One of the major reasons homeowners do not rehire their real estate agent is that they simply cannot remember their agent’s name. A dismal 17 percent of homeowners actually use their agent again, according to a consumer panel at Real Estate Connect San Francisco.
Real estate agents are on the go, busy, and do not have the time to regularly follow up with clients. Delivering relevant, real-time and personalized information to clients is a full-time job in itself. With targeted advertising becoming the norm for advertising across all industries, real estate must adapt as positive client relationships drive success.
Enhancements in mobile technology are making it easier than ever to better target clients and follow up. Mobile is the primary reason Facebook has been able to turn its ad network into a money-printing machine. Real estate agents must get serious about mobile if they want to thrive in the modern market. Specifically, the millennial generation is going to become more prominent over the next decade. Agents need to move beyond email blasts and postcards targeted at their entire audience to targeting the needs of individual consumers. Making information relevant at an intimate level is sure way to maintain relevance among clients.
How do you even know what clients want to hear? What is it going to take so that information you send to them does not go in one ear and out the other? Here are three tips to develop a strategy to deliver relevant, timely and personalized information:
1. Ask clients what they want to hear
There are a plethora of free online survey tools to send clients and gauge topics they want to know. To name a few, agents tell me clients are always asking for a service provider referral, what is selling in the neighborhood, and whether it’s a good time to refinance. These are only a few, but I am confident providing actionable information to your clients is a great way to keep them engaged. Moreover as an agent, you become your clients trusted source for local real estate news and updates.
2. Get serious about analytics
Analytics are the future of real estate marketing and in turn will ultimately save you money. Understanding how your clients are looking at real estate data is critical to improving the entire client-agent experience. This will allow you to understand how your clients behave, translating directly into actionable data for you.
Diving deeper into what communication channels each client prefers will allow you to build a more intimate experience with each of your clients. For example, it does not make much sense to continue to send direct mail to clients who prefer digital communication and despise direct mail. Therefore, you focus on delivering the best digital experience for that client and save the money associated with mailings.
3. Leverage iBeacon technology
While still in its infancy, iBeacon technology looks promising for the real estate industry. The ability to target clients driving by your listings is powerful, and I predict the listing sign of the future will come integrated with an iBeacon. For those new to iBeacons, they are essentially Bluetooth-enabled location devices that trigger a smartphone push notification when within a certain radius of the beacon.
Overall, relevant, mobile, real-time and actionable data is the future of real estate content and marketing. Keeping clients informed when they want to be is critical, and ultimately will help 83 percent of agents stay relevant after handing over the keys.
Will Caldwell, a San Diego resident, is the CEO and co-founder at Dizzle, a mobile real estate tech company that helps Realtors generate more word-of-mouth leads.
