Some of us older people just can’t understand the younger generation. These days they’re chasing Pokémon all over the place with their Pokémon Go app. Other times they sit right next to each other and text instead of talk.
Must be the times...
But instead of fighting the change happening in the world, why not embrace it? Millennials have grown up never knowing a world without cell phones, Skype and all the advanced communications we have today.
One of the most popular kinds of communication today is texting. Potential renters may want to text you based on your Craigslist ad. Current renters may only communicate through text. Texting can be a great way to communicate with your buyer’s list to move a property quickly. And even if motivated sellers are broke, chances are they still find a way to pay their smartphone bill.
Beyond the basics of texting, there is a lot more you can do with the SMS messaging app on your phone. Let’s take a look at what the texting world can produce.
Google and Texting
Trust Google to get in the act for SMS messaging. After all, they seem to be reaching out to every other tech innovation.
Google has 3 nice features integrated with texting to help you stay productive.
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Calendar notifications – Google is able to text you about your next calendar event if you use Google Calendar to plan your day.
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Send text messages via Google Voice – Google Voice is a great application for small business people. It can give you lots of flexibility. The text feature of Google Voice allows you to text either from your SMS messaging app, from your computer, through the Google Voice app or through Hangouts. You can send up to five text messages to a group of people at a time, without them seeing other peoples’ numbers. Great for sending a new deal to likely candidates on your buyer’s list.
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Add pages to your Blogger Blog – Google advertises that you can add pages over text, so your readers can keep up with your real estate endeavors while you’re on the go. But it looks like the Blogger app is more the way to go to update your blog.
To be fair, it doesn’t look like WordPress allows you to update your blog via text as well. However, WordPress does have a plug-in to alert your readers via text when you have a new blog update. Once you have this plug-in installed, new readers can enter their phone numbers into a database. Then you can send out alerts (like new properties for sale, renter notifications, etc.) and let everyone know what’s new on your site via text.
You can still publish posts via texts in both Blogger and WordPress. It just takes a little workaround. Both sites allow you to publish blog posts via email. The way to set up ‘blog via email’ in Blogger is here, and WordPress is here. Setting up the posts via email will create a unique email address for the posts.
Most cell phone providers allow you to send an email from your text messaging app. Instead of putting in another cell phone number for the recipient of the app, put in an email address. Then your text will go directly to the other person’s email. When you use the Blogger or WordPress email you created, you will be posting via text.
Sending Text Via Email
If you have a longer text that you would rather not type out on your smartphone, you can send out a text from your email. You will have to know the recipient’s cell phone provider, which is a question you can just add when creating your contact list.
Once you know the recipient’s cell phone service, just send an email like the following:
Substitute the recipient’s cell phone number for the word ‘number’ in your email to them, and it will come across as a text message. It would be easy to store these ‘email addresses’ in your contacts and text people easily from your email. There is no limit to the number of recipients you can text. If you don’t want people to see other numbers, simply put everyone’s cell phone email addresses in the ‘BCC’ line.
Text Message Marketing
According to the Small Business Trends website:
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Text messages have a 98% read rate
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Text messages have a 100% open rate
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Texts are typically read within 15 minutes of being received
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Mobile phones have reached 100% penetration in the United States
Wouldn’t it be great to reach a lot of potential buyers through text? Realtors have already discovered the power of text marketing. That’s why you see so many 'For Sale' signs with text message info.
The same idea could work for a house you are trying to wholesale. You could announce a text number at your local REIA meeting or just put a sign on the house for more information.
When a prospective buyer sends a text to the number, they receive a text back with information, photos and website links answering questions they might have.
With a service like Tatango, you will receive an alert when anyone texts the number. And, you will receive the potential buyer’s contact information, which makes it easy to follow up.
Text messaging is a huge component of the way people are communicating these days. It only makes sense for real estate investors to hop on the bandwagon and take advantage of this technology.
Tell Me If You Text
Have you done a deal, thanks to texting? Share below.
Communicate – Whether it’s texting, emails, phone calls, direct mail or meeting people in person - figure out how people want to communicate with you and reach out to them in ways that get them to respond.
Test, Test, Test – Send out your marketing in lots of different ways and track the results. Keep doing what produces the most results and kill the rest.
Don’t Text and Drive! – Yes we want you to make a lot of money, but we also want you to be safe out there.
JP Moses
is a real estate investor in Memphis, TN, with experience ranging from land lording to note buying, rehabbing, and wholesaling. However, wholesaling is the area that he enjoys most and where he bring the most experience and expertise to his students.