Drip Email Marketing
Jennifer Hoppenrath, Z57 REALTOR® Resource
If you're not doing it, you should. It will save you money, bring you new clients, and increase your exposure. Z57 REALTOR® Resource Jennifer Hoppenrath explains the hows, whys, and musts of "drip" email marketing. Learn More!
The term drip marketing may sound unfamiliar, but in reality you've probably been practicing this for quite some time now with your direct mail campaigns. It's simply applying the strategy of hitting a certain lead base with several email campaigns over a period of time to increase exposure. With the advent of email marketing, this strategy has been applied to email campaigns.
There are, however, a few things to keep in mind when transferring this profitable practice online. Here's a quick list to get you started:
1. Always allow for opt-out.
It's against the law to email people against their will. When you cross this line you go from being a legitimate email marketing to a spammer, and the consequences range from your email provider canceling your service, to monetary fines, or even lawsuits. Just don't go there. So, how do you keep people from opting out? That takes us to tip number two.
2. Give your prospects something of value with every email.
This not only prevents your prospects from opting out, it keeps your open rate high. Offer coupons, community information, home improvement tips, or whatever other information you know your target market finds valuable. Don't make the mistake of letting your emails become too self-congratulatory. Imagine each of your email recipients asking themselves, "Why do I care", and be sure you're giving them an enthusiastic answer. If possible, have them click through to your website to take advantage of the incentive, rather than presenting it within the email itself. This also increases your website traffic, upping your placement in search engines.
3. Keep a common theme and vary the emails around that theme.
Don't forget what the original goal of your email campaign is. Whether it's to get prospects to visit your MLS, to advertising that you have the best retirement properties or land deals in town, to offering comfort and advice to first time buyers, be sure you are consistent in your core message, and then vary the secondary information and incentives you offer around that core. Keep the look and feel of your e-mails similar as well. People need repetition to remember things, and that's as true for your email campaigns as for your direct mail campaigns.
4. Keep your brand prominent and always include an direct call-to-action.
Pick up a newspaper or magazine near you and flip to an ad. Look away, hold it at arms length (or closer if your eyesight isn't what it used to be!) then turn to glance at it for a few seconds before looking away again. Did you catch a) who the ad was from, b) what they were selling, and c) what you needed to do to get it in your glance? If you didn't the ad wasn't effective. Be sure your emails are effective by making your name and picture prominent, including your core objective in the headline or subject line, and making the call-to-action stand out.
5. Keep all key information "above the fold".
Set your monitor to 800 x 600 screen resolution and look at your email. Do you have to scroll down to see your logo or picture, core message, or call-to-action? If so, you need to move those items up so they are visible without the viewer having to scroll down. This is referred to as keeping key information "above the fold", the fold being the point on your email where you have to scroll to continue reading. The fold changes depending on your screen resolution, meaning how big or small you are viewing items on your screen. The most common screen resolution is 800 x 600, so it's a good idea to hedge your bets and go with that. So remember that you can add details under the fold, but keep all key information above it.
6. Be sure your email or newsletter program allows you to send a text-only version for those recipients who's email programs don't support HTML.
Most email campaigns are sent in HTML, or hypertext markup language. It's the language that your web browser uses to view web pages, and it allows you to format emails as well using pictures and fonts. Most email programs will support HTML emails, but some don't. If your recipient can't view an HTML email, most email programs, such as Z-Mailer, will automatically detect that and send them a text-only version. This won't be visually pretty, but at least it won't read like Japanese. Whatever you are using to manage your email campaigns, be sure they support the text-only option.
Good luck! I think you'll find that drip email marketing costs hundreds less than traditional direct mail, and your returns are just as great!
