Nurturing. It’s the most effective method of moving leads and prospects through the sales funnel. Do it right, and you end up with clients who, if nurtured, can provide you with referrals.
Nurturing your past clients requires reconnecting with them consistently after the transaction.
1. Ensure that your customer service is unforgettable
No, you don’t need to present them with a whirlwind trip worldwide at closing. It’s the small things that when added up, will leave the best impression and one that will last far into the future:
Keep probing, gently, until you fully understand their wants and needs.
Return calls as quickly as possible.
Reach out consistently to keep them abreast of the transaction’s process or see how they’re doing and if they have any questions or concerns.
Listen to your clients—really listen.
Let them know, in word and deed, that they are never alone during the transaction.
2. Keep them abreast of the latest local housing market news
Create a customized housing market news report template to send to former clients quarterly, semi-annually, or annually.
Homeowners love to know how their home is holding or not holding its value. Keep it simple to understand by using lots of visuals.
3. Just Listeds and Just Solds
Be alert for just listed or sold homes in your former clients’ neighborhoods. This is the perfect time to reconnect and show you’re keeping abreast of local real estate. You’ll find some brilliant Just Listed and Just Sold postcards right here.
4. Celebrate with them
Hopefully, you’ve kept track of important dates in your former clients’ lives. This includes birthdays and anniversaries (especially the anniversary of when they purchased their home).
Mark those dates to send a small gift to the former client’s office.
Why the office?
Ask anyone who has received a bouquet of flowers at work how many of their co-workers asked who they were from and what the occasion was.
Just think how much free word-of-mouth advertising you’ll get when your former client tells coworkers that the gift is from their real estate agent to celebrate the anniversary of their home purchase.
5. Send an updated CMA
Your past client reconnection efforts should include an annual CMA to keep them abreast of how their home stacks up regarding market value. They may not be considering selling, but they are most likely curious about their home’s market value.
Make sure you put this task in your CRM so you won’t forget about it.
Reconnecting with folks you’ve done business with is a tried-and-true referral generator.
PLUS: When you have time…below are some marketing tools to help support your success.
1. Put Your Real Estate Business a Step Above with Your Own Branded Magazine
Homes & Life Magazine is a customizable magazine with rich, full-color content and a sharp, professional aesthetic. It includes compelling, direct, response-driven articles written by real estate industry experts and engaging lifestyle content. Send out Homes & Life Magazine in Just Minutes – No Minimums Required. Or we’ll ship it to you. Homes & Life Magazine is the ultimate “Coffee Table Lingerer”! …and it costs less than sending a greeting card! – Click Here
2.The Free 6-Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan
The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 6-Month Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do and when. Four key market segments include niche Markets, geographic farming, sphere of influence, and past clients. – Click Here
3. The Free Interactive 6-Month Real Estate Business Review
The Free Interactive 6-Month Real Estate Business Review allows you to enter your business goals for the remainder of the year and get a breakdown of how many prospects, listings, closings, and so on are needed to reach your goals. – Click Here
4. The Become a Listing Legend Free eBook
Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here
Mariflor’s recent mailing was a Call to Action postcard (shown here). To learn more, Click Here.
Congratulations, Mariflor Perez, on winning this week’s contest!
Mariflor had the following words to say about her success sending marketing out from ProspectsPLUS!,
“ProspectPLUS! always provides excellent service with high-quality materials and products. Their customer service is exceptional, showing their dedication to excellence. Working with them is a real pleasure as they consistently go the extra mile to meet their customers’ needs.”
– Mariflor Perez
Mariflor, thank you for your review. We truly appreciate you and your support!
Don’t Forget to Enter For Your Chance to Win a $75 ProspectsPLUS! Gift Card! (see how below)*
HOW TO ENTER: Just leave feedback regarding how using marketing from ProspectsPLUS! has impacted your business, and you’re automatically entered into our next contest.
*If you’ve already entered our drawing in the past and haven’t won, you don’t need to enter again. Your entry remains valid, and you still have a chance to win.
Don’t forget to watch for next Friday’s email announcing the weekly winner!
PLUS: When you have time…below are some marketing tools to help support your success.
