Real Estate Investor · Phoenix, AZ · Member since 2015 · 25 posts · 3 votes
Hello guys,
I've been meaning to sign up for a couple years but never pulled the trigger until now so I can ask this question.
I'm a real estate wholesaler/flipper and I'm looking to scale my business. One strategy I'm looking into is ringless voicemail broadcasting.
I know a lot has to do with the target, sales skills, etc... but say we compare it to every door direct type advertising. How does it compare? Is the end result better or worse than postcards?
I'm hope to pick your brains as to the success rate you've seen from your RVB campaigns in terms of call back rates%.
Also, what's the average number of call backs that will translate to a contract from RVB?
Investor · Tampa, FL · Member since 2011 · 2k+ posts · 3k+ votes
8y
We don't do this kind of marketing, although it sounds interesting.
I've noticed some people liking it, but there's a few on here who seem to get genuinely angered by it. Isn't all marketing annoying if the product or service isn't something you're interested in? Why is this one any different?
I have to hear about car insurance commercials on TV, radio, billboards. I don't need car insurance. I get junk mail for credit cards every day. I just ignore it.
If every company knew who their customer was and when they needed their service, there really wouldn't be a need for marketing at all, would there?
Altadena, CA · Member since 2015 · 66 posts · 58 votes
8y
@Alan L. Hey Alan! Great question, We have had a ton of leads! Within the past month we have made close to 10 verbal offers and have viewed 5 properties! Nothing under contract yet, but getting pretty close! Man im just excited that its working!
Flipper/Rehabber · Queens, NY · Member since 2013 · 36 posts · 18 votes
8y
Hi Jon.
How big is your list. I have a list of approx 8,000 tax lates. Is that enough. Also ow many times per month area you hitting that list? Again thanks in advance for sharing any tips
FWIW, I *despise* ringless voicemails with the passion of 1,000 burning suns. I will instantly block that number and delete the voicemail. And one of these days when I'm cranky enough, I might try to collect damages for illegal robocalling.
If you want to talk with me, call me. If you just want to mass-broadcast spam, then please take a long walk off a short pier.
I'm the same way. My belief is that if someone has to resort to this method of sneaky marketing, it must be a scam where someone is trying to trick me into giving them my voice so they can rip me off.
If I don't recognize the caller, I don't answer the phone. Many junk marketing callers don't leave a voice mail and I block the number. I also report the call as spam so the wireless carrier can take action.
Altadena, CA · Member since 2015 · 66 posts · 58 votes
8y
@Ryan Warden Send me a DM Ryan and ill send your the script for the voicemail we have been sending out! We have tested probably about 2-3 voicemails and really tried to make it as personal as possible without sounding like a "pre-recorded" message.
Flipper/Rehabber · Columbus, OH · Member since 2017 · 29 posts · 11 votes
8y
Jonathan Messri I’m interested in trying this out in my market as well I’m hearing people are getting a lot of great feedback with this, is it possible you can send me the script as well ?
Investor · Tampa, FL · Member since 2011 · 2k+ posts · 3k+ votes
8y
We don't do this kind of marketing, although it sounds interesting.
I've noticed some people liking it, but there's a few on here who seem to get genuinely angered by it. Isn't all marketing annoying if the product or service isn't something you're interested in? Why is this one any different?
I have to hear about car insurance commercials on TV, radio, billboards. I don't need car insurance. I get junk mail for credit cards every day. I just ignore it.
If every company knew who their customer was and when they needed their service, there really wouldn't be a need for marketing at all, would there?
Altadena, CA · Member since 2015 · 66 posts · 58 votes
8y
Hey BP! Had some great conversation in private DM. Figured I would go ahead and post some of the conversation here to provide as much value as possible; sorry if it seems a little unorganized, I did my best to piece it together.
my criteria is purchase year of 2005 or earlier, 40% equity within my local market. Doesnt matter if its owner occupied or absentee. Im really going after the masses, "needle in a haystack". my sister is a real estate agent as well so anything that comes in we try and monotize. My biggest issue is accuracy of phone numbers. On average for each owner on title there are typically 3 numbers that are provided. Out of those 3 numbers usually one of them is right. Ringless voicemail has its pros and cons.
