Now more than ever, it is the time to start thinking about how you can digitally optimize your Commercial Real Estate brokerage. Regardless of the size of your organization, or even if you work as an individual, it is always worth utilizing the latest technology tools to your advantage. Otherwise, your competition will get a head-start on you that you may not be able to recover from. Take a look at essential steps to take in order to fully optimize your brokerage for the new digital era.
Redevelop Your Website For Efficiency
Any digital optimization should begin with a website. Your website represents you, and therefore you should make the most use out of it. Ensure that it represents your brand in the best manner possible. In 2020, a basic design no longer cuts it. You must grab the attention of the visitor so that they stay on your website. You need a modern and sleek design that is easy to navigate for the user. Contact information should be easy to locate on all parts of the website, and you should include a call-to-action on all blog posts. The aspect that will set you apart from your competitors will be a clear brand message that is consistent through the website. Once your website is complete, you can focus on automating your sales funnels through the use of CRMs that provide the management of many different marketing tools.
CRMs To Keep You Organized
Customer relationship management tools such as Follow Up Boss are also changing the nature of how you interact with prospects. Aspects of lead generation can be automated, and you are able to reach out to more prospects. Live chatbots and email responders make it easier to respond to clients 24/7 and mean you need to spend less time on support. Data analytics tools make it far easier to see the bigger picture and make key decisions quickly. Overall, any digital optimization should make full use of the variety of automation options that currently exist and those that continue to be developed. The most successful brokerages in the long-term will be those that have optimized themselves early and set themselves up for sustained growth in the ever-changing market.
The next step to making the most out of this data is through developing an efficient sales funnel. MTIP Systems offers you the chance to develop an easy to use lead generation system. This funnel brings you the ideal clients through simple to use marketing tools and a CRM that allows you to keep track of metrics. There are KPIs and visual analytics that allow you to clearly see how well a campaign is doing, and you can expect a higher ROI in comparison to more traditional methods of marketing.
Automation Nation: Automate Simple Tasks
Time is money, and every second you spend on a non-essential task is a second that is taken away from bringing in new business. “Research indicates that the majority of CRE brokerages spend 4-5 hours processing each new transaction”. (Biproxi) Luckily, it is now easier than ever to automate these low-priority tasks and save up a lot of time in the process. CRE is facing an automation revolution that has the potential to cause a permanent shift throughout the industry. Instead of needing a full-time admin team at your site, you are now able to delegate responsibilities far more efficiently. Applications such as Calendly keep you organized so that meetings can be set with ease. There are also various apps and marketing tools that allow for easy tracking of data.
Moreover, many tools are now synced with each other, which means you don’t need to waste time jumping from one to another. You can take advantage of accounting software to manage all invoices through the cloud. This can save you plenty of time and let you focus on what really matters. CRMs like the one found at 1PropertyMarket, allows you to utilize automation to make the networking and client acquisition processes far smoother than you can accomplish on your own. Imagine enough backend work being done that amounts to having multiple employees, but it is one solutions systems instead. You can follow up and close deals with ease whilst being able to keep an eye on everything. This leaves you time to figure out the important things and to work on expanding your business.
Digging into each one further below, email marketing and social media marketing are some of the tasks that can be automated and set up to help you nurture prospects. In addition, you can also set up creative SMS (text messaging) and Voice Drops (ringless voicemails) in order to guide potential leads further down your sales funnel. These types of nurturing techniques can help you grow, scale, and automate your Commercial Real Estate business.
Implement And Optimize Content Strategies
In the online world content is king and it will always be that way since the content is the means of interaction. Once you identify your target demographic, you can begin to tailor content that meets their needs, and also formulate content strategies based upon keywords and phrases that they are searching for. Every brokerage needs a serious content strategy in place that is aligned with a precise content strategy. It is vital to ensure that the on-page elements are taken care of, which means you need a fast mobile-friendly website that is fully optimized. Many people are searching for real estate on their smartphones and tablets, which means you must give them the best experience regardless of which device they use to access your website.
Once this is taken care of, you can begin to make blog posts, infographics, and push out other forms of visual content. You need to engage your audience, who are becoming savvier. To stand out, you need to make sure that your content is tailor-made to grab the attention of your audience, but also to be a useful guide to them. Establishing yourself as an authority means you can convert more of your leads into sales.
Steady Connections: Drip Campaign
Email, SMS, and RVM marketing is a tried and trusted method that is still more effective than ever. Drip campaigns can bring through excellent results, and they form an integral aspect of any sales funnel. You can nurture your leads through targeted email marketing that will ensure your brand remains in the mind of both buyers and sellers. Building and segmenting a database will be key to fueling your marketing campaigns. There is plenty of software available that will allow you to manage these leads with ease.
Social Media Presence
In 2020, you must have a presence on social media; otherwise, you may as well be invisible. It is vital to have accounts set-up on the main platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Linkedin. Your target demographic should be able to contact you with ease, and you should post relevant content on these platforms. Inbound marketing can be done with ease by building your brand on these websites and consistently posting relevant and engaging content. There are over a billion active users, which means you really can’t afford to miss out. Once you have established a social media presence, you can begin to test the waters with some paid marketing.
Closing Thoughts
Technology is making our lives easier than ever, and it is vital to make the best use of the tools available at our disposal. You will now have a much clearer understanding of some of the key steps that will allow you to automate and optimize your CRE brokerage to boost your ROI and make your organization far more future-proof and sustainable. You may not see results immediately, but you will thank yourself in a few years for making these changes now rather than leaving them for later.