Email Marketing

Email Marketing for Real Estate Agents

Now you have a good understanding of how to get high rankings with search engine marketing and search engine optimization - and maybe you have expanded your marketing efforts through a good affiliate marketing network. Is your Internet marketing work finished? Not by a long shot! Email marketing is a great way to maximize the potential of all those real estate leads you've worked so hard to gather.

Email marketing is the icing on the Internet marketing cake - it impresses your prospects by allowing you to send them valuable information on the market and it helps you to stay fresh in their minds. Maybe your prospect is an old client, a walk-in from your last open house, or someone who found your website through an Internet search. No matter who they are, you can increase your chances of selling to them if you occasionally send up-to-the-minute real estate news, buying or selling strategies, or developing trends in the market.

Email marketing is popular for a reason...

Have you checked your inbox lately? If you're like most people, you've probably received a few emails from companies trying to drum up business mixed in with your personal correspondence.

Why email marketing so ubiquitous? Simple - it works. Here's why:

• It has a high response rate (When done correctly).
• It's easy to track through click-throughs, bounce-backs, and positive or negative responses.
• It's extremely inexpensive. When compared to other mediums such as direct mailings or glossy brochures, the costs are negligible. You don't have to pay for design, paper, printing, or postage.
• It's an instant medium - no more waiting for a mailing to arrive in your prospect's mailbox to get a response.
• It's an active real estate marketing method that lets you push your message to potential clients, as opposed to passive websites that wait for visitors.

While most companies use email marketing ethically, some unscrupulous ones have given it a bad rap in the form of spam. There's a fine line between keeping your potential customers up-to-date on market developments and spamming them - and spam can be either annoying or downright overwhelming for most people. Not only is spam annoying, it's illegal.

When considering an email marketing program, make sure that it does not violate anti-spam laws such as the United States' CAN-SPAM Act, the European Privacy & Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 or your Internet provider's acceptable use policy.

One way to ensure that your email marketing is done correctly is to go through a reputable company. Fidelity Assets offers a service specifically catered to real estate agents and others in the real estate industry.

Opportunities for communication are plentiful

To keep your business and services fresh in people's minds, you have to use all of the opportunities available to communicate with them. Luckily, this shouldn't be too difficult. People will always need to buy and sell homes - and everyone is interested in the latest housing market news. That's why that your email communications will be well-received by those who have already expressed an interest in buying a home.

You can use email communications for:

• Developing real estate news and trends in your area
• Buying or selling strategies that work
• Important changes in real estate laws

By bringing up-to-the minute news to your prospects on a regular basis, you establish yourself as a knowledgeable, trustworthy, and tireless agent who looks out for the best interests of your prospects - and you remind them that you are always there for them.

Tips for creating Effective Email Communications

Of course, you can remind people you're there for them every day until you're blue in the face - but if your email content isn't up to snuff, it really doesn't matter what you send out. Here are some tips to ensure that your communications will be read, and hopefully, followed through on.

• Address your prospects by name. People get so tired of seeing bulk emails that could be for any person in the world. Try to personalize your emails by greeting them individually with their names.
• Skip the peak holidays and vacation times. During the holidays, people are either away from their computers or don't check email often. When they do get back, they will likely delete all but the most important messages. Try to avoid sending out important campaigns in December, January, July, and August.
• Create a clear call to action. Try to design your message with a clear path for the recipient to follow, and don't distract them with vague messaging or multiple links or offers.
• Learn from the worst. Hate spam? Then avoid making your communication look like spam at all costs. If you have been blessed with a spam-free inbox, you may want to sign up for a free email service such as Hotmail or Yahoo, enter a few contests using that email address, and watch the spam roll in. You can learn a lot from spammers: what your marketing emails should not look like, and how it does not work.

Email Marketing doesn't have to be hard

As effective as they can be, email marketing campaigns can be very time-consuming endeavors. You have to build a contact list, write your content while positioning it for maximum response rates, design your templates, and automate your mailings.

Fidelity Assets can set up an effective email marketing campaign that saves you time and increases leads. We can provide content for your emails and help you to expand your mailing list - automating a formerly laborious task that often fell by the wayside. We can help you build and manage your mailing lists so you can focus on what you do best: selling homes.

We help you stand out from your competition

We start you out with a custom-designed branded template created by our designers to fit your needs, and on an ongoing basis, we manage all of your email marketing needs. On your behalf, we deliver your email newsletters (written either by you or us), and provide your prospects with valuable buying or selling tips and strategies.

Each email to your prospects includes current news from around the Web from sources such as USA Today, CNN, MSNBC, Reuters, Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and several other sources, as well as buyer and/or seller strategies, financing tools, and other valuable tips for your prospects to get the most for their money. All emails come from you directly to your clients.

By delivering valuable information to your prospects, you are helping to service their needs, while illustrating your expertise in the market. This ongoing marketing helps to increase the likelihood of keeping them engaged with you as their agent.

We can even send out personalized holiday and birthday greetings on your behalf. Learn more about our email marketing service here.

That's all for this week - be sure to join us next week when we look at Real Estate Lead Generation.

See you then!

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