The Pro Guide to Phone and Text Message Marketing

The time is right.

You've got your lead lists, you've mastered delivering your pitch, and you're ready to start calling and texting leads.

Only one question before you start - do you have a plan you're confident in?

Phone and Text Message Marketing are some essential marketing skills you should master, each with several layers beyond picking up the phone and calling or sending out mass texts.

Why We're Writing This

At PropertyRadar, we've been helping real estate and property-centric business owners build out and refine their phone and text message marketing strategies for years.

We've seen it all and want to ensure you have everything you need to create, implement, and execute effective phone and text message marketing campaigns.

Not sure where to start on your phone and text marketing journey?

You've come to the right place.

Let's dive into the different types of phone marketing and how you can use them to build an incredible pipeline of potential sellers.

In this complete guide to Phone Marketing, we'll cover:

• What is Phone Marketing?
• Big Picture: Things to Consider Before Starting

• The Complete Step-by-Step Guide to Calling Prospects

• Using Auto Dialers as Part of Your Phone Marketing and Mobile Marketing Strategy

• Ringless Voicemail Alongside Calling

• Texting As Part of Your Mobile Marketing Strategy

• 3 Tips to Scale Your Phone Marketing Efforts

What is Phone Marketing? 

At its highest level, phone marketing uses phone-based tactics to reach out to consumers for marketing purposes.

Straight-forward enough, right?

However, strategically planning your phone marketing enables it to be a targeted, local, and relevant marketing technique.

Above all else, phone marketing aims to provide valuable information to your local prospects and build long-term relationships while maintaining a respectful, neighborly tone.  

When we think of phone marketing, simply making phone calls is likely the first thing that comes to mind.

While it's an important piece, phone calling is just one aspect of a phone marketing campaign. 

Using tactics like text message marketing, voicemail drops, multiple line dialers, etc., all give you a well-rounded phone marketing strategy (more on all that later).

It's as much of an art as it is a science, and, to start, there are several ways you can leverage phone calling to your advantage to generate meaningful relationships with your target audience.

Big Picture: Things to Consider Before Starting

At PropertyRadar, we're on a mission to help small businesses. 

Before getting started, we ask everyone using our platform to comply with our Good Neighbor Pledge. Following our Good Neighbor Pledge is a great way to market effectively and respectfully.

If you're finding that people are getting angry with you, think about what you're saying and whether or not you're being a good neighbor.

If you cannot find a way to call without people getting angry, we recommend that you stop calling. 

We believe that the best way to market locally is by following the Good Neighbor Pledge: 

1. Marketing should always be 100% legal and legitimate.  
2. Targeting is what you do, not what you communicate.  
3. Be intelligent and private with customer information.  
4. Great marketing has empathy for your customer.  
5. Honor all opt-out requests.  
6. Review your marketing efforts consistently. 

Consider phone marketing laws and regulations 

It's critical to remember that laws and regulations govern your ability to call people, specifically the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and other "Do Not Call" laws.

The FTC manages federal laws, and state-level laws vary from state to state.

Consider how phone marketing laws can discriminate against small businesses 

Unfortunately, the Do Not Call Registry unfairly discriminates against small businesses.

The Do Not Call Registry lists address sellers or people calling to sell goods and services to consumers in return for payment.

Unfortunately, the Do Not Call Registry unfairly discriminates against small businesses with their sky-high costs to register and purchase all area codes.

As of October 2021, when paying for access, you can get five area codes for free — but the annual fee for nationwide calling is $19,000 a year. After five area codes, each additional area code is $69.  

Furthermore, a service provider or data provider cannot provide you with data unless you pay that fee individually as a small business. The law dictates that you, as a telemarketer, must be individually registered to access the list to make calls.  

With number portability and phone numbers no longer necessarily applying to geographic areas, local businesses can not rely on the fact that only people in their area will have their local area code.

$19,000 is only realistic for very few small businesses. In this way, this system unfairly discriminates against small businesses.  

While we expect and encourage all of our customers to follow the law, it's critical to understand the issues present with today's regulations so that you can overcome the obstacles and leverage phone marketing to your advantage. 

Consider the impacts of local call regulations  

Remember that the law "covers any plan, program, or campaign to sell goods and services through interstate phone calls…."

Another law reads, "the National Do Not Call Registry covers interstate telemarketing calls under the FCC rules."  

