Consistent Clients – Real Estate Marketing

So you’re ready to let your clients do the selling for you, and you decide to collect testimonials from all your clients. But the first few closings, you forget. After all, there are so many other details to take care of. You remember to ask the next few clients, and they say they’ll be happy to provide one. But a few weeks go by, and you’ve heard nothing. It’s easy to never quite get in the habit of asking for, and getting, great testimonials.

The key is to create a system that is quick and easy to implement, both for you and your clients. This way, over time you’ll have a dynamic set of testimonials that can become a core part of your marketing.

As with most forms of marketing, it’s not a bad idea to have several systems in place, to make it as easy as possible for your clients to take the action you want them to. Here are a few ways to systemize your testimonial collection:

• If you send your clients closing gifts, add a quick testimonial form inside the card or attached to the gift. You will catch them at a time when they have a positive feeling about you, and you can also take advantage of peoples’ natural desire to return a favor.
• Create a toll-free hotline that people can call to leave an audio testimonial. Some people feel they’re too busy to sit down and write out a testimonial, but would be happy to make a quick 2 minute call. You use a system like Audio Generator, and provide this number along with your testimonial forms. You can then publish these audios to a “Success Stories” page on your website, or even combine them into a mini-commercial you publish onto another toll-free line for potential clients to call.
• Utilize an autoresponder like Aweber or Constant Contact to keep in contact with clients after they have closed. Offer a mini e-course of daily or weekly tips or information related to their recent real estate transaction. And in each one, add your request for a testimonial. Whether they reply via email, or you provide a link to an online form, you can catch them when they are happy with their recent transaction, and are at their computer, able to quickly respond back.

These are just a few ideas. As you can see, with a system in place to ask for and receive these testimonials, you’ll quickly find you’ve built up a large group that you can use all throughout your marketing. In our next posts, we’ll talk about ways to use these testimonials in creative and effective ways.

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