We all know how effective text messaging can be in marketing to our customers and potential clients. Many people check their texts every day and since the majority of our mobile phones are hooked up with our email, we receive them seemlessly through out the day.
The key to successful mobile marketing is knowing your audience and what times of the day/ week they are most likely to see your message. Sending texts outside of these times will result in an increased chance of your text going to the “spam” or even worse the trash folder. This is why it’s important to know your audience and their routines.
SMS Marketing is the wave of the future, get on board with this technology now while its still affordable! It can be difficult at first because you need an application that allows you to send out large amounts of text messages for a small price (we all hate spending money).
STEP 1: CHOOSE YOUR PRICING STRUCTURE
Before I can show you how to use SMS marketing in real estate, we must go over which service is best for you. There are two main services you can use to send SMS texts – Convers8ions and Twilio. I have used both of these companies and had good results with each, but my current favorite is using Convers8ions.
Why? Well they offer a free account option which gives you 500 free text messages every month! 500 SMS messages per month may seem like a lot, but if you are sending out multiple text messages per day that number will go down pretty quick.
***
STEP 2: Decide how you want to be connected via SMS with your leads. Most agents text using Iphone, but there are also other mobile devices capable of receiving and sending messages over the Internet such as Android phones or tablets running on Android.
STEP 3: Prepare a list of 10-20 people important in your life who you know would be interested in receiving updates from you without asking them first. You can send out a mass text as this is a great opener for new leads that haven’t responded to any of the emails you sent them yet.
STEP 4: Decide what kind of texts your leads will receive from you. Will it be mostly invitations to open houses? Or information about local area happenings? How often do they get texts from you? Will they be people that you’ll visit or call, or will it just be texts with information on the houses and areas you specialize in?
STEP 5: SEND OUT YOUR FIRST TEXTS. As always, remember to keep things simple and not overwhelm your leads with too many messages at once. It’s best for them to feel like they can trust and depend on you than to get tired of receiving so many messages from you! Check out our tips below for more info on SMS marketing.
How often do agents use SMS?
Real estate agents are using SMS usually every 2-3 weeks initially when newsletters are sent out by emailing their list. Then after 6 months they send an average of one text message per week.