It’s a Mobile World. How Do You Stack up?

In the last 30 years, brokers have seen their primary means of selling and advertising go from newspapers and referrals to online or digital sources. According to NAR, almost 95% of homebuyers used a website to search for homes last year with 72% of those using a mobile or tablet app.

What is equally interesting is the prevalence of mobile usage across demographics. Of Course 99% of millennials used mobile devices or apps to assist in their home search and 58% of them found the home they bought on a mobile device. Even consumers between 35 and 65 used their mobile devices for real estate research at a rate over 89% and roughly 40% of them found their home on a mobile device.  Another interesting dynamic is that overall, 14% of all buyers found their real estate agent using a mobile device.

Real estate agents have been on the front lines of the mobile revolution as well with over 90 percent of REALTORS® using digital or mobile devices on a daily basis. Despite this, REALTORS cite “keeping up with technology” as one of the biggest challenges for brokerages in the next two years.  So how can brokers assess their use of mobile technology and insure they are keeping up with the industry?

Common Mobile Strategies

Going mobile in 2019 means more than just texting and getting email on your smartphone. The following guidelines are critical if you are to be effective, and want to appeal to the shifting demographics of both homebuyers and new agents you may be trying to attract. Here are a few things to consider:

1. Is your website mobile friendly? If you haven’t looked at your site carefully on mobile devices lately, then you may want to do a review. Mobile standards are changing with new technologies like Google AMP which will drive the proper performance of your site on mobile devices. Mobile responsive design of your website is a requirement now and even sites that worked fine on mobile a couple years ago, are due for an overhaul.
2. Is your advertising mobile friendly? Many brokerages are running Google Ads but did you know that these ads must be specifically optimized for best performance on mobile devices? Make sure the people who are running your paid search advertising are using the latest mobile algorithms and extensions in the setup of your campaign. Mobile search is a slightly different animal than traditional desktop search and you shouldn’t just assume that your campaigns are optimized for it.
3. Facebook Advertising? With 95% of Facebook users accessing their account from mobile devices, there is no mobile presence for your brokerage without a solid presence on Facebook and Instagram. You should consider both organic posting and paid advertising on this medium so that Facebook users in your locality get to see and experience your brand in a more social setting.
4. Mobile Chat Anyone? Direct messaging, or mobile chat, is the new email of real-estate marketing. Whether you use old-school text messages, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, or real-estate specific apps, mobile chat can sync up listings, manage customer relations, and improve communication between your team, too.
5. Mobile Client Management. If you want Millennial generation agents to be comfortable in your brokerage, pay attention to the capabilities of things like your CRM. In 2019, that CRM needs to come with a good mobile app that makes client management and communication easy.

Getting Up to Speed With Mobile

It’s certainly a challenge for independent brokers, even if they are tech savvy, to keep up with and train agents on the best uses of mobile technology. That’s why brands like Weichert have put so much time and energy into figuring out and implementing mobile-focused digital strategies. Weichert.com recently completed a site redesign focused on providing an optimized mobile experience. It attracts over 3 million visitors a month and is key to the company’s digital strategy to attract leads to its Customer Care Center. Those leads are delivered to our brokers and agents in real time, on both their desktop and mobile devices and directly into our Weichert PRO CRM. The CRM features a mobile app which allows easy access to all features including client management, marketing tools, email and more. Weichert offers a mobile app to help agents stay on track with monthly production goals by allowing them to easily set and track their activities. In addition, Weichert places local Facebook advertising optimized for mobile users to help build brand awareness in its markets.

Keeping up with technology can be hard, but there are other solutions. By affiliating with a company like Weichert, you can take advantage of their vast resources for keeping up, so you can focus on managing your business.  If you’d like to hear more about available Weichert resources and how they could benefit your business, contact Weichert today to learn more at weichertfranchise.com or 877-567-3350.