5 free online tools that will fire up your marketing

Is it possible to take your real estate marketing to a whole new level without spending a single cent? Damn straight it is. 

In a world where ‘everyone is an expert and there’s an absolute plethora of doppelgänger apps and tools for marketing - we’ve picked the undisputed heroes’. The tools, that you are missing out on are opportunities for growth if you aren’t using them. And if you’ve heard of them -  take this as a massive kick to make sure you are using them. 

Canva 

If you haven’t heard of Canva’s brilliance, we’re unsure what kind of digital rock you have been sleeping under, but you need to sign up for your Canva account NOW. Even if you are a technophobe that couldn’t design a poster to save yourself - we promise -  if you can use your computer mouse, you can use Canva.

The free version has thousands of high-quality templates for every single type of marketing collateral and industry. Yes - there are a range of competitors such as Crello, Snappa and Easil -  and even real estate specific design tools but none of them come close to offering what Canva offers for free. There are no limits on designs per month either.

Even a quick search in Canva for “real estate” showcases hundreds of social media posts, story templates, business cards, and open home adverts and we could go on all day. Upload your photos, add your logo, have a play with colours and you are away laughing with a whole lot of material you can use both online and to print.

If learning to use Canva is a “hard no” for you - at the very least make sure a team member knows how to use it. Even for real estate franchises, who will have the majority of their marketing collateral provided, Canva gives you as an agent the opportunity to create more material, with a personal touch that still stays within brand guidelines.

This post is in no way sponsored by Canva. It’s just that damn good.

Unsplash

Who hates generic, creepy, awkward and just downright weird stock images? You know the EXACT ones we mean.  Case and point - the photos below….

Interestingly enough, websites like Shutterstock- which are responsible for a large amount of awkward professional handshake photos- are still hella expensive on a monthly subscription basis.

High quality, professional, royalty-free image libraries were damn near impossible before Unsplash came along.

The best part about Unsplash - other than the fact it’s free- is that you don’t even need to make an account to search for photos and download them. They are high enough resolution for full bleed website banners and any marketing material. You can check out Unsplash here.

Canva automatically has an Unsplash integration too- which means you have access to their full image library automatically when creating designs too. 

Issuu

There’s something nostalgic and beautiful about presenting property listings in magazine form. As we know, print advertising is both a dying art and can be incredibly pricey - which brings us to Issuu (not a typo - although the future of print advertising is probably an ‘issue’).

Issuu is used to create digital editions of magazines, journals, books and brochures. It uses PDF flipbook technology, which changes standard PDF files into a responsive magazine that boosts the reading experience so that when you turn the pages it feels like you have the real deal in front of you. And we know the same thing was said about the Kindle, which touted the same experience as reading a hardcopy book (which it wasn’t and ruined nostalgia) but for digital documents and magazines - it’s perfect. 

From a real estate marketing perspective, it’s an easy, aesthetic way to share marketing material and proposals with clients that look super professional. Most importantly - you never have to attach a PDF to an email ever again. Below  can see the aesthetic of one we created in 8 seconds, earlier. Click here to check out our flipbook mockup in full.

Before we go further though, a full disclaimer - there are limitations to the free version of Issuu BUT you can still create and publish unlimited publications and share them across your social media platforms and as links in emails or messages for free. 

All you need to do is upload PDF files of your brochure, magazine or sales collateral and it will be converted into an interactive digital flipbook in less than 10 seconds! There’s also a brand new free feature to create visual stories for your social media accounts, without any work at all. 

If you find yourself loving the free version and are wanting to pay for more features, you can embed sound, video and pop out content (like a lead generation form) into your flipbook.

This means that a user can click on a photo of a property in the publication and it will lead them straight through to a video that’s hosted on a third-party platform. Comprehensive analytics about the reach of your digital publication is available or you can opt to keep it completely private for a select few clients and leads. It’s up to you.

The bottom line is: Issuu is the very best technology for creating PDF flipbooks that are sharable and elegant. It’s an amazing tool for real estate marketing as it allows potential home buyers to visualize themselves living there by seeing all the details, views and imaging all in one place. It also allows you to share information with ease and a whole new level of professionalism - and say goodbye to PDF attachments for good.

Unbounce- AI Copy Generator 

Unbounce’s Smart Copy tool is every real estate agent’s dream as a one-stop shop for content creation. With their intuitive new AI copy tool, you’ll never experience the crippling frustration of writer's block when belting out your property listings, ads or social media captions again. 

One reason we’ve included this as one of our top five free marketing tools is that when it comes to writing property listings- you can’t put a price on originality.

We’re all familiar with the magazines that contain pages upon pages of listings, that sound like a thesaurus has been robbed and ravaged.  “Luxurious”, “serenity”, “slice of paradise”, “sweeping views”... you know the adjective overuse all too well.

So, it’s time to stand out.

The free version of the tool allows you to personalise the content to your brand and target audience by asking some intuitive questions before AI steps in and does the grunt work. Whether it's the fresh copy from scratch, expanding on existing content or rejigging a polished piece with a fresh twist- this tool will definitely fire up your marketing game for anything written.

Loom

Looming at the bottom (we couldn’t help ourselves) as our final free tool for a FIRE marketing game is Loom, a free video messaging tool, that allows you to quickly create and narrate professional-looking, personalised videos that get your message across and can be shared instantly.

The reason this is so great for real estate professionals? 

With Loom you can record your camera, microphone and desktop simultaneously; which allows you to add your voice and face to go alongside anything on your desktop; from property walkthroughs, to market updates. 

Installed as a Chrome Extension, Loom is so outrageously easy to use that you can create these videos on the go- a far cry from explaining disjointed screenshots through voice notes or advice that you can’t show visually. Loom is also epic for creating powerful social media content for sharing tips or instructional videos that add value to your clients and help soothe their anxieties about entering the property market. 

Here are a few key use cases for real estate agents:

• Record home tours and/or open houses and publish them privately or publicly
• Demonstrate property search tools best practices and support
• Narrate property market updates with insights that help your client. 
• Show your clients how to navigate documents and e-signature software.