October 23, 2024
The real estate market means long-term and expensive deals. Messages as a marketing tool in this area may seem frivolous, but only at a first glance. After all, flexibility and adaptation to changing conditions are important in any business.
Competition intensifies every year and it becomes more difficult to reach the client. Now they are not looking for realtors, but realtors have to grab clients. According to the latest research, 41% of property buyers search for properties online, and only 19% call an agent. It also suggests that calls are losing their relevance.
So, we declare that sending automatic SMS today is a real and modern way of communicating with customers, which puts you one step ahead of your rivals.
Imagine: your competitors send interesting offers to customers in the mailbox, by the way, only 18% of letters are read.
Others call, but we know how busy potential property buyers are. What is the likelihood that they will pick up the phone and listen to all your options to the end?
At the same time, your customers receive a real estate SMS with an invitation to see the object, which is located just near the place where they are now having lunch. Fast and relevant. Sound impressive? Next, we will tell you how easy it is to make it a reality.
You say: Does SMS still work in the age of Internet marketing? Marketing tools show themselves differently in every area of business. But we have evidence that for real estate Text Messaging is an efficient and economical tool.
The key advantage of SMS is its availability even offline. 98% of messages are opened and read in a few minutes, because they pop up immediately on the phone’s main screen, regardless of whether it is connected to the Internet now. Unlike emails, whose fate is not known, you can be sure that wherever a person is, he will receive and familiarize himself with your proposal, and will definitely be notified that the meeting is postponed, for example.
Automated messaging is designed for convenience. Instead of typing messages individually for each client, real estate agents can set up automatic responses using keywords for properties, client categories, and events.
The system itself will conduct a dialogue with all clients simultaneously, filtering leads and saving your resources.
The text messaging platform allows you to send thousands of messages in one click, and schedule the date and time of sending. All this and also the text of the offer can be corrected online through the business account.
You may have already used targeted ads to show your offers to people based on their location. But SMS gives you more – offline access.
Automated messaging relies on location information and delivers your offer even when the person is offline. Thus, the chances of viewing a message increase tenfold, and an offer that catches the eye at the right time in the right place leads to a 100% sale.
It would be a good idea for a real estate business to offer it to clients who are just around the corner. You can notify your potential customers about properties for sale in the area and invite them to view them.
The SMS mailing system is easily integrated with CRM and gets access to the communication history with each client. As a result, you will see which message was sent to whom and when. This will help:
Your customers will thank you for saving their time. Talking on the phone is not always practical, sometimes even irritable when you are distracted from business, and reading a message is always convenient.
In addition, SMS does not let you miss important notifications: about meetings, the appearance of new objects, viewing apartments, or the status of the project. Such care represents high service and the client will definitely appreciate it.
The typical real estate buyer visits eight houses on average before making a purchase. Just imagine how many times you need to propose a new option, make and reschedule meetings, view apartments, and collect feedback.
For the manager, these are endless calls, and there is no guarantee that the time spent will result in a purchase. We also recall that the result of each call must be recorded, while after sending an SMS, the entire history of communication is automatically saved and helps to structure the database.
Automation helps save agents and brokers energy for more valuable tasks where they can put their full professionalism to work. By introducing a platform for auto-sending messages into your business, you remove mechanical tasks from employees that do not require special skills. And most importantly – save time, the most valuable resource in any large business. As a result, you have:
Each real estate agency has a CRM with client cards, which indicate its preferences, requests, and communication history. All this can be used to offer new options that suit the needs of the client.
As soon as a new suitable object becomes available, the client will receive an SMS from your company with brief information and this will be done without your participation.
“Hi, (name). We have found an apartment that suits your needs. When will it be convenient to see the object?”
In the field of real estate, there is a lot of communication with the client before buying, and it sometimes stretches for years. In order to maintain customer loyalty and interest during this time, your communication must be unobtrusive and effective.
In this case, concise messages will prove to be better than calls. Make appointments and view the building, as well as remind about them via short SMS. This will not bother the client, and also will not let him forget important information. For you, this, again, saves the manager’s time.
“Hi (name). We remind you to view the apartment at (the name of the street) on the 22 of May at 10 a.m.”
The most trembling part of the customer life cycle is the first touch. They don’t know you at all and are biased. You have to gently but effectively show your services and get the starting information from your prospects.
Comparable to cold calling, 90% of B2B decision-makers say they no longer respond to cold contact. Calls are already prejudiced. Therefore, SMS will be a less intrusive way to contact the client. They will read and think about the proposal at their convenience, and they can also follow the link to your site and get acquainted.
Repeated messages can start a dialogue and reveal interest. Even if the client does not show interest, it will still play into your hands in the future, because the name of your company will already be familiar to him.
“More than 1000 properties in your city! – 50% on services for a new client. (link to the website)”
Less than 1% of clients come from outdoor real estate advertising. And with SMS, you can reach out to any person by choosing the right offer. Advertise your services to both regular and potential customers, and send new items and hot offers in a targeted manner using base segmentation.
“Looking for accommodation on the South Coast? We have 7 options for you at a hot price”
Customer retention is just as important as customer acquisition, and it’s cheaper. It costs nothing for the real estate leads who led a business to send an SMS reminder of an old friendship. But this will strengthen your relationship with the client, increase loyalty and prevent them from leaving for competitors.
It is equally important to control the level of customer loyalty by regularly collecting reviews. Ask customers to rate the service via SMS – it will be comfortable for them, and beneficial for you.
“Hey, hope you’re doing well in your new place. Please rate our services on a 5-point scale”
Among the many options for auto-sending SMS services, look for one where you can do everything together:
The SMS service must also integrate with your CRM to benefit from it.
Come up with different message templates for existing customers, prospects, those who were interested but did not buy, and old customers who can be converted to repeat purchases. This is necessary to:
Personalization is very important. Never generalize and send everyone the same message. It will look like spam, and the offer may not be delivered to the right person.
Also, enter keywords for properties. The system itself will send messages to whom it is necessary according to the specified parameters and also respond to received requests.
Creating multiple offers will help test them for effectiveness. Study the statistics to understand which text works better and which one is better to refuse.
Before sending messages to a person, you must obtain permission from him to use the data and notifications. Make sure that your database contains only those contacts with whom you have a Data Protection Act.
In order not to get in trouble with the law, you must also protect your customers’ data, not share it with third parties, and use only a trusted SMS platform where data cannot be leaked.
Formulate any SMS without further ado. A person should understand at a glance what the essence of your offer is and the real benefit. Text for SMS should not exceed 160 characters.
We recommend writing a catchy short offer and redirecting people to the site. On the landing page, you can describe your offer colorfully and in detail. And there, with the help of a pop-up chat window, the manager will be able to bring the client to purchase.
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Disclaimer: The information provided on the website is only for informational purposes and is not intended to, constitute legal advice, instead of all information, content, and other available materials.