1. Put Your Real Estate Business a Step Above with Your Own Branded Magazine
Homes & Life Magazine is a customizable magazine with rich, full-color content and a sharp, professional aesthetic. It includes compelling, direct response-driven articles written by real estate industry experts and engaging lifestyle content. Send out Homes & Life Magazine in Just Minutes – No Minimums Required. Or we’ll ship it to you. Homes & Life Magazine is the ultimate “Coffee Table Lingerer”! …and it costs less than sending a greeting card! – Click Here
2.The Free 6-Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan
The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 6-Month Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do and when. Four key market segments include niche Markets, geographic farming, sphere of influence, and past clients. – Click Here
3. The Free Interactive 6-Month Real Estate Business Review
The Free Interactive 6-Month Real Estate Business Review allows you to enter your business goals for the remainder of the year and get a breakdown of how many prospects, listings, closing, and so on are needed to reach your goals. – Click Here
4. The Become a Listing Legend Free eBook
Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here
Barbara Jackson recently sent a postcard from the Call to Action Series, shown above. To see more, Click Here.
Congratulations, Barabara Jackson, on winning this week’s contest!
Barbara had the following words to say about her success sending marketing out from ProspectsPLUS!,
“Great experience working with ProspectPLUS!. The attention to detail is very impressive. I love getting the reminder emails when my postcards are being sent out on my scheduled postcard campaign.”
-Barbara Jackson
Barbara, thank you for this wonderful feedback. We truly appreciate you and your support!
Don’t Forget to Enter For Your Chance to Win a $125 ProspectsPLUS! Gift Card! (see how below)*
What Can You Do With a $125 ProspectsPLUS! Gift Card? Here are 5 Things:
Launch and pay for the first month of a Sphere or Farm Scheduled Campaign consisting of 130 jumbo postcards.
Send 130 jumbo Just Listed or Just Sold Postcards to a radius surrounding your listing.
Send 130 Jumbo Get More Listings postcards to an area where you want more listings.
Create a niche prospect list (empty nesters, move-up market, etc.) and mail 130 jumbo postcards.
HOW TO ENTER: Just leave a review regarding how using marketing from ProspectsPLUS! has impacted your business, and you’re automatically entered into our next contest.
*If you’ve already entered our contest in the past and haven’t won, you don’t need to enter again. Your entry remains valid, and you still have a chance to win.
Don’t forget to watch for next Friday’s email announcing the weekly winner!
PLUS: When you have time…below are some helpful tools to support your success.
1. The Free 12-Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan
The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do and when. Four key market segments are included, niche Markets, geographic farming, sphere of influence, and past clients. – Click Here
2. The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan
The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan allows you to enter your business goals for this year and get a breakdown of how many prospects, listings, closings, and so on are needed to reach your goals. – Click Here
3. The Become a Listing Legend Free eBook
Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here
In recent months, more than 15% of home sales fell through nationwide, according to a Redfin analysis. If you’re a Phoenix, Las Vegas, or Tampa agent, you’re undoubtedly familiar with this, as these cities have the highest number of incompleted real estate deals.
According to a survey from Cinch Home Services, the top 5 reasons for these derailments include:
The buyer walked
The buyer’s mortgage application was denied
Seller backed out
Home inspection issues
The home didn’t appraise
Don’t wait for your deals to start falling apart. Being proactive rather than reactive will help avoid some more common problems.
1. Vet the buyer
According to the aforementioned Cinch survey, 42% of derailed deals in recent month’s resulted from a denied loan application.
Buyers’ agents should thoroughly vet their clients to ensure they qualify for a loan and are prepared to financially complete the deal.
Listing agents might want to consider requesting “… a recent pre-approval letter from the lender, written within the last 30 days,” suggests a Boulder, Colorado agent at realtor.com.
Additionally, ensure that the buyer has a lock on the interest rate. “Buyers that have a mortgage rate lock are more likely to close the purchase versus those that still need a rate lock,” according to zondahome.com’s chief economist Ali Wolf.
Jason Gelios, author of “How to Think Like a Realtor,” offers up some signs for a listing agent to be on the lookout for that might indicate that the buyer isn’t as strong as you might hope. These include:
A small down payment
Requests for credits or concessions from the seller
A pre-approval letter from an unfamiliar lender
2. Tighten up those contingency timelines
Not too long ago, we were engulfed in a hot, hot, hot sellers’ market, so much so that the word ‘contingency’ almost became obsolete.
