As professional sales people we all know that the key to selling new homes involves follow-up, this is nothing new. What has changed over the past decade is sales professionals now have many new tools to follow up with interested home shoppers, one of the most powerful is text messaging.
Sending text messages to interested home shoppers is a very effective way to keep the lines of communication open, and to progress the sale down the path of the buying journey.
Why are text messages so important?
Because the likelihood that a home shopper will check their text messages is far higher than that of emails, and even brochures.
According to Gartner, SMS open rates are as high is 98%, and response rates are as high as 45%. Not only do people open their text messages, they do so quickly, typically within 3 minutes of receiving the text message.
These stats should not be surprising. After all, when was the last time someone sent you a text message that you did not check? Contrast this to emails, flyers and brochures that are sent to you, chances are most of these messages head straight for the recycle bin or the spam folder without a second thought.
It should be clear, when it comes to following up with home shoppers, it would be a major missed opportunity not to consider how their follow-up strategy will incorporate text messages!
But texting people is not sufficient alone, a strategy is required …
Making your text messages stand out with virtual home tours
While people will look at your text message, to be effective, you need people to engage with your text messages, to create a memorable experience.
One powerful way to engage home shoppers is to send them a text message with links to virtual home tours of the homes they love.
Yes, you heard right – you can send, right within your text message, links to virtual home tours. The home shopper can simply tap on the link, and voila, the homes load instantly on their phone. They can even walk around the virtual homes, right on their phone!
This sure beats the one-liner “thanks for visiting” us message.
How to send virtual home tours in text messages to home shoppers
Fortunately, sending a text message with links to virtual homes is really simple.
The steps:
- Compose a text message as you normally would.
- As you type the text message, simply enter the web link to the tours as part of that message, that were provided to you by Invent Dev, as shown in the images below. That’s it!
Screen Shots
Tips on crafting a text message
Now you know how to share text messages with virtual homes tours, but there are a few more tips to make your text messages effective.
Importantly, don’t sound spamy and impersonal – just because you can send links to every virtual model home available for sale, resist the temptation!
Instead, make your messages personal. Take a few moments and only send links to the homes the shopper expressed interest in. Show that you are a great listener, and they you are there to help the home shopper buy the home that is right for them.
When crafting your text message, you want to:
- remind them who you are
- list the benefits, needs, and wants the shopper mentioned to you
- send links only to virtual home tours the shopper likes
- send a reminder about next steps, guiding them towards the path to purchase
Remember, make sure to let the home shopper know what the next steps are in the buying journey, in a friendly and non-pushy manner.
Follow these steps to send a professional and personalized text messages, in addition to emails, phone calls, and face to face meetings, and this will help you convert more home shoppers into home buyers.
Summary
Sending personalized text messages to home shoppers, with links to virtual tours showing the homes they are interested in, provides a better home shopping experience, and helps convert home shoppers into home buyers.
