Using Auto-responders to Grow Your Real Estate Business

Auto-responders are one of the most innovative tools a Realtor can use to grow their real estate business. However, most Realtors fail to utilize them to their full business potential. 

The ease of use of auto-responders is astounding once you have them set up! If you have signed up for our email newsletter, you have gotten our auto-responders. They are a series of emails that go out on a periodic basis determined by you. If you are using them in an 8X8 program, that means that you are sending out eight in eight weeks, which I think is a really good frequency!

If you are using a database program, it is very easy to set up an auto-responder (or action plan).  If you are not able to use your database program for this or if you use outlook or another email program, I HIGHLY recommend that you use an email newsletter service like AWeber or Constant Contact which give you all of that functionality, a great look and both of which cost about $20/month!

We have been getting a bumch of requests for Autoresponders for Realtors – we have answered! Thus far we have developed two versions – one for sellers and one for buyers. In the coming weeks we will be adding Autoresponders for FSBOs, Expireds and Short Sales. We are offering $10 off until Tax Day (April, 15th 2009) so that everyone who want to get going right away can afford to!!!

Â		Â	Autoresponders (8X8s) For Realtors – Sellers Edition Auto-responders are email or 8X8 campaigns that you can set up to auto-generate emails for your prospects and leads. Basically they are a “set it and forget it” kind of system that will allow you to contact your prospects and suspects on a consistent basis when you first enter them into your database. Price $19.97 - Use coupon code AUTOS-TAXDAY for $10.00 off until April 15, 2009!       Find out more about Autoresponders (8X8s) For Realtors – Sellers Edition	Â
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Â		Â	Autoresponders (8X8s) For Realtors – Buyers Edition Auto-responders are email or 8X8 campaigns that you can set up to auto-generate emails for your prospects and leads. Basically they are a “set it and forget it” kind of system that will allow you to contact your prospects and suspects on a consistent basis when you first enter them into your database. Price $19.97 - Use coupon code AUTOS-TAXDAY for $10.00 off until April 15, 2009!       Find out more about Autoresponders (8X8s) For Realtors – Buyers Edition	Â
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According to Wikipedia, database marketing is “a form of direct marketing using databases of customers or potential customers to generate personalized communications in order to promote a product or service for marketing purposes”.

Wow is that not helpful! My definition of database marketing is to have all your clients, potential clients, prospects, vendors, friends and family all in one place that you can use to send out direct mail, email marketing and generate call lists. Currently on my “marketing TV tray” I have a post-it note with a name of someone who I need to add to my database, two business cards and a sign in sheet from a class that I taught. If I do not add them to my database today I will

• lose their name entirely
• find them in three months and forget why I had their card
• find them in six months and be too embarrassed to send anything because they won’t remember me (I KNOW I won’t remember them!)

So how do you use your database for marketing?

Send out emails to your database – This is FREE! You can start a bi-monthly newsletter and send your marketing message out WITH a nice piece of information that will be of value to your readers. For home service people that might be tips on how to winterize their home, ways to clean their grout or even a list of associated vendors they recommend. For real estate professionals it might be market stats, information about first time homebuyers or how to prepare their home for staging. Whatever you send, make sure that you think – “would I be interested in reading this”. If not – write something better! (if you are stuck on what to send, check out our Small Business Marketing Solution –  Thrive Client Contact System)

Make phone calls – Each month pick a couple of letters (A-C, S and T) and print out your database people whose last name starts with that letter. Carry your list around and when you have a couple of extra minutes call your people!

Send direct mail marketing pieces to your database – You can mail your clients a monthly piece of newsletter marketing, marketing postcards or even your personal brochure. Please note – if you are going to judge the effectiveness of your direct mail campaign by 1 sent message don’t bother. You need to send out your direct mail message for at least 3 months in order to be able to find out if will work! If you can’t afford to send out to your entire database, cut it in half and send half of your people a letter, newsletter or postcard each month, rotating the names so EVERYONE gets something at least every other month!

