When you’re dealing with commercial real estate, you know you need to provide a carefully curated experience to your potential clients. These real estate transactions typically require approvals from multiple stakeholders within and across businesses, including the C-suite.  

You need a solid account-based marketing (ABM) approach to get your potential clients interested, and this is where a customer relationship management (CRM) solution can come in handy. A CRM for commercial real estate can help you manage your accounts and implement a targeted marketing approach. 

But how can ensure that you use your CRM system to its fullest extent to meet your business needs? To help you with that, we’ve put together this guide with CRM best practices for a smooth CRM implementation in your commercial real estate business. 

What is a commercial real estate CRM?

All CRMs have got to be the same, right? 

Wrong. 

Generic CRMs are built for all sorts of businesses. As a result, they may lack certain functions that cater to the specific needs of the real estate industry. 

A commercial real estate CRM is an all-in-one platform through which real estate brokers, agents, and teams can connect with prospects to sell or lease commercial properties and nurture existing client relationships. It will also help you manage your sales pipeline and create targeted real estate marketing campaigns to drive sales.

Some key features of commercial real estate software solutions include:

• Comprehensive Contact Management
• Property and Pipeline Tracking
• Scheduling and Email Integration
• Email Campaigns
• Customizable, Scalable, and Accessible

Importance of using a commercial real estate CRM

Using a generic CRM system or spreadsheet may seem like a good, simple option, but they have limitations that could impact your bottom line. Here’s why you should choose CRM software for commercial real estate instead. 

1. Streamlines contact management

As mentioned earlier, you need to get your ABM approach right to close deals or leases. And that’s where contact management comes into the picture. Unlike a generic CRM, a real estate solution will help you collect and manage crucial details like:

• Budget and pricing
• Timeframe
• Preferred locations
• Property types
• Prospecting segments

The right CRM system will help you build a comprehensive client profile so you can find the ideal properties for them. Also, by bringing all the conversations with various account stakeholders under one roof, you can manage your clients with ease.

2. Maintains a Detailed Property Inventory

Whether your focus is on representing buyers, sellers, landlords, or tenants, you are in the business of closing property transactions.  A CRM must have the ability to keep the property details that are vital in managing the full cycle of every transaction. Additionally, it must have the ability to search for any detail to find matches with your clients and prospects’ requirements and easily link these contacts, companies, and properties together.  The system should have a robust pipeline feature that enables you to monitor every stage of each property transaction.

3. Improves personalization

With commercial real estate CRM software, your team will have access to in-depth information about prospects. This enables them to adopt a more personalized approach when communicating with them. At the same time, your marketing team will be able to send out personalized campaigns that strike a chord with your clients.

4. Simplifies marketing

Commercial real estate CRM software that offers marketing automation features can make your marketing campaigns a breeze to implement. You can set up trigger-based emails, drip email campaigns, and response-driven emails to drive lead generation and nurture your prospects on autopilot. 

5 tips to successfully implement a commercial real estate CRM

Now that you know about the importance of having a commercial real estate CRM, let’s take a look at the best practices you can implement to drive more conversions for your real estate business. 

1. Train your users

Before you start using a commercial real estate CRM platform for your business, you must train your team members thoroughly. It’s equally crucial to communicate why you’re implementing the solution. 

Although modern-day CRMs have become easy to use, training your real estate professionals can help improve employee productivity so they make the most of the new system. Hold training sessions for both desktop and mobile apps so your employees can get up to speed with using them.

2. Plan your CRM data migration

Whether you’ve been using a generic CRM or spreadsheets, it’s critical to import all the data into your real estate CRM. Here are some tips to do it the right way:

• Go through your existing data and eliminate spammy or incorrect entries.
• Remove incomplete and duplicate entries.
• Keep only the most up-to-date information about a particular client, and remove the rest.

Once you’ve cleaned up your dataset, you can import it into your new commercial real estate CRM. 

3. Integrate with your tech stack

You might already have an existing tech stack with applications like project management tools, email software, sales platforms, accounting solutions, and more. 

The commercial real estate CRM solution you choose must be compatible with most, if not all, of the software in your tech stack. The integrations will enable smooth transfer of data between platforms and lead to a better workflow. For instance, Act! integrates with numerous sales, social media, e-commerce, and customer service platforms, including Slack, Microsoft, Google, Shopify, and Zendesk. 

When you start using your new CRM, make sure you integrate it well with all the existing solutions through native or third-party integrations. Train your employees to use these integrations well.

4. Automate your tasks

One of the other best practices of using commercial real estate CRMs is leveraging automation features the right way. Start by choosing a CRM solution that offers automation. For instance, Act! offers marketing automation features to help you send out personalized campaigns. 

Once you’ve chosen your CRM, start looking for repetitive tasks that you can automate. From routine follow-ups to email campaign scheduling and lead management, you can do a lot to streamline your process and free up your time so you can concentrate on delighting prospects and clients.

5. Customize to fit your needs

Even the best real estate CRM won’t be a perfect match for every CRE business. Instead, you will likely have to customize it to suit your exact needs. 

Some of the best practices for achieving this include:

• Adding custom fields to collect crucial contact details 
• Customizing the CRM interface to suit your needs
• Creating email templates for marketing automation
• Choosing how to deploy the CRM (cloud or on-premise)

Act! offers an array of deployment options, along with industry-specific templates giving you the ability to customize your CRM for your real estate needs.

Ace real estate business growth with Act!

A generic CRM won’t cut it when you’re in the business of commercial real estate. Instead, you should provide your organization with a cutting-edge CRM that’s purpose-built for real estate and implement it well. 

Act! is a powerful, customizable platform that offers solutions for real estate businesses. Take a test drive now of Act! for Commercial Real Estate to see how Act! can skyrocket your sales while making your team’s lives easier.

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TendenZ has been a trusted Act! Certified Consultant for over 25 years, not only delivering CRM solutions; but striving to be a long-term partner for Act! customers. This highly engaged level of service continues to grow TendenZ’s knowledge, experience, and expertise which ultimately empowers the success of its customers. With certified Act! CRM consultants, marketing advisors, and skilled software developers, TendenZ is dedicated to making the deployment and implementation of CRM successful for its clients. Join us as we delve into TendenZ’s history, expertise, and commitment to providing top-notch solutions that go beyond the ordinary and learn how their partnership can fast-track any organization’s journey to success in this Q&A session with Frank Boersma, Commercial Director of TendenZ.

Q: To start, tell us about TendenZ—its history, offerings, expertise, etc.

A: For over 25 years, TendenZ has been the permanent point of contact for many thousands of Act! CRM & Act! Marketing Automation users in the Benelux. We have certified Act! CRM consultants, CRM advisors, Marketing Automation specialists, and passionate software developers to assist our customers with making their CRM a success. From inventory to fully customizing Act! CRM to their business processes, we’ve built many Act! add-ons and integrations to optimize the customer experience.

