It’s not as obvious as it seems. Sometimes how you should be nurturing your leads isn’t as clear as it should be.

I met with someone last week who mentioned they wholeheartedly believe that calling prospects is NOT the first line of contact – while other this week are saying that a text and email are the vital first steps towards nurturing Facebook leads.

There isn’t a perfect science to nurturing, because everyone’s different. One realtor’s systems will be different from the other, which is never a bad thing… but it’s important to know what systems work best for you, and which ones you should adopt into your daily regiment.

Before we dive too deep here, lets first cover the many different ways you could be following up and nurturing your leads.

• Phone Call
• Text Messages
• Handwritten Letters
• Email Campaigns
• A Door to Door gifts or items
• And although outdated – the carrier pigeon or raven method (Just kidding, it’s super hard to train birds…)

Now that we’ve outlined the many ways in which you can nurture and follow up with you leads, let’s go through them individually do we know why they’re valuable, and when you should be using them.

Phone Calls

This is the main way most realtors follow up with their prospects. This obviously depends on a few things, including whether or not your prospects left you with their phone number, and if you’re more comfortable chatting with people over the phone.

I know the comfort portion shouldn’t matter – but the reality is, each person needs to play to their strengths.

There’s no point calling someone if you’re terrible at making phone calls. I know people who get very real, very debilitating anxiety when they reach for their phone to make a call. So if you fall into this wheelhouse, maybe calling prospects isn’t for you.

With that being said, it’s important to note that some people thrive with these sort of interactions as well. If you fall into this category – then maybe calling your leads is something you should do.

For more information on calling prospects, take a look at this article and learn how to have a productive phone conversation with your Facebook leads.

Text Messages

More and more people are texting. That’s just a fact.

Remember about 15 years ago when a text message cost 25 cents to send, and we were all rushing to get unlimited texting plans? It’s because the text messaging platform grew quickly and in popularity. We all became used to the comfort of communicating with people at our own time and on our own terms. This, in turn, has made a lot of people more nervous and uncomfortable about making phone calls. When people could take the pressure off by just sending a text, why would you call someone?

I’m not saying that texting is a bad system… by any means. This might be the system you’re most comfortable with. The important thing to remember when it comes to nurturing your leads through text is that sending texts can’t be your only system.

Sure, sending a few initial texts to feel out the water is great – but you either need to follow up with concrete resources or an email with more valuable information about your prospects.

Plus how on earth are you suppose to keep track of all your communications if they’re all done through text messaging? It’s hard to get a system in place that will assist you with text message follow up.

We recommend starting with text and then getting approval for another form of communication. Whether that’s email or a phone call is up to you and your prospect.

Email Campaigns

An email drip campaign or email autoresponder is a way for you to continuously be hands-on with your prospects – in the most hands-off way possible.

Trust us when we say that the hands-off aspect isn’t suggesting you take your focus away from the task. We’re more so meaning that it allows you to reply to emails without having to remember who you need to contact today, and who’s on your list for contacts next week. The plus with automated email campaigns is that they go out without you needing to remember to keep your finger on the pulse.

You already have a million things to do – so might as well take one task off your plate.

With that in mind, you can build welcome emails, updates, appointment confirmations and monthly informative emails through a number of different CRM’s and even through your StreetText account.

People’s lives get busy! Things that were once on the forefront have since been pushed to the back burner – which happens to every single one of us. Touching base with your prospects every few months to see if they have any questions, want to book an appointment or even just to wish them a happy birthday or holiday is a great practice to get into.

Drip emails are not only important to help you grow your brand, and prospect list, they’re key to help you run a successful business. They’re literally helping you take your mind off a task, that would otherwise take you a lot of time and frankly a ton of organization.

All in all, building email campaigns will only benefit your business. Take some time to plan it out, and dive into better engagement and better communication with leads.

Handwritten Letters

I’ve loved getting handwritten letters ever since I knew the post office existed. What’s better than opening the mailbox and seeing an envelope that you’re certain isn’t a bill awaiting payment. It’s one of the best feelings ever.

Handwritten letters are one of the best things you can do to properly nurture your prospects. Occasionally, realtors will get submissions that only contain an address and a name. Here at StreetText, we call these address only submissions.

These address only submissions are the submissions we recommend sending a handwritten letter to. Since you don’t have these prospects phone number, or email address the best thing you can do to get in contact with them. It’s important to remember that this point of contact is meant to spark a conversation and open the door for more. Whether that’s opening the doors for emails, phone calls or text messages, we’re aiming to start conversations through handwritten letters – and continuing it through other lines of contact.

Now, with this in mind – here are some things you should consider including in these handwritten letters that could spark and further the conversation.

Short, sweet and to the point: Don’t write them a novel. Make it short, to the point and really quick! As an example, send them a message that thanks them for reaching out for a home evaluation – and let them know you’re around if they have any further questions, comments or concerns.

You can also include a nice gift for their coffee habit, their pet or anything else in the card. Don’t break the bank for this, but if its something you have the budget for, little coffee cards and gifts can go far.

Door to Door Gifts & Items

This next one has a lot to do with your Facebook Engagement.

There is so much value in a handwritten letter, but as mentioned, if you have the budget for it – small gifts might be a good idea to connect yourself to prospects and make yourself stand out in the large crowd of realtors. But how do you know what to send?

Take a moment to do a bit of a deep dive into your real estate Facebook page, or social media handles. Why you ask? Well, this could be your key to knowing what kind of gift to send them. As an example, my Instagram account is PACKED with dog-related content, because my dog is my biggest supporter and best friend.

After doing a little bit of recon on my social media platforms, you can absolutely see how much I love my dog… which means any dog related gifts will tug right on my heartstrings, and put you above the rest of the realtors looking for my business. I’m by no means telling you to bribe your prospects, but I am saying that a little bit of research and care will go a long way.

At the end of the day, these are all optimal ways you can nurture your leads. Pick and choose which ones are going to work for your business, and incorporate them full force.

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