Email may be the most important communication tool ever invented. Not only can it provide instant communication and response, it allows you to keep a record on both ends.
You can use email to transmit video and audio files, word documents, and simple greetings. It’s an all purpose communications tool with its own unique rules of etiquette and language. And it’s free.
When used with a professional email program such as Outlook or Eudora Pro, email can take your business to a level of efficiency you never dreamed possible. With mail merge programs, you can use email to contact your prospects quickly and deliver information to many with one or two clicks of your mouse.
If you aren’t used to using email, you will quickly become accustomed, if not addicted like many others are. Have you ever known anyone to start using email and give it up? I didn’t think so. But, I’ll bet you know plenty of people who have converted much of their communications from telephones, fax machines and pagers to email.
The beauty of email is that it is immediate, but not time-sensitive. When you need to make contact with a client, and it’s late, you can email them instead of interrupting their dinner or bed time. Email is a great way to send feedback to another agent or a relocation counselor.
Terri Murphy, GRI, CRS and LTG, is an active broker and trainer who teaches that communication is the foundation of any good service relationship. She suggests that email can be used a multitude of ways. Here are just a few:
- Notify buyers of new listings
- Send reports and updates
- Send online newsletters
- Respond even when you’re not available with an autoresponder
- Send links to listings and virtual tours
- Use electronic greeting cards for all occasions
As with any utility, you must learn how to use it professionally. There are many places to learn about email etiquette including the wonderful series by Ducky Sherwood featured on Realty Times. Start with these few suggestions for business:
Always include a subject line.
Change the subject when replying to an email unless the same subject applies.
Always use a signature line.
Include your full name, company name, title, phone number, and email address
Maximize your signature line with links to your Web site or online newsletter
Ask permission before you start emailing a newsletter or other information
Spell check your messages. You’ll be surprised how many contain errors.
Don’t forward unasked-for jokes or solicitations.
Start collecting email addresses as soon as you can so you can build a database of contacts for easy email contact.
Answer email promptly, within a few hours and certainly no more than 24 hours.
Don’t put all recipients in the send field unless you want them all to know you are sending them each the same message. Personalize your email with a professional mass mailing program such as WorldMerge.
Keep your message as simple as possible.
Watch your tone. Flat, factual information may need a little warming up for delivery.
Don’t send an angry email. It can be kept, reviewed and used against you.
Choose email anytime you want a record of your communication or when you want fast communication.
Make sure you topic is relevant. Email is so common now that most people receive hundreds per day. Make yours count.
Don’t send unsolicited attachments. Send links instead.
Email is personal. Resist the urge to sell. Share instead.
Published: June 22, 2000
Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.
 Blanche Evans is the award-winning senior editor of Realty Times, the Internet's leading independent real estate news service. She is featured daily on the Realty Times Video Network in the "Realty Viewpoint" segment.
Blanche has been named one of the "25 Most Influential People In Real Estate" by REALTOR Magazine, and has been twice recognized as a "notable." In 2005, she was named "Top Reporter Covering the NAR" by Delahaye-Bacon's.
Blanche is a renowned author of five real estate books. Her newest, Bubbles, Booms and Busts: Make Money In Any Real Estate Market, McGraw-Hill, was rave-reviewed by The New York Times. She was also selected from hundreds of real estate experts to contribute to Donald Trump's book, Trump: The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received: 100 Top Experts Share Their Strategies, Rutledge Hill Press, and is featured on page 68.
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In 2006, Blanche was selected among scores of candidates to author two consumer real estate guidebooks for the National Association of Realtors: The NAR Guide to Home Buying, and The NAR Guide to Home Selling, Wiley & Sons. She is currently planning two new books for the NAR and its members.
 
Known for her keen insight into real estate industry issues and for her ability to make complex subjects easy to understand, Blanche is a sought-after keynote and continuing education speaker. Real estate organizations from MLSs, to brokerages, to franchisors, to associations hire her to provide up-to-the-minute analysis of real estate industry news and advice on how to improve revenues. Her passionate delivery, peppered with stinging wit, is a huge hit with audiences and fans.
Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors, Blanche Evans, Richard Courtney, president 2007, GRAR
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