Best Ways to Leverage Technology in 2018

Editor’s Note- This article was originally posted on April 18, 2016 and has been upday with the latest changes.

“A single second delay in your website loading time can result in a 7 percent loss in conversion, and 40 percent of web users will abandon a website if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load.” -Hostingfacts.com

For a business to keep up within their industry, they need to have a solid understanding of how to best use technology, and as you may have guessed, mobile plays a large and critical role in this.

Here are some tips to help you best leverage technology for your real estate business this year:

• Be sure that your website managers are using the most up to date sources so that your site loads quickly and correctly.
• Optimize for mobile: As mentioned, mobile plays a critical role in technology and business. In 2016, mobile search had increased 19 percent among users, showing that 27 percent of total home searches were performed on mobile devices and tablets. Mobile has now become the leading source of information for homebuyers, meaning you not only need a responsive website design, but you need to provide the most important and relevant information to help encourage customers reaching out to you. “There are more mobile Internet users than desktop Internet users. There are 3.5 billion global mobile Internet users as at August 2017.” -Hostingfacts.com
• Mobile apps and software: Mobile apps give you, the agent, an opportunity to connect with your clients throughout their home search by allowing access to email, private messages, notifications, and personalized listings at the clients’ fingertips. Apps also allow an easier search process for both the agent and the client.
• Don’t underestimate the use of emails and newsletters: Sending emails every few days to new or potential clients, as well as weekly newsletters, helps to keep prospective homebuyers up-to-date on listings and what is going on in the market. Keeping a consistent flow of contact with potential clients helps to build trust. Be sure to provide easy access to unsubscribe or update email preferences. Too many emails will do more to turn off the modern client than gain their business. Many people are more likely to send your mail to junk or spam rather than go through a process to unsubscribe.
• Use photos: Apps such as Hyperlapse (launched by Instagram) allows you to use time-lapse photography to display your listings. The app has image stabilization software and offers multiple enhancements all in one place. When your listings are visually appealing, you are more likely to garner the attention of modern clients such as relocators and millennial first time buyers .
• Enhance your social media efforts: Social media is a key component in business today, not only helping with engagement but it also helps you to brand yourself and your business. Not only can you build relationships with clients by engaging posts and useful posts, you can actually improve your business blog by getting exposure to your posts through news feeds, and through the eyes of Google. Don’t get overly hung up on one outlet such as Facebook. Young adults are increasingly moving toward other connection apps and sites.
• Perfect plug-ins: Once you have a proper CRM, using the right real estate plug-ins can help enhance your site and gather information about analytics while offering a number of other additional resources. If this is above your comfort level, be sure to hire the best help you can afford. They can hook this up for you in a hot minute.

For the greatest success you need to be intentional about leveraging technology, and prepare for the years ahead as new and improved innovations are constantly on the rise.

We would love to hear about what others uses of technology you have found to be effective in your real estate business! Share your thoughts below!