Do you know that in Rhode Island, it’s illegal to jump off bridges?
Nevertheless, many realtors practice the dangerous art of proverbial bridge-jumping when they decide to exclude smart automation from their marketing.
But the reality is that in this crazy busy world, realtors can no longer rely on themselves to get everything done in a timely manner.
They need help, and that help can come either in the form of hiring more people or using technology.
In this article, we take a closer look at how realtors can use technology to be more effective in their work without losing the personal touch of their services.
Major Marketing Challenges for Real Estate Marketing Campaigns
Most realtors are solo professionals. Some of them have assistants but most of them don’t.
And that presents a problem.
They tend to fill their calendars with clients and leave very little or no time for finding new business.
It means they never know where their next clients come from, so they subconsciously accept any prospects that darken their doorsteps.
But we know that low-end clients can be of very high maintenance. They have endless demands and they have the habit of calling you at ungodly hours, demanding answers to their usually non-urgent questions.
And this presents a double slap in realtors’ faces.
- You work with the low-end of your target market keeping your profit margin as skinny as Pontius Pilate’s cat.
- You don’t know where your next client comes from and when opening your business for clients from hell.
This causes unnecessary stress and that stress undermines the quality of your work for existing clients.
There are many challenges in real estate marketing, but far the biggest is the technological advancement that has been happening ever since the internet showed up in our lives at the end of the last Millennium.
Since then, a broad range of industry-specific applications has been developed.
And that can open the door for realtors to eliminate their biggest dilemma: “If I deal with clients, I can’t look for new business. If I search for new clients, I don’t have enough time to take care of existing clients.”
And since most realtors are solo professionals, systematization and automation don’t even enter their purview of possibilities.
They do everything by hand until something breaks and only then do they start looking for more effective ways of running their businesses.
When we look at the anatomy of a marketing campaign, it consists of lead generation and lead conversion, which is the follow-up process with the generated leads.
And even if you can make some cold calls to generate leads, the time- and the labor-intensive process is the follow-up. You can’t predict how long it takes to convert leads into clients.
And the mistake most realtors make is that they try to connect with people who’ve expressed mild interest but are not yet ready for personal interactions.
Those prospects are still doing their due diligence and a premature personal connection can startle and even repel them.
Yes, you may want to speed up the lead conversion process, but you’d better slow it down a touch.
As Jim Morrison sang it many years ago in Take It As It Comes…
“Go real slow
You like it more and more
Take it as it comes
Specialize in having fun.”
Yes, exactly. Selling real estate is just as delicate as lovemaking. If you go too fast, you ruin the magic.
So, how do you keep the process magically slow, considering that you need time for other activities too?
And this is…
How Automated Follow-ups Can be the Solution?
As we’ve established, you can scale a business either by hiring people or using technology to perform automatable tasks.
We’ve also established that up to a certain point in the buying cycle, people don’t want to talk to realtors.
Now it becomes as obvious as a ham sandwich that if you don’t want to spend your profit margins on employees, technology is the best way to go.
And unlike humans, automated systems are…
- Consistent
- Predictable
- 24/7 operational
- No sick leave
- No weekends
- No vacation
- No medical/dental/vision
- No possible lawsuits
In fact, I believe, hiring a new person should be the very last resort for realtors.
They should hire only when it’s been proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that the task really requires the sophistication of the human brain.
But the other problem is that systematization and automation come in many shapes and forms.
Yes, you can keep it as simple as an autoresponder for $20-50 per month.
But realtors extensively use other means of communication, like…
- Voicemail or ringless voicemail
- Tele surveys
- Voice announcements
- Text messages
- Multimedia messaging service (MMS)
- Email marketing
Now we can look at other generic marketing software, but almost none of them covers all the above communication channels.
And that leads us to a solution that’s been developed specifically for real estate professionals.
Meet FlowUp – A Dedicated System For Real Estate Professionals
Due to the unique nature of the real estate business, realtors also have unique follow-up processes.
In other industries, buyers have preferred communication methods, so they receive most of the follow-up information through those preferred channels.
In real estate, it’s a good idea to mix up the communication channels.
But most marketing software is built for a single communication channel. Aweber is only for email, Dialpad for voicemail, etc.
It means you have to subscribe to several systems and patch them together piece by piece.
Oh yes, it’s doable.
Imagine this if you will…
You want to build a world-class sports car. You know it needs over 10,000 components.
You get the best engine from Ferrari, the best steering system from BMW, the best brakes from Porsche, etc.
Then you put them together.
And what do you have now?
What you have is a heap of useless metal.
You can’t maximize one component’s performance. You have to optimize the whole unit to work together like a Rolex watch. And I don’t mean the $10 knock-offs.
This was the motto when we developed FlowUp. The whole unit must work together and the operation must be as smooth as a baby’s bottom.
Without such an integrated system, you can easily end up with a fiendish Rube Goldberg-like contraption with few functions but lots of points of failure.
