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4 Tips for Creating Killer Real Estate Marketing Emails

Filed Under : Real Estate by admin

Jan.27,2012

Did you realize that you could currently be sitting on a mound of cash for your business? Leads that are literally ripe for the picking? And in fact, most of your competition is probably not taking the necessary steps to liquidate this real estate marketing goldmine into consistent closed transactions.

What I’m referring to is the power of email marketing. You may have heard that the money is in the list, and this is definitely true to a certain degree. However, the flip side to this statement is that real profits are in how you choose to incubate and covert those leads into business over time.

This is the most common error that real estate professionals can make when it comes to using email. In fact, I have personally witnessed more missed opportunities than I would like to admit of people who spent loads of time and money building up their funnels, only to never truly follow up post opt.

When utilizing this real estate marketing tactic, you may come across varying reports of how often you should stay in touch with your readership. Regardless, consistency is key. Truthfully, we have discovered that when our clients submit at least 2 emails every week, they experience a much better response, less spam complaints, and higher conversion rates than if they only chose to do so sporadically.

Of course the answer is in how you balance this. Each niche and market may be slightly different, but the principles remain relatively the same. Find a pattern that seems to fit your audience best, and then provide them with exactly what they are looking for on a consistent basis.

Here are 4 More Tips on How to Have Great Success with Your Email Campaigns:

Pretend You are Writing to Your Best Friend: I cannot stress enough how powerful this one real estate marketing tip is alone. Imagine the loads of emails and junk that your audience is receiving on a daily basis. Simply by creating copy that seems real and genuine instead of formulaic will greatly improve open rates. Both in the subject line and body, find ways to stand out from the crowd and sprinkle in some humor or unique spins once in a while.
Include Calls to Action: Always have some form of a call to action in the body of your emails. This should be something that will get your audience to engage with the material. Whether it’s trying to get an interested buyer to look at a house or simply to check out your newest post on your real estate marketing blog, find a way to get people interacting. Be sure to include this several times throughout the body of your content for best results.
Keep it Simple: Any email content we create for our own campaigns is always clean and simple. Instead of messing with all types of banners, colors, and other distracting features, we just use plain Jane text. Having too much can take your prospect’s attention off of what’s most important…following through on your calls to action.
Ask for Referrals: Finally, always remember that each person is in a different stage of the buying cycle. Therefore, it is unreasonable to think that everybody is a true prospect. This is the group of people that may need to incubate for some time. So, be sure to include something like the following whenever you are featuring a property:

Not ready to buy but know someone who is? We have plenty more properties just like this! Please feel free to pass this message along to friends or family. (you get the idea)

These are just a few great examples of course. Do you know of something that has worked really well for your own real estate marketing campaigns? Please feel free to share below!

This Article is Copyright © 2004-2011 BiggerPockets, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

4 Tips for Creating Killer Real Estate Marketing Emails

Real Estate Investing For Real | A BiggerPockets Investment Property Blog

Tags : Creating, Emails, Estate, Killer, Marketing, Real, Tips

6 Tips for Keeping Your Business on Track While Working From Home

Filed Under : Real Estate by admin

Dec.20,2011

One of the hardest parts of running a home business, whether you are a real estate investor or in an entirely different business, is separating your work from your home life, family and friends. I believe this is especially true for women entrepreneurs. It’s very tempting to do a load of laundry, fix dinner or start one of the other tasks around the house that needs to be done while you work on your business. But if you are to be successful in your business while working from home, there are some ground rules you need to follow.

