Following up with leads and clients is crucial for real estate agents, but many often find themselves failing to keep in touch. Due to the heavy referral-driven nature of the real estate industry, slacking off with follow-up can result in a loss of referrals, sales, and therefore income.

With the growing popularity of e-mail marketing, it’s become easier to stay in contact with clients and leads, but still a bit energy and time consuming for the busy real estate professional.

Extra Strapped for Time? Consider Realtor Newsletters

Realtor newsletters are a good way for you to periodically make contact with your leads and clients. Typically you will be sending realtor newsletters on a monthly basis, so you won’t spend every day constantly trying to think of something to say to your audience.

And since it can sometimes take weeks or months for a lead to actually convert, sending newsletters is a great way to keep in contact and build your reputation without burning yourself out in the process.

Writing Content for Realtor Newsletters

When the time comes for you to produce content for your realtor newsletters you shouldn’t have too much trouble. Report on the current market conditions, offer a bit of real estate buying and selling advice, let them know you’re available to help if needed, and maybe ask your readers a question to let them know you’re interested in hearing from them. Don’t just babble about your company or services – nobody wants to hear someone repeatedly toot their own horn.

Stay professional but not stuffy; if you happen to come across some good (and clean) humor you think your readers might enjoy, don’t be afraid to share it. They’ll like knowing your not just some cold-hearted sales robot.

Formatting Your Realtor Newsletter

The great thing about articles you add to your newsletter is that they don’t have to be long. Since you’ll be covering a few topics each time, you can just state the facts, add a dash of your professional opinion and be done with it.

If you are a bit of a writer, you should consider including the excerpts for your articles in the newsletter and linking to a web version somewhere on your website. That way your readers can scan the newsletter for the articles they want to read and click the link to view the entire thing.

Caution When Sending Realtor Newsletters

Be wary of the CAN-SPAM Act guidelines when emailing your clients or leads. Make sure the subject lines you pick for your realtor newsletters are relevant to what’s inside, include your physical address somewhere in the email, and add an unsubscribe option to every email. You want to make contact with people, but you don’t want to earn the reputation of being a spammer, so be sure you follow the rules.

It’s also recommended that you send both HTML and text versions of your realtor newsletters to make sure your emails always get through and look great. Most email marketing software solutions allow you to send multi-part email messages that contain both versions.

Sound Like a Good Fit?

When done right, realtor newsletters make an effective addition to your marketing efforts. It’s a great way to break the ice for new leads and you’ll want to add a subscription form to your website so visitors can easily sign up for it. Just be sure to focus on the needs of your readers and provide them with engaging information that will keep them interested until you can make the sale.

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As a seller’s agent, you know the importance of having a real estate listing presentation that will blow your competition away and leave you as the victor.

An easy way to “wow” your sellers is to sprinkle any technology under your belt into your real estate listing presentation to show potential clients you’re running at maximum efficiency.

Display Smart Marketing Tactics

Sellers want to know their listing is getting a lot of exposure. Just how do you plan on doing this? Print advertising, direct mailers, e-flyers? List all of your marketing efforts in your real estate listing presentation. Make sure they know how you plan on marketing their listing to a large audience and generate a lot of traffic.

Consider creating a property flyer for the listing in your email marketing software, ask for their email address and fire off a copy. Tell them this is how quickly the buyer’s agents in the area can be notified that their listing is on the market and is only a taste of what you can offer.

Show You Can Efficiently Schedule Showings

Surely you plan on showing your potential seller how you intend on squeezing any showings requested into the hours they’ve deemed available while keeping the process neat and organized? They’ll be interested in knowing what kind of showing appointment scheduling service you have in place, so it’s best that you mention it in your real estate listing presentation.

Let them sample it by scheduling a showing of their own. That way they can see just how easy it is – or even let you know if it’s not up to par.

Prove You Can Communicate With All Parties

We all know that if someone tours the property and doesn’t offer then the seller will want to know why. It’s also well known that getting feedback is no picnic in the park and being the bearer of bad news is no joyride.

Be on top of your game by not only having an efficient automated showing feedback system in place, but by including it in your real estate listing presentation. Send the seller a feedback request email and have them fill it out so they can see how fast you’re notified and that they can see the feedback themselves.

With technology taking over the world, sellers will appreciate knowing you’re technologically equipped and that you’ve covered all of the bases of the listing sales process.

Of course, perfecting your real estate listing presentation is an ongoing process and practice makes perfect. Consider scripting your presentation and memorizing it down to the last word to avoid making nervous mistakes.

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REALTOR® Referrals are the shiny trophies that every REALTOR® dreams of collecting after a closing.

Why? Because a REALTOR® referral is someone that’s already expressed interest in buying or selling a property and have been referred to you by a friend or colleague and therefore have some trust that was transferred from the original client.

In today’s world of limited trust, having a head-start in an otherwise uphill battle on a brand new client can go a long way. Just think about it. You’ve already saved money by not having to advertise (it only cost a bit of oxygen and mother nature picked up that tab) and since you’ve gotten the thumbs up from their trusted associate they’ll be more open to work with you on a more personal level.

With that said, how often would you say you hit the REALTOR® referral jackpot?

If you’ve been cruising through the business without putting much thought into REALTOR® referrals, don’t fret. You can always change your game plan and increase the number of people recommending you.

Do you keep track of your clients?

Being smart in the business means keeping track of those you interact with including clients (past and present). All of these folks could easily be sending REALTOR® referrals your way, so you better keep them organized and up-to-date. There are plenty of real estate software solutions out there that allow you to manage your contacts, so shop around.

What’s the point of information if you don’t use it?

You never know when that REALTOR® referral opportunity will pop-up so you should follow-up with one, two, or maybe even three people a day just to keep your name fresh in their mind just incase. Send a home anniversary card, local real estate market update, or a simple “just checking in” greeting. It doesn’t have to be fancy; just let them know you still exist.

Don’t forget to nurture that REALTOR® Referral!

Have you ever called a business only to leave a message and never hear back? No? Maybe that’s because you probably went to the first number you saw in the phone-book after that rejection and never looked back. A REALTOR® referral is not something to let go to waste. If they’re sent to you and get excellent service, imagine what a domino effect that can create – just be ready for that popularity boost!

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