Our certified consultants and advisors have the expertise, experience, and passion to effectively set up your CRM, contributing optimally to the growth of your business. And if you have any questions while using Act!, we have an easily accessible Dutch and English-speaking support department with solid CRM and Marketing Automation knowledge to help you get back on track.

Q: In what type of industries are your target customers? Please share any key industry verticals, customers’ specific business needs, etc.

A: TendenZ is a full-service, Act! Certified partner and works with companies of various sizes and in a variety of industries. Our clients span industries across the Benelux, including installation, manufacturing, healthcare and wellness, business services, and more. Act! is designed to be affordable, flexible, and scalable, meeting the unique needs of each customer, regardless of size or industry.

Based on our years of experience, we’ve developed specific solutions for the basic needs of each industry and always consider our customers’ specific business processes to ensure Act! contributes optimally to their growth.

Q: Are there common roadblocks customers run into when setting up a CRM system?

A: If an organization doesn’t carefully consider what it wants to track and generate, it can affect the proper use of the CRM solution and incomplete data can render it unreliable. Proper CRM and marketing automation training for employees is crucial. We learned over the years that a lack of preparation, employee involvement, and understanding of the impact of a CRM on work processes can hinder its effectiveness.

Q: As someone who has used Act! for years, how have you seen the solution evolve?

A: The best thing about Act! is its continuous evolution while remaining user-friendly and intuitive. The addition of the Marketing Automation tool has been a game-changer, offering two business tools in one. The CRM empowers teams for better customer support, while the Marketing Automation tool streamlines marketing activities. We eagerly anticipate further developments in the pipeline this year.

Q: Do you have any advice for today’s small business leaders looking for tech solutions?

A: Prepare well for a CRM implementation. Involve key users for extra support and carefully consider what you want to track and generate. Think about the impact on your employees’ work processes. We assist customers by making the process efficient and offer specific solutions that provide increased support. We’ve enjoyed having the opportunity to see how Act! CRM and Marketing Automation have optimized the growth of our customers and their businesses.

Visit their website to learn how TendenZ expertise can optimize Act! for your business.

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Whether you’re running a global corporation or a bootstrapped startup, the right CRM (customer relationship management) platform can help you acquire and retain customers. It also lets you implement workflows to automate routine tasks, such as following up with an active lead or sending subscription renewal reminders in real-time.

But how do you maximize the gains from your CRM workflows? While there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to that question, one effective solution is using CRM templates.

When it comes to CRMs, you can use a wide array of templates for contacts, social media posts, documents, emails, and more. Judicious use of these templates can be instrumental in improving your business processes and maximizing time and cost savings.

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at why templates are indispensable to your CRM workflows.

What are CRM templates?

“CRM templates” is an umbrella term for pre-built or pre-formatted resources that streamline customer interactions and workflow management. You can easily customize these templates according to your preferences and requirements. They’re useful for various departments, from marketing and sales to customer service.

Today’s CRM platforms let you use a wide array of templates to create and deploy sales workflows. For instance, Act! CRM, which includes marketing automation, provides you with pre-designed email templates to implement automated drip campaigns for lead nurturing. They save you the trouble of designing attractive emails from scratch. Similarly, you can use templates to create crucial documents to manage relevant information, such as contracts, invoices, and proposals.

Many CRMs also let you use templates to store and manage customer data. For instance, Act! Custom Tables includes pre-built templates for various industries, including real estate, software, consulting, and insurance, eliminating the need to create and customize spreadsheet-like tables without additional development resources.

Besides CRM email templates and contact templates, you can also leverage templates for content development, funnel creation, and customer feedback surveys to meet your business needs. It’s also possible to create and customize templates for customer notifications and reminders.

Benefits of using templates for CRM workflow management

Templates come in handy, whether you’re looking to build a lead-nurturing funnel or improve your customer onboarding workflow. If you’re wondering whether to use them in your CRM workflows, here are a few benefits worth considering.

Increased productivity and efficiency

CRM templates help various departments save time and resources. For instance, sales team members can build a template for customer acquisition to streamline the workflow. Once the template is ready, they can use it every time a new prospect enters the funnel. 

Relying on templates eliminates guesswork from the process and helps sales reps make the right decisions without delays. At the same time, they can tailor the template according to each customer’s preferences and pain points to deliver a better experience.

Similarly, marketing and sales teams can use email templates to minimize the time they spend creating emails. That time can be put to better use, such as monitoring open rates, click-through rates, and other campaign performance metrics.

In a nutshell, templates skyrocket the efficiency of your CRM workflows and help you achieve more goals faster. This can be a blessing for small businesses that already face several constraints.

Consistent branding

When you use templates and manage customer interactions via a CRM app, it minimizes the room for errors and inconsistencies. 

For instance, you can pre-approve email templates for appointment reminders. Sales reps will only need to edit the template by adding a customer’s name and date and time of appointment. Design elements, such as the color, size, font style, and placement of calls-to-action (CTAs), remain fixed. Similarly, there are no changes in the language and tone of the email.

You can even ensure that key elements of your brand identity, such as the company logo and website URL, are added to every email. This lets you create a consistent brand identity, which wouldn’t have been possible if every sales rep had created their own version of appointment reminders. It’s particularly helpful for new team members who are yet to get a grip on your branding.

Enhanced automation

One of the key advantages of using a CRM system is that it helps you streamline the sales process by automating routine tasks. And templates help you harness the full potential of workflow automation.

Let’s say you’re looking to build an automated sales funnel. With a pre-built workflow template, you can easily define the exact sequence of touchpoints a prospect will encounter through every stage of their buying journey. 

Also, you can automatically assign tasks to relevant sales reps whenever a lead enters the funnel or moves from one stage to the next. You can even send email reminders to ensure they connect with the lead and guide them through various touchpoints.

Once you’ve built the workflow template, you can use it to automate the sales funnel over and over again. This results in time and cost savings and drives efficiency further.

Guaranteed scalability

As your small business grows, marketers must implement more marketing campaigns, and sales teams must manage more customer interactions. Simultaneously, the volume of customer support tickets will also see a surge.

CRM templates can be the key to managing these growing demands at scale. You can easily reuse workflow templates to replicate their success and improve conversion rates. 

Additionally, you can use templates to standardize various customer interactions while minimizing human errors. This can help you provide a consistent brand experience to your prospects and customers at scale.

Improved customer experience

With templates, you can offer a seamless purchasing journey for every customer. Automated workflows and standardized customer interactions eliminate human errors. Additionally, you can customize workflow templates to delight customers with personalized communication and product recommendations. 