What you need is a fully integrated system that seamlessly connects various communication channels and allows you to design a whole campaign with a few clicks of your mouse.
Also read: How Drip Campaigns can be a game-changer for Real Estate Lead Generation?
How Pre-defined Follow-up Strategies can Streamline Real Estate Marketing?
As the experts say in branding, your success lies in consistency and predictability. And that’s what the Flowup system can offer.
It allows you to…
- Automate your follow-up process across several communication channels
- Manage multi-channel campaigns from one single platform
- Evaluate your most effective follow-up channels
- Monitor the aggregated metrics collected from various communication channels
In fact, we have three tried and tested follow sequences for you. Let’s take a look at it.
Template #1 – 2 Touch Follow-up Strategy with Ringless Voicemail and Press-1 Survey
The first strategy we are suggesting here does 2 Touch base with Ringless Voicemail and Press- 1 Survey with Inbound campaign management.
It will work like this:
Day 1: Send Ringless Voicemail
- Every Inbound Call will be Transferred to the Live Agent
- Every Successful Ringless Voicemail Lead without any Inbound Action will go to Delay 1 for the Next Action
- Every Failed Ringless Voicemail Lead will follow the below-given flow:
- Failed RVM => Send SMS
-
- Successful Sent SMS on Retry with Inbound Call => Transferred to Preset Preferred Number
- Successful Sent SMS on Retry with Inbound SMS => Replied with Auto-Responder based on Pre-set Keywords
Day 2: Dealy of 1 Day between Touchpoint 1(Ringless Voicemail) and 2(Survey)
Day 3: Press-1 Survey
(To Each Successful RVM sent without any Inbound Action)
- All Press-1 Leads will be updated on CRM with Contact Status (Like Opt-in Leads or Interested Leads) or They can be transferred to Live Agent
- All Press-2 Leads will be disposed to the DNC list
- All Leads which has not taken any action will be updated on CRM with Contact Status (Like No Response)
Template #2 – 3 Touch Follow-up Strategy with SMS – Ringless Voicemail – SMS
The second strategy we are suggesting here does 3 Touch base with SMS and Ringless Voicemail and Text Message with Inbound campaign management
It will work something like this:
Day 1: Send SMS
- Every Successful SMS followed by Inbound Call will listen to an IVR and then will be transferred to the Live Agent
- Every Successful SMS followed by Inbound SMS => Replied with Auto-Responder based on Pre-set Keywords
- Lead without any Inbound Action will go to Delay for Next Action
- Every Failed SMS Lead will follow the below-given flow:
-
- Failed SMS=> Retry
- Successful Sent SMS on Retry with Inbound Call => Will follow the same Inbound Flow as above
- Successful Sent SMS on Retry with Inbound SMS => Will follow the same Inbound Flow as above
Day 2: Dealy of 1 Day between Touchpoint 1 (SMS) and TouchPoint 2 (Ringless Voicemail)
Day 3: Ringless Voicemail
(To Each Successful SMS sent without any Inbound Action)
- Every Inbound Call will be Transferred to the Live Agent
- All Successful RVM Sent Leads which has not taken any Inbound action will go to Delay 2 (Delay of 1 Day between 2nd and 3rd Touch base)
Day 4: Dealy of 1 Day between Touchpoint 2 (Ringless Voicemail) and TouchPoint 3 (SMS)
Day 5: Send SMS
(To Each Successful RVM sent without any Inbound Action)
Template #3 – 3 Touch Follow-up Strategy with Email – SMS – Ringless Voicemail
The third strategy we are suggesting here does 3 Touch base with Email, SMS and Ringless Voicemail with Inbound campaign management.
It will work like this:
Day 1: Send Email
Day 2: Dealy of 1 Day between Touchpoint 1(Email) and 2(SMS)
Day 3: SMS
(To Each Successful Email sent without any Inbound Action)
- All Inbound Calls will be transferred to Live Agent
- All Leads which has not taken any action will go to Delay for Next Follow-up Action
Day 4: Dealy of 1 Day between Touchpoint 2 (Ringless Voicemail) and TouchPoint 3 (SMS)
Day 5: Send Ringless Voicemail
- Every Inbound Call will be Transferred to the Live Agent
- Every Lead without any Inbound Action will be updated with a Contact Status (like follow-up done)
Conclusion
When it comes to automation tools, the offers are virtually endless.
But you have to consider that most of them are generic tools. Yes, technically, you can use any tool.
Well, technically, you can chop down a tree even with a nail file. It takes some time and effort but it’s possible.
But a Husqvarna 3120 XP, with its 6-foot blade, may be better for the job. Marketing automation is the same. You can either use the proverbial nail file or the proverbial Husqvarna 3120 XP.
If you’d like to get a taste of FlowUp, then click here and start your discovery.
I believe you will like it and it will be easy for you to get addicted to it.