Here’s a staggering stat: According to NAR, 88% of homebuyers say they would use their real estate agent again, but only 11% actually do. When we talk about real estate success, we usually talk about how to get new clients, how to sell listings, and how to negotiate. But what about after the transaction? How do you keep nurturing client relationships after you close?
Segment Your Email List
If you have an email list for your clients and network that you’re using regularly to stay connected, you’re already ahead of the game. However, if you’re sending out the same newsletter to everyone on your list, chances are that most people on your list aren’t getting relevant information or feeling any sort of personal connection with what you’re sending out.
Segmenting your list entails separating your email contacts into different categories. To keep it simple, these are a few of the categories you may want to consider:
- Cold leads
- Warm leads
- Past clients
- Vendors
- Other agents
Looking at those categories separately, it seems clear that one blanket newsletter full of market reports and new listings wouldn’t Real estate success nurture those relationships very effectively, which of course, is the key to real estate success.
While this is a bit more work than sending out one newsletter to all of your contacts, the long-term benefits will outweigh the extra hour or two that it takes to write content that gives all of your clients value—including your past clients, not just the ones that are looking to buy or sell at the moment.
Share Relevant Community Information
One way to truly become a resource for your clients after you close is to be their go-to for community information and events. Using your social media accounts, blog, and email to write up a weekly list of events in your area is a simple way to stay top of mind with past clients and keep them coming back.
As an added bonus, this kind of content also helps leverage the established audiences of some of the local businesses, groups, and charities in your area since they are usually the ones hosting the events. When you write up your weekly list of what’s happening around town and share it on social media, you can tag the businesses mentioned in hopes that they might share your list with their followers as well.
Remember Their Birthdays and Congratulate Them on Big Life Events
Since the very foundation of real estate success is built on the quality of relationships you build with your network, it only makes sense that remembering your past clients’ birthdays and congratulating them on big life events is key to maintaining a lasting relationship.
Calling clients to catch up every six to twelve months is not only a great way to show them that you have a genuine vested interest in maintaining your relationship well beyond any professional transaction, but is also a great opportunity to learn about any upcoming life events—whether it be a marriage or new baby—for you to make note of for future follow-ups. These reminders are essential to ensuring you never miss an important date or go too long without communicating.
If you want to learn more about creating referral-worthy experiences for your current and past clients, click here to take a look at our online and live trainings to earn your CLHMS designation!