Text & Email Template Best Practices for Online Real Estate Lead Follow Up

It can be challenging to generate engagement with online real estate leads that don't know you personally. Email or text templates providing unique value to your leads can help. In part 3 of the series "Mining Your Database," Trainer Elliot Outlaw shares best practices for reviving your conversations with the leads in your database. See the full video and transcript below. 

Transcript

Alright, so let's talk a little bit about text and email templates. I'm a geek. I like reading articles about things that are going to get people to respond. There are so many pieces of material on the internet about drip campaigns that are effective for real estate agent, and texts that get responses. I read one article, “Tests to Raise the Dead.” And it had six or seven different texts that I saved, and I share with my clients. And I'm like, “try them.” You know, it can never hurt to try to get engagement, but there are best practices that we need to consider when we are reaching out to these clients via text and email. You want to response. You're not just sitting around being a pen pal to these people. So, write as if you want to hear from them.

So here are some examples, and we're going to build some text templates today, and I want you to think about the purpose.

1. Leads not opening your property alerts. What in the world. If you've set up their property alerts, you want to make sure they're getting them, right? I mean, that's the whole reason why they came to the site was to look at properties. So, there's a great trick in the system that you can send the lead the link to view the listings, and I'll show you that just a minute.
2. So, another example - Leads not opening your HomePulse evaluation. Well, what is that? What is a home pulse evaluation and why are they not opening if I'm sending it to them?.
3. So, let's look at another example - leads showing high property views on one listing. Well, we figured out how to find those leads. What are we going to say to them? We know we can email them; we know we can text them. But what do we say to them?
4. Next, leads to have a bad phone number. How many of those do we get? Wouldn't it be great if you had a quick template that you could select everybody that has a bad phone number, and then boom, mass send one text to those folks, and try to get an updated phone number.

So these are our examples. Now we're going to go through and show you how to create a text template and an email template. But let's talk about some best practices because it's not just writing for the sake of writing. When you write emails, how many emails do you get a day that you don't open? Be honest. Think about how many emails a day you get. Well, your leads are no different. My inbox is full. I had to even get a new Gmail account because I don't have any storage space left, and I refuse to pay Google for extra space. But when I look at emails, how does it apply to me? Well, the first thing, a subject line. I can see my subject line when I just open my list of emails in my email account. And then I pick and choose which ones I want to open because of the subject line based on its importance. So, we created this as kind of a hybrid email here, but “This neighborhood is so nice.” Yes, it sounds kitschy and catchy. But, you know, think about if you go into your promotions folder, if you have a Gmail account, look at the subject lines that companies are sending us. I got one, I guess probably about a year ago saying, “Elliot, are you okay?” And I was like, oh, gosh, what in the world? And I, of course opened it. Because I had gone to a website, I put some items in my shopping cart, and I left. And so the context of the email was you put things in your shopping cart, and you didn't check out. What's wrong with you? But it got my attention.

Aside: Okay, we will look at that in just one second. She has contacts with bad phone numbers that keeps showing up in my call today leads or one of the other filters. Yeah, that's going to be a little bit of a strategy, but we can use that contact validity too, so I'll show you in just one second.

So, let's think about the content.

1. Subject Line: Create interest with a short, intriguing subject line.
2. Attention: Another thing, say something to grab their attention. Have you seen the new homes for sale in favorite city? Don't be alarmed by these things [dynamic tags] that are in the email. This is specifically designed for utilizing templates over and over again, and for more than one person at a time because it personalized it. It'll say “Hi, Alex. Hi, Amanda. Hi, Andrea,” It will reference that leads first name. And if they put in ‘TT’ it’s going to say hi, ‘TT.’ If they put in expletives, it's going to reference them. But you know, hopefully we've kind of weeded those folks out. But I'm including one below that I think is probably going to sell fast.
3. Action: Tell your lead what you want from them. ‘Reply to this email. If you want me to send you more homes like this, or a little you know, what's important to you in your home search. If you are buying in 2023? When do you anticipate your move?’ There's a lot of things that have to go into place. They are very few people that can sign on the dotted line and move into a property tomorrow. Some people expect that or think that, but you're the reason why they need you because they need to know the process.
4. Personalize: Use dynamic tags to create your templates o you can use them over and over again and you're not having to sub out, you know, ‘Hey, John. Hey, Sarah. Hey, Andy.’
5. Length: Keep your emails short and to the point. Nobody wants to scroll. That's why we talk about your front page on your website - nobody's scrolling. They want to see something, and they want to see it right now. So if you're writing novels to your clients, stop. Save it for the next email.
6. Interest: Show something your clients care about from the property views. As we said, all I did was pulled up this property that the lead had looked at multiple times and sent an email and pulled in this template.

