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New Twist on an e-mail campaign... have your clients do it!

By
Mortgage and Lending with Friendly Mortgage & Blueprint Commercial

If you are on Active Rain, I'm sure that you have some sort of e-mail campaign.  Ours is powered by Alamode, others use Constant Contact and I'm sure there are plenty more.  Well, as you know, you are lucky if about 2% of your database reads the e-mail.  Even fewer actually do something based on the e-mail... log onto your website, e-mail you, give you a call, etc.

How can we reach more people and get a better ROI?  I'll share a little tip that we started doing with our clients... have them send out our e-mail campaign to their friends and family.  There are many reasons why this grass roots, viral e-mail campaign is better than anything that you could send out yourself.

1. It's personal- If they simply send an e-mail out to the 30-50 people in their closest circle, they will get a much higher percentage of them to read it.  People love to get a reference from someone that they trust.  I know that I do.  It doesn't have to be elaborate.  Something like "As you know, we just bought our first home and we love it!  Although the news will show all of the nightmare stories about mortgages and the horror stories of buying a home.  Well, I had the exact opposite experience with..."  This could be very powerful!

2. Easier to refer by being proactive- How many times have you heard of a client tell you that their cousin or friend just bought a home and they already were working with someone by the time they found out?  Or, worse yet, they didn't find out until after they closed.  It happens all the time in our industry.  Think about it... how much do we know about what our friends and family are doing on a daily basis?  If we simply sit around and wait for our best clients to refer us, we may never get any or, best case, we could get one or two.  An e-mail sent by them right after closing, takes the pressure off of them to refer you business and allows the message to reach everyone in their circle.

3. It's not us tooting our own horn.  It's always better for them to give a testimonial rather than us telling everyone how great we are.

So, imagine that you religiously did this on every client that you have.  How many new clients would it mean?  If you close even just 2-3 deals a month and each client sends an e-mail to 20-30 of their circle of influence, that would be 40-90 new people each month who know about you and how you can help them.  Best of all, it's FREE and that is a great price in the current real estate market.

If you do this already and have some great stories, please share them.  I love to hear people who do things right, getting rewarded for their hard work.

Steve

James Cain
RealestatePointe - Canfield, OH

Hi Steve. Interesting concept! Do you have any insight into how many clients actually broadcast your email to their address book? I'm assuming that you send them a pre-designed email and ask them to forward it, along with a personal message or testimonial?

Thanks in advance for any follow-up you can provide.

- James Cain

 

Nov 30, 2008 08:15 PM
Steve Grandizio
Friendly Mortgage & Blueprint Commercial - Philadelphia, PA

We just started doing it in the last couple months and have a handful of pre-approvals that we have done.  No deals have reached the closing table just yet, but I will keep you posted.  For the most part, clients want to draft using their own words.  If they need help we can send them an example of one that was done in the past.  Here's one that was just sent out on Wednesday by a First Time Buyer.  She even attached my tax credit FAQ to the e-mail for her friends.  This is a 27 year old borrower who just got married, so her friends are all in that position to buy in the next year or two.  Now is the time to make sure that they know who you are.

"Hey guys and gals,

I know some of you have been thinking about buying a home eventually, so I wanted to share this information with you. Bush signed an IRS tax credit for first time homebuyers into effect through July 1, 2009. (See attached FAQ Document) Luckily Jon and I will be able to take advantage of this, and many of you should think about it too. It's almost like getting an interest free loan, which I am more then thrilled to receive!  Also, I attached the contact info of my Mortgage Broker, Steve, who helped us be able to buy in this very weary economy. Steve and his staff have been awesome through the whole process and even answered all my questions which I am sure where pretty annoying after a while :) If you know anyone else looking, or still renting and eventually wanting to buy, feel free to pass this along.
Anyways, Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and aren't working today like I am in.
See you soon."

Dec 01, 2008 03:36 AM