Managing your real estate contacts is the foundation to a successful career as an Agent. When you properly care for your database, you save time and energy
that you can dedicate to other important aspects of your career and even your personal life.
Ultimately, using a real estate CRM will help you to stay more organized and get more out of your workday. If you’re just getting started and are looking for some advice, here are 6 quick tips for real estate contact management, and how a CRM can help you:
1 – Keep everything in one place.
One of the most common things I hear from Agents is that their contact information is all over the place. In the midst of spreadsheets, Gmail, sticky notes and restaurant napkins, can you effectively keep in touch without letting an important prospect fall through the cracks?
A real estate CRM can act as the hub for all your important contact information. You’ll store names, phone numbers, birthdays, and important details about each of your past clients and prospects. With IXACT Contact, you’ll even enjoy unlimited document storage, helping you keep all your important documents in one safe place.
2 – Add a contact every day.
Some of the best advice I’ve heard for Agents is to strive to add one new contact to your database every day. Think of your real estate database as a constantly evolving system. For your business to grow, your database must grow, too.
Wondering where you’ll find these daily contacts to add? Throughout your day and your prospecting there are bound to be people you connect with. They may not be moving right now, but you shared a pleasant conversation. Go ahead and add them to your IXACT Contact database right away. It’s always a good idea to keep in touch; you never know where your next referral will come from.
3 – Automate your keep in touch initiatives.
While some of your tasks do require that you carry them out yourself, there are parts of your day that could be automated. Taking advantage of technology can free up your time so you can dedicate yourself to your other tasks and your personal life.
Automated keep in touch reminders can be generated by your real estate CRM and will notify you when it’s time to touch base with a prospect, or even wish them a happy birthday. Using drip email campaigns will have your contacts regularly receiving relevant emails from you, without you manually typing each message out.
4 – Pay attention to the numbers.
When you’re investing time and effort into your real estate marketing, you want to be able to measure the results. Are people opening and clicking on the email you send? Who exactly is reading your monthly e-Newsletter?
By looking at your email campaign reporting, you’ll gain insight into who is engaged with your messages, who your hot leads are, and which emails earn the best responses. It’s a terrific way to investigate how your marketing messages are being received.
5 – Capture leads automatically.
Quality real estate leads are the bread and butter of our business. But in the midst of hectic days and mental slips, do you ever fear that some of your valuable leads have fallen through the cracks?
Make automatic lead capture a part of your real estate contact management strategy. A good real estate CRM, like IXACT Contact, can capture your leads online and automatically transfer them into your database. You’ll even receive automatic email reminders that let you know every time you receive a new lead. These new leads can be automatically assigned to a drip email campaign and to receive your monthly e-Newsletter. Automating the lead capture process allows you to begin communicating with your valuable leads immediately, and reminders ensure that no lead gets left behind.
6 – Find the balance of power and ease.
For some Agents, the topic of a real estate CRM brings to mind the overwhelming number of options available to today’s real estate professional. I’m a firm believer that the best real estate CRM is the one you’ll actually use, so take advantage of the free trials offered by many leading CRM companies, and give them a try.
Keep in mind that you’re looking for a system that includes the features you need for your business, but is also easy to learn and use. If a CRM is too complicated, you’ll avoid using it, and if its features aren’t comprehensive enough, you’ll be unsatisfied. Look for the balance of power and ease and sign up for a free trial.