Is Neglecting Your Real Estate Database Hurting Your Sales?
We've said it once, twice, a thousand times — but we're saying it again: your database is the lifeline of your real estate business. Your database of contacts is like a goldmine that's just waiting to be tapped into. From past clients to seemingly "weak" leads, your database contains the keys for taking your business to the next level of success. The truth is clear. Agents who are systematically working their database are doing more business than those who don't. Here's the data to prove it. How to Start Doing 18% More Business It's not magic or rocket science. The key to increasing your lead conversion and successfully moving more clients through their transactions to closing all lies in how you leverage your database. Top-performing real estate agents leverage a CRM to help them manage their workload and grow their businesses. Did you know: The agents who employ a professional solution to manage marketing activities have 14% more business on average than their peers. Agents who use a CRM for their daily operations have an average of 18% more business than those who don't. The ultimate secret here is building a strategy that is sustainable, repeatable, and scalable. Sustainable, meaning it's a seamless part of your workflow that you can actually maintain over long periods of time. It's not a one-shot sprint, it's a marathon. Repeatable, meaning the system is so organized that you can follow a set of steps over and over again. You keep making the same right moves, and the process continues to generate measurable wins. Scalable, meaning even as you grow your business, secure more leads, and boost your production, your strategy still works for you. Your database action plan should be flexible enough to adapt to your business at every stage of its expansion. If 18% more business sounded good, how about 14 more transaction sides every year? Data-Proven Follow-up Strategies to Start Doing NOW Here's everything we learned from a 2021 RealTrends study conducted on individual real estate agents and teams to get a deeper understanding of how marketing processes and contact database size can affect overall performance. What We Know: Real estate agents who have a formal workflow for new leads average 12% more transactions than those who do not employ any kind of systematic follow-up. → What You Can Do: Follow in the footsteps of the best in the business by running systematic follow-up processes and marketing campaigns that nurture your sphere. What We Know: Real estate agents who have a systematic follow-up process in place for both past clients and new leads do, on average, 22% more transactions than those who do not employ any type of systematic follow-up, and 10% more transactions than those who only target new leads. → What You Can Do: Make sure to target both former clients and new leads! Don't leave anyone in your database behind. What We Know: Agents who use a mix of contact types, including programmatic and social media advertising, do 29% more transactions on average than those who don't. → What You Can Do: Support a diverse mix of marketing platforms and contact types to create more touchpoints where you can connect with your sphere. What We Know: Agents who make 10 or more touchpoints per person, per month have 39% more transactions than their peers who are less communicative. → What You Can Do: Aim for 10 or more touchpoints per month! Set a communication cadence that allows you to reach out with different, meaningful messages at least 10 times per month. What We Know: Agents who maintain a larger contact database complete more transactions. Those whose databases contain more than 500 contacts have an average of 25% more transactions than agents who have less than 500 contacts. → What You Can Do: Up your lead generation! The more contacts you have in your database, the better equipped you are to grow and scale your business. To view the original article, visit the BoomTown blog.

4 Ways to Dominate Your Market
You're ready to own your market, stay ahead of your competitors, and become a top-producing real estate team dominating the local market share. If the goal is clear, the road to achieving that goal can be hard to imagine... until these essential tips come into the picture. Let's look at fresh and timely strategies that your real estate team can leverage to help you climb to the top of your market. 1. Leverage technology in the right ways Not all technology adoption may be the right choice for your business. Nowadays, there is so much PropTech out there — but what your team needs is the right tech tools. As a best practice, you should strive to leverage technology in the right ways that create tangible and trackable value. Think automated nurture marketing, eAlerts, and the generation of meaningful insights. On the other hand, you might want to rethink the deployment of technology in areas that could negatively impact the experience that your clients have when engaging with your business. For example, speed-to-lead is crucial, but no one wants to talk to bots. Instead, it's ideal to have real humans who are seasoned marketing experts communicating with your precious customers. Being specific about what, how, and when you are using your technology can help you retain a people-centric, value-driven real estate brand culture. 2. Build an accountability process Pop quiz! Are you and your team actually achieving what you set out to do? Are there areas of your workflow that fall through the cracks? Are you measuring your progress towards concrete production goals? If you answered these questions and realized that you're not capitalizing on a clear, goal-oriented strategy, it's a sign that you need an accountability process. All of the top entrepreneurs have accountability practices. Accountability is all about blending the big picture and the immediate moment to create consistent progress toward a goal. Accountability begins with setting realistic and achievable goals. Then, that larger goal is broken down into all of the smaller phases and steps that need to be taken in order to achieve that larger goal. Let's say it's your goal to close on 20 transactions in a year. That means your team should be closing five deals per quarter. To close those five deals, you will need to be working a certain number of leads to ensure that five of them will convert in the future. Become more accountable and efficient by mapping out the actions your real estate business needs to take, helping guide your day-in-day-out workflow strategy. Pro Tip: Leveraging the right tech can actually help your team become more accountable. If you have a back-end team portal that is customized to your unique transaction workflow, it can be much easier to keep tabs on what tasks have gotten done, who's responsible, and what has been overlooked. For example: if your team sends out a closing gift to clients at the end of every transaction, you need to ensure that the gift is being planned and ordered ahead of time. If this is programmed into your project management portal, the reminder is automatically there. You can tag the team member in charge, they can fulfill the task, and voila! Never miss another gifting opportunity again. #3. Set consistent life and work routines Maintaining a strong work-life balance can help you stay motivated, boost creativity, and increase productivity. You're much more likely to succeed if you're feeling uplifted, secure, and are prioritizing your wellness. When you're unorganized and not taking care of yourself, you're likely to spend more time working but ultimately getting less done. An effective way to improve your workflow is to create a consistent daily routine. Make time to take care of yourself and your work tasks, helping you fall into the rhythms of a strong daily groove. Pro Tip: Everyone is unique, so the optimum work and life schedule will naturally vary from person to person. Take time to look in and find the process that works best for you. Encourage your team to do the same. #4. Prospect, prospect, prospect If you want to beat the competition, one of the most important things that you need to be doing is getting serious about your prospecting. To boost your market share and access new opportunities, you need to be consistent about reaching out to leads. Investing in your lead generation capacity can help you build up your lead and client database, fueling your sales funnel and allowing you to dominate your market. To view the original article, visit the BoomTown blog.

What Are the Best Tips for Successfully Nurturing Real Estate Leads?
Whether from your website, social media, or even yard signs, not all the leads you get will be ready to move forward right away. In addition to the time you need to prepare their listing, sellers may need to make needed repairs and renovations and properly stage their home. Buyers might still need to get preapproval, identify their ideal neighborhood or, in times like these, adjust their expectations and budgets to find the right home for them. None of this can happen overnight. In fact, it can take a long time. According to some industry experts, real estate leads can incubate from anywhere to six to 24 months. It's important to think of leads like seeds: if you plant them regularly and nurture them with care, you'll have a steady stream of sales down the road. But what are the best ways to nurture real estate leads? Regular, reliable, relevant touchpoints A touchpoint is any interaction you have with your leads. Once they reach out to you by phone, email, or through your website (the first touchpoint), follow-up touchpoints are important to keep leads warm. Three factors are key: Regularity We are, by nature, a little forgetful. To be memorable, you actually need to remind your leads you're there. By following up regularly—but unobtrusively, such as by email—your name and brand will stay top of mind, so your leads won't end up working with someone else after you've put in all the work to cultivate them. Reliability Homebuyers and sellers usually have a lot of questions about the process. After all, it's one of the biggest steps and transactions most people undertake in their lives. They must trust you as a professional, and that you're providing reliable information. Brand your communications consistently, use proper spelling and grammar, and share useful facts and data. Relevance We're bombarded with information all day long. If your touchpoints don't speak to your leads' unique concerns and interests or aren't relevant to where they are in the sales cycle, they'll quickly tune out. To avoid this, provide the information your leads can really use: For Sellers: Staging tips, neighborhood reports, recent sales comps, and more. For Buyers: Preapproval and lending information, recommended properties, tips for picking a good inspector, or checklists to bring to showings. Tailored nurture campaigns Speaking of relevance, your leads should be plugged into tailored campaigns that account for much more than just whether they're a buyer or seller. Are they a first-time buyer, and therefore need more support? Are they a seasoned property investor or home flipper that needs a little less handholding? These two different profiles should not be receiving the same information, and your lead nurture strategy and tools need to provide the flexibility to speak to both. Customizable content Out-of-the-box content sometimes just won't cut it. A library of lead nurture content is important and can save you lots of time, but it won't reach its full potential if you can't customize it. No one wants to receive canned, impersonal emails, so make sure your communications have the human touch. At a minimum, you need to be able to address your leads by name and send content that is specific to their area and budget. The more customization, the better. Personalization tokens are an easy way to do this, and you need the ability to write and add your own messages to your campaigns. Smart automation You're busy! Manually tracking and completing these tasks could be a full-time job, but we understand that busy brokers and agents have a lot of other things to worry about. This is where smart automation comes in. Smart automation allows you to put lead nurturing on autopilot, so you intervene only when you can add value, like answering a specific question, hopping on the phone, or scheduling a meeting. Less tedium, more transactions! Tracking Finally, you need to be able to track your leads effectively. How many have you received? How many have been actioned? How many are in a specific campaign? How many have gone cold? With the right tracking tools, you can sort leads by where they are (or aren't) in your lead nurture workflow and act accordingly. Constellation1 CRM provides robust and granular lead nurture capabilities. Learn more here. To view the original article, visit the Constellation1 blog.

Which Marketing System Is Right for You?
Being in such a competitive industry, we always want to be the best, do our best, and prove we are the best. With many tools available to help with these accomplishments, how do you narrow down the choices? While your main priority is to be out in the field relationship building and getting your business ramped up, you can't do any of that if you are bogged down many hours each day with marketing. The key to finding balance is investing in a system that allows you to do various marketing tools like a website, CRM, and email marketing. Automate your Sales and Marketing Automation is a huge deal to your business, freeing up so much of your time to focus on what really matters. Having a good CRM will be one of the items you will want to have right away. Your CRM is going to help you stay top of mind with your clients by providing email drip campaigns or monthly email newsletters. Staying top-of-mind with your clients will help with your referral game, have repeat clients, and help your reputation grow. You will be building your business faster and faster over time being able to spend more time doing what you love instead of being strapped in front of your computer doing countless hours of marketing. Be sure to look into other things you can automate as well like your social media marketing, property marketing, and even your printed marketing. Build and Nurture Your Network Building your network will be one of the most important things you can do as you get started in the real estate business. Having ways to share referrals, connecting with others who can lend a helping hand, or even hiring a real estate coach to help guide you through your first year is a great way to continue to grow in this industry. Also, building new relationships with prospects and clients will keep you going for many years. Your clients will become some of your biggest assets. Using a CRM can help you stay connected with all your contacts. Following up with your new lead base, your prospects who have become your top clients and even your past clients. Drip campaign emails, monthly newsletters, a quick "just to say hi and see how you're doing" phone call, coffee/lunch meetups, or even connecting via Zoom or Facetime are all great ways to stay top-of-mind with your contacts. To view the original article, visit the IXACT Contact blog.

