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How to Write Email and SMS Drip Campaigns to Re-Engage and Convert Leads

You can be the best agent out there, but if you aren’t optimizing your follow-up with the right tools, you’re never going to reach your full potential. 

One of the most powerful ways that you can save time and increase your conversion rates is with drip campaigns. Drip campaigns allow you to send out a series of emails and text messages over a set period of time to all of your leads. Because you set them up to send out automatically, you save hours of precious time, while also making sure that you don’t lose any of your leads to your competitors. 

In this post, we’ll walk you through how drip campaigns work, and share our top strategies for creating effective campaigns that convert your leads.

Let’s jump right in!

Step 1: Find the Right Platform

The first step is to find a platform with the functionality to create and send drip campaigns. If you’re using PropertySimple’s CRM, then you’re already covered! You can create drip campaigns, or Playbooks, right in your CRM. This allows you to combine all of your marketing, lead generation, and lead follow-up in one simple system.

Step 2: Identify the Right Content to Send to Your Leads

The next step is to start creating your drips! PropertySimple has a pre-made drip campaign with 8 emails and text messages that your leads are automatically enrolled in, but if you’re using another CRM, you’ll likely need to start from scratch

It’s important to first consider where your leads are in the real estate sales funnel.

In most cases, by the time you’re adding your leads to a drip campaign, they’re at the consideration stage: they’re already aware of your business and have expressed interest. 

Your goal now is to move your leads from consideration to conversion. The best way to do this is by adding valuable content to your drip campaign that will help you build trust with your leads and nurture your relationship. 

A few examples that we’ve seen work well in real estate drip campaigns are:

Blog Posts

Writing blogs about various real estate topics is one of the best ways to showcase your expertise and build trust with leads. If you don’t have a real estate blog already, you can start writing with Medium, WordPress, or choose a service like PropertySimple that writes real estate blog posts on your behalf.

Some topics to write about could include how realtors can help get your home market-ready, how to run a successful open house, and how to get pre-approved for a home. Even if your leads are ready to buy or sell immediately, providing valuable information will keep them engaged and keep you top of mind.

example of a follow up email that incorporates blog posts

Share Curated lists of Properties

You can also demonstrate your market knowledge by creating lists of attractive properties currently available in your area. With inventory so low, buyers will appreciate any help they can get to find available homes that fit their needs.

example of an email that showcases a collection of available listings

Case studies or testimonials from happy clients

Adding an email with a testimonial from your current or past clients is an excellent way to build trust and prove to your leads that you are the agent that they should work with!

example of an email that uses a real estate client testimonial

Market updates

Adding in a market update to your drip is another strategy that will help you show your leads that you are an expert in your field and are up-to-date with the latest information.

example of a follow-up email that shows a market update

 

Step 3: Optimize your Emails & Text Messages

The most successful drip campaigns use a combination of text messages and emails. We’ll start by taking a look at a few key strategies you can use to make sure that your texts and emails perform to their top potential.

Write a Catchy Subject Line

The subject line of your email determines whether a lead will open or ignore your email. It’s important to spend some extra time crafting the perfect subject line that will entice your lead to open your email and see what you have to say.

There are a few best practices that will increase your open rates:

  • Start off with the lead’s first name
  • Include a statistic that grabs your lead’s attention
  • Ask a question 
  • Keep your subject line to under 60 characters

Keep It Short & Sweet

For both email and text messages, It’s important to keep it short and to the point. Studies have shown that emails with 200 words or less have the best open and click-through rates. For SMS, keep your message to about 2-3 sentences.

Include Questions

Give your lead a reason to continue the conversation by asking questions. Emails that contain one to three questions are 50% more likely to get replies than emails without any questions. A great way to incorporate a question into your email or text message is to make your selection of properties for your client fairly broad and to ask if the properties you’ve chosen meet their needs. Another strategy that we love is to ask short questions via text message like, “Hi, is this [Lead First Name]?

example of a follow-up text message that asks a question

End Your Messages with a Clear Call to Action

Perhaps the most important strategy when writing emails and text messages for your follow-up drips is to include a call to action. A call to action clearly communicates what the next step or action should be. For example, “give me a call to find your next home”, or “follow me on social media for more real estate tips and advice”. 

Add Personalization

When using drip campaigns, you don’t want your leads to feel like they’re receiving a mass email or text message. Adding a few personalized touches can make a huge difference in your response rate. Whatever system that you use should have an option to add in custom fields that auto-populate with your lead’s information. This can include their first name, a listing that they were interested in, and their location.

Step 5: Analyze Your Results

Once you’ve had a decent sample size of leads run through your playbook (try to have at least 100), it’s time to look at your performance and analyze your results! 

Since the goal of your follow-up drip is to engage in a conversation with your leads, the biggest metric that you’ll want to measure is the reply rate of your leads. The industry average is around 20%, so if your reply rate is below this, you’ll want to take a look at your playbooks and make a few adjustments to try to increase your numbers.

Convert Your Leads with PropertySimple’s Follow-Up Playbooks!

Ready to optimize your follow-up and convert more leads? PropertySimple’s real estate CRM allows you to effortlessly create customized follow-up email and SMS drips to nurture your leads through the sales funnel. 

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