It’s also worth noting that when customer-facing teams use CRM templates, they can avoid getting caught up in routine tasks. Instead, they can focus on more important jobs, such as identifying and removing points of friction from the buying journey. 

This results in a consistent and frictionless customer experience. Ultimately, it helps convert more leads into paying customers and generate greater revenue through on-point upsells and cross-sells.

Legal and regulatory compliance

Certain sectors, such as financial services and insurance, enforce strict laws and regulations when it comes to interacting with consumers. Using pre-approved templates for emails, SMS messages, push notifications, and other communication channels, you can reduce the likelihood of non-compliance. This can be instrumental in helping you avoid legal hassles down the line.

Harness the full benefits of CRM workflows with templates

CRM templates offer a wide array of benefits, including improved efficiency, productivity, and scalability. When used properly, they can also help you automate workflows more easily, maintain consistent brand identity, and take the customer experience up a notch. Plus, they standardize customer-facing interactions and processes and help avoid compliance-related challenges.

Act! offers all the key features you look for in a modern-day CRM solution, including pre-built templates. Start your free trial today to see our platform in action and find out whether it’s the right fit for your business. No credit card or download is required.

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Have you ever noticed how some brands always pitch you the right offers at the right time and price? That’s one of the benefits of CRM software.

The best CRMs help small business owners collect, organize, and manage customer data. They also provide valuable insights to help you define sales processes and design marketing campaigns tailored to your audience’s needs. In this article, we’ll share the key benefits of today’s CRM systems for small businesses and show how you can use them to create better marketing campaigns.

What is a CRM?

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is a technology that allows you to track customer communication with your brand, collect and organize customer information, and provide real-time engagement insights to your marketing team members, sales reps, and customer service teams, along with any other key stakeholders.

These insights allow you to provide a consistent and memorable customer experience throughout the customer’s lifetime, increasing their satisfaction with your product and loyalty to your brand.

Most people think a CRM solution improves customer service, and that’s true. But it also directly impacts the marketing, sales, and branding of your small business. Modern CRMs are often integrated with marketing automation and offer everything from demand and lead capture to email automation and customer retention tools. 

In short, you can consider a CRM your one-window solution to optimize your customer experience management.

Benefits of a CRM for marketing

CRMs offer numerous direct and indirect marketing benefits to your small business. Let’s discuss the most prominent ones.

CRM marketing benefit #1: Understand customer needs and usage patterns

Effective marketing relies on accurate metrics and data insights that allow you to make informed decisions and take calculated risks. This is where a CRM is so valuable for your small business.

It tracks customer interactions across all your marketing channels (website, landing pages, product usage, email, support ticketing, social media, phone, and chat) and provides an accurate picture of your customer’s needs. A CRM also helps you understand the real problems and needs of your potential customers so you can craft relevant marketing campaigns that speak directly to them.

For example, a CRM allows your service teams to regularly share customer feedback, complaints, or feature requests with your marketing and product teams. This helps them understand the core problems of your customers and what features they want to see in your product.

CRM marketing benefit #2: Create well-defined customer segments

Customer segmentation is a fundamental marketing concept because generic marketing campaigns don’t work anymore. According to research, 80 percent of customers respond positively to marketing campaigns tailored to their interests and needs.

One of the main advantages of a CRM system is that it enables multi-level segmentation in your audience based on interests, location, usage patterns, engagement, satisfaction level, and other criteria.

This allows you to design highly targeted marketing campaigns that speak specifically to that segment. For example, you can send special offers to users in a specific geographic location. Or you could target the customers with the highest satisfaction rating for upsell offers because they’re more likely to convert.

All of this is possible with an integrated CRM system, as it tracks and records all customer activity and gives you the tools for advanced segmentation.

CRM marketing benefit #3: Generate qualified marketing leads

CRMs not only help you improve customer satisfaction but also define your sales cycle by providing you and your salespeople with advanced lead-generation tools such as landing pages and opt-in forms to convert traffic into subscribers and leads.

To improve lead quality, you can ask specific questions at sign-up or offer lead magnets in exchange for the customer’s contact information to help you understand a lead’s interests and business needs. Adding tracking scripts to your landing pages allows you to enable retargeting campaigns on Facebook, Google, and other advertising networks.

CRM marketing benefit #4: Run personalized and automated email campaigns

With an ROI of $36 for every dollar spent, email marketing is among the most profitable and engaging marketing channels. Modern CRMs offer integrated marketing automation with advanced email marketing automation features that help you regularly engage your customers and prospects and build a value-based relationship with them. 

Here are a few example scenarios to show you what’s possible with an integrated CRM and email marketing automation solution.

Scenario #1: Say a visitor converts into an email subscriber from your landing page. You can then send them a welcome email sequence that introduces them to your product and shows how it will help them grow their business. 

Scenario #2: Automated follow-up emails are a great tool to use when a customer doesn’t engage with your product for a specific time period or has a low satisfaction rating.

Scenario #3: Completely automate your marketing and sales messaging with predefined email sequences and workflows for different customer lifecycle stages. For example, by configuring weekly engagement emails that share product tips and tutorials, you’ll help customers get more value from your product.

Scenario #4: Create email sequences for customers entering the final quarter of their tenure with your product. Your sequences can include a mix of engagement, marketing, and sales emails to encourage early renewal.

A CRM empowers you with these automation features because it has all the critical data on all the relevant customer touchpoints. You can even create automation templates based on the most frequent marketing scenarios to save time.

CRM marketing benefit #5: Increase customer retention

Research shows that selling to an existing customer has a 60–70 percent chance of success. In comparison, selling to a new prospect is only likely to succeed 5–20 percent of the time. That’s why customer retention is such a critical part of any organization’s marketing strategy.

A CRM facilitates customer retention and improves customer loyalty by helping you provide customers with a memorable experience throughout their tenure. Plus, it highlights the most and least likely retention prospects based on their satisfaction and product usage patterns. 

These insights help you proactively approach customers to resolve problems, increase their renewal chances, and improve sales forecasting.

Satisfied customers also tend to recommend your product in their circles, resulting in word-of-mouth marketing and referral sales.

How to use your CRM for marketing

With a modern integrated CRM and marketing automation solution, you can automate a significant part of your marketing strategy and fill your sales pipeline. For example, you can create landing pages for lead generation by adding relevant lead magnets and opt-in forms.

These landing pages are directly integrated with your email marketing system. Once a visitor converts into a subscriber, your email marketing system can immediately trigger a welcome email sequence and keep engaging subscribers with new and relevant emails. When subscribers convert into customers, your CRM can track their usage patterns and gauge satisfaction through periodic surveys.