“Now, the supply and demand balance has changed,” Aly J. Yale at money.com reminds us. “Buyers have leverage, ushering in a new age of contingency-laden deals.”
“Homebuyers now will agree to buy a house and be doing the inspection, and then back out because they found another home they love more,” cautions a Redfin agent in Las Vegas.
Before accepting a contract, counsel your client to counter with a request to shorten any overly-long contingency timelines. The less time the buyers have to shop around for another home while still under contract on your listing, the better.
3.Consider a pre-sale home inspection
Nearly 40% of failed real estate deals can be blamed on home inspection results.
We get it: Many agents hesitate to recommend a pre-listing home inspection to their clients. Some say it’s because it presents additional disclosure items. Whatever the reason, the truth about the home will come out in the buyers’ inspection report anyway.
Be proactive so your client has the full picture of what she’s facing when the buyer’s inspection results come in. This allows your client to fix or replace anything you’re sure will be an issue for the buyer.
At the very least, you’ll have time to strategize how to handle negotiations if there are problems with the home.
PLUS: When you have time…below are some marketing tools to help support your success.
1. Put Your Real Estate Business a Step Above with Your Own Branded Magazine
Homes & Life Magazine is a customizable magazine with rich, full-color content and a sharp, professional aesthetic. It includes compelling, direct response-driven articles written by real estate industry experts combined with engaging lifestyle content. Send out Homes & Life Magazine in Just Minutes – No Minimums Required. Or we’ll ship it to you.
Homes & Life Magazine is the ultimate “Coffee Table Lingerer”! …and it costs less than sending a greeting card! – Click Here
2.The Free 12-Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan
The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do and when. Four key market segments include niche Markets, geographic farming, sphere of influence, and past clients. – Click Here
3. The BusinessBase, SOI building system
The most effective thing you can do to build a real estate business is to become more visible, more likable, and remembered more often. The BusinessBASE™ not only checks these boxes but is also a business-building machine. In two easy steps, you can begin to build a robust sphere of influence that will provide you a lifetime of repeat business and referrals. –Click Here
4. The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan
The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan allows you to enter your business goals for this year and get a breakdown of how many prospects, listings, closing, and so on are needed to reach your goals. – Click Here
5. The Become a Listing Legend Free eBook
Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here
Before you launch your next direct mail marketing campaign, make sure to add these rules to your list of must-do’s.
Rule #1 Provide a Compelling Call-to-Action
Retailers have an easy time with calls-to-action. Offering a percentage off, free shipping, or buy-one, get-one-free are all popular examples.
What about real estate agents though? What kind of call-to-action can you provide that might compel a recipient of your postcard to contact you for more information?
The following are a few examples that are attention-getting and have the potential to engage homeowners and get them requesting more information.
• Free Downsizing Review and Strategy • Free Home Equity Analysis • Free Vacant Home Sales Strategy • Free Home Price Analysis
The Call to Action Series of postcards is shown above. To learn more about sending a one-time mailing, Click Here. To learn more about sending a recurring campaign, Click Here.
Keep in mind, however; the number of hoops you force your prospects to jump through to take advantage of these offers does impact the response rate, according to Bob McCarthy at DMNews.com. The more they have to do to receive that offer, the lower the response rate.
Rule #2 Utilize Standout Designs
“One strategy we use to get our highest response rates is to make the call-to-action the centerpiece of the direct mail piece,” McCarthy claims.
Whether you choose to include an image representing the free offer or use text to describe it, mention it boldly and repeatedly. Your message (its length and graphic requirements) determines the size and style of the medium.
Plan on keeping it plain and simple? A standard-sized postcard may do the trick, although jumbo, panoramic, and mega-sized postcards stand out in mailboxes, which makes for a genuinely lasting impression.
If it is graphics-heavy and you include substantial copy, using one of the larger postcard sizes (jumbo or panoramic) becomes even more important.
Choose a font that is easy to scan as people sift through their mail. As direct mail experts, we recommend using a sans serif font, such as Arial, rather than Times New Roman or another serif font.
Consider varying the font size throughout the text. For example, you can highlight important items with a larger version of the font you choose.
Additional design tips to keep in mind include ensuring your headline is bold and compelling, yet short and specific. Use lots of white space to make the piece appear to be easily digestible.
