Real estate professionals often start the year with the best of intentions, planning to give their past clients a call regularly, and to send check in emails every so often. And then life – and business – intervenes, and by the middle of the year “every so often” turns into “once a year, if I remember”.

So many of us know the importance of following up, but we just can’t seem to get it done. Some real estate professionals find it boring. Others feel that it’s too aggressive. And if you’re not doing it regularly, it’s easy to feel that it’s unproductive. Whatever the reason, the outcome is the same: followup becomes an unpleasant chore, and it gets continually shuffled to the bottom of the priority list.

What’s the solution? Make following up with leads and clients (both past and present) a quick and painless task, and you’ll make it much more likely to get done. Variety may be the spice of life, but it’s also the key to an easy-to-execute followup campaign. Phone calls and emails are not the only, or even always the best, ways to stay in touch! Send a postcard, a sports team schedule, or a magnetic real estate business card. Connect with clients old and new on social media, and take the time to occasionally like a status or comment on a picture. Invite them to a networking meeting. Send them an email newsletter about local community events.

The specifics of how often you follow up, and what channels you use, will depend on your market and on the type of contact you’re following up with. You’ll almost certainly follow up with leads more often than past clients, for example. But the key is to make following up as simple as adding a name to your mailing list, or commenting on a Facebook update about a new puppy.

Staying in touch with your contacts through all of these little touches is a win for everyone: you’ll stay fresh in their minds whenever someone needs to buy or sell a home, and they’ll know that they’ve found a real estate agent whose interest in their lives goes beyond a single transaction. You may even find that instead of dreading your followup activities, they become your favorite part of the business!