If a customer approaches your services team with a complaint or suggestion, the system can automatically share it with your customer support and sales teams. You can also trigger activity-based marketing campaigns with your CRM. For example, you can send emails and SMSs or show relevant products to users who visit a specific page on your site or engage with a marketing campaign.

Overall, a CRM empowers you by gathering priceless customer information in a centralized database and giving you the tools to achieve your marketing and sales goals.

Is your marketing strategy benefiting from a CRM system?

A CRM tool streamlines your data and provides valuable customer insights and helps you make informed marketing decisions instead of relying on guesswork. So, if you’re not using an integrated CRM and marketing automation solution to power your marketing strategy, now’s the time to Act!. Try Act! for free for 14 days now. No downloads or credit cards are required.

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Creating trustworthy relationships with clients through fast, accurate, and personalized care makes financial services professionals stand out among others. Fortunately, Allied Financial Software, Inc. has the products and expertise to help financial and insurance professionals stay organized and on top of their priorities, giving them more time to focus on building relationships with clients and potential prospects.

An Act! ACC Sales Leader and Platinum Tier Partner, Allied Financial offers a range of customized Act! product packages specifically for businesses within the financial and insurance markets. Allied Financial Software also provides product training, consultation, and development courses to ensure clients get the most out of their Act! products. We recently sat down with Allied Financial Software President Scott Abboud to discuss how Act! makes life for financial and insurance professionals easier by providing them with the platform and tools they need to succeed. 

To start, please tell us more about Allied Financial Software—its history, offerings, expertise, etc. 

In the late 80s and early 90s, I started as a financial services professional and worked with two large firms.  As a sales manager, I started using Act! in 1992 and began using Act! in my own practice with a side business of software consulting for my colleagues.  I created Allied Financial Services in 1993 and went out on my own as an independent investment advisor. Later, I became a VP of business development for a large broker-dealer, where I traveled the country, sharing the best practices for financial advice with various financial institutions. Act! was a part of those best practices, freeing financial planners from the chaos of Rolodexes and index cards by providing them with an intelligent software solution to help organize and manage their client and prospect relationships. 

After becoming a Certified Financial Planner® in 1991, I ran my own financial planning practice and eventually began consulting primarily for financial services software. My experience and background in financial planning and asset allocation awarded me unique insights into financial service, which enabled me to customize the Act! software to cater to the unique needs of financial advisors and insurance professionals. In 1999, these industry-specific database templates were the blueprint for creating Act4Advisors, an Act! add-on designed specifically for the financial and insurance industry verticals. The popularity of the Act4Advisors software prompted me to start Allied Financial Software, Inc in 2001 and become an Act! Certified Consultant in 2002. 

Allied Financial Software has always focused on the financial and insurance industry and, along with consultation and training, began developing customized Act! add-ons to cater to both unique verticals. Our company has worked with financial and insurance institutions of all sizes, from sole proprietors to enterprises. However, with larger organizations, we tend to work closely with departments within the companies. So, we are used to providing our expertise to smaller teams.

What differentiates you from your competitors? 

By far, our domain knowledge within the vertical-specific Act! add-ons are what differentiates us from our competitors. Our Act4Advisors add-on for Act! was designed specifically for financial planners, investment advisors, and insurance professionals. The customized database program includes pertinent industry features, such as personal information fields, basic account and insurance information, custom reports, web portals, and document management, with scanning capabilities. With these capabilities, users can leverage Act!’s database features to automatically track client information and quickly determine things like proper services, products, benefits packages, and qualified plans. 

Allied Financial Software also offers Scan&Organize add-on for Act! that allows Act! users to scan and manage essential documents directly within the Act! platform. This enables users to maintain client folders which can include vital documents such as Wills & Trusts, Financial Plans, Invoices, communications, etc—helping any Act! users including financial and insurance professionals stay organized and provide superior service to their clients. 

How have you seen Act! solutions evolve over time? 

I have been an Act! user since nearly its inception so for me, a lot has changed! While I could discuss how Act! has grown to include email management tools and has evolved to include mobile and cloud-based CRM integration and Act!’s Marketing Automation (AMA), the greatest evolution of Act! has been its continued growth and prioritization of its user interface. Act! has always provided its clients with highly intuitive and connective software, and its products just continue to become more user-friendly and easier to adopt—which makes it a lot easier to sell!

Regarding user adoption, are there any common roadblocks customers encounter when setting up a CRM system? 

For anyone new to CRM, the most challenging part of software adoption is getting them to change their habits and how they manage their client lists and important data. Whether it is resistance to change or fear of the unknown, clients often feel like their way is the right way. As consultants, an important part of our job is getting clients to understand that while their current processes may “work,” they may not be serving their customers to the best of their ability, and CRM technology like Act! is designed to take their operations and customer service to the next level. 

How have you seen customers’ business needs evolve in the past few years, e.g., any trends in software needs since Covid? And, are there any capabilities customers are more interested in as business becomes increasingly digital?

The most significant change I have seen is the accelerated migration to cloud technologies, with many CRM vendors doing away with on-premise software options. As a financial and insurance-focused CRM consultant, we are fortunate to have a tool like Act! that provides both an Act! Premium on-premise CRM, along with various CRM deployment options that include hybrid approaches offering users the flexibility and accessibility of cloud software with the security and reliability of on-premise technology. 

Visit their website to learn more about how Allied Financial Software, Inc. can help organize your financial or insurance professional services team and improve relationships with your valuable clients. 

The post Act! Channel Partner Spotlight – Allied Financial Software, Inc. appeared first on Act!.

All nonprofits — no matter what size or area they serve — face many of the same challenges. They have to manage both paid employees and volunteers. Attract new donors and deepen relationships with existing ones. Create marketing campaigns and launch fundraisers. 

Although the list might seem endless, many nonprofits have tackled it head-on with tremendous innovation and creativity. For instance, smaller nonprofits often rely on homegrown methods to manage all the moving parts across their organization. Maybe they store their donor contacts in Outlook, track donations in Excel spreadsheets, and launch email campaigns through MailChimp. But if these apps can’t speak to each other, the data management headaches can pile up quickly. 

These ad hoc processes, however, can be tough to scale as the organization grows. Plus, when team members or volunteers move on, they take that knowledge with them. This can leave incoming staff with a steep learning curve as they try to figure out where all of the information resides.

This is why, no matter how new or how small a nonprofit is, it’s never too early to start using a customer relationship management (CRM) platform.

How can a CRM help nonprofits?

The good news is, there’s a CRM system for every budget and skill set. You don’t have to run a Fortune 500 company to get the benefits of having all your contact information, donation amounts, marketing data, and fundraising reports together in one place. In this post, we’ll share some of the great benefits and key features to get the best CRM for your budget and business needs.

Here’s what a CRM can do for you:

Save you TONS of time.

