One of the biggest mistakes you can make is assuming the life cycle of a lead ends once the home has been bought or sold. Not so! In fact, the life cycle of a lead can extend over a decade when you factor in the average amount of time that a consumer spends researching homes (18 months), the average lead-to-conversion time after raising their hands (13 months), and the average time before a home owner is ready to list again (7 years).
The key word here being "cycle", meaning your past clients can become active leads again once they are ready to buy or sell a home years down the road, and the fact that happy past clients are one of your top referral sources. So what do you do to stay top-of-mind with past clients? Here's 6 emails that we think should be a part of your past client outreach.
1. Ongoing Support / Newsletters
Your clients had a million questions during the buying / selling process, so you better believe there are even more questions flying through their mind once they actually own the home (especially if they are first-time home owners). Continue to be a solid resource for your past clients by sending out newsletters with home owner tips, articles about home improvements, product reviews, local events, market snapshots and reminders about when it’s time to winterize, de-bug, or start on spring cleaning. The content library in your Elevate email marketing platform has everything you need to easily set yourself up as the local expert.
2. Housing & Market Updates
That “7 years” number we mentioned before is only an average, you may have past clients who are ready to raise their hands again after just a couple of years because of their job, personal situation, the homeowner version of wanderlust, or a growing family (surprise!). For those who may be ready to go on the move, send out local housing market reports, new listings that pop up, or a preferred partner such as a title company or home inspector. Our subscribers have great success with simple emails stating “What’s your home currently worth?” that link to the latest market reports.
3. Office Announcements & Team Highlights
The team is growing, you're earning awards & recognition for your hard work, your clients are thrilled with the level of personalized service you provide. Showcase your services, growth, testimonials, and laurels! When clients (past or current) see your success it helps reinforce in their minds that choosing you was the right decision, and can greatly increase their confidence in coming back to you again or in referring their family and friends to you.
4. Holidays Wishes, Birthdays & Anniversaries
Spread the love by paying attention to important dates such as client's birthdays, move-in anniversaries and special holidays. If you keep track of special dates in your Elevate email marketing account, you can setup auto-responders to automatically run with a personal greeting from you. Making a point to reach out to clients (past, present & future) during the holidays always earns you extra kudos as well.
5. Referral Ask
A simple email to happy past clients reminding them of their great experience with you and asking for referrals for family and friends is an easy way to engage and build your business. Be sure to share some helpful information that can be passed along to make it easy to share and less 'salesy'.
6. Community / Local Events
However large or small, chances are you belong to the same community as your clients. Show how involved you are in your community by sharing announcements about local goings-on they may be interested in like street fairs, festivals, charitable events with which you are involved. It's little things like this that add value to your brand and set yourself up as the local expert who has their best interests at heart.
