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Lead generation
Automate Your E-marketing

Take the grind out of Internet client cultivation.

BY MICHAEL RUSSER

To many salespeople, e-mail drip marketing is the ultimate fantasy—a powerful way to stay in contact with previous clients and cultivate new prospects without having to pick up a phone or knock on a door. If you aren’t aware, these click-and-forget systems let you automatically send a series of timed e-mail messages to any group of people with a common interest—first-time buyers, move-up sellers, etc.

But today, with the increase in junk e-mail, drip marketing campaigns face hurdles—getting your message read, ensuring your messages will be perceived as valuable by customers jaded to spam, and staying within the bounds of the new anti-spam law.

The solution? Deliver value-added content at three specific points in the sales cycle to people you can legally contact.

• Pre-transaction cultivation. Drip campaigns, such as regular e-mail newsletters and market updates, can help build rapport and trust with prospects from the time you’ve made initial contact to the time they’re ready to buy or sell, which can easily take several months for an online consumer. Topic options: home improvement ideas and tips for improving your credit.
  
  
• Transaction support. A drip campaign is a great tool to help your clients stay current on their transaction’s progress. With regular e-mail updates, you’ll cut down on calls about whether the buyers have been approved for their mortgage or when the home inspection is due. Topic options: reminders to pay all utilities before closing.
  
  
• Post-transaction marketing. After closing is an ideal time to use a drip marketing campaign to build referrals. Regular e-mail will keep you in the forefront of past clients’ minds and increase the likelihood of repeat and referral business. Topic options: a reminder to change the locks on the home after taking possession.

• InterSend. One of the easiest drip e-mail systems to set up and use, this program can be run from your Web browser. It comes complete with prewritten campaign options, which may save you time, but which also may limit your marketing flexibility. Cost: $29.95 per month.
  
  
• Sharper Agent. This more sophisticated system lets you divide your contact list into more subgroups than InterSend, so you can target your message more effectively, and offers a broader range of materials, including custom flyers and postcards. Web-based Sharper Agent, which offers both drip e-mail and snail mail, also does a great job of keeping track of all contacts made through the system. Cost: $29.95 per month.
  
  
• Gooder Group. This Fairfax, Va.-based company’s RAINMAKER E-CENTRAL system has great prewritten campaigns, including newsletters and reports, for real estate and a suite of real estate lead-generation products for both print and Web. The program can have a steep learning curve, however, so it may be best run by an assistant familiar with the system. Cost: $78 per month,plus a one-time set-up fee of $199.