7 Things You Didn't Know You Could Do in Google Sheets
There's a powerful tool available to real estate agents that's free to use. That's right, we're talking about Google Sheets. Sheets can do everything from making managing your database easier to creating eye-catching charts. This Microsoft Excel alternative is extra powerful when synced to your CRM. Not sure how to do that? Check out the video above from API Nation, a service that connects technology solutions together in order to share data and automate tasks. This video shares seven tips that will make Google Sheets easy to use, including: Sync your CRM to a Google Sheet Quickly fix capitalizations and split full names to first and last names Make every Sheet easier to read, and simpler to navigate Create charts just by typing a question Import data between different Sheets Want to learn more about using Google Sheets? Check out these articles: 7 Google Sheet Templates for Real Estate Businesses How to Automate a Google Sheets Lead Capture Form

Generating Leads and Boosting Business
Who doesn't love leads? Leads are a crucial part of your business and help you grow as an agent. You can get leads from all sorts of places and ways, but the important part is taking them from a lead to a lifelong client. According to a National Harris Survey, more than 80% of people ask for recommendations from friends when making big purchasing decisions. Once you have established a strong past client resume, you will have a great opportunity to build some lead generation around referrals. To make that goal a reality, all of your marketing pieces should contain some sort of lead generation from lead capture forms to texting a number for lead capture. Lead generation can be found on your digital and tangible marketing materials, like direct mailing with postcards. The more you shift your marketing to generate leads, the better. Some options to help you get started are: Add a lead capture form to your website Create a direct mailing campaign in a local neighborhood for potential buyers/sellers Reach out to old leads that you may have lost touch with Hold an open house for another agent Host local events in your area Remind your satisfied clients that you welcome and appreciate referrals. This may come at a later time as you build up your client database Reach out to your partners like your loan officer or title rep and find ways to pass leads to each other. In your first year, you will likely try these many other different ways to generate leads. Tracking your success will help you save time and money on your marketing efforts and allow you to focus on the leads that are producing the best return on your investment. To view the original article, visit the IXACT Contact blog.

Why Real Estate Agents Should Prioritize Meaningful Outreach
Not all follow-up is good follow-up! It's 2022 and consumer demand is high. People expect Amazon speed combined with boutique service. Your outreach needs to be specific, high-converting -- and never generic or impersonal. Creating Custom, Lead-Specific Outreach In today's market, you need to be "listening" to what your leads are doing online. You should know how they're engaging with your site, allowing you to send them a customized outreach based on their activity. For example, if you know that a prospect is spending more time on the landing pages with one of your property listings — continually visiting, scrolling, and spending large amounts of time on the page — you'd understand that they are favoring this property over competing options. Access to your website data can help you leverage value-driven outreach plans. When you do follow up with that lead, you can promote the listing that they have been eyeing and prompt them to set up an appointment with you to discuss their position further. Do This → You might send an outreach email saying: Hello! If you're planning on buying a home in X market, you should check out this listing. It includes all of the amenities and features that you mentioned you're looking for, and it's at a great price. To help us better understand your specific needs and circumstances as a homebuyer, would you like to set up an appointment? We can speak more about X listing and develop a custom strategy to see if purchasing that listing is a viable investment for you. Text or call me at (XXX) XXX-XXXX, or send me an email so we can book a quick meeting. Looking forward to hearing from you! Not That → Compare this targeted, hyper-focused email that speaks to the lead's existing preferences to a bland, generic email asking them to browse the listings on your site. Pro Tip: Always prioritize value. Your outreach needs to grab the attention of your website traffic and offer them something of real value. Including the address and photos of the listing that one of your leads seems to be interested in is more likely to increase the efficiency of your follow-up. By offering them the chance to speak with you about their ability to purchase the house, the lead has a lot to gain by making the appointment with you — and you're one step closer to landing a new deal. Using Meaningful Outreach to Build Relationships You already know that capturing a lead's business typically comes after multiple touchpoints. As you're moving your leads through the sales funnel, meaningful outreach will give you to chance to build trust, credibility, and provide a preview of your services. Let's say one of your internet leads is spending a lot of time online calculating a loan. If you're observing how your internet traffic is behaving on your website, you'd be aware of their focus on loan-related topics — giving you a strong edge to move forward with. When it's time for you to reach out to that lead, you can speak directly to their needs. Even if they are not yet ready to buy, you can offer them helpful tips and information about financing their upcoming purchase. Do This → You'd be able to send an outreach email saying: Hello! I hope your home buying preparations are going well. I wanted to share a few helpful pieces of information regarding mortgage loans and home financing. Did you know that there are loans with low down payment requirements and low-interest rates for qualifying buyers? I've attached resources with more information that may help you. I've also included a list of questions that you should ask as you're looking for a lender to work with. If you have any specific questions or would like guidance as you take the first steps to secure financing, I would love to assist you. Let's book an appointment to speak soon. I've copied my upcoming availabilities below. Let me know what works for you and we'll move forward. I'll bring additional loan resources to our meeting as they will help you moving forward. Not That → If you had just sent an outreach email about your home buying and selling services, you would have missed out on the chance to touch on a real, pressing concern of your lead. Pro Tip: Even when you share helpful resources and real estate guides in an outreach email, always offer more with the catch of booking an appointment with you. This will incentivize your leads to keep their appointments since they'll receive custom tips and information by attending. To view the original article, visit the BoomTown blog.

Improve Your Workflow with CRM and Transaction Management
A solid real estate customer relationship management (CRM) system should include transaction management that helps real estate agents not only manage their contacts, but also their transactions. A CRM system is vital for agents who want to strengthen and nurture relationships with clients in addition to increasing their productivity overall. In fact, there's a strong correlation between agent productivity and use of a CRM for real estate. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) confirms this trend, stating that the best way to keep your client flow steady is to develop a strategy using CRM. Five years ago, close to 40% of agents used CRM (Hubspot). And, 95% of agents considered to be "top-performing" were among that percentage — underscoring the usefulness of CRM for real estate agents. To find the most effective and budget-friendly real estate software suite for your business, you'll need to sort the "must-have" features from the features that are simply "nice-to-have." Let's look at why a real estate CRM can help you grow and manage your business more efficiently — and more profitably — than ever. Why You Need a Real Estate CRM to Keep It Together What is CRM in real estate? Quite simply, it's the best way for agents to manage contacts, transactions, and team activities to keep their business running smoothly — and producing. Realtor leads are a critical source of clients — and revenue — for agents. Because of their importance, most brokerage firms place significance on managing them. But Realtors face obstacles other marketers don't, contributing to the development of very unique lead management practices. Three lead-management challenges that are specific to the real estate industry include the facts that: Real estate agents don't get repeat business from current customers — they get it from leads generated by those customers, so longterm relationship-building is critical. Referrals and listings are the main source of Realtor leads. The sales cycle is more drawn out, with varying lead involvement over several stages. Because CRM is best when it dovetails with the unique requirements of an industry, the best CRM for real estate will be a system that provides targeted real estate agent tools. Let's look at what makes effective, business-enhancing, real estate CRM software. Real Estate CRM Software That Drives Real Results We already know it's critical to invest in real-estate-specific CRM software, but let's explore the most relevant features to your investment. Here are four features that are the backbone of any high-quality real estate CRM. 1. Contact Information and Data Tracking and Management Contact management is an integral part of most real estate CRM, offering the ability to search basic fields. But game-changing real estate software will turn functionality up a notch by offering the ability to create unique fields for your business. This will further personalize your interactions with your clients and yield your company far better results. Examples of custom fields include: Rank Status Other addresses Spouse/partner info Kids' birthdays Pets' names Having this personal information at your fingertips — and being able to review it quickly before a client meeting — can result in a stronger relationship that leads to more referrals down the line.And any Realtor knows that referrals are the life-blood of the industry. This means that best CRM for real estate will feature a component that allows you to see the number of leads referred by each contact within the system. It also should track detailed notes and critical dates for every contact and transaction. And, while reviewing this information in-office at the start of your day is an excellent way to stay on top of things, most agents are on-the-go from morning 'til evening. This means that if your CRM software has the ability to travel with you, it will be an incredible benefit! If you want to be able to manage your real estate business anywhere, then you'll need a real estate CRM that offers an integrated mobile app. A good mobile app will allow you to: Access your contacts and vendors Access and update your planner, call, and task lists View, add, or update information to your CRM Work on any mobile device — from smartphone, to laptop, to tablet Does your real estate CRM offer contact management with unique fields and a mobile app for on-the-go information retrieval and input? If it doesn't, then it's not going to give you the integration you need to stay ahead of the competition. In conjunction with those critical features, your CRM must have a refined and detailed call list. 2. Highly Integrated Call Functions Real estate agents are always on their phones, making it an important part of managing daily business and growing revenue. Focused real estate CRM software will put emphasis on having an interactive call list for agents. This call list should allow them to immediately access the information of everyone that needs to be contacted, whenever they need it. Besides providing a contact's information, your CRM should allow you to view notes on previous calls. You should also be able to add notes after the current call, and schedule a follow-up call. If you're working with a team, it's important that you're able to see which calls are assigned to a team member, whether they were completed, and if they were reassigned. For teams that do mass calling, it's best to choose a real estate software that provides seamless integration with an auto dialing system for convenience. 3. Document Transactions for Easy Referrals and Increased Productivity Transactions in real estate are incredibly complex, requiring an agent to have outstanding attention to detail, accountability, and organizational skills. That's why a good real estate CRM helps agents manage everything they need through powerful software that simplified tasks and collects all data in an accessible, easily managed, digital forum. Intelligent real estate transaction management tools allow agents to: Customize listing or buyer templates Turn the templates into a transaction management checklist Record each action taken on the checklist as it is completed Show due dates, other team members involved in each action, and date/time-stamped notes Save digitally-signed transaction forms Not only does this keep agents extremely organized and up-to-date with tasks, it allows them to easily find critical information at the click of a button. Being able to instantly search for an appraiser's name on a specific contract or determine the closing date of another deal saves time and money. 4. Game-Changing Benefits for Teams Creating a real estate team can allow diverse agents to combine skill sets for increased sales and revenue. But sometimes it's difficult to coordinate the transaction activities of several members, resulting in errors and lost productivity. Good real estate CRM software will allow an administrator to add any number of team members and assign permissions for each, according to need — or strategy. The team leader can oversee processes, assign full or limited access, and change access in a flash. Each team member should be able to have access customized to their role on the team. An assistant, for example, might be able to follow everyone's transactions, while a buyer's agent might be allowed access to only their specific tasks, calendar, and leads. The best CRM for real estate will always be able to work for teams structured in various ways. When the entire team is on the same page, fewer errors are made and more sales close! You already know that the most successful agents are using real estate CRM software to get ahead of the game. If you want to join them, it's time to invest in the most impactful career decision you can make — purchasing a real estate CRM. To view the original article, visit the Wise Agent blog.

