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Ever since we had Callan Faulkner on the REtipster Podcast, there has been a lot of interest in the land investing community about how text marketing works.
And the curiosity is well-warranted because this marketing strategy offers many advantages that direct mail and other marketing mediums don't. Texting is much faster, cheaper, and easier to track (among other things).
After we talked with Callan, I spent some time trying to figure out how to do this on my own, and I made some progress, but it was no substitute for sitting down with someone who truly had this stuff figured out.
Luckily for me (and you), Callan was willing to sit down and record a detailed demo, answering all of my questions and explaining how text marketing works, specifically for land investors trying to find motivated sellers.
This is a big deal. After recording these tutorials with Callan, I had a 10X better understanding of what I was doing. Her instructions saved me so many hours of frustration and probably a lot of money I would have wasted doing it wrong.
Who Is Callan Faulkner?
In case you didn't know, Callan Faulkner runs a company called REI Optimize where she offers high-end consulting on how to set up all the systems needed to make text marketing work.
She is also a land investor, so her knowledge isn't limited to only text marketing or only land investing; she knows how to marry them both together, which is a superpower most people don't have.
At the time of this writing, Callan is the most knowledgeable person I know on text marketing and how it relates to land investors.
There are plenty of people who understand text marketing and plenty of people who understand land investing, but not many people who understand how to make BOTH text marketing and land investing work together.
How to Make Text Marketing Work
Running an effective text campaign isn't just about sending text messages. It's also about,
- Using the right words in the initial message
- Knowing which numbers to send messages to
- Managing replies as they come in
- Knowing when and how often to follow up with those who don't reply
- Knowing when to get on the phone with a prospect and what to say
- Knowing when and how to send a written offer
- How to keep track of each lead with an effective CRM system
- How to find an acquisitions VA who can handle the workload for you
Similar to an effective direct mail campaign, there are a lot of things that need to be done right for a text campaign to work. This is not a mindless task. You can be a smart person and a successful marketer with other mediums and still do text marketing wrong.
Having someone explain each step is a huge benefit that can make all the difference with this marketing medium.
Let's Get Started!
As we start going through this process, we’re making some assumptions that you understand how to pull a list and get skip-traced.
If you don’t know either of these yet, be sure to review the first two videos below, where I’ll explain how these first two steps work.
How to Pull a List From DataTree
Like a direct mail campaign, the first step in this process is pulling a list. There are many different data services you can use for this (DataTree, PropStream, and BatchLeads are just a few examples).
Historically, DataTree has been my go-to for this first step, so I'll show you how that works in this video below.
How to Skip Trace a List With Direct Skip
Once you have your list, you'll need to find all the phone numbers for each property owner (without a phone number, you can't send any texts). This video will explain how it's done with Direct Skip.
Once you've got your list skip-traced, it's time to jump into your texting platform of choice.
Part 1: Getting Started With Launch Control
Callan uses Launch Control as her texting platform for several reasons, which she explains in this first video.
Some of the resources mentioned above are REI Optimize (Callan's company), Launch Control (texting platform), Direct Skip (skip tracing service), and DataTree (data service).
Part 2: Campaigns, Message Templates & Drip Automations
In this next video, Callan will show us how to set up a new text campaign within Launch Control, utilize different message templates, and create drip automations to send text messages on autopilot.
Some of the resources mentioned above are Launch Control (texting platform) and REI Optimize (Callan's company).
Want to See More?
There is a lot more to know about how this process works. Luckily, there's a lot more instruction available from Callan.
If you want the complete introductory mini-course, with access to the 6-part video series and 2.5+ hours of instruction, you can get it at Text Marketing 101 for Land Investors.
I wanted to partner with Callan on this course because she's the best person I know who can offer a thorough explanation of how to get started with this marketing medium. By the time you're through these videos, you will be equipped with the knowledge to start sending your first text campaigns and start finding land deals.
What Does the Mini Course Come With?
We cover a lot of material in these videos. In the long list of bullet points below, I'll include all of the timestamps throughout each video, so you can see all the topics we touch on.
- Part 1: Getting Started With Launch Control
- Introduction to Callan Faulkner
- Why Use Launch Control?
- Getting Started With Launch Control
- Choosing a Local Area Code
- Navigating Through Launch Control
- Making Sense of Your
- Part 2: Campaigns, Message Templates & Drip Automations
- Importing a List and Creating a Campaign
- Organizing Your Campaign
- Message Templates
- Qualifying Sellers Before Getting on the Phone
- How Long Before Following-Up?
- Deliverability Stats
- Starter Message Templates
- Drip Automations
- Using Text Spinners
- What Triggers a Drip Automation?
- How Many Texts to Send Per Day?
- Text-to-Deal Ratio
- Understanding the Daily Text Cap
- Part 3: Best Practices, Response Rates, Avoiding Litigators
- Avoiding Negative Keywords
- Best Practices with Launch Control
- Sending Less Than 300 Texts Per Day
- Rotate Message Templates Frequently
- Adding Spinners
- How to Be Conversational
- How to Be Succinct and Respond Quickly
- How Many Responses Should Be ‘Good' Responses?
- Can You Survive on Texting Alone?
- Using a Mixture of Broad & Niche Lists
- Best Times to Send Texts On Week Days
- When to Send the Purchase Contract
- How to Start Each New Text Conversation
- When to Send Texts On Weekends
- Avoiding Litigator Numbers
- What Is the Blacklist Alliance?
- An Introduction to Intelius
- Part 4: Sending Batch Texts, Managing Replies, and Drip Sequences
- Exploring a Live Environment in Launch Control
- Assigning Lead Values
- Sending Batch Texts
- Choosing a Batch Size
- Importance of Using Names
- Filtering and Responding to Replies
- When People Text Back, What Next?
- How Important is Reply Time?
- Is Texting Fun?
- How Do People End Up On a Drip Sequence?
- How Many Texts to Send Before Switching to Mail?
- Getting Leads to an External CRM with Zapier
- What Information to Include in Zapier Integrations?
- How Many “Hot Leads” and Closed Deals to Expect
- When and How to Send Your Purchase Agreement
- The Importance of Salesmanship on the Phone
- Part 5: Finding, Hiring, Training, and Tracking the Right Virtual Assistant(s)
- Hiring and Training a Sales-Oriented VA
- Where to Find Your VA for Each Role
- Different Skills for Different Regional Areas
- How to Compensate Your VAs
- How Many VAs Do You Need?
- How Can a VA Prove Their Competence?
- KPIs and Metrics to Track for VAs
- How to Talk With Sellers on the Phone
- More KPIs and Metrics to Track
- How Much Time Does it Take to Train a VA?
- Part 6: Using a Capable CRM and Following and Effective Marketing Sequence
- CRM Expectations: What Do You Need?
- CRM Options
- CRM Costs
- What Should a CRM be able to do?
- How to get leads from Launch Control to FreshSales
- What Marketing Sequence Does Callan Use?
Again, if you want to check out the mini-course, check out Text Marketing 101 for Land Investors.
If you want to be an absolute expert and know ALL of the “ninja” tricks and best practices that will give you the best chance of success in this marketing medium, you'll want to book a call with Callan at REI Optimize.
Do you need this course to succeed at text marketing?
I definitely needed it, but I can only speak for myself.
You may be much smarter than I am, and perhaps you have the time and patience to figure it out yourself.
But if you want a massive shortcut that will get the wheels turning in a matter of hours (instead of months), this is an amazing resource that will help you get there FAST.
When you consider how many more deals this will enable you to find and how much time and money it can save you (direct mail is expensive, after all… a lot more expensive than sending texts), it's kind of a slam-dunk value proposition.
