By now you know that drip e-mail marketing can be a very powerful way to stay in the forefront of your clients and prospects minds without expending much effort. While there are a number of vendors that offer e-mail drip marketing to some extent or other, I have found one that takes it to a whole new level and includes a very powerful “e-mail marketing on demand” feature as well.

SharperAgent (http://www.sharperagent.com) appears to be a step above most other Web-based e-mail drip marketing programs. In addition to being able to easily set up any number of targeted drip campaigns, SharperAgent also has other unique features delivering a total marketing solution:

• Categorization of marketing groups – prospects and clients can be categorized and grouped in an unlimited number of ways. This gives you a great deal of control over the impact of your targeted messages.

• High quality print media – in addition to e-mail marketing, pieces can be printed for direct mail. In a matter of minutes Agents can select or design high impact postcards, flyers, brochures and newsletters. Pieces can be printed right off the Agents desktop printer, printed by a local print shop or ordered directly from the SharperAgent. SharperAgent provides same day printing with free overnight delivery. Using their powerful address book feature, Agents can even have SharperAgent provide full mailing services to their contacts.

• Custom localized content – the folks at SharperAgent will customize your portfolio of content to include locally relevant information featuring topics such as best local golf courses, restaurant guides, family activities, hiking trails, bed and breakfasts and many more.

• Seasonal content – every holiday gives you another opportunity to “touch” your clients and prospects in a very personal and appreciated way. SharperAgent has done an excellent job of creating professionally designed seasonal marketing materials (both print and e-mail) to which you can add your personal message and send to any subgroup of your database, in some cases with just a click of your mouse.

• E-mail marketing on demand – sometimes it is useful to send a spur of the moment message to one of your contact subgroups. SharperAgent makes this as easy as a click of the button using any one of many different available designs. Of course you can schedule the delivery in advance of the event if you prefer.

In addition to the above, SharperAgent is scheduled to enhance their entire system with powerful new features and additional ease of use sometime in the first quarter of 2004.

When e-mail drip marketing debuted a few years ago, it was a rather sparse and limited affair. Now, with the help of well-thought out and engineered Web-based systems like SharperAgent, the possibilities are nearly endless!