When I started the Real Estate Tomato, in June of 2006, I had one reader, me.
Before the first month was over, I was averaging 30 unique visitors a day.
Within 2 months it was 135 unique visitors a day.
How did we get out of the gates so quickly?
We did it in part, with an old friend: The Email Database.
To make a business blog a successful marketing strategy, you need to have an audience of potential clients.
Having been a consultant for online real estate marketing for 6 years before starting the Tomato, I had a mighty database of real estate agents, lenders, industry professionals and friends. If I was going to regularly write articles about leveraging the internet as a marketing tool for real estate, then this was the audience I would want to be paying attention.
So I shoved it down their throat.
Well, not exactly.
Email Marketing For Bloggers
My strategy was to comb through my list of about 1500 names and whittle it down to around 300 or so that would not mind that I started sending them articles I had recently written. I chose friends, newer clients, and clients with whom I had worked very closely with. I left out older clients (both in age and date acquired), acquaintances and those names I couldn’t put a memory to.
Once I had this list of choice contacts, I sent them an email announcing the launch of my brand new, curiously named, real estate marketing blog. In that email I informed them that I had taken the liberty to subscribe them to a bi-weekly (2x a month) email blast of the articles that I publish each month. I made it clear that they had been hand chosen based on our relationship, and my understanding that they would appreciate my efforts to educate them on the art of internet marketing. I also explained that they could easily unsubscribe from this free service by either contacting me directly, or clicking an unsubscribe link at the bottom of this and all future email blasts.
No one unsubscribed from the first email.
I scheduled the first email blast to go out after my first week of posting to the Tomato. The email that went out was branded with the Real Estate Tomato logo and included 3 parts.
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Starting A Real Estate Blog? Grab That Email Database, Let's Get You Read
IT HAS BEEN CHOPPED BECAUSE THIS IS A SYNDICATION OF THE ORIGINAL, AND IT HAS BEEN PROVEN THAT FOR SEO PURPOSES IT IS NOT A GOOD STRATEGY TO POST THE SAME ARTICLE IN ITS ENTIRETY IN MORE THAN ONE LOCATION.
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