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Quick Real Estate Virtual Assistant Tip: Email Your Property Flyers w/out Getting Caught in Spam!

It never fails!

You have a great new listing you are anxious to send out to your colleagues, and have a creative real estate flyer put together with photos, that really captures what you hope buyers will fall in love with. You send it as an attachment in your email to 200 agents, and BAM...it's SPAM-BLOCKED! Don't let this happen to you! Let the recipient open their email and have that lovely listing pop out at them automatically! It's so easy your real estate virtual assistant can help you with this, or you can do it yourself!

Most of the time, real estate property flyers are quickly put together in a Word or Publisher document, and attached to your email. ( I hope you are saving as a locked PDF to keep others from editing your document, but more on that later;)

But with the need of filtering out spam in our email accounts, the convenience of simply emailing a file has become more difficult. But by adding a few simple steps, you can insert your flyer into the body of the email. No knowledge of HTML needed. How..?

By converting your document to a picture file (.jpeg, .gif, etc) and inserting the photo in the BODY of your email. (best if done in MS Outlook):

The Steps:

Converting the Flyer to a Photo

1. With your flyer opened on your desktop, take a screen shot using the PrtScn/SysRq key on your keyboard.

2. Open up a photo editing software program, like Paint (found under Programs/Accessories), and save as a .jpg, .jpeg, or .gif file and save into you're My Pictures file.

3. In the photo editing software, crop the photo of the flyer to the borders of the flyer. You can enhance or resize at this time if need be. Resave as another picture file.

4. Insert flyer photo in body of email. Add in your signature line, a link to your virtual tour, and WALA!...a branded beautiful email flyer.

More helpful hints: Even if you use an online program like Real Estate Shows flyers, V-flyer or Postlets for your listings, you can convert those screen shots into photos as well, and insert just as you would above.

Need FREE Photo editing software? Picasa by Google is a GREAT photo editing tool, as well as Picnik.

Join the conversation on our Facebook Fan Page! We'd love to see you there!

Posted by Laura Monroe- Real Estate Virtual Assistant on 03/03/2008 11:21 AM

Comments (79)

creative real estate marketing, laura monroe, real estate flyers, email flyers, real estate virtual assistant

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79 Comments on Quick Real Estate Virtual Assistant Tip: Email Your Property Flyers w/out Getting Caught in Spam!

MAR

2008

Great "inside" tip Laura. I will definitely put this to good use. Thanks for sharing.

Your Welcome Teri~ Its one I use quite often and am often asked about. Hope this is helpful;)

Good job Laura & although I don't have listing flyers, I can see using this tip in other areas too! Thanks for sharing...

Thanks, Laura. What a great tip! I will definitely use this.

Hi Josh~ You can definitley use this in other areas well! Glad I could help!

Hi Debbi~ Your welcome! I use it all the time.

Laura - I love the picnik site. It has to be the most user friendly site I have ever seen.

Hi Karen~ I love Picnik site too, very user friendly!

Laura - Thanks for the info. The Picasa site is great.

Hassan~ You are so welcome. I use both photo sites all the time..along with a lot of other software, but nothing beats free!

Laura, I knew there had to be a way to do this, as I believe I have received some emails from time to time like this - but I had not yet figured it out, so thank you.

Hi Steve~ I know exactly what you mean by "knowing" when there is a way of doing something, lol! Trial and error is usually how I figure things out, Thanks for commenting;)

Thanks for the great information!

Thank you for this great info

MAR

2008

Thank you for the information. I have bookmarked this and will try it later.

Laura, thanks for the tips. I saved Picasa and picnik under my favorites so I can go back later and check them out.

Lindsey~ Your welcome, thanks for stopping by:)

Gita~ Your welcome. It takes a few tries to get it down, but it works.

Vickie~ You bet. I absolutely love Picasa for my photo organization, and enhancing.

Great tip! I do not use property fliers, but I also can see other ways that i can use this thanks.

Hi Laura - Thanks for the information, it is a great tip. I will definately be checking it out. Have a good day.

Fabulous tip! Thank you for sharing that with us!...

I am going to look at your past posts!

Hi Ryan~ Yes, you can use it in other ways, and the photo software is great too;)

Hi Pam~ Thanks! Have a great day yourself:)

Hi Bridgett~ Thanks for checking out the rest of my blog..always appreciated!

Great information Laura.. Thank you

Okay, I'll be the Grinch in the group.