5 Tips for Higher Productivity and More Real Estate Success
Every time you gain a new transaction, you're growing your real estate business. To help you convert your leads and boost your production, BoomTown partnered with RealTrends to conduct a study on how marketing practices, database size, and automation impact the performance of top-ranking real estate teams. Let's check out the most interesting findings of the report, along with five proven best practices to generate new business — effectively and at scale. 1. Target Both Former Clients and Potential New Leads Are you viewing your past clients as valuable streams of business? According to BoomTown's customer survey, 81% of top-producing real estate teams have a systematic strategy in place for engaging both new leads and former clients. Marketing campaigns should focus on generating new leads, but also on accessing repeat business and referral opportunities from past clients. Since you've worked closely with your past clients, you've already built trust and reputability with them. This shortens the conversion timeline while making it easier for you to land the deal. Since it takes less time — and fewer touches — to convert a past client, it's less expensive to nurture a past client compared to a new customer. BoomTown's survey found that: Real estate agents who include past clients in their marketing campaigns see an average of 9% more transactions than agents who only target new leads. Pro Tip: Leveraging bulk actions can help you organize your CRM outreach. BoomTown makes it easy to categorize your leads and send out automated bulk emails to each group. This can help you save time when reaching out to new leads and past clients with personalized content. 2. Every Lead Needs a Systematic Follow-Up Strategy There's no such thing as "trash" leads. Every contact in your sphere is an opportunity for business — some just take longer to convert than others. Every lead is valuable, and that means that every lead needs to be warmed with a systematic, strategic follow-up plan. There's a science to warming up cold leads until they're ready to convert. BoomTown's survey revealed that dynamic outreach plans applied to every lead are the most successful at boosting conversions. Instead of cherry-picking which leads to reach out to, the best approach is to hit your entire database with multiple touchpoints. 5 Ways to Engage Leads in Your Database: Email Marketing Campaigns Social Media Web Advertising Direct Mail Phone and Text 3. Combine Programmatic and Social Media Advertising Did you know that agents who do not use programmatic and social media advertising tend to have 29% fewer transactions? Make sure that you're leveraging strategies inside and outside of your sales funnel. It's critical that you're in both your sphere's email inbox and on their social media feeds for maximum exposure. Pro Tip: Go through your database and find every lead on social media. Engage them, and add their social media profile information to their contact to keep you organized. 4. Aim for 10 or More Touchpoints Per Month For Each Lead BoomTown's survey discovered that agents who make 10+ touchpoints per month have 39% more conversions. Working with an automated lead concierge service — particularly a market-beating, human-driven, seamless software that does it all — can help you meet your outreach quota to stay relevant with your sphere. Pro Tip: Get creative when reaching out to your database. Think outside of the box to create meaningful conversations and become a source of value, insight, and expertise for your leads. 5 Touchpoint Ideas to Warm Your Leads: The "Haven't Heard From You" Email A State of the Market Update Tips for Preparing for a Mortgage Moving Tips and Service Provider Information Local Events Calendars 5. Work on Growing Your CRM Beyond 500 Contacts Five-hundred database contacts is known as the "tipping point" that helps agents level up their production. On average, agents with more than 500 contacts convert 25% more leads than those who don't. But the work doesn't stop once you reach 500. Once you grow your database, you'll need to maintain your sphere. To effectively manage your expanding database, you'll need to have the capacity to follow up, reach out, and warm every lead in your sales funnel. In today's fast-paced market, that means leveraging technology and automated workflows to maximize the ROI of your CRM. RealTrend's survey found that: Teams with less than 15 agents that use Boomtown have 12-14 more transaction sides per agent than peers. Teams sized between 16-30 agents that use BoomTown have 10-11 more transaction sides per agent than peers. Teams with over 30 agents that use BoomTown have 5-6 more transaction sides per agent than peers. Do the math, and that equates to: Up to 210 more transaction sides for teams with less than 15 agents. Between 160 and 330 more transaction sides for teams of 16-30 agents. At least 150 more transaction sides for teams of over 30 agents. To view the original article, visit the BoomTown blog.

6 Ways Agents Use Elevate CRM for Business Success
Words like "technology" and "CRM" can evoke fear in even the most seasoned real estate professional. But with the launch of Elm Street's Elevate CRM a few years ago, agents can enjoy an easy, intuitive experience designed to streamline daily activities and help prioritize what's most important for business success. Read on to meet some agents using Elevate, and to hear their tips for making the most of all of the tools available. Elevate CRM | Intuitive Dashboard [featuring Jennifer M. from Tulsa, OK] "I was a typical agent using a bunch of different technology products for my business. I was stressed and frustrated because I felt like I had to spend hours every week moving leads around and trying to focus on my follow-up. Elevate CRM has this really slick dashboard that provides me an at-a-glance snapshot of all of my daily activities…who I need to contact, what outreach is being automated, and all of my marketing activities. I was able to cancel four other products, which helped me save money, but it's the intelligent insight and time saved that has turned me into a loyal fan!" Jennifer's Tip: Invest the time to learn about ALL of the features of your Elevate CRM and how you can consolidate and automate a lot of your daily activities. The Elevate coaches are great at helping new users get the most of their experience, as well as helping educate you on what matters most. Struggling with prioritizing daily tasks? Schedule your Elevate tour today and take back control of your time. Elevate CRM | Lead Nurturing Concierge [featuring Jason T. from Los Angeles, CA] "Elevate's Concierge service has literally changed my life! I spend about $1,600 a month on Elevate leads in my market and the Concierge service is converting an average of 12% of them to conversations for me. That's the highest return I've experienced from my lead gen investments. What's even better is that I'm provided an entire transcript of the conversation, which gives me valuable information about my prospect. And…the fact that my prospects think that I have a personal assistant in the L.A. market is priceless!" Jason's Tip: Invest in the follow-up and let someone else do the work. Agents spend a lot on lead gen but then fall short once they've captured the lead—but that's when the work REALLY begins. Using a service like Elevate's Concierge provides prompt, professional follow-up and feeds you the lead at the point of engagement. Not getting the results you want from your lead gen? Connect with an Elevate Success Coach and turn those leads into cha-ching! Elevate CRM | Easy, Professional CMA [featuring Sonja P. from Fort Lauderdale, FL] "Developing a comprehensive CMA can be really time-consuming. One thing that attracted me to Elevate CRM was that they have one of the easiest CMA wizards I've ever used. I can create a gorgeous, professional CMA in minutes, share it with a client, and move on with my day! My clients are always impressed with how quickly I can respond to their need for information." Sonja's Tip: Take advantage of the templates and workflows inside of Elevate CRM. You can automate a bunch of your daily busywork, which allows you to be more responsive to your clients. Wasting too much time creating the perfect CMA? Let Elevate CRM do the heavy lifting for you. Elevate CRM | Social Media Marketing [featuring Lisa L. from Syracuse, NY] "I knew I needed to be on social media, but finding the time to commit to Facebook and other channels was overwhelming to me, plus I had no idea what kind of content to create for my business. Elevate CRM automatically posts all of my listings to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn AND YouTube, plus other great content that my audience likes. I look like a social media rockstar and only have to lift a finger when I want to post something about my personal life. I love how Elevate CRM automatically creates YouTube videos for me of each listing. I would never be able to do that myself!" Lisa's Tip: Let Elevate's social media marketing tools do the work for you, especially if social media isn't one of your strengths, or if you don't want to dedicate the time to creating weekly content. Unsure what content to post on social? Schedule a demo to see how Elevate can automate meaningful content. Elevate CRM | Daily Market Reports [featuring Danielle T. from Colorado Springs, CO] "My favorite feature in Elevate is the daily market reports for my buyers. Any time a listing hits the market that matches their interests, my clients receive an automatically generated email with all of the details, and I am also alerted. In today's low inventory market, we need to move quickly if we want to pursue opportunities, and this tool ensures that my clients are the first to know about exciting new listings or updates on listings of interest." Danielle's Tip: It's hard to always be responsive in a competitive market. Being able to automate important outreach as soon as it hits the MLS gives your clients the advantage they need. Want to be more responsive to your client's needs? Elevate CRM has you covered. Explore today. Elevate CRM | Training and Education [featuring Jeff W. from Dallas, TX] "Sometimes I feel like, after the sale, I'm on my own with my software, but that's not my Elevate experience. It's easy for me to connect with the Elevate Coaching Team, and I really enjoy the level of service I receive. I feel like there are real people who want to help me build my business, and they provide lots of great ongoing training to help me make the most of everything Elevate has to offer." Jeff's Tip: Sign up for Elevate's training webinars and get to know your support team. It helps you make the most out of your experience. Tired of feeling like you're on your own with your technology? Let us show you a better way. Elevate CRM | The Bottom Line A good CRM should save an agent time, money and frustration by providing intelligent, thoughtful tools. Too often, agents are left on their own without the knowledge and expertise to succeed with their marketing and technology. The team behind Elevate CRM are hyper-focused on solving for this issue by providing ongoing training, support and insight into the best practices to drive marketing and business success. Schedule your tour of Elevate CRM today and take back control of your precious time.