Now, what about text? You would be surprised how many agents will text a novella? Well, first of all, we won't let you. I know other companies will, but shame on them. Because we let you only send 350 words, and we're trying to help you. Help you help yourselves. This is a conversation. Text is meant to be, ‘Hey, what's up?’ You know, those are the conversations that people want to have over text. They don't want to read a mini novella.

‘Good afternoon, Elliot are you still looking to purchase a home? There are a few properties on the market that match your criteria.’

Intrigue. Ooh. That sounds exciting.

1. Personalize -Use the dynamic tags. That will personalize it. It doesn't look like a robot.
2. Concise - Keep it short and simple. You want to have a conversation, you're not telling them your life story.
3. Conversation - Use common language. Listings? Does everybody know what a listing is? You do because you're in the business, but think about your leads. Sometimes you have to take your agent hat off and think like a lead. What does a lead understand? They didn't go to real estate school. They don't have their license. Do they understand MLS, IDX ,downpayment, escrow, listings. You want to talk to them as a person who needs you to make the next move.

Let's create a few templates. And so I'm going to cheat a little bit because I have my templates already created or in a notepad that I'm going to copy and paste. But let's use the examples that we had. And I'm going to go back because I didn't write them down. So, leads not opening property alerts. All right, so let's transition into the system here. One thing I think about, if I'm utilizing my, let's just go for our safe filters. So, we know that the P2 filter is pulling leads that have registered within the last 14 days, but I've called them at least once.

So, if I look at Karen, Karen registered nine days ago, so I'm going to look into Karen's account because she's had the opportunity to get multiple texts from the AI. We have the saved search setup for her. But guess what, she's not opening the two emails that we sent. And this isn't a good email address, but assuming that she's been on the website for nine days, she should have gotten probably seven or eight property alerts so far. She's not opening them. Looks like her email address is good. So, how can we send communication to her to put those properties in front of her? Here's what you do, you come into your property search. And we see, oh, Karen should be getting 28 property listings in her property alerts, but for whatever reason, she's not opening them. So, I'm going to either email or text Karen. We know she's not getting the email, so let's start texting. I'm going to come in, generate a link, copy this link, and I'm going to go right up here to my text, and I'm going to text Karen. Now, I have a template saved for leads not opening property alerts. So, I'm going to copy and paste this in the interest of time. And we're going to place it in my template here. So this is going to read, “Hi, Karen, I sent you an email with properties that may interest you, but I don't think you received it. Here's a link to view the listings and hit [Insert link].” So what am I going to do? I'm going to take this out. And I'm going to paste that link. So, “Hi Karen, I sent you an email with properties that may interest you, but I think you received it. Here's a link to view the listings. Reply if you have a different email I can use with a time that we can discuss your search.” Now certainly, you can manipulate any of that content the way you want to. But look at this. If I text this to Karen, and she sees this link and clicks on it, it's going to take her to the website in her account, showing her those 22 listings. So another opportunity to get in front of the lead. And let them know that all you're trying to do is send them things that interest them.

So we're going to come back into Karen and let's save this text. So, I'm going to save this as a template. If you compose this and save as a template, now the one thing you should be aware of is text templates are saved that way. So, what we want to do is go in and name this. So go into your communications because that's where your templates are. And we're going to look at that template text that I just create, and I'm going to rename it, these are for my buyer leads. And I'm going to say this is a text, ‘text to leads not opening property alerts.’ And then I'm going to put ** insert link, that is a note for you. Leads do not see the title of this; it's only for you. And so here because this link was unique for Karen, we're going to take that out, and I'm going to put [insert link here]. So that is for you to be aware that if you use that template for leads, now these are going to be one off leads, but that gives you that opportunity to very quickly pull that template, grab that link, throw it in, and send it out.

The other scenarios that I want to build out for us, in the interest of time, I guess I chatted way too much in the beginning, but if we look at our PowerPoint here - Leads not opening the Home Pulse evaluation. So let's transition to the system. How do we find those people? So we're going to go into our lead dashboard, and I'm going to pull a lead list of leads that have a house to sell that gave us property information. Let me reset this. So I'm going to go house to sell with property information. So, I apply. These are all the leads that have a little star. There should be a listing there. And what I'm going to check is did this lead open the email? Well, we know in the activity, that the Home Pulse estimation was sent way back down the road, because I see the link, but the lead didn't open it. So maybe I want to draw attention to that. What we could do is create a template. So, I'm going to email, it's going to tell me that this isn't a good one, and our email is going to be, we're going to copy this, command, and I'm going to paste it. And now it's coming from notepad, so you may have to format it a little bit, but we can say “Hi, [first name] did you know that the real estate market has shifted in your area? I'd be happy to provide a home valuation.” Maybe someone gave us the idea that they have a property, but they didn't give us the address. So, this would be asking them for the address so that you could add it to their account and do the HomePulse. Or I have another one to where if they have but they haven't opened the Home Pulse. ‘Hey, Elliot, I emailed you a copy of your home valuation for the address (and it'll put it in there) Can we schedule a quick call to discuss some property features? Reply with the date and time.’ So either one of those, depending on the scenario with the Home Pulse evaluation, would be an opportunity for you to try to set up a time to either perform the evaluation, or have a conversation about it, because maybe they've done improvements, or maybe they're thinking about doing improvements, and maybe they don't need to. So, if nobody can give a great estimation, it's better to discuss the property and give your expertise.

