also entirely possible.
Targeted Social Media Ads
This will qualify more as an extension of one of these tools, but it needs to be highlighted too as social media is a powerful way to share listings and widen your reach. Did you know that 92% of realtors use Facebook? Not surprising considering it is increasingly more of a social media app for older people and more often it’s these people who have the means to buy a home or will own one that they are looking to sell. Use real estate automation tools like Brevo CRM to launch targeted ads and also engage in effective retargeting so that you also have ads for audiences that are similar to existing contact groups.
Automate Scheduling
Agents using a CRM for real estate will do well if they can incorporate a meetings tool with a booking page. Booking pages sync automatically to your calendar so leads can see when you’re available. Prospect clients are then able to book on their own, and this removes the need for constant back and forth coordinating. Set up automated reminders so that your prospect never misses a video call, and remember that anything that frees up time is going to be super beneficial for you as a realtor.
Follow-up Automation to Earn Referrals
Following up with clients after a purchase or a sale has equal importance to it in comparison to meeting new leads, and perhaps even more. Follow-up relationships present the opportunity to grow your network through referrals. 36% of sellers use a referred real estate agent, and automated lead generation in real estate can help you get those referrals.
In much the same way as it works for regular lead-nurturing workflows, referral automation helps you turn past clients into future business. This can be as simple as having a thank you and congratulations email automatically sent after a client does business with you. Along with a satisfaction survey they can choose to participate in. You can automatically segment satisfied clients into a contact group. Send that group a gentle request for them to recommend your business.
Good Real Estate Automation Platforms
Relying on spreadsheets and searching for past conversations in your email isn’t the worst thing, but it increases the chance that you might miss messages or type in a formula wrong. Using real estate automation software streamlines your lead management and communications so you never lose track of a potential lead. This makes it a smart choice for incorporation into real estate lead generation strategies.
Here are a few of the ones that are very highly regarded in the industry right now:
Brevo
Brevo is a CRM suite that serves as a real estate marketing automation builder complete with multichannel and email marketing, customizable automation workflows, plus contact and deal management. It’s an equally good fit for both solo realtors and teams most o the time. With it you can easily set up real estate marketing automation workflows and move prospects to a deal with triggered actions. Target audiences with Facebook ads, launch lead nurturing campaigns, and streamline your appointments and follow ups. The free version of Brevo is actually quite generously equipped and contact storage is free with it too.
Paid plans for Brevo’s Marketing Platform start at $25/month. You can set up automation workflows for 2,000 contacts and create email campaigns using the drag and drop template builder. You also get a visual workflow builder, if/then logic, multichannel steps, performance tracking and ready templates to use.
Wise Agent
Wise agent is a beginner-friendly CRM that allows you to track leads with a contact dashboard and set up lead management. The automation impact on real estate sales can be seen here too as being able to send SMS messages and create a couple of landing pages as add-ons is just one of many ways in which you’re more likely to sell greater numbers of homes when you are using a well-designed real estate CRM.
Instead of creating automation workflows that leads enter automatically, you can go to each individual contact and assign a lead rule from there. If all that is required for you is a bit of an upgrade from a spreadsheet, Wise Agent will be an easy transition for you.
HubSpot
HubSpot is probably the best known CRM around, with features for sales, marketing, service platforms and more. It makes it easy to create and design emails and landing pages to use in your automation workflows. And like all CRMs, HubSpot sets you up with a contact dashboard for easy reference. There you can assign tasks to your team and keep track of notes and upcoming actions for your leads.
HubSpot has various plans you can start with. The Marketing Hub Starter plan is $20/month for 1,000 contacts and 10 automated email actions. For multichannel automation and upgrade to the Professional Plan at $890 per month will be required. But as we know, in business of any sort you need to be spending money to make money and investing in the best CRM for real estate is always going to be a good idea.
This will be just as true for new realtors in Canada as it is for ones who are more well established and having been real estate agents for a long time already. Hopefully what we have done here is started you down the road of understanding of how real estate marketing automation can be a part of you real estate lead generation efforts too, and there are so many other real estate automation tools that we haven’t had time to mention here yet that are also really well designed and effective.
It really is true that automation can do wonders for real estate agents. It can be just what’s needed for finding warmer or even hot real estate leads, plus letting you have a better understanding of the needs those would-be clients might have, and then converting real estate leads into sales. Always keep track of the fact that when leads are nurtured with the right content at the right time, they become more likely to convert.
