Get More Leads: Marketing Automation for Real Estate

Most real estate agents spend a lot of time marketing their business. However, many agents are not taking advantage of marketing automation tools that can help them save time and increase their leads.

Marketing automation for real estate is the process of using software to automate marketing tasks such as email marketing, social media marketing, and lead nurturing.

With the help of the right real estate marketing software, you can get back hours in your day while spending more time working in your business instead of working on your business. This article will discuss what real estate marketing you can automate and what expert real estate marketers use in their real estate business.

What is Real Estate Marketing Automation?

You know marketing is key to your success if you’re a real estate agent. But what if you could automate many of your marketing tasks? That’s where marketing automation comes in.

Marketing automation is not a new concept. But it has gained traction within the past couple of years. The first marketing automation software was created in the early 1990s, and it was used to automate email marketing tasks. In the early days of marketing automation, most tools were used to automate email marketing tasks such as sending automated emails, creating email lists, and tracking email opens and clicks.

In 2022, marketing automation tools have come a long way. They can automate various marketing tasks, including social media marketing, lead nurturing, and even sales tasks such as generating quotes and proposals.

Why Should Real Estate Agents Use Marketing Automation?

There are many reasons why real estate agents should be using marketing automation in their real estate business. The most obvious benefit is that it can save you time. If you’re manually doing tasks such as creating social media posts or sending emails, marketing automation can help you automate those tasks so you can focus on other things.

Another benefit of marketing automation is that it can help you increase your leads. Automating your marketing tasks can free up time to focus on real estate lead generation. And by using marketing automation tools to nurture your leads, you can turn more leads into customers.

The key benefits of marketing automation include:

Increased Leads

Automating your marketing can help you generate more leads. You can create more leads through your social media channels, relevant posts, marketing messages, and landing pages. You will be able to automatically send personalized voicemails, set up intelligent website forms, and carry out other marketing efforts.

More Effective Marketing Campaigns

Real estate marketing automation can help you create and track more effective marketing campaigns. You can create marketing campaigns that target specific audiences and measure their effectiveness.

Improved Customer Relationships

When you utilize the concept of real estate marketing automation, you will be top-of-mind to all potential buyers, sellers, and past clients. Even though you’ve set many tasks on auto-pilot, your automation will ensure that your contacts will get adequate attention from you at all times.

More Time for Agents

Real estate marketing automation will save you time to focus on other aspects of your business. It isn’t mandatory to work 24/7 as a real estate agent. Many top real estate agents believe that to be the best, you need to work harder, and that’s simply not true. Work smarter, not harder. Your real estate marketing strategy needs to include automation.

Types of Real Estate Marketing Automation Tools

Various marketing automation software options are available, each with its own set of features. The most common types of marketing automation software are:

Email Marketing Automation

Email marketing automation software helps you create and send automated real estate marketing emails. It can also help you track the success of your marketing campaigns and optimize your email marketing strategies.

You can also set up a series of emails to follow up with potential leads and past clients. A big part of lead management is keeping in touch with your buyer and seller leads.

Some email drip campaigns can be:

• Welcoming new clients and onboarding emails
• Monthly newsletters
• Holiday greetings
• Database reactivation (winning back past clients)
• Follow-up emails to new leads

Social Media Marketing Automation

An excellent automation tool will help you automate your social media marketing tasks. It can help you schedule and publish content, track the success of your campaigns, and find new leads. The real estate industry is rife with facts and statistics – use them for social media content!

Content is king when it comes to all social media platforms, and this also applies to real estate. How often should real estate agents post? You’ll find different answers depending on what influencer is trending that week, but generally:

• Instagram – Bare minimum: once a week. Better: 3 times a week. Optimal: once or twice a day.
• LinkedIn – Bare minimum: once a week. Better: 3 times a week. Optimal: once per day in the morning.
• YouTube – Bare minimum: once per month. Better: twice per month. Optimal: once per week.
• Facebook – Bare minimum: once a week. Better: 3 times a week. Optimal: once or twice a day.
• TikTok – Bare minimum: once per day. Better: 2 times per day. Optimal: 4 times per day.

Bottom line: creating content can take a lot of time. A great real estate marketing automation tool will help you schedule your posts in batches and allow you or your marketing team to post on each of your networks. Social media alone is where marketing automation for real estate can come in handy.

Lead Nurturing Automation

An optimal real estate CRM will allow you to nurture your leads with automated marketing emails. It can also help you track the success of your real estate marketing campaigns and optimize your lead nurturing strategies.

Nurturing leads is an essential part of marketing for any business, and real estate is no exception.

Lead nurturing is providing potential and past customers with valuable information that will help them make a buying decision. It can include a variety of real estate marketing activities, such as:

• Sending educational emails about real estate
• Providing helpful resources like a free eBook
• Offering exclusive discounts or performance guarantees
• Setting up automatic follow-up emails

Real estate marketing automation can help you automate your lead nurturing campaigns. This can save you a lot of time and help you nurture your leads more effectively.

