Why Texting Strategy Matters
Texting has higher open rates and faster response rates than email — but mobile carriers aggressively filter messages they suspect are spam, and a few bad patterns can damage your phone number's reputation for weeks. Good strategy keeps you in two-way conversations with leads, which is what carriers want to see and what drives actual responses.
This article covers the practical side of texting leads well. For the rules themselves:
Two-Way Communication & Texting Compliance — what's required on first outreach, how two-way communication works
Opt-Out Functionality Overview — when BoomTown auto-appends opt-out language
Texting Troubleshooting — diagnose texting failures
Before You Text
Call the lead first
Whenever possible, start with a phone call — not a text. A quick live connection does two things:
Establishes two-way communication proactively. Once connected, ask the lead to reply with a "Y" or thumbs-up emoji to confirm they received your text. That single reply locks in two-way communication for all your future messages.
Builds rapport carriers can't see but leads remember. A short call first means your subsequent texts arrive from someone the lead already knows, which dramatically improves response rates.
Use the NOW panel to spot active leads
The NOW panel (Opportunity Wall) shows leads who are currently active on your site. These are the highest-value texting opportunities — someone browsing a listing right now is much more likely to reply to a text than a lead who last visited three weeks ago.
Tie your outreach to what the lead just did:
Lead just viewed a property → text about that specific listing
Lead just ran a mortgage calculator → text about financing options
Lead just searched in a new area → text about that neighborhood
Letting the lead's actual activity guide your message makes the text feel relevant instead of random.
Identify yourself clearly
On any first outreach, include:
Your first and last name
Your company name
A specific reason for reaching out (not a generic "just checking in")
Example of a compliant, clear first text:
Hi Sarah, this is Alex with ABC Realty. I saw you were looking at homes in Mount Pleasant — do you want me to set up alerts for new listings there?
BoomTown auto-appends opt-out language, so you only need to focus on the content itself.
Writing Effective Texts
Keep it conversational
Texts should sound like a real person, not a marketing email. A few patterns that work:
Ask one clear question. "Which neighborhoods are you most interested in?" is better than a three-sentence pitch.
Reference something specific. "I noticed you looked at 123 Main St yesterday" beats "hope your search is going well."
Match the lead's energy. If they respond with a short "Thanks!", don't fire back a paragraph.
Avoid marketing language
Carriers filter texts that read like bulk marketing. Some specific things to avoid on business texts:
Flagged keywords — free, guaranteed, discount, win, claim, loan (these are heavily weighted)
ALL CAPS — especially for emphasis
Excessive punctuation — "!!!" or multiple exclamations
Dollar amounts or percentages — "$500 off!" or "50% savings" read as promotional
If you need to share promotional content, use email. Save texts for relationship building and high-intent follow-up.
Personalize with merge fields
Sending the same message to many leads — even one at a time — can trigger carrier spam filters because the text patterns match across messages. Use Template Text merge fields so each lead receives a uniquely rendered message:
{VisitorFirstName}— pulls the lead's first name{AgentFirstName}— your first name{CompanyName}— your company
Example of a templated message:
Hi {VisitorFirstName}, this is {AgentFirstName} with {CompanyName}. I hope we haven't been dropping the ball in serving you well during your search. How can I help you in the current phase of your home search?
Merge fields also save time on bulk sends without sacrificing the personal feel.
Use full URLs — not link shorteners
Hyperlinks in texts should clearly display the domain the lead will be sent to. Carriers reject most texts that include link shorteners (bit.ly, tinyurl.com, goo.gl, etc.) because shortened URLs hide where the link goes, which is a common spam and phishing pattern.
BoomTown's native link handling preserves click tracking without needing a shortener, so you can use full URLs without losing reporting visibility.
Sending Texts at Scale
Be selective about who you bulk text
Bulk texting to leads who have never engaged with you is the fastest way to damage your phone number's reputation. Focus your bulk sends on leads who are already showing signs of engagement — they're much less likely to mark your messages as spam, which protects deliverability for everyone on your account.
Use Advanced Lead Filters in Lead Central to target engaged leads before sending a bulk text:
Lead category — engaged leads tend to live in categories like Nurture, Qualify, or Hot. Bulk texting within these categories is much safer than texting your full database.
Latest Communication — filter to leads whose last communication was within a recent window (last 30 days is a good starting point). This surfaces leads who have interacted with you recently.
Last Visit — leads who have visited your site recently are more likely to respond positively to outreach, especially if your message ties back to what they were just looking at.
Tags — if you or your team tag leads who have replied to past texts, filter by that tag.
