Digital marketing has undeniably changed the way real estate agents have done business over the years, but there’s one thing that remains constant – referrals are still one of the best ways for real estate agents to boost sales. In one study, 88% of buyers said they would use their agent again or recommend them to others.
Even with all of the digital information and options we have at our fingertips these days, we still look to those we trust for referrals and recommendations. In fact, 84% of consumers say that they almost always trust referrals or recommendations from their friends or family when it comes to products and businesses.
A real estate CRM not only helps you get more referrals (you can read more on that in this post) but it also helps you track referrals more effectively, increasing your odds of converting them to clients – whether it’s right away or down the road. What you do with your referrals, specifically how you manage and keep in touch with them, can make a significant impact on your business.
Within six months of starting to use the IXACT Contact CRM, Faith Floyd from God’s Property Realty reconnected with 11 past clients, received three new referrals, and made over $20k worth of commission! That’s a true testament to the power of a CRM for growing a real estate business.
Plus, with a real estate CRM, you’ll always know who to thank when your referral becomes a client. When the time comes to say thank you, read this post for some great client gift ideas.
Here’s how a real estate CRM helps you track and convert referrals.
Create contact profile
What’s the first step to take when you receive a referral from a past client? When you have a CRM, your first step is to create a new contact in the system. Add their name, contact information, who referred them and any other relevant background information you’ve received.
As your relationship with your referrals grow, so does their contact profile in your CRM. With the IXACT Contact CRM, you can add birthdays, family members, properties, mortgage details, and any other relevant information you learn about your new contacts as you get to know them. That way, if you’re reconnecting after some time has passed, you can always refer to their contact profile to refresh your memory first.
Log activity
Real estate is a busy business and losing track of contacts and referrals is inevitable without a system to keep you organized and on the ball. Whether you reach out to your new referral by email or phone (or both), it’s important to note your outreach activity in a central system that you can access and update anywhere, anytime via your laptop, phone or tablet. A CRM with a mobile app lets you log activity in real-time, so that you’ll always know exactly when and how you and your referral made contact as well as what you spoke about.
Keep in touch regularly
Even if a referral isn’t ready to buy or sell right away, you still want to keep in touch so that you’re top-of-mind when they are ready. There are a few different ways a real estate CRM can help you keep in touch.
Monthly email newsletter
A monthly email newsletter full of interesting and relevant real estate articles is a great way to stay in touch with referrals (and clients). If you don’t enjoy writing, you’ll he happy to know that there’s an easy way to get a professional, 100% mobile-optimized email newsletter with your branding on it out to your contacts every single month – you don’t have to write a single word. Just click a few buttons in your CRM, and your e-newsletter is automatically delivered to your contacts monthly. You can literally “set it and forget it!”
Drip Email Campaigns
Drip email campaign. What is that? Let’s start there. Here’s a simple definition from TrackMaven that sums it up well:
A drip campaign is a method used in direct marketing to acquire customers through lead nurture programs. It involves sending marketing information to prospects repeatedly over longer periods of time in order to nurture prospects or leads through the marketing funnel.
By nurturing your referrals with real estate email marketing, you build your brand and credibility in their mind. As a result, you’ll be the agent that they reach out to when they’re ready to buy or sell.
Drip campaigns are commonly used by many companies in many industries, including real estate. Thanks to technology, running a successful drip campaign doesn’t require marketing or technical expertise.
When you’re using a real estate CRM to keep track of your referrals, clients and contacts, it makes complete sense that you would be able to deliver automated Drip Real Estate Email Marketing Campaigns to them using the same system.
At IXACT Contact, we make drip email campaigns easy with a library of over 125 strategically written emails and letters to help you deliver the right message to the right audience.
When it comes to nurturing your referrals, you can either add them to a pre-built real estate drip campaign or customize a program based on your referral’s specific needs and interests. You can even create your own drip email campaign from scratch if you’re feeling adventurous!
When you’re evaluating a real estate CRM, look for one that has a contact-specific keep in touch dashboard. This is a great feature that can help you manage all your keep in touch activities and communications in one consolidated place.
Get the right real estate CRM working for you and start converting more referrals to clients!
Start your FREE 5 week free trial of IXACT Contact now.
