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Realtors-- Email is here to stay

By
Real Estate Agent with EWM Realtors 3005666

What do you do the minute you go online? If you're like 90% of Internet users, you check your e-mail. E-mail has become so ubiquitous that a study performed by the California Association of Realtors found that when given a choice, twice as many real estate customers preferred to be contacted via e-mail than by telephone.

However, according to NAR, only 39% of agents considered e-mail as the primary tool used to stay in touch with active clients (compared to phone calls at 48%). Even though repeat business and referrals are considered "very important" by almost 80% of agents, agents kept in touch with former clients mostly with mailings (38%) and market updates (24%); e-newsletters and e-mail correspondence trailed at 16% and 6%, respectively.

Talk about an opportunity that isn't being met.

To take advantage of this opportunity, all you need to do is implement a permission-based marketing campaign.

Start off on the right foot by asking prospects and customers if they would be interested in receiving pertinent information via e-mail. Then, make sure the e-mail campaign programs you consider have these key attributes:

-A large selection of design templates from which to choose
-Content (who wants to write all those newsletters?)
-Statistics on open and click-through rates to track ROI
-"From" line that includes your name and not something like "reply-09834@notyourcompany.com," since people open e-mails from people they know
-"Subject" line customization to pique recipients' interest
-An easy way for recipients to unsubscribe

The bottom line is, e-mail marketing means savvier marketing for you. It also gives you an excuse to follow up-via e-mail of course

Dave Magua

EWM Realtors

http://www.westbrowardhomes.com/

dmagua@bellsouth.net

Comments(7)

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Tony and Suzanne Marriott, Associate Brokers
Serving the Greater Phoenix and Scottsdale Metropolitan Area - Scottsdale, AZ
Coldwell Banker Realty
Dave - As a friend of mine said - embrace technology or you will get left behind.  The shake out has begun!
Jul 10, 2007 06:16 AM
Eric Kodner
Wayzata Lakes Realty: Eric Kodner Sells Twin Cities Homes - Minnetonka, MN
Wayzata Lakes Realty: Twin Cities, Madeline Island

Good post Dave!  Agents need to learn not only to use email, but email etiquette and how to compose email that makes it past the SPAM filters.  And some email templates look awful! 

Jul 10, 2007 06:25 AM
R. B. "Bob" Mitchell - Loan Officer Raleigh/Durham
Bank of England (NMLS#418481) - Raleigh, NC
Bob Mitchell (NMLS#1046286)

I pretty much let each client dictate how they want me to stay in contact with them.  I'm still not crazy about the idea of mass emails going out from my company.  Even if they are wanted at first, they tend to degrade into spam after a bit.  Just my opinion.

Bob Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc. 

Jul 10, 2007 06:26 AM
Nathan Blair
Salt Lake City, UT
It is true that emails can start to feel spammish, which is why we need to make them highly personalized every time.  If our clients know they will receive something good when they open the email, they will keep on doing it.
Jul 10, 2007 06:33 AM
James Gordon
Sibcy Cline Realtors® - Cincinnati, OH
REALTOR, PBD SFR SRS
You need to be high tech and high touch email is just one way. Don't forget text and IM.
Jul 10, 2007 06:48 AM
JoAnn Hostutler
EWM Realtors - Weston, FL
Hi Dave, Great post!  If you don't get with the program "email" you won't be in business.  JoAnn
Jul 10, 2007 02:29 PM
Find a Notary Public needAnotary
QEC Internet Services - Long Beach, CA
You might want to move to a more professional solution.  www.QuickEasyContact.com is an easy to use bulk marketing solution that allows you to create professional looking emails and campaigns HTML without knowing any programming.  When you use email services provided by your Internet service provider, you have no ability to protect you clients’ email addressees.  This could crate a liability issue, it is not professional and there is no ability to track the metrics of the campaign.
Nov 14, 2007 04:58 PM