How to Stay Connected With Your Growing Clientele
Real estate agents who only focus on generating new customers risk losing the long game. If you want to stay connected with your growing clientele, continuous relationship building is key. This means staying top of mind, expanding your network, and generating repeat and referral business. Your current clients are the ones who can bring you referrals and ultimately more business. Staying connected with your clients is not only vital to your personal brand and business, but to increasing your bottom line over the long-term. Here's how to stay top of mind with your real estate clients: Get to know your clients – beyond their name, number and email Having a list of client names, emails, and phone numbers isn't valuable if you don't have the information you need to build lasting relationships. Developing a rich contact profile for each of your clients is important. This includes details like their contact history, market interests, birthday, and move-in anniversary. Remembering details beyond the basics can go a long way in building lasting connections. It's also these very details that you can use to develop and send relevant, valuable content to your clients. Organize your contact database and make it work for you Using a Customer Relationship Management system (CRM) to collect and organize your client information will help you stay on top of your clients' needs and capture new referrals in one easy-to-manage system. Automated CRMs will send you reminders to check in with your contacts. They will also help organize your contacts by their interests and location. Strategically timed follow-ups are the key to hitting the right balance in communication frequency. Connect with your real estate clientele by sending consistent, meaningful messages As you know, real estate is a relationship business and long-term business success is linked to whether or not you are helping your clients solve a problem. It's important to develop helpful and meaningful content that you can consistently share with your leads and current client base. Here are a few ideas: Send an automated monthly newsletter Monthly e-news is a great way to consistently stay in touch with your clients throughout the year. One touch point every month isn't overwhelming for your clients, but it's also timely enough to avoid being forgotten. Investing in a powerful real estate email marketing platform will give you access to high impact email marketing features that build professional and engaging email campaigns. Use a drip campaign By using drip campaigns, you can automatically send targeted market insights to your clients at the right time. To keep your clients interested, don't make the mistake of spamming them with useless information. Send them data, tips and community snapshots that they can use and take action on. Get social Creating a blog and using social media platforms is one of the best ways to stay top of mind. Be consistently present in clients' social media feeds by posting regularly to remind them of you. This also makes it so easy for them to share content from your blog, drip campaigns, and e-news with their networks. Be the expert your clients know and trust If you are seen as a trusted expert, contacts and clients are more than willing to reach out to you. The best content marketing is about a topic connecting the reader to the real estate industry. This includes topics such as home renovations or new neighborhood amenities. As a real estate agent, you are already familiar with the fact that it's more about the experience than the house. The same applies to content marketing. Your goal is to become a broader resource than an agent. This way, you are simultaneously strengthening your personal brand and positioning yourself as the expert. Remember: Gathering and organizing your client information is the first step You can't be top of mind, send relevant content to your clients, and stay in touch consistently if you don't have your client data organized in a single system. Whether it's through referrals, a website call-to-action, or new, updated information for an existing client, always capture client data and contact information in your CRM. To view the original article, visit the IXACT Contact blog.

The Relationship Cloud: Mashup of Social Media, CRM and Big Data
WAV Group is fortunate to work with many great technology companies and entrepreneurs who have used profound imagination to improve real estate. One of those companies is Aidentified. What impressed us about Aidentified is that they have delivered something that works. For years, we have seen best practices develop in social media, understood the importance of a CRM, and heard stories about leveraging Big Data that never materialized. The elegant way that Aidentified has combined these three things to deliver impactful business intelligence to real estate is outstanding. Aidentified's foundation is built on Big Data. They leverage public and licensed data to capture and validate personal – as well as professional – information on hundreds of millions of U.S. citizens from dozens of sources, every day. That is big data – think Experian, but on steroids. That information is nice to have, but it needs to be relatable for brokers and agents. That is where CRM comes in. You don't need hundreds of millions of records, you only need the ones that matter to you. So Aidentified connects to your CRM using an API and deposits the information where you need it. Pull up a record in Chime, and the customer record data is matched with data from Aidentified's relationship cloud. You can append your CRM record with whatever is missing – like the husband's name, how many children, where they work, their inferred income bracket, referral opportunities and so much more. Aidentified also ties in certain social media connections. The service allows teams or brokers to connect their social networking connections and other siloed contacts, like your phone contacts or neighbors, to Aidentified. For the first time, teams of agents can band their personal and professional networks together. One useful advantage of this is lead routing. Why give a lead to an agent next in line when you can give the lead to the agent who sold the lead's brother a home, or an agent whose wife works with the lead's wife, or whomever? Aidentified has merged connections from CRM, social media and big data inferences from this powerful interconnected relationship cloud and turns "just another lead" into better prioritized business opportunities. Relationship Monitoring The greatest feature about Aidentified is relationship monitoring. When a customer record changes or your customer has a life event like an IPO or a stock sale, for example, the agent will get an email alert. Digital Prospecting My favorite digital prospecting story that utilized Aidentified involved a company that was moving out of the Bay area in California to Austin, TX. A single agent had a client who was an executive at the company. Using Aidentified, this agent leveraged that relationship to reach out to dozens of other executives at the company. It resulted in more than a handful of listings and lots of referrals to agents in Austin. If you have not looked at Aidentified, take the time to check it out. You will be astonished, and maybe even a little bit shocked. To view the original article, visit the WAV Group blog.

Real Estate CRM Basics
What Is a CRM? CRM stands for customer relationship management and is used to describe a category of tools used by businesses to manage interaction with current and potential customers. There are many types of CRMs, but they generally share the same common goals to benefit any kind of business:

How to Make an Impact with Personalized Marketing
The most successful marketing and sales strategies no longer revolve around broad demographic populations. Today, smart marketers supplement their mass marketing with relevant, personalized messaging that is hyper targeted to the individual. Why personalized marketing works for real estate agents Personalized marketing fits hand-in-hand with the in-person sales effort real estate agents make with their clients every day. The most effective marketers and sales professionals use customer insights and data to build deeper relationships with their clients. They do this by tapping into their specific interests and needs. In the business of buying and selling homes, understanding the unique needs and personal stories of your clients is key. Building trust and maintaining relationships is not only at the foundation of business success, but is also vital to creating a lasting personal brand that easily attracts referrals. How personalized marketing works Contacts are much more likely to pay attention when emails and messages are relevant to them. Broad marketing efforts are a turn-off to today's consumers, causing them to stop their journey down the sales funnel. Personalized information is at the heart of a customer's true interests. Therefore, delivering that information is how you keep them engaged. So how is it possible for an agent to personalize communication for each of their contacts? Personalized marketing is made easy for agents through the use of a web-based real estate CRM. Using data like a contact's name, preferred communication channels, their history and needs, a CRM can automatically create individualized messages and call reminders that are tailored to each unique contact's needs. Increase conversations and deepen loyalty When agents use a CRM, their database captures rich contact profiles for each of their contacts. This makes it easy to keep track of important contact information including birthdays, move-in anniversaries, communication history, and more. Nothing makes a client feel more special than a note, well wishes or celebratory message that acknowledges a special day. A CRM can send automated, personalized birthday and anniversary reminders that make it easier than ever to reach out to clients on special days. To keep these touch points authentic and fresh, it's important that agents use a CRM that adds new greeting card templates to its library regularly to ensure your contacts don't receive the same card twice. It's also important to ensure that all email templates and cards are mobile friendly. This way, contacts can open them on any device. Keep in touch and stay top of mind In addition to building relationships through personalized email marketing, it's also vital that agents stay on top of their call history. Keeping track of email correspondence and contact history through a CRM is crucial. Using a CRM helps to keep your conversations with clients seamless from call to call. When making the call, agents can use the data in their CRM history for that client to easily recall their client's current status and interests so that the call is relevant and meaningful to their client's needs. Making it personal doesn't have to be time consuming Efficient time management is necessary to running a busy real estate business, and the less time spent writing emails and keeping up with task lists, the more time spent directly with clients, making a sale. Personalized marketing is quick and easy for agents that put their contact database to work for them. While you're on the go, your real estate CRM acts as your own personal marketing assistant, automatically keeping track of each of your contact's needs and special occasions – an approach that applies to hundreds of contacts at the click of a button. When looking for a CRM, make sure there is functionality that enables you to easily manage your entire contact database through mass assignments. For example, IXACT Contact saves its users hours of time with functionality that enables agents to mass assign keep-in-touch call reminders across hundreds of clients. Key takeaway: Clients prefer a personalized buying experience, but that doesn't mean you have to double your efforts to keep track of each specific client's needs. By using your client data in a CRM, you can create high-impact, individualized touch points that keep your clients engaged and let them know they're at the top of your mind, and your to-do list. To view the original article, visit the IXACT Contact blog.

Friday Freebie: Finish 2021 with More Money in Your Pocket with this CRM and All-in-One Marketing Platform
We just hit the home stretch of 2021--the final quarter of the year. How many of your commission goals did you successfully achieve? If your targets are just out of reach, remember that a goal without a plan is just a wish. In order to meet your goals, it pays to have a detailed marketing plan that covers everything from your website, social media, email campaigns, market reports, and beyond. That may sound like a lot for a single agent to handle. That's why in this week's Friday Freebie, we're introducing you to a tool that can streamline your real estate marketing efforts and put you on track to meet your annual commission goals. Free 30-day trial of DeltaNET™ 6, no credit card required It's not too late to achieve everything you set out to do at the beginning of the year. Meet Q4 head-on with a powerful CRM that was previously only available to brokerages—but now is available to all real estate agents. We're talking about DeltaNET 6 from Delta Media Group. RE Technology readers can try this robust marketing and client management platform free for 30 days—no contract, no setup fees or credit card required. Here's what this "all-in-one" platform offers: Dozens of customizable, mobile-responsive website themes Email marketing campaigns and action plans are ready to send to your clients My Customer for Life e-newsletters Integrated blogging and testimonials Automated reporting tools like Market Watch, My Homefinder, and Seller Reports Customizable and automated ecards, print flyers, postcards, and brochures Social Connector for automated Facebook and LinkedIn posting AVM to capture more seller leads Ad Wizard Platform (Facebook and Instagram advertising) Finish 2021 with more money in your pocket and sign up for your free trial today!

