5 Reasons Why Every Realtor Needs a Branded Mobile App for Their Real Estate Business
In this article, I’ll show you why every successful realtor needs an app, and why not having one can be detrimental to your business.
You may think that you already have a website, a LinkedIn page, and a Facebook or Instagram presence, and that’s enough. But as a realtor, you need to take advantage of every possible tech advancement and marketing tool. Having an app is an integral step on the ladder to success.
But before we dive into why you need an app, let me introduce myself.
I’m Will Grewal, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of HomeStack, the leading provider of mobile app technology for real estate agents, teams and brokerages. I have been pioneering the mobile app space with our lead generation tool built for real estate agents and prospects since 2012.
Without further ado, let’s start by examining why tech is so valuable and the role it plays in the real estate sector.
Making The Most Of Technology
Mobile technology has made it easier than ever before for realtors to take their real estate businesses to a new level. Mobile apps offer real estate agencies a host of benefits. From increasing lead generation and sales, to enhancing clients’ access to realtors’ services.
The technology available to the real estate industry is improving all the time. Most customers search for realtors and properties on their smartphones and tablets. This gives estate companies the perfect opportunity to market themselves on these platforms.
Interestingly, many realtors have not yet adopted mobile technology as part of their digital marketing strategies. This provides an excellent opportunity for progressive realtors to secure a competitive advantage and be one of the first to offer a dedicated mobile app for their businesses.
5 Reasons You Need a Personal Mobile App for Your Real Estate Business
Brand Visibility
The average smartphone user has 80 apps on their phone, just 30 of which they use every month. The average user also spends 3 hours and 10 minutes a day using their device, about 90% of which is spent using apps.
Most people have a few apps that they use most often, but simply having your brand’s app visible on your customers’ devices will keep your business fresh in their minds.
Human brains are constantly processing information through symbols, images, and signs. When a client sees your business’s logo or name on their smartphone, there’s an excellent chance that you will be the first realtor that comes to mind when they need help with rentals, sales, or property purchases.
Customer Loyalty
It isn’t enough to simply build a personal real estate app. You need to provide value to users to encourage them to download your app and use it continually. Offering valuable media to users will foster loyalty to your brand, ensuring that they are more likely to put their trust in your real estate services in the future.
According to the concept of effective frequency, consumers are more likely to build loyalty towards a brand if they see its logos and media on at least 20 separate occasions. Mobile apps are highly visible to users and easier for them to engage with than websites. This increases the likelihood of your customer’s building loyalty towards your business.
You can add value to your real estate business app by sending your users informative newsletters, how-to articles, free downloads, and home-related tips.
The more value you add, the more your customers will feel like members of your private circle, and the more loyal to your brand they will become.
Lead Generation
There’s a reason so many businesses have their own mobile apps. In the age of digital marketing, apps make it easy for businesses to generate quality leads and convert those leads into paying clients.
You can use your app to send leads and existing clients notifications and special offers to promote your services and reinforce the visibility of your brand. You can also send out polls and questionnaires to gain your customers’ opinions in a quick and efficient manner.
Use their responses to personalize your communications and services, and you may generate even more leads in the process. According to research from Criteo, mobile apps provide better conversion rates than any other marketing channel, including websites.
Improved Engagement
In another Criteo study, it’s revealed that real estate apps are twice as likely to keep users than mobile-optimized real estate websites. There is also twice the chance that mobile app users will use the apps again within a month.
Real estate apps are excellent at boosting engagement, especially when you are trying to engage with younger generations of clients. The Criteo study noted that 31.97% of the real estate app users surveyed showed medium activity, while 38.11% showed high activity, using the apps for an entire week after downloading them.
The study revealed that over 70% of people who actively use real estate apps are doing so at least 3 times a week. This makes apps highly effective for engaging potential clients, building long-lasting relationships, and encouraging clients to contact you with any of their property-related questions.
This is especially important for those who invest in video marketing. The advantages of video marketing in real estate are hard to overestimate. Video is rapidly becoming the preferred medium for users to consume information. By delivering videos via push notifications through your app, you can significantly increase your audience’s engagement with your brand.
Better User Experience
Providing a customized real estate app for your clients can improve their user experience, leaving them with a positive impression of your brand.
Mobile websites can provide good user experiences, but as smartphones have small screens, your clients may end up becoming overwhelmed with the distracting amount of information your site presents to them, even if it is mobile optimized.
Mobile apps trim down this excess information and provide only the most important data, which makes for a simple and user-friendly experience. Because there will be few distractions on your mobile app, you can focus instead on offering the best quality property search features possible.
Every function of your real estate app is designed for interactions on a specific operating system, like iOS or Android. This makes for a much stronger and more streamlined experience on the users’ end.
A Worthwhile Investment
There are several interesting reasons for realtors to invest in personal mobile apps for their real estate businesses. Having an app available can improve user loyalty and engagement rates, and further your digital marketing strategies.
Realtors and businesses that offer mobile apps:
- Are better equipped to maximize the potential of their user engagement approaches
- Foster recognition and loyalty towards their brands
- Can increase traffic rates from the back portal
- Provide a memorable user experience for their apps’ regular users.
If you want to remain competitive within the real estate industry, you need to move with the times and stay ahead of your rivals.
Offering your clients a mobile app will allow you to preserve your competitive edge and attract the business of younger, tech-savvy generations too.
About the Author
Will Grewal is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of HomeStack, the leading provider of mobile app technology for real estate agents, teams and brokerages. The Los Angeles, CA based company was founded in 2012 and is a pioneer in the mobile app space with its lead generation tool, optimized with search that improves communication with real estate agents and prospects.
___
If you too want to contribute your expert advice on a topic of your expertise, feel free to apply to our Expert Contributor Program.