Have you ever calculated how much time you spend onboarding new staff and volunteers? Running email marketing campaigns? Or figuring out how to segment and target your donor base so you can communicate with them more effectively?

A CRM can make all of this easier for you. Potential donors and volunteer recruits can enter their information directly into lead capture forms on your website. That data can be automatically added to your CRM database and then segmented so you send the right messages to the right audience.

Email marketing automation can help you easily manage all of your campaigns. Need to notify volunteers about an upcoming training? Done. Want to invite major donors to a special event? Easy peasy. Gone are the days of manually searching through donor information, which not only drains hours of precious time, you may still wind up omitting key contacts from essential email notifications.

Improve your donor relationships (and attract new ones).

Donor fatigue is real. When nonprofits continually hit up the same people for more money, it can impact donor retention rates and possibly drive donors away. Donor management requires more finesse while ensuring your advocacy message cuts through all the noise.

The right CRM can help you personalize communications with all your donors. It enables you to segment your donor data-target specific campaigns to your donor audience based on key characteristics such as previous donations, age, geographic area, and more.  

This helps to align your messages to specific groups instead of continually bombarding your entire database with email blasts that may or may not be relevant to them. So whether a donor has given for the first time or has been a passionate supporter for years, you get the visibility and metrics needed to put the right relationship building blocks in place.

Simplify your day-to-day operations.

As a nonprofit leader, you probably wear multiple hats every day. A CRM can lighten your load by eliminating needless manual tasks, such as creating email campaigns from scratch or constantly moving data between apps.

The right CRM platform gives you the functionality needed to streamline everyday workflows across your team. You can use pre-built, customizable templates to create email newsletters, landing pages, and more. 

What’s more, your CRM should include essential integrations with key productivity apps and suites such as Microsoft Office 365 and  Google Workspace. These integrations ensure your CRM can talk to all of these applications. For instance, you can initiate a Zoom call or request document signatures right from your CRM. 

How do you choose the best CRM solution for your nonprofit?

As with nearly all nonprofit organizations, pricing is always top-of-mind when considering any new purchase. With that in mind, how do you find the right CRM tools that offer the functionality you need without a lot of extra bells and whistles you don’t?

The fact is, there’s no single “best nonprofit CRM” out there. The key is to find the best CRM for you. Think about the list of things you handle every day: event management, volunteer management, outreach, fundraising campaigns, online donations, social media management – is there really an all-in-one CRM that can help you do it all?

The short answer is, yes! To get started, here’s a handy checklist of what to look for (which should apply to any nonprofit organization regardless of size or area of advocacy):

Personalization and customization features so your CRM works like you do

These features help you optimize your communication efforts by sending the right message to the right audience at the right time. You can also distinguish your organization with personalized campaigns and landing pages with professional, yet fully customizable, turnkey templates.  

Marketing automation to streamline and optimize your outreach

Marketing automation is essential to improving your ability to follow up with donors, volunteers, and other audiences. It’s about more than just sending automated responses on email and social media. You can automate key marketing workflows and stay engaged with all of your stakeholders. Best of all, you can more easily identify what’s working, what’s not, and how to improve processes to meet — and hopefully exceed — your major goals.

Centralized data management for a complete understanding of your donors

Simplify your day-to-day work life by capturing data from donors, volunteers, sponsors, grants, and more all in one organized and easily searchable place. Centralized data management gives you a clear view of your relationship history with every contact. This allows you to reach out with new campaigns and updates, or contact donors and volunteers you haven’t heard from in a while.

Real-time metrics for real-time insights and financial reporting

Keep track of every donor and grant opportunity and instantly view results from fundraising campaigns. Real-time metrics help you quickly assess which marketing campaigns are giving you the best payoff so you can apply the most successful strategies moving forward.  

User-friendly CRM interface for quick adoption and results

Let’s face it, any new technology or app needs to be easy to learn so you and your team can stay on top of key projects and priorities. Plus, when new employees or volunteers join, you have to get them up to speed in a matter of minutes rather than spend valuable time training new folks on software.  

Essential integrations with the apps and tools you love to save you time

As mentioned previously, your CRM should easily connect to your favorite apps and suites, including Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, and more. This includes payment processing for online donations that funnel directly from fundraising campaigns. As a result, you experience fewer errors and reduce time spent flipping back and forth between apps or tabs. In short, app integrations keep everything connected, up to date, and in sync. 

Pay-as-you-grow subscription for peace of mind

Nonprofits shouldn’t pay for software features they don’t need and won’t use. This is why it’s important to look for a subscription-based solution that starts where you are. Whether you need a basic package to kick things off, or you’re ready for more advanced marketing automation features, it’s important to look for nonprofit CRM software that can meet your needs today and grow as your organization changes.

Act! checks all the boxes for a nonprofit CRM

Act! is dedicated to providing nonprofits everywhere access to software solutions  that amplify their relationships and transform their success. Discover how our powerfully simple relationship management tools can support your mission with better marketing and data tracking tools to attract more donors and volunteers, streamline online fundraising, and assist with grant management. 

Act! offers flexible customizations, a mobile app and numerous app integrations to accommodate the unique ways you work. We’re committed to meeting your specific needs regardless of your budget and company size.

The post CRM for nonprofits: How to pick the right one for you. appeared first on Act!.

Everyone’s talking about the cloud as the place for storing data and running applications. Recently the direction of travel and working remotely has certainly been in its favor, but is it the right choice when it comes to customer relationship management software? Some are staunch cloud advocates, while others will take some persuading that on-premises solutions aren’t still the best option. But what’s the reality? Where does the balance lie? And is it a case of picking one or the other, or is there another way forward?

On-premises vs. cloud

The most obvious difference between cloud and on-premises solutions is where information and software are kept. While on-premises software deployment involves on-site servers and/or installation on local PCs or laptops, with the cloud, your data and CRM software are stored on remote servers, accessed through an internet connection.

Advantages to the Cloud

One of the major benefits of cloud software is that there are no up-front maintenance costs or expenses associated with hardware or installation expenditures, or resources to track and perform software maintenance. Another advantage of moving to the cloud is that there is effortless maintenance. Since the software resides in the cloud, all of the software’s technical elements including data backups and updates are handled by the software publisher, without any action needed by you. Scalability is a benefit of the cloud, too. The ability to scale cloud services also means that changes in your business can be accommodated much more easily, as increasing (or decreasing) cloud storage capacity is just a matter of altering your subscription. No more having to invest in expensive additional servers or IT staff. Finally, data can be accessed by those who need it, wherever they are, and constantly revised in real-time, so that everyone always has access to the most up-to-date information. This alleviates version conflicts, which can happen with on-premises software if data is altered and different versions cross in transit between colleagues.

