In the fast-paced world of real estate, where responsiveness reigns supreme, you want to reach your potential buyers as quickly and effectively as possible.
While email marketing is a true and tried method for connecting with your clients, we all know how overcrowded people’s inboxes can get. Now enter SMS — a silent but mighty channel with near-guaranteed open rates. The key to unlocking their true potential lies not in choosing one channel over the other, but in combining them together.
The allure of the integrated approach
The beauty of combining email and SMS marketing lies in their complementary strengths. If you’re in the real estate game and are looking for ways to engage your potential buyers more, here are some ways this dynamic duo of channels can improve your overall marketing strategy:
- Reach a wider audience: Not everyone checks their email religiously, but you know what most people have glued to their hands? You guessed it — phones. A notification for the SMS you’ve just sent will stay on the recipient’s screen until they read it. So if your potential customer missed the email, adding SMS can expand your reach significantly.
- Timely updates and engagement: The immediacy SMS offers is unmatched. Imagine you’ve been teasing an open house or a virtual tour of a new property via email. Now, when it’s finally time to open the registration, you send a quick text message announcing it. Add a direct link to it and your clients will have the opportunity to act fast, potentially scheduling a viewing before the competition.
- Personalized communication: Ditch generic emails and SMS blasts — that’s old news. Omnichannel marketing platforms with audience segmentation and marketing automation (often surprisingly affordable) allow you to craft targeted messages for specific customer profiles. Highlight features that resonate with their needs, and create automated email flows that seamlessly integrate with SMS to reach your audience on their preferred channels, at the perfect moment.
- Seamless follow-up: The follow-up is an important step in nurturing leads. After an email showcasing a property, a well-timed SMS inquiring if they have any questions or would like to schedule a viewing keeps the conversation flowing. This combined approach demonstrates your proactiveness and keeps you at the forefront of the buyer’s mind.
Creating a perfect combination
Now that we’ve established the power of the integrated approach, let’s explore how to craft the perfect message combination:
- Start with an email: In the dynamic duo of email and SMS, email acts as the detailed property brochure. This versatile channel allows you to work with high-quality photos, captivating descriptions, and virtual tour links to showcase the property’s best features. Use it for an initial outreach, to hook your audience.
- Follow up with SMS: Within 24-48 hours of sending the email, it’s then a good time to send a concise SMS highlighting a key selling point of the property. For instance, “Stunning 3BR home with private pool! See virtual tour & schedule a viewing: [link].” Keep it short, relevant, and include a clear call to action, like a link to schedule a viewing or request more details.
- Personalize when possible: Did you know that personalization in marketing can increase the revenue up to 40%? So if you have additional information about the recipient’s preferences (e.g., from a previous conversation), personalize your communication further. This demonstrates attentiveness and increases the chances of engagement.
- Explore more formats: While SMS excels at short, text-based messages, MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) allows sending images and videos. So consider using MMS strategically, for example, if a unique architectural feature is the property’s crown jewel, an MMS showcasing it can be highly impactful. However, you don’t need to choose between SMS vs MMS — use them interchangeably for the maximum results.
Wrap up
Remember, the key is to provide value at every touchpoint. By integrating email and SMS marketing effectively, real estate firms can create an omnichannel communication strategy that fosters deeper customer engagement, drives qualified leads, and ultimately leads to successful property sales.