A while back I posted on this very topic. In short, DON'T!!!!! Please do not send blanket e-mail flyers to REALTORS you don't know, in cities you don't serve, just to appear busy and important.

The reason these get lumped as spam is because they ARE spam!!!

Sorry to offend....well, not really.

Laura, if I didn't get asked whether I wanted to receive "Look at my new listing!!" email flyers I dump them into my "blocked" list regardless of how they are setup.

This may be something that works with other agents, or perhaps I'm of less patience, but frankly I'm tired of downloading 50 messages each morning and have only 5 be of value to me.

Hi Mike~ You are welcome:)

Hi Steve~ Absolutely no offense taken. In fact, I agree with you, that SPAM is not ok, and I really should have clarified it more as your emailing to your database, sphere or office. I definitley don't condone blanket emails without permission;) Thanks for bringing it up so I could clarify!

Hi Kris~ I hear you;) See my clarification above:-)

Laura... FYI.. you can do the same with the ReaEstateShows.com flyers, or download and attach as a pdf as well.

Laura,

This is great. I just received an email last week from an agent in a nearby town and she has no idea how to send these out. I opened a page of total gobbledy-gook. I will be sending her the link to this.

Sorry, that last one was from me. Forgot to login.....

Laura, congratulations on the featured post. This is something I will have to talk to you about implementing.

I'm with Steve on this issue.

I do not want to get an email with your new listings, an email about your old listings that no one is buying, your latest price reductions, or anything else about your inventory.

I am perfectly capable of searching the MLS for listings and taking up bandwidth with spam serves no one.

Great info! Thank you -- I've tried to use Paint, but had a hard time capturing the entire screen shot. I'm going to try it again this week.

Laura - SWEET! Great idea... I always have a problem inserting a jpeg directly into the body without it showing up as an attachment.... I would love the secret!!!! PLEASE!

Cool! I actually used this to embed flyers on my blog from a powerpoint presentation but I am going to use it in emails now that I know! Thanks!!!

People still send attachments and it is SHOCKING! Thanks for sharing this so people can get with it! :)

No one likes bulky files clogging up their inbox!

It's better to host the image online and send an html message so it gets into the inbox.

within the body of the text, use this type of tag <img src="http://www.yoursite.com/images/yourimage.gif">

Send me a message if you want a more elaborate explanation.... it's relatively easy once you get into the hang of it.

Laura - Thanks for the great tip. I will be checking this out. Thanks

Thankss for the tip. I think it will help me out. Keep the good tips coming

Hi David~ You bet! I can send you jpegs of our flyers for your emails. Thanks;)

Hi Jim~ Well now I know how you really feel:) Perhaps you can use the tip for something else..?

Hi Kerry~ You may have to make the flyer a percentage smaller so it fits on your screen before you take the screen shot, then you should get the whole thing.

Hi Laura,

I tried to do this using Paint but there was no way to crop - only the word 'cut'. Can you help?

Hi Kim~ How are you sending emails..? Outlook, Top Producer..? You may have to change your emails to send as HTML, instead of read only. Feel free to contact me:)

Hi Sara~ You are welcome, let me know how it works for you!

Hi Audrey~ I agree with you, and I get asked this question all the time, so I know its a trick that can be useful in many ways.

Hi TaxMan~ I agree, thanks for the extra info!

Hi Rick B.~ You are welcome sir!

Hi Rick D.~ You're welcome and I will, have a good one:-)

Hi Linda~ If possible I would use Picasa as your cropping tool, you'll get a better idea of where your cropping. Feel free to send me your photo if you don't have it and I'll crop it for ya real quick:)

Email: Laura@creativeagentsolutions.com

Laura- that was it! Thanks now I can insert the pic. I knew there was a simple solution....thanks for your help!

Awesome, simply Awesome! :-)

I have to agree with Steve. I think the only acceptable way to deliver flyers is to tape a mini candy bar to them and deliver them to offices. "A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down". I don't even open emailed flyers.

Great tip Laura. Many agents are just wastimg their money with email flyer services. If I have to click on anything to read it, it gets deleted.

Hi Brad~ Hey, nice seeing you here! Thanks!

Hi Chris~ Quote what I told Steve: "In fact, I agree with you, that SPAM is not ok, and I really should have clarified it more as your emailing to your database, sphere or office. I definitley don't condone blanket emails without permission;)"

Hi Wayne~ I agree, not only that but sometimes our creations of flyers are better than the automated kind.

This is wonderful information... thanks for sharing.

