Zillow updates CRM platform

Users get lead forwarding, branded drip marketing capabilities

By Inman News, Wednesday, March 20, 2013.

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Editor's note: Zillow's CRM and agent portal system available to all agents who sign up for a free Zillow profile. A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the system was available only to paying "Premier Agent" subscribers.
Agents who have a profile on Zillow and use the portal's customer relationship management (CRM) system can now automatically filter leads to be forwarded to other agents, or send branded drip emails to prospects that need incubating.
The new features will allow agents to more effectively respond and organize leads that come to them from Zillow, said Greg Schwartz, Zillow's chief revenue officer.
Schwartz said agents been asking for an integrated, streamlined way to better manage leads from the portal.
The new email drip-marketing feature allows agents to send out emails, branded with their photo and contact info, to prospects who are not immediately ready to buy or sell.
The emails can include Zillow's monthly market reports and be tailored to send more frequent updates around a lead's saved searches. The emails can also tap into Internet Data Exchange-sourced home data, if the agent has set up that capability. If not, the reports rely on Zillow home data.

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With the new lead-forwarding tool, agents can filter leads based on home price, geography, time of day and home type, allowing them to efficiently manage all the leads that hit the system from Zillow.
Along with the new CRM system -- which Zillow says about three-quarters of its roughly 30,000 subscribing agents currently use -- the portal has added personalized features to the agents' accounts.
When agents sign into their account on the portal, for example, Zillow might