Many real estate agents know they should follow up with prospects and their sphere of influence, but they quickly run out of ideas for what to write about. The challenge is finding useful, interesting things to say each week or month. After all, if your readers don’t find your content valuable, it becomes another piece of junk mail they receive regularly and ends up being deleted or thrown away without much thought. Here are a few ideas for writing interesting follow ups.

1. Local market statistics – If you specialize in a local market, most of the people on your mailing list should live or work within that area. Keep them up-to-date on home values, housing trends, and interest rates.
2. Unique listings – While you probably send out a list of your real estate listings regularly, choose one that is unique or special in some way and tell the story of the home in an interesting way. For instance, perhaps the sellers are prominent members of the community – can you write about their lives and why they are choosing to sell the home? Does the home have specific features that make it stand out among the rest of the homes in the area?
3. Unique buyer requirements – If you are working with buyers who are looking for specific features, highlight their story. People are fascinated with other people’s lives so tell a good story about who the buyers are and what their motivations for buying a home with this unique feature. Then ask for help – do any of your readers know of any homes like this?
4. Featured articles – Think of your newsletter as a magazine or newspaper column and send 500-word articles to your clients about various aspects of home ownership such as landscaping, home improvement, or refinancing.
5. Helpful resources – If you find an interesting article or website that your readers might enjoy, write up a quick summary or review.
6. Special events – Are you or members of your community holding a special event like a seminar, office open house, special dinner, or fund-raiser? Highlight the details of the event and why your subscribers should attend.
7. Local business profile – Sit down with a local business owner in your community and do a quick interview. Then, write up your interview, along with why your readers should be interested in this business.
8. Joint ventures – Partner with local businesses to offer your readers a special discount, coupon or additional perk if readers patronize their businesses.
9. New neighbor introduction – Have you just helped a buyer find the perfect home in a neighborhood? If they give you permission, write up the buyer’s story along with a testimonial from them about your services.
10. Current events – Do any current events happening nationally impact your local market?
11. Holidays – Send holiday greetings or gifts. Include information about how your local community will be celebrating the holiday. For instance, when your city is lighting the Christmas tree or when the fireworks are taking place for the Fourth of July.
12. Offer personal announcements – Offer a tidbit about yourself in each newsletter – what has been happening with your life? About to get married? Have a baby? Teen is going off to college? Going on vacation? Keep people updated with short excerpts about your personal life. People love personal stories, so when you keep them up-to-date, the next time they see you, they will have a conversation topic.
13. Run a contest – Offer a cash prize, free movie tickets, a restaurant gift certificate, an IPod or other perks for readers who participate in a contest you hold. You can offer incentives for people who send in their favorite recipe, vacation photos, or crazy pet stories. Tie in your contest to a local community event or holiday. For instance, if there’s a local community BBQ, ask people to send in their favorite summer cookout recipe. For Christmas, ask them to send holiday cookie recipes. For summer, ask them to send in their best beach photos. Tell them you will publish the best entries in your newsletter along with winning a nice prize.

If you want your subscribers to actually read your newsletter or regular updates, make sure to ask for permission before following up. Too many agents get contact information at networking events and immediately add people to their mailing list without asking. When you just meet someone and exchange business cards, it can be incredibly annoying when you start receiving their newsletter and haven’t asked for it.

The better way to follow up with prospects is to use permission marketing. Before you add anyone to your mailing list, let them know that you publish a regular newsletter and ask if they would be interesting in receiving updates. If they say “yes,” and many of them will, then add them. If they say “no,” they won’t make a good prospecting candidate and you will be wasting time and resources marketing to them – not to mention annoying them – if you add them to your list.

The key to follow up is to make your communications useful to readers. Ask yourself – if you weren’t a real estate agent, would this be interesting to you? Don’t simply promote your services – look for ways to help people or appeal to their interests.