A Dublin-based mortgage advisory had been running Facebook and Google ads for three years. Over that time, they'd built up a database of 7,500 contacts - people who'd filled in forms, made enquiries, or started the mortgage process but never completed it.
Their sales team of four were focused entirely on new leads coming in each week. Nobody had time to go back through old enquiries, and they'd written most of them off as "gone cold."
We started with a batch of 2,500 contacts who'd enquired between 6 and 18 months ago.
We didn't send a mass text with a special offer. Instead, we used personalised SMS conversations that referenced each person's original enquiry. The opening message was simple and human:
That's it. No pitch. No offer. Just a natural check-in that gives the person a reason to reply. We call this the "double hand raiser" approach - the person has to confirm their identity and their interest in the same reply, which immediately qualifies them.
Messages went out in batches of 200-300 per day over two weeks. Every reply was handled conversationally, qualifying interest and booking appointments for the advisory team.
Week 1: First 800 messages sent. 261 replies came back (32.6%). Most were some variation of "Yes that's me" or "Still thinking about it." 6 appointments booked in the first five days.
Week 2: Next batch of 900 sent, plus follow-ups to non-responders from week 1. Response rate climbed to 35.2% on this batch. 5 more appointments booked. The sales team started commenting that these leads were noticeably warmer than their usual ad-generated ones.
Week 3: Final 800 sent. 3 more appointments from fresh messages, plus late replies from earlier batches. Total: 14 qualified appointments sitting in the sales team's calendar.
The biggest surprise wasn't the number of appointments. It was the quality. These people already knew the brand, already had a relationship, and many of them said something along the lines of "I've been meaning to sort this out." The sales conversations were shorter and the close rate was significantly higher than cold leads.
One of the advisors put it well: "It felt like picking up a conversation, not starting one."
The advisory's average commission per completed mortgage was around €3,000. With 14 appointments from this single campaign and their typical close rate, the projected revenue was over €42,000 in pipeline value - from contacts they thought were worthless.
The cost of originally acquiring those 2,500 contacts through ads? Approximately €45,000-€60,000. The cost of reactivating them? A fraction of that.
And they still have 5,000 contacts left to go.
Three things. First, the messaging was personal, not promotional. It didn't feel like marketing. Second, the timing was right - these were people 6-18 months out from their original enquiry, which is often when their circumstances have changed and they're ready to revisit. Third, the follow-up was conversational - every reply was handled individually, not with a canned response.
Mass texts with a promo code would have gotten a 2% response rate and annoyed 98% of the list. This approach got 34% and built goodwill even with the people who said "not right now."
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