IDX Setup Guide from a REALTOR – Part 4

Our contributing writer REALTOR Jim Kimmons has shared his success strategies with us in his four-part series about integrating Diverse Solutions IDX into your real estate website.

In Part 1, Jim told us how our basic IDX plugin has improved his SEO and site traffic.  Part 2 outlined how the Pro version of our IDX plugin can turn site visitors into leads and Part 3 covered using our advanced Mapping IDX solution to capture your audience and keep them coming back for more.

Jim concludes the series with Part 4, where you will learn how Diverse Solutions AgentReach lead manager improves on your existing CRM and helps you nurture and convert your contacts into commissions.

I’ve shown you in the first three articles in this series how I use a combination of Diverse Solutions products and features to attract visitors and convert them from anonymous suspects to prospects with their names and email addresses in my system.  Now that I know who they are, I want to kick in some CRM (Customer Relationship Management) processes that I know work for me in the cultivation of relationships to convert leads to business.

The Forms That Do More

Prospects who register through the Mapping search function are automatically added to the CRM system just as if they had filled out a custom form.  However, an added benefit is that dsAgentReach gives me the ability to create custom lead capture forms for placement anywhere on my site.

To capture leads, I have found the offer of detailed special reports and statistical reports to be very effective.  As an example, in the sidebar next to an article with an overview of what’s in a title insurance binder, I have a custom form offering an example binder from a real transaction, with notes explaining the information in the binder.  It’s a PDF document with notes on it, and is a popular report ordered from my site.  The form asks for their name and email address to get the report, and some other optional information to help me to categorize them as buyer, seller, etc.  That’s all I need to begin my prospect cultivation process.  What other reports work?

• Seller Tips for Negotiations in the {market name} Real Estate Market, with the form next to any pages/posts that would interest sellers.
• Same report, but for buyers, with the form next to any page or post of interest to buyers.
• Sample HUD settlement statement, with the form in the sidebar and placed next to any content related to the closing process or closing costs.
• Sample Inspection and repair negotiation documents, with the form next to any articles or content related to home inspection, negotiations, or property condition.

You’re getting the idea.  A site visitor may arrive from a Google search on title insurance in my market area, or closing process, or closing costs, etc.  When they arrive at the relevant page and get some information they value, they’ll be likely to seriously consider filling in the short form to get the more detailed example or report.  After all, it’s directly related to the content they were seeking.

When a form is submitted, the prospect’s information is automatically placed in my CRM system.  This is powerful, but it’s the other things you can do with these forms to categorize your prospects that really come through for me.

I use multiple drip email campaigns targeting prospects by type or category.  Drip email for those who haven’t used it yet is sending pre-written emails out on a schedule … dripping them out.

When a new prospect enters my system, if I can get my form to get a bit of information to help me to categorize them, I can have them automatically placed into the right drip email campaign.  They’ll then receive emails specifically written to address their interests, whether buyer, seller, or “unknown.”

In the image you can see that I can have a form place them into a specific Group, but I also can have them automatically tagged for specific purposes.  Later I can send emails, whether drip or special one-time emails, to groups or prospects by tag.

When new prospects enter the system, I now have the ability to tailor the ongoing CRM activities to better address their needs and build a strong relationship that culminates in a transaction and commission.

I create several email campaigns, each customized for the prospect category, or it could be a tag or a Group.  Each drip email series is designed to appeal to a certain prospect category, with buyer information in the Buyer Email Campaign, and information more interesting to sellers in another campaign.

I can target my prospects for individual emails or drip campaigns.  Keep in mind that I’m still inside my Diverse Solutions system from search through lead capture and then ongoing communications.  In my example of the title binder report, it’s something buyers are very interested in and want to know more about.  So, I have that form tag them as a “buyer prospect.”  The dsAgentReach system then places them into the Buyer Prospect Email Campaign because of that tag.  But, there’s more.

You also have a file management system, and you can upload files and attach them to contacts.  You can even use this system to deliver documents to prospects or clients.  This really kicks in as a value to you and your customer when they’re in the transaction process.  You can deliver documents, inspection reports, title binders, and other documents this way, and they will be attached to the contact where you can easily find them again as well.

Your Dashboard and Information About Visitor Activity

When you log in each day, your Dashboard gives you a view of recent activity, including new prospects, emails they’ve received from your campaigns and more.  You’re always on top of what’s happening.  This is invaluable to the busy real estate professional, as you need a way to get a big picture overview of new activity on your site, emails delivered and other prospect communications.

Knowledge is Power

Take your business and services to the next level by watching what your prospects are doing and the type of properties they’re searching for and saving as favorites.  Your value to your prospects increases exponentially when you can email them suggestions based on the types of properties they’re searching and making their favorites.

Using this example screen shot, we can see the types of properties this buyer seems to like best.  Suppose we know of a new listing coming online that is a pretty good match, you can give them a heads-up and that’s great service!  You can also ask them questions to clarify their needs, as you may see patterns that indicate they may be missing an area that could turn up listings they would like.

This specific real life example shows that this prospect is favoring listings out of towns in more scenic areas, with more than an acre, and near water generally.  Once you identify this trend, you may be able to point them to other areas they haven’t considered, but they have similar characteristics and properties.  Even better, if you spot a new listing that matches their searches, you can give them an email heads-up to build good will.

What more could we ask for?  We’ve seen in our four articles that we’re going to improve our SEO, capture leads much more effectively, and follow-up with those leads using a full-featured CRM system.  And, we never left our Diverse Solutions system!  It’s an end-to-end solution for the real estate business on the Web.