Popular Real Estate Marketing Tools (and which ones we recommend)

Choose your tools from this marketing toolbox - then put them to work to make your life easier.We talk a lot about running ads on social media, Google and other platforms. But none of those will do you any good unless you have your basic marketing operations in order. Why spend money advertising if you don't even have a way to organize your leads?

Whether you're in charge of marketing for a large commercial real estate firm, or for yourself as a residential agent, these are the basic marketing tools you'll need to make your life easier.

A CRM

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management software. Instead of having all of your contacts in a Rolodex or floating around in random places, all your contacts are organized in one database. But it's about more than just keeping your desk clear of business cards. A CRM is a powerful tool to make sure you pursue your leads successfully and don't let any of them slip through the cracks.

Most CRMs offer sales pipelines, follow-up reminders, and marketing automation. Your first step is to enter the lead's contact information - now you have it logged forever and you won't lose it. Next, you can assign that lead to a point in a sales pipeline, so you know if they're in the early stages or are close to closing (and if they're a residential buyer or a commercial seller). And finally, you can use scheduling tools to remind yourself to follow up with someone who said, "I'm not ready to sell right now, but maybe next year."

Here are some examples of popular CRMs. They're all at different price points and offer solo versus corporate pricing.

• Pipedrive - it's simple and clean, making it great for individual agents.
• Zoho - Zoho has a million integrations, making it ideal for larger brokerages. This is what we use for ourselves.
• Hubspot - like Zoho, Hubspot has lots of bells and whistles. Hubspot specializes in marketing integrations/features.

There are many others, but we're only recommending the ones we've used. For a larger list, check out Fit Small Business.

A CMS

Nothing's more frustrating than wanting to make changes to your website, but not being able to. A CMS (content management system) allows you to easily make changes to your own website without requiring HTML or coding. If your website does not have a CMS, it might be time to switch platforms. If you have a CMS but don't know how to use it, ask your web developer to show you around. You'll see it's easy to keep your website updated, add and remove agents, modify listings, and more.

While your website might not seem like "marketing," it's often the first impression someone gets of your company. So you should keep it up to date with all of your listings, agents, and services. You should also keep a blog on site. Blogs are the easiest way to generate content, which Google factors into your overall SEO scores.

• ListingManager - this is our IDX product. We think we met a good blend of function and simplicity so you can do everything you want to do without a drop of coding. Want to see it for yourself? We'll give you a demo!
• Wordpress - while this is one of the most popular website systems, it can feel too powerful and overwhelming if you're managing your own site.
• Wix - this is a super-easy DIY solution, but not professional enough for real estate sites in our opinion.
• Squarespace - like Wix, it's cheap and easy. But it's geared toward eCommerce websites, so it's not the best fit for agents/brokers.

An Email Service

Email is one of the easiest ways to communicate with clients. If you're sending emails straight out of your inbox, you're missing out on metrics like opens, link clicks, and SPAM reports.

An email service (like the ones we describe here) help you keep your lists organized. You can segment all of your contacts by the services they're interested in (commercial versus residential, buying versus selling, etc.) When you send emails you'll get reports on exactly who opened your email and clicked links, so you'll know who's really interested.

• Mailchimp - this is what we use for The Hot Sheet. It's really easy and straightforward, which makes it ideal for agents managing their own email marketing.
• Constant Contact - a more robust, and slightly clunkier system. Great for organizations with multiple lists and marketing managers.
• Zoho Campaigns - good if you're using Zoho as your CRM. But it's extremely clunky and we had deliverability issues.

A Password Manager

With all of these tools, plus all of your social media logins, you'll want a way to manage your accounts. We only have one recommendation in this field: LastPass. We've been using it for years and love it.

LastPass securely saves all of your login information. Just go to any login screen and LastPass will auto-fill your login and password. If you're part of an organization, you can share logins without the other person seeing your password. LastPass helps you generate super secure passwords, and can store credit cards for you. LastPass works across all of your devices, so you can even use it on mobile.

The best part? It's free for individual users, and reasonably priced for organizations.

Bottom Line

Using the right tools and software will help you manage your business like a boss. Once you've found the platforms you like best, commit to using them consistently. (Having half of your leads in a CRM and half in loose business cards will drive you crazy.) Here's the secret formula: use the CMS to keep your website updated so you get leads. Add the leads to your CRM. Integrate your CRM and email platform so the leads get email marketing.  And securely store all of these logins in a password manager. Boom!