Why Should I Make Email Follow-up My Top Priority?
Hopefully you were able to answer this question pretty easily. If not, you should make email follow-up a top priority because NO ONE ELSE is doing it! I’m directing this to everyone, but I’m speaking from the perspective of a property management professional.
What really puzzles me about this entire scenario is that this information isn’t anything new. Industry experts such as Lisa Trosien have been trying to teach this basic idea for years and for some reason it doesn’t seem to stick with as many people as it should. I’ll be the first to admit that my company doesn’t do enough to follow-up with email prospects. Let’s start from the beginning and see where improvements can be made. For the sake of keeping this post as short and as effective as possible, I’m going to be referring to prospective residents only, but your email marketing program should include future, current, and in some cases previous residents.
Think about how much money it costs you each time you get a lead from an ILS like ForRent.com. A quick email comes through with the prospect’s name, desired apartment size, and moving timeframe. Sometimes you’ll get lucky and receive more information, but let’s just say this is all you got. I hear some leasing consultants argue that they prefer to call back their prospects. That’s a flawed argument in two ways. First, people that send an email probably prefer to receive an email back. Second, in this case you didn’t even get a phone number. You do, however, have their email address. It’s extremely important that you send a response quickly (some day 24 hours is acceptable, but personally when I’m online I expect a quicker response and I recommend sending your reply within an hour or less).
One area that might not be as obvious for improvement is with your current prospects (those who have already received information or toured your community). I’ll go out on a limb and say that most places request an email address and it’s been my experience that the majority of people will give you that information when asked. It’s up to you to use it. Please remember that having access to someone’s attention via their email address is a privledge and should be treated as such. This is a great way to send a follow-up email regarding the floor plan that they saw or just to see how their search is going. Honestly, they may have forgotten about you and already threw away the thank-you card that they got a day after touring. I prefer to use Constant Contact and I’ve found it’s a very effective way to keep in touch with your prospects without much hassle.
The point of all this is to remind you not to overlook the amazing opportunities that your inbox brings you every day. Seriously. It astonishes me to think about the possibilities and I’m ready to reverse our trend and get back on course to lead the industry in email marketing and follow-up. You can thank Gables Residential for getting me to talk about this topic as I received an email today from one of their properties. I actually haven’t even toured this one yet, so I don’t know how I got on their mailing list. That aside, the email is very simple and completely effective in getting them fresh on my mind. If I really were looking for an apartment I would probably be more likely to lease here (or at the very least check out their property or website once more before making a final decision).
Stay fresh because it makes all the difference to your success.
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