Marketing Activities That You Should (And Shouldn’t) Be Automating

There’s little doubt marketing automation has a huge role to play in virtually all businesses these days.
 
In real estate, in particular, automation can make you more efficient, save you a considerable amount of time and gives you the ability to reach more people more often.
 
However, there are also areas where it might not be in your best interest to rely solely on automation. Here are some examples of areas you should and shouldn’t be automating.

Activities you should automate

Sharing content

Trying to stay on top of social media can be incredibly difficult. Not only are there multiple platforms, but unless you are consistent, your audience slowly loses interest.
 
Automating the distribution of your content should be one of your first priorities. There are numerous platforms and tools that allow you to schedule and distribute content across any number of websites.

Email marketing

Across your entire business, you will be in touch will a wide variety of vendors and buyers all of which will have slightly different requirements.
 
By setting up email marketing to distribute things like newsletters, or even simple reminders about birthdays, can make your life a lot easier and it will make you much more efficient.
 
You can have multiple campaigns running at any time and you’re also getting the maximum value out of your content and the time you put into creating it.

Lead capture

These days one of the first things agents should be doing is setting up a good CRM that can help them capture leads online and automatically transfer them into your database.
 
These new leads can be automatically assigned to a drip email campaign, SMS, or other forms of marketing that are appropriate.

Activities you shouldn’t automate

Customer Service

We all know that real estate holdings are often the biggest assets most people own. For them to transact either as a buyer or a seller, there is always going to be some degree of hand-holding that is required.
 
That’s why any form of customer service needs to be done by a person. You’re also building a relationship with the person you’re interacting with and developing trust. While there are tools that can help make the communication process more efficient, automating it is not always going to be the most effective approach.

Qualifying Leads 

No two leads are ever alike and when you are rating them and determining how hot a lead might be, there is always going to be some in which you will need to make a manual assessment.
 
While it’s important to have some form of automated marketing for everyone in your various campaigns, you should determine just where someone fits on a more personalised level. Red hot leads should never just be put into a standard marketing sequence. You need to be on the phone with them asap. Here are some essential tips to ensure you never miss a lead.

Creating content

While you don’t necessarily need to make the content yourself, it is very important to have a personal touch when it comes to social media and content.
 
Remember, you are trying to build relationships with people while demonstrating your area expertise and industry knowledge. This will help build trust so when the time comes for a vendor to sell, you’ll be the first person they call.
 
By creating custom and useful content that adds value, you are separating yourself from your competitors. Custom content is not something you can easily automate, but you can outsource. Don’t just rely on generic marketing material and off-the-shelf content and marketing sequences.

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