- Want to increase your client retention? Check out WhoHub.
- Canva allows agents to create custom headings and verbiage to bring your pictures to life.
- Facebook Ads Manager has easy-to-use navigation -- a huge plus when using a mobile device.
Why is it that the most effective applications and marketing tools are often the most simple to understand? When I meet with real estate agents on a daily basis, they tell me that easy to understand marketing concepts resonate best with them.
Understandable. Technology, especially apps, are not supposed to be difficult to use. Over the past month, I have been searching for some new applications that are cutting edge and also helpful to real estate agent’s businesses.
I have found three mobile apps that each play specific roles in expanding a brand and keeping agents in front of past clients all where clients spend a ton of time, on their smartphone.
1. WhoHub
WhoHub is a free application to download. Always free for real estate agents and homeowners. Vendors pay just $30 a month for unlimited agent connections and high-quality referrals.
In fact, to maintain a focus on trusted relationships, vendors must be invited or accepted by an agent on WhoHub.
When agents sign up for WhoHub, they fill out their profile and add a biography about themselves (who they are, what makes them great, etc.). That’s the fine print.
The agent then reaches out to his or her most trusted vendors and invites them to connect. The vendors fill out their profile and biography including phone number, address and a link to their website.
The agent is encouraged to write his or her own personal recommendation as to “why” this vendor is a trusted partner. The vendor also adds a full description of services, full contact information and any special incentives they might want to provide to the community.
The goal for the agent is to add his or her vendors to their WhoHub (there is no limit) and then their clients and sphere of influence.
Every time a homeowner clicks on the WhoHub app to find a vendor, it features their agent, his or her head shot, full contact information and bio. This keeps the agent in front of past clients well past the end of the real estate transaction.
Want to increase your client retention? Check out this app! You can find WhoHub in the Apple App Store, or you can also check out the desktop site.
2. Canva for IOS
Canva is a custom thumbnail video and social media design tool that has finally released its IOS application after having been available on mobile for a little while.
With hundreds of professional templates you can create amazing thumbnails for your YouTube videos, Instagram or Facebook pictures and more.
Branding in the real estate space is extremely important as is drawing attention to your videos and social media posts. Canva allows agents to create custom headings and verbiage to bring your pictures to life.
Canva offers many pre-set images that can be customized with your own wording, filters and fonts — that are all free. Canva also allows the user to get into their iPhone photos from the Canva application and make adjustments to the photos, then post to social media or send to another person over text.
This comes in handy when posting listing photos, advertising events, creating invitations or posting photos from a recent closing. Real estate is a visual business, and Canva does it’s part to help agents standout in a sea of vanilla marketing.
I feel this application is a must-have if your are looking to add custom thumbnails to videos, create more of a visual story for your business or just add flair to your existing real estate photos.
3. Facebook Ads Manager
Do you use Facebook Ads as part of your social media strategy? If you do, there is a great application just for your Facebook Ad campaigns.
More and more people are spending less time on desktop computers and more time on mobile devices to search the internet and engage on social media.
Facebook Ads Manager is a free application that allows real estate agents to create ads, target potential customers, drive them to landing pages or videos and check ad statistics.
Facebook Ads Manager has easy-to-use navigation, which is a huge plus when working on a mobile device. It allows agents to see how much money they have spent on each ad campaign over the past seven days, 14 days, 30 days, month, etc.
It also shows number of views, impressions, reach and website clicks for each ad campaign. Agents tell me that one of the main reasons they don’t run Facebook Ads is because the process of setting them up is confusing.
This application takes the guesswork out of Facebook Ads and makes it easy to not only set up the ad campaigns, but also manage them effectively from your smartphone.
As people move more to mobile and away from desktop, this application has a huge upside for any busy agent looking to grow and manage his or her Facebook Ad campaigns on the go.
Download Facebook Ads Manger for IOS here.
Application technology is supposed to be easy to use and simple to understand. The three free applications mentioned above are designed to help agents create client retention with referral sources, reach more people online and expand branding visually through mobile devices.
Take a moment to download these applications, and check them out for yourself!
Wade Vander Molen is the director of sales/marketing for Stewart Title in the Northern Virginia/Washington, D.C., area.
