7 ideas for using SMS in your real estate agency!

Would you like to integrate SMS into your real estate agency but aren’t sure how to use it? Discover below 7 ideas to improve your agency’s communication and stand out from your competitors.

Real estate is one of the sectors most heavily affected by social upheaval and forced to keep up with digital evolution. This was the case during lockdown, when real estate agencies combined creativity and technology to offer highly realistic virtual tours. Adapting to change also means understanding your customers. And given the dominance of SMS over any other medium (email or letters), it is essential to consider an SMS marketing solution for commercial use today.

Prospecting or building customer loyalty via SMS is more cost-effective and faster than a phone call or email. Your buyers will likely appreciate the use of a more modern tool that feels closer to them — especially given the high demand that real estate agencies face and the speed at which properties can sell. In this article, we offer you 7 SMS ideas to send in order to promote your real estate agency!

1 – Build your agency’s reputation and bring in new listings

Prospect directly from your current opt-in client base by running regular SMS campaigns. This will help you maintain your visibility with your client/prospect base. For those who don’t have a database of mobile numbers, it is possible to rent targeted number databases by postal code for specific campaigns. SMS database rental allows you to reach new clients (for example, by targeting only property owners for SMS campaigns about new-build programs). By running this type of campaign, you’ll see new listings come in quickly!

2 – Send SMS messages for your property prospecting!

Many real estate agents carry out their daily property prospecting directly via SMS. They gather lists of potential sellers’ numbers and send bulk SMS messages to offer their services. Indeed, this type of SMS messaging is a highly effective and less intrusive alternative to traditional cold calling. (example of an SMS prospecting solution: Immo Partner)

Using SMS for your real estate prospecting will help you avoid making numerous calls — a time-consuming task for agents. It is indeed a faster and less aggressive way to communicate with a client. Using the lists of potential sellers’ numbers you’ve gathered, you can offer your services directly to any private owner who has posted a listing. You can then continue the conversation via SMS with a new seller and easily answer all their questions and information requests. Using a landing page (rich SMS) will allow you to complement the conciseness of SMS by including all the information your prospect might need.

3 – Write an impactful SMS message!

Don’t forget that writing an effective SMS message requires keeping a few key points in mind:

• 160 characters is the number of characters you have to write a clear and impactful message! Beyond this limit, you are sending multiple SMS messages and reducing the chances that your recipient will read your message to the end. Remember that the key strength of SMS is being ultra-concise.
• 3rm and bthrm — don’t hesitate to write your message using abbreviations. This will reduce the number of characters used and allow you to include more information. Some common abbreviations: 2rm for 2 rooms, 2bd for 2 bedrooms, bthrm for bathroom, grd for garden, pkg for parking.
• Be impactful and appealing! For your prospecting campaign to be a success, you need to offer something attractive. Example: offer a free property valuation or an additional service. Avoid generic messages that can be found from your competitors. SMS is a communication channel with a high open rate, so try to make the most of it. You can add emojis to enhance the impact of your message.
• Add emojis? ?: emoticons (also known as Unicode SMS) can have a significant impact on memorability, conversion rates, and brand image. (Read the article: Improve the performance of your SMS campaigns with emoticons)

4 – Build customer loyalty by sending a birthday SMS!

Which client doesn’t love receiving a birthday message? On the anniversary of your clients’ signing date, send them an SMS to commemorate the occasion. Automate this sending and you’ll never miss a signing anniversary again! For an extra personal touch, include a link directly in the SMS to a video from your team!

SMS is a practical tool that saves you a great deal of time, whether you choose to send your campaigns from your messaging software, using mail to SMS to combine your email marketing solution with your SMS marketing solution, or whether you prefer to automate your SMS sending with the SMS API. With automated SMS campaigns, you can respond quickly to inform your clients faster than the competition or schedule your campaigns according to a precise calendar. You’ll build customer loyalty with a birthday message or exclusive promotional offers, including a direct link to your real estate agency’s website through Rich SMS.

5 – Increase visibility and grow your real estate agency’s brand awareness

Advertising in a magazine, posters on bus shelters or benches, press articles, TV commercials… there are many ways to promote your agency and its services! So why not give SMS a try? With a simple text message, you reach your entire contact database to inform them of a special opening or an upcoming event. You can share general information about your business hours, address, or contact details. If you don’t have a sufficient opt-in number database, you have the option to rent an SMS database by filtering available contacts by gender, postal code, age…

6 – SMS alerts so you never miss a property

SMS alerts are an extremely practical tool for your day-to-day professional use, as they allow you to easily send alerts to notify potential buyers of a new property that might interest them, or to inform owners of a potential viewing. This level of responsiveness will earn you a better reputation, as your clients will be delighted to be informed in real time and as a priority. Furthermore, your SMS can include a landing page for your real estate agency to provide all the information of your choice (number of rooms, price, photos of the apartment…) despite the character limit (160 maximum).

7. A few tips for better communication using voice!

• Choose the right words to capture your clients’ attention without wasting their time. Don’t hesitate to use abbreviations to stay within the 160-character limit for an SMS. For example, turn “rental of a 4-room apartment with 1 bathroom and parking” into “rental apt. 4rm, 1 bthrm + pkg“.
• Be clear and precise! Also avoid sending redundant SMS messages by repeating the same information multiple times or providing too many details in a single message.
• Don’t be intrusive and preferably send your SMS messages during the week (not on weekends!) between 8am and 8pm. Please note, messages must not be sent after 10pm. The STOP SMS option is automatically included in your campaigns in compliance with the law imposed by the CNIL.
• Embrace originality by varying the channels used for your follow-ups and dare to use an original format for your marketing campaigns by using voice — the ideal channel for reassuring and personalised campaigns.

SMS is therefore the ideal professional tool for developing your relationships with clients and colleagues. As our phones have become indispensable for so many of us, this represents a significant advantage for your campaigns. To discover all the other benefits of SMS, you can read this article from Journal de l’Agence on the effectiveness of SMS (such as SMS signing — to reduce the time you spend on administrative tasks) in meeting your agency’s needs.

Some examples of SMS messages sent by real estate agencies