Some other things you can do with your database:

• Collect Birthdays and send a nice card out a couple of days before (I am BAD at this – you WILL NOT get a card!)
• Make notes about what you talked about – your people will think you are brilliant when they realize you remember all their personal info! Just pop in and take a peek at their notes BEFORE you call them!
• Upload relevant documentation and attach it to their record. You can attach their invoice, sales receipts, contracts etc. by scanning them into a PDF and then uploading them to your database.

If you will commit to using your database, adding EVERYONE you meet the day you meet them, you WILL get more business and make more money!!!

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So, I know that you have all been thinking about Convergence and what it means to your business? Right? Okay, well maybe not but it is important to your sales!

I was talking with a small business owner the other day and she said she felt more comfortable in a consultative role with her clients (her semi-exact quote is “I have never SOLD anyone anything, I help them figure out their needs and then help them achieve them”.

Well I think we can all benefit from that attitude, but at the end of the day EVERY business owner has to sell something to survive! From the top of wall street to the small business owner, we are in business to SELL something!

Okay, how does convergence matter to selling? Convergence (according to Wikipedia} “denotes the approach toward a definite value, as time goes on; or to a definite point, a common view or opinion, or toward a fixed or equilibrium state.” Holy buckets batman! What it means to me is the meeting of needs with a product.

As you can see in the graphic below, it is a movement from satisfaction with the status quo on through some pain to a buying decision. 

Convergence Slide

How about some example to clear things up!

Grocery Stores – In my area we used to have Albertson’s grocery stores. Now given a choice of ALL the grocery stores around the country, I would choose Wegmans but they are not in my area so I used to shop at Albertsons. I was in the green light for Albertsons. If they stayed the way they were, offering low prices, specials and half way decent service I would have continued to shop there indefinitely. They closed – sigh. So now I have to find a new grocery store (pain) and so I chose Publix. Not as cheap, cleaner and better service.

Web Browsers – I used Internet Explorer and Firefox until recently (these are different programs for accessing the internet). About a month ago Firefox did an update (that I hated) about the same time as Google offered a new browser Chrome. Well I tried the new browser and I like it! It has some great google features in addition to all the things that I had liked about Firefox. I would NOT have been in the market for a new browser had Firefox not made my back button big (I know – a stupid reason to switch) but since I was, Chrome came out at a good time for me to adopt it.

Homebuyers – My husband and I are considering moving to Colorado (our move is NOT a sure thing at this point) so I am going on websites to try and see what houses are available in the couple of towns we think we MIGHT like to live in. I DO NOT need to talk to a realtor at this point so I have not registered with any websites. I am in the green area of need, but there is no pain. Say that Johnny’s transfer comes through and he moves out there ahead of me, leaving me with 2 dogs, a cat, a mother-in-law and 2 more dogs. THAT IS PAIN! I will be SERIOUSLY motivated to find a realtor – RIGHT NOW – and get house hunting.

In each of these cases a change happens to the status quo of a buyer’s life. It is VERY hard to make enough noise in the marketplace to cause a change to people who are satisfied with a product that is working great for them BUT if they have a broken product or system OR no product or system and pain happens, they will be looking for help. 

This is where you come in with your direct mail, websites and emails. If you have been talking to that person about how your product, service or store can help them solve their problems, you can capitalize on their need! If you have built a great website that is easy to find on the search engines with lots of information about your product, services or store, they will find you and approach you for help. 

Make sure your marketing house is in order so that you can capitalize on changes in the marketplace that will occur in your favor! Advertise to people who MIGHT need your services so that when they DO need your services you are ready to sell them something!

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So these last couple of weeks have hit the nation hard. I have heard “on the TV” that there are no loans available – no car loans, no mortgages, that the banks are going to rescind all the outstanding credit lines on credit cards, that my FICO score will drop because the bank is rescindingmy credit line AND that I will not be able to buy gas.

WOW. That does NOT seem like a good thing.

That having been said, what we need to do as marketers is to get some facts into the market about mortgages, home prices and banks.

