5 Killer Content Ideas That’ll Make You Want To Use Your CRM

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems are a necessary evil for real estate agents. Ideally they’ll make your life easier, keep you organized, and help you follow-up with leads and past clients on a regular basis.

But follow-up with what?!

Most CRMs offer follow-up templates that you can pre-load into your campaigns, but many times they can be too broad or impersonal. The last thing you want is a prospect opening the first email you send, coming to the same conclusion and unsubscribing. This, unfortunately, may be why many agents abandon CRMs after the initial motivation wears off.

Luckily, most CRMs allow you to edit the pre-loaded content they provide, or upload your own.

While it requires upfront work, creating your own — or uploading custom content you curate or buy — can be well worth the time and effort.

Here are 5 types of content, and some ideas on how to use them. Hopefully these will inspire you to reach out to your long term prospects again!

1. Memes

Memes are super fun and relatable — and they’re hands down the best way to stay top of mind. You can create your own easily with free tools online, or you can just share memes other people have made. (Btw, feel free to use any of the ones we create and share on our Lighter Side of Real Estate Facebook page.)

Most people love memes, and the chances are it’s way different than anything your competition may be sending their contacts. While you might think memes are typically meant for social media, sending prospects a meaningful meme by text or email is more personal and can create a shared joke, along with some subtle self-promotion.

2. Engaging articles

Always be on the lookout for timely articles that your prospects would find interesting, useful, or entertaining. Or “infotaining” as we like to say. The only effort required is writing a quick email that gives a little insight into why you think they would find the article interesting. Keep your eye out for articles about the real estate market, useful tips for homeowners, buyers or renters, or just an interesting story with personal meaning so they can get to know you a bit better.

Bonus points if you include a call-to-action, or a question to prompt them to reply. Bottom line: sharing useful, timely information goes a long way in nurturing your relationship with prospects and leads.

3) Witty postcards

Not the typical postcards… Actually, a lot of agents don’t send out postcards anymore. The ones who do are often sending the same old “just listed” and “just sold” postcards. Not that there’s anything wrong with those, but if you don’t have any listings or sales, it’s still good to send other kinds that remind them you’re available to help.

Use the fact that most agents solely send those types of postcards, and instead send out creative, fun, memorable ones. Customize the number and frequency of them depending upon the type of lead they are. They can be a great addition to your prospect follow-up plans over the course of time.

4. Guides, e-books, and how-to booklets

Creating a guide, e-book or how-to booklet for each specific type of lead you have will put your credibility and authority on full display. Yes, these take thought, time and maybe even money to create them, but they can be the backbone of a solid CRM. You can use them online to generate leads as well as print them to offer prospects in person.

Start with a basic seller and buyer guide, but then create more specific ones, like:

First-time buyer guide
Relocation guide
Expired listings
Selling due to divorce

Those are just a few topics to get your juices flowing, but you can create ones for almost any niche you want to specialize in, or have lots of prospects for!

5. Captivating emails and letters

Finally, and most importantly, is how you show up in their inbox. Ideally, you want to write each email from scratch. You can start by editing the canned email and letter templates most CRMs provide. But sometimes it can be easier to start with a blank page and write out what inspires you. Write casually, but professionally. They should read like how you would talk to them in person. Not stuffy and emotionless like a robot wrote them.

You’ll be more likely to use your CRM if you truly value what you’re emailing. A big reason agents abandon their CRM for nurturing is because the followup templates don’t sound anything like a real person. So, put some thought and feeling into yours, and your prospects will feel it on their end.