15 Things to Know About KW Command

KW Command is a real estate website and marketing platform designed exclusively for Keller Williams’ real estate agents. The KW Command proprietary, feature-rich software, which was released in 2019, helps real estate agents, Realtors®, and brokers manage leads, nurture them, and ultimately lead them to conversion. 

More than 180,000 have access to KW Command to manage business goals, contacts, calendars, inboxes, and pipelines and to design websites bursting at the seams with marketing tools. The system was designed by data scientists, technologists, regional leaders, market centers, and agents to be simple, smart, and user-friendly.

Within KW Command, you can keep track of contracts, revenue projections, appointments, listings, and more.

1. The Best and Worst of KW Command

The greatest advantage to KW Command is that it’s a website platform and marketing system chock full of incredible benefits — and it’s free to KW agents. Access tools for graphic design where you can create digital and print marketing campaigns and manage leads, contacts, and referrals.

You can automate your workflow and manage transactions. It includes MLS integration, landing pages, integration with Google Analytics and Facebook, keeps track of appointments using Google Calendar, and more.

Within KW Command, you can set up and automate social media campaigns, as well as email drip campaigns that are tried, tested, and ready to use.

The downside is that it comes out of the box naked — in bare-bones fashion. 

Like a complicated childhood toy or a piece of furniture with foreign instructions, assembly is required. You’ll invest hours getting your KW Command website off the ground with all of its bells and whistles so it can perform like a lead-generating machine — unless you outsource the setup to a company specializing in KW Command websites, such as Ballen Brands.

Another pitfall for KW Command is that it’s not designed for content. It has no integrated blog, so there’s no foundation from which your website can reach the top of the search engine results page or SERP. 

In other words, KW Command is not an SEO platform. Furthermore, there’s only one template, so all agents using the KW website have the same look and feel; it’s not customizable. And the KW Command website navigation is limited and somewhat challenging to find. 

There’s also no control over the IDX in KW Command, so landing pages are the most efficient, although restricted, ways to show properties on your website.

2. The Way KW Command Communicates

Your KW Command website is equipped to communicate via:

• Automated email campaigns
• Text Messaging
• KW Command App 
• Print advertising

3. Saved Search Notifications

Another benefit to KW Command is the ability to send a notification to buyers when a new listing is added to your personalized, branded app that meets their criteria. And, to keep from overwhelming the lead, they have the option to choose whether they receive notifications as soon as a new listing hits, daily, weekly, or once a month.

4. Integrations

KW Command knows how to play well with others and understands the value of bringing in additional applications to improve workflow. These integrations include:

• DocuSign
• Dotloop
• Facebook Ads
• MailChimp
• Twilio

KW Command uses SmartPlans for segmentation and effective automation, Zapier for contact management, and DocuSign for safely and securely signing digital documents.

5. KW Command for Teams

KW Command is ideal for the single agent, but it also works well for agents who are part of a team. Team members can switch between their personal accounts and their team account, where they can access your team-specific database and reach team-specific SmartPlans.

6. Contacts

Managing your leads is super simple in KW Command. You can add them with a few clicks – or conveniently with voice command. You can export leads, manage saved searches, and establish lead pipelines, such as those for listings and another for buyers. Keep your leads organized and track them through your sales funnel.

When a new contact is created, KW Command associates it with a neighborhood so that you can share the most relevant information.

Within KW Command’s lead management features, you can access a customer guide that allows you to understand the behavior of leads so you can make changes to filter them or design new marketing campaigns for them.

You’ll also get a database activity score, a reporting feature that shows the percentage of leads that you’ve contacted within the last few months. And, you can watch your database health based on information available for leads.

In the contacts area of KW Command, you can:

• Add a new contact or lead
• Import contacts
• Manage or edit a contact
• Export leads or contacts
• Use filters
• Save filter groupings
• Bulk edit
• Customize columns
• Switch views between card, mobile-friendly, and list view
• Change how many contacts are splayed

The Client Updates element of KW Command is designed for sellers’ agents to notify a seller when you’ve completed a task that gets them another step toward the closing table.

Within the system, you can create your own customized checklist, and when you mark a task as done, it automatically notifies your customer without you having to take extra steps.

7. Tasks

KW Command’s Task Manager makes it easy for you to track what you need to get done and when.

Tasks can be generated from SmartPlans, from Opportunity checklists, or created manually.

Within a task, you can mark it as complete, snooze it, or send it to the archive.

8. SmartPlans

A KW Command SmartPlan is an automated digital marketing system in your KW Command CRM to nurture leads for your business using the platform’s communication methods. You name your plan, and then:

• Set the duration
• Determine the number of touches
• Decide on the mode of communication
• Add triggers
• Select contacts

KW Command has provided nine SmartPlans that are pre-built to get you started. These nine plans include:

Neighborhood Nurture

This campaign runs indefinitely and is set for monthly or bi-monthly touchpoints. Here, you can share relevant data about neighborhoods in real-time.

