Keep Clients in the Loop with Innovative Email Drip Campaigns
Real estate agents around the globe recognize the importance of maintaining contact with clients and new leads on a regular basis. But, what is the best way to keep in touch? You have probably heard the term “email drip campaign,” which is a marketing campaign geared toward long-time clients as well as new clients. The basic idea of a email drip campaign is to keep in regular contact with clients, be it daily, weekly or monthly, so that when they are ready to buy or sell you will be the first person they call.
There are so many online services available to make your campaign run smooth that it can be a little overwhelming. Lucky for you, we’ve narrowed it down to four of our favorite resources.
Feedburner – take advantage of an “automatic” email drip campaign that is connected to your real estate website blog. Owned by Google, it manages your RSS feed and sends your website subscribers an email every time you make a new post on your site. This resource also offers a wealth of statistics on items such as who has subscribed to your feed, what articles they have clicked on, etc. Feedburner is a great option because it allows you to constantly be in front of your clients eyes when you post frequently.
Mailchimp – a great option if you prefer to broadcast new blog posts once a week, or want to keep in touch with your list of leads or folks who sign up for New Listing Notifications. It works great for regularly scheduled email marketing, promotions, or even a simple email to say, “How can I help you?” It can be set up to take any new posts from your blog website and syndicate them out to your list of clients.
Mailchimp’s many useful features including Facebook Integration, an iPad app that allows you to manage your account from anywhere, plus pre-designed templates with unlimited free photo storage, and hundreds of customizable email templates. Create automatic campaigns, add social sharing buttons, or break up your list into groups based on interest, location or activity. It also gives you access to helpful statistics so you know who’s responding to your email drip campaign.
Constant Contact – provides great email marketing features and tons of beautiful templates just like Mailchimp. There are also many additional features that set it apart, including EventSpot, a great resource for promoting a real estate event, tracking RSVPs, sending tickets, and processing payments. You can also run social campaigns on Facebook, offer coupons to new or long-time clients with the SaveLocal feature, or create online surveys or polls. SinglePlatform allows you to manage your most important online listings from one place. Just like MailChimp, Constant Contact is also perfect for staying in touch with regular scheduled email marketing, highlighting promotions, or simply sending out a “How can I help you?” email to your list of leads or people who have signed up for New Listing Notifications.
AWeber – offers a plethora of excellent features. Its template gallery alone has hundreds of customizable email, web and sign-up form templates. You can create professional email newsletters, create sign-up forms and deliver automatic messages to new subscribers, as well as manage your subscribers. Every time you post on your blog, you can set it up to automatically create an email to promote it or send weekly digests, while targeting specific subscriber groups based on their actions. Its email analytics feature allows you to track your performance with graphs and subscriber segmentation.
New Listing Notifications – this common feature of your IDX solution should be considered part of your email drip campaign efforts. We find many agents overlook the power of the New Listing Notifications feature. Every time a new listing is sent to your list of buyers your name, website and contact information is being reinforced. Be proactive and personally sign up every potential client you come into contact with and build your list of leads. Not only are you keeping your buyers informed of hot new listings, but also reinforcing your name and branding.
Real estate marketing using email drip campaigning is a great way to stay in front of your potential buyers and sellers. Choose the one that works best for you and let it do the work for you.
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