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Farming Emails Proves to be Cash Crop
For over 50 years one of the most common ways to build a client base in the real estate industry is to create a geographical farm. Like the farmer who must buy the seed, plant the seed, nourish the crop, and provided all goes well, perhaps make a profit after spending lots of time and money, creating a geographical farm is both costly and labor intensive. As a rule of thumb, it generally takes 18-36 months to become established in a given area and that's provided you can overcome the competition from other agents. To do create a profitable geographical farm, you must not only regularly mail, you must also generate personal contacts either by cold calling or door knocking.
Email marketing provides a different approach, but it's still so new that it's almost never used effectively. Currently, most agents using E-marketing techniques ask potential prospects to "opt-in" to their newsletter or some other type of information that appeals to the prospect. "Opt-in" means the prospect gives you permission to email them and thus, avoids the issue of sending unsolicited spam. Unfortunately, most of the email pieces currently in the market place are still using the traditional model of prospecting - i.e. it's about the agent and their services rather than about what is of value to the reader. Sending people information about you does nothing to create trust or connection, the two primary requirements for people to do business with you. Thus, the question is how to create trust and connection in an E-marketing format.
- Step #1: The best place to begin is with a face-to-face connection. You can generate face-to-face connections through traditional door-knocking strategies, at open houses, or through networking. The key is to have something of value to offer to the people with whom you speak. For example, if you're door knocking in a specific area, most people are interested in knowing what has sold in their neighborhood. You could offer to send them your monthly email newsletter that contains helpful hints as well as a list of what has recently sold. If you're involved in building a referral database from a charity that raises money for medical research, you could send monthly updates on upcoming meetings as well as a monthly article with information on new advances in research. The most effective technique is to couple your offer of real estate services with something that is about the prospect's interest, not specifically about you.
- Step #2: Trust is created through repeated personal contact. Until recently, we could put up a website or we could send a text only email. Both of these are fairly impersonal. I'm certain most agents have seen the nice-looking HTML emails that have the pretty borders and can even include a picture of you. The challenge again is you only see a picture and words on the screen. Just recently, however, there have been a number of advances that will allow you to deliver a personal auditory message via email. For example, let's assume that you send the following message via text email:
Good evening. This is Bernice Ross from ABC Realty and I wanted to personally thank you for attending our open house today at 123 Main Street. I'll be sending an update on this week's new listings later this week. Once again, thank you for attending our open house and if I can be of assistance, please feel free to call me at 1-800-555-2222.
Now imagine the same message, but this time it's delivered in your voice with a picture of you and the house you were holding open. There's an immediate connection because the prospect remembers meeting you and giving you permission to contact them. Furthermore, since you emailed them to say thank you, you're strengthening the connection even further. Follow this up with another three or four voice emails and you have greatly enhanced the probability the prospect will do business with you. Again, a picture and your voice, are much more effective than a phone call, text email, hand-written note, or a postcard.
To contact Bernice Ross please email her at bernice@realestatecoach.com.