Stop Losing Business Because You're Busy
It's no secret -- agents are absolutely slammed right now. With buyer demand holding strong and markets across the country remaining hotter than ever, it can be tough to keep up with the urgent follow-ups, the showings, the bidding wars...the list goes on. What's not cool, is losing business because you're so busy. And whether they know it or not, agents everywhere are slowing down on their lead generation, backing off of their pipeline, and missing out on opportunities to make connections and lay the groundwork for tomorrow's conversations and next year's closed deals. Let's start with productivity and covering your bases. You need to make sure you are running your business and it's not the other way around. Start by taking a look at your daily activities. Are you time blocking effectively? Do you have clear, actionable goals? If you're leveraging a CRM, are you be taking advantage of the daily to-dos, automated marketing, and lead follow-up tools? In real estate, you are your business, so you should run the show like you're the CEO. Determine what tasks are your high-dollar, high-value activities. Those are the things that you need to tackle yourself. But the kicker is that everything else is still important—and this is where your people and processes come into play. So, make a list of everything you should be doing to grow your business. What can you delegate to another person (ISA, admin, assistant, etc.)? What can you automate (eAlert listings to your database, automated marketing, digital advertising, etc.)? Anything left on the list that isn't generating revenue or bringing you joy, just stop doing. Here are 3 ways your CRM can help you stay productive even when you're busy. 1. Automated marketing. Technology allows us to be in two places at once. You can send that personalized email with best-fit properties for a prospective lead while being out in the field doing a showing or giving a listing presentation. That's how you can take advantage of this hot market and double down on lead generation without having to dedicate hours of time to prospecting. 2. Leverage real-time insights. Does your technology let you know who exactly you should be reaching out to and when? For example, Mary Homebuyer is browsing your site right now and she's favorited two properties and forwarded one to her husband. Or, Andy Homebuyer just registered on your site and he indicated that he also has a home to sell. You should be reaching out to these leads as soon as possible! "For us, [BoomTown's] Opportunity Wall is huge," says Tim Caudill of Florida Life Real Estate Group. "Our agents, three times a day, live on that Wall. To be able to see when a client is on your website shopping, to know that they favorited a property, to know how many times they've clicked on one specific property, shows their motivation to buy... And our agents love it. As soon as they see if somebody has favorite a property a fourth or fifth time, they'll pick up the phone, call them, and ask, 'Hey, would you like to schedule a time to see that property? It seems like you're in love with it because you're dating it online. Let's go ahead and get something going here, and we can see if you guys are fit for each other.' And it always breaks the ice and gets that agent on the phone." 3. Use a lead concierge system. Those leads we just mentioned are hot, and the best time to engage with them is while they're still showing interest. But what happens if they are favoriting properties while you're in a meeting? Or it's 4 in the morning? This is exactly why BoomTown built their Lead Concierge System, Success Assurance. Acting as an extension of your team, a Lead Concierge (real people, no bots!) will reach out, qualify, and engage leads on your behalf, 24/7. And they'll continue to nurture those leads and pass them off to you once they're ready to chat. A Visual To-Do List for Real Estate Lead Follow-Up![Free Download] To view the original article, visit the BoomTown blog.

Staying in Touch vs. Spamming Too Much
I do love Father's Day. These days, one of the greatest treats is spending time with family. I also got a few text messages from close friends--I sent a few, too. But this morning, my inbox was littered with "Happy Father's Day" greetings from CRMs. What do you think happened next? As I went through them, I noticed a few things. First of all, it seems like the most popular CRMs used by agents either only have one Father's Day greeting in the drip system, or it was just the most popular choice among agents. I had lots of duplicates of the same greeting; honestly, it made the entire thing seem insincere. I also noticed that there was nothing personal about it. None of the agents took the time to share anything about themselves – like a child's graduation or maybe summer activities that they are enjoying, etc. The greeting was nothing more than a form letter. Moreover, I am certain that I did not subscribe to their marketing campaign. After deleting a few emails, I changed my behavior and started hitting the unsubscribe button. I am sure that agents across America found a bunch of unsubscribe notices in their inbox this morning – depleted databases. The great unsolved challenge for real estate professionals is cracking the code to staying in touch with the people in their database. Every year, the National Association of REALTORS® publishes research that indicates that over 90% of consumers would use their Realtor in a future transaction. Only about 20% of consumers actually use their Realtor again. In addition, agents claim that about 50% of transactions comes from past clients and referrals. All of that research points to the leaky bucket of client retention. Here are a few areas of opportunity that may plug some of the holes: Use tags in CRM to indicate as many things as you know about this person. Develop customer personas. It is a lot of work, but it will make a difference because it will allow the right message to go to the right person, at the right time. Match and append the CRM database to keep it up to date. Services like Aidentified not only complete customer contact records, but they also monitor for life events. Send sincere messages to people that you know. The average agent has 397 people in their database. Sending a real note to 50 or 100 of them would be far better than spamming them all. If you do not know the person that well, tell them about what Father's day means to you and the traditions you have in your family – or favorite places to go in your community and things to do on Father's day. Do good. Give money to a charity in your local community that helps children who are fatherless. Use humor. Top 10 Father's Day disasters – you can easily find that stuff with a Google search. One friend sent me a text of a dad in a canoe with his young son. The dad was paddling, and the son was playing in the water. Then the son fell in the water and dad scooped him up and put him back in the boat and continued paddling as though it never happened. It was awesome. Another one showed a dad at the zoo with his son and daughter. The son was giving food to a giraffe who then picked the son up in the air because the boy did not let go of the leaf. The dad grabbed the son – amazing. Don't send the email. If you do not have the time or inspiration to send an email that is good enough, don't send it at all. All the agents who have me in their database that made this decision did not get their email address blocked. Sometimes that is a win. Happy Father's Day I had a great Father's Day weekend and I hope you did as well. Marilyn, Alexandra and I went to Lake Nacimiento. It is a reservoir and campground in northern San Luis Obispo County where we keep our boat. Alexandra invited a few friends up to join us. It reminded me that Father's Day is not so great for some kids; but in some way, I think they enjoyed joining our family. We had a good time and some of us got a little too much sun. Alexandra's wake surfing skills are getting pretty good. The water situation in California is real. The lake is down below 30% capacity and drops a foot or two every day. July 4th may be the last weekend on the boat this year – which is pretty sad. The boat and the camper were the things that allowed us all to keep our sanity during the COVID lockdown. We are going to need to find some new fun-filled family activities for late summer. Maybe an agent will send me a few inspiring ideas. To view the original article, visit the WAV Group blog.

Friday Freebie: Exceed Your 2021 Goals with this CRM and All-in-One Marketing Platform
A goal without a plan is just a wish. If one of those goals is closing more deals in 2021, it pays to have a detailed marketing plan that covers everything from your website, social media, email campaigns, market reports, and beyond. That may sound like a lot for a single agent to handle. That's why in this week's Friday Freebie--the last of the year!--we're introducing you to a tool that can streamline your real estate marketing efforts and put you on track to meet your 2021 commission goals. Free 30-day trial of DeltaNET™ 6, no credit card required Earlier this year, something exciting happened: real estate agents finally gained access to a high-level CRM that was previously only available to brokerages. We're talking about DeltaNET 6 from Delta Media Group. RE Technology readers can now try this robust marketing and client management platform free for 30 days—no contract, no setup fees or credit card required (a true holiday miracle). Here's what this "all-in-one" platform offers: Dozens of customizable, mobile-responsive website themes Email marketing campaigns and action plans are ready to send to your clients My Customer for Life e-newsletters Integrated blogging and testimonials Automated reporting tools like Market Watch, My Homefinder, and Seller Reports Customizable and automated ecards, print flyers, postcards, and brochures Social Connector for automated Facebook and LinkedIn posting Ad Wizard Platform (Facebook and Instagram advertising) Start 2021 off on the right foot and sign up for your free trial today!

8 Real Estate Closing Gifts That Return Your Investment
Closing real estate deals is fun, right? Of course it is! You should extend your excitement of a job well done with a token of appreciation for your clients. Here are some thoughtful gift ideas you can give to your clients:

Tips for Real Estate Agents: Engaging Your Sphere of Influence with Personal Touches
What really sets one agent apart from the next? How can you try to make sure your clients texts you when they need to make a real estate change, and not your competitor? While lead generation is super important, so is making sure that the clients you do have are happy and ready to send more business your way. Try adding personal touches to each encounter you have with your client--because business, actually, is very personal. Get started with these tips for real estate agents on engaging your sphere of influence with personal touches that will build the bonds of trust and friendship needed to generate referrals and keep clients coming back to you.

How to Get Your Real Estate Business Working for You and Not the Other Way
Getting a real estate CRM is easy. In fact, it is so easy, that it is just a few clicks away. The steps following that are simple, too, especially with a good real estate CRM. With the help of an easy set-up wizard, concierge call, and webinars, you are well on your way to getting your real estate business working for you. But what if you just don't do anything after you've followed all these steps? What if it's been months and you still haven't taken advantage of all of the benefits a robust CRM has to offer? Well, it's never too late to start getting your real estate business working for you and not the other way around. Here's how:

How to Choose the Best CRM for Your Real Estate Business
Today, we are being bombarded by so many tools and information that it can be a bit overwhelming. Many offer free trials, and you may think about trying each one before deciding. That may make you even more crazy. Instead, write down those features that are most important to you right now and for the vision you have for your business. Don't get caught up with all the bells and whistles if you don't have the time to use the majority of them. To be conservative, consider looking for a CRM where you will be utilizing at least 60% of the features.

Build Your Real Estate CRM Database with 4 Easy Steps
An agent's real estate CRM database is one of their most prized processions. It's the backbone of a sales professional's business, being the source of repeat and referral business. The more quality contacts in your real estate CRM database, the more repeat client transactions and referrals will likely come your way. No wonder most real estate agents are always interested in building their list as quickly as possible.

