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Do I Need a Real Estate CRM?
In this article you will learn the different types of CRMs and some variations for you to choose from. You will be able to make a decision on which CRM platform is the best fit for your business.
What is a CRM?
A CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. It is typically an online ( in the cloud) system for keeping in touch with your leads, current customers, and past customers. Think of the old rolodex or card file system thrusted into the future.
Do you really need a CRM?
The first question you need to answer is: Do you follow up on your leads and contacts? If you don't follow up on your contacts and your leads, and if you don't want to start any time soon, don't invest in a CRM :). There is no point because no matter how much money you spend on a new CRM you are still not going to call people and you are still not going to follow up with your leads.
On the other hand, if follow up is a part of your daily tasks and you make this one of your top priorities, then taking a look at your options for nurturing your leads and past clients is in order.
The big daddy of CRM: Infusionsoft
At the very top of the CRM tier is Infusionsoft. If you need something with all the bells and whistles, this is the clear winner. The downside is the learning curve. You will have to take the time to learn the back end. Or you can do what most people do when they buy Infusionsoft; hire an approved Infusionsoft certified consultant to set up a highly customized system to fit your SOI. We recommend Lori Ballen's brother, Jeff Helvin.
Jeff Helvin has a history in business development, team management, and making the impossible possible.
He helps develop and build Ballen Brands products and services based on customer feedback and Lori’s intensive research on what’s working in the industry today.
When not holding down the fort at Ballen Brands, Jeff can be found loving his wife and three daughters through a variety of fun adventures, photographing breathtaking scenery, and coin collecting.
INFUSIONSOFT FEATURES
Infusionsoft Benefits
- To Enhance your email ability. The Infusionsoft program changes how you send emails by targeting specific clients on your list rather than sending out scheduled emails to all your contacts. This program additionally makes your emails secure and trusted by providers so they don't land in the spam folder.
- Lead tools. This software enhances your ability to collect data from your clients. This allows you to learn more about your customers so you can easily identify which best customers to target. It also allows you the choice to automatically assign leads for team members and provides them with the tools to follow-up. Additionally, you can keep track of the latest leads, customers and revenue whether its quarterly or annually.
- Client care. More and more customers prefer a personalized marketing experience. Infusionsoft provides you the capability to categorize customers based on their distinct behavior. Doing this makes you more efficient in delivering their needs. You have the flexibility to observe your customer's purchasing behavior so you can create a more personalized buying experience.
- Time Saver. Infusionsoft creates an automated process so you have more time to focus on increasing sales and managing customer. Rather than taking care of several processes, you get a more streamlined system for better effectivity.
To learn more about Infusionsoft click here.
NEGATIVES ~ Infusionsoft is expensive! The basic software costs $199 a month. Adding features like eCommerce and sales function will increase your cost to either $299 or $379 a month. On top of that, you most likely will pay $1,999 for a kick-starter coaching package.
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INFUSIONSOFT PRICING
The essentials which include Contact Management and Marketing Automation costs $199/month. Adding in Sales Automation or E-Commerce will cost you $299. The complete package costs $379 monthly.
The real estate powerhouse CRM:
If you are doing a lot of Google ads and Facebook ads
BOOMTOWN FEATURES
Features
Client Management - This software allows you to close monitor and track your client’s site visits and purchasing behavior.
Marketing Automation - Closely monitoring your marketing, from the first click to the closing payment.
Task Scheduling - Keeping track of your needs in one place
Lead Integration and Generation - This software is closely affiliated with 40+ sourced from Zillow, Trulia, Realtor, etc.
Predictive CRM - Automate lead distribution to send leads where and how you want.
Advanced website analytics allows you to track a prospective buyer, monitor team's engagement, customize product websites, and add features like mortgage calculator, home value estimator, etc.
Benefits
Boomtown is easy to use. It is perfect for new agents to learn the business and organize the high volume of clients that come into your database. The mobile app is easy to use.
Negative
This platform is super expensive and if you have only a small team of agents, it can be hard to learn and use all the different tools.
Price
BoomTown costs about $1,000 a month for one to three agents.
Commissions' Inc
Features
Intuitive Work Platform - Commissions Inc features are easy to use, easy to call and email, can do seamless drip campaigns, and offer MLS integration so you can track what your contacts want in a home.
Team Management - Designed for big teams and brokerage, Commissions INC has an efficient and productive management team.
Benefits
Commissions Inc has plenty of lead generating tools, and you can enjoy its various features at a good value. It has a great-looking, professional website. You can create landing pages without any additional price.
Negative
It can be confusing to use if you don’t watch the trainings. It’s also pretty expensive.
Price
CINC costs $1500/monthly
Market Leader
Features
Lead management - This popular program delivers training and best practice for generating new leads. ‘
Agent and Team Management - Market Leader is popular for its excellent training programs and for consistently aiming for a better user experience
Real-time, user-friendly interface
Listing management - This solution provides a monthly newsletter, multi-channel campaigns and campaign linking.
Benefits
One of Market Leaders benefits is its ability to stay on top of its marketing game. It uses tools like the monthly newsletter to market to both buyers and sellers. These are sent out on a monthly basis.
Negative
Customer service needs improvement.
Price
Monthly fee of $129.
Drip.co
Features
Interactive Application - This software integrated a visual workflow builder in its email campaign.
Automated marketing - Drip's automated process saves time, easily moves customers to the next phase of the process, connects data to another system, and
Improved subscriber engagement campaigns - Creates emails for targeted subscribers based on a certain profile.
