If you are in real estate marketing and sales, you have probably heard the term Real Estate CRM. Do you know what a CRM is and how to use one to make your business more profitable?
A CRM is simply a piece of software that is designed specifically for Customer Relationship Management. CRM software made for realty professionals usually includes a heavy reliance on email autoresponder marketing techniques to keep in touch and nurture your relationship with leads, clients, and potential return clients.
Using a CRM package usually starts with a lead capture website. While there is an art and science to lead capture, the basic process consists of offering a website visitor something of value in return for their contact information. The item of value may be a free report such as a digital download, a book, or access to an MLS home search tool so buyers can search for properties.
Once a lead makes contact with an agent, the CRM is configured to keep in touch using autoresponders, also called email drip campaigns. A series of emails can be written in advance and sent to leads in a fixed sequence to nurture their relationship with the agent and build trust.
At some point during the process, calls to action are conveyed to the lead to help convert their email contact, which is less personal, into a phone call, which is more likely to result in a sale. Agents who receive a phone call from such a qualified lead should be able to escalate the relationship into a face to face meeting and/or buyers agreement to begin the real estate search process.
From the agent’s perspective, a real estate CRM consists of not only the software to automate the lead nurturing process, but the content in the emails that does the heavy lifting of developing the relationship. The agent typically receives regular updates from the software about the leads being captured into the system, as well as tasks that need to be performed by the agent that cannot be automated.
For example, studies have shown that a phone call during the process (perhaps one that comes after an automated email message that tells a lead to expect a call the next day) greatly enhance the lead conversion rates. The bottom line is that the success rate of marketing using a CRM always comes from blend of sales automations technology, human-written content, and well-placed follow-ups and calls to action during the sales process. A well-designed real estate CRM can boost the conversion rates and sales numbers for real estate agents dramatically.
