VA CORNER: (full story)
Keep Your Business Growing And Healthy With Drip
Marketing ...In the
competitive world of marketing yourself to
potential customers it is critical the real estate
professional stays "top of mind" for all the
opportunities that arise. This can often be quite
a challenge since there are only so many hours in
a day that can be spent on marketing. Many times
prospects are just gathering information or could
be months away from making a home buying or
selling decision. Yet, it's up to the agent to
make sure they stay in touch. Here is a way to
harvest all those potential leads while someone
else takes care of the watering.
How can this be done in a
cost-effective and timely manner? If you use the
technology to keep in touch with your database
using "drip marketing" it can be easily done. No, it's
not based on the practice of water torture. It is
a phrase that comes from the gardening technique
where a small amount of water is provided to
plants over a long period of time. If you use an
automated campaign to keep in touch with your
prospects, you can accomplish this task without
making it a labor intensive process. If you use
one of the vendors that provide this service, add
a virtual assistant to manage the process, you
will increase your chances of closing business by
keeping in touch and staying "top of mind" with
your potential customers.
Tricia Andreassen,
Pro Step Marketing, provides e-mail drip
marketing campaigns to her clients as part of the
total solution for the REALTOR® that allows them
to generate more leads and give ultimate service
to their clients. Tricia told me, "One of the
hardest things in real estate is juggling the
existing business and losing relationships
from your previous business. By putting in
place an e-mail drip marketing campaign, the agent
can continue with the past relationship in a way
that builds their personal referral network."
Tricia has found that for her agents, an e-mail
campaign can also develop a stronger relationship
with the new client that is still in the
"searching" mode and help to educate them in the
home buying and selling process.
Rodney Purser, www.CharlotteHomeConnection.com, works with
Tricia using his
Advanced Access Website Intellicards to keep
in touch with his prospective clients. It is
integrated with the response forms in his Website
and allows the agent to choose from a preset
campaign for Website visitors. There are a
number of other campaigns that Rodney and Tricia
can select from based on the campaign that fits
the profile of his clients.
For those agents that don't
have an Advanced Access Website, Tricia usually
recommends
Sharper Agent as the way to go. In addition
to the e-mail marketing campaigns it can offer
customized and pre-written newsletters. These
newsletters can be emailed, placed on the agent's
Website or printed by
Express Copy and sent overnight to the agent
for mailing.
Tricia and her agents work
together to establish a marketing plan and e-mail
program that works. She believes only great
things can happen when a streamlined approach is
put in place to connect with people. What a great
way to work together to grow a business.
I believe that using drip marketing
and a VA to help an agent put the plan
together is starting to catch on. In the last two
weeks, I have been asked to design marketing
campaigns for three agents. We always include the
traditional marketing, but when an agent has a Website that is generating leads, having the
prospective client "opt in" to one of our
campaigns is a great way to stay in touch and keep
the clients informed. It is also one of our
recommendations in the "Essentials of Web
Marketing" class that is offered at the
Virtual Training Center. There are so many
ways to market using the technology, that it's
important to have an overview of what's available
and then create a plan that's right for you and
your business. Look for a class in November that
will provide vendor drip marketing solutions-
eProspecting, by Pullan Communications, as
well as our "Essentials of Drip Marketing
Campaigns."
Kim Hughes,
Kim Hughes & Company, knows how important drip
marketing is to her clients. Her agent, Lonnie
Shapiro,
www.RidgefieldHouses.com, has been using Kim
to help her market with several of Kim's
services. Lonnie receives leads from various
sources and Kim adds these leads to her database
program, notes the source, and sets them up on the
appropriate drip marketing campaign. All of
Lonnie's leads are carefully managed by Kim in a
process that is guaranteed to keep Lonnie "top of
mind" for her prospects.
Each lead is set up to
receive her monthly newsletter from
RainMaker eCentral and start them on the
"e-course kit" depending on the client needs -
relocation, buyer or seller. Then the data is
entered into
eMailaCard so Lonnie can automatically send
announcements, new listings, just sold, a new
marketing piece, or just say "hi." After that the
lead is placed in HomeLog through
eNeighborhoods so they will receive that
bi-monthly newsletter. The initial set up time by
the VA takes a while, but it's well worth the time
spent. Kim said, "Lonnie never has to be involved
in the project since it all happens in the
background. Lonnie receives a spreadsheet with an
overview of what is being done, but this gives her
time to do what she likes to do - sell real
estate!"
Michael Russer, Mr. Internet®, was able to help a broker
who was receiving
inquiries from his Website, but many of those
making the request weren't ready to do anything
for several months. Frank asked, "How do I
keep their interest in
the interim so when they are ready, they'll think
of me?" To read more about Michael's answer on
e-mail drip marketing campaigns
CLICK HERE to view the article.
It is
said that you reap what you sow. And with an
effective drip e-mail marketing plan in place, run
by a VA, your harvest season never ends!
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