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Newsletter Real Estate Leads
Of course you already know that you need a newsletter to begin building a list of prospects, and that you should stay in regular touch with leads you already have. But doing it is easier said than done. Forget about the snail mail version, I'm talking about an electronic real estate newsletter. One that you send via email, like my weekly newsletter that is chock full of different real estate marketing ideas, lead generation strategies and money making resources. You're probably thinking that a newsletter will take up a lot of your time. And you might be right. It's easy to run out of things to say. Can you maintain quality over a period of time? How long should your newsletter be? Your main goal should be is to offer useful and interesting information. If you don't your subscribers will disappear like a snow cone in the desert; here one minute and gone the next. Secondly, keep your newsletter short. Why? because people are inundated with email these days - they actually prefer something they can skim quickly and then put to use. Finally, you should spend some time thinking about the best format for your real estate newsletter. You need a model that will be easy to reproduce week after week, month after month. Following are some ideas that will make your job easier. Choose one and keep it as a regular format, or combine several of them (for example, you could use the "Tip of the Week" format for weeks 1-3 each month, and offer a checklist every fourth newsletter). ----------------- 1. Three Ways to... ----------------- Sometimes it can be a bit of a challenge to come up with ten ways to do things, whereas just three ideas is a cinch. You can also explore three ideas in more detail. Alternatively, you can alternate the "Top Ten" format with "Three Ways to...” the two of them will work together nicely. ------------ 2. Checklists ------------ When you're learning to do something new, there's nothing like a checklist to make sure you don't leave out a crucial step. Checklists can save a lot of time, and your readers will be delighted to get one. Write a brief introductory paragraph, present the checklist, and then follow it with a few final tips. You can either base your entire newsletter on the checklist format, or present one at regular intervals as a change from the standard article format. ----------------- 3. Tip of the Week ----------------- This one speaks for itself. You can easily brainstorm enough content for six months of weekly newsletters (you need to come up with 24 tips, which you will present weekly). Anyone with a degree of expertise on a given topic should be able to do this without any trouble. A handy way to organize this is to (a) explain the problem then (b) offer the tip which will solve it. Length? Anything from 150 - 500 words. ----------------- 4. Before and After ----------------- Who doesn't like makeovers? This works in a similar way to 'Tip of the Week' in that you show the problem and then provide a solution, but the 'before and after' approach lends itself better to case studies. This is a good way to interact with your clients - invite them to send in details of whatever needs a makeover: an article, a website page, their wardrobe etc, then present your solutions. Alternatively, you can ask for 'before and after' examples from readers who have managed to do this themselves, then showcase it for the rest of your customers. (If you don't use HTML for your newsletters, you can add a link to a website page for the accompanying photos.) ----------- 5. Top Ten ----------- This is a tried and true format, and easy to create. Example: if you are an expert on finance, you could offer advice on the Top Ten Ideas for Getting Out of Debt, or the Top Ten Ways to Save Money on Car Expenses, or the Top Ten Tips to Pay Off Your Mortgage in Ten Years. Make sure you keep a tight rein on word length - just offer a couple of sentences for each tip, not half a page. Final Tip: subscribe to several different newsletters to see how others run their newsletters to generate some ideas of your own. Set up an address at yahoo or gmail just for them. Every so often, check your new email account and browse, looking specifically to see what approach other editors use for layout, content, headlines, etc. When you see a format you like, print it out and put it in an 'ideas' folder. Unsubscribe from any that are constantly filled with junk or endless sales pitches. Final Final Tip: leverage your newsletter into 2-3 benefits. For example, the content I use in my newsletters often become the same, or similar content that I have on my websites. By doing the work once, I can use forever without having to do another thing to it. So, I build my subscriber list while also building my web sites. Recommendation Prewritten Real Estate Marketing Reports and Real Estate Web Site Content make for fast, affordable, ready to use content for Real Estate Lead Generating Newsletters. Click here to check out the best ones I use and here. |