We encourage you to follow the Good Neighbor Marketing Pledge to proactively avoid getting yourself into any situation that could end up in persecution and enforcement.

Even if you comply with the National Do Not Call Registry, your goal for follow-up calls should be to provide helpful information and not sell services.  

We believe in the best practices of calling to provide value, impart information, answer questions, and not sell.  

Keep in mind that none of this applies to customers with whom you have established a business relationship over the last 18 months or business-to-business calls. Review the DNC website to view all other exceptions.  

With all this in mind, let's jump to how you can implement effective Phone and Text Message Marketing strategies to grow your business.

First, we'll take a look at calling prospects as a method of following-up.

The Step-by-Step Guide to Calling Prospects

Despite the rise of social media marketing and digital marketing campaigns over the last decade, calling is an evergreen strategy and remains as essential as ever.

Calling is more than simply picking up the phone and dialing, hoping for your prospect to answer, and trying to push your way through a conversation.

It takes time, upfront research, and a carefully rehearsed set of talking points to do it correctly.

A planful approach to calling to reach customers takes shape in a few ways:

Step 1: Research Your Prospect

There's nothing that will derail a call more quickly than sounding like you're unprepared.

Public records can be your best friend if used correctly, giving you the insight you need to sound like you've thoroughly done your research.

For example, if you're the owner of a lawn-care company attempting to follow up with customers in your area, make sure to note things like lawn size and if there's an HOA present.

If you're a house cleaning company, leverage property characteristics in your marketing and messaging, including the size of the house, the number of stories, and if there's any record of lingering damage.

Using public records alongside demographics can ensure you're not wasting your or your prospect's time. A little research goes a long way. A better tool helps close the deal. 

Step 2: Uncover a Specific Problem

Once you've re-engaged with your potential customers and shown them you've done your homework, your next step is to uncover a potential problem or pain your prospects are having.

For instance, the owner of the lawn-care company can follow up with homeowners who own property on two-plus acres with messaging around how much of a hassle it must be for the homeowner to do all the landscaping themselves, especially in the heat of summer.

While you may be successful with a particular problem message, it's essential to test different messages to see which resonates most effectively when calling.

Step 3: Tailor a Problem-Based Value Proposition

While the target audience you serve may have similar use-cases, be sure to differentiate your value proposition based on segments within your target audience.

Location-based marketing tactics and ensuring you're collecting from public records will help you personalize messages on a much greater level.

Let's see how the owner of the lawn-care company would do this...

The homeowner with a two-acre lot has a fantastic property; better yet, she lives at the end of the neighborhood.

That's great, but when the lawn care owner looks at the neighborhood on a map, it shows the homeowner lives right next to the community pool.

Upon further research, the owner of the lawn-care company realizes that the HOA has strict guidelines on how landscaping can look within a 500-foot radius.

With this location-based marketing data, the owner of the lawn-care company can now reach and tailor their value proposition, reminding the homeowner that specializing in highly-manicured, HOA-regulated landscaping is something they're known for.

Once you've delivered this value proposition, it's time to move the conversation forward, set concrete follow-up steps, and drive towards closing a deal.

Step 4: Set Next Steps

Like any form of traditional marketing, ensuring we set concrete next steps while we have the prospect engaged is critical.

Let's continue with our example...

With the homeowner agreeing that having a highly manicured lawn-care specialist would be important for her, the lawn-care company shouldn't stop there.

By proposing a time for a consultation and even offering to set them up to receive notifications, it builds a form of accountability with the homeowner prospect.

Without setting the next steps, the owner of the lawncare company has put in significant efforts without long-term business commitment - an end-result that doesn't benefit anyone.

Using Auto Dialers as Part of Your Phone Marketing and Mobile Marketing Strategy  

Why you should use auto-dialers

Phone marketing campaigns wouldn't be complete without using a power dialer.

Power dialers allow you to follow up with several prospects at once by calling more people in less time since you don't need to input each number manually.

Standard dialer features include the ability to import contact lists, and KPI reporting and usage data.

Single-line and Multi-line Dialers are two main types of auto-dialers as part of your mobile marketing efforts.

You can use a Single-line Dialer to start building a dialing automation strategy

A single-line dialer tool allows you to get through calling more people in less time since you don't need to input each number manually.