I am NOT an economist and do not EVER want to be one, but I know some feet on the street bankers who can get me information. I asked Brian P. Forrester of Tri-County for something that I could send out to my clients to reassure them. NOT to blow sunshine under their skirts but REAL information to combat the talking heads on TV. According to Brian:

I want you to know that there are many banks out there who were more conservative in their lending practices that are still here and ready to lend money to your customers.  Also, now that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have settled down, they are performing as they were originally chartered to do, by providing money for banks to lend to consumers. 

I would expect a little more tightening in guidelines going forward as all of this plays out, but as I have always said, if you have a job, can prove your income, have some money for down payment (as little as 3%), and fair credit, you can get a loan. 

He has great ongoing information about the lending industry on his blog www.mortgagecommunicationspot.com. 

So what does that mean to me as a marketer (and a human)? We need to combat misinformation with facts. The fact that there are loans, and that the economy has not shut down. 

Go to your trusted sources, get quotes like this one and send them to your clients. I have a financial planner who is a great economist but not a great marketer. I feel like I am hanging out in the wind since he has not sent me any information about what my 401Ks are doing, or even just some general reassurances that I am safe in keeping my money with him.

Don’t leave your clients swinging in the wind. Call your sellers and let them know that there are loans, call your buyers and let them know there are loans, and then email your ENTIRE database with facts about what is going on with the market, where we are now and let them know you will keep them apprised in the future. Be an expert and a professional.

If you are a realtor, send out information relating to the real estate and mortgage market. If you are a mortgage banker or broker, an insurance agent, a financial planner, an accountant, etc., offer your information to anyone you come accross who has access to humans (that is everyone BTW). Become a trusted source for information and you will help your business connections communicate with their clients more effectively.

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When you think of all that you have to do, what feeling comes to mind?

A. Bliss – you love to be busy and have just enough to do to get through the day and leave at 5:00 OR
B. Horror – this cannot be your life, your todo list is longer than a garden hose and there is NO WAY you are EVER going to get everything done

I have a feeling most of us are somewhere in between! These are the problems with time as I see it – when you have lots of time you are bored and when you have none you are grouchy. I have developed a handy dandy survey for you to fill out so that we can all see where we are timewise – BUT first I will give you my opinions so that the survey comes out the way I want…JUST KIDDING!

PHONE CALLS

Should we do the “I answer calls from 11-12 and 3-4″ thing OR should you answer them as you go? I am not so great at returning calls and so I got Phone Tag. It answers the phone for me and then sends an email with the content! I can then call back the people who need immediate help right away and the others later on when I have time. It is a beautiful thing!

EMAILS

Emails – I keep hearing that I should check my emails once or twice a day, first at 11:00 AM and then at 4:00PM. I will tell you, in all sincerity, that if I wait until 11:00 to check my email I will be spending until 4:00 answering them and cleaning up the thousands of spams that will have accumulated.

My thoughts – I do check my email a lot throughout the day. Mostly I can fire off a 5 second response and check it off on my todo list as a WIN for me. BUT I also get sucked into reading stuff when I should be working. Mini Solution – I am seeing all the things I delete automatically or always send to a folder without reading and setting up filters. PS – If you email me dear readers and do receive a response you may be stuck in folder purgatory!

ADMINISTRATIVE TASKS

I AM NOT A SECRETARY! I am working my tail off to get to the point where I can hire a secretary. In the meantime I am spending HOURS a day doing data entry and busy work. I am sad. Maybe I will check out a virtual assistant. Excuse me, I have to go add a notation to my database and then commit hari kari!!!

LEAD GENERATING

I am GREAT at this and love making calls – okay here is the truth, I hate making calls but LOVE coming up with ways to see people face to face! I like sending out emails and mailers. I attended social events and organize master minds. I have lots of friends and do okay for myself BUT I AM calling more and getting more business!

BUSY WORK

This is a big one. Sometimes it seems like doing a bunch of the small unimportant things first will make you feel productive. Brian Tracy tells us to Eat the Frog – i.e. do the worst thing first and then all the rest will seem easier. I am trying to focus on my most important tasks and then letting the rest come out where they may!

