Back in my days as a Realtor, the winter months always brought with it a bit of quiet for the market. The sun is setting earlier, temperatures are dropping, and with the holiday season just around the corner, buyers and sellers tend to cool off in their home search. While this is a well-deserved break for agents, brokers should be encouraging them to use this time to focus on some of the resources they have access to, but perhaps not mastery over — which will ultimately help them be far more productive when the sun comes back out and the spring market gets going in full swing! One easy and very important option: help them take advantage of the CRM your brokerage provides, including setting up competitive email marketing. Not only could this powerful technology help them make their lives feel less cluttered, but they may even get a new spring lead from sending that “Happy Holidays!” blast email to their contact lists. The best part is: they can do it from the comfort of their own couch! Take a look at these handy tips to help your agents make the most of your CRM during these winter months.
Take a closer look at your CRM contacts
When they first start using a CRM, it’s not uncommon for your agents to have just imported whatever contact database that may have already had. For some agents, this means handing their office admin a spreadsheet of every contact from their email, phone, social media, et cetera. Some of those contacts might not even have a name or email associated with it, so now’s a great time to clean up unused contacts. Delete unsubscribes or contacts with emails that consistently bounce — no need to keep sending emails to that lead who came onto the site and gave a fake name/email. By doing this, you’ll also be able to better monitor your real estate brokerage email marketing platform with more accuracy and see what campaigns are giving you more opens and therefore more success. Plus, the more your agents send bounced emails, the more likely their emails are to be filtered straight into the spam folder!
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Set up strategic email campaigns
Once they have their contacts clean and organized, it’s time to take advantage of setting up your email marketing. A CRM allows you to not only keep track of clients individually but also allows you to send out emails based on an automated system or even in bulk. Anyone can send a “Call Me to Sell Your House” email, so encourage your agents to add some personality to theirs! Using this time to come up with catchy emails or set up links in the email to your website for additional traffic can prove incredibly useful. Just make sure contacts are set up for the appropriate email campaign! Nothing scares away a new buyer like accidentally sending them, for instance, a “Tips for Getting Your House Show Ready” email. While these emails are automated, try to add a bit of a personal touch to them so leads don’t feel like they are just another contact on your list — the branded headers and footers that come with our email marketing platform can help with that. Need advice on topics for your email templates? Our team at TRIBUS is made up of former real estate agents and brokers and are more than happy to give you any tips — read more about automations you can set up within your brokerage CRM here.
Actually use your CRM
This may seem simple, but your CRM can take a big hit when your agents are all out showing houses all day for months on end. Don’t let all the hard work you and your agents put into your system these next few months go to waste. Your CRM is there to make things easier, so take advantage of all it has to offer! Your agents should make it a habit to jot down notes about a lead within your brokerage CRM — a client will be so impressed whenever you remember something they told you at the first house they met you at. Set up automatic reminders for important dates like birthdays, anniversaries and especially closing dates. Make sure your agents are updating contacts’ accounts as they change from buyer to seller, to past client, et cetera; this is as easy as applying a tag to the contact. Most importantly, keep adding leads to your CRM from your custom real estate brokerage website!