WATCH NOW: Top 5 Secrets from Top Producing Agents to Navigate These Times
Our Coffee Chat series is a big hit because we've had such great guests giving us practical and affordable advice about how to ride out the COVID-19 storm while preparing ourselves to be ready to go when the floodgates open after our shelter-in-place orders have been lifted. With all of the new skills we're learning, we believe that our NEXT normal way of doing business is going to be easier and more profitable than ever! Mike Minard, CEO/Owner of Delta Media Group, joined us Friday and shared some great tips. Below are the five key takeaways from his session, Top 5 Secrets from Top Producing Agents to Navigate These Times. Watch the session recording here: Five tips for you: 1. Embrace Change Learn how to do virtual open houses and virtual showings. 2. Upgrade Your Marketing Get active on social media with helpful tips for your clients and prospects Reach out to each of your clients and reassure your clients that real estate will rebound Deliver market reports, RPR reports, etc. to show them that the real estate market and the value of their home is still strong Educate them about the low, low mortgage rates available right now. 3. Organize Your Client Relationship Management Software Make sure all of your contacts from all sources — MLS, phone, sticky notes, etc. — are ALL entered into your Client Relationship Management (CRM) tool Organize your CRM contacts into groups so you can customize your communications by area, interests, family make-up, length of time since they purchased a home, the place you met them, etc. Tag each contact in your CRM so you can send notes to many that sound personalized. For example, if you know they are interested in high school sports, you can send them updates from the local school. 4. Provide Real-time Communications and Upgrade the Reasons to Engage with Your Website Sign up for updates from your local town and county so you can provide real-time COVID-19 updates Sign up for updates from your local banks and unemployment office so you can provide updates on how to apply for relief benefits Take the time to update your website with bio, awards and designations Add testimonials to your website Add market reports to your websites – saved searches, market performance/analytics, etc. Watch your website closely for inbound leads. Respond immediately – leads coming in are more qualified than ever. 5. Customize Your Marketing Plans Using the tags/groups you have built, provide customized content that is sensitive to COVID-19 attitudes Reach out to specific groups with content specific to their interests. Tune in for more daily Coffee Chats at 12pm ET/9am PT with our president and host Marilyn Wilson. Here are RE Technology's guests for our upcoming Coffee Chats: Wednesday, April 15: Alicia Berruti, National Speaker, Bomb Bomb Thursday, April 16: Jim Lawson, VP of Sales, Marketing & Client Servies, Terradatum Friday, April 17: Kim Hansen, COO and Dionna Hall, CEO with Broward, Palm Beaches & St. Lucie Realtors®

3 Things Every Agent Needs in Their 2020 Marketing Arsenal
It's amazing how many companies are vying for the real estate agent's dollar. From trying to sell you leads to showing off the latest shiny object guaranteed to boost your marketing power, it seems like everyone wants to stick their fingers into your pocketbook. What good do these wonder tools do, though, if you lack the systems to put them to work? What is the benefit of marketing to attract new clients if the chances are really good that they'll fall through a crack in your system? If you don't have the basics of your arsenal in place, it's time to concentrate on doing so. 1. A cleaned-up, organized CRM New agents often ask what tools they'll need when they first hit the ground in the real estate world. Aside from a smart phone and a mentor, a robust customer relationship management system (CRM) is a must. Established agents understand the value of a CRM but many allow theirs to become cluttered, disorganized and, very often, ineffective. "Garbage in, garbage out" is what they end up with. Take the time to thoroughly clean up your CRM. This includes: Categorizing the entries in a way that makes sense to you. This may be something as simple as categorizing each entry by their location within the sales funnel (lead, prospect or client) and whether the lead or prospect is cold, warm or hot. Sellers and buyers should be segmented as well. Checking for duplicate entries and then merging or deleting them. Removing contacts that are impossible to contact. These are the ones who submitted a phony email address or phone number, have been in your database for some time and there is no hope of ever contacting them. Ensuring that every contact is on an appropriate touch campaign. 2. A powerful, lead-generating website While the NAR doesn't tell us how many of their members own a website, they do let on that 51 percent have had a website for at least five years. That's a rather paltry number, considering that a website should be one of the main tools in an agent's marketing arsenal. A real estate website can be a giant lead magnet, if done right. By blogging consistently and promoting your posts on social media, you drive traffic back to your site where you can employ additional magnets to capture those leads. But there are other bonuses offered by an agent website: A website offers a place to showcase your testimonials. It helps build awareness of your brand. A website provides a place for potential clients to get to know and trust you. It offers a spot for you to demonstrate authority. Agent websites offer value by providing information that real estate consumers are seeking. Your website can be a tool to help build a targeted mailing list to stay in touch with your sphere of influence. 3. In-depth knowledge of your target market If your target market is "likely buyers and sellers," we feel for you. "Everyone" isn't a target audience and appealing to "everyone" is almost impossible. For marketing to be successful, you simply must know who you are trying to reach. And this determination must be the result of a carefully thought-out process. There are many ways to choose a target market. The easiest is to target the type of client you've most enjoyed working with over the past year or two. Are they members of the military or landlords looking to sell? Maybe they were the first-time homebuyers or downsizing baby boomers. Add to your knowledge of this group of real estate consumers. What is the market like for them right now? Look for pain points that you can address and solve. Where do they hang out online? These are advertising mediums that present an ideal way to reach your audience. Even if you choose only one of the three aforementioned tips, you'll be ahead of your marketing game in 2020.

Real Estate Advertising Using Your CRM (Real Estate Marketing Ideas)
In many ways, there has never been a better time to be a real estate agent. Thanks to the internet, you now have countless marketing methods for finding prospects and connecting them with the homes of their dreams. Still, having countless marketing options can be a challenge unto itself if you don't understand which ones hold the most promise for growing your business. While there are many worth considering, a real estate CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform should be at the very top of that list.

Friday Freebie: Let this CRM Coach You to Success in 2020
Determined to hit all your commission goals in 2020, but need just a little bit of help to get there? In this week's Friday Freebie, real estate CRM meets real estate coach… and you get 30 days to try it out. Free 30-day Trial of Referral Maker CRM by Buffini & Company Setting goals is a simple thing to do. Making a plan to hit those goals? Well, that can be more challenging. Referral Maker CRM makes it easy to achieve your New Year's real estate resolutions by creating a plan for you. Just input your financial or personal goals and the platform will generate a personalized plan-of-action for you. It will coach you on who to reach out to, how to reach out to them, and when—and even what to say. Here are a few standout features that you'll be able to test out during your free trial: Dashboard where you can see your appointments, goals, and tasks for the day and week Mobile app Activity Tracker The ability to rank your database contacts Marketing campaign management Manage your transactions and expenses from the CRM Calendar and To-Do List Generate a variety of reports to monitor your productivity and gain other valuable insights And more! So if you're looking for a better way to reach your business goals in 2020, give yourself the gift of a CRM that will help you save time, money and generate more leads. Try Buffini & Company Referral Maker CRM totally FREE for 30 days and get your business on the right track for the year ahead.

Real Estate Smartphone Tricks: Using Your Phone's Contacts as a CRM
I want you to think about something--where do you keep the most up-to-date list of your contacts? Yes, your phone! You meet somebody and the first thing you do is share your contact information. Where is it stored? Yes, your phone! What is easier: moving the new contact to a customer relationship management (CRM) platform or working the contact from your phone? Yes, your phone! During my speaking career, I have met so many agents who have signed up for a CRM with all good intentions, but barely use it. (I wish I had a penny for every Customer Relationship Management program sold to REALTORS over the past 20 years, and a nickel for each one not being used today.) You pay for a CRM program or use your phone's contacts, which is free—which makes the most sense to use? Yes, your phone! Before we move forward, let's clean up the contacts on your phone. Go to your text messaging app and scroll down looking for phone numbers without names. Find any, hit the button and add a new contact if you know who it is. Next go to your phone app and recent calls and do the same thing. If you're not sure about a contact, make a mental note and try to add to either an existing contact or save as new. Next, it's time to visit your email. Great thing about our email programs—if you tap on the email address, you have the choice of creating a new contact or adding to an existing contact. Have any pieces of paper or business cards laying around? Enter them. Now, you need to go to your contacts on your phone and do some housekeeping. Review to see if you have an email and phone number for each contact. Many of your contacts have left your life for many reasons—it doesn't hurt to leave them in your contacts, but I am sure there are some you can delete. Remember, we don't give rewards for the most contacts! After you finish what I listed above, let's convert your contacts app into your free CRM. For years, I have been running around the country and writing about my F.O.R.D contact management system, so let's put it to work. First let me explain the F.O.R.D. system. It's so simple: F – Family, names of spouse, siblings, grandkids, family pet(s) O – Organizations, church, civic groups, social clubs R – Recreation, golf, bowling, going to the gym, sailing, camping D – Dreams, retire to a tropical island, cruise the world Imagine having a few of these facts on contacts you want to advance from lead to prospect to friend to closing to commission. Call them ice breakers or anything you want, but when you drop any of the F.O.R.D. facts, the contact will be impressed you care enough to know that information. It gets better—if you hit the search feature and put in a name of a spouse or anything listed on F.O.R.D., it finds the contact. Following the instructions from article one on Text Replacement, add F.O.R.D. as a phrase with the shortcut ford. Go to any contact, and under Notes, type ford, then click on F.O.R.D. Using the return button on your keyboard, move each letter to a new line. Now you have a place to record and add information about the contact. We have more that comes up later about adding information about a contact. Check out my article posted earlier about the F.O.R.D. system to learn more. We have a long way to go in this series. Each step builds on skills we are covering in detail. Not to worry—I would not tell you that you can run your business with a smartphone without discussing much more. Our next subject is your phone's calendar, for which you will need to have your contacts cleaned up and mastered Text Replacement. I plan on covering email marketing and drip campaigns, social networking, information and document storage, video conferencing, and camera—which will include photos and scanners—and much more. This was the second technique article on running your real estate business business with a smartphone! My first topic was Text Replacement; if you missed it, please go back and read it now. Dick Betts is a national speaker, trainer and consultant. Learn more at www.DickBetts.com.

The 6 Trends We're Seeing in Top Real Estate CRMs
The following is an excerpt from RE Technology's latest Success Guide: CRM is a constantly evolving category of technology for real estate. Vendors in this category regularly introduce new functionality to improve the breadth of services that agents or brokers can accomplish. Here are a number of new functions and trends that we see emerging across the real estate CRM landscape.

What Makes a Great CRM?
The following is an excerpt from RE Technology's latest Success Guide: When looking for a CRM for the first time, we recommend developing a checklist of features and a ranking system for each of those features. Try this criterion: Feature Importance to Me Ease of Use Here's a brief walkthrough of how you might rank a feature.

Success Story: San Diego Team Triples Their Transactions with Software Switch
We're back with the second entry in our "Success Story" series. This week: Scaling your business with the help of the right technology. The "right technology" is what made the difference for Kyle Whissel and his team. One year after changing software, the team nearly tripled their number of closed transactions. What caused the need for the tech change, and which platform did the Whissel Realty Group switch to? Read on to find out!

