But, beware that the rules are changing for email!

More and more consumers are carrying smart phones around with them.  They’re not only checking their email on their phones, but clicking on links and forwarding the emails too.  Their smart phones have become the mini computers that deliver email to them  anywhere they are.  If your email doesn’t work on a mobile phone it’s going to get ignored or deleted.

What does your email look like on your smart phone?  Send out some messages to your own smart phone and your friends’ smart phones (a variety of makes and models) and test what the message looks like.  How does it format?  Is it readable?  Do the links work?

It’s one thing to get the message right.  Now ensure the message is readable and reaching consumers in their pockets!

Let us know how you are using smart phones to effectively deliver messages.

• Have you noticed when you purchase something and start getting email marketing from them you end up with an email a day (or more!) from someplace you typically only shop at once a year?
• When you unsubscribe from certain lists, why is it that some say “thank you, we’ve removed your name from our list and hope to serve you again soon” while some act as though your email address is manually printed on email marketing and cannot be stopped so you’ll “still receive emails from us for 5 to 7 days?”
• How many times have you gone to unsubscribe from a list and they drop you on the main page of their website and you can’t find the unsubscribe info so you continue to get unwanted emails?
• Have you ever signed up for an email list expecting to not want the email marketing to continue and be pleasantly surprised that the messages aren’t what you expected and you stay subscribed after all?

Take all the email marketing that frustrates you and vow to never implement those practices in your marketing.  Collect all the great examples of email marketing and work to copy those same practices to keep your home buyers and sellers happy.

Every email marketing experience is unique.  As a consumer, what email marketing practices make you happy?  Which ones drive you insane?

I recently downloaded a number of real estate apps.  Some were from individual agents or their companies, others were “helpful” real estate tools.  Regardless, as I started going through them, one thing became apparently clear — someone didn’t thoroughly test the app!

A few crashed while using them — shutting me out of the app entirely and having to start from scratch when I re-entered the app.  Another one just didn’t look right on my phone even though it was downloaded from my phone for my system.  And still another would work…until I clicked on something!

The key here is test, test and test — over and over and over again.  I was merely curious what these apps had to offer.  Home buyers and sellers aren’t going to have the same level of patience and forgiveness to go back and “try it again” (or again and again and again).

No matter what you try to do online — whether it be an app, an email attachment, a link, a landing page, a fill-out form — take the time to test it on different Internet browsers including those of smart phones.  Make sure that the item looks right, the links are correct, tasks can be completed as they are laid out.  The time you invest in testing will result in happier users — who will reward you with their business!

Let us know how you test your electronic marketing to ensure it’s working as designed.

As a marketer to home buyers and sellers, the key to smart phones — wondrous communication tool — is:  how readable are your email marketing messages and does the recipient have the time/attention to devote to my email when it’s first sent?

• We’ve always been cognizant of what browsers the majority of buyers and sellers were using to ensure our web sites were able to be viewed as we designed them.
• We’ve always been on top of what email programs the majority of our buyers and sellers were using to ensure emails formatted correctly and could be read by recipients.
• We’ve always been aware that certain days of the week were the prime time to send emails that were most likely to be opened and read.
• We were also pinpointing the time of day that works best to encourage the recipient to not just read the email, but take action.

Now we’re at the point where you need to take all of these elements into consideration, especially the environment.  If you hit lunch time, it could be great for those working traditional 9 to 5 jobs who take a lunch break and have time to read emails; not so great for those with young families in the middle of meal prep; high-frequency business travelers; non-traditional work hours.  For those with a long car commute, morning and evening rush won’t work to receive email.  However, for those taking public transportation, it could be the best time of the day to catch up on personal emails!  If your email hits during dinner time for families, it’s likely to be looked at later if there’s time.  Early morning can be good for some; late in the day better for others.

The segmentation you’ve done with your prospects (different types of sellers and buyers, timelines, etc.) is going to get sliced even thinner.  You need to be conscious of your prospects’ lifestage and lifestyle in order to send the emails at an opportune time.  You not only want your recipients to get your email and have it be readable, but you want to make sure that the recipient has at least a small window of time to devote to the email.

