We’ve compilied a list of the essential tools real estate agents need. The below
Social Media Management Tool for Real Estate Agent
While most agents understand just how important social media is to their marketing efforts in 2020, few of them actually use social media effectively. Sure, they tweet up a storm and share lots of listing pictures on Instagram, but they waste too much time tending to their social media feeds the old-fashioned way. They manually send out every tweet, every comment, and every video.
Luckily, there are marketing tools that can automate the bulk of your social media posting, which means you don’t have to stop what you’re doing to Tweet at the times studies have shown get the most engagement.
Here’s a quick rundown of a few tools to help you automate your social media posting:
Hootsuite
Cost: $29 to $599 per month
Learning curve: Low
Hootsuite is the social media software that 800 of the Fortune 1000 companies trust to plan, create, and schedule their social media posts to maximize views and engagement. Hootsuite lets you store frequently used assets like images and logos so you can create and schedule social media content for multiple channels like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and more from one app.
Graphic Design Tools For Real Estate Agent
One of the biggest mistakes we see agents make on social media is not taking the time to create professional-looking graphics. Sure, your new homeowner’s guide might have great information in it, but no one is going to download it if it looks unprofessional. Here are a few graphic design tools that will let you compete with even the biggest brokerages.
Adobe Photoshop CC
Cost: $9.99 to $52.99 per month
Learning curve: High
First released in the pre-internet day of 1990, Adobe Photoshop is the gold standard for image creation, photo editing, and online graphics creation in 2020. If you see beautiful graphics online, chances are someone used Photoshop at some point when making them.
Photoshop lets you edit images, create professional-looking designs for online and print, and much, much more. There are also tons and tons of professional templates for flyers, e-books, and social media graphics a click away. The only drawback is that since Adobe Photoshop is professional software, the learning curve can be a bit steep. However, if you’re tech savvy and willing to learn, we highly recommend adding Photoshop to your real estate marketing tool arsenal in 2020.
A Great Stock Image Source For Real Estate
While you probably already have gram-worthy shots of your listings, you’re going to need royalty-free images and lots of them for your blog, social media, print marketing, and more. Here are a few sources we use here at The Close for awesome, royalty-free images.
Adobe Stock
Cost: $29.99 per month
Learning curve: Low
Adobe Stock isn’t free, but they have an absolutely massive number of stock images and graphics for you to use.
Video Production Tools
Video is no longer a bonus—it’s increasingly the primary way your leads will interact with your brand.
Rode VideoMicro Ultracompact Microphone
Cost: $59
Learning curve: Low
This tiny little video microphone will make your videos sound professional instead of crummy. Sound is even more important than image quality when it comes to video production. After all, your audience isn’t watching your videos to see what you look like. They want to hear what you have to say. If you buy anything to improve your videos, this should be it.
Lumen5
Cost: Free to $149 per month
Learning curve: Medium
Lumen5 is the easy way to make professional-looking explainer videos with text, stock video, and more. Lumen5 has templates for social media, as well as prosumer-level tools to help you create videos that look like they came from a Hollywood studio.
Virtual Showing Tools
Buyers have been clamoring for virtual showings for years now, and the pandemic has just accelerated that demand. Why not give them what they want?
Facebook Live
Facebook is the best way to reach the Boomers, who probably own most of the good listings in your farm area. It’s a huge platform that is also pretty reliable and provides a free and easy way to do virtual showings for your buyers.
Instagram TV
If you want to reach the cool kids, then Instagram TV (also known as IGTV) is where it’s at for cool cats and kittens. It’s totally on fleek. Just make sure to study up on how to use it to avoid looking like a dinosaur.
