The Logistics of Realtor Email Marketing

You are here: Real estate marketing articles >> Email Marketing Logistics

Let's talk about the logistical side of Realtor email marketing for a moment. By "logistical" I'm referring to the technical items you need to make email marketing possible in the first place.

Basically, you need three things to conduct an email marketing campaign:

• A list of contacts
• An email message
• A distribution method

So let's examine each of these components of a Realtor email marketing program, one item at a time.

Your List of Contacts

Obviously, you need to build a list of email recipients before you conduct any email marketing campaigns. Ideally, your list would be made up of people who (A) have requested to be on your list and (B) may need your services at some point.

I recommend that you avoid buying a list of strangers who have not requested to be on your list. This is spamming, plain and simple. And it's a good way to have complaints filed against you. We will talk more about this later, but for now just realize that the best type of list for Realtor email marketing purposes is a 100% permission-based list (people who have asked to receive emails from you).

So how do you build up your email list of contacts? Well, there are plenty of ways. For one thing, you should definitely have a sign-up box on your website so people can subscribe to your newsletter, your email alerts, or however you've labeled your email campaign. This will allow people to sign up for future emails right from your website (provided you've given them a good reason to do to).

One of the easiest ways to create a sign-up box is to use an email marketing service like the one I've recommended here. Using a service like iContact, you can quickly and easily create a sign-up box to put onto your website or blog — and best of all, you don't need to know anything about HTML web coding. You just pick the colors for your box, choose the type of information to be captured (such as name and email address), and then click the "generate code" button. Your HTML code will be generated for you, and you can simply copy and paste it onto your site, or have somebody do it for you.

Your Email Message

So now you have a list of folks to send your email message to. What next? Now you need to create your email marketing message. Elsewhere on this site, I've offered tips for content. But this is an article on email marketing logistics, so I'm just going to focus on the technical side of your email message.

From a technical standpoint, Realtor marketing emails and newsletters come in two types — plain text and HTML. Plain text is just what it sounds like, a text-based email without any colors or graphics. An HTML email looks a lot like a web page, with colors, graphics, columns, images, etc. Here's the pro versus con of each type:

• Plain-text emails are easier to create and send, and they are also less likely to trigger any kind of spam filter or blocking device. On the down side, plain-text emails lack the visual appeal of an HTML email.
• HTML emails are formatted with same kind of web coding that makes up web pages, so they are more visually pleasing than a plain-text email. Of course, they are also harder to create than plain-text emails, and they are more likely to trigger spam blockers and filters.

My advice is to send both a plain-text version and an HTML version of your Realtor email marketing campaigns, but to do it the smart way so you don't have to waste too much time on formatting and such. This is one of many reasons I recommend you use an email service provider.

And this brings us to our next component of a Realtor email marketing campaign...

Your Distribution Method

When I create an email blast using iContact, I'm able to use an HTML email format as the primary method, with a plain-text version for backup. That way, if the HTML version gets blocked for some reason, the plain-text version will be delivered in its place. The email service handles all of these distribution matters for you — all you have to do is create the HTML and plain-text versions of your marketing message or newsletter.

iContact also has all kinds of email marketing templates you can use, if you're not comfortable working with HTML web coding. These templates can really save you time. They can also save you from the potential embarrassment of sending a "broken" email design to a large list of people.

Here's an overview of the email distribution process that normally takes place, if you're smart enough to outsource the logistics to a service provider:

1. Log in to your account with your email service provider
2. Choose the "Create a Campaign" option, or something similar
3. Log in to your account with your email service provider

Email Marketing Logistics - Conclusion & Summary

So now you have a better understanding of the three logistical parts of a Realtor email marketing program — the list, the message, and the distribution method.

The next thing you want to do (if you haven't done so already) is sign up for a free trial with iContact. I am both a customer and a partner of iContact, so I'm able to offer you a free trial of their service right here.