6 Tips for Working on Your Business from Home

Create a work schedule and stick to it! It may be tempting to take personal calls during the day, but if you do people will expect you will “always be there for them” when they call. By the same token, try to return your business calls during business hours.
Just because you have set up a work schedule, it doesn’t mean you need to work 9-5. This is one of the best parts of being your own boss. You can work those 8-10 hours whenever you want each day.
Early birds get up at the crack of dawn. Night owls may begin later in the day and stay up half the night. Maybe you want to work in the morning, take a break when the kids get home from school, then work some more in the evening. That’s ok. It is your schedule and you get to choose the times when you are most productive to work.
Your friends may consider “working from home” an invitation to chat or drop their kids off for an hour or two. Or, they may ask you to go shopping or for coffee in the afternoon. You will need to make it clear that these are your business hours and they are for business. After asking a time or two they will gradually understand that this is your work schedule and it is really no different than if you had an outside employer. If you agree to meet a friend for lunch, stick to your allotted time and get back to work on schedule.
Real estate investors that are landlords have a saying that you need to “train your tenants”. What they mean by this is that you should let them know what you expect from them, and what they should expect from you. Spell out your procedures and your hours for doing business. Even if you are working at odd times, you should give the appearance to your tenants that you have regular office hours.
If they figure out that they can call you for a minor problem at times other than regular business hours, guess what! They will call you when it is convenient for them such as in the evening or on the weekend. Unless they have an urgent matter such as a furnace going out in the middle of the winter, their calls fall into two categories: “It can wait until the next business day” or “call 911”. It really is that simple.
Have a separate business phone. It’s OK to use your cell phone so long as your voicemail has a professional message, and always answer the phone by stating your name. Even though you are working from home, no one needs to know.
Have a separate home office if possible. When you are talking to clients the last thing you want your customer to hear is the kids, the TV or the dog barking. Having your own dedicated space will also help you to be more productive. If you don’t have the luxury of having a whole room to yourself, using a screen will give a visual separation from the other part of the room. Just because you work from home, this doesn’t make you less of a professional.

One last bit of advice. Invest in the technology you need to get the job done. You may be working out of a tiny room in your home, but you can project the image to the world that you are a first class company. How the internet has changed the face of business!

This Article is Copyright © 2004-2011 BiggerPockets, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

6 Tips for Keeping Your Business on Track While Working From Home

Real Estate Investing For Real | A BiggerPockets Investment Property Blog

Tags : Business, from, Home, Keeping, Tips, Track, Working

Critical Time Management Tips For Landlords and Investors

Filed Under : Real Estate by admin

Oct.3,2011

It never ceases to amaze me how irresponsible, forgetful, or just downright rude people can be. For instance, if you’re a landlord, you know that 50% of people you set appointments with to see a rental property will never show up. Not only will they not show up, but they won’t even call and let you know they’re not coming.

Of course, potential tenants aren’t the only ones who are often unreliable, it’s everyone in the real estate business. (It’s actually everyone in any type of business.) For instance, a while back I was looking to hire an assistant to help me with my properties and a bunch of other things. I interviewed several people (which is a nightmare) and finally found someone I thought was perfect. We signed the employment contract and everything was all set to go.

But guess what?

She never showed up for her first day of work. I never heard from her. She never emailed me. Yes, she might have had a terrible accident and she might be dead, but the chances are highly unlikely. On paper, she looked great and she was far superior to anyone else I interviewed.

My point is…

It doesn’t matter if it’s a tenant, a Realtor, your painter, plumber or whomever, there are a lot of unreliable people in this world and you need to learn how to deal with them so they don’t waste your time and drive you crazy.

How do you do this?
You control the situations that you meet in.

Lets look at one example… When showing a property to potential tenants, you set appointments with each tenant. You should always tell them that they must call you 15 minutes before their assigned time to let you know they’ll be there. Be sure to let them know that if they don’t call you, you will not be at the house to show it to them. If you have an office, just have tenants show up at your office and you can then go to the house together. Lastly, you can put a lockbox on the property and have the tenants see it themselves, but only after they’ve faxed you a copy of their driver’s license and filled out a tenant information form.

As for real estate agents and other people, have them meet you at your convenience.

In other words, don’t make a special trip to the house just to meet with them. Have them come to the house when you’ve scheduled several other appointments too. That way, if they don’t show at least you have your handyman or inspector out there too.

As far as people who do flake out on you, give them one chance only. If they don’t show up on time or they’re not doing their job, get rid of them immediately. When I first started out in this business I gave people way too many chances. I’ve learned one thing over the years: “once a flake, always a flake.” In other words, don’t hold out hope that your painter is going to all the sudden do a better job, or that the rehabber who keeps saying he is going to partner with you is actually going to come through for once.

I know you want to be successful, just as we all do. And one of the major keys is not letting people waste your time, and perhaps more importantly, finding quality people that you can build a team around.

Photo: H.L.I.T.