Relationships drive the world of real estate. Therefore, a few things are more vital for agents than in-person networking. While online marketing and listing grow more crucial, most deals still originate from building strong referral networks.
Yet when it comes to optimizing those essential human connections, agents rely on an old-school tool — paper business cards. These static, analog cards no longer suffice in an increasingly high-tech and fast-going industry.
Real estate professionals must modernize their networking arsenal with digital business cards to capture more leads and outproduce the competition.
Unlike paper cards, digital cards keep information automatically updated, generate lead capture and conversion analytics, integrate with CRMs, and facilitate automated follow-up with contacts.
For agents, going digital promises game-changing networking capabilities and sales growth.
The limitations of old-school paper cards
It is common practice for real estate agents to spread paper cards widely, including at open houses for new listings. However, standard paper cards come with inherent limitations ill-suited for today’s mobile environment. Obviously, they cannot display current, interactive information like a digital card on any smartphone. Contact details, specialty info, listings, and other content go out of date almost instantly on paper.
Without a way to track metrics, paper cards provide no visibility on engagement rates, impressions, or leads generated. And with no seamless contact capturing, agents must handle all follow-ups manually based on hastily scribbled names and numbers, hoping their targets remember them accurately days later. Almost inevitably, the vast majority of paper card shares and discussions dead-end due to untimely, uncoordinated human outreach.
Powerful networking benefits of digital cards
In contrast, digital business cards unlock game-changing capabilities for agents serious about optimizing their networking and lead conversion, including:
Real-time profile updating: Digital cards connect to back-end profiles, so when you update specialty, services, featured listings, etc., it automatically flows to your card across all shares. No more outdated distributions at events. Prospects and leads see your latest content.
Rich media and listing: Cards showcase captivating property photography, 3D tours, drone videos, and multimedia. Share sample listings or exclusives to attract buyers.
Performance analytics: see real data on card opens, views, clicks, return visits, and more to benchmark network traction.
Instant lead capture tools: Gather interested prospects’ contact info easily at open houses via seamless digital card capture forms. No more lost follow-ups due to forgotten business card details.
Automated follow-up: Sync captured leads into your CRM for organized lead nurturing through personalized email/text campaigns. Take manual hassle out of post-event outreach.
Referral networking: Earn incremental business by sharing listings through your card with client contacts. Be the go-to referral agent.
Best practices for real estate agents
To maximize digital card ROI, agents should develop smart utilization habits. Some top practices include:
Design: Create an eye-catching branded card with attractive visuals of featured homes. You may also apply pre-designed templates to your Mobilo digital business cards.
Messaging: Tailor card content and messaging to your niche and specialties (luxury properties, commercial, eco-friendly, etc.)
Listings: Handpick exclusive coming soon or sample listings to feature that will entice targeted buyers.
Lead follow-up: Automate this tedious process as much as possible through a pre-set email/text nurturing flow personalized for each lead.
Context tagging: Classify each lead with relevant contexts, like where they were met, the price range discussed, etc., to personalize future outreach.
Referrals: Notify your contact database about new on-market listings that may appeal to their needs or preferences.
The more personalized and automated agents can make their post-card networking, the more conversions they will drive from all collected leads over time.
Driving adoption at brokerages
For larger real estate brokerages, there is a huge advantage in adopting an enterprise-level digital card solution for every agent under the centralized brand. And then, they can reinforce usage habits such as:
- Company-wide training sessions on ideal card application at open houses, broker tours, showings, etc.
- Setting networked lead gen goals and recognizing top digital card users through competitions or spiffs.
- Encouraging collaboration between pioneering users and learning laggards on proven techniques.
Over time, a culture focused on digital networking traction and productivity will achieve the highest card utilization and sales volumes. Tech-savvy brokers should mandate card usage to avoid getting left behind by early adopters.
Proving the ROI of digital cards
Like any sales technology, the success of digital business cards for real estate hinges on observable ROI over time. Brokerage leaders and managers can track metrics like:
- Raw lead and contact generation totals from cards
- Conversion rates of captured leads into closed deals
- Correlations between an agent’s card usage and their sales rankings
- Featured “success story” case studies from top-producing card users
Summary
Real estate is ultimately a relationship-focused business dependent on strong in-person networking. Yet agents relying solely on old-school paper business cards are missing major opportunities in an increasingly mobile and data-driven era.
By adopting sleek, feature-rich digital card solutions instead, tech-savvy agents gain measurable networking superpowers – from always up-to-date profiles to automated lead follow-ups to referral-sharing tools. Together, these capabilities optimize prospect connections while eliminating manual hassles for agents.
Forward-thinking brokers should mandate company-wide usage. In the end, the proof is in the data-backed ROI. Early adopter agents with the highest digital card utilization will convert more quality leads and consistently outproduce laggards still passing plain paper cards.