SURVEY – I have developed a 5 questions survey to see where we are all having trouble – please take the minute and a half to fill it out so we can all know how messed up you are (just kidding, results are NOT linked to any one person!!!)

Click Here to take survey

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So I was hanging out in the hall the other day and I came upon a Realtor from another company. In the course of about 1 minute he told me the market was terrible, that my business would tank and that no one was spending any money or wanted any help. He told me my brokerage of choice was a rip-off and that he was glad that he got to keep more of his commission. He said that he was happy now – WOW I would hate to see if he was UNHAPPY!

Our office is weird, we are generally a happy (competitive) bunch. We run hard and play hard. We don’t fight with each other and try to be polite to everyone. When I went on tour to South Florida I got to meet a bunch of agents who were all looking for some great ideas on what to do in a hard market.

It is REALLY easy to get down with the gas prices, the economy, the slow housing market (I am sure I am missing a few). It is really easy to spend your time worrying about what is wrong. It is easy to let someone “throw up” negative garbage all over you and lose half a day to being depressed.

Buck up little campers – everything is not all doom and gloom! This is the time to scoop up market share! The segment of the market you get now you will NEVER have to give back! Your competitors have stopped trying and are waiting for things to get better before they make any moves – take their customers!

If you start a marketing campaign now you WILL see results. If you get systems in place to increase your lead generation and do your follow-ups you WILL see results.

I have heard from 3 agents this week that they sent out an email to their database and got leads! Not sales but LEADS. The more leads you get, the more opportunities you havve to work with clients, the more opportunities you have the more sales you will make! You can also be more choosy when you have lots of leads! Cherry – pick the clients you like to work with and refer the other ones out!

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I got an email last night from a lady who runs the ABC School of Polish. She seemed VERY polite and offered to put a link to my site on her site if I put link to her site on mine.

On the face of it, this seems like a good idea, you can never have too many links right? Also, I did attend the Polish National Alliance College in Cambridge Springs, PA for a couple of years so I like the whole Polish concept (subsequently the college was shut down and turned into a women’s prison, guess I got out of there just in time!)

BUT, here’s the kicker. What is in for me OR them to have a link to each other’s sites. I do not think that people who are looking for great Polish holidays are going to come from my marketing website. I also do not think that people who are thinking about taking Polish classes or going on holiday are going to suddenly have a yearning to learn more about niche marketing.

This practice is called link building and is designed to trick the search engines into thinking that you are VERY popular world wide, with links from all over the globe. The search engines can figure this trick out easily, but more important, people visiting my site can figure out that I have a huge links page with nothing relevant to marketing and leave (I hate when people leave!)

If you are going to exchange links with people, make sure they are a complimentary site. I could link to mail houses, printing companies, articles about advertising, niche marketing tips and tricks, realtor websites, internet marketing sites, etc. which would INCREASE my relevancy in the search engines…rather than just adding another anonymous link.

So Anna, thank you for your kind offer but count me out. I would rather have one good link than 100 mediocre links diluting my brand!

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So I got my marketing materials in yesterday – YAY! I feel like a real marketer again now!

I have a very distinctive look and feel to the items so that they “all look like my stuff” and I really like the one photo that I used as the focal point of the pieces (it is a group of realtor looking people, from diverse backgrounds, who are dressed professional casual – I know too much information BUT this is the only time I am going to make you listen so bear with me!) The color scheme is neon green and black and is very distinctive and will be easy to use in numerous pieces.

When you have your logo and marketing materials designed you should LOVE them! You should also ask other people what they think since you are trying to appeal to humans in general. I had one person (Pam, our closing coordinator) who didn’t like my realtor group, but in general everyone else either liked them or was neutral. I can live with that! While I DO care about what people think I also have to take into consideration that personal taste does come into play sometimes and what I like will not be what everyone likes.

That having been said…. I used a different picture on the front of my tri-fold brochure that has caused SEVERAL people to recoil in horror and say they don’t like how the one person looks. That is not good AT ALL. She doesn’t offend me, but my message is getting lost in general reaction (who knew!). Anyways, she has got to go!

