Stats for Leads - A Win-Win Trade

A recent government survey that cost $4 billion to conduct found that 3/4 of the people in the U.S. make up 75% of the total population.

Let's forget for the moment how our tax dollars are wasted, and this is just a statistics joke I found on the Web, so it's not true ... I hope.  However, it is a fact that statistics of all kinds are popular with people in all walks of life.  In the real estate business, we can open up our online or software MLS and check out sold property, current listings, price ranges, and other statistical information easily.  In the FNIS Paragon MLS system we use in my area, here's what the first few lines of a comprehensive "Sold Market" report look like:

 

Please, no comments about the HUGE Average Days on Market.  We're a mountain vacation home community, and stuff doesn't sell fast, especially when some of it is "off the grid" and one listed home is two old water tower tops tied together with a tube.  Back to statistics.

I can't tell you how many leads this little report has gotten me, but it's been a lot.  As a buyer broker I've made a lot of money from sharing this little report that I generate on a quarterly basis.  Then I also do it at the start of each year for the entire year previously, and offer it up as the annual report, and also package it with the others going back about ten years.  All told, I spend no more than maybe three or so hours a year building these and saving them as PDF files.

I then offer the reports via email with a form on my site.  When they submit the form, an auto-responder sends them a link to the report online, though I used to just send it as an attachment to the email.  I stopped that because people using free email systems would sometimes get nothing or the attachment would be stripped due to file size or some other limitation.

After they get the report, they go into an automated email marketing system and receive a number of emails over a specified period of time.  Those pre-written emails are in a campaign which ends at some point.  However, then they are on my master list and they get these quarterly report links via a mass email.  That's my complete "keep in touch" system, and it's worked quite well for me.  Of course, you may work with buyers, sellers and even renters, and your automated follow-up campaigns may need to be set up for each type of prospect, and different forms placed on your site for each type to get them into the right list.

With RealtySoft "It's In There"

Most of you are probably not as old as I am, so the "it's in there" quote from an old pasta sauce commercial didn't come through.  But the commercial would mention tasty ingredients and then point out that each of them was "in there."  RealtySoft's CRM, Customer Relationship Management, system has pre-written email campaigns set up for various prospect types and purposes.  Everything you need is "in there."

You can go into each campaign and edit emails, add or remove emails, and set up the schedules for delivery. Prospects can be added automatically to certain lists and campaigns from the forms, or you can add them manually.  Once your pre-written "drip" email campaign is completed, think about doing quarterly statistics to keep in touch.  Everybody, whether they're buying or selling at some point will be interested in how the local market is doing.

About Jim Kimmons: Jim Kimmons, with more than 16 years experience as a licensed real estate agent and broker in 3 states, is a consultant to Realtors in how to use technology to market and manage their businesses. He has also written books and eBooks on Internet marketing and real estate. Jim is RealtySoft's chief evangelist and is a compensated regular contributor to the RealtySoft.com blog.

 

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