Due to real estate’s nature as a relationship-based, face-to-face industry, it can be easy to stick with what has worked for decades. Some brokerages (and in turn, their agents) may believe that they can avoid new technologies and only advertise through more traditional methods such as paper ads, flyers/mailers, and yard signs—since they’ll ultimately be working with their clients in person, right? The truth is, technology has changed the way that real estate businesses operate, and new opportunities are continually being opened for nearly everyone involved in the field because of this. Brokerages will need to leverage technology to empower their agents and keep up with this trend.
Picture some of your agent’s next clients: it’s likely that their world is dominated by technology—they probably use a website or service for most things in their life. Of course, some embrace it more than others, but even if your newest potential buyer physically drove by your property and saw a “for sale” sign—more than likely they also went online to check out the pictures, details, and price before getting in touch with an agent.
Agents lean on their brokers for tech tools
Despite their overall satisfaction, real estate agents do have a wish list of items that they want their brokerage to offer, with the most-wanted being predictive analytics, CRM tools, and transaction management software. This leaves room for a brokerage to step in and grow in their offerings to their agents, potentially enabling them to reel in top-producing agents via their attractive technology offerings.
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So how exactly can real estate brokerages help their agents leverage technology to boost their marketing and business success? It’s obvious that having a solid online presence is crucial for a real estate agent’s success, but there are technology tips you can utilize as a brokerage to improve business and help your agents with their client networking and marketing.
Leverage technology to empower your agents
What does “technology” mean in the context of real estate? Simply put, it’s an electronic way of 1) accessing or displaying digital assets that help consumers make informed decisions, and 2) automating your various business practices or tasks in order to make your agents more available and more valuable to their clients.
You might be asking: what should I, as a broker offer my agents? That may end up being an entirely custom website solution, and an intranet built for real estate, but there are basics that are key to making technology an agent’s friend, not foe.
Web listings
According to the National Association of Realtors, over 50 percent of home buyers found their new home through one various digital channel or another. Whether it’s social media, or one of the big listing aggregators like Zillow, Trulia, or Redfin—people are searching online to make their next big purchase.
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It’s easy to let the attention to your listings’ online presence fall to the wayside, but using a robust CRM and real estate listing software like TRIBUS is a seamless and powerful solution to competing in the online space.
Email campaigns and automated follow-up
Email marketing is an important part of client communication and it provides an easy, yet effective way to increase awareness of you, your listings and other announcements. In addition to drip and blast emails, stats (like opens, clicks and bounces), there are other useful email capabilities that can help you effectively reach your clients and increase awareness and leads.
- Engage with leads and communicate with clients, agents, and staff through email marketing suites
- Utilize drip programs, one-time email blasts, email marketing stats, and branded headers and footers
- If you are already comfortable using a third-party email platform, utilize systems that can be integrated with it so you get the best of both worlds
Helps with a work/life balance
Technology today better enables agents to work from anywhere and at anytime. They’re able to access all of their tools from their laptop or mobile device—they no longer have to work strictly from an office desk, and the data they need is available 24/7 to help with decision-making. This could allow agents to work on a schedule that is best for them and their clients. In turn, their clients also benefit from easier access to the agents and the tools they use.
In the end, real estate brokerages who recognize that technology is a tool that can and should be leveraged to support new ways of conducting business and building successful relationships will lead the way.
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