If the person doesn't answer, the dialer gives you the option to leave them a voicemail that you've already pre-recorded.

Then, the dialer will automatically move to the following number on the list.  

You can significantly improve your call volume per hour by leveraging a dialer to automate your calls.  

You can use a Multi-line dialer to scale your dialing automation

The next step up from a single-line dialer is a multi-line dialer tool.

Multi-line dialers call multiple leads at one time and connect you with the first person who answers.

These tools will move on to the next lead after an unanswered call, helping you move through your call list rapidly and efficiently.  

Risks of a Multi-line Dialer

As with any tool you use to scale your business, there are some risks to using a multi-line dialer.

Your line may hang up on someone who may have answered, or multiple people may answer at the same time — giving someone a callback message when they pick up, leading to a forgettable experience.  

However, this is less of a pervasive issue given the recent advancement in dialer software sophistication.

Benefits of a Multi-line Dialer

On the other hand, the benefit is that you can achieve a higher number of calls while talking to more people since you're prioritizing those that answer.

According to data from Mojo Dialer, single-line dialers allow you to make up to 85 calls per hour while a multi-line dialer tool allows users to make up to 300 calls per hour.  

You can use data screens and call outcome tracking to monitor performance

Single-line and multi-line dialers include helpful tools like personalized data screens and recorded call outcomes.  

Once connected with a call, you'll be prompted with a screen showing you key details about that person.

This will give you relevant information so you can have high-impact talking points on hand to drive a better conversation.  

Dialer tools also allow you to record the outcome of that call.

At the end of the call, you'll know whether that person wants you to call them again, whether or not they are a hot prospect, or whether they should be added to a new list.

You can then record the outcomes of the call and the best next steps you should take to follow up with this person based on the conversation.   

Auto-dialers are essential to running a successful calling campaign at scale.

Without them, the time you spend dialing each phone number for every call adds to lost business.

Ringless Voicemail Alongside Calling

At the highest level, Ringless Voicemail allows you to follow up with a prospect by leaving a voicemail without ever making a call.

It's a great way to complement your calling strategy, enabling you to put a "voice" to the number.

When you follow up with your prospects in more ways - whether it's your voice or your face - you strengthen your relationship building and create more valuable long-term connections.  

Why you should use ringless voicemail

You can leave voicemails without ever having to call a prospect

With ringless voicemail, the consumer typically feels as if they have missed a call. In some cases, the call may sound like a hang-up followed by a voicemail. In other cases, the notification may just pop up as a voicemail and appear as if they missed a call.  

The main benefit of ringless voicemail is that you can follow up with what feels like a personalized message without having to spend time calling each person and leaving the same voicemail multiple times.

You can reach large audiences without ever having to pick up the phone

Ringless voicemail is a very effective way to follow up with large numbers of people with whatever message you'd like to share in a personal format. 

Leveraging ringless voicemail as a follow-up method can help increase your outreach efforts' effectiveness.

You can generate awareness without ever having to pick up the phone

If someone has already seen a postcard, online ad, or received an email from your business, that may increase their awareness of your brand.

Since you've already engaged with the prospect, following up with ringless voicemail may drastically cut the time between conversations.  

Mixing multiple touchpoints can create more impressions to build trust and potentially increase the response rate over time.

Let's now take a look at another form of mobile marketing - text messaging.

Texting As Part of Your Mobile Marketing Strategy

Also known as "SMS marketing," text messaging significantly influences your prospects. 

Therefore, it's a great way to follow up with your prospects and build valuable relationships.

However, the most important rule to remember when text message marketing is to ONLY text those who have opted into receiving texts. 

As a matter of fact, 75% of prospects are comfortable receiving text messages once they’ve opted in. 

To start, text messaging marketing only works with mobile numbers, so ensure that your lead lists have both a business/landline phone number and a mobile number listed. Don't always assume that the primary number listed for a lead is a mobile device.   

With text marketing, there's the idea of one-on-one text messaging. Therefore, your follow-up texts should appear custom and personalized, even if the same message is sent out to multiple people.

If you're using a text message marketing provider, chances are they offer that sort of feature.

Text marketing has two main ways you can follow up with someone: with a question or a value statement.

Additionally, you can incorporate mass texting where one message goes out to multiple prospects. Once again, most if not all text message marketing services should have that functionality.