Quarterly Call

This plan also runs indefinitely and reminds you every 90 days to connect with your database.

Midterm Nurture

The SmartPlan for MidtermNurture has a duration of 3-6 months and is designed for contacts that have been in your database that you feel are within 30-60 days away from making their move in real estate. You create content that the system delivers in 2-week intervals over 3-6 months. You can tailor that content to specific audiences in your databases, such as one for buyers and another for sellers.

Long-Term Nurture 

This plan runs for six months to a year and includes eight steps allowing you to schedule regular check-ins with your contacts for the long term of six months. It starts with the monthly Neighborhood Nurture campaign and then connects you with your contacts every ten days via telephone, automated emails, and text messages.

8×8 New Contact Engagement

Reaching out to your newest contacts is a crucial element in nurturing new leads. This campaign is a series of touches, which can be a personal visit, phone call, text message, personal email, informative newsletter, or market report. The new contact SmartPlan reaches out to your most recently added contacts frequently to keep you fresh on their mind. You’ll also be establishing trust by consistently providing your leads with items of value.

The Birthday SmartPlan

People used to have to record important birthdays by hand on a traditional paper calendar and then remember to send out birthday greetings in time. With the Birthday SmartPlan, you can have your system automatically send a personalized birthday greeting to your contacts.

The Open House Follow Up SmartPlan 

This plan runs for 20 days and is tailored to leads you’ve acquired through an open house. The system will trigger appropriate tasks, such as sending a text message, an email, or scheduling yourself for a follow-up phone call.

The Home Anniversary

Even though an anniversary greeting is sent to someone who already bought their home, it sets you up to nurture that client for referrals and potential future business.

Promote My App

Another neat feature of KW Command’s SmartPlans is the Promote My App plan, which runs for a duration of one week. This feature allows your current and future clients to engage with your KW Command app in a series of three touches.

Build and Share SmartPlans in the KW Command SmartPlan Library

The built-in SmartPlans are fabulous when you’re just getting your feet wet, but once you get the hang of things, you might prefer to see what other agents are creating in their customized SmartPlans and borrow them from the Library. Ultimately, you may create your own SmartPlan and share it with your network of peers.

9. Referrals

As part of the KW family, you have access to an expansive network of fellow real estate agents. Working with other agents on a referral basis is a large part of your business.

Within KW Command’s referral program, you can:

• Find a referral partner by using the map
• Send a referral
• Broadcast a referral to a group of 50 or less
• Receive a referral
• Send a referral network invitation
• Accept an invitation
• Track and manage referrals conveniently in one location without spreading out between spreadsheets, emails, and text messages.

10. Opportunities

Opportunities is where you manage the fundamentals of your business, such as customizable pipelines that track things like:

• Pre-listing
• Showing
• Negotiations
• Escrow
• Inspections
• Appraisal

You can sort by leads to cultivate appointments, active listings, under contract, and closed opportunities.

On the upside, having customizable pipelines is an essential part of business management. You can add, remove, rename, and tailor each of your opportunity stages to fit the unique needs of your business. On the downside, it can be a lot of work to set up your pipeline stages.

You can create an opportunity, mark it as lost, archive it, edit its details, move it through the pipeline, manage offers, and then use the technology to offer side-by-side comparisons that you can share with your clients.

In addition to managing your leads and clients through Opportunities, you also have Document Management included in your KW Command website. Use the platform to add and submit documents to your market center and sort them into custom folders in a particular opportunity suited to your business needs.

Commissions are also accounted for in the Opportunities section of Command. You can outline the commission agreement for a transaction and use the platform to submit the agreed-upon disbursement to your market center.

When you’ve moved your client through the pipeline, and the deal is done, you can close and archive the opportunity, able to retrieve that information at any time.

11. Campaigns

There’s no question about the value of Facebook Ads, Instagram, and other social media marketing. KW Command makes it super simple to automate the process of running your social media advertising campaigns right from within its software to keep all your information synchronized.

With KW Command social media campaigns, you can:

• Attract buyers
• Attract sellers
• Attract talent
• Advertise a listing
• Promote an event
• Raise brand awareness.

With the easy-to-use dashboard, you can connect your KW Command account to your Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts to make posts and create ad campaigns, which are charged to the card you have on file in your KW Command account.

The dashboard varies based on your level of activity within the past three months. You’ll have a Beginner Dashboard if you’ve not yet run any ads, an Intermediate Dashboard if you’ve had at least one campaign in the last quarter, or an Advanced Dashboard if you’ve run four or more campaigns in three months’ time.

Through the dashboard, you’ll be able to create and track:

• Paid campaigns on social media and Google Ads
• Email campaigns
• Direct mail campaigns with postcards
• Free social posts

Not everything is digital, and there’s still something said for the personal touch – that tangible postcard in the mail that allows a person to literally get hands-on with your business. That’s why KW Command empowers its agents with the ability to design and deploy custom postcards sent by traditional mail – individually or in bulk.

