Text marketing, unfortunately, is not such a popular way of promotion. SMS are read more often than other mailings. According to a study by the SHIFT agency, four out of five people among smartphone owners read all the SMS they receive.
SMS text marketing is a very effective but not popular way to attract customers. If you’re a real estate agent who finds himself spending too much time on the phone and traveling to business meetings, then you might want to consider SMS for real estate marketing. If you are not particularly familiar with this type of marketing, then there are various text marketing platforms. On these platforms, you can order a program to send SMS to clients.
SMS marketing service is a fairly simple, fast, and most importantly effective way to contact potential buyers for real estate agents. Using thoughtful strategies for sms marketing for real estate will help you not only find, but also keep new customers.
This article provides 10 basic principles that will help make SMS marketing “sellable”.
Write specifically
Do not waste users’ time and write SMS as specifically as possible – so that it is clear from the first words what offer is being discussed. According to statistics, 54% of users primarily want to receive promotions via SMS, and 77% subscribe to SMS campaigns from companies to receive discounts.
Reader Respect
- Do not use capital letters throughout the message, so as not to cause a negative reaction from customers.
- Don’t overuse exclamation and question marks, because in the text they look like a cry of despair.
- Don’t overuse emoji in messages.
- Do not use abbreviations and abbreviations. Not all clients will be able to decrypt them.
Correctly selected day and time for sending SMS
According to statistics, the highest average click rates for SMS mailings by time are from 12:00 to 15:00, by days of the week – on Sunday and Monday. For newsletters about events, the best time to send them is closer to the time of the event. This is due to the fact that SMS is read immediately.
You can’t send SMS every day
According to a report from the mailing service SimpleTexting, the main reason why customers refuse SMS mailings is that the company reminds itself too often. To the question “how often would you like to receive SMS from companies”, 56% of customers answered – once every two weeks, 29% – once a week, and only 2.3% – four times a week.
Limited time offer
According to Messente, customers consider uninteresting offers that can always be used. And the indication that the offer will soon expire creates a sense of urgency and leads to a quick response from buyers.
Specify the sender’s number, address, email
It seems logical not to include the sender’s name and contacts in order to reduce the number of characters in the SMS. According to statistics:
- 29% of customers follow links from SMS;
- 47% of customers who clicked on a link buy.
Call the customer to action
Calls to action like “Sign Up”, “Send Message”, and “Show Coupon” increase the likelihood of a conversion.
SMS personalization
73% of customers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations. 62% of customers believe that companies will carefully adjust to their needs. That is, an effective SMS mailing is personalized, contains the name of the client, and takes into account his interests and tastes.
Make special offers
For example, “Especially for you! Have time to buy an apartment before November 31 and get a 10% discount on all types of additional services”
SMS must not contain more than 160 characters
The maximum length of one SMS in the US is 160 characters. If we use 161 characters, we get 2 SMS. In general, this paragraph is about saving.
What is the ideal formula for a sales SMS
And there is no perfect formula – every idea is better to test. At the same time, in order not to spend the advertising budget on tests in expensive SMS, some companies test hypotheses in shareware email newsletters.
An example of a good formula:
Selling SMS = Clear Benefit + Call to Action + Urgency
The strategy for successful real estate marketing is to create an information “cocoon” around each potential client. Constantly be where people are – on their favorite sites, social networks, and other convenient touch points. Create a strong and positive information field for the company.
Whatever property the client is looking for – an apartment, a house, or a townhouse, he always chooses from several options. It happens that after viewing the first object, the client does not come to any conclusion. Calling him is not always convenient, but in an SMS with the minimum and necessary information, you can send him an offer to consider a new object that meets the requirements of the client.
Newsletters will help you gradually warm up a potential client and create a warm, trusting relationship with him. SMS marketing in real estate can be built according to general principles – to maintain regular contact with the client and send him personalized mailings.
The main trigger that makes the client pay more attention to your advertising is the benefit, the value that he will definitely receive when buying. It is thanks to profitable and interesting offers that your customers are still open to receive mailings.
Start with a triggered welcome SMS that will start immediately after signing up. For example, like this: Thanks for the subscription. Basic offers, promotions and discounts.
Text messaging is fast and easy. And here it doesn’t matter at all whether we are talking about mass SMS mailing for 5,000 people or about individual and automatic meeting reminders. The rapid submission of important information plays a huge role in sales, especially when it comes to such a business area as buying and selling real estate.
You can send messages from anywhere. Most real estate professionals spend way too much time on the road and in their cars. Therefore, it is important for such agents to be able to access customers from different locations (without having to fiddle around with a tablet or laptop).
The evidence that people are more likely to respond to text messages than to emails is valid. So be sure to use this powerful marketing tool to keep in touch with your potential buyers.
SMS, since its use as a marketing tool, remains one of the leaders in attracting customer funds. If this tool is used in combination with a well-designed marketing strategy, you can get unexpectedly big results from your campaigns.