I will be resending the file with a new picture. It will cost about $10 to change it since I ordered only 25 copies to start. That is one of my big tips, order small quantities to make sure you like how things turn out. Imagine if I had ordered 10,000 of them!!! I would be hesitant to send them out so they would last even LONGER. I would develop a reply to people who hated her, “well she isn’t that bad and I have 10,000 to use so please try to get past it”.

Public opinion will never be 100% on your side, BUT if you hear something more than a couple of times (we would have liked more communication, our flyer box is always empty, my clients liked it but there was too much wallpaper) that is something you need to fix TODAY!

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What is the one thing you can do to give yourself instant credibility? Have some FABULOUS collateral made!

When I started as a realtor the one thing that I did which helped me most was to design some really impressive marketing materials. When I went on a listing appointment I could feel confident that my materials would be a great representation of my level of committment and professionalism. That committment included providing great representation to my clients and to spending all my time learning my real estate skills, not dealing with the fact that I was a new agent.

What kinds of collateral do you need? The most basic answer is you MUST have a great business card. I am not a fan of the head shot cards, enough said. What you need to make sure you have is enough contact information that someone could reach you by whatever means they prefer (mail, phone or email). Having 3 or 4 ways to reach you via phone means that they may have to have to chase you down and that is never a good sign!

Tri-fold Brochure – Whether you are a small business owner or a realtor this one HUGE. It allows you to give a comprehensive look at your background and credentials as well as all the products and services you can offer your clients. It is great for leaving behind after a sales appointment, listing presentation or a buyer appointment. It is also good for networking events and for open houses where you might want to have something more than a sales sheet to leave behind. I prefer to have my Tri-folds act as a mailer also so that if I want to send them I do not have to put them in an envelope when mailing.

Presentation Cover – On any sales call you make you need to have a professionally designed cover that matches your marketing materials. Use it for sales proposals, RFPs, listing presentations and buyer appointment books.

Oversized Postcard – Last but certainly not least you should have a postcard that you can pop into the mail. I recommend having a BUNCH of different ones depending on the situation that you encounter, BUT to start, get one good solid postcard that covers most of your products and services. He

How much of each should you order? This is a tough one since ordering larger quantities can reduce the per piece price BUT with the new color print shops online I would not order terribly expensive or large quantities of any one item. Your services may change and if you have thousands of pieces you will have to throw them out. Also I have done jobs in the past for clients who ordered REALLY top of the line materials and then were hesitant to send them out – if you have to think for one moment whether you can afford to send a prospect a card or brochure you have spent too much!

If you can’t tell I am a HUGE fan of having professional marketing materials and think EVERYONE in business should have them also!

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Okay so I got a shock when I saw Seth’s post today – he told me to quit being a realtor! Luckily I continued on and found that what he meant was to quit being a “normal” realtor. The ones with the picture on their business cards who specialize in giving good service – good service is a cost of doing business NOT a feature!!

In our market the number of realtors has decreased by almost half from the all time high and using the 80/20 rule that means that we only have 1558 producing realtors in our market – whoo whoo! I have been fortunate to only sell during the last two years and have a heavy marketing background. I have high hopes and low expections that anyone will buy one of my listings in the first few days for full price (it has happened but it is not the norm!) I EXPECT to have to set myself apart from the crowd and to work hard to make my client’s listings shine.

Seth says…The first is to become the expert in what you do. Which means micro-specialization. Who is the single-best agent for condos in your zip code? Or for single family homes for large families?

 Ironically enough I just spoke last week with a realtor who has 10 children – wow does she need to be the big family realtor!  We sat down and went over marketing and positioning strategies, ways to establish herself as the expert and how to use her branding on all of her materials AND vehicle. AND most of what she needed to do was FREE! Now don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t easy but there were few costs associated with establishing herself as the expert in this area except for her time.

Figure out what makes you a special realtor or accountant or lawyer or car dealership and go big – make a stand and take your unfair share of the market!

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