As a real estate agent, you want to seize every opportunity available to stay in touch with clients and to stay in front of prospective clients. Father’s Day is a time to honor dads as well as father figures, and it also presents you with the perfect chance to expand your marketing efforts in personalized and unique ways.
The good news is that there are a variety of methods that you can use to connect with past, current and prospective clients. Because the possibilities may be most relevant to certain groups in your contact list and because they each have their pros and cons, a closer look at the options is in order. Let’s take a look at how to get listings in real estate while showing your appreciation for all the fathers out there.
How to Get Listings in Real Estate With Client Appreciation Events
A client appreciation event is a perfect way to celebrate the many fathers who you have worked for in the past. Likewise, current and future clients can be invited to attend the event as well. In fact, it may be a wonderful idea to bring past, current and future clients together in one space.
By encouraging past and current clients to share their positive experiences, you’re unlocking the potential for them to advocate on your behalf to potential clients. This form of word-of-mouth advertising leverages the authenticity and credibility of satisfied clients, making it a potent strategy for amplifying your expertise and accomplishments. Now, let’s dive into how to get listings in real estate while harnessing the power of client appreciation events.
Examples of Client Appreciation Events
Perhaps the most obvious type of client appreciation event is a mixer or meet-and-greet event. These are social affairs that draw your many clients together for casual mingling. You can also take advantage of their attendance by handing out flyers, such as for new listings, or by making a short presentation on market conditions.
You do not necessarily need to host an event yourself. Instead, you can join forces with another business that already has an event planned. By co-sponsoring the event, you can piggyback on the other business’s efforts to market the appreciation event. Splitting costs for some marketing materials, refreshments and more can make this a truly cost-effective opportunity.
There are also less structured yet equally effective ways to make the most of Father’s Day from a marketing perspective. For example, you can connect with your contacts prior to Father’s Day with information about a yard sign campaign.
Those who are interested can request a yard sign that says, “Happy Father’s Day” or something similar. The sign will have your name and branding on it, and this can dramatically boost your visibility while also spreading goodwill throughout the community. As is the case with meet-and-greets, a yard sign campaign can target previous, current and future clients.
The Benefits
If you want to make a bang with one Father’s Day event, these or other client appreciation events are a smart option. This is because they are effective with contacts throughout your database. In addition to conveying a positive sentiment to your contacts, client appreciation events may enable you to connect with one or more businesses in your community.
When you co-sponsor an event or allow another business’s logo to take up a small amount of space on yard signs, you may be fostering positivity that can yield future gains with other marketing opportunities. In addition, by connecting with another respected business in this way, you may enjoy positive feedback.
The Drawbacks
The most significant drawback associated with client appreciation events like these is cost. For example, hosting an in-person event may require you to reserve an event space, promote the event, create handouts and serve drinks and snacks.
Likewise, yard signs can be costly, and this may be particularly true if many people request them. However, you can offset the cost by co-sponsoring the event with another business.
The time commitment is also another drawback to consider. Planning a social event, distributing yard signs and taking other similar steps can consume hours of your limited time. It is important to weigh the benefits against the time and cost so that you allocate your resources as efficiently as possible.
Gift Cards with a Handwritten Note
Are you searching for a more personalized way to show your appreciation this Father’s Day? A handwritten note can go a long way toward expressing your thanks for a client’s business in the past or present.
Likewise, you could prepare handwritten notes for a select group of future clients. However, it may not be feasible to handwrite individualized notes to every person in your farm unless you start working on this campaign many weeks in advance.
If you’re wondering whether a handwritten note is impactful enough, consider enhancing its impact by including a small gift card in each envelope. By adding a gift card to a popular men’s store or a trendy restaurant in town, you’re ensuring your gesture receives the attention it deserves. Now, let’s explore how to get listings in real estate while incorporating personalized touches like these.
A Personalized Token of Gratitude
One of the great things about handwritten notes is that you can and should personalize each one. Do you remember something special about a client from the last transaction you worked on for them? Are you trying to entice a potential seller to list soon?
A personalized greeting adds a touch of charm to your marketing efforts and reinforces that special relationship that you have or that you are trying to build with the client. Clients may remember that you took this time and effort later when they are ready to select a new real estate agent to work with.
If you have the bandwidth available, you could even customize your selection of a gift card to suit a client’s known interests or preferences. Keep in mind that the gift cards do not have to be large. Depending on the nature of your relationship with the specific individual, a $5 coffee shop gift card or a $10 sporting goods store gift card could work well.
The Benefits
The most obvious benefit of sending a handwritten note with a gift card is that this is an individualized gesture. The recipient will be aware that you took special time out of your day to specifically think about him or her while writing the message.
In addition, that positive sentiment may continue to be enjoyed when the recipient uses the gift card. The recipient may even recall the gesture each time he or she passes the gift card’s origin as well.
The Drawbacks
It can take a significant amount of bandwidth to customize each handwritten note. Even if the notes are only a few sentences long, you want to make sure that the message makes sense for the recipient. This may involve checking the details in your CRM.
