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The Newsletter An Efficient Real Estate Farming Method
wo of the most pressing agents need to know the community
matters in real estate are: and the community needs to know
how to do efficient farming them in order to build trust.
and how to do efficient follow-up This process is defined by
with your leads. The farming constant, quality contact. Trust,
process can be quite costly and as well as a professional image
it can consume a lot of time. At can only be build in time. The
the same time, lead generation is best way to attract and keep
the most important part of your leads is through follow-up, also
business. Getting and keeping know as farming.
leads will determine the success
of your business. Quite a Building a relationship between
conundrum, and difficult to avoid realtors and communities through
altogether. traditional means (cold calling,
direct mail) has high immediate
But it need not be so hard, costs and it is time consuming.
especially with the aid of the The profits are significantly
Internet, more specifically, the slower to appear, because people
process of newsletter publishing. do not buy or sell houses every
day.
According to the 2003 NAR survey, According to the 2003 NAR survey,
trust ran high as a motivation 65% of homeowners use the
for sellers to choose a certain internet as an information source
realtor. 73 percent chose trust for real estate compared to 49%
over referrals from close persons for the newspapers. Still, the
(38%) and the realtor's number one source is the real
reputation (54%). estate agent. The same report
states that the Internet seems to
It is a well known fact that be "bringing consumers in touch
with agents, instead of A newsletter is a periodic
disintermediating them as experts publication by email sent only to
predicted long ago." It is those people who subscribe to it.
certainly too great an Its purpose is to provide useful,
opportunity to be missed. quality information to a highly
targeted audience. In simple
Realtors need a farming method terms, a newsletter is an email
that would be efficient, cheap, containing articles of interest
easy to use, and time-saving. to your subscribed members. The
Sounds impossible, doesn't it? articles can be written by
yourself, or they can be taken
Fortunately, it is not so. The from the large, free-for-reprint
Internet comes once again to the database available on the web.
rescue offering realtors the
chance to get in touch with their Why is it so appropriate for lead
prospects through various means. generation? Well, because:
The Internet has brought a 1. It's cheap
virtual revolution of a real
estate market. Most real estate You need only think about
agents and brokers today also eliminating the costs of paper,
have websites for keeping in envelopes, stamps and postcards
touch with their customer base. to realize how much you'll be
The newsletter is a logical step saving. Traditionally, your
forward in this process. Indeed, traditional, direct mailing list
it is a most fitting tool for the has only 1% response rate. So
farming process. basically you're throwing 99
letters out of 100 in the trash.
But what is a newsletter?
However, if 99 of your provide auto-responders that are
newsletters are erased, it won't time saving and efficient.
cost you anything. Email is free,
fast and reliable. 3. It's efficient
Also, you can make the design Any professional will tell you
yourself or hire someone to that the key to a successful
create it for you. Either way, business venture is a good
the printing costs will be zero, relationship with your customers.
since newsletters don't cost On one hand it will build trust
money to duplicate. which will entice customers to
come to you in the knowledge
When you decide to change the you'll take care of them. On the
layout or the content, once other hand, it will keep you
again, no printing costs. You can wired to their needs, thus
do it at home, on your own enabling you to adapt your offer
computer. to fit their requests.
2. It's time saving An internet relationship is
characterized by the offer of
No more putting papers into high quality, informative
envelopes, no more glue, no more content. If possible, directly on
stamps, no more trips to the their doorstep metaphorically
store or the mail, no more speaking. Using newsletters, you
checking each copy for errors. will be able to send your
You can send a great number of customers something of value to
emails almost instantaneously. them instead of a simple
commercial add.
There are plenty of programs that
send emails automatically and More importantly, good content
will build up your reputation of 5. It's versatile
industry expert.
How easy it is to modify an
The informative articles, as well electronic document compared to a
as the fact your recipients have printed document? Infinitely
already agreed to receive it, easier. You needn't worry about
will ensure your email won't end small changes and errors cropping
up in the trash. up at unexpected times. You can
fix anything fast and easy,
4. It offers the possibility starting with content and ending
of fast, direct feed-back with layout.
People are traditionally lazy. Want a different color? Want to
They prefer to do things with change the article order? A few
minimal effort in the shortest mouse clicks will do just fine.
time possible. So how much
feed-back can you count on when 6. It's viral
your leads need to complete forms
by hand, or write testimonials When people get interesting
then go out and mail them? Not as emails in their inboxes, they
much as electronic feed-back forward it to friends. A
that's for sure. newsletter is much more likely to
be forwarded than a commercial
You can include polls in your email.
newsletters. Also, they can write
you back with just a couple of Who knows where your newsletter
mouse clicks. It's considerably will end up? Perhaps in the hands
easier to follow up on their of prospective leads.
comments.
So give newsletters a try and
you'll be amazed by the results.
About the Author:
Amanda Smith is the content editor of the NetReal.net website. NetReal.net is a complex marketing platform that offers, among other things, the NetRealinTouch.net newsletter system http://www.netrealintouch.net. You are invited to try NetRealinTouch.net, by taking the 30-day FREE trial. articles@netreal.net
Source: www.isnare.com
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