Tips to increase the effectiveness of outbound recruiting campaigns
Smart Campaigns are one of the most powerful tools in Brokerkit, but we often find clients don’t know how to best utilize them. If you feel lost on what to say or who to target, here’s some good news - you’re probably overthinking it. Effective Smart Campaigns aren't complex and highly produced - they're simple, targeted, and personal.
📝 Note: This guide does not cover the technical aspects of setting up a Smart Campaign. Click here to learn how to set up and apply your first Smart Campaign.
Specific Always Beats General
While setting up one campaign and assigning all your leads in mass might be appealing, it's simply not effective. You’ll rarely find a message that resonates with every agent in your market - every agent has different needs and motivations, and an effective recruiter has dozens of focused campaigns built and ready to target those needs.
If you’re targeting new agents, focus on a fear they share: "How long will it take for me to get paid?” If you’re promoting your office’s culture, advertise upcoming charitable work and invite people to events. If you’re going after mid-tier agents, promote agent services and coaching that’ll help them reach the next level.
Hitting a couple of hundred agents with a meaningful message will always net you more than hitting thousands with a generic message.
Keep it Simple
I mentioned “dozens” in the last tip, but don’t panic - you’re not going to be building long, complex campaigns. On average, an effective campaign has 8 to 10 touches.
Don’t overthink it - keep your messages short to ensure they’re read. While there are plenty of times when graphics are helpful, don’t overproduce them - it’s more important that the message appears to have been written specifically for them.
While you can certainly build a multi-month or multi-year campaign, it’s rare that you’ll see a return on all the work it takes to create them. The longer your campaign, the more general you have to be, and the more you’ll have to plan around how people might have responded to earlier touches.
Personalize It
Using someone’s name is Sales 101, but it’s especially important with your Smart Campaigns. If you’re keeping your message simple and specific, using someone’s name is the cherry on top to make your message look like it was directed at them and them alone.
Variables are your best friend - they’ll dynamically insert the name of whichever lead the message is going to. Remember that you should never put notes in the name field. While “John (AKA Bubba, Mary’s buyer's agent)” seems useful now, it’ll be embarrassing when the variable inserts that message in a text.
End on a Question
If you want responses and engagement, you have to ask for them. “Are you free next week? Do you think you can attend? Have a few minutes for a call?”
Don’t ask multiple questions - you’ll be lucky to get even one answered, and that just means you have more to keep the conversation going. Also, don’t try to do too much - your goal is to get an appointment, not to evaluate or sign someone via text.
Keep Your Medium in Mind
The industry average recruiting and real estate email open-rate is around 20%. The average open rate of texts is over 95%. If you don’t believe those stats, ask anyone in your office how many unread emails they have versus unread texts - there’s no comparison.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use emails as part of your Smart Campaign, just that you need to understand the differences between the two and how you use them.
Texts are best used for appointment setting and starting a conversation. As we mentioned, keeping them short, personal, and ending on a question ensures a high response rate. Conversely, lengthy and impersonal texts will backfire - you’ll end up annoying your local agent population and getting your number blocked.
Emails are better used for marketing and brand awareness. Since questions will often go unanswered, use them to celebrate aspects of your brokerage that fit the pitch of your campaign. If you’re marketing to new agents about how to get their first deal, the email should be a flyer celebrating a recruit for landing a contract in record time. If you’re targeting experience agents, the email can be a flyer celebrating an already high-producing agent who managed to boost their production by over 30% last year.
Also, all emails should be either informational or conversational in style. Informational emails are HTML newsletter-style emails and are great for inviting someone to an event like a career night or training. Conversational-style emails are short text-based messages with 2-3 sentences where you end with a question. These work best at getting replies and starting a conversation, which is the primary purpose of an outbound recruiting campaign.
The Fortune in the Follow-Up
Your outbound recruiting campaigns are to start a conversation with an agent. Only expect a few folks to raise their hand and want to join your brokerage immediately. You will need to build a relationship with them over time so they know, like, and trust you, and you are the one to call when they are ready to make a move.
If someone mentions they are happy where they are, don't give up! You have started the conversation, which is the first step in building a relationship. If now is not the right time for them, give yourself a task to follow up later to check back on them and keep doing so. 80% of recruiting is conversing with various agents and catching folks at the right time, where they have a compelling event that catalyzes change.