For those not familiar with Drip Marketing, or a drip marketing campaign related to Real Estate… it is a phrase taken from agriculture, farming and even back-yard gardening called ‘drip irrigation’. This is when you feed crops and plants small amounts of water over a long period of time.

One good benefit of this practice is that you do not flood your plant, or in the case of Internet Leads or Sales Prospects, you do not overwhelm them with information, but instead you feed them consistently with valuable knowledge on a project, property or related real estate knowledge, with the aim of keeping their interest alive in having you as their preferred real estate agent!

As a result, just like a crop that has been well fed, when it comes to harvesting time, you as a real estate agent will be the one to benefit from your effort (close the deal).

Is Drip Marketing suited to the local Real Estate Market?

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It is no secret that while Real Estate markets in countries such as the US are currently undergoing a slump, there is no sign of any slowdown in markets such as Dubai, AbuDhabi and the region in general. Real Estate agents here are spoiled for choice! It is arguable whether indeed skills and practices such as Drip Marketing are at this time needed to ensure a successful business for real estate agents and professionals.

However, learning a new skill and way of thinking when dealing with clients and prospective sales leads, is never a bad thing, and can help you as an agent maybe as soon as 2 years from now. When the current trend of ‘bulk deals’ on apartments and villas subside, as they are fully occupied by the wave of residents coming into the country, where will you be then in your career?

For those real estate agents wanting to continue their careers in what will soon be a mature market, every skill and best practice related to Real Estate should be imbibed and put into use TODAY!

A primer on Drip Marketing in Real Estate:

Why and when would a real estate agent want to use a drip marketing approach? A drip marketing ‘campaign’ can be used when you are sure (or even when you are not) that a prospective client is not yet ready to make a purchase or sell their property at this time. In all likelihood, will do so in the near future, and you should be aiming at being there when they make up their mind.

Another primary aim of using a Drip Marketing campaign, is to be able to hold on to a prospective buyer or seller who you may have put a lot of work into, but at the end is not committed to transact with you just yet. It makes no sense in you putting in so much of work, only to lose this prospective lead when the time comes to transact, which may even be 6 months later to another real estate agent simply because you gave up too early.

No lead is worth ignoring! Even if business is booming for you at the moment, there is technology and methods to help you with managing your sales leads and prospects who have not made up their minds yet.

A scenario in the UAE market for a Drip Marketing Campaign:

Consider an example… You have just got an inquiry either by email or phone call that a person is interested in buying a property such as a villa in Emaar’s Springs.
You speak with this person who is now your lead or prospect, and explain to them in brief the property availability and may then schedule a tour and property inspection of some villas in your portfolio. At the end of the day, if you are really lucky, you get handed a prospect who has now been converted into a buyer.

However, this is never always the case. Typically, the prospect at the end of the day says ‘Thank you, and I will let you know’.  At this point you can see the lead slipping away with no confirmation or hope that he/she will close a deal with you. As a real estate agent you can either be frustrated or resign yourself to the fact that this is how the market is, and carry on with your life, saying to yourself.. it’s all in a days work.

It does not have to be that way! You can learn new skills and employ technology and leverage solutions such as a Drip Marketing campaign, to ensure that you are always in the mind of a prospective client when they do decide that they are going to buy.
In the example above, what would constitute a good drip marketing campaign to nurture this lead till ‘harvesting time’?

A few changes are overdue, as to the way some real estate agents work in the local market for any professional approach to succeed. Laziness and a servile attitude toward clients, which is unique to this region, have to go.

You could insist and make it a habit to fax or email an inquiry form to a prospective client asking for a few details, BEFORE you initiate a property viewing. Ask the prospect to fill in details such as email, preferred style of villa, preferred time of viewing, etc. The point is to not extract too much info at this stage, which may put off a lead, but to at least get an email address for the drip marketing campaign. This is important to have before your first viewing, as chances are they may not give any personal info to you at the end of a viewing session if they have not yet made up their minds.

