7 Ways to Use Your Real Estate Newsletter to Grow Your Farm
Attention Realtors: Are you making the most of your newsletter? There are lots of ways to use your real estate newsletter — here are just a few: Keeping in touch with past clients If you’d like to be a client’s “Realtor for life” (something that should be one of your main business goals), then your…
Another excellent newsletter example
Earlier this month, I showed you an example of someone who took one of my ready-to-go newsletters and customized it themselves to make it even better. Today I’ve got an example of a real estate newsletter. This one is by Linda Frankl, a Realtor in Connecticut. Here’s what I think she has done well: Prominent…
Write for real people in your newsletter
Here’s a useful writing tip from Drew McLellan. Here’s one of my favorite “tricks of the trade” when it comes to writing. I create my audience from a composite from bits and pieces of the real people who engage with the product or service. From those seemingly random facts, I concoct a 3-D, multi-faceted person.…
An excellent example of a customer newsletter
I’d like to show you what I think is an excellent example of someone using a commercially available, ready-to-use newsletter and customizing it to make it even more powerful. As you may know, I operate a service that provides ready-made newsletters for real estate agents and other professionals. The newsletters are delivered to my subscribers…
The newsletter spectrum
There’s so such thing as a typical newsletter, of course. It’s a spectrum, from down-and-dirty, straight from the kitchen table written by your spouse…to glossy, designed by Madison Avenue and crafted by a team of high-paid wordsmiths Both ends of the spectrum have their place, because you want a newsletter that matches the clients you…
How to encourage newsletter readers to contact you again
One of the main reasons for having a newsletter is to build a relationship with your clients and prospects. A way to deepen that relationship is to encourage readers to interact with your content. Increasing the amount of interaction has several benefits: People spend longer with your newsletter – and hence with you People change…
Can people sign up for your newsletter on your website?
From time to time I visit my real estate newsletters clients’ websites, just to find out more about them so I can help them more in future. And here’s a strange thing. These people have newsletters. They mail them out. Yet on their websites there’s often no mention of them. That’s a big mistake. These…
The golden oldies
Drew McLellan summarizes as well as anyone I’ve seen the reasons why it’s smart to focus on your existing customers as well as going out looking for new ones. See his post, Concentrate on the old this week. Here are the advantages he mentions: They know who you are and trust/like you enough that they’ve…
Is your newsletter boring?
Rule #1 when writing your newsletter is this: focus on your reader, not on yourself. After all, readers are interested in themselves, not in you. So when companies fill a newsletter with how they’ve just got ISO 9001 or been awarded the Mayor’s Prize for Human Resources Development, they’re asking for their words to be…
Too little, too late
You already know I’m a big fan of keeping in regular touch with clients and prospects. With clients, keeping in regular touch increases the likelihood they will stay as clients and that they will buy even more from you. With prospects, it gives them multiple chances to buy from you and increases the chances they…
Elements of a successful newsletter: 13 – The Publication Schedule
This is the thirteenth in a series of posts about the elements of a successful newsletter. 13. The Publication Schedule Newspapers, magazines and even websites have a publication schedule. Everything is run like clockwork, to deadline. There are many external reasons for creating a schedule. But there’s one good internal reason: without one, nothing would…
Now say it like you mean it
I’m a big fan of using greetings cards as a marketing tool. I send them myself. They’re a good way to keep in touch with clients and prospects because they allow you to write a personal message that’s delivered in a format which is likely to get read. But if you’re using cards, you’ve got…
Useful Product: Fedex Kinko’s Print Online
Here’s a useful service that might help you print your newsletters. Fedex Kinko’s allows you to upload your document, have it printed and then shipped back to you (or anywhere else you choose). Or you can go to the nearest store and pick it up. Saves having to visit a copy shop twice – you…
A Marketing Lesson (With Rice and a Naan)
It’s a good day when dinner comes with some great marketing ideas. I’ve just come back from ordering at Veda, a new chain of Indian takeouts here in Toronto. Thought I’d share with you some marketing lessons. 1) Positioning. Most Indian takeouts (and I’m from the UK, where chicken tikka masala is the national dish!)…
Why Smart Businesses Happily Spend Money on Marketing
There are two types of business owners: those who spend as little as they possibly can on marketing; and those who spend as much as they can. The difference between the two is that the former looks just at the cost of marketing, while the latter looks at the cost of marketing and, most importantly,…
Why it’s worth embracing The Dip
Here’s a book you need to read if you’re in business, are in a career, or are in a relationship. The Dip, by Seth Godin, styles itself as the little book that teaches you when to quit (and when to stick). Here are the main takeaways. If something is worth doing, it’s worth being the…
On your existing customers and real estate ‘heart and soul’
Here are a couple of great posts by other bloggers over the past few days. All are worth reading and all have relevance to anyone using printed newsletters as a marketing tool. Becky Carroll wonders why so many companies give their best offers to new customers only while neglecting their existing ones. She gives some…
Why smart marketers don’t fear the postal rate increase
Many marketers are gnashing their teeth this week after the US Postal Service hiked postal rates. Here’s why you shouldn’t be afraid of this price rise. If you monitor Return on Investment (and you should) you’ll know exactly the effect of the price rise. You’ll know that it costs x dollars to send out your…
How to use the postal rate increase to your advantage
Postal rates in the US went up this week, hurting the budget of anyone who markets by mail. Here’s one way to use the postal rate increase to your advantage and turn it into a marketing opportunity. How about you send your best propects and clients stamps to the value of 2 cents, with a…
5 Reasons Why Every Business Needs a Newsletter
I’m on a drive, called: A Newsletter for Every Business. After all, I believe they’re so powerful that every business should have one. That’s one reason why I give one away free at Ready to Go Newsletters. So here are the 5 Reasons why every business needs a newsletter: Customers forget. People are busy. While…