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Product Reviews: Email Marketing can Make or Break Your Business

By
Services for Real Estate Pros with ActiveRain

Depending on what study you read, the average consumer is somewhere between 12 and 18 months from acting when they start researching real estate. That's a long time. Many times, when they end up on your website, or reading your blog post, it will be more than a year before they actually buy or sell a home.

How the heck do you keep up with someone over that period of time, especially when you have people that are actually interested in getting out and conducting business today? It's not easy, that's for sure. But effective email marketing is certainly one way you can try. 

This whole scenario is hard enough when trying to follow up with one person over the course of a year...but think about doing this with 100 people, or 1000, or 10,000. 

And so companies have figured out how to help you do this. They've figured out how to help you manage email campaigns to hundreds or thousands of people. Some of these companies do this for business owners big and small in many different industries. Some of these companies have focused specifically on real estate and the needs of real estate professionals.

So what email service are you using to send your newsletter or do follow up marketing to your leads, or sphere of influence? A great piece of email marketing could be the reason someone decides to pick the phone up and call you. Or it could be the reason they decide to take your call the next time their phone rings and 'that agent that won't stop calling' pops up on their caller ID. 

We'd love if you would consider leaving a review of the email follow up system you currently use. Maybe it's one of the ones below. Maybe not. If not, see if you can find it here on the list. If you don't see it, we'd love if you would add the system you use.


Happy Grasshopper


BombBomb


MailChimp



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Comments (24)

Rebecca Howard
Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage - Orland Park, IL
Recognized | Respected | Recommended

I use Happy Grasshopper.  I get responses from it; about the same 25% open rate as the vendors says is common. But those who do respond appreciate my keeping in touch.  Its a nice way to keep your name out in front at a relatively low cost, but I haven't seen any sales from it as its promoted. At this point it really doesn't matter. I like the choices of email I have to send.  Not nearly as complicated as Constant Contact is to setup.

I also use Market Leader website to send to those who register on my website. I can track their activity and respond to emails and have other options to engage them. Again, nothing yet other than staying in touch. 

Honestly, my feeling is there are too many communication choices for the public; email, texting, websites, print media.  They are overwhelmed and just to get through the experience, they work with the person or agent that happens to be in the right place at the right time when they are ready to make a move. No loyalty like times gone by, just 'snatch and grab' to get the experience over with before they get another email or text, etc.

Lets see what is available 18 months from now.

Jul 09, 2013 04:11 AM
Team Honeycutt
Allen Tate - Concord, NC

We have used Top Producer for years but we are in the process of setting up another program that should be a good way to track and stay in contact with people.

Betty

Jul 09, 2013 04:49 AM
Kathy Streib
Cypress, TX
Home Stager/Redesign

I used to use Constant Contact but have been focusing on the Social Media.  I'm glad to see these reviews because I am considering going back to some kind of newsletter. 

Jul 09, 2013 05:20 AM
John T. Dowd
United Country Dowd & Forbes Realty - Edenton, NC
Integrity - Service - Experience

I use iContact but could do a better job...........your post is a good idea starter for doing a better job.

 

Jul 09, 2013 06:10 AM
Jimmy Faulkner
Florida. Homes Realty & Mortgage - Wantagh, NY
The Best Of St. Augustine

I could not open grasshopper but I will google it along with top producer and constant contact. Staying in touch with prospects is obviously important and thank for pushing my awake button.  Jim

Jul 09, 2013 06:14 AM
Tammie White, Broker
Franklin Homes Realty LLC - Franklin, TN
Franklin TN Homes for Sale

My new website has MailChimp integration. Love that. So that's going to be a new system for me.

Jul 09, 2013 07:06 AM
Ralph Gorgoglione
Metro Life Homes - Palm Springs, CA
California and Hawaii Real Estate (310) 497-9407

It surely is challenging keeping track of all the potential leads with such a long span of time before they are ready to take action. Having the right email marketing solution is important indeed. Thanks for the post.

Jul 09, 2013 07:41 AM
Laura Cerrano
Feng Shui Manhattan Long Island - Locust Valley, NY
Certified Feng Shui Expert, Speaker & Researcher

Interesting post.  For my business i feel email marketing can be a bother to potential clients. I have cases where some people inquiring would call, we discussed and they would say, " Ill call you back tomorrow." I don't hear from them so naturally I follow up.  they pick up the phone sounding annoyed once they hear its a business calling and I have to gently remind them they said they would call, I did not hear and are simply following up.  so now put that into emails, yikes! haha

for me, It's really built on if people want the service they will seriously seek it out and make the appointment that time they call. I find  social media is the best for my company and getting the word out.  it offers free samples, if you will, with what the company offers, testimonials, interactions and it grows from there.

