Four Time-saving Tools that You Need For YOUR Real Estate Practice

Recently, I wrote an article about specific ways you can ensure consistency in your real estate marketing plans. One part of the article talks about using technology, and I am remiss in that I promised to share with you some of my favorite tools and have not. So today, to right that wrong, I am going to share some of my favorite time-saving technology tools that you can institute today to help you become more consistent in all your real estate marketing practices.

1. Boomerang

If you are anything like me, you are getting hundreds and hundreds of emails per day. Some of them are simple interactions that you can handle right at that second and move on. Some, though, are things that maybe you want to temporarily ignore and come back to later. Or, even something you give an immediate response to, but also need a reply from whomever you sent that reply email to. The more emails you deal with, the more likely emails like those are going to end up buried in your inbox, or forgotten all together.

Boomerang keeps this from happening. It works with both Gmail and Outlook. Using their "in browser" tool, you can take any email message and set it to reappear in your inbox, at a later date. For instance, if you just don't want to deal with a message at the moment, schedule it for a later date, and it will appear at the top of your inbox at that date/time.

If you reply to someone, you can set the Boomerang reminder to appear at the top of your inbox at a specific date and time, as well. BUT, more specifically, you can specify that you only want it to do so if no reply has been received. That is a pretty handy way to instantly be reminded that you did not hear back from someone.

How many times have you gotten leads, only to eventually have them fall through the cracks when communication suddenly broke down? Boomerang will eliminate that possibility.

2. Cirrus Insight

Another fantastic tool that includes the same features as Boomerang, but also so much more, is Cirrus Insight. This tool works seamlessly with our CRM platform and is built for the Outlook and Gmail platforms. Their "in browser" tool not only allows you to schedule email messages to return to your inbox at a later date, but so much more.

When you get an email in your inbox, the Cirrus Insight sidebar gives you valuable insights from information that is actually stored in the contact's record inside your CRM. This makes it so you do not have to flip back and forth between windows.

Easily view past email conversations, closed tasks, open tasks and contact information.

You can even easily schedule meetings with their fantastic scheduling tool—again, saving you valuable time.

Let's face it. If you want to be a successful Realtor®, you HAVE TO have a CRM system. Cirrus Insight is the perfect bridge between your CRM and your email system.

3. OmniFocus

As I've written about numerous times over the years, I love to read self-help, productivity and business growth books. One of the books that had the most profound impact on the way I organize myself and keep track of projects was one by David Allen. Getting Things Done changed the way I do everything. Not only that, to this day, all these years later, it's still the foundation of how I organize my entire life.

In the book, David describes "offline" ways of organizing bills, letters and reminders. The problem is that, these days, hardly anything is offline. Even bills. There are some I never even see; they just go right into my Evernote (another tool that should be in this article, but deserves an entire post in on its own). Even the ones that do end up in my mailbox are never in paper form for too much time. We open them, scan them into Evernote and shred them.

Planning and executing your projects can be tricky. OmniFocus make this task simple. Using Omnifocus, you can simultaneously run as many projects side-by-side as you want. You can split tasks into contexts (office work, family stuff, email, internet, errands, etc.), and their cloud server will sync all your devices, ensuring that, at a glance, from any device, you can figure out where things stand.

For instance, take your blogging or video production schedule. This tool will easily allow you to organize and schedule all the deadlines and associated elements with those projects, ensuring your marketing goes out consistently and efficiently.

4. Feedly

A great time saving tool I've grown to love that really helps me with my social media marketing is Feedly. Feedly is an amazing browser-based RSS tool that allows you to organize all the blogs, websites and online portals that you look to for socially shareable content.

This tool is a total time saver. Depending on which one of my social media sites I want to share to, I can easily go to the correct theme of content, choose which content source I want to review, and quickly scan through headlines of articles. When I find one I want to share, I simply click it, read the article, and, if I like it, share it. It's just that simple.

This is a fantastic time saver, but also a great tool to help my memory. For instance, I'm constantly stumbling upon new sites that I find great, shareable content on. So many, in fact, that it would be impossible for me to just remember them and visit them. Feedly is a fantastic file system that holds all these sites, and, with a click, they are there when I need them. Even better, the page updates in real-time, so the freshest, newest content is always right at my finger tips.

The truth is, I could probably write an entire book on time saving technology tools and how to get the most out of them. In fact, one day. I might. In the meantime, check these tools out and let me know what you think. ALSO, if you have a tool you love that you want to share, post it in the comments below. I'm always on the lookout for new tools—and, who knows, maybe we'll make a "Part 2" of this article one day and I'll include your suggested tool and give you a shout out!

To view the original article, visit the Leading Agent blog.