Pros;
Dont have to make 100 calls a day, can target 1000's in a matter of hours
Cost efficient (blows direct mail marketing out the water). Slybroadcast.com is 250$ for 5000 voicemails and they allow you to run campaigns
Higher response ratio from actual sellers
Cons;
RVM actually rings the persons phone once, so alof the people who call back havent even listened to the voicemail but just called back the person they saw called.
Accuracy of phone numbers greatly determines the effeciveness of the RVM system
if blasting more than 1k voicemails at once, inbound calls can be extremely overwhelming, and your still sorting for motivation.
All in all i love it tho. It has been our most effective form of marketing, second being actually getting on the ground and knocking doors. Ill give you some stats here. Yesterday i sent out a broadcast of about 2225 numbers. (3 numbers for 1 contact on average). 766 of those were actually delivered (working numbers). That right of the back is a 29% accuracy ratio of working phone numbers. Out of those 766 delivered messages, 141 people called us back yesterday. Thats an 18% reponse ratio. out of the 141 people that called back, I want to say that only 3 of them turned into contacts, meaning someone who said they wanted to sell. That gives us a 2% conversion ratio. Nothing under contract just yet but we have done about 3-4 seller appointsments just within these past 2 weeks. So all in all its great, i think the more targeted you get the better results you will have. The issue with a more targeted list is being able to find an accurate source of phone numbers. Spokeo, Whitepages, Been-verified, and truepeoplesearch.com for the most part sucks. You can start there, but some of the better services are going to be TLO and lexusnexus.
My process is simple when dropping voicemails; If they call back and I’m Infront of the computer I always take the call live. As far as how often I follow up, usually my process is this. We will use an example were someone leaves a voicemail to me off a voiceblast Step 1; follow up and gather information (motivation) Step 2; do my research, comps and purchase price Step 3; make offer sight and unseen, if it plays in there ball park which I find out in step 1 than I’ll move to step 4. If not than we push a listing Step 4; go out to see house Step 5; get under contract
As far as leads falling through the crack, when dropping RVM, your going to get s ton of calls back so your going to need some good organization to not only scrub your list from people not interested but also to keep track of the ones that want to sell.
I follow up with hot leads every other day. Everything else is set up on an automatic text campaign so I don’t have to worry about it.
Flipper/Rehabber · Sacramento, CA · Member since 2016 · 807 posts · 815 votes
8y
@Colleen F. You get a voicemail delivered to your phone with a missed call. Block the number. Save us 6cents. If you don't want any marketing calls, disconnect your phone XD
Marketing is just something we have to live with in today's world. Most of it won't apply to us but some of it will provide a product we need.
Thanks for the valuable stats. I think I mentioned this to you, but try using REISkip for your numbers, the numbers I do get seem to be pretty accurate.
I wanted to use this strategy as my first touch with a batch of absentee leads. My problem is how to word the VM so everyone in the batch knows I’m talking about their “other” property.
For instance, for normal VM I would says something like “I’m interest in the property at XYZ street.” Can’t say that if the message is going to 50 people at a time.
Rental Property Investor · Bowie, MD · Member since 2018 · 11 posts · 2 votes
8y
@Jonathan Messri Jonathan thank you so much for sharing your RVM process with so much detail. congrats, you’ve got a great process in place.
What do you say in your voicemail blast? I’m sure that’s what’s also helping you receive so many calls back!
Real Estate Broker · Indianapolis, IN · Member since 2015 · 13 posts · 8 votes
8y
I could see one or more of those class action lawyers being all Danny Devito like in the movie Rainmaker and use ringless voicemails to solicit ringless voicemail plaintiffs - LOL
Contractor · Nashville, TN · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
7y
It's just not worth it to me to get leads if it means breaking the law.
However, RVMs and VBs are very powerful for use in your follow up campaign! Once people call you, you are allowed to contact them and put your automated campaigns to work.
