How Often to Drip Emails?

[Ryan Ward]

weekly, biweekly? Do you use e-newsetters or just simple emails?

[Sam Dodd]

I do weekly drips and a monthly newsletter and automated emails of new listings.

[Ryan Ward]

So every week they get an email, once a month they get an email and a newsletter?...As for new listings, do they just get a list of all new listings - Or does everyone get a custom set of new listings that are based on what they are looking for? Do they get the new listings weekly also?

I am thinking about doing my own newsletter and creating a template that I will customize. I want to make it look like my website and send that, but, I can't figure out what program to use to create the newsletter in - or how to inbed it in an email for that matter. I'm thinking in terms of branding I want them to see my newsletter with live links to my website that looks like the newsletter to keep reinforcing my brand.

Got lots of work to do here to get some systems in place...

[Sam Dodd]

They get customized search results. (My MLS does this Automatically)

[drewnick]

Do these people not want to kill you for spam? If I got a weekly email from anyone, I'd get annoyed. Just wondering - I don't do weekly drip but do follow up with a manual email weekly to hot prospects.

[Sam Dodd]

I have the option to opt out on the bottam of every email. I have about 1000 people on drip and only 17 have opted out. Honestly people get so much junk email that they ignore whatever they dont want to read anyway.
I try to write my drips so they look personalized. This makes people feel as if I am writing them individually so they love it.

[BarryC]

I don't even have a site yet, it is being built by REW right now, but I think Cedar is right. I would much rather get a regular looking email thats informative and personalized looking than one that is commercialized (I'm not sure if that's the word I'm looking for)

[drewnick]

Yeah - the templates that come with top producer are cheesy.

[IntegralImpressions]

weekly, biweekly? Do you use e-newsetters or just simple emails?

A couple of pointers.

1 - Determine if the drip is to act as a "touch" tool or to elevate a lead to a prospect or prospect to a client. A touch tool should be around once a month. A escalation tool needs to have several variables accounted for.

2 - If the drip campaign is designed to elevate the recipient, determine how long that process usually takes. For example, you determine that a buyer in your area and market is going to take 6 months from lead to client. This gives you the length of the campaign. Once this is done, determine the amount of touches you want inside of this 6 months and when. For a buyer like this, you might want to have the 12 touches. This will give you a 6x12 campaign.

3- Next plot out the logical progression of the recipient. For example, Setting up automated searches and starting the mortgage process is something you want to cover in the early stages of the drip. A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself this question for every email. If I am a prospect and I am 4 months out from buying a home, what do I want to read or what would apply to me TODAY?

4- Modify your spacing. In most drips, you want to have the touches farther apart in the beginning and shorted towards the end of the drip.

5- Messaging. Make sure your content is custom. Most stock drip tools are not nearly as effective as a custom drip. The reason being is stock drip campaigns were written with absolutely no understanding or correlation to the marketing campaign that created the lead. Stay on point with your messaging.

6- Place tie backs to content on your blog. A successful drip is only meant to engage the prospect to do something else. It is not a "set it and forget it" tool. For example, you post your third email as a mortgage email advising the prospect to either start or complete the process. A great tie back is to a mortgage section on your blog where you or a lender has written about the pluses AND minuses of various programs.

7- Analise. Most marketers will define drip into two components, content and distribution. Both are equally important. Make sure that your drip distribution tool will give you detailed reporting. Showing such things as open ratio, click thru ratio, referrals and the like. This information will allow you to do the next two steps.

8- Revise. If you find that email #4 in a campaign has a very low open ratio, odds are your subject line is off. Change the subject line. If you find that email #6 has a low click thru ratio, odds are you content is not compelling or on point. Change your content.

9- Tag in your CRM. Great drip campaigns not only take most of the burden of communication from you, they also extract data. This data can be used to get the prospect to sign with you. For example in email #2 you outlined the 3 stages of the mortgage process. If the prospect click on the link that said "if your pre-qualified looking to get pre-approved" you can apply the tag of pre -qualified to the lead. If in email #7 the prospect identified by a click that the most important feature in a home is a back yard, you can apply that to advanced searches you set up or contact them when homes with exceptionally large yards come available.


The list can go on and on but I just wanted to provide a couple of pointers.


Good Luck!
CJD

[nancychiri]

Can someone make a reccomendation on which drip email system is the best? I am looking for something that has pre-written, professionally written emails that can be customized. Thanks!