Because of how much time is required, you likely only want to send notes to previous and current clients. This means that you may need to find another way to celebrate Father’s Day with your farm. In addition, the cost of gift cards, letterhead and postage can add up quickly.
Father’s Day Postcards
If you have an active farm, you may already be taking advantage of Father’s Day postcards in your regular mail campaigns. There are many postcard designs available specifically for Father’s Day that you can choose from, and this takes the stress out of saying, “Happy Father’s Day” to those on your contact list.
While you could design, print and mail postcards out yourself if you have the time available to do so, another idea is to simply outsource the entire campaign. You could send the same greeting to all of your contacts, or you could choose separate greetings for your established, previous and potential clients.
How to Get Listings in Real Estate With a Cost-Effective Way to Connect With Clients
As a real estate agent, you may have a rather tight marketing budget to work with, but you do not want to overlook this great opportunity to get in touch with clients. Your budget may be stretched thin with all of your other marketing expenses, and you may not be certain when your next deal will close.
Postcards are direct and affordable. The specific greeting on a Father’s Day postcard will stand out, and this ensures that your marketing dollars are spent in a focused way that gets you the positive recognition that you want.
The Benefits
In general, real estate postcards present you with an amazing opportunity to farm a community on a dime. By doing so, you may be able to afford to stay in front of your farm community as frequently as you need to for optimal results. Postcards do not need to be opened, so there is less of a chance that they will be tossed aside before the message is read.
Specifically, Father’s Day postcards are tailored to celebrate a special holiday. They differ from the new listing postcards, open house postcards and other types of postcards that you may send throughout the year.
This difference allows you to convey a personal sentiment and add a new element to your relationship with your contacts. Furthermore, postcards are suitable for everyone on your contact list, so there is no need to complete multiple client appreciation campaigns.
The Drawbacks
Postcards are not as personal and individualized as handwritten notes. They do not enable you to communicate in person with your contacts, such as at a client appreciation mixer. However, there are other opportunities available to do so.
For example, in addition to expressing positivity about Father’s Day, your postcard could mention that the market is still strong and now is a great time to discuss their plans to buy or sell. This leads to a more direct and personal type of communication.
Father’s Day Contests
Another great way to engage with your clients this Father’s Day is with a contest. With a contest, you are encouraging direct interaction with your clients, and this places your services at the front of their minds.
Submissions can come from past, current and prospective clients. The winner of your contest will be awarded a great prize. In order to encourage maximum engagement, it is important that the prize has substantial value. A $10 gift card to a coffee shop will not generally cut it if you want to optimize engagement.
Keep in mind that you can get more mileage out of your Father’s Day contest through social media. In addition to advertising the contest via your social media accounts, you can showcase the winner in a follow-up post and in various other ways.
Exciting Contest Ideas
There are several great Father’s Day contest ideas to consider. For example, you can host a contest for the best dad or something similar. Submissions may come from children of the dads, friends or others.
A video or letter submission can describe what makes the dad so special. The gift should be something that most dads will want or even a shared experience for the dad and children to enjoy.
Another contest idea requires less effort from the participants. For example, you may ask that participants place a “Happy Father’s Day” sign in their yard for the day. You can hold a raffle for all participants, and the winner of the raffle could win the prize.
A variation of this may be to post a picture of their dad next to your branded yard sign on their social media page in exchange for an entry into the raffle. If funds permit, you may send each participant a small gift card or another small token of appreciation.
The Benefits
One of the great things about hosting a Father’s Day contest is that you can generate a buzz by promoting the contest. Promotion via social media platforms is free, and your contest announcement may be shared by others.
This could help you to grow your social media followers and expand your reach. All of your contacts can be invited to participate. Plus, you can get an additional boost from posting details about the winner after the contest has ended.
Keep in mind that the only financial cost associated with running the contest is the gift card or prize that you offer. You may be able to negotiate a discounted rate for that prize by working directly with a vendor.
Through cross-promotion in this way, you could make a great connection with another business in your community. Generally, this is one of the most affordable Father’s Day appreciation initiatives available.
The Drawbacks
While there are many benefits associated with hosting a Father’s Day contest, be aware that there are a few drawbacks. For example, if you receive many entries, you are tasked with reading all of the letters or viewing each video individually.
For busy real estate agents, this can be an imposition. Finding a balance between your time commitment to the initiative and the cost is important.
Another drawback is the possibility that participation may not be as significant as you hoped. After all, you are asking potential entrants to spend their valuable time creating a video, writing a letter or taking another step.
Many people may not have the time available or the desire to go to such an effort. With this in mind, it is possible that you may not get the response and overall benefits from your contest as you may have hoped for.
Start Preparing for Father’s Day Today
Connecting with your contacts this Father’s Day is a smart idea, and there are many great ways to do so. These and any other ideas that you may come up with have their pros and cons. Before you give serious thought to any of these ideas, it is important to consider the funds and time that you have available to devote to the project. Likewise, you should consider who you want to reach and how much mileage you want to get out of your Father’s Day appreciation promotion.
