In the past year, among the many challenges and difficulties brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the real estate and mortgage industries enjoyed a wave of success with low interest rates, refinance opportunities and etc. More recently, the buzz surrounds bidding wars due to extremely low inventory, purchase over refinance and the fluctuation of mortgage rates.
However, I could not help but notice that we may be doing ourselves a disservice if we don’t acknowledge what’s happening outside of our bubble(s).
Ah, the cookie. The lowly code of software dropped almost everywhere across the web that allows advertisers and publishers to gather consumer data. In late 2019, Google announced a phase-out of third-party cookies across its platforms in a move claimed to protect consumers asking for more privacy. Needless to say, the digital world took notice.
Once again, Google grabbed headlines in March 2021 when they emphasized that the code would cease to exist across its platforms by 2022. Adding gas to the fire, Google acknowledged that they would not develop alternate identifiers to track individuals browsing the web or use them in their products.
This news, on top of Facebook’s many changes and Apple’s advances with iOS 14, may very well be the largest shake-up to date regarding the topic of digital data use.
If you’re not entirely sure what the loss of third-party cookies means, allow me to briefly elaborate. When you run affiliate marketing or retargeting across various channels or websites, for example, your campaigns are likely relying on third-party tools to identify and track individual consumer behavior.
Like many, I’m not saying this is the end of digital marketing as we know it. As a marketer myself, I find this rather exciting to see what happens next while also acknowledging the opportunity to look at revitalizing older, tried and true, less cookie-dependent strategies.
A good CRM never goes out of style
This isn’t a doomsday scenario and if you further Google the topic you’ll surely see many ways to still effectively run data-driven campaigns (yes, the irony of this sentence does not escape me). But if you’ve gotten this far I want to ask this question: how good is your real estate or mortgage CRM software?
The reality is that those consumers likely to do business with you have already expressed an interest. Your own database is – if it isn’t already – the holy grail of success. It’s filled with first-party to zero-party data collected from your own website, meetings, referrals, etc. Now is the time to improve first-party data collection and usage.
In real estate, data is king. The more you leverage your own data the better off your agents or loan officers will be because they’ll be able to identify, target and create better customer experiences.
If you’re struggling to scale with your current real estate CRM, perhaps it is time to switch to more flexible software such as Propertybase’s Salesforce Edition. Built on the world’s top CRM, Propertybase has enriched the platform specifically for real estate brokerages to get the most out of their data. With configurable options, custom fields, reports and dashboards, built-in marketing tools, automation and more, Propertybase adapts to your needs so you and your agents gain more time to drive productivity and growth.
More than 4,000 mortgage professionals utilize Unify, a mortgage business platform under the Propertybase family of brands. Loan officers stay competitive by taking advantage of Unify’s Mortgage Inquiry Alerts. Automation within the software identifies and attaches four types of alerts (Inquiry, Early Pay-Off, First-Time Buyer and Likely Homebuyer) to contact records, which create immediate engagement and untapped revenue opportunities already within the database.
The hard truth is that in both the residential real estate and mortgage spaces, client retention is a struggle. Client engagement is a struggle. Knowing what the ideal client looks like can be a struggle.
There will surely be more about the impact third-party cookies and data have across the digital space. I just can’t help to wonder what would happen if we stepped away from so much reliance on finding the next shiny new consumer via the lowly cookie and concentrate on using a better database as a foundation for success.