Advantages of on-premises

A key advantage to an on-premises solution is the transparency around security. With an on-premises solution, data is typically stored in-house or on your own servers so you always know where your data resides and have control over security updates and measures. Another advantage is the ability to avoid potential third-party outages. While outages of major cloud computing services are rare, they do happen, making the fear of potential disruption to service a justified worry for companies for whom such an event would be disastrous. In addition, some businesses prefer to have complete control over when updates are deployed to the software they are using. The on-premises approach allows users to control the timing of updates and upgrades. Finally, there are other things to consider such as data recoverability, regulatory requirements around customer data, data integration, and the like.

Best of Both Worlds

There is a way to square the circle so that you get the best of both worlds and many businesses today are willing to adopt a hybrid approach that uses a mix of on-premises software and hardware, alongside public or private cloud services across their organizations. Effectively this ‘pick and mix’ approach enables you to choose the technology that works best for you, in whatever form it takes. It allows you to stick with on-premises solutions when security, or the perception of security, may be an issue, and to use cloud-based software for greater cost-effectiveness or when you need to give your off-premise team access to customer information.

And, putting in place a hybrid system can be a good option if there is an embedded organizational hesitancy about using the cloud, to prevent an “all-or-nothing” solution. Using legacy applications on up and running accounts while using cloud-based tools for new business could be a cost-effective way to move forward with minimal risk, giving you the best of both approaches. And because there are no major long-term commitments with cloud-based solutions, small businesses won’t incur large or unnecessary expenses as they test the waters to find the CRM system that works best for them.

It’s important to note that many CRM solutions are SaaS or cloud-only, while Act! offers Act! Premium, the on-premise CRM along with a variety of CRM and marketing automation deployment options including a hybrid approach that lets you work offline on your local machine or device and sync to the cloud at your convenience. 

Why Act!?

Act! is a feature-rich, customizable CRM platform that offers unparalleled flexibility to accommodate all the unique ways you do business, whether you prefer an on-premises CRM or a cloud CRM. With our cloud solution, you always have instant online access to your data no matter where you are through a modern, secure AWS platform, along with the peace of mind that comes with automatic upgrades and limited upfront costs, while our on-premises solution gives you or your service provider the control to manage your data security, the location of your CRM data and decide the timing of your software updates and upgrades. 

Regardless of your preferred type of CRM, Act! is the perfect CRM tool for small and midsize businesses looking to market better, sell more, and create customers for life. With unparalleled flexibility and freedom of choice, Act! accommodates all the unique ways you do business. Try Act! free for 14 days, no credit card required. Visit act.com/products for more details, or connect and talk with our team about our platform and solutions: https://www.act.com/contact-us/

The post CRM: On-premises or Cloud? appeared first on Act!.

If you’re running a version of Act! that you purchased a few years ago (or more!), chances are your version has been retired. This means you’re no longer receiving critical updates that help ensure your Act! database remains secure and accessible.

Now is the perfect time to upgrade to an Act! subscription. With an Act! subscription, you’ll have access to all updates and upgrades as they’re released, so you know you’re always running supported software.

But what happens if you choose not to upgrade?

The fact is, sticking with old, outdated software solutions of any kind can introduce unnecessary risks to your business — and who needs more uncertainty these days? It’s important to understand the downside of relying on outdated software, which can include these top 5 risks:

1. Lack of compatibility with current business platforms

Chances are, you use a number of apps and services, like G Suite, Microsoft Office 365, and more. The last thing you need when you log into your accounts are compatibility issues, which can result in frustrating technology issues and worse, costly delays in accessing your customer data and business apps. When you subscribe to Act!, you always have access to the latest version of Act!, ensuring that your solution remains compatible with popular business applications and platforms including Windows®, Outlook®, Google, and more.

2. No access to critical software updates and fixes

With an Act! subscription, you always have access to updates and fixes as they’re released, providing you with peace of mind that your software will continue to run without issues. This way, you can stay focused on running your business. Software should work hard for you, not the other way around.

3. Disruption to your business

Outdated, incompatible software versions are not just frustrating, they can actually disrupt your business. Imagine if you couldn’t run end-of-year sales reports, send a time-critical customer email, or complete any number of basic business tasks that you depend on every day. As a smaller business owner, you don’t have time to solve software issues or wait for a customer service rep to get you back up and running. By being on a retired version of Act!, you are at risk of losing access to your Act! database.

4. Risk of security vulnerabilities

Hackers are continually looking to exploit security gaps due to outdated software or other vulnerabilities. With an Act! subscription, you can rest assured that security patches are continually and automatically provided, so you know that your customer data and business apps are secure.

5. Loss of access to critical customer and sales data

Data is the lifeblood of any business, and there’s never a “good” time to lose access to your customer data or sales information. And yet, outdated software can create incompatibility or security issues that leave you scrambling to reboot access to your data. An Act! subscription helps ensure business continuity by maintaining compatibility with all of your other business apps and services — which is one less thing you have to worry about.

If you’re running Act! v20 or earlier, your version of Act! has been retired. Review a full list of retired versions here.

Ready to upgrade now? Visit  www.act.com/upgrade  or call us at 866-858-1492

The post The (not so) hidden risks of outdated software appeared first on Act!.

One of the critical aspects of an effective email marketing strategy is maximizing email deliverability and inbox placement. Recipient inbox providers and email filtering services track your email sending history and use algorithms to measure your sender reputation – in other words, they gauge how likely you are to send high quality emails based on your past behavior, and use this estimate to help determine whether your next email will be rejected, sent to junk/spam, or delivered to the inbox.

Importance of sender reputation

A good reputation results in higher inbox placement and more opportunities for conversion. A bad reputation produces not only lower conversion rates, but could result in all of your emails being blocked. Your sender reputation holds you accountable to your recipients, their inbox provider, and any other entities that facilitate the delivery of your email.

Managing your sender reputation is as simple as following best practices for the three areas that impact your email quality:

• how you generate leads
• how you send email
• how you maintain your email marketing list

Keep in mind that sender reputation is a holistic measurement so it’s important to commit to all of these practices to optimize results.

Best practices for lead generation

Explicit permission – The number one rule

Only send marketing email to recipients that have provided explicit permission for you to do so. The permission must be freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous. Try to always use an electronic form to keep record of the consent even when subscribers make the request for marketing in person.

• Freely given – Truly voluntary. Denial or withdrawal of permission must not imply negative consequences for the subscriber.
• Specific – Subscribers should know the specific purpose for which they are providing their email address, and if there is more than one purpose, there should be separate consent for each.
• Informed – Details of the permission must be clear and distinct from other text, not buried inside a paragraph or terms of service.
• Unambiguous – Permission must be indicated through an affirmative act or declaration, preferably a checkbox that is defaulted to un-ticked. A pre-ticked box or lack of objection (e.g. “they didn’t say they didn’t want marketing…”) does not constitute permission.