Subheadings are important, as they help guide the reader through the text.
Don’t forget to use high-resolution photographs, and avoid placing text over photos. Last note, ensure that your call-to-action stands out and that your contact information is easy to find.
Rule #3 Track Your Results
Tracking your results is vital to long-term marketing success.
In fact, the only way to continue to improve your marketing results, and achieve a higher ROI, is to understand what has worked and hasn’t worked in the past.
Of course, the easiest way to track your marketing is to make it a habit of asking each person who calls how they heard about you.
Another way is to make your free offer unique for easy tracking. When you receive incoming calls you will know immediately what marketing piece inspired their call based on the offer they inquire about.
One more popular method used by agents is to create a dedicated landing page on your website. The URL should be unique to the campaign, so you are able to learn your exact response rate (number of responses divided by the total number of pieces sent).
Marketing experts vary when quoting an “average response rate” for direct mail.
The most recent figure puts it at 9%. How close or far you are from that figure depends on how closely you follow the guidelines outlined above.
PLUS: When you have time…below are some marketing tools to help support your success.
1. Put Your Real Estate Business a Step Above with Your Own Branded Magazine
Homes & Life Magazine is a customizable magazine, with rich, full-color content, and a sharp, professional esthetic. It includes compelling, direct response-driven articles written by real estate industry experts, combined with engaging lifestyle content. Send out Homes & Life Magazine in Just Minutes – No Minimums Required. Or we’ll ship it to you.
Homes & Life Magazine is the ultimate “Coffee Table Lingerer”! …and, it costs less than sending a greeting card! – Click Here
2.The Free 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan
The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do when. Four key market segments are included, niche Markets, geographic farming, sphere of influence, and past clients. – Click Here
3. The BusinessBase, SOI building system
The most effective thing you can do to build a real estate business is to become more visible, more likable, and remembered more often. The BusinessBASE™ not only checks all of these boxes, but it is a business building machine. In two easy steps, you can begin to build a robust sphere of influence that will provide you a lifetime of repeat business and referrals. –Click Here
4. The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan
The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan allows you to enter your business goals for this year and get a breakdown of how many prospects, listings, closing, and so on are needed to reach your goals. – Click Here
5. The Become a Listing Legend Free eBook
Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here
6. The Take a Listing Today Podcast
Watch the ProspectsPLUS!, Take a Listing Today Podcast for actionable content to help you get more listings. – Click Here
Shown above: Postcards from various Just Listed/Just Sold Series and Wendy Wilkins postcard. See more HERE
Congratulations, Wendy Wilkins you are the winner of this week’s $120 gift card!
Wendy had the following words to say about her success after sending a Just Listed postcard through ProspectsPLUS!,
“I’ve already received a call from my postcard!” – Wendy Wilkins
Congratulations on your inbound call, Wendy! I bet it felt great knowing your marketing’s working.
Also, thank you for your five-star review!
NEW CONTEST STARTS NOW: Get the FIRST MONTH of Any Scheduled Campaign For FREE! ($120 value)
FARM, Call to Action Series Scheduled Campaign shown above.Learn more, HERE
Enter this week’s contest for a chance to win a $120 gift card covering the first month of ANY Scheduled Campaign.
The scheduled campaign includes 150 jumbo-sized postcards, sent standard postage (excluding data and tax. Includes only the first month free of a new campaign).
HOW TO ENTER: Just leave a review regarding how using marketing from ProspectsPLUS! has impacted your business, and you’re automatically entered into our next contest.
Mention a “scheduled campaign you’ve launched” in your review and your entry into the contest is doubled.
Don’t forget to watch out for next Friday’s email announcing the weekly winner!
Ready to Schedule an SOI, Farm, Get More Listing, Holiday or Absentee Owner Campaign?
Just Sold Follow-up Scheduled Campaign shown above, learn moreHERE
Launch a Scheduled Campaign today and save time on your marketing by automating it!
You Can Launch a Scheduled Campaign to any of the following Markets in Just Minutes:
Sphere of Influence Geographic Farm Just Sold Follow-up Holiday Renters Absentee Owners Expireds FSBOs Fence Sitters* Get More Listings* Empty Nesters* Move-Up Market*
(*Located under Farm Campaigns)
And, remember, YOU DON’T PAY for each mailing until it actually goes out (cancel or change each mailing up until the night before mailing goes out. The price shown at check out is per mailing, not campaign total).