Now, the other scenario was - Leads showing high property views on one listing. Okay, well, you are familiar with how to find those leads. So, if we reset, and we did our high property views, and we do five or more. And if I go in and see a particular lead with high property views on one listing, then I could come in - Now this is a little bit of an opportunity - The lead may not really understand this, but it's a little bit of trickery, but I think it works - you want to get a response. Let me grab this one. And I'll be sure to send out this template for you guys, so you can try it. So, I'm going to paste this in here and have it as a text message, and then it's going to put in, ‘Hey Aman, This is Elliot with the website, I've received your online property information request for the following house. And I just wanted to follow up and see how we can help and your home search. “What additional information can I provide? Reply, and I'll be sure to send that over to you.’ So that could be an email, or it could be a text. And if you send the email, it will drop that specific property in the email. If you send a text, there'll be a thumbnail image in there for them to click on it and use it.

Now, bad phone numbers. So, when I'm looking at my group of leads, and let's say I wanted to call all my new leads, so let's say I go in, or let's say we do our call again. So, if we have people that have a bad phone number in our group of leads, you can always layer in contact validity. So, show me only the leads in this pipeline, or this filter that have a valid phone number. That'll take out your bad numbers, and only show you your good. So that way, you're only focusing on the people that you can call. So, you can always layer in contact validity in any combination of filters that you use. Now, let's say we call a contact validity, all the people that don't have a valid phone number, but they have a valid email address. So, we're going to pull that. And what I'm going to do is create a mass email. So come up to mass actions, do email, and then I'm going to grab my template.

So, here's my template. Copy. And I can put this in here. ’Hey [Lead name], I'm just checking on your registration on my website. Is [cell number] -and that'll put their cell phone number in there - your correct number? I just wanted to make sure of your property search in the area you're looking in. What's your timeframe for buying? Will you be purchasing in 2023? So, any kind of combination of strategies to get them to reply with the cell phone number, but remember, your leads, if they have a bad phone number marked in the system. So that's why it's important for you to mark that these are bad numbers. Every third visit, when the lead comes back to the site, the website will prompt them to go to their settings in their account, and this is where they can update their phone number.

Now let's hop back into the PowerPoint here, and let's talk about the ETTA app. Now the Etta app – Leads who use the Etta app for your website have a better chance of converting and is a great value add for your clients. So, who do we send it to? Well, you can share it with individual leads via your app, or within the lead profile. And I'll show you that. You also can pull a list of your contacted leads and send via text or an email using a template. And lastly, you can use the Etta app filter to either find the leads that have downloaded it or for those that haven't, and maybe even call them if they have it or not. Just check in to see that, you know, that's available.

Let's go into the system here and go through that. So back into my dashboard. If we have a lead that has a valid phone number, and you want to send over the Etta app, you can send it individually. I can come into this number. I'm not logged in as a client or an agent, but if I clicked on Etta, that would send the Etta app to the lead, and that will let us know if they download it because in their profile, you would see the little Etta icon in the registered column and you know they've downloaded it. I can go to my pipeline and find all my contacted leads. I feel more comfortable in sharing this with the lead that I've conversed with because I don't want them to be surprised – “well what is CINC Pro training? And why are they sending me a link? I don't know.” So if I come down and see if I wanted to call these folks and ask them if I could send them the app, that's a great outreach. I know that Shafton does not have the Etta app. So, if I want to do a quick follow up call, or send the communication, here's the messaging. So, the reason why I make sure it's with leads that are expecting something from us, is because it is a link that takes them to the App Store, and has them download it for their account. Now, I could say my contacted leads, and filters, Etta app. Show me all the leads that are in contacted that do not have the Etta app. So I hit Apply. And what I could do is I could select the first 25 of these leads, go into my mass action, send an email. The email is right here under the CINC templates. There is one to email the Etta app. So sorry, there's a lot of templates in here, but there is one that's formatted for you to send the Etta app to a group of leads. And if you're going to send a text, same thing. There is a template for the Etta app, and you can drop that in there and send that to a group of leads.