Altadena, CA · Member since 2015 · 66 posts · 58 votes
7y
Hey guys, thanks so much for all feedback provided, I have received NUMEROUS requests in my inbox for more information. I have have stopped my RVM campaign as of a few months ago; but plan on picking it up in a new market. Here are some of the issues i have personally faced with RVM
1. Its not truly ringless; the system dials into the persons phone once, than a second time to deliver the message. Unfortunately the person will see a missed call from the number and usually will dial back without listening to the voicemail. Out of 1000 drops done daily, i received 80 call backs, with around 78 of those calls being ones that did not listen to the voicemail and ended up with me "repitching them".
2. Phone numbers were consistently reported online as spam phone numbers continuously requiring me to change phone numbers with each campaign. Go figure I work in the Los Angeles Area; Make sure you scrub your list for DNC if you live in a "sue happy state", and no I did not get sued.
3. What i realized is a very effective way of doing this is having an IVR set up "interactive voicemail" where when the seller calls in the call automatically goes to lengthy voicemail explaining what we are looking for and giving the the option to
a) leave a message regarding the property they want to sell
b) connect to someone live to discuss the property
c) be added to your buyers list
4. Another great tool is following your RVM campaign with a text message to make sure they know that you left a voicemail.
Bottom line like with any marketing campaign, it takes consistency and great tracking over a period of time to know what works and what doesn't work. Testing new things and removing things that do not bring in a great result. One big thing for us was a women's voice vs a mans voice when it came to the recording itself.
Investor · Indianapolis, IN · Member since 2015 · 393 posts · 116 votes
7y
@Jonathan M. Great stuff, appreciate you sharing your experience. I've been curious about RVM and was thinking of implementing them. Might test them just to see how effective they are here in Indy. It definitely sounds annoying to have people call back before listening to the VM, however haha...
Rental Property Investor · Nashua, NH · Member since 2014 · 587 posts · 477 votes
7y
Services like Call-em-all and ringless voicemail systems have been around a while and may be effective in getting a percentage of folks to call back, but tread a fine line of both legality and balancing "can versus should."
Many of these services still ring a recipient's phone before kicking over to voicemail, which means they likely fall into the same bucket as the absurd robocall epidemic that's exploding all over the globe. Some quick facts on that:
70% of consumers are now ignoring calls from numbers they don't recognize (Consumer Reports, 2019) due to a record 47.8 billion robocalls made in 2018.
Autodialed telemarketing calls from legitimate outfits to your home landline are legally permitted, provided the person on the other end is a human being; for prerecorded messages, your written consent is required.
Almost all autodialed or prerecorded calls—even those from charities, political parties, etc.—made to a cell phone are illegal, per the TCPA, unless you have given your express permission beforehand to be contacted this way or the call is for an emergency.
Given that, questions I am left with:
How do I know if a phone number I am calling is a cell phone?
Do I have written consent from the user I am calling?
If the recipient and 20 of his/her friends setup a system to call me 2x/week as I was sitting down to dinner, would that constitute a valuable contribution to society?
If no to any of these, why am I doing this? Listen, there are some truly legitimate reasons for using systems like these: emergency broadcasts, appointment call-backs, critical doctor reminders, etc. Unfortunately, there are far, far more annoying and (often) illegal uses that many of the self-proclaimed gurus in the industry are either not aware are a legal grey area or are intentionally keeping from us to ensure they're still selling out cheap hotels.
So the real question on my mind is not how effective are these services at triggering a response, but why any of us would want to build a business already walking a thin line of legality and generally unwanted by 70% of the general population?
There are a ton of ways that we, as savvy real estate investors, can leverage our deep knowledge to help folks in bad situations come to better outcome, without resorting to outbound robocalling/robo-VMing off a list bought by a local data warehouse.
Note: I'm not making any assumptions of why anyone's doing here, but this is an area we should be helping each other recognize is a rapidly changing space, particularly with things like STIR/SHAKEN (hopefully) on the horizon to help all us better distinguish between legitimate and spoofed Robo-dialers.
Mentor, OH · Member since 2019 · 6 posts · 0 votes
6y
@Jonathan M. Do you mind sending me your script for the ringless voicemail if you are still having success from it. It has been a year since you posted this so it would be great to hear if you had any real succuss with it.