February 2015

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The Art of Follow-Up

Michael Miller, Business Development Manager

Your membership in the Long Island Board of REALTORS® Affiliate Program provides you with countless opportunities to network and connect with thousands of local real estate professionals.

So you attended a chapter meeting, a Women’s Council breakfast, a YPN networking event and collected almost as many business cards as you gave away. Now what?

It is wise to nurture those brief professional contacts so that they develop into something more. Networking is a start, but unless you have a consistent follow-up plan in place, those cards would serve you better for origami practice or fireplace kindling.

Here’s my suggestion, have a plan and purpose in your follow-up. What do you want to achieve, what message do you want to deliver?

Traditional marketing comes with the burden of casting a wide net and broadcasting a general message to professionals in an array of industries. But the targeted audience of local real estate professionals that the Affiliate Program gives you access to provide the perfect marketing opportunity for creating specific follow-up email templates. You stand to yield greater results employing target marketing.

Appropriately re-connecting with people shortly after you meet sends the message that you are serious about a relationship, proactive and willing to invest the time and effort in doing business with them, and for them.

Follow up using all the communication tools available; connect on LinkedIn, forward invitations and relevant articles, invite new contacts to connect with you on facebook.

Follow up cements your connections, connecting is how you will grow.

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