Collecting email addresses from an association, affiliates, joint venture partner, or purchasing addresses through a list provider is not considered a source of opt-in. Use of these types of sources is a fundamentally poor practice because there is no opportunity for the recipient to provide explicit permission.

Email confirmation (AKA double opt-in)

As an extension of permission, confirm each subscriber’s identity and intent to receive marketing on the first email you send them by asking them to click a link or take some other affirmative act. This ensures that the person that filled out the form is actually responsible for the email address they provided.

Setting expectations

Set clear and specific expectations at the time of opt-in for the subscriber about your emails:

• What will the emails be about?
• When and how often will you send them?
• Who will they come from? (Your sending domain, branding, logos, colors, etc.)

Best practices for sending email

Meeting expectations

Consistently deliver mail that meets the subscriber’s expectations for content, frequency and identity that you set when you obtained permission. If any of this is going to change (e.g. branding or logo update) be sure to let your subscribers know. If the changes are significant, reacquire permission and set new expectations at that time.

Segmenting

Segment your lists according to differences in content, frequency, and identity so that subscribers only receive what they requested. This also allows you to cater to subscribers with different interest levels or email preferences.

Subject lines

Describe plainly and clearly what you are sending. Subject lines that contain spam-like keywords, or are misleading or vague will likely get flagged as spam.

Whitelisting

Ask your subscribers to add your sending address to their contacts or safe sender list.

Unsubscribing

Make it easy to unsubscribe. When subscribers find it hard or impossible to unsubscribe, they often mark the email as spam. A single unsubscribe is better than a single spam compliant, any day!

Legal awareness

Be aware of and comply with email related laws that apply to you AND to your subscribers (e.g. CAN-SPAM, CASL, GDPR, etc.). Remember that sending email is often international and you’ll need to respect the laws of the destination as well as the origin. Legal consequences aside, non-compliant emails are a red flag for spam filters and recipient inbox providers.

Objectionable content

Avoid objectionable content, even if your subscribers have agreed to view it. Spam filters will often pick up on objectionable keywords, regardless of your relationship with the recipient.

Best practices for list maintenance

Regularly remove the following high risk subscribers from your marketing list:

Unengaged subscribers

As a general rule, these are subscribers that have not opened or clicked in the past 6 months though this depends on how often you send. For example, if you send daily emails, a subscriber could be considered unengaged if they don’t have any activity after one only month. Attempt to re-engage with these subscribers early by offering a special promotion or incentive to show signs of interest, don’t wait until they become too much of a risk to send them marketing.

Role accounts

Email addresses that consist of a role instead of a name, like info@, admin@, or sales@. Role accounts are often shared or passed down as people change roles at a company, which means you could be sending marketing to someone without permission.

Lost or forgotten subscribers

Permission degrades over periods of inactivity. Don’t send to an old list of subscribers if you haven’t been emailing them within the past 6 months, even if you obtained explicit permission at the beginning of your relationship.

The hard truth

Many senders struggle with letting go of these “leads”.  Don’t be tempted to hang on to unengaged or other high risk recipients. This only hurts your inbox placement with prospects that have the highest potential for conversion: your active and engaged subscribers.

The best email is both wanted and expected

How you generate leads, how you send email, and how you maintain your email marketing list all impact your sender reputation and inbox placement. Be sure to commit to best practices in each of these categories to maintain an excellent reputation. If you feel unsure about how to implement a particular practice, let transparency be your guide. Be clear about your intentions and consistently meet your subscribers’ expectations.

At the end of the day, your goal is to make sure every email is both wanted and expected by your subscribers. With this approach, you’ll develop trust with both your subscribers and their inbox providers – trust that will benefit your business far beyond just email deliverability.

The post An overview of best practices for inbox placement appeared first on Act!.

In the world of real estate, the two most important things are the market prices and your client rolodex.

Not much you can do about the former, but when it comes to managing relationships, every realtor has their own method. Some like to keep track of every interaction in their heads, while others will rely on scribbled notes and hastily typed spreadsheets.

But the savviest real estate professionals will know that nothing beats a good CRM tool.

Why Use a CRM Tool for Real Estate?

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management, and lets you do just that: manage client relationships. In addition to contact management, you can add notes, schedule your next appointments, and much more. In short, a CRM system is a technology that manages the small details so you can keep your eye on the prize – closing more deals.

Now for the benefits, here is what you should be to accomplish with the right CRM setup:

• Improve team collaboration: by integrating data from numerous departments, you can reduce silos and foster cooperation. For instance, you could maximize teamwork between Marketing and Sales by immediately passing leads found on your website (marketing) to the best salesperson for conversion.
• Streamline your sales pipeline and improve your sales process: CRM software can help you visualize your sales pipelines, which lets you identify what works and what needs improvement.
• Boost productivity with automation: If your real estate agency needs to go through numerous repetitive tasks, you could speed things up drastically with a CRM tool that supports automated processes. For instance, you could ensure that it only takes one click to schedule follow-ups with potential buyers, send email campaigns, or assign contacts to the right realtor in seconds.
• Strengthen your customer support: A CRM platform is also great as a support tool. Since you keep all the info relating to a client in one place, it’s easier to offer personalized support that really meets their needs and makes them feel special and looked after.
• Enable flexible work setups: this is especially important for realtors who are often on the move or on-site. A good cloud CRM tool should be available 24/7 and on any device, including smartphones, tablets, and laptops. That means you could expand your workforce with remote employees, and even those who are far from your main real estate agency office will be able to access the same always up-to-date client data.
• Ensure consistent reporting: most CRM software will come with in-depth reporting features, which can help you work with accurate data. You can use these analytics to make more informed business decisions, A/B test marketing techniques, and generally get better insights into what works and what doesn’t at your real estate company.

What is the Best Real Estate CRM Solution?

Below are some of the most popular real estate CRM software tools, including famous names and all-in-one solutions that include listing websites.

Salesforce

Salesforce is a market leader, and also probably one of the best-known CRM providers in the world. Their solution is suitable for all kinds of businesses, including real estate companies thanks to features such as pipeline management, lead scoring, and extremely powerful reporting.

However, be aware that Salesforce is aimed at mid-market companies with deeper pockets. While their entry tier is comparable in price with Act!, the features are severely limited. You’ll need to pay at least $75 per user per month, and that doesn’t include phone support (add an extra 20% of the price per user per month) or marketing automation (starting at a prohibitive $1,250 per month!). For instance, additional custom fields do come with the Enterprise tier, but at $150 per user per month, it’s still a hefty investment. And that’s not all, once set up, it can cost more to maintain than to purchase the software. Most companies need to hire a Salesforce administrator just to groom their Salesforce, for instance.

