Best Agent Website Creator
Winner: Placester
Placester’s website solutions for agents give users the tools needed to build a sleek, attractive online home. A setup wizard is available to help you get started, allowing more time to build your brand. Multiple site designs provide an intuitive, user-friendly experience. An advanced search tool allows agents to filter searchable listings to a particular audience and lets users save their favorite properties. Social media options, blogging and diverse lead capture tools help agents increase their visibility and bring in more potential clients. “You pick a template, then let your imagination run wild,” Hata says. “My favorite features are that it’s WordPress-based, making Google-friendly content creation a snap; the customizable map-search feature allows you to save home searches around points of interest, for example; and it’s mobile responsive, meaning you don’t need an app. Plus it’s cheap!” Price appreciates that it gives agents “the ability to have an IDX-powered site that is responsive with exceptional customer support at extremely reasonable costs.”
Price: From $10 per month.
Where to buy: https://placester.com/
Best Prospecting System
Winner: SmartZip
Prospecting comes easy through the hyper-local algorithms offered in SmartZip’s SmartTargeting platform. The predictive marketing technology looks at big data on neighborhoods, homes and homeowners to prognosticate who will be selling. The platform helps agents target these potential clients through consistent branding and persistent, multi-touch marketing campaigns. Agents can map their own exclusive territories to maximize their commission potential. Lance says, “Their predictive marketing formula is unlike any others I have seen before, and really helps agents narrow their farm down into a very precise area.” Dollinger calls it “the smartest analytical marketing system available,” and Lobb explains that, “Besides having a personal relationship and networking, strategic data and geographic farming is where the future of prospecting will be. SmartZip gets that done.”
Price: Demos are available, and for pricing please contact the company.
Where to buy: www.smartzip.com
Best Site to Market Your Listings
Winner: MLS
In this category, our panel’s consensus was the industry standard – the MLS. Not only does it provide unmatched access to real estate professionals, but it also allows agents to emphasize their properties’ unique characteristics, including: additional rooms, the property’s age, nearby schools, parking, lot dimensions and disability access, among dozens of other options. To top it all off, the MLS offers exclusive, timely reports, and syndication agreements guarantee a listing will appear on many other websites. As Lance puts it, “Why wouldn’t you put your listings everywhere?”
Price: Varies, depending on what your local association charges
Where to Buy: You receive access to the MLS as a member of your local association.
Best Email Marketing Software
Tie: HappyGrasshopper and MailChimp
HappyGrasshopper – HappyGrasshopper’s email marketing tools are designed to get the best results for salespeople. Users can choose from among the friendly and fun messages provided by the company’s copywriters to keep in touch with clients. Custom, lead-response email campaigns can also be orchestrated to convert leads into buyers. Basic service includes a custom signature building, delivery and open tracking and a contact upload service. HappyGrasshopper fully guarantees its services, even offering 100 percent refunds. Lobb says, “Most email marketing is canned and annoying. Happy Grasshopper creates conversation marketing that gets responses. Getting more responses from your current emails and ones that have been non-responsive turns into more opportunities, and more opportunities equals more money.” Dollinger is also a fan, commenting that “no one does email to leads, past clients and your sphere of influence like the folks at HappyGrasshopper. This isn’t just another bulk email, market update, canned crap offering. The HG team schedules kickoff calls and interviews to get to know your style and voice, custom writes your communication to reflect this and integrates with every lead source you can think of. Extra bonus – they’re awesome people that really like to help agents make more money!”
Price: Plans start at $19 per month.
Where to buy: happygrasshopper.com/
MailChimp – Personalization features are becoming the standard among marketing software providers, and those offered by MailChimp continue to keep the company at the top. RSS to email service, a Chimpadeedoo app that collects email addresses from MailChimp lists even when you’re offline, customizable templates, geolocation tracking that lets you know not just when but where an email is opened and autoresponders make the software an attractive option. Lance says it’s “Easy to use, great on mobile, helps agents create and send email marketing quickly and manage their email marketing efficiently.” And Price advises that “MailChimp is hands down the most effective platform to create and maintain email marketing campaigns. It’s priced reasonably and has tremendous customer support. And its easy to use web interface works well with small and large campaigns.”
Price: Free to start, and certain features are available with paid upgrades.
Where to buy: mailchimp.com