Simply Junior

Did you know that if you have an email account, you already have a powerful way to market your Real Estate business? Even if your email address is a free account you can do this. It’s preferable to have your own domain email address as that helps brand you as a professional and an expert, but these three concepts can be used by anyone with an email address.

Signature
When you send off an email, how do you close it? Do you have an automatic signature that you use? Most email programs allow you to save a signature (or more than one) for automatic insertion into your emails. Make good use of this! Not only does it save you from having to type it out each time, you can put your contact information in it as well as hyperlink to your website. Currently, I list my name, my title, my contact phone and fax, and my website. I use this signature on ALL emails that I send from my business account. Every time I send out an email (and every time it gets forwarded on to others) my information is being read. People are learning about me and what I do.

Autoresponders
If you have been researching online marketing, then you have heard the term “autoresponder”. But what is an autoresponder anyway? An autoresponder is an automatic email that is sent out when you receive an email. For example, if you are away on a vacation, you can set your email to respond to every email that comes in while you are gone with a note that says you are gone and when you will return. While this is a very helpful tool, it gets better! A “sequential autoresponder” or “follow-up autoresponder” will send that first automatic message, and then follow-up with more messages based on how you set it up. This is also known as a “drip campaign” as you keep your message in front of your prospects over the course of time. This idea would work great for a series of emails geared for first-time home buyers, or other specialty groups.

Ezine
If you are going to venture into the world of online marketing, you need a way to stay in touch with the people who find you online. Having record numbers of website visitors is all well and good, but do you know who they are? Do you have any way of contacting them to let them know about new tax laws that help out homeowners and home buyers? A great way to do this is through an “ezine”, or electronic magazine. This can be as simple as a plain text newsletter that you send them via email once a month. Or, it can be as complex as a beautifully designed HTML email that includes photos, fancy text, the works. The point is to have a way to consistently send new information to those who are interested in learning more about you.

Bonus Tip: A word of caution on using email for marketing purposes. Never send out unsolicited email. Never. Make sure that anyone you send an email to has agreed to receive email from you. Maybe they gave you their email address at an open house, or they signed up on your website. By limiting your email marketing to those who requested it, you are doing two things: 1) delivering your content to a targeted group of people who are interested in what you have to say, and 2) staying honest and above board in your marketing techniques.