Being a successful real estate agent in Alabama in the digital age requires more than just listing properties and showing homes. Digital marketing has become an essential tool for promoting any business, including real estate. With property listings easily accessible online, buyers no longer have to wait for newspaper listings. Although buyers still prefer to have an agent involved, the majority of them are initially drawn to a property through online platforms such as virtual tours or listings and open houses.

What is the Most Effective Tool for Marketing as a Real Estate Agent?

When it comes to real estate marketing, the options for tools can be overwhelming. However, it’s important to prioritize quality over quantity. The success of your marketing efforts is not determined by the number of tools you use but rather by selecting the right ones and using them effectively.

We have categorized the most effective real estate marketing tools into four categories to simplify the process.

Customer Relationship Management Tools

All the marketing tools you use are crucial to your overall marketing strategy. However, keeping track of multiple accounts and posts can be challenging. This is where Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems come in handy. By integrating email, social media, sales documents, and workflows into one platform, CRMs make managing all aspects of your marketing efforts easy.

• FollowUp Boss

FollowUp Boss is one of real estate agents’ most widely used CRMs. FollowUp Boss allows you to respond faster to leads. One of the key features of FollowUp Boss is smart lists, where you can prioritize your contacts and leads by specific guidelines. This system also integrates well with the most popular real estate lead-generation tools. 

• DocuSign

DocuSign is an essential tool for realtors because you can handle paperwork anywhere. Suppose a client needs your signature, but you have a dentist appointment. You could meet up with them afterward, but it might be too late. Or they could bring the paperwork to you, which would be inconvenient for them. That’s where DocuSign comes in. With this tool, you can manage contacts and paperwork from literally anywhere. One of the perks of DocuSign is the ability to schedule and send reminder emails to clients who need to sign paperwork. 

Task and Project Management Tools

• Trello

Trello is real estate agents’ and professionals’ most popular project management tool. You can easily track tasks on this board-style platform. You can also share projects with others and access your tasks anywhere using the Trello app. 

Lead Generation Tools

While most of your marketing tools should aim to generate leads, some are specifically designed to attract them and can seamlessly integrate with other real estate marketing tools.

• MailChimp

MailChimp is one of the most widely used email marketing systems. It can send out a monthly newsletter or communicate to contacts about upcoming events. MailChimp has four packages to choose from free, essentials, standard, and premium. With the free program, you can send up to 12,000 emails monthly to up to 2,000 contacts, which is perfect for a smaller real estate business. As your subscriber list grows, you can upgrade your plan if needed. The following features are included with all plans: email scheduling, list segmentation, reporting, email templates, and a landing page builder. 

• Zillow Premier Agent

Zillow is the largest online real estate platform, and the Zillow Premier Agent tool allows agents to make connections and generate leads in their area. Zillow Premier Agent is designed to connect agents with buyers and sellers, help them build a following, and develop lasting clients. 

Social Media Tools

With billions of people having at least one account, social media is widely used. Utilizing social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and even TikTok as marketing tools can be practical. However, managing multiple social media accounts can be time-consuming. To streamline the process and reach a wider audience, the following social media tools enable you to create and publish content across multiple platforms simultaneously, saving you time and effort.

• Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a digital dashboard in which you can manage several social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube. Features include post scheduling, unlimited posts, the ability to monitor all messages from all social media accounts in one inbox, and streams to keep track of mentions, post likes, and retweets. Hootsuite offers four paid plans, but you can try it free for 30 days. 

• Buffer

Buffer is similar to Hootsuite and compatible with Google, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter. Buffer offers a free plan in which you can manage three social accounts and schedule up to ten posts per channel. The free plan also includes a landing page and basic publishing tools. Other plans are available at a per-channel rate. 

• Canva

Canva doesn’t help manage social media, but it is a helpful tool for social media marketing. Canva is a user-friendly graphics design tool that allows users to create brochures, newsletters, presentations, social media graphics, and more in one location. 

Which Tool is Most Effective?

As mentioned before, the key to successful marketing is not about the number of tools you use but about using the right ones effectively. However, even with a shorter list, narrowing it down to a single tool can be challenging. To maximize your marketing efforts, it’s advisable to select at least one tool from each category. For instance, you could use DocuSign to manage important paperwork, Trello to delegate and oversee tasks, MailChimp to organize newsletters and generate leads, and Hootsuite to manage your social media accounts.

Crest Title Is Here For You

As your real estate business grows, you may need additional services beyond marketing, such as title searches. Fortunately, Crest Title has a team of dedicated professionals ready to assist you with all your title search needs, just a click away.