Let us know what you’re doing to address getting emails to recipients at the best time of day.

Things aren’t rosy once again, but we’re moving forward with a new perspective.  The biggest piece of knowledge you might have gained is that one-to-one interactions work the best — just as you knew before the downturn, working directly with one person allows you to see clearly and exactly what their needs and wants are leading you to more closed business because of personal and reactive service.

You’re likely adapting this one-to-one knowledge to your marketing — separating your prospects into niche groups based on what their needs are, what their timelines are like, what their budgets allow.  Following up personally with past clients who are ready to move up (or down) or send referrals your way.  Looking for new leads by providing useful, detailed content about your local market — information these leads cannot find in the national and even regional news.

Most importantly you’ve learned that staying in touch and remaining visible allows leads, prospects and past clients to reach out to you when they are ready to make a move.  Continuing to market during the down times means continued business; cutting out marketing to save money means no business during the down times.

With personalized marketing, you’ve learned what works in any kind of economy.  Share what you’ve learned about marketing during lean times.

Generally speaking about emails that you send, the greatest number (30%) will be viewed within two hours of sending the email.  After seven hours, 50% of the total opens will have occurred, 75% after 23 hours and 90% of your opens after three days have passed.

The take away is that immediately after you send your emails, the greatest number of opens will happen.  The news is freshest at that time and the interest is greatest.

MailerMailer also points out that keeping links and landing pages active from your email long after you email them is imperative.  When you are dealing with buying and selling homes, you know that the decision process is a long one and recipients of your emails are more likely to save your emails, refer back to them and click on links and offers long after the email first went out.

Let us know how your open rates are doing for email marketing.

A recent study by Exact Target of consumers showed that more than half of consumers made a product purchase due to email marketing.  And, an excellent article entitled, “Why email marketing is key to driving Christmas retail” by Nigel Arthur of Exact Target outlines exactly why email is currently tops in driving purchases.

No doubt, social media is here to stay.  It’s a great way to connect with people.  However, email still remains the top method by which consumers are driven to purchase.

Yes, no one clicks to add a home to their online shopping cart, but your emails can inform, educate and lead buyers and sellers to the real estate decision that results in a home sale or purchase.

Share you experience on how email marketing continues to deliver for your business.

• Average word count in a direct marketing email was at 428 words in October 2010 compared with an average of 390 from January 2009 through September 2010 emails.
• The most popular delivery day for email has moved to Friday with 19.5% of emails delivered that day.  Monday through Thursday remain popular with Saturday and Sunday trailing significantly.
• Marketing email messages are mainly delivered in the morning, particularly between the 8am and noon window.

Think about your own email inboxes.  When do you receive the greatest number of marketing messages?  How can your own email marketing stand out in this crowded marketing field?

What is your option now if a recipient is not inclined to turn on the images?

The long-forgotten “alt” attribute (a text description of the image on the image tag in HTML) allows you to describe the image in as much detail as you want whether the image is displayed or not.  For example, say you have an image of your newest listing, “123 Main Street” in your email.  You can add the description of the property in the alt tag to get the recipient interested in the property before they even select to view the image or click on it.  And, if they see the image and hover over it, they will also see the alt tag text.

It’s a win-win situation for you and your email recipient!  Share how you use the alt attribute on images in your email.

Guess what?

Don’t just throw something together and email it anyway.  You’ll regret it.  You’re more likely to lose more of those hard-earned subscribers when they see you are sending something incomplete or not relevant to them.  It’s better to take your time and ensure you have done your best to create something that is thoughtful and relevant.  Your subscribers will appreciate it and they’ll stick with you rather than bailing.

You’ve worked hard to earn your subscribers’ trust.  Don’t waste their time.  Don’t make them question why they subscribed to your email list.

How do you handle time constraints for your marketing?  Do you plow ahead or wait until it’s done right?