Have suggestions for products that you’d like to see reviewed by our real estate technology expert? Email Craig Rowe.
ReferMe IQ is a software to help sales professionals earn referral business.
Platforms: Browser, mobile-responsive
Ideal for: All agents and teams
Top selling points:
- Simple, automated email campaigns
- Powerful supplement to existing CRM
- Sphere of influence-based
- Included templates
- Recruiting effectiveness
Top concerns:
Agents without established databases may have some issues leveraging this software’s value to its fullest. However, it should be given time to produce ROI.
What you should know
ReferMe IQ is about referrals — and only referrals.
First, know that you don’t have to be a 20-year veteran to thrive on referral business. Sure, it helps to be a couple of years in so your track record has some teeth, but don’t feel the rest of your career has to be based on hoping your budget for paid leads never runs out.
In fact, if 2020 is your first year in the business, you may be more dependent on referrals than in any recent era of uncertainty.
ReferMe IQ comes with ready-to-go email templates upon sign-up. You can write all the messages yourself, but know that could take a great deal of time, while what’s provided is already connected to each previous message, carefully ordered and written accordingly.
I recommend doing a little bit of editing, but with a heavy emphasis on leaving intact the short, clean formatting of what comes with the software. Insert some of your own voice, but don’t hamper the effectiveness of ReferMe IQ’s authentic, easy-to-digest campaigns.
This is by no means an email system that leverages silly graphics, listicles and stock graphics. There are no embedded videos or rich media, outside of the occasional text link to grab attention. (The company has a sister firm with rights to thousands of movie clips.)
The solution has categorized your contacts by Clients, Personal, Recruiting and Referrals, and each campaign sequence is adjusted accordingly.
Emails will come from your Gmail or Outlook account, and use calls to action that link to a short web form for completing the referral. The recipient need only fill in a couple of fields, review the included preview email and push send.
An incentive program is included, leveraging Amazon gift cards, for example. You can choose the denomination, but make it worth it.
Editing each message is easy stuff, and it’s always clear what step of the campaign you’re on so you never repeat a message.
ReferMe IQ’s “Take My Quiz” feature presents referred leads with a short survey on what they’re looking for in a business partner. Provided you can get someone to take the time to complete it (it is professionally brief), you’ll have a good idea of where they stand, and its results provide solid ground for follow-up.
The dashboard offers metrics right up front with high-level delivery information, such as sent messages, opens and click rates. This is really all you need in this use case, as this isn’t a data-heavy e-commerce use of email.
ReferMe IQ is all about staying in touch with your sphere of influence and understanding that they have value to you. And it reminds its users that it’s OK to ask them to help you win more business.
No doubt, they’re doing it in their line of work, too.
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe
Craig C. Rowe started in commercial real estate at the dawn of the dot-com boom, helping an array of commercial real estate companies fortify their online presence and analyze internal software decisions. He now helps agents with technology decisions and marketing through reviewing software and tech for Inman.