Still, it could be worth it if you already use Salesforce as your primary selling tool. Just remember that integration and training can take 5-10 days (and cost up to $5K), but you will end up with a robust and reliable CRM tool.

Finally, Salesforce does have a more affordable solution for SMBs, called Salesforce Essentials. Its price aligns with that of other tools like Act!, but you do miss out on features like email marketing or call lists and hot leads.

Salesforce Pros:

• Perfect integration with other Salesforce tools
• Powerful reporting
• A mature, reliable solution

Salesforce Cons:

• Lengthy integration and staff training
• Limited custom field options
• Large number of upsells and paid add-ons
• Expensive

Zoho CRM

Another well-known name in the world of CRM is Zoho CRM, which is especially popular thanks to its free version and low-cost options. Of course, the features will be limited depending on your plan, but the customization options, built-in campaigns, and easy invoicing features can make it worthwhile for realtors.

On the downside, their email marketing can leave a lot to be desired as it doesn’t offer automation to follow up on leads based on their interactions with your team. Support is also notoriously patchy, probably because the company’s user base is so huge (with many users on the free plan).

Zoho CRM Pros:

• Free plan
• Fairly priced Enterprise plan
• Integrated invoicing feature

Zoho CRM Cons:

• No email automation
• Slow, low-quality support
• Feature gating produces forced upgrades and abrupt price increases for basic add-ons and features

HubSpot CRM

HubSpot is known for its excellent software and strong online presence. The free offer with limited features is attractive to freelancers and real estate company owners with few staff members.

On the downside, the scaling options aren’t so attractive, as you’ll need to fork out between $4000 – $9000 in onboarding fees for the Professional or Enterprise plan. These give you all the features you should expect out of the box, such as lead scoring and call lists. However, their Growth Suite is more affordable, starting at $50 per user per month when paid annually upfront. Otherwise, it’s $112.50/month.

HubSpot CRM Pros:

• Free plan
• Robust software
• Kanban board pipeline management

HubSpot CRM Cons:

• Expensive onboarding & plans make it cost-prohibitive for SMBs
• Too few features in the free plan

How Act! Does CRM for Real Estate

Our own solution is designed specifically around the needs of small to medium businesses. We know and understand the challenges faced by real estate agents and independent realtors, which is why we’ve built in all the features you need to grow at an affordable price point, with no hidden costs and extra CRM integration fees.

• Powerful built-in tools: Manage customer relationships with groups and filters, opportunity tracking, lead management tools, such as call lists, and hot leads, and much more.
• Easy setup: Act! has one of the most straightforward onboarding processes and learning curves for newcomers to the world of CRM. The stunning dashboard is modern, intuitive, and fully customizable to adapt to how you want to deal with clients, former buyers, and future leads.
• Cloud-based technology: run your business 24/7 and wherever you are. The mobile app means you always stay updated with the latest customer info, so clients always feel acknowledged and supported.
• Clear, transparent pricing: we offer three plans with clear prices per user per month. You can add unlimited users and scale your real estate company with complete control over costs and ROI.
• Email marketing: send up to tens of thousands of emails per month to as many contacts as you need, and reduce your costs in other newsletter tools.
• Powerful automation: benefit from pre-built email campaigns, social sharing, and design specific landing pages to send buyers to the listing of their dreams. You’ll get all the opportunities you need to automatically capture leads and speed up the process of turning interested prospects into homeowners!

And best of all, you can try the entire platform for free using this link!

What Act! Real Estate Users Say

“If I didn’t have it, I’d be lost. I wouldn’t know where to turn. My Act! as a resource is worth at least $500,000 to me.”  Hal Hanstein, president of Cardinal Realty Group, a commercial real estate company based in St. Louis, Missouri.

“I can really tailor my marketing with Act! Marketing Automation. And once the campaigns are set up, they happen automatically, so I can put more time and energy into other things.”  Jeffrey Gazlay, Broker Associate at Paul Homes, one of SouthWest Florida’s leading custom property builders.

“So all through that quarter, I was consistently handling 21 to 22 contracts. I certainly couldn’t have done what I did without my system in Act!.” Gretchen Osgood, Real Estate Agent and Principal Broker at Hawaiian Isle Real Estate.

What About Real Estate-Specific CRM Platforms?

The good news is that on top of the most popular customer relationship management software solutions, the last few years have seen a boom in the number of industry-specific tools. Real estate is no exception, and you’ll now find dozens of decent realtor CRM tools, some of them even built on the Salesforce platform as a special integration.

Propertybase

One of those Salesforce-powered tools is Propertybase, which starts at $89 per month, including marketing automation and IDX so that you can have full integration between listings and customer management. For the website and lead generation tools, the prices do shoot up to $399 a month, but it could be worth it if you use it for mass email and save up on newsletter provider costs.

LionDesk

Next on the list is the much more affordable LionDesk, which offers two plans at $25 and $49 per month. The higher tier includes customizable fields and the innovative text2Sell feature, which lets you send messages to leads directly from their dashboard. They also offer a third plan at $99 per month, including 3rd party integration setup, priority support, and 1:1 training, amongst other additional benefits.

Unfortunately, the dashboard is a shortcoming of the web app, as it often feels a bit cluttered and hard to navigate. Maybe a future UX overhaul will make it a better option for real estate agents who want the best of all worlds.

IXACT Contact

Finally, a strong competitor to PropertyBase for the best real estate CRM system + IDX website tool for realtors is IXACT Contact. They have a great promo for new agents (US only) who have been licensed for less than a year, including free social media contact scanning and mass mailing.

You can then customize the plan based on the features you need, starting at around $33 per user per month, plus $23 per extra team member, and $33 per month to link your listings website.

Do You Need a Real-Estate Specific CRM Tool?

If you are new to the real estate industry, it can be worth looking at the real estate software mentioned above. You could benefit from getting an all-in-one offer where you create a website that integrates with your CRM solution.

Aside from the fact that these tools tend to be pricier than standard CRMs, you should also note that these platforms attempt to lock you into their own ecosystem, which could be challenging as you need to grow and adapt your business. For instance, if you end up needing certain features for your listing website or CRM, you won’t have the flexibility of migrating all your content at once.

Finding The Best CRM For Real Estate: Next Steps

Interested in CRMs even if you’re not a real estate broker? Maybe you’re a small business owner, but you’re not sure which solution is right for you? You can find more information in our post about CRM for small businesses. We even have a full ebook guide for you to pore over the best CRM features in your own time. You can download it from here.

Still have questions? Or ready to try Act! and all its features for your real estate business? Don’t hesitate to get in touch today, or jump straight to your free trial of Act! CRM today!

The post The best CRM for Real Estate appeared first on Act!.