“Trickle” Marketing
Trickle Email Marketing
by Vern Clinton
Overview
Let’s be clear about one thing from the beginning. Sending out an email to people who have not SPECIFICALLY asked for it or who are not previous clients or prospects is useless for business and considered by most people as spam. That includes Newsletters, Listing Announcements, Jokes, Cute pictures of doggies, children, etc.
Trickle Email is a “Follow-Up Program”, a managed communication to clients, prospects and prospective prospects (I know, I know) who have asked you for the benefit of your expertise. Its purpose is to develop your reputation and your relationship with them so that when they decide to get serious about buying or selling real estate they will call you or visit your web site rather than that of your competitor. They might even bring their friends or acquaintances into your sphere of influence.
This article is about the most cost effective and productive sales tool available to you in this digital age. Used correctly it can fuel your prospect list for years to come. Done inexpertly it can be just another advertising time suck.
This article is a short guide to help you negotiate the learning curve to create and implement your own follow-up trickle system. It assumes you have seen the light and know that if 87%+ of buyers and sellers of real estate go first to the Internet for information that you should be there and be there better than your competition. After all, you want more than your fair share of new prospects and you want to keep the ones you have, don’t you?
Here’s the scenario we are shooting for:
(I hate having to use “he or she” to be politically correct so I’ll vary the pronoun. Convert it in your mind to whichever works for you)
One of your follow-up-list prospects or suspects checks her email. She immediately recognizes yours because she’s requested it and knows it has valuable information for her business. She quickly scans all of her other email deleting those that do not immediately catch her attention as did yours.
Yours is one of the first she opens. She reads it right away or prints it to read over coffee later She knows it will have interesting content without even reading the first paragraph. It is the latest message in the series of <<Useful Information tips>> for which she SIGNED UP. She requested the email be sent because she was sold on the idea that it would be valuable and the previous <<Useful Information tips>> she’s received so far have proved that to be true.
She reads the message and, because it is useful to her, she prints it and puts it in a folder along with the other “tips” you’ve sent. Someday, maybe soon, she is going to be looking for a home for herself, her family or for someone to whom she is close. As subsequent messages from you arrive she continues to save and remember these messages.
One morning she decides it’s time to look at a few houses. She’s sitting at her desk. On the desk next to the computer is a red folder with a dozen of your messages. Rather than going to Google.com and putting in a search for “real estate in Whereverville” she remembers that in each of your messages you had a short line letting her know that all of the listings in Whereverville are right there on your site, www.wherevervillerealestate4u.com. So her first stop is www.wherevervillerealestate4u.com.
How would you like having such a system of follow-up that is so effective and costs you virtually nothing compared to other types of advertising?
If this scenario or others similar to it could be achieved with your follow-up system what would it be worth to your business?
That’s what I’m talking about!
Getting Started — Preparation:
Do not go off half-cocked. Doing this right will take time, effort and some money. Doing it right will mean you will develop a prospect source that will nurture your business for many years. Doing it wrong will just cut into your golf time and blow some of your advertising budget.
Before you launch your program, be sure that you have a web site that really is all the things you are going to claim about it. I’m not going further into that subject here–it’s the subject of another article.
- Start with a fresh pad of paper (or a new document on your computer screen if your not cyber-challenged)
- At the top write “Campaign #1 — Buyers”. Don’t try to lump all potential prospects into one campaign. Pick your favorite category and start with that. The others will come easily after doing the first. Later you can do campaigns for Sellers, Past Clients, etc.
- Now draw on your own experience to put yourself in your own ideal buyer’s shoes. This might be first time home buyers, move up buyers, retirees or some combination that you have a particular feeling for.
- With that in mind write a paragraph about this target buyer, what their general situation is and what their presumed level of real estate expertise is. Again, this is just one campaign and you may decide to have several to touch different parts of your or your office’s target demographics.
- Make a list of subjects that you know are or will be important to your ideal buyer. Frame them as questions by your ideal buyer to keep you in their shoes. For instance:
- How can I pick the best time to buy?
- Should I find a buyer’s agent?
- Will I save money by ‘Doing it myself’
- Make it a long list and brainstorm with as many of your colleagues as you can.
- Prioritize the list. Put the best and most interesting questions at the top.
- In your own words, writing as if you were speaking to a prospect across your desk, answer the first question. If your assistant or a professional writer is going to help you, work closely with them to be sure that the flavor of your answer is preserved. These answers will be the basis of the content of your follow-up messages. When they reach the point where they look good to you, run them by at least two proof readers who can comment on them and can make sure you haven’t made grammatical or spelling errors. Listen to any suggestions for improving them.
Getting Started: – Selling the Concept
When you have at least ten completed questions and answers (or subjects and articles) that you are satisfied with, write (or have written) an article selling the idea of ’signing up’ to receive this ‘Weekly Buyer’s Tips’ (or whatever title you decide makes sense). The sole purpose of such an article is to motivate the reader to give you their email address for the purpose of receiving a series of ‘Weekly Buyer’s Tips’. Emphasize that the email address will not be sold or used for any other purpose and that the subscriber can unsubscribe with a single click of the mouse at any time. This is NOT the place to sell ANYTHING other than the utility and value of receiving these tips.
This is the article that you will use on your web site with a sign-up form, as well as in email messages that you send to any group you want to register for your tips.
It is crucially important that you have your registrants voluntarily request to be on your list. You cannot subscribe them to your tips without their confirming that they want to receive them. In fact it would make sense for you to review the “Can Spam Law”. It’s stultifying to read, but get an idea of the serious consequences of violating it.
In your article selling the concept use examples of some of the subjects to be covered. Solicit your prospects’ input on what subjects are of interest to them. Resist the temptation to emphasize your credentials and do nothing that would suggest that the subscriber will be contacted in any way except by the email unless they request it.
(Later you may create campaigns specifically targeted to people who already know you or with whom you have done business, but don’t lump them into this project.)