Learn More About Real Estate Marketing Software
What is Real Estate Marketing Software?
Real estate marketing software helps real estate professionals (e.g., agents, realtors, brokers, investors, and portfolio owners) market their properties better, build brand awareness, and develop relationships with buyers. The software also cuts costs on extraneous outreach efforts, focuses marketing efforts via analysis on leads, and automates manual tasks like data collection and notification settings. Real estate marketing software makes it possible for real estate agents and agencies to stay ahead of the competition as well as take advantage of existing technology to make the most of their own time and their clients'. Real estate marketing software also enables the management and effective wielding of the agent’s sphere of influence (SOI), ensuring their successful closings result in an enriched pipeline of clients.
What are the Common Features of Real Estate Marketing Software?
The functionality of real estate marketing software can run the gamut, from simple listing optimization software to comprehensive channel management to synchronizing physical and digital marketing efforts. Below are a handful of features that are common across any type of real estate marketing solution:
Image uploading and editing: Users can edit, create, and upload high-quality, professional-looking images to the website, email campaign, social media channel, or other advertising systems. Ensuring that all listed properties are marketed with appealing photos can go a long way in driving more sales.
Virtual media tours: Users can provide 3D or panoramic images to showcase available units and include short video tours that walk through room layouts as well.
Website personalization: Real estate marketing products typically offer some level of website design and content management system functionality, simplifying the website creation process. Some solutions add IDX APIs to their website management functionality, making it easier to capture leads and advertise new property listings.
Lead management: Supported by lead scoring and grading features, users can automate drip marketing campaigns that send relevant messages over time based on prospect behaviors and predefined campaign steps. Automated behavior tracking then tracks the emails a prospect opens and clicks, the web pages they visit, and the keywords they use. All of these lead management tools allow businesses to collect and analyze prospect data without having to manually assess each customer lead.
Built-in or integrated CRM: Some real estate marketing solutions offer CRM natively, while others can integrate with a dedicated real estate CRM software. Users can capitalize on aggregated leads collected as a result of successful marketing campaigns and make smarter business decisions based on available prospect demographic data.
Other Features of Real Estate Marketing Software: IDX Website Capabilities, MLS Integration Capabilities, SEO Strategization Capabilities, Website Builder Capabilities
What are the Benefits of Real Estate Marketing Software?
Real estate marketing campaigns bridge the gap between a waning need for real estate professionals (because buyers are starting to spend more time researching on their own) and information overload (because the internet can yield too much irrelevant research). Real estate professionals that are active, engaged, and visible can more easily gain the attention of new clients. Real estate marketing software makes it easier for prospects to find agents and agencies, cuts down on the costs of traditional advertising and marketing tactics, and allows agents to simplify the process of house hunting for their clients.
Stronger contact management: Effective real estate marketing results in a growing database of contacts and listings, as well as a higher close rate on conversions and referrals. Real estate marketing software ensures that agents deliver relevant content to their clients, maintain contact with past clients, and stay informed of the market and ahead of their competition.
Increased ROI: Real estate marketing software measures the effectiveness of specific marketing campaigns to help agents optimize future digital marketing campaigns. Reports on high and poor performance provide insight into both the efforts of the individual agent and the overall market.
Stronger marketing automation: Real estate marketing solutions can automate the lead cultivation cycle and provide actionable insights into prospective buyers. Additionally, automation helps integrate all aspects of a workflow, centralizing and organizing customer and property information. Once an agency has automated its processes, it is set up to scale effectively.
Who Uses Real Estate Marketing Software?
Users of real estate marketing software leverage current buyers’ online research habits as they make their way through the purchasing lifecycle.
Real estate agents and brokers: Real estate professionals utilize real estate marketing software to build and maintain their brand across all mediums of marketing, leverage all possible methods of communicating with buyers, better market their listings, and take advantage of all touchpoints.
Real estate software vendors: Companies that produce and update real estate solutions—i.e., vendors—take cues from real estate marketing software to provide improved support to technologies that can supplement or enhance their product offerings. Those companies can also leverage real estate marketing software to create optimized landing pages and websites that will best attract the attention of real estate businesses to their service offerings.
Home buyers and sellers: While home sellers and buyers don’t necessarily interact with the specific real estate marketing solution, they do reap the benefits of a properly deployed and utilized real estate marketing software. They will get polished and personalized messaging, engage with high-quality and/or VR-enhanced listings, and benefit from a deep relationship with their chosen agent.
Commercial buyers and sellers: Similarly, buyers and sellers of commercial property don’t directly interact with real estate marketing systems. However, because they conduct research and transactions via commercial real estate brokerages and firms, they still reap the benefits of real estate marketing solutions. Those benefits can range from streamlining administrative tasks, marketing production tasks, and branding-specific property websites.
Software Related to Real Estate Marketing Software
Real estate marketing software are offered as standalone point solutions or are designed to be integrated with third-party real estate software, with an aim of better equipping real estate agents and professionals with tools that work in tandem with each other. Digital and physical real estate marketing strategies enhance the activities of real estate professionals, boost brand awareness, and facilitate the generation of and data gathering on high-caliber leads. Real estate marketing software automates those efforts as well.
Below are a couple of software types that can be used in tandem with or supplement these tools:
Real estate activities management software: Real estate activities management software manages and streamlines the daily sales, transaction, and administrative activities of agents and real estate professionals, and centrally stores all real estate documents and information. These tools are designed to integrate with other solutions, including real estate marketing software, making it easy to run a real estate firm.
