Question

Topic: E-Marketing

Email Marketing For Fledgling Marketer

Posted by Anonymous on 11/3/2010 at 3:40 PM ET 125 Points
I am the owner of a real estate services company (1031 exchange intermediary). I have relied on referral, word of mouth and now I want to get a bit more serious about marketing. A monthly newsletter, combined with personal group presentations, will be the most effective.

There is a jungle of email marketing providers. I have heard of Constant Contact because they advertise heavily. After looking around a bit it appears Benchmark Email may suit my needs.

I think my requirements are simple. Build and maintain an email list. Be able to see who has opened the emails. Make sure it is easy to opt out or sign up so the newsletter process doesn't make me look sloppy or inefficient. All in all I think my requirements / needs are pretty vanilla for the marketing world. I just want something that is reliable and requires little overhead from me. I don't want to have to become an expert at this. I would prefer to concentrate on the contents of the newsletter rather than the mechanics of the process.

I appreciate this forum. do you pros have experience with benchmark? Am I on the right track?

Thanks for your help.
To continue reading this question and the solution, sign up ... it's free!
SUBSCRIBE
Or, SIGN IN

RESPONSES

  • Posted by Inbox_Interactive on 11/3/2010 at 3:45 PM Accepted
    If you really want the basics and that's all, any of the available services will meet your needs. It really comes down to whether the user interface is simple and if support will be there when you need it.

    If you're really interested in just developing the content, however, you might consider a full-service or managed offering where you just submit your content and let someone else put the whole thing together for you.

    Costs a little more, but there's no learning curve on your end.
  • Posted on 11/3/2010 at 4:13 PM Author
    Thanks for the response. I am fairly proficient with software and computers so as long as the requirements aren't to onerous i should be OK. In the current economy I want to keep my operation as low cost as possible.

    I agree that any of the available services will meet my simple needs. The problem for me is to really get an insight as to the quality of the service. There are a ton of review sites however they all are linked to the service websites...I'm guessing these are merely affiliate marketing sites and not real reviews.

    Its hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. Anyone out there actually use benchmark?
  • Posted by mgoodman on 11/3/2010 at 4:33 PM Accepted
    Did not use Benchmark, but had a very positive experience with Emma ... especially for the user interface and the live telephone support.
  • Posted on 11/3/2010 at 4:57 PM Author
    I had not heard about myemma. Looks interesting. I will check it out. I have a distinctive look to my website and I wanted to catch that vibe on the newsletter. Looks like that might be easier using myemma.

    This is all very helpful. Thank you.
  • Posted by SRyan ;] on 11/3/2010 at 7:57 PM Accepted
    I've been a MyEmma.com customer for years. You will love them! If email services were shoes... MyEmma would be the Zappos of the industry!
  • Posted by Neil on 11/3/2010 at 10:21 PM Member
    I would recommend doing a search for email marketing in the search engines and then looking at a bunch of the services to see if the fit your basic requirements. Pick a few of them and do a free trial and then choose the one that works the best for you to upgrade to a full account.

    Make sure you ask questions of the providers to make sure everything is clear and don't hesitate to ask for help getting started. Make sure to check out the customer support of the various providers you are testing to make sure they are good and responsive.

    I work for the StreamSend email marketing service and you are welcome to give us a try and compare us with others you are considering.
  • Posted on 11/4/2010 at 3:31 AM Accepted
    Bob

    I've grown to like mailchimp for my email marketing needs. I use email marketing more for customer retention than lead generation it's just not as effective as it used to be. It might be a case of "banner blindness" in the form of emails. Don't get me wrong it still works to bring in potential customers but don't expect to be converting a high percentage. The advantage of Mailchimp is it is free for your first 1000 . Give it a look. Goodluck on your marketing campaign and I hope you convert a lot prospects.
  • Posted by telemoxie on 11/4/2010 at 8:03 AM Accepted
    I'm curious: in addition to e-mail marketing, what else have you considered?

    I have personally signed up for dozens of e-mail newsletters. I have set up Outlook to that they all automatically go into a newsletters folder. Every couple months or so I delete them all, unread.

    I wonder, what is so special about your e-mail newsletter which would cause me to read it?
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 11/4/2010 at 8:11 AM Member
    Here's a basic comparison of some of the top email marketing options: https://www.email-marketing-options.com/email-marketing-reviews

    Note: the reviewer is an affiliate of all of these software packages, which means if you sign up from their website, they earn $.
  • Posted by Inbox_Interactive on 11/4/2010 at 9:14 AM Accepted
    Bob, just so you'll know, you don't need to be cornered into a look that comes with a template. If your Web site has a certain look and feel, you can easily create your own email newsletter template to mimic that look and feel.
  • Posted on 11/4/2010 at 12:13 PM Author
    Thanks for all the responses.

    Neil: I've done the searches and that was a good way to get started. Obviously everything is anecdotal but i wanted to see if any patterns emerged for the respective companies. Hopefully i will pick something that works right off the bat. I really don't want to have to check out multiple companies. Like any small businessmen I have a lot of other balls in the air.

    Webmaster / Telemoxie: I hired someone to survey all of my prior customers and also real estate related professionals in my area. The result is that my business comes primarily from realtor referrals (much more than lenders, title companies, CPAs and other involved parties). My newsletter will never cause someone to decide to do a 1031 exchange. When they have a client where a 1031 is appropriate (or they need some advice) the goal is that my company is the first that comes to mind. There is no immediate, specific call to action.

    This business will not take over the world. I focus on a limited geographic area. It is a relationship business. My marketing consists of speaking to groups of realtors and the monthly newsletter (once I get it together).

    Why read it? I am a CPA in a busy tax practice. We do well because we can make complicated laws easily understood. Understanding the rules around 1031 and capital gains tax can really help realtors in making sales. Can a vacation home be sold subject to 1031? what about converting personal use real estate to investment/trade or business? I keep up to date on these issues and can provide easy to understand insights.

    The other part is entertainment. Interesting tax cases come out all the time. When I get the newsletter from the State Board of Accountancy the first thing I look at are the disciplinary cases. Just try and not read the covers of the newspapers by the grocery store check out stand. I will include one of these with each newsletter.

    Hopefully the information and entertainment aspect will get folks to look at it. Am I on the right track?

    By the way, this site is great. I am going to open another question to get comments on my website. I need to freshen it up and would love to get your opinions.
  • Posted by telemoxie on 11/4/2010 at 1:10 PM Accepted
    thanks for the information. In my opinion, an e-mail newsletter which is sent to industry contacts (such as you describe) makes a lot more sense than an e-mail newsletter sent to homeowners. Good luck.
  • Posted on 11/5/2010 at 5:24 PM Author
    I just wanted to say Thank you before I closed this question.
BACK TO TOP

Post a Comment

Related Discussions

Community Info

Top 25 Experts
(E-Marketing)