Success Story: Exploring How Agents Choose Real Estate Technology
Selecting a new real estate technology product can be intimidating. In addition to a dizzying array of apps and platforms to choose from, agents and brokers have to evaluate if a product has the features they need, if it fits their budget, if it can adapt easily to their workflow, among other criteria. Helping real estate pros find the right technology for their business is our mission here at RE Technology. It's why we created our Product and Company Directories, and why we publish helpful, educational content every weekday. Today, we're introducing a new weekly feature to further help our readers decide if a technology product is right for them. "Success Story" highlights the real-life stories of agents and brokers who found the technology that fits their business. Each week, we'll explore how and why they made their decision, and how the tech they chose transformed their business. Our series kicks off with a deep, multi-week look into BoomTown, a CRM and marketing automation platform, through the eyes of its real-life customers. Want to see how BoomTown works for yourself? Check out the product tour here. Introducing Brandon Prewitt Our first Success Story starts with an age-old problem in real estate tech: software that's feature-dense, but difficult to use. In 2011, Columbus, Ohio-based Realtor Brandon Prewitt was searching for a real estate technology platform that would help him scale his business and manage his rapidly growing database of leads. He eventually settled on Commissions, INC. (CINC) because it fit his budget and had a lot of "bells and whistles" that he was excited to try. But Brandon only ended up using about 10% of the system's features because the user interface was clunky and a struggle to use. CINC's lackluster support only compounded the problem—there was nowhere for Brandon to learn how to use the system even though he wanted to. "With Commissions INC., support was really lacking. When I signed on with them, there was no onboarding. There was no, 'Here's what you do to be successful using our system.' It was, 'Here's your username. Here's your password. Good luck,'" says Brandon. Making the Switch to a New Platform Frustrated by the user experience and lack of support, Brandon sought out another technology platform. He eventually decided on BoomTown. Why? "It comes down to simplicity," says Brandon. "BoomTown is easier to navigate, and it's just all around more user-friendly. At the end of the day, all of those buttons that CINC had were just noise." Here's a look at the specific features of BoomTown that changed the game for Brandon: Advanced Lead Filters Brandon needed a way to categorize his leads, not just get them all into one spot. For a busy agent, ease of use is important. Brandon wanted to sort through leads by simply clicking a button and seeing which leads are 3-6 months out from buying a home or 6+ months out. "I don't need to have all of these complicated algorithms or labeling mechanisms to be able to filter down all this information," says Brandon. "I just want to click a button and see all those people. That's it." BoomTown made this possible. Brandon finally had a system that could turn his 4,000+ leads into workable lists. In addition, BoomTown's expert support staff and user-friendly platform meant that Brandon had a technology partner that would help him drive the success of his business. Mobile App As an agent who's always on the go, Brandon finds that BoomTown's Now Mobile App is an invaluable tool. "I like to be able to just see who's on there. Who's on the site? Who do I need to call? What are my to-dos for the day? I appreciate the simplicity. It's not just a ton of information in your face. It's just: call, email, or leave a note on their profile." Success Achieved: The Results of Switching Platforms Ease-of-use is one thing, but how did switching platforms actually improve Brandon's business? Well, since signing up with BoomTown, Brandon has: Increased his follow-up with leads Increased his lead conversions Stayed on top of conversations with leads that may have previously fallen through the cracks Regular phone calls with a BoomTown success manager have kept Brandon focused on his business goals. During his onboarding, the "bulk import" of his 4,000+ lead database was naturally a stressful day. "But I knew I had someone, a live person, my own specialist that I could call and talk to. We were in it together." Want to see which BoomTown product is right for you? Compare packages.

How Kyle Whissel became the #1 Team in San Diego
Kyle Whissel, with The Whissel Realty Group, is doing something right. Actually, he's doing a lot of things right. His business, The Whissel Realty Group, has been ranked the #1 team in San Diego and #76 team in the country! So what is the secret sauce behind this success? Step 1: invest in real estate technology that functions as a partner in your success. For Kyle Whissel, BoomTown is the only choice. "We initially got BoomTown in 2012. That first year that we implemented BoomTown, we went from 82 to 242 transactions... so that was a huge quantum leap for us!" A System that's Scalable The most successful businesses are built from a model that is (A) repeatable and (B) scalable. When Kyle's team began to see more and more listings, they knew that they had to take advantage of those listings to generate leads. But without a technology system in place that could support the level of transactions they were hoping to reach, they were leaving money on the table. "We needed to leverage those listings to get more leads. And then when we had more leads, we needed more people. The system we were on previously was not built to scale that up… so we went to BoomTown." With BoomTown, Whissel Realty Group was able to: Manage a large database of leads Generate a healthy pipeline of new leads Manage follow-up and long-term lead nurture Hold agents accountable and track performance "When you take a business that's on the right track, but when you actually implement systems in place that help you manage all of that, that's what takes you to the next level." The Best of the Best in Technology Think about your favorite car. Or the toothpaste brand you use. Those names (Mercedes, Ford, Crest, Colgate), they evoke a sense of familiarity and trust because they've been around for decades. BoomTown has been powering real estate professionals for over 10 years. With its beginnings in the Great Recession in 2008, BoomTown's technology and people have proven that they can adapt, grow, and continue to drive success for real estate teams. (And we're not slowing down!) For Kyle, it's all about working with a leader in technology. He doesn't have time for a platform that is playing "catch up" and working out the kinks. He trusts the company that powers 40% of the REAL Trends top 250 teams. "You can't catch up to what BoomTown has done in 10+ years. They are innovating at a really fast pace at BoomTown and you don't want to get left in the dust with something that's behind the times, because it's probably never going to catch up." Let's Talk Dollars and Sense Kyle Whissel is great at selling real estate. And he's even better at running a business. He knows that if you want to run a business that is scalable, efficient, and built for long-term success, you need to invest in the right infrastructure and processes. Sometimes that means not cutting corners and using the best possible technology available. "The saying holds true… you get what you pay for. You can get produce from a 99¢ store, but do you?" He compares it to when his team works with a FSBO. They let the seller know that the reason they should work with the Whissel Realty Group is that they're going to put the most money possible in your pocket. It takes more of an investment up front, but at the end of the day what matters is the "money in the pocket" AKA the ROI. Choosing the Right CRM So what should you consider when investing in a real estate technology partner? Your CRM should do the following: Hold Agents Accountable: For brokers, the accountability tools in a CRM can be invaluable. Track agent performance by making sure they're staying on top of lead follow-up and prospecting. Capture More Opportunities: With an organized database of leads (tags and segments), it is easier to keep track of where your leads are in the pipeline. Agents are alerted when follow-ups are needed, so no lead gets left behind. Generate More Leads: With a team of expert digital marketers, your brand is highlighted in the best quality advertisements on Google and Facebook, generating high-quality leads. Reduce Busy Work: One of the most important benefits of a CRM is that it can automate busy work, like emailing and texting new prospects. This frees up time for agents to expand their sphere, spend more quality time with clients, or even just take a vacation. Be Smarter with Prospecting: At BoomTown, we like to encourage "Smart Prospecting." This means organizing your lead database into workable lists. You're not just blindly scrolling through a Rolodex of numbers; you're working with targeted leads and you know what they want. Sync with Other Tools: There is no "one size fits all" tool in real estate. The best CRM will offer different packages that can better fit your needs, but even then, there are other tools outside of the CRM that you'll likely still want to use. This is why it's important to have a CRM that integrates with other technology. BoomTown seamlessly integrates with companies like dotloop (transaction management software). Improve Agent Experience: At the end of the day, real estate is all about providing an excellent customer experience. A good CRM will assist agents in providing this experience, but will go even further and improve the agent experience as well. A CRM should be intuitive, easy and enjoyable to use. And the provider should include excellent training as well as customer support. To view the original article, visit the BoomTown blog.

Friday Freebie: Holiday Weekend Freedom Edition
A Friday Freebie that talks about freedom? That's a lot of "free" mentions--and for good reason. Not only is this week's Friday Freebie free to try--as in no cost, gratis--its primary benefit is to free up your time so that you can earn more money and convert more leads. Ready to find out more? Read on to unveil this week's offer.

Got a CRM? If So, You Need a F.O.R.D.
Leads turn into Prospects turn into Clients turn into Closings turn into Commissions Sounds so simple when you look at sales with the above formula, but we all know it's really not that simple! Many things have to happen from the time you get that lead until you finally get the commission. I believe it's not contact relationship management, but rather relationship marketing.

7 Do's and Dont's of Handling Client Relationships
Let's start with the acronym "CRM." Do you define it has "Contact Relationship Management" or "Customer Relationship Management"? Here's what I call it: "Customer Relationship Marketing." Having a list of names with phone numbers and email addresses is not a CRM, it's a phone book—and in many cases, an outdated phone book. If you want to move from Contact Relationship Management to Customer Relationship Marketing, you need to both understand and practice the four Cs and the three Fs.

Leveraging Insights to Drive Higher Lead Conversions
No lead left behind! Stop missing out on opportunities to convert. First things first--a real estate lead isn't complicated. It's simply the name and contact information for someone who is potentially a future client. A single email address can be a lead, a phone number, even someone who registers as Mickey Mouse (or something much more offensive). Regardless of fake names, all leads that have a legitimate way to contact them are viable. Even the address-only ones. Even the bogus names. Even the ones that say "no." In order to convert these fledgling prospects, you've got to have the right process in place to successfully nurture them, and within that process, you've got to know the right information to convert them into clients.

5 Habits that Make You a Less Productive Agent
Productivity is a popular subject these days and rightfully so! We fight more distractions in our work day than any cohort of working adults before us. Are you maximizing your productivity as a real estate agent? Or, rather, is it a constant battle for you to work smart and complete your tasks each day? A productive day may help you sleep better at night, compared to an unproductive day, which can also be frustrating. Here is a list of five habits that interfere with productivity, along with some suggestions on how you can turn them around to be a more productive agent.

The Secret to Success with Prospects Pro
Wednesday, March 27, 2019 at 10:00 AM PDT Get a full head start! In addition to all of the basic CRM functionalities, the Pro subscription offers a wide array of management, communication and development tools that will enable you to go beyond your objectives. These tools have been developed in collaboration with real estate brokers intent on providing impeccable service to an ever-demanding clientele. Which Prospects CRM features will be covered: Match CMA Facebook Publishing Tool Hotsheet Prospecting tools Register now!

