Real Estate Mobile Marketing SMS: How to Change the Game in 2019

With interest rates climbing and the market cooling a bit in 2019, you need to nail real estate marketing activities to make sure your sales stay high.

Of course, in marketing, it's always better to work smarter, not harder. Many smart real estate agents have already taken the initiative to connect with prospects and clients through mobile marketing Short Message Service (SMS) texts. If you haven't yet taken advantage of mass text marketing, you're probably behind.

But don't worry. We're here to help you catch up quickly.

We'll show you how to get moving with real estate mobile marketing SMS campaigns in three easy steps.

How to Win with Real Estate Mobile Marketing SMS in 2019

Real estate agents are killing it with SMS marketing because the channel is easy-to-use, fast, and effective. You simply compose a short message or select a template, choose the right group of contacts, and send. You're virtually guaranteed that contacts will read your message. An analysis of messages sent from our platform showed that 98% of messages are read by recipients. That's just one of the impressive text message marketing statistics that prove how much more effective SMS is than other marketing channels.

Getting started with real estate mobile marketing SMS is a simple process. Choose the right type of campaigns to broadcast, select the right platform to deliver the content, and pick the right cadence to send. That's it!

Related reading: How Real Estate Agents Can Use MMS for Marketing and Text Marketing for Real Estate Businesses

Pick the Right Campaigns

Marketers who are new to mass SMS messaging are often surprised by the variety of campaigns which real estate agents use to engage their contacts and sell homes. We've developed a free, instantly downloadable real estate playbook with 15 campaigns and we'll share a handful of them here.

Promote Open Houses

Use text messages to get more traffic to your open houses. These notices can include some brief information about the property and an image to make the home look enticing.

"I love promoting Open Houses to the neighborhood using EZ Texting! Although I send print invitations to the neighborhood prior to the Open House, I've found that a mass text the night before or the day of really increases traffic!" - G2 Crowd Review

Provide a Sneak Peek

Consider adding a note to your yard signs which prompt people to get a sneak peek inside the house by text message.

Want to see inside? Text ‘111MAIN’ to 474747 to get interior photos instantly.

An auto-reply instantly sends a few pics of the interior.

Home Maintenance Tips

As you know, it's important to stay in regular contact with people who refer new business to you. One way to use mobile SMS marketing to stay top-of-mind with these important contacts is to send seasonal home maintenance tips. You can partner with local home pros to develop the content and use those connections to cross-promote your services.

Holiday Gifts

Top realtors go out of their way to say thanks to their clients, partners, and referring friends. Mass SMS is the perfect way to deliver the message and make sure your contacts see it.

Review Requests

Do you proactively manage your online reviews? If not, your reviews may skew more negatively than you would want. Make sure to ASK for reviews from clients who you're confident will leave you five-star ratings.

These five campaign types are just the beginning. You can access 10 more effective real estate text marketing campaigns, with templates you can copy to get started, in our Real Estate Text Marketing Playbook.

Pick the Right Platform

Once you have some messages mapped out to send, you'll need to find the right business SMS service partner to make it happen. We've been in business for over a decade, helping over 210,000 organizations send 4 billion + texts, so we know what matters most.

You might be tempted to think simply in terms of comparing price among platforms, but there are more considerations you should factor in.

Ease of Use

First, make sure the platform is easy to use. Is the software intuitive? Are the menus simple to navigate? Are the features easy to find? Are default templates for real estate available? You probably won't be the only one on your team using the software. Will it be easy to cross-train your team members?

Customer Service

Secondly, keep customer service in mind. At some point, you'll need to contact your provider to solve a problem or get advice. We've made responsive, knowledgeable, and friendly customer service a priority. Make sure your platform answers questions quickly and goes above and beyond to help you succeed.

Features

Finally, does the mass texting software offer a robust feature set? There are a lot of ways your platform can help you get the right messages to the right people at the right time. Don't settle for a platform which delivers less than the following features:

1. Keywords
2. Signup Forms
3. Drip Campaigns
4. Text Forwarding
5. Recurring Texts
6. Appointment Reminders
7. Text to Vote & SMS Polls
8. Multimedia Service Messaging (MMS) Texts
9. Chat via Text-to-Landline
10. Link Shortener

Learn more by reading The 13 Must-Have Features of a Business Text Messaging App.

Pick the Right Cadence

We normally advise businesses to be cautious with the frequency of sends, but real estate mobile marketing is a different animal. Home buyers and sellers are among the most active and interested consumers in existence. Consider sending texts weekly or even daily to contacts who are active. And send at a slower pace to contacts from whom you may get referrals.

It is often a good practice to let your contacts know ahead of time how often you'll be contacting them with marketing texts. Make sure to keep your word when you tell your contacts how often you'll text them. Text messaging is a personal communications channel, and contacts won't hesitate to unsubscribe if you flood them with messages they don't want.

Related reading: How to Send Business Text Messages Without Annoying Your Customers

Take Action Today

With other real estate agents already out ahead of you on text message marketing, it's important that you don't delay making a move.

The good news is that real estate mobile marketing SMS is easy to learn, so it won't take you long to get up to speed. The best next step is to download our Real Estate Text Message Marketing Playbook which features 15 campaign types and templates which you can borrow as you begin SMS marketing.

The free download includes image examples of each campaign and a table with templates which you can copy, paste, and customize with your own information.