How to Get Started with Real Estate Marketing Automation

Automating real estate marketing is ideal for newer real estate agents and tenured agents who’ve been in the business for a while. By automating marketing tasks, you’ll be able to free up your time to focus on other areas of your business.

Setting Up Your Real Estate Marketing Automation

Here are some opportunities and low-hanging fruit you can start implementing today.

Missed Call Text Back

Picture this scenario: you’re at a listing presentation trying to win over a $2M listing, and you get a call right in the middle of your presentation. Do you answer it? Of course not!

Setting up an autoresponder on your phone will allow the caller to receive an automated text like, “Looks like I missed your call; how can I help?” Response time is crucial in today’s fast-paced world. Studies have shown that the optimal lead response time is 5 minutes or less.

Set Up Tasks and Reminders

There are probably a million items on your to-do list. Did you call Jane Buyer back after yesterday’s showing? Have you updated Joe Seller on his listing? Oh, and don’t forget to respond to the agent who inquired about your upcoming open house.

There’s no shortage of things to remember. Post-its and sticky notes all over your wall are one way. Even having Alexa or Siri remind you may be your go-to setup. However, we feel setting up auto-reminders and tasks on the same platform is ideal. After all, this article is all about real estate marketing automation.

Create Email Drip Campaigns

A drip campaign is just a fancy way to say a series of emails sent at various times. You can create drip campaigns for a variety of instances. Say you’re an agent in the luxury market. You could create a drip campaign that goes out to new leads, past clients, and your sphere of influence.

Each email would be different and pertain to that group, but the idea is that you’re staying top of mind with all your past clients and potential future clients.

Workflows

A workflow is a marketing automation tool that helps you automate repetitive marketing tasks. Workflows can be used to send automatic emails, texts, and even postcards.

You can also use workflows to automate marketing tasks like social media posts and blog email blasts. Workflows included with your real estate marketing automation are a game-changer for agents.

Schedule Your Social Media Efforts

If you’re on various social media platforms, it would be wise to consolidate all your posting into one smart automation tool. Efficient real estate marketers will batch post all their content into one month, freeing up their time and resources to do other tasks.

Creating a social media calendar will help you see what topics will be posted on what platforms. A great CRM will have all the tools you need in one place.

Website Chat Widget

If you have a website or manage landing pages, an absolute must is a chat widget. If a potential buyer is scoping out your listings or homes on the market, they may see one that catches their eye. Wouldn’t it be great if they could have a conversation with you about that home via chat?

A great real estate marketing automation tool will offer this type of technology for real estate agents to leverage.

Tips for Using Marketing Automation Successfully

You’ve read this article and have decided that automating your real estate marketing is the way to go. You want a tool to help you with real estate lead generation, to save you time so you can spend it relaxing with family and friends, and you’re ready to increase your revenue. Fantastic!

Here are some tips for using marketing automation successfully:

1. Decide which tasks you want to automate.

There are many different tasks that marketing automation can help with, but you don’t need to automate everything at once. Start with the tasks that take up the most time or are the most difficult, and then move on from there.

2. Choose the right real estate automation software.

Not all marketing automation platforms are created equal. Do some research and choose the one that best fits your needs. If you’re going after lead management, the tools must be in place to carry those tasks out.

Ready to see what West Gray CRM can do for you? Book a demo here.

3. Set up your marketing automation platform and ensure it works properly.

This step is crucial – if your platform isn’t set up correctly, you won’t be able to take advantage of all the features and benefits it offers. Test it often, especially if you have set up real estate lead generation tools!

4. Start small and gradually increase your use of marketing automation.

Again, you don’t need to automate everything at once. Start with one or two tasks and gradually add more as you get comfortable with the platform.

5. Monitor your results and adjust your marketing automation strategy as needed.

Keep an eye on your metrics and make changes to your strategy if you do not see the desired results.

By following these tips, you’ll be well on your way to successfully using marketing automation in your real estate business.

Final Thoughts

Marketing automation is the perfect process for the real estate industry. A great inbound marketing strategy will increase your leads and, paired with great automation, will help you close more deals.

If you’re not using marketing automation yet, now is the time to start. Implementing even a few of these tasks will free up your time so you can focus on other things, like developing relationships with your target audience.

The bottom line is this: marketing automation works.

The benefits of marketing automation for real estate agents are numerous, but it’s essential to choose the right platform and start small. By gradually increasing your use of marketing automation, you’ll be able to take your real estate business to the next level.

A real estate marketing automation platform like West Gray CRM can help take your real estate business to the next level by automating marketing tasks, providing you with a real estate website, personalized marketing messages that convert, sales funnel capability, and much more.

If you’re ready to see what marketing automation can do for you, book a demo with us today!

crm, marketing automation, real estate