Getting New Business from Old Clients
We spend so much time talking about the importance of repeat business and referral business, but the reality is that MOST agents have still not come up with the right way to keep in touch naturally over the long-term. The result? Will your clients hire you the next time you buy or sell your home? Are you sure? After closing, 70 percent of sellers say they would "definitely" use their agent again — but only 25 percent of repeat buyers and sellers actually do. We aren't here to lecture you. Creating one client for life relationship is tricky enough, and aiming to keep in close touch with every client you've ever had is nearly impossible. Still, there are a few low key ways to ensure that you don't break a bond that could end up paying off — both in business and in friendship — after you walk away from the closing table. Below are four tactics you can employ to create more long-term, business-boosting client relationships. 1. Rank your clients You ask for reviews and testimonials after you close, but do you ever bother to ask yourself how much YOU liked working with a client? If you want to focus on creating "clients for life," then the first step is to wean out the clients who you've loved to work with. Not only will you be excited to keep in touch with them over the years, these people are also more likely to recommend other like-minded friends and family members to you in the future. Consider adding a "Client Rapport" ranking to your CRM. After each closing, rank the client from 1-5. Anyone who scores at a 4 or 5 should be who you focus on as you create your "Client for Life" relationships. 2. Offer special treatment You can continue to send the same refrigerator magnet to every person in your sphere but think about upping the ante for the "4 and 5-ranked" contacts in your database. Consider hosting a VIP wine and cheese event for past clients who love to mix and mingle, send young families a coupon to the local Six Flags, offer up a gift certificate to your past buyer's new favorite neighborhood restaurant on the one-year anniversary of their home purchase. By showing you care about them, remember their interests and are willing to spend money or time on them after the sale, you'll be reinforcing a bond that can continue to grow even as you move further and further away from their initial transaction. 3. Watch for social cues and keep in touch with personal outreach Many (and maybe even most) clients hire you as they are on the cusp of major life changes. Whether they are prepping to expand their family, downsizing after the kids move away or simply shifting to a neighborhood that better suits their long-term needs, the reason for their move can act as the primary way you keep in touch for the first few years after the sale. Comment on their baby announcement on Facebook (or better yet, drop by with a branded swaddle blanket or onesie after they have settled into parenthood). Call to ask how their kids are enjoying the teachers in their new school. If you see that a coffee shop has opened up in their new condo building, ask if they would like to meet up for a cup of joe, then ask how they're settling into their new neighborhood. As the years go by and you get to know more about them than just their reason for moving, you can settle into a more natural conversation groove. But for the first few months or years after you work with them, don't worry about focusing on the "safest" conversation topic around — their reason for moving (and hiring you) and how that decision is working out. 4. Give them an easy way to review and refer you Many agents are afraid to ask for referrals directly because it can feel awkward and aggressive if not done in the right way. And while most have a way to generate testimonials or reviews, a lot of the platforms that promise to "syndicate" these reviews are clunky; they require an ironclad login and clients may feel turned off having to sign up for a site they never plan to use again. In the age of cybersecurity threats, not many people want to open up new accounts that require their email and other contact information. When it comes to asking for reviews and referrals, it can be helpful for agents to ask for client feedback that: Doesn't require a login Can be syndicated across the web Can be used to generate a review, testimonial or one-to-one referral Is sent on behalf of the agent, but doesn't come directly from the agent's email address Agents who need such a service can peek at Reach150, a client feedback and referral management system that automates your requests for referrals and reviews and can turn your positive testimonials into marketing content. To view the original article, visit the SmartZip blog.

8 Steps to Reconnecting with Real Estate Clients
It's interesting to look at how we've evolved and grown through our lives, to see how our priorities shift, our friend groups expand, how geography separates us. It can almost feel impossible to keep in touch with those we've met along our journey. Despite the incredible advancements in technology making it easy to connect with people, we still let ourselves feel so disconnected. "Let's keep in touch" has unfortunately become a throwaway comment we say to one another as a conclusion to a conversation – but how often do we actually follow through? Getting caught up in the moment with an old colleague or client can leave us with genuine feelings of wanting to keep in touch, but the rigours of everyday life can override those priorities and put it on the backburner.

Don't Let Your Contacts Fall Through the Cracks
At Contactually, we work with thousands of real estate agents. We know it takes multiple touch-points to convert a lead, to reach a current client, and to stay connected to your sphere. Leads and clients go cold for many reasons: they might have found another agent, decided not to sell/buy, were only available at times that didn't fit with your schedule — or maybe you simply waited too long to get back to them! Don't let your contacts fall through the cracks. Stay top of mind by setting follow-up reminders and sending personalized, automated campaigns to keep in touch.

4 Surefire Ways Your CRM Will Help You Grow Your Business
A customer relationship management system (CRM) is a critical tool for any real estate agent. Yet, so many agents both new and experienced lack a system to keep a detailed record of their customers and business efforts. A CRM is more than an address book. The information you collect from your transactions will help you run a more efficient and profitable business. If you are not using a CRM, or if you are not using your CRM to its full potential, here are four surefire ways your CRM will help you grow your business:

The Most Important Part of Your CRM
Do you remember the homebuyer who contacted you six months ago? Do you remember what you talked about and what kind of properties he/she was interested in? ...can't remember? Don't worry, you're not alone! It's not easy remembering small details from days/weeks/months in the past. But if you want to be successful in real estate, remembering little details about your leads can make all the difference. The average buyer cycle is about 10 weeks. Most online leads take even longer than that, so you've got months (possibly even years) of conversations that you need to remember in order to keep your leads coming back to you. This is why your lead profile is the most important part of your CRM.

How to Choose the Best Real Estate CRM
If you're shopping for a CRM based on features and price, stop. People are like moths attracted to light. We love shiny new features, and we love a good deal. Is that healthy for your business? No. Definitely not. Hell no. It's how you get stuck with a real estate CRM containing bloated features. Ones you're paying for, but not using. It's how you frustrate team members. Agents don't need dashboards if they're not generating leads. Choosing the best real estate CRM starts with four main categories. These should be the checkboxes you cross off as you shop for a CRM.

Keeping Your Sphere of Influence Warm When the Real Estate Market Cools
As certain as geese flying south for the winter, you can depend on the real estate market slowing down after a busy spring and summer. Kids go back to school, the weather cools, and before you know it, the holidays arrive; buying or selling isn't on the forefront of most people's minds. So what can you do as a real estate professional during the slow season to make sure you stay top of mind to your leads and prospects for when things really pick up again in the spring? Here are a few tips to ensure that your sphere of influence does not freeze this winter.

Filling Your Pipeline: Origination vs. Order Taking
Many sales agents have a love/hate relationship with their database. Often it is because they have never mastered the art of origination. They are still managing their pipeline like they are taking short cook orders at a diner, just processing the customers that are in front of them. Even experienced pros can struggle with walking the fine line between generating business and managing the existing business that they have. Where can one find a healthy balance? The proof is in learning how to originate a steady stream of customers to network with. Defining Origination Origination at its core is creating new relationships for your business. It can come in two forms: building new relationships with people that already have a connection with you but have never used your services, or creating entirely new relationships. People Who Know You But Have Never Used Your Services If there are individuals in your Sphere of Influence (SOI) that you have not worked with yet, there are three things to consider. Are you sure they know you are licensed and where you work? If they are working with a different agent, do you know why? Have you offered them anything of value? You would be surprised how many family members, friends, and former coworkers are confused about how licensing, commission, and referrals work. They might think you only work with buyers, sellers, or in a specific area. They may also think you are too busy to help them, based on what your narrative is in your marketing. If you want your SOI to take you seriously, you need to show them that you are an educated agent with the skill set to help them. People Who Have No Idea Who You Are Take a moment and think about how busy your daily life is. How many emails, texts, phone calls, letters, flyers, memos, and commercials do you think you absorb during your day? In September of 2017, The Business Journal reported that the average American could be subjected to up to 4,000 advertisements a day. Let that sink in. Remember that one postcard you sent out a few months ago and never received any leads from? The postcard did not fail, but the way you interacted with the prospect did. If your marketing systems have failed in the past, you need to consider three things: How are you conversion/follow-up skills? Does your audience know that you are trying to reach them? When they are contacting you, are they contacting you from a specific call to action? Advertising is becoming more challenging every day. Consumers do not wish to be bothered with countless flyers and advertisements. Time is a priceless commodity. If they identify your message as something that WASTES their time, instead of saving it, your message will fail. We live in an instant gratification culture. People want their goods quickly, effortlessly, and to be able to review and hold the seller/service provider accountable for their personal experience. Can you offer a smooth and efficient transaction? The Two Biggest Mistakes Agents Make with Origination Assumption and vanity. Do you assume that everyone knows how great or professional you are? Is your message one of vanity? And the worst combination of these two mistakes: Do you believe because someone hired you once, that they will hire you again? Keep these errors top of mind when you are building any part of your business plan that deals with customer interaction. Wrapping Up If you have decided to make a full-time career in real estate, origination tasks will need to be part of your schedule every day. Your pipeline (stream of business) will not remain full if origination is not a primary focus. Origination is an art form. You will need to study, practice, fail and then start the cycle over again to figure out what works. Keep working, keep evolving, stop being a short order cook, and become a master at building relationships for the long term. To view the original article, visit the Realtor.com Hub.

10 Questions to Ask About Real Estate CRMs
So you think it is time to invest in a real estate CRM for your business, but you aren't sure what exactly to look for. It can be an intimidating process, but if you ask these 10 simple questions of each product you look at, you'll get the answers you need to make your choice. Remember that a real estate CRM should be able to help you in every facet of your business, and these questions address them all.

4 Strategies for Building Your Real Estate Database
As a real estate agent, there are a lot of things you "should" do that you hear over and over again. You should keep in touch with past clients. You should have a responsive website. You should up your database. But that isn't very helpful if no one is telling you how or why. So we're going to help you with that last one.

5 Agent Best Practices to Dust Off Your Sphere this Spring
Spring's here – dust off your sphere! Your sphere of influence (SOI) is more than just a catalog of people you've met. It's the lifeblood of your business—where everything from referrals to listing opportunities and buyer leads can come from. You need to keep your sphere engaged in order to realize its true benefits. Agents are taught to constantly focus on growing their sphere, but the size of your SOI alone does not necessarily equate to success. To ensure your sphere is the gift that keeps on giving, try these tips to give your SOI a shot in the arm.