Newsletter Real Estate Leads - you may already have an intuitive sense that publishing a newsletter can help you generate real
estate leads, but do you know how? Here's why the question is important and how a newsletter can elevate you to another level of success!
Newsletter Marketing is About Creating a List of Prospects
If you're really lucky you might get a few people who might transact a real estate deal with you during an initial contact, but it rarely happens. In fact, it takes about seven or eight contacts before the vast majority of them will do business with you.
Consequently, having a list of of bures and sellers to market your services to is imperative. It's simple, really! If you have a list of buyers and sellers you have an opportunity to earn their business, but if you' don't have one... there's no need to finish the statement because I think you see where it's going.
Old School Versus Email Marketing Newsletters Ezines
The focus here is not on the paper copy newsletters of old, but rather the more in vogue electronic real estate newsletters, also known as ezines, that you send via email.
You're probably thinking that a newsletter will take up a lot of your time. And you might be right, because it's easy to run out of ideas that will get your readers excited about your newsletter and eager to receive it. However, I'm betting that it'll be easier than you think.
Questions about Generating Newsletter Real Estate Leads include the following...
Can you maintain quality over a period of time? The quick but sustainable answer is "yes". Your main goal should be offering useful and interesting information and when it isn't your subscribers will disappear like a snow cone in the desert; here one minute and gone the next.
How long should your newsletter be? Keep your newsletters short. Why? because people are inundated with email these days - they actually prefer something they can skim quickly and then put to use.
How often should you publish it? I recommend a frequency of once a month. Any more than that can result in reader fatigue and if that happens they'll cut you off by either unsubscribing to your newsletter, or not reading it at all.
Do you want readers to provide content for it? The recommendation here is a resounding yes! A participatory, reading audience is an engaged one that leads to increased leads, listings and sales.
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...
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
Consider subscribing to several different newsletters to see how others run their newsletters to generate ideas for yours. Set up an address at yahoo or gmail just for them.
Every so often, check your new email account and browse to see what approach other editors use for their newsletter 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.
Also, you can repurpose your newsletter content into a multitude of different ways. Say for example you have a website page about Debt Consolidation. You can write a one paragraph summary about it in your newsletter and include a link to the full article on your website.
That's it for now. Here's to your Real Estate Marketing Success!
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