After conducting viewings, and if you feel that the prospect is not yet ready to buy, do not show them any disappointment neither should you write them off. This is where the Drip Marketing Campaign begins!

You should go back to your office, and at this point organize all interesting and relevant information (if you have not already done so) on the project that the client is interested in.

Case Study: Using Drip Marketing when selling a Villa- Is the client a young family? If so you should have information on Schools and recreation facilities in the area. Where are the supermarkets located? How do you take care of a villa during the rains, what is the procedure for applying for utilities such as electricity, cable TV etc. What is the market trend and appreciation of this property should they decide to buy. In short, all relevant information on the project and also relevant information on Freehold, re-locating, the laws and other important information will make the ‘food’ of a successful drip marketing campaign.

It goes without saying that a drip marketing campaign is not limited to projects and properties that already exist. It can be applied to properties under construction and well as commercial and retail real estate ( What kind of competition is there in the immediate area for a client considering setting up a themed restaurant, or an advertising agency setting up shop? Newspaper clippings of news that is relevant to a business will be much appreciated by your prospect …. you get the general idea)

The main point is to feed interesting and related information to a prospect, and ‘drip’ this information to them over the course of the campaign such as an email a week, so that eventually when they are ready to buy, YOU are at the top of their mind. At the very least you can be assured that they will contact you, even if they are considering buying from your competition.

One extra benefit of this is, the more you gather information to format for your drip campaign, the more knowledge you subconsciously absorb of the market and the property or project, which will make you a thorough professional in your work.

Putting together a basic Drip Marketing Campaign:

At this point you can start off a basic Drip marketing campaign. There are professional Drip Marketing systems and software that can automate your drip marketing efforts to make it easier in the long run and not take away your time from what you do best, negotiating and closing deals!

To get started and before you invest in drip marketing software and systems, the basic approach would be to categorize your prospects (using the information that you gathered before the viewing) and enter their details into your email system.

From here, you should decide on the time frame for your drip marketing campaign and then distribute the interesting information that you have collected on a project and other related real estate market news into timely ‘newsletters’ over the course of the overall campaign.

Next, send off your first newsletter email, addressed to the prospect, thanking them for being interested in your service and assuring them that they are dealing with a professional. Then introduce the topic of this email, telling them that you will be following up with interesting and relevant information on the property / project and other important news items for their benefit over the course of 2 , 3 or 6 months on a weekly basis.

Encourage them to file hard copies of your emails, for their reference and make sure you include your contact details in the header or footer of your email.

Keep the topics of each newsletter in your Drip marketing campaign relevant, interesting, and not too long. You do not want them to read long emails on a topic (such as this article!)

Finally always assure them that their privacy is always respected and they can opt out of receiving further emails from you at any time. You can do this manually at this time, but once you do get a professional software to handle drip marketing or newsletter campaigns, this process will be handled transparently for you by software.

Hopefully before you reach the end of your Drip Marketing Campaign, you will have earned the admiration of your prospect, who will by this time be himself/herself frustrated with many of the un professional agents floating around in the local market. This could eventually convert your prospect into a confirmed client.

Advanced Drip Marketing:

The above is an overall outline and a basic but workable approach to get you started on Drip Marketing and its usefulness to your business.
Drip Marketing is not confined to only email newsletters or other electronic forms of written communication. If Drip Marketing is working for you, consider other forms of drip marketing such as snail mail (postcards) and other conventional methods of keeping in touch with prospects.

You can even outsource this entire aspect to what is called a VA or Virtual Assistant. Va’s can handle all aspects of your drip marketing campaign, and in most cases all you need to do is supply them with a theme for your drip marketing campaign and the subscriber base itself.

Realvisionhomes.com will soon offer you unique value added services to help you get the most out of your Drip Marketing Campaign, with ideas and tools that far outclass conventional media so that your drip marketing campaign will stand out from the rest!