Client Engagement Through Community Giving
One of the best ways to stay engaged with your clients on a consistent basis is through charitable events. Real estate agents play an active role in the local community, so it is important to support that community. Furthermore, by engaging your clients through charitable efforts, you will stay top of mind and will always have something to reach out about. All while being able to support causes and organizations you are passionate about.
Plan Ahead & Choose Your Organizations
Planning ahead gives you time to prepare a steady flow of communication about your efforts and create consistent and easy engagement with your leads. Also, the more time you spend thinking about how your charitable efforts can intersect with your business goals, you’ll think of more and more opportunities to grow your network.
The first step in determining your community giving plan is to choose two or three strategic events throughout the year that you will use as pillars for all of your engagement and communication.
By doing this, no matter what else happens in the year, everyone in your sphere will be communicated with, invited to your events and will see content for at least those 2-3 events throughout the year.
It is always best to choose events, causes and organizations that you are interested in or passionate about. This will not only make the experience personal to you but will make the process more rewarding.
Pick Your Events
When determining what your events will be, the most important thing we find is that they should be as inclusive as possible and give people multiple ways to participate.
For example, let’s say you’re going to put together a team for a local running race to fundraise for a hospital. First, invite people to join your team and run with you. But if people are unable to join in because they don’t live in the area, can’t physically do it, or for some other conflict, invite them to donate to your team’s fundraiser.
Then if they are unable to participate or donate, encourage them to spread the word about your cause by sharing your social posts. By structuring your event in this way, you are allowing everyone who hears about it a simple way to get involved.
Here are some great ideas for events you can host to benefit a charity of your choice:
- Mile-a-day fitness challenge through social media
- Volunteer day at a local organization
- Online fundraiser
- Collect coats for a clothing drive
- A virtual class or game night
Strategic Communication
Every time you talk to someone, have your schedule in mind. This will always give you something outside of real estate to invite them to or talk about.
This is a great reason to get contact information, touch base and stay top of mind. Additionally, by having consistent events throughout each year, you’ll get in a good rhythm of calling, texting or emailing your clients before and after each event. Additionally, these events will give you automatic social content to work into your calendar, always giving you something to post about even during slower times of the year.
Let’s not forget the greatest benefit of all this charitable work: it will help make your community a better place. Ultimately, that’s what you, your former clients and your prospects all want.