You can send an email right from within your KW Command account. Nurture your leads and clients with an email campaign tailored to their needs. The catch is that there’s a minimum of 5,000 emails per month.

The KW Command platform allows you to publish and schedule free posts on your Facebook Business Page and Twitter account. And to make it easier, you can access a library of pre-populated Quick Posts to take advantage of ready-to-use content on the fly.

To up the ante, you can create a paid social ad campaign to design and run ads simultaneously on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Your Facebook Business Page and your personal Facebook account are connected, and every Facebook Ad campaign is connected to your Facebook Business Page. You’ll need to ensure that you’re logged in to the proper account in the initial setup process.

This is also where you add and manage credit cards, payments, and remaining credit.

12. Reports

Command lets you start off your reporting right by establishing goals that utilize the Contacts and Opportunities categories in Command to record your progress.

Your database is your goldmine. It’s essential to cultivate the relationships you have to generate a continuing stream of clients.

Command assesses your database and gives it a score based, in part, on the amount of information a lead has provided, including but not limited to:

• Name
• Phone number
• Email address
• Physical address
• Social media profile
• Birthday

You can track your score, and you can also compare your data’s score to other KW agents.

There’s a database activity score, too, that records the leads you’ve reached out to within the last:

• 0-30 days
• 31-60 days
• 61-90 days

The leads tracker and contact tracker allow you to keep tabs on leads who might be ready to convert.

You have the ability to export reports categorized by activity, goal tracking, and Opportunity insights.

This is also where you’ll access your monthly email report that tells you what percentage of emails have been opened and engaged with.

13. Designs

The Designs element is where you can design emails, landing pages, social media, and print marketing materials.

Emails allow you to provide contacts in your database with valuable information, such as tips for buying, tips for selling, and other useful information in addition to your listings.

Your landing pages help you promote a single property by including photos, detailed information, a video, information about you, contact information, and a call-to-action. You can do this easily within the KW Command platform’s landing page editor. You can also create a market snap or a lead form.

While digital technology has proven to be effective and affordable, reaching a wide audience, there’s still something to be said for print marketing materials. Ideally, you’d combine the two for a thorough marketing plan.

In the system, you can create:

• Postcards in three different sizes, including standard, large, and jumbo
• Door hangers
• Bi-folds in two sizes
• Trifolds
• Fliers

Once you’ve designed your print materials, you can download, print, and share. As a bonus, you can also use some of those same designs on social media and in your email newsletters.

14. Listings and Virtual Tours

Of course, one of the most significant and fundamental foundations of your website is real estate listings. Here’s how it works in Command:

• An agent puts their listing information into the MLS
• The MLS notifies everyone that it has an agreement with
• The KW team edits the information, tidying it up, and then enters it into the listing feed, which populates in Command, KW.com, and the KW Consumer app.

You can produce your own virtual tour and connect it to an active listing. Then, it will be available to view on your Command website, KW.com, and the KW App.

15. Consumers

The icing on the KW Command cake is the KW Command App. The customizable app is a portal that you can share with your client that allows you to track and better understand what they’re looking for.

On your end, you customize your Consumer Guide, and your client can customize the consumer-facing counterpart by:

• Adding collections
• Saving searches
• Saving homes
• Hiding homes

Once you’ve got your Customer Guide established, you’ll have the option to launch the KW App Promotion SmartPlan.

In addition to your SmartPlan, you can publish a social video post using the provided KW App commercial. You can also create custom social designs.

Through the app, you can manage your Command agent site or create or edit:

• Agent site pages
• Landing pages
• Guide builder
• Collections

The Guide Builder is an incredible resource for creating your customized buyer and seller consumer guides. Walk your current clients through the process while tracking where they are in their journey.

There are template guides available, but you can:

• Add or remove steps
• Edit the information in the steps
• Reorder the steps

Conclusion

Keller Williams’ real estate agents and Realtors® receive a free website and marketing platform when they join the KW family. There’s no additional cost, and it comes with a tantalizing suite of marketing tools to use in your KW Command website. However, when you get your KW Command, it takes a lot of time and effort (and probably some frustration!) to set everything up and to get it all connected. You might want to hire someone to do the heavy lifting for you while you focus on your leads and clients.

There are disadvantages, too, such as limited content, a “cookie-cutter” template, and the complex task of setting up your website, plugging in all of its bells and whistles, and setting up your checklists, campaigns, and other features.

Many agents start out with KW Command and then upgrade to a WordPress real estate website with IDX and take advantage of other apps and plugins for workflow. But for a resource that’s included for KW real estate agents of all levels, KW Command is worth comparing to other real estate agent website platforms and marketing tools.

Ballen Brands is at Your Command for Keller Williams Command!