Why Dripping on Your Customers is a Good Thing

Most people realize that marketing is the lynchpin of any business. Without marketing, you don’t have customers and therefore, don’t have much of a business. Real estate is no different. I realize that some real estate investing strategies involve simply holding and leasing or listing them on the MLS and therefore may not require a detailed marketing plan. However, for those investors that are wholesaling or looking to put together a solid buyers list, learning how to market through email is of utmost importance.

As a point of discussion, I realize many real estate investors develop a single investing strategy, get comfortable and don’t deviate much from it. I’d like to point out that those investors who learn different aspects of the business and can employ different strategies on different deals have a much better chance of growth and success than those who stick with one thing. As an example, my primary business is turn-key, but there are many occasions where I will wholesale properties, flip properties, hold rentals, etc. Having multiple options at your disposal allows you to look at more deals and will open up the door to more opportunities

I say that because I know some investors will read this article and think, “Why do I need to worry about building a buyers list or email marketing? … I only buy and hold.” The truth is, just about every real estate investor should be building an email database of some sort. Whether it be buyers, renters, agents, etc. – there is always the need to stay connected and market.

Most investors inherently realize this and will send out periodic newsletters or email blasts about specific properties. Often (and I’m guilty of this too), the distraction of the daily grind might make it difficult to send newsletters on a consistent basis. That said, I’ve found that one of the greatest tools for staying in contact with buyers is through an email drip campaign.

What Does Drip Email Entail?

What’s an email drip campaign you ask? Basically, it’s just a series of emails that you set up to send automatically at different points in time. The idea is that once you receive a new prospect or lead, that person gets funneled into a specific campaign of emails that will get sent over the next several weeks or even months. (Almost all email marketing programs have this functionality built in). The idea is that you can invest some time up front writing the emails and scheduling the deliveries, and not have to worry about writing individual emails going forward. It is an incredibly efficient way to stay in front of customers without the hassle of remembering to email individual prospects all day long.

I’ve found that keeping the emails short and simple seems to work the best. It’s not necessary to build out impressive html layouts with lots of fancy pictures and content. I’ve actually had the most success getting leads to respond by writing very short, text-based emails that appear as though they were written personally. Something like … “Hey, I haven’t heard from you in a while and just wanted to circle up with you and see if we could schedule some time to talk this week.” It’s amazing how many times I have potential customers respond to this type of drip email.

Basically, drip email is just a way for you to stay in front of potential customers without the man-hours involved in writing each email individually. It truly allows you to leverage the power of technology to remain connected to more customers with little to no ongoing effort. Growing as a real estate investor and doing more deals requires that you learn how to scale the business and build in efficiencies. A drip email campaign is a must for those that are attempting to do this.

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.