Real Estate Marketing - Contacting Clients Consistently to Ensure Referrals and Experience Success!
So, you know that you need to stay in touch with your clients and prospects, and you have your database all set up and ready to go! Now what? You need a plan, a simple strategy to keep contacting your past, present, and future clients.
Let's explore the many ways to stay in contact with your clients.
I'm sure we'll find one that will work best for you and save you time and money! Newsletters The snail-mail newsletter is usually what comes to mind when one thinks about staying in contact with past clients and current prospects.
There are literally dozens of sources to purchase newsletters to send to your clients, or you could put together your own.
Sharing a content rich newsletter with your clients and prospects helps them know that you really care about them and desire the best for them.
In choosing to send a newsletter through the mail, you are personalizing your contact.
You are showing that it's worth your time and money to do this.
But is it? If you are currently sending out a monthly newsletter to your database, are you seeing returns? Are your clients responding with transactions or referrals? If you are thinking about starting a newsletter, you might want to consider the following.
Once you have your purchased or developed newsletter, one for each address, you will then need to fold, stuff, seal, stamp, and mail.
With increased postage rates, this is becoming a more and more expensive option.
And unless you are very unusual, you will always have a handful of letters marked "Return to Sender".
However, folks do respond to mail-outs or no one would be doing them! Disadvantages: cost, no way of knowing if they opened your letter or tossed it, difficult to follow-up.
Postcards Another option that uses the postal service is to mail out postcards.
Many agents do this when they have a new listing, or recently sold a home.
You can do this "just because" each month to your client base.
I recently saw one company which created unusual holiday postcards for agents.
Your clients would receive your postcard in the mail when no one else was sending any.
Another company produces postcards that feature a seasonal recipe.
Or you can create your own! This option shares many of the good points about newsletters, but also shares a lot of the disadvantages.
The biggest difference is cost as the postcards are less expensive to produce and mail.
Phone Calls Many agents like to show a personal touch to their clients.
Often, taking the time to make a quick phone call alerts your clients that you are not too busy to talk to them.
An additional benefit is that you can solicit any concerns or issues that you might be able to solve.
When calling, you may choose to use a script to make sure you stay on track and ask any questions you may have.
When enjoying a conversation with a client, we sometimes get distracted and miss telling them something important or asking them a necessary question.
Just a quick word of caution if you choose this option: make sure you only call those with whom you already have a professional relationship.
If someone chooses to give you his phone number, then that is tacit permission to call.
This option can be very time consuming if you have a large client list.
In addition, if you call your clients every month, they may start to be annoyed.
Email With the advent of technology, there are a number of new ways to stay in touch.
I for one am so thankful for email as it allows me to stay in touch very effectively with my friends and family across the country.
You can utilize this tool to stay in touch with your clients as well.
This is the least expensive of any of the above options, as you already have the Internet and an email account.
Developing "ezines" or email newsletters is much easier than with print newsletters.
There are many sources available online.
If you use a service to help manage your email list, they will be able to provide you with statistics such as how many people opened your email, how many clicked on links inside your email, etc.
In addition, when meeting people at open houses or when visitors come to your website, asking them only for their name and email address makes them feel more comfortable and less likely to be bombarded by phone calls from desperate real estate agents! As you get to know them through your emails, they will begin to trust you and seek you out when they have a real estate need.
As with the phone calls, though, a word of caution: be sure that you do not SPAM.
Send only to those who have given you their email address.
Let's explore the many ways to stay in contact with your clients.
I'm sure we'll find one that will work best for you and save you time and money! Newsletters The snail-mail newsletter is usually what comes to mind when one thinks about staying in contact with past clients and current prospects.
There are literally dozens of sources to purchase newsletters to send to your clients, or you could put together your own.
Sharing a content rich newsletter with your clients and prospects helps them know that you really care about them and desire the best for them.
In choosing to send a newsletter through the mail, you are personalizing your contact.
You are showing that it's worth your time and money to do this.
But is it? If you are currently sending out a monthly newsletter to your database, are you seeing returns? Are your clients responding with transactions or referrals? If you are thinking about starting a newsletter, you might want to consider the following.
Once you have your purchased or developed newsletter, one for each address, you will then need to fold, stuff, seal, stamp, and mail.
With increased postage rates, this is becoming a more and more expensive option.
And unless you are very unusual, you will always have a handful of letters marked "Return to Sender".
However, folks do respond to mail-outs or no one would be doing them! Disadvantages: cost, no way of knowing if they opened your letter or tossed it, difficult to follow-up.
Postcards Another option that uses the postal service is to mail out postcards.
Many agents do this when they have a new listing, or recently sold a home.
You can do this "just because" each month to your client base.
I recently saw one company which created unusual holiday postcards for agents.
Your clients would receive your postcard in the mail when no one else was sending any.
Another company produces postcards that feature a seasonal recipe.
Or you can create your own! This option shares many of the good points about newsletters, but also shares a lot of the disadvantages.
The biggest difference is cost as the postcards are less expensive to produce and mail.
Phone Calls Many agents like to show a personal touch to their clients.
Often, taking the time to make a quick phone call alerts your clients that you are not too busy to talk to them.
An additional benefit is that you can solicit any concerns or issues that you might be able to solve.
When calling, you may choose to use a script to make sure you stay on track and ask any questions you may have.
When enjoying a conversation with a client, we sometimes get distracted and miss telling them something important or asking them a necessary question.
Just a quick word of caution if you choose this option: make sure you only call those with whom you already have a professional relationship.
If someone chooses to give you his phone number, then that is tacit permission to call.
This option can be very time consuming if you have a large client list.
In addition, if you call your clients every month, they may start to be annoyed.
Email With the advent of technology, there are a number of new ways to stay in touch.
I for one am so thankful for email as it allows me to stay in touch very effectively with my friends and family across the country.
You can utilize this tool to stay in touch with your clients as well.
This is the least expensive of any of the above options, as you already have the Internet and an email account.
Developing "ezines" or email newsletters is much easier than with print newsletters.
There are many sources available online.
If you use a service to help manage your email list, they will be able to provide you with statistics such as how many people opened your email, how many clicked on links inside your email, etc.
In addition, when meeting people at open houses or when visitors come to your website, asking them only for their name and email address makes them feel more comfortable and less likely to be bombarded by phone calls from desperate real estate agents! As you get to know them through your emails, they will begin to trust you and seek you out when they have a real estate need.
As with the phone calls, though, a word of caution: be sure that you do not SPAM.
Send only to those who have given you their email address.
