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Drip Campaigns: Something For Everyone

By
Real Estate Broker/Owner with Fathom Realty

Email Drip CampaignGo ahead, bow your head in shame if you place every lead on the exact same drip campaign. Okay, that was a bad idea. You can't read with your head bowed which means you can't learn how to improve this predicament. All joking aside, if you are going to use drip campaigns to support your lead conversion efforts then it is VITAL to ensure those campaigns are speaking to your lead's desires and needs.

If an effective campaign is supposed to speak to the recipient's needs and every person has different needs then how can one campaign speak to everyone? That was more of a statement and less of a question. I would like to challenge you this month to devote time to creating a campaign for each of the following:

  • Local Buyer Campaign (never met/spoken)
    the only way to know if they are local is to require the phone number field during registration. Even if the phone number is fake, the first 3 digits are usually accurate. If the number gives you no clues then assume they are local for email purposes.
  • Relocation Buyer Campaign (never met/spoken)
    must require phone number field to know. Offer incentives like city and neighborhood information or a special relocation packet.
  • Buyer Campaign (spoken with, buying in 2+ months)
    touching base type emails in addition to emails of "just-listed" properties matching their criteria.
  • Seller Campaign (spoken with)
    not every seller will be ready to sell immediately. Emails touching base in addition to a fresh CMA every 2 or 3 weeks.
  • CMA/Seller Campaign
    leads from CMA form on site, can be same campaign as above with additional emails in the beginning regarding their requested CMA)
  • Past Buyer Clients - 60 months (ouch, how long?)
    ask how they are, ask for referrals and offer a CMA every few months. Make sure you are the listing agent when they are ready to sell or when their neighbor sells!
  • Past Seller Clients
    see above if they also bought from you, otherwise, ask how they are and ask for referrals! A newsletter can be used after 12 months.
  • Newsletter - 12 months repeating FOREVER or until the world ends, whichever comes first
    pre-written, month/season specific info with a blank spot left for current events. This goes to EVERYONE, past clients, future clients, friends, family and inmates... okay, I know what you're thinking, family might be a stretch.

TIP: To make this a more attainable goal with immediate results, do not pick one campaign at a time. Write out the first week for each campaign and then move on to the second week for each and so on. Yes, that's what I said. It goes against all that is natural but you will find this tip will help you implement each campaign faster while keeping you fresh with ideas for writing. Buyer campaigns can feed you ideas for seller campaigns and vise versa. If you pick one campaign and attempt to write out a whole year's worth of emails then you will discover first hand what writer's block means. Plus, if it takes you a week to get through writing out one campaign then it will be months before you finally write out the last campaign missing out an opportunity to reach more people.

TIP 2: Services like Constant Contact, Mail Chimp and iContact are great ways to implement your campaigns and help ensure they arrive in the intended inboxes. They also give you the ability to monitor the open and click-thru rates for improved lead conversion tracking.

TIP 3: If you strip out most or all of the marketing/fluff language then you have a much better chance at getting a response. Keep it conversational and two sentences long. E.g., "[first.name], I wanted to follow up to see if you were receiving the property listings I have been sending. Are they what you are looking for or can I tweak them a little for you?". You would be amazed at the significant increase in response I received by making this change.

Did I forget anything? Are there any other campaign types you can think of? Campaigns for Investor maybe? Please share your list or ideas below. *Disclaimer- drip campaigns should NOT be the only source of long-term communication! They have a greater probability for getting caught in email filters of an unspeakably horrific nature. It should be used to supplement your communications, not replace it.

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Article originally posted on FathomCafe.com

Posted by

Josh Harley is the Founder and CEO of Fathom Realty. Josh is a serial entrepreneur, tech geek, innovator, disruptor, marketer, teacher, artist, U.S. Marine, and an Alaska-raised sweet tea fiend.

As the CEO of Fathom Realty, Josh helped earn Fathom a prestigious place on the Inc. 500 list of Fastest Growing Companies in the U.S. … not once, but three times in a row. Josh also made the Swanepoel Power 200 list of Trendsetters for 2017.

 

Comments (6)

Sam Miller
RE/MAX Stars Realty - Howard, OH
Knox County Ohio Real Estate Specialist

Joshua - I have forwarded your post to my team members.  You have some good points about customized follow up campaigns.

Feb 13, 2010 06:07 AM
Joshua Harley
Fathom Realty - Plano, TX
CEO, Tech Geek, Innovator, Disruptor, US Marine

@ Sam Miller - Thank you Sam. Now for the hard part... writing them. One piece of advice which I will add in the actual post, too. We had a term while I served in the Marine Corps (and I am sure many other places use it) called K.I.S.S. which stands for, Keep It Simple Stupid. I have found that if you strip out most or all of the marketing/fluff language then you have a much better chance at getting a response. Keep it conversational and two sentences long. E.g., "[first.name], I wanted to follow up to see if you were receiving the property listings I have been sending. Are they what you are looking for or can I tweak them a little for you?". You would be amazed at the significant increase in response I received by making this change.

Feb 13, 2010 06:29 AM
Donna Harris
Donna Homes, powered by JPAR - TexasRealEstateMediationServices.com - Austin, TX
Realtor,Mediator,Ombudsman,Property Tax Arbitrator

I have short term buyer, long term buyer, short term seller, and long term seller as well. I feel it's very important to break them down as they'll be touched at different times. Someone 2 years out doesn't need to be dripped on as much as someone 3 months out.

Feb 13, 2010 01:13 PM
Elva Branson-Lee
Solid Source Realty GA - Atlanta, GA
CDPE - Atlanta Real Estate & Short Sale Agent

I like tip number three.

Feb 13, 2010 02:48 PM
Joshua Harley
Fathom Realty - Plano, TX
CEO, Tech Geek, Innovator, Disruptor, US Marine

@ Donna Harris - You make an excellent point Donna! I wrote one "long term" campaign for each campaign type which the email intensity getting stronger near the end. I then create several timeframes from it, e.g., 18 months, 12 months, 9 months, 6 months, 3 months, 2 months. I start by putting them on the long term version until I have a better understanding as to their actual timeframe.

@ Elva Branson-Lee - Amen!... and thank you :)

Feb 13, 2010 03:47 PM
Walter Grewe III
Long and Foster Realtors - Roanoke, VA
Realtor, SFR, A-REO, Roanoke Homes and Real Estate

Joshua,

Tip 1 is a fantastic suggestion. Thanks for this post, I really need to reasses and make sure I have different drip campaigns for different types of clients.

Feb 14, 2010 12:57 AM