3 Ways to Use Text Messages in Your Marketing and Client Retention Strategies

Text messaging is becoming the preferred method of communication in everyday life. Text messaging apps are the number one used or downloaded app on smartphones. In 2011, Pew Research Center conducted a survey and found that greater than 31 percent of smartphone users prefer texting over voice calls. This number has been growing exponentially increasing since.

So if you know that more people prefer to communicate via text message than traditional voice calls, and studies from places like SinglePoint show that over 97 percent of all text messages sent are opened and read within the first three minutes, how can you take advantage of this technology in your real estate practice?

Today I want to share with you three key strategies you can employ to use text messaging tools to not only help you stay in touch more effectively, but also communicate in the way preferred by your prospects and clients.

1. Keep your clients up to date

One obvious way to use text messages is to keep your current clients up-to-date with things you are working on for them. For instance, let's say you have a listing and you just got done with the open house, or perhaps the broker's tour. You can quickly and easily shoot a text message to your client letting them know how it went. They will appreciate this. By sending a quick text, you are displaying the sense of urgency you put on keeping them abreast of how things are going with their transaction. This small, easy to accomplish gesture will go very far in the minds of your clients.

2. Send mass announcements and updates to clients and prospects

As you conduct your day-to-day business, you are going to constantly be growing your database. You have your clients, the people your clients refer to you, and the new people you are meeting at open houses and just by being out and about. If you are using a comprehensive marketing platform, you probably have access to a feature that will allow you to mass-text message your client base. Use the intelligence in your database and this mass texting feature to work for you.

For example, imagine you are having an open house this weekend--a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home in Palo Alto, CA. Within seconds, you should be able to do a quick search to find everyone in your database that is interested in a property such as this and send them a text message to invite them to the open house.

This practice could not only potentially help you double-end your listing, but it also looks good to your sellers. You're once again showing them that you are turning over every rock possible to sell their home quickly and for for top dollar.

3. Let your colleagues know instantly of important updates

Part of marketing a property and yourself has to do with staying in contact with your colleagues as well. Text messaging is a great way to instantly send them important updates that you want them to see right away.

For instance, maybe you have a listing and you are doing a price reduction. The fastest way to do this would be to go into your database and pull up a list of all the agents you know that showed your listing to their clients. Send them a quick text message to let them know about the price reduction. Again, this takes just seconds to do, but the reduction may make it worth it to one of those agents' clients to put an offer on the home after all.

Truth be told, there are lots of great, productive, effective ways you can incorporate text message marketing into your real estate practice. I hope you found these tips useful. What other ways can YOU think to use text messaging? Comment below and let me know what you dream up.

To view the original article, visit the Leading Agent blog.