How a Boutique Real Estate Agency Turned Old Contacts Into $591K in New Listings

Challenges

• Past clients rarely heard from the agency between transactions, so there was no ongoing relationship.
• Contacts who already knew the brand were listing with other agencies, and that commission was being lost.
• The agency relied heavily on portals and cold prospecting, which made every new listing expensive to win.

Strategy & Approach

• Targeting the warmest contacts: focused on past vendors and buyers the agency hadn’t contacted in 12 to 48 months, plus warm enquiries flagged for listing potential or an upgrade move.
• Market insight first, the ask second: over six to eight weeks, contacts received a suburb market update, then a personalised “thinking of selling or buying again?” prompt, then a priority appraisal or buyer alert window, and finally a clear choice to update preferences or opt out.
• Built around real property moments: messages were timed to purchase anniversaries, interest rate changes and shifts in suburb values.
• Personalised to every contact: each message reflected whether the contact bought or sold, their suburb, when they transacted and the agent they worked with.
• Tested and reported monthly: timing, subject lines and calls to action were tested throughout, with monthly reporting on appraisals, listings and revenue for the principal.

Key Results

Revenue results over 12 months:

• Generated $591,840 in commission revenue from reactivated past clients and new listings
• Delivered a direct net return of $164,328 after agent splits, delivery costs and the $102,000 campaign investment
• Achieved a 1.6x direct ROI
• Reached around 2x full year ROI when referrals and second conversations are included