Integrated solution - Drip connects multiple applications and solutions, allowing an easier and seamless transfer of data from one program to another.
Email management - Increases leads through effective emails and forms.
Benefits
Better client engagement. Drip's email marketing automation engages prospect better and efficiently.
Increase leads. This software boosts your lead campaigns and allows you to build a relationship with customers with minimal effort and at an affordable price.
Save time and effort. Creating and sending emails become easy and manageable with the help of Drip marketing.
Negative
Drip’s user interface is not so easy to understand. It takes some time to learn and navigate the process, and that’s time away from my other tasks.
Pricing
Drip has a three-week trial that you can use for free. Its basic subscription for 2,500 subscribers costs $49/month or $41/month when paid annually.
Aweber
Features
Automated marketing and autoresponders. Create automated email campaigns through the drag-and-drop campaign editor based on hundreds of email templates. Tag customers based on clicks and opens. Create customized emails, educational courses, lead enhancing campaigns, etc.
Email management. This software allows you to create and send professional emails and newsletters easily, tracks your email campaign, and ensures email are trusted by providers to make it your inbox safely. Its RSS/blog-to-email functionality automatically produces emails from your recently posted blogs.
Subscriber management. Aweber increases your email list with mobile-responsive sign-up forms, collect and track information about your subscribers, and sends targeted emails to subscribers based on their information on the database.
Mobile friendly. Aweber email templates are responsive. It lets you track your email campaigns on any gadgets, be it a laptop, a tablet, or a phone.
Award-winning customer service. Get easy and friendly access and Aweber support anytime, anywhere through its live chat and email service.
Benefits
Aweber is reasonably priced, is easy to use, and offers great support.
It has an easy-to-use marketing tool, which is great for beginners who have yet to hone their technical skills.
The Aweber simple interface is easy to manage and customize, and it also provides excellent tutorials to make this easy.
Negative
The main things that would prevent me from using Aweber are its relatively basic automation features and its somewhat outdated tool in creating a newsletter.
Prices
Aweber offers five pricing plans.
For hosting and emailing up to to 500 subscribers - $19/month
For 501 to 2,500 subscribers - $29/month
For 2,501 to 5,000 - $49/month
For 5,001 to 10,000 - $69/month
For 10,001 to 25,000 - $149/month
RealtyJuggler
Features
Easy to use CRM. RealtyJuggler has a friendly-user interface ideal for less technology savvy real estate agents. It allows you to make task lists, sends bulk emails and timely notices.
Lead tracking - This software allows you to track leads and gather information from all sources including Contact M, IDX, MLS, Tax Records, and more.
Professionally designed templates - Choose from 101 real estate flyer design templates that can be easily customized and printed in high resolution.
Affordable solutions - Realty Jugglers gives you a pocket-friendly software that answers your real estate marketing needs.
Mobile-responsive software - This program can be accessed anywhere and on any device with an Internet provider.
Benefits
Realtyjuggler has a simple interface and is easy to use. Whether its sending emails, email tracking or managing contacts, it has all the basic features any agent would need.
Negative
Contact migration from your old CRM to Realtyjuggler is a challenge.
Price: Free trials for 90 days. Membership costs $99 a year
Top Producer
Features
Client Management - Store and retrieve data related to clients and properties. It also tracks company communication and stays updated about contacts and properties.
Streamlines workforce process - Manage and all aspects of real estate from leads to closing. Integrates dates and other relevant information to calendars to manage schedules and priorities.
Listing Management - Stores and update property listings in the system and connect information on MLS and various listing services.
Email Management - This software allows you to send email in bulk. It features pre-designed email templates, social media integration, sign up forms, and more.
Benefits
One of the things you'll like about Top Producer is you are able to customize the content. It has great closing coordination plans and you can easily personalize them depending on your client's needs.
Negative
Outdated software. It needs to be updated!
Price: Top Producer starts at $40/month.
Brivity
Features
Lead Management - Brivity uses behavior tracking to send targeted emails to its clients. It also allows for easy follow up.
Intuitive workplace management - Get all your business done in one place. From managing your team, listings, and leveraging your resources to stay organized and productive, you can all do it Brivity. Track your social media performance on dashboards. Impress your clients with its easy communication forms showing listings.
Referrals and repeat business management - Strengthen relationship with your clients through communication and delivering value.
Benefits
Brivity allows you to organize your business efficiently by acting like a private assistant. It reminds you of what must be done, email clients, update client's account, and staying on top of your listing marketing pages.
It allows you to create a customized plan, then guides you in following the plan while doing your work. On top of that, it creates attractive web pages for your listings.
Negative
Brivity is relatively expensive when compared with other real estate CRM’s.
Price : Basic CRM starts at $99.99/month
iXact
Features
This user-friendly solution is specifically designed for Realtors.
Marketing Automation System - This platform helps you manage your business efficiently, generate service reports, and achieve your goals better.
Contact Management - Organized and efficient way to create database of contact information, has all the details to help you get in touch with past clients and new leads. Set automated reminders to important dates.
Lead Management - Features IXACT contact which makes lead capturing fully automated.
Sales Pipeline Management - Learn what you need in a glance through its visual graphs and charts.
Mobile-friendly. Take your office wherever you go. This platform can be accessed even on mobile.
Benefits
Very easy to use and affordable.
Negative
Needs better integration with other platforms. Price is a little expensive.
Price : Free 5-week trial/ $33 a month