Why You Should Use Text Message Marketing

Mass texting allows you to connect with large audiences easily

To reach several audiences at scale and implement a successful text message marketing campaign, you'll first want to choose a text message marketing software that allows for mass texting.

When you send out a blast to your lead lists, you want to be able to view the replies individually. This will allow you to follow up with those people one-on-one.  

While the initial blast from your text message marketing platform goes out to a large group of people, it is not a group text. Sms marketing can be a bit tricky this way, so we'll break it down...

Group texts are sent out to everyone, and then each reply is visible to each recipient that was initially added to the group. Group texts do not allow you to create a one-on-one environment.  

Instead, your blast should consist of individual text messages that you can follow up with and maintain individual conversations.  

A tactic we strongly recommend is using text message marketing software that incorporates "dynamic" or "templated" text fields.

Dynamic text fields (something most text message marketing platforms should have) automatically populate each prospect's information in that field, rather than you having to type it out every single time for every prospect.

Here's an example of dynamic text message templates in a text marketing platform:

If sending text messages to a group of people, three of which are named John, Susan, and Peter, you can send a blast through the SMS messaging software that reads:

"Hey {first_name}" 

John would then receive a text that says "Hey John", Susan would get a text that reads "Hey Susan" and so on.

Additionally, a feature most large text message marketing services will deploy is access to a success or strategy team. They focus on helping you be successful, so make sure to leverage them as a resource.

Looking for a successful team or helpful online resource guide is a key topic you should research when choosing a text message marketing service.

Mass texting allows you to deliver personalized follow-ups at scale

Similar to calling, personalization at scale in text message marketing is achieved through segmenting your audience and testing your value propositions.

It's one of the most important things you can do to ensure your SMS marketing strategy is as successful as possible.

Text messaging that sounds the same across audience segments just isn't going to work. To achieve great results in your SMS marketing, follow a few steps:

Implementing a Formal, Yet Friendly, Tone

In SMS marketing, people can interpret text messages in various ways.

For instance... does it make more sense to say "Hey" or "Hello"?

Should we be using exclamation points or periods?

Should we ever address someone as "man", "dude", or "girl"?

There's a lot that goes into planning your voice, but it's important to decide which path to take to ensure you're keeping your text message marketing appropriate.

Responding to Text Messages from Prospects

Text marketing campaigns often are only as good as how quickly you respond to your leads.

We recommend taking every step to enable notifications on your phone and within your text message marketing service to ensure you're responding to your leads as quickly as possible

You're 80% more likely to get a positive response if you reply to a lead within 5 minutes of receiving an SMS message.

Speed to lead is essential in text marketing and can set you apart from your competition who take their time to follow up with leads.

Incorporating Media Into Your Text Message Marketing

There are a few different tactics you can deploy to enhance your text messages, including: 

• Adding Video or Pictures (also known as MMS messages).
• Using QR Codes in your text messaging campaigns.
• Including Surveys to collect feedback from customers.

3 Tips to Scale Your Phone Marketing Efforts

Upgrade to a dialer 

Scaling from manual calling to a single-line dialer to a multi-line dialer can help you improve your phone marketing strategy over time, allowing you to reach larger audiences.

Utilize other tools 

To have a holistic marketing strategy, you should leverage phone marketing alongside other marketing tools and techniques, such as email drip campaigns, doorknocking, and direct mail.  

Grow your team 

Once you build out your systems, tech stack, and go-to-market strategies, you'll be able to scale your team the right way. 

Always follow the Good Neighbor Marketing Pledge

Given the nature of phone marketing, it's important to always adhere to the Good Neighbor Marketing Pledge:

Marketing is always 100% legal and legitimate

Marketing must always be legal, honest, and transparent. Recipients of your marketing should be able to identify you and your business quickly.

Targeting is what you do, not what you communicate

If someone asks, answer generically by letting them know you're a business that operates in the local community. In particular, you thought they might be interested in your product or service.

Be smart and private with customer information

Marketing materials must never include details about your customers that they might believe to be personal and private.

Great marketing has empathy for your customers

Having empathy is being understanding and sensitive to the feelings, thoughts, and experiences of your customer and how they will perceive your marketing outreach.

Honor all opt-out requests.

You must honor any recipient's request to opt out and no longer receive marketing from you.

What are you waiting for? New opportunities are waiting! 

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