Rule of thumb: If you wouldn't expect a specific lead on your list to remember who you are, don't include them in a bulk text.
Let Smart-Drip stagger your sends
If you want to text many leads over time, use a Smart-Drip Plan with text steps instead of bulk-texting everyone at once. Smart-Drip naturally staggers messages across leads and days, which looks more like organic conversation to carriers than a high-volume burst.
Smart-Drip also enforces:
A 9:30 AM – 9:00 PM Dark Window (in your account's time zone) so you don't text outside compliant hours
A maximum of one text per day per lead to prevent over-contacting
Automatic opt-out handling on the 30-day clock
See the Smart-Drip Overview article for how to build text-inclusive plans.
Space out follow-ups to silent leads
If a lead hasn't responded, resist the urge to send follow-up after follow-up. Back-to-back texts to a silent lead are one of the strongest spam signals carriers track. Instead:
Wait several days between follow-ups
Move consistently unresponsive leads to email-only contact
Use the Archive category for leads who have gone dark, and consider a quarterly revival attempt instead of weekly follow-ups
Handling Replies
Respond quickly
Texts have much higher response rates than email — but people also expect faster replies on text. If you send automated texts through Smart-Drip Plans or bulk text, make sure you have the time to follow up when leads respond with questions.
A lead who texts back and waits hours for a reply is more likely to lose interest or reach out to another agent. Block time to monitor replies after any large send.
Process opt-out requests immediately
If a lead asks to stop receiving texts — whether they reply "STOP," "END," or say it in their own words — process the opt-out right away.
To manually mark a lead as opted out:
Open the lead's profile.
Click the text status icon at the top of the profile.
Change the status to Cannot Be Texted.
Processing opt-outs quickly protects your phone number's reputation. If leads are asking to opt out but still receiving your texts, some will mark your messages as spam — which carriers use as a major filtering signal.
What to Avoid
A quick reference list of the most damaging patterns:
Link shorteners (bit.ly, tinyurl) — use full URLs
Sending the same message to many leads at once — personalize with merge fields
Back-to-back texts to silent leads — space out follow-ups
Marketing-style content in texts — save promotional content for email
Texting outside business hours manually (Smart-Drip handles this automatically)
Ignoring opt-out requests — process them immediately via Cannot Be Texted
Leaving old leads on active texting campaigns — move them to email or archive them
Example: Reviving Old Leads via Bulk Text
A practical workflow for leads sitting in your Archive or Watch categories.
Open Lead Central.
Filter to a single category — Archive is a good starting point.
Sort by Latest Communication or Last Visit to surface leads who haven't been reached out to recently.
Apply the Not Contacted Smart Segment to filter out leads you've already called or texted recently. Adjust category filters as needed.
Select a targeted group and send a short, personalized "checking in" message.
Example message:
Hi {VisitorFirstName}. This is {AgentFirstName} with {CompanyName}. I hope we haven't been dropping the ball in serving you well during your search. How can I help you in the current phase of your home search?
Tuning the message to lead behavior
Leads who visit frequently and have e-Alerts — ask: "What changes can I make to your listing alerts that better fit your home search needs?"
Leads who visit frequently but don't have e-Alerts — offer: "I can set up customized listing alerts just for you."
Leads who haven't visited recently — keep it short and open-ended, like the example above.
Matching the question to what the lead has actually been doing on the site significantly improves response rates.
Key Terms
Advanced Lead Filters — Filter options in Lead Central for narrowing lead lists before bulk actions. Use these to target only leads with two-way communication established before bulk texting.
Bulk Text — Sending a text message to multiple leads at once from Lead Central. Higher carrier scrutiny than individual texts; filter carefully before sending.
Cannot Be Texted — The manual opt-out status on a lead's profile. Set this when a lead asks to stop receiving texts, whether by replying STOP/END or through another channel.
NOW Panel (Opportunity Wall) — The view in BoomTown showing leads who are currently active on your site. Best-timed opportunities for outreach.
Smart Segment — A saved set of lead filters in Lead Central (for example, "Not Contacted") that surface specific types of leads quickly.
Template Text — Merge fields (like
{VisitorFirstName}) that insert lead-specific information into texts at send time. Helps personalize bulk messages and avoid pattern-matched spam filtering.Text Status Icon — The icon at the top of a lead's profile used to manually set their texting availability, including Cannot Be Texted.
Two-Way Communication — A real back-and-forth conversation, established when a lead replies to a text. Filter bulk texts to only two-way-established leads before sending.