Real estate CRM software: Real estate CRM software simplifies the identification and tracking of all real estate leads. Real estate marketing software takes client information that is stored in the industry-specific software to bolster marketing campaigns, tailor marketing messaging, and bolster relationships between agents and clients.
Web design software: Web design software allows users to create their own web pages, via website builder or code framework. Some real estate marketing software focuses on the creation and management of appealing agency or agent websites, making sure that those websites are equipped to capture leads, track engagement, and integrate with multiple listing service (MLS) software.
Real estate virtual tour: Virtual and augmented reality technology allows real estate agents and firms to better market their listings to prospective buyers. Real estate virtual tour software simplifies the digital creation of 360-degree tours of a property listing. Real estate marketing software can help guide interest throughout the pipeline.
Challenges with Real Estate Marketing Software
Fragmentation of real estate software landscape: Point solutions have been developed within the real estate industry, slowly bringing the industry up to speed with technological innovations. Those point solutions, however, address distinct parts of the real estate process, resulting in a fragmented solution landscape. While many real estate marketing solutions claim that they can be integrated into any existing real estate solution, that claim doesn’t go far without a strategy to reconcile disparate systems or effectively exchange data between distinct systems.
Adoption: As with any other type of solution, lack of adoption will derail any successful implementation. Real estate marketing solutions promise an increase in ROI, enhanced brand awareness, and better visibility among the crowd—that requires user accountability to utilize the solution so that impact can be identified, tracked, measured, and leveraged. Without widespread adoption, the positive impact of real estate marketing solutions cannot be proven.
How to Buy Real Estate Marketing Software
Requirements Gathering (RFI/RFP) for Real Estate Marketing Software
When beginning the buying process for real estate marketing software, buyers should assess the current pain points with their existing tech stack. Which problems could a real estate marketing product solve? Pinpointing specific areas such as weak email marketing performance or website functionality can help start the conversation with appropriate vendors.
Compare Real Estate Marketing Software Products
Create a long list
Long lists are created by eliminating the options that do not provide critical functionality. Based on the needs of a real estate business, certain marketing features may be more useful than others. If website design is not a priority, a product that offers more marketing automation and lead nurturing features will be a better fit. A typical long list should not include more than 10 products unless many options are very similar. In this case, additional details like the geographical presence of the company or its reputation can be used to eliminate vendors.
Create a short list
Short lists are created by reviewing the RFI information received from vendors. Some vendors may decline to participate and respond to RFIs. These vendors are usually eliminated from the selection process. From there, this short list steers the buying decision closer to completion, leaving only a couple of vendors to choose between. This decision is based on small, key factors that fulfill all the requirements and considerations an agency has.
Conduct demos
Demos are a great opportunity for buyers to see how the real estate marking solution works. Only the shortlisted vendors are invited to demonstrate their solutions. Demos should be performed live, using the system, and not through slide decks and screenshots. All vendors should follow a predetermined scenario that simulates the business processes of the buyer. Buyers should prepare a set of sample tasks to be demonstrated through the demo, such as walking through website design, marketing campaign creation, or creating and editing property listings.
Demos are a great time to ask key questions about the software, such as:
- Does the product support IDX website creation?
- What are the available integrations for the product?
- Is the pricing model based on the number of users?
- Does the product include basic templates for website design and marketing campaign creation?
- Is there a mobile app version of the product?
Selection of Real Estate Marketing Software
Choose a selection team
To choose a selection team, decision makers need to involve subject matter experts from all teams that will use the system. This will likely be a handful of agents or related staff who will rely on the system in their day-to-day work, as well as key leadership members.
Negotiation
Negotiation happens between the buyer and the short list of vendors. In some cases, there are only two vendors that make it to this stage, which means that they offer similar products. At this point, the dealbreaker is the price of the product, which can vary based on the discounts offered by each vendor. Buyers should consider upfront costs, both for implementation and ongoing maintenance, as well as any related services that come with the product. For example, some real estate marketing solutions may be supplemented by design support from the vendor.
Final decision
The final decision should be based on all the information gathered previously.
Real Estate Marketing Software Trends
The real estate industry has taken leaps and bounds with software technology in the past few years e.g., IDX APIs, industry-specific solution offerings, and mobile-ready software.
Below are some trends that will continue their growth in the real estate industry:
Artificial intelligence
Interest in artificial intelligence (AI) has dominated much of the technological innovation conversation in the property tech world. AI’s ability to take over menial, manual tasks will reduce the amount of time real estate professionals have to spend on data entry, sifting through listings and customer profiles, and wading through contracts and documents. Effective leveraging of AI can result in the building of deeper, more meaningful relationships between buyers and sellers, all facilitated via the real estate agent. For example, AI-powered MLS platforms can generate property recommendations that are customized to the requirements and likes of a client, helping real estate professionals sift through multiple leads rather than sifting through myriad listings for a single lead.
Focus on website optimization
One of the branding areas that real estate marketing software can optimize is the real estate agent’s professional website. Agents can further prove their trustworthiness and relevance to buyers with an updated, active website that all branding and marketing campaigns point towards. More real estate marketing solutions are taking into consideration the need to optimize both existing and nonexistent websites.
APIs
API availability and access allow smaller real estate firms to compete with bigger firms. APIs facilitate the transfer and sharing of data that enriches existing systems. More software vendors are providing API access for real estate businesses, enriching the data stored in the businesses’ CRM systems and listing databases. The easier it becomes to integrate APIs with various areas of a real estate agency, the more ways users will utilize APIs to get the most out of existing and desired system offerings.
