Telephone. If any leads includes a telephone number, call them right then or as soon as possible.
Realty Executives furnishes us all access to a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) website that you can add a lead and it will follow up with a monthly newletter forever as well as a series of prewritten e mails from Dave Beson.
http://www.realestate.fnis.com/Products/BOCRM.aspx "Instantly convert Web site prospects into clients
BrokerOffice™ CRM is a completely programmed response service that helps you provide valuable information to your prospects and current customers instantly and automatically – without ever turning on a computer. BrokerOffice CRM takes every lead and automatically sends the customer follow up e-mails – as well as monthly newsletters personalized with the agent’s photo and contact information.
* Cultivate and track leads in a client database
* Send prompt, automated e-mail responses to Internet inquiries
* Drive traffic to your Web site
* Automatically e-mail a real estate newsletter to your CRM database every month
* Send blast e-mails on personalized stationary to all of your prospects and current clients
* Send automated quarterly “Seasonal Maintenance Tip” letters
* Become more productive with less effort
* Constantly brand your name in front of your prospects and clients."
www.eNeighborhoods.com will do a bi-monthly newsletter and include the most recent sales around each prospect's address.
"# Personalized newsletter, pre-written and automatically e-mailed to your client and prospect database every 60 days to fully automate your farming.
# Arrives to your clients complete with a customized list of the 5 most recent solds closest to their area."
I use mine with a mailing campaign I do offering to send them a free report of all the sales prices in their neighborhood for the past 9 months. When people respond I also offer to give them the newletter that keeps them updated every 2 months with new sales. People love it.
The good part about both these systems is that once a lead or client is entered the system takes over and follows up automatically.
I find a lot of leads these days have a pretty long incubation period so it's very important to stay in touch in some fashion.
I also enter the promising leads into my contact manager, AgentOffice, from FNIS and follow up with a periodic phone call or letter in addition to the automatic newsletters.