TO GET STARTED:
STEP 1: Create your prospect list using our mailing list tools, HERE.
STEP 2: Then, once you have your list, choose your Campaign, select your start date, and add your list, HERE or hit “Launch a Scheduled Campaign”, below.
A first place $250 Gift Card winner & a second place $100 Gift Card winner!
1.Congratulations Joanne Gillet on winning our 1st Prize $250 ProspectsPLUS! Gift Card!
Joanne shared the following feedback with ProspectsPLUS!
“Fast and easy, or if you have any questions a representative is there to help with custom cards or to get a quick automatic postcard sent out! Love it!”
Need help targeting the perfect niche of buyers or sellers? Use ourmailing list toolto create the ideal list (it’s easy) or call our support team for assistance at 866.405.3638!
While a lot of real estate agents know about Google AdWords, there are many who don’t understand how it works and why they should consider using it to advertise their business.
All advertising campaigns require careful consideration as to the amount of time they take, the cost and, most especially, the return on your investment dollar. Let’s take a closer look at these concerns and how AdWords fits in.
Learning Curve
Determining keywords, deciding how much to pay for them and tracking your ads takes time. For the busy real estate agent or those who are inexperienced with online advertising—especially advertising on Google—expect a huge amount of time on just the learning curve alone.
Then, tracking the ads’ effectiveness involves another huge chunk of time.
Cost
Since it costs nothing to set up a Google Adwords account, the cheapest way to get started is to do it yourself. Navigate to adwords.google.com and you’ll find step-by-step instructions on how to set up the entire program.
So, How Does it Work?
Google is the largest search engine in the world and, last month, it garnered nearly 92 percent of the search market share, worldwide.
Regardless of where you advertise online and whether you buy leads or clicks, the truth is that Google is so ubiquitous, whoever finds you probably uses Google.
The good news is that Google tends to offer a fairly high return on investment. It works on an auction model, so the more popular the keyword you want, the more you’ll pay.
Now, it’s not a straight auction model because they also care about relevancy, so if your landing page is judged highly relevant to your keyword, they’ll allow you to bid a little bit lower for the ad.
Not only that, but the more relevant pages are ranked the highest.
Google assigns what they call a Quality Score to every landing page for every keyword. Let’s assume that your landing page is generic and you want to bid on the keyword phrase “Portland Real Estate.”
Any agents whose landing pages have a higher Quality Score, also bidding on the same keyword phrase, will rank above your page in the search results.
Advantages
In one sentence: Google AdWords is a fast, highly scalable, easy and somewhat predictable way to advertise – if you know what you’re doing.
Scalability: You decide how much you spend and when and how to adjust your ads.
Predictable: Once you know what you’re doing you can determine your ROI.
Quicker: You’ll see results faster than you will with trying to SEO your way to page one organically.
Disadvantages
Ok, so it’s not all perfect. The learning curve is steep and overly time-consuming. Then, there are the ongoing management and maintenance headaches. This combination can deter many from using Google AdWords.
The bottom line
If you choose to begin using AdWords, you’ll need to determine a daily budget and then keep up with prices, perform ongoing keyword research and understand the analytics well enough to figure out what is working and what isn’t.
In the end, since all of these tasks take time, many agents choose to outsource the management and maintenance of their AdWords account.
Start attracting new listings with a form of marketing that is studied to have a 75% brand recall – Direct Mail Marketing!*
Need help targeting the perfect niche of sellers? Use our mailing list tool to create the ideal list or call our support team for assistance at 866.405.3638!
PLUS: Get Instant Access below to 3 Free tools that will help you Dominate Your Market this year!
1. An Easy & Effective Agent Business Plan
Treating your business like a business it is crucial to your success. Our one-page simple yet powerful agent business plan is the answer! – Click Here
2. Marketing Dollars Success Tool
Enter your numbers into our Free online calculator to find out how to get the best ROI from your marketing dollar, instantly! – Click Here
3. Get a 12 Month Expert Marketing Plan
Get a free 12-month plan for What marketing to do when. Four key target markets included, Niche Marketing, Listing Inventory, Geographic Farming, and Sphere of Influence – Click Here