Jul 09, 2013 12:33 PM
Donna Foerster
HomeSmart Realty Group - Parker, CO
Metro Denver Real Estate Assistant

I'm currently using Happy Grasshopper and have been happy with the results. I need to add more email addresses to my database to truly make it effective.

Jul 09, 2013 10:00 PM
Fernando Herboso - Associate Broker MD, & VA
Maxus Realty Group of Samson Properties - Clarksburg, MD
301-246-0001 Serving Maryland, DC and Northern VA

I use both Bombbomb and Mailchimp. .although lately I see more benefits from mailchimp than bombbomb fro many reasons based on my experience.

 

Jul 09, 2013 10:03 PM
Tessa Skeens
Hampton ReDesign, Home Staging and Redesign - Grand Junction, CO
Staging For Realtors, Builders & Investors
I use MailChimp and find it easy to use and it's free for up to 2000 subscribers. I do custom design my templates but they give you a lot of predesigned ones as well as mobile friendly designs.
Jul 09, 2013 10:23 PM
Lenn Harley
Lenn Harley, Homefinders.com, MD & VA Homes and Real Estate - Leesburg, VA
Real Estate Broker - Virginia & Maryland

I use a proprietary system I designed and had programmed for me.  I have over 5,000 contacts in it and it's sinced to my IDX.

Love it.

Jul 09, 2013 11:05 PM
Tom Bailey
Margaret Rudd & Associates Inc. - Oak Island, NC

I am not using one at this time, so I thank you very much for the post. This gives me some great source material to start this process.

Jul 09, 2013 11:17 PM
Travis "the SOLD man" Parker; Broker/Owner
Travis Realty - Enterprise, AL
email: Travis@theSOLDman.me / cell: 334-494-7846

I'm not really using  newsletters now, even tho I have Top Producer & just now started Market Leader. I had another one that was included in a website that I've dropped.

I plan to sign up for BombBomb this week. I like their video ideas and want to try to combine it with Market Leader CMR and drip campaigns.

Jul 10, 2013 12:30 AM
Kimo Jarrett
Cyber Properties - Huntington Beach, CA
Pro Lifestyle Solutions

I'm going to use MailChimp moving forward.

Jul 10, 2013 01:01 AM
Bob Miller
Keller Williams Cornerstone Realty - Ocala, FL
The Ocala Dream Team

We use our CRM program with 8x8 and 333 touch built in to do this.

Jul 10, 2013 02:08 AM
Marte Cliff
Marte Cliff Copywriting - Priest River, ID
Your real estate writer

I use YMLP - Your Mailing List Provider. I like it because it allows me to enter contacts myself and it automatically deletes "bad"email addresses - unlike Constant Contact, which got me labeled a spammer and caused me to lose 90% of my list a few years back.

With YMLP I can set up as many "capture" boxes as I like on my pages and send customized responses to those who opt in. Then I can schedule follow-up letters to go out to those follks at set intervals. 

I can write my newsletters ahead of time and schedule them to go out at a specific time, and can decide which "lists" will get each letter. 

And... as a bonus... YMLP is inexpensive. 

Jul 10, 2013 02:36 AM
Amina Mohamed
Rent House 2 Own - Newmarket, ON
Rent House 2 Own

Great article - I am in Canada and have been using YMLP  - so far it is working for me but I am looking for a more integrated system and might look into some of these options. 

Jul 10, 2013 03:48 AM
Lora "Leah" Stern 914-772-4528
Coldwell Banker, 170 N Main Street, New City NY 10956 - New City, NY
Real Estate Salesperson

I use Happy Grasshopper and am happy with that.  It always elicits several positive responses from  clients.  I also use an in company portal for scheduling seasonal ecards and newsletters.  That works well for me too.

Jul 10, 2013 09:04 AM
Lisa Von Domek
Lisa Von Domek Team - Dallas, TX
....Experience Isn't Expensive.... It's Priceless!

I use a private system self-developed as I have never been happy with the results from the packaged sites.

Jul 18, 2013 10:26 AM