Real estate agents or brokers play many roles. They can be an educator, a negotiator, a neighborhood guide, and a salesperson. Their most important job, however, is being a marketer.

In the real estate industry, every successful deal begins with the agent or broker’s contact with the lead. Thus, quickly following up with the prospect is crucial. One of the invaluable channels to connect with your prospects today is text message marketing. It’s a quick and reliable platform for reaching out to your prospective buyers.

As a real estate agent or business owner, you have to stay innovative and competitive in the market. You should make the most out of every marketing channel available and use them to your advantage. Text message marketing is one channel that you shouldn’t miss out on incorporating in your sales funnel or process. Integrating it into your CRM goes a long way in supplying consistent leads to your pipeline and increasing your conversion rates.

Potential homebuyers who search for properties online are now estimated at almost 90 percent. Meanwhile, 30 percent out of the 90 make use of their mobile phones to search. This trend should be a good enough reason for real estate agents to utilize mass text messaging software and grab a few extra customers each month.

Below is a more comprehensive discussion of the power of text messaging for your real estate business.

What Are The Types Of Campaigns You Can Run Through SMS Marketing?

You have three main choices for the type of text message marketing campaign to run as part of your overall marketing strategy.

Take a closer look at each of them below.

1. Text Messaging Opt-In Campaigns - You can build a list for your text messaging marketing efforts, much like the idea of creating an email list. The good thing about SMS marketing is that you can start building a list using shortcodes. Shortcodes are an alternative for the usual 10-digit number you’ve been used to seeing. Shortcodes consist of only five or six digits, so they are instantly memorable.

Your clients can use the shortcodes to send you a text and learn more about the properties you are offering. Shortcodes, together with keywords, are essential in initial opt-in campaigns and follow-ups where you try to collect information from prospects such as their mobile number, email, zip code, and name.

1. Bulk Text Messaging Campaigns - Another benefit of text message marketing for real estate business owners is the ability to perform bulk messaging quickly. Most text messaging software allows you to upload a list, write a message, schedule the time for sending the messages and hit the start button to begin your campaign. It’s as easy as that, and your promotions, reminders, discounts, and event invites then reach your target audience in no time. You’ll also have the option to reply to messages manually or set up automated replies to streamline the process.

1. P2P Text Messaging Campaigns - P2P or Peer-To-Peer text messaging allows you to send messages to your prospects with the aid of agents. You will only have to upload your contact list and assign batches of contacts to the agents. After receiving the data, the agents will then reach out and try to engage with everyone in the contact list in one-on-one conversations. Amazingly, each of the agents can send out around 1,500 texts within one hour and collect data from the talk with prospects going to your CRM. If that doesn’t sound fantastic to you as a real estate business owner, then you maybe don’t want to do things right in the marketing aspect of your business.

What Information Can You Include In Your Real Estate Text Messaging Marketing Campaigns?

The body of your text message can include several crucial information for the success of your marketing campaign. You can customize it to include a link to your website, link to Google Maps, your contact information, the price of the property, the size of the property, your profile, and the address where the property is located.

How Do You Maximize The Power Of Real Estate Text Messaging?

There are different ways to use text messaging to your advantage as a real estate business owner. Discover them below.

1. Advertise Your Opt-In Campaigns Through Text Riders - You can place real estate text riders outside the property that you are selling. Text riders are signs that make it easy for potential homebuyers to sign up to receive communications from you quickly. Prospective homeowners use real estate text riders to obtain more information on the property that they’re eyeing to buy. It’s an opportunity that you have to take advantage of and is a testament to how text messaging marketing can unlock the potential of your business effectively.

You can also inform your prospects about your text message alerts through email or your website.

1. Follow Up “Cold Leads” Using Automated Messages

You have probably already experienced it: a potential homebuyer inquiring about a property you’re selling, but after the initial connection, they didn’t ask further and went “cold.” Will you let the prospect slip away from your hands or try to bring the prospect back into your sales funnel? If you want to pursue a prospective client, then an automated message can help you.

What you can do is send a message after a week that you made the initial connection with the prospect. Include in the text a link going to your website so prospective buyers could get a glimpse of what you’re selling at the moment. An automated message can help your potential homebuyers take another look at what you can offer to them.

Of course, the last thing you’d want is to sound spammy to your prospects, so a few well-timed messages that remind them of your services will do. An automated message goes a long way in converting a cold lead into a client. A contact that stops responding doesn’t mean a lost prospect or customer, so don’t give up and send a real estate automated message to them.

1. Create A Keyword For Every Property In Your List

Keywords can be of significant help when sending the necessary information to prospects, especially if they’re inquiring about a specific property that they’re eyeing to purchase. For example, you can use keywords such as ‘A’ ‘B’, and ‘C’ for three properties in your listing. If the prospective buyer texts ‘C’ to your shortcode number, then follow them up with information specific to the property associated with the keyword ‘C’.

1. Send Photos Of The Property You’re Listing Through MMS

Most text messaging platforms won’t limit you to only send words for your marketing campaigns. One of the things that speeds up the decision of the prospect is a beautiful photo of the property you’re trying to sell. Send photos and video walkthroughs to increase the chance of prospective homebuyers scheduling a property viewing with you.

1. Boost Attendance At Open Houses

Ninety-eight percent of people open and read the text messages they receive, which means that it’s one of the most effective ways to inform interested buyers about your open-house events. Using the best text messaging platforms, you can send automated messages that remind prospects the day before the open-house schedule. You can also share photos through MMS or links to video tours to pump their excitement up and drive their interest further. Connect to your prospects and encourage them to text your keyword so you can follow them up automatically two or three days later. There’s no doubt that it’s an effective way to capture open-house attendees easily.

What Are The Benefits Of Utilizing Text Messaging For Real Estate Marketing?

Now that you already know the different types of campaigns you can run in text messaging marketing and how to maximize its power to your advantage as a real estate business owner, it’s time to understand the benefits of using it. Keep in mind, though, that text messaging is only one of the many marketing tools that real estate agents, brokers, and owners use together with video and social media marketing strategy. So, without further ado, here are some of the benefits of real estate text message marketing:

1. Allows You To Personalize Your Communication With Prospects - The modern generation is now more likely to rent or buy houses if they receive personalized communication from you, something that you can achieve with SMS marketing. Yes, other tools such as email are still essential, but they’re often impersonal for your prospects.

1. Streamlines The Lead Generation Process - As you already know, the real estate market gets increasingly competitive in each passing year, making every lead valuable. That said, you have to take advantage of the lead capture system that the real estate text message marketing offers so you can spend less money and time attracting, nurturing, and converting leads.

1. Send Reminders And Set Appointments Much Faster - Setting appointments has become quicker and more comfortable than ever because of the text message technology. It’s also true when it comes to reminding clients about scheduled meetings, appointments, and open-house events. With real estate text message marketing, you can have the option to sync the software to your calendar so that you can get an alert on upcoming appointments and send automated reminders to prospects about the schedule.

1. It’s Affordable Compared To Other Forms Of Marketing - Admit it, nothing can compare to text message marketing when it comes to affordability. It’s an inexpensive option to send mass messages, provide essential information, and capture more leads quickly.

Conclusion

Text message marketing is an affordable tool that provides plenty of benefits to real estate business owners, property managers, brokers, and agents. And the discussion above is a glimpse of how powerful this marketing platform can be if utilized correctly. All of the things mentioned in this post make text messaging not only useful, but also a necessary tool to integrate into your marketing strategy.