Friday 9 May 2014

5 Essential Gadgets to Help Real Estate Professionals Grow in their Business Endeavors

If you are a real estate professional, you need to fix a few things that may kill or delay parts of a real estate transaction. Clients may consider some factors like weather, when a deal is delayed, but they want solution for everything else. That emphasizes on the role of technology, which can help you do business, irrespective of the constraints put forward by time, weather, or location.

When it is about technology gadgets for real estate, portability comes above all. Here is a list of smart spends to ensure technology never stops you from closing a deal.

Image Source: cnn.it/1mIFlub
Tablet – A wide range of tablet devices are now accessible in the market, though the Apple iPad remains the grand daddy of all the tablet computers. It does not matter whether you go for Android or Apple’s iOS, because both are equipped with strong application networks, though you need to make a choice between the two. A tablet device could make travel, emailing on the go, presentations and contracts reviews seem easier to the real estate agents. And in terms of usability, tablet devices are more useful than smart-phone.

Image Source: bit.ly/1ivltuM
Digital Measurement Device – Real estate professionals could literally save hours on any listing or buyer appointment with the use of a digital measuring device. They can know exactly the distance of the wall with a quick push of a button. If the same thing is done with a tape measure, it will take more manpower and consume extra time. Real estate professionals could use an acoustic device that is able to send out a little pulse which can easily be received by the device’s microphone. If you show a client that you are ready with proper tools to come to work, your credibility is built in their eyes.

Smart Phone – While a smart phone is not considered as ideal and efficient as tablet devices for appointment listings or contracts reviews, a smart phone is extremely necessary for practicing real estate. As 85 percent of all home sales begin from internet, it is essential to respond in quick time to a call or lead produced by a website. In the modern times, almost every smart phone has the push email feature where server deposits the email without the phone needing to retrieve the messages.

Image Source: bit.ly/1qkX28X
Multi-Feed Scanner – This is one of the most essential gadgets for a real estate professional. A multi-feed scanner is utterly essential to a resourceful, competent real estate business. Most successful real estate businesses have more than one or two transactions in the pipeline all the times, hence a paperless filing system is going to be of great help to them.

Image Source: bit.ly/1qkYs3m
A Good Laser Printer – If there is a piece of technology that has not changed since the mid 1990s, it is the printer. Getting a good laser printer may prove a boon for real estate businesses.

Image Source: bit.ly/1g2hp6u
Printers seem to be a piece of technology that has remained basically constant since the mid 1990s. I have no idea why, but getting a decent laser printer has been the bane of my real estate career thus far.

There are several other cutting edge technology devices that a real estate professional would require to succeed in their endeavors.

Monday 5 May 2014

How Emails can drive the Sales Conversion Rates and Click-Through Rates on Your Website?

Image Source: bit.ly/Q5FlJK
Email marketing is a great method to market your products among the global consumers without investing a lot. But, as getting email addresses of others is a tough task, email marketing is a big responsibility.

Email is said to be the best direct channel in regard to daily use and consumer preference for communications on both personal and marketing levels.

According to MarketingSherpa, Email Benchmark Survey, 2013, “67% of marketers say that delivering highly relevant content is a strategic goal their organization wants to achieve through email marketing.” (Source: goo.gl/Ggm9ns)

The evolution of email marketing is largely due to its familiarity, universality and flexibility. The new generations of smart-phone and tablet users have given a new meaning to email usages.

Here are a few top tips to help you create a strong and powerful email marketing strategy, which begins with list-building, continues with data management and concludes with revenue generation.

Image Source: bit.ly/1nimtDt
Make an acquisition strategy – If the audience growth is your priority, you should start analyzing the platforms where consumers engage with your brand. Subsequently, consider to bring in new tools and techniques to drive interactive engagement and consumer experiences. You must always optimize acquisition forms for mobile phones, because if a customer finds it difficult to fill out form on their mobile device, you may lose the opt-in.

Present relevant data – You must first assess your current data to ensure targeted communications. Use of simple data points like location and gender can significantly improve the subscriber experience. Likewise, use Facebook’s geo-tagging features with status updates on social media. Make sure to never repeat the same promotional messages on social media and email.

Personalize email as and when possible – You should know that your website visitors, email and mobile subscribers and social media followers appreciate personalized messages. Add personalized references into marketing emails for the crucial one-to-one interactive sessions. You should focus on the browsing behavioral pattern of your each subscriber and create your email content accordingly. Personalized emails have the potential to improve the click-through rates by 25 to 35 percent and sales conversion rates by 15 to 25 percent.

Receive customers’ permission to use their email addresses – Emails promote the concept of permission marketing, which asks brands to first seek permission prior to sending consumers email marketing messages and newsletters. Once the permission is received, you should next jump on data personalization and building around the consumer.

Automate your after-purchase messages – You should keep in mind that customer retention is of greater importance in email marketing, so must automate a re-engagement campaign for a set duration post-purchase.

Email, along with a well-designed and developed website and consumer experience, cites a long-standing base for interactive marketing. You should bear in mind that your audience comprises both non-smartphone owners and smart-phone owners, so ensure that your marketing strategies suits them both.