I send out occasional emails with market statistics to a list of friends, associates and clients. I've had a few questions from people about how ethical it is to get email addresses and start sending out emails randomly. First I never send an email to someone I don't know, that is called spamming and everyone hates that. As Realtors we must understand email addresses have become intensely personal almost like a cell number. We should always treat that with the utmost of respect. Here a re few talking points I've come up with when I get questions about email marketing:
- Know the people personally that you are emailing, ask permission if need be.
- Set the expectation with the recipient on frequency, don't continuously email them about every little thing.
- Let them know that email is good for the environment (more on this below).
- Tell them it keeps your costs down and conserves resources.
- Tell them it gives them options unlike marketing sent through the mail (more on this later).
- Let them know that they are in control.
Emailing is better for the environment because you aren't sending cards and flyers through the mail that are not only more costly, but waste our precious resources, Too many times I've been at the post office and watched people get the mail out of their box and go through it taking the cards and flyers and dumping them in the trash or recycle bin. Many times the card or flyer isn't even read. If you're using an email program like Constant Contact it gives the recipient the "Opt Out" function (required to be in conformance with the law). These programs put the recipient in control and also let them forward it to friends, something you can't do with a card or flyer in the mail. You can get statistics and information about opens and what links people viewed and you have the ability to manage bounced email. This is a cost effective way to get information to people who may actually do something with it as opposed to carpet bombing random neighborhoods with paper.
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