Cold Calling Vs. Text Message Marketing (THE TRUTH!)

[Nathan Claire]

In today’s fast paced real estate investing world, many people are constantly seeking more effective ways to market to their target prospects. As technology has developed, more and more state of the art marketing strategies have emerged. Over the last 5 years, text message prospecting has been on the come up and many people are taking the initiative to move from the old age cold calling approach to the new age text message drop. Texting has many pros compared to cold calling, yet there’s a reason that cold calling has stood the test of time in terms of getting results from your respective message to your prospect. In this article, I’ll explain some pros and cons of each and the reasons many marketers are moving their campaigns from calling to texting.

Cold Calling

Cold calling has been a marketing staple for generations of salesmen. One of the main reasons for this is because of the rapport you can build over the phone through things like tonaity, pauses, and stroking. It allows the prospect to hear what you sound like, and your sales pitch or program can be much more convincing when you’re able to use your voice and create an emotional response. People often feel more comfortable talking over the phone than emailing or texting, especially when it’s someone they haven’t yet met in person. They want to know that who they’re talking to isn’t some scammer or someone that they should avoid, and a phone call can help work through some of these defenses. However, cold calling has it’s cons as well. For one, in 2019, more and more people are on their phones, yet less and less are picking up calls from unfamiliar numbers. This is partly due to the mass soliciting that has been taking place in all markets and businesses. People are tired of the spam and don’t want to hear another call center agent from India trying to get their information. This can lead to a lot of abandoned calls and voicemail machines. And as for voicemails, you’ll be lucky if the inbox isn’t completely full or that they even listen to your message. In addition to this, calling can be very time consuming if done manually, prompting many people to switch to an automated dialer such as Mojo or Calltools. This is what has driven many businesses to rerouting their marketing dollars and switch over to texting.

Text Message Marketing

Marketing via text message has been on the rise over the last 5 years. Many people have such a busy routine to where they don’t have time to pick up the phone. This is why a text message that they can view and reply to later is much more convenient. Some other pros of text message marketing is that you can send a text much more quickly than waiting for the phone to ring. Texts are pretty much instant so you’re getting a point of contact immediately. Another benefit from texting is that the owner is 98% likely to open and read the message. This blows the percentage of people opening and responding to a voicemail out of the water. In addition to this, many people are not as comfortable on the phone and would prefer to hide behind the safety of their screen when talking to a buyer/seller/stranger etc.
However, texting does have its flaws. Some people feel texting to be too intrusive and violating their personal privacy. They also can’t see or hear who it is they are actually talking to, and this can turn on some warning signals. Also, a lot of homeowners may only have a landline telephone, so there is no option to even send them a text.
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In the grand scheme of marketing strategies, texting and cold calling hold their own. Each avenue will be sure to render mixed results, so try some campaigns out and see what works for you and what doesn’t. Both have their respective pros and cons and I encourage all investors/marketers to implement both systems into their business.
And remember, if at once they don’t reply, call or text again! 😁