Laura, great info and can't wait to try it. However from reading the other comments, not everyone appreciates the emails of listings, etc.

Great tip! Thanks for sharing!

MAR

2008

It's nice to get out once in a while, my blog keeps me kinda tied up at times! LOL!~

BTW - bookmarked your post to share with a few select others... Thanks again!! :-)

Laura keep up the great posting ... How do I learn more about your services as a VA?

Zen

Thanks for the tip.

Susan

Great tip thanks or sharing your expertise in this area. I am going to try this out today.

Thanks for all these great tips Laura!

Laura, this is an excellent tip for agents (and everybody else, too)! So many people send out Word or Publisher documents, not realizing that their intended recipients never got the file they sent. It just gets stripped by the spam filter. Or it is too big so it gets stripped because of that. This is a great way to get your e-mail actually in the hands of the people you want to see it and, like you said, can be used for so many other things as well!

~Renae

Laura

Great info! This one will take me awhile to figure out how to do it but, i WILL.

I have done that. How do you get those snap shots on words in your post. I need to figure that out. I guess I will be researching it further.

Hi Laura,

I am soooo glad you are my virtual assistant! Can you create this email for my next listing??!!

Thanks also for all of your positive remarks on my blogging- I have gotten so much information from this site-unbelievable!! Should have started sooner!!

~Gail Boal, www.gailboal.com

MAR

2008

Way to go girl! Another awesome post. ;-)

MAR

2008

Laura,

Great Stuff!!!

Thanks for sharing it with us!!!

How is everything out West?

Lucky :)

Great tips! No wonder you have 60 replies! Gold star!

Laura, thanks for the great info.

Sweet Help! I learn more and more on RT everyday!

Thanks!

Wow!How simple but how important!!! Lifesaver!!!

MAR

2008

Laura, I have been trying to find a solution to this for a long while. I will try it out next week. Thanks again.

MAR

2008

I just select all, copy and paste an MS Word or MS Pub document into MS Paint. But you brought up something I haven't figured out yet "prnt scrn" - I know this is simple, but I'm having a mental block. If I use that function to capture something online, where do I retrieve the view of that screen to work with? o

I'm enjoying your helpful posts, and we may have to talk, if my business keeps growing...

MAR

2008

Laura, this is great information!! I will be designing a flyer today and will try this out!! Great tips!

EXCELLENT information! I recently combined this technique with an email service that tracks who has opened the email. It also tracks who has clicked on links, which links, and what the most popular information was that my clients/agents wanted to see. The service actively works to stay on "whitelists" which all bur guarantee delivery. It also has a SPAM calculator that automatically tells you how close your message is to looking like spam. This extra feature helps to stay out of individual users' spam filtering, too.

MAR

2008

I will give it a try..Thank you so much for sharing info....Terrie

NOV

Thanks for this tip Laura. I searched AR to find convert pdf to jpg....thanks again.

Laura, what a great post. You provided some valuable information here that the rest of us can benefit from. Thanks so much for sharing this with us.

Hi Michael- I'm glad it was helpful, and that you found it in your search reults...good news!

Hi Tracy- You are so welcome, and thanks for commenting:)

MAR

Laura, I just did a search on Active Rain for converting pdf to jpg and your post came up. It was perfect! I needed to convert a logo that was a pdf to a jpeg. You helped me so much! It was easy to follow your instructions too. Thank you!!!

APR

thanks for sharing, I had been working on this very subject the last few days, this will help

JUN

Great info. Be sure to include a direct benefit to the consumer that can be expected either by calling you or visiting your Web site for best results.

JUN

Laura - This is great information, and I thank you so much for sharing. This will come in very handy, and I thought this could be done, but wasn't sure how. Another reason why I love Active Rain!

JUN

Laura,

I have always wondered how to do that, but never sat down to figure it out. Thank you so much for sharing and saving me a bunch of time!

JUL

Laura,

Thanks for sharing this practical tip, and for your gracious responses to those who don't care to receive mass-mailed flyers. All of our inboxes are taking a pounding these days.

Rather than sending emails to the entire local board, I wonder if senders would have greater success if these were sent out in a more targeted and personalized manner? Would agents be more receptive to looking at an email if the property were similar to one of their listings? It seems that many people are more likely to open an unsolicited email if the subject line communicates that the message has some relevance to them.

Dave

AUG

Good, good stuff Laura. Thanks from all of us at AR for sharing how to capture a screen shot and imbed it in an email.

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