Why and How Real Estate Agents Can Use SMS Marketing

By  //  July 26, 2022

Real estate business depends on how you manage relationships for your route to success. After all, before anyone buys or rents a property, they often need to meet a real estate agent, discuss their needs, and even inspect the property or space. 

Communication is a crucial ingredient in building relationships. Therefore, it is no surprise that finding a better way to communicate with people should be on the top of the list of every real estate agent. This is where SMS marketing comes to play, and we will explain how and why real estate agents should consider using it. Let’s dive right into it. 

The Benefits of SMS Marketing in Real Estate 

Despite the different technological advancements in communication providing several ways to reach people, it’s pretty funny that people are still harder to reach, at least for businesses. Studies show that the open rate of emails is on a continuous nose dive, making it less effective for marketing.

Besides, there has been a drop in the response rate of phone calls originating from businesses for fear that they may be advertisers and timewasters. How can SMS for real estate marketing connect better with their audience? SMS marketing is the answer.

SMS marketing is about using text messages to deliver promotional and other messages to customers, and it has proved to be somewhat effective over the years. According to recent studies, the open rate of text messages is higher than emails. This is understandable since people are almost always with their phones and check their notifications as soon as their phone rings. 

Generate Leads Using Real Estate SMS Marketing

One of the benefits of using SMS marketing in real estate is that you can use it to generate leads. For instance, if you have new property listings, you can inform your audience and potential customers about them and provide a link to your website where they can find more details about the properties. A popular approach to this is using keywords. You can place a signpost on a property telling people to text a particular keyword to a preconfigured phone number to get information about the property.

Text 1-on-1 with Customers and Clients

Apart from using SMS marketing to generate leads, you can also use it to text your potential clients. It is much quicker to engage with people through the phone, and since the response time for text messages is pretty fast, it is a good choice for real estate agents. For instance, you can include a click-to-text button on your website to encourage site visitors to text you. From the text messages, you can talk with them and possibly find the best offers that will benefit them and yourself. 

Send Invitations About Events

While creating SMS campaigns as a real estate agent, you should be careful not to be too service-focused. Try to relate with your customers on a more personal level, such as using their names in text messages and don’t forget to introduce yourself.

Besides that, avoid throwing your property listings at their face each time you reach out to them using SMS marketing, as this can quickly become frustrating. Instead, explore other options, such as using SMS to send invitations about events to your audience. You can even customise the invitations and send reminders when it’s close. 

Best Practices for Real Estate SMS Marketing Campaign

We’ve discussed some benefits of SMS marketing in real estate management. Now, let’s talk about the best practices. You need to properly set up your real estate SMS marketing campaign and avoid some common errors if you want to have the best experience.

Keep It Short

It can be tempting to go all berserk on your audience when sending them SMS marketing campaigns about your property listings. However, you want to avoid too many words and try as much as possible to be concise. In addition, always keep your text messages short, within the standard 160-character count. If there are other things you want your audience to know, you can put a website link next to your text message.

User Proper Grammar and Personalise the Message

Another thing you should always do before sending your real estate SMS marketing messages is to check for grammatical errors. If your message is filled with several grammar errors, it will easily discourage people, and your brand may look inexperienced. 

In addition to using proper grammar, personalise your messages to give your audience a mindset that they matter to your brand. You can refer to them by their first name instead of a generic name like customer or client. 

Segment Your Audience and Include a Clear Call-To-Action (CTA)

You should segment your audience in order to be successful with your SMS marketing campaigns as a real estate agent. For instance, if you are selling lands and properties in multiple countries, it won’t make sense to target property in a different location to people in another area. 

Likewise, ensure you include a clear CTA in your messages to let your recipients know what you want them to do. The CTA can direct them to your website and see your full listings or require them to provide some information so you can give them better offers.

Summing It Up

Every real estate agent that wants to become more successful should consider SMS marketing as part of their marketing strategies. This is because it can be the perfect means to follow up with leads and drive more sales. 

We’ve discussed many unique benefits of SMS marketing in real estate management, from using it for 1-on-1 communications with customers and sending invitations about events. But remember that you need to follow best practices if you want your real estate SMS marketing campaigns to be successful.

Always ensure you keep your messages short, so they won’t bore your audience and avoid grammatical errors. Besides, customise your messages for each person and segment your audience. This way, you can avoid sending the wrong messages to the wrong audiences. If you follow these tips, you will surely benefit from SMS marketing as a real estate agent.