In an exclusive new series, Realty Times joins forces with Michael Russer, aka Mr. Internet, to produce monthly surveys designed to stimulate and inform the real estate industry about key issues ranging from online marketing to real estate politics and other issues involving the Internet.

The first of the co-branded surveys focuses on e-newsletters. "The purpose is that we wanted to see how many people were actually using e-mail newsletters and how they were using them," says Russer.

How do they work? "Newsletters bring news and information that can stimulate a prospect to take action - lock in an interest rate, or put a home on the market," says Russer. "That's their purpose."

Newsletters can keep prospects informed and keeps the sender's name top-of-mind with contacts, whether they are lifelong clients are first-time homebuyers. Newsletters can nurse a contact along from the time s/he is thinking of buying a home, through the buying process, through move-in and all the way to resale when the buyer becomes a seller. What other tool is so handy in keeping consumers gently tethered to a brokerage or agent and for weeks, months and years at a time?

With the advent of the Internet, however, more consumers are online than real estate agents, giving agents who use the Internet for communications a marketing advantage. Now the agent who wants to send a newsletter can do so electronically, saving time, money and expensive snail mailings. That makes it more feasible to add names to the agent's prospecting database when customers aren't ready to buy or sell because they can be retained as prospects cheaply and easily.

"e-Newsletters are particularly effective in capturing and holding the attention of the elusive online home buyer," says Agent News publisher Blanche Evans. "Recent polls have shown that the online homebuyer gathers information for weeks or months longer than offline buyers, but when they are ready to buy, they act quickly and decisively and are more likely to use a Realtor."

According to the results of the Mr. Internet/Realty Times e-newsletter survey, 43.3 percent of online agents who responded to the survey (397 respondents) send an e-newsletter to their farms. Of those, over 63 percent send one, over 25 percent send two, and over 11 percent send three or more e-newsletters.

Over 69 percent of respondents send newsletters monthly. Over 10 percent send e-newsletters weekly, over 7 percent bi-weekly and just under 9 percent send them quarterly.

Getting a newsletter into the hands of subscriber - prospects is the biggest challenge for agents. Some agents say they mail them to clients, while others get subscribers off their Web sites where they have a newsletter opt-in feature.

"This is a way to capture leads off a Web site," says Evans, "but the most effective way to get more prospects is to offer the newsletter to people you know and people you meet and ask for their e-mail addresses. You can do this in-person, on the phone or in an e-mail."

Over 55 percent of respondents target a general market when they send a newsletter, with just over 5 percent targeting new buyers, another 5 percent targeting relocation buyers, and 11 percent concentrating on affluent buyers and sellers.

"If you speak to everyone, you speak to noone," says Russer. "Most real estate people have trouble thinking in terms of a target market - it's anyone who wants to buy or sell."

"In a perfect world, you can send out multiple e-newsletters for your target market," says Evans. "or you can send a general interest e-newsletter but personalize it for your target group. That way you have the best of both worlds for only a few minutes of work."

Two out of three e-newsletter users use a template vendor, while one-third use a custom newsletter. Out of 77 respondents, 49 use The Real Estate Update from Realty Times (five to one favorite over second place,) 10 use Property Source, 6 use Inman News, 3 use Advanced Access, and 3 use Real Estate Cyberspace Society, with two each for HomeSeekers and HomeLog, and one each for eNeighborhoods, ImakeNews and the California Association of Realtors. Of template customers, 71 percent are able to customize their newsletters.

How does business benefit from an e-newsletter? Eight percent use their newsletter to generate new leads, 7 percent to increase market awareness, and a whopping 76 percent use the newsletter to keep in front of prospects. A majority of respondents said they use the newsletter to do all of the above. One commented that it helps stay in touch with "techy" clients.

"I'm not surprised at the low number who use their newsletter to generate leads," says Evans. "If you are using it to generate leads, then you are using it as a passive lead capture tool on a Web site, sign up for my free newsletter. While that can work, it works much better with people you have already met. You just have to remember when you meet someone new to ask for their e-mail address and ask if they would like to receive news and information about market conditions, home buying, selling or home ownership or whatever your newsletter is about."

Russer counters, "I'm looking at a mindset, only 8 percent do it to generate new leads….how is this going to generate leads? That is like throwing out a hook without any bait. The mindset is off from a marketing standpoint - the focus should be generating new leads, by definition your name is still out there.

"I think a lot of people are using them to stay in touch, but very few are using them in highly targeted means, which is a shame because that is where they will get the biggest bang for the buck. Most people are sending newsletters - in terms of how people are subscribing, most of them are doing opt-in, very few double opt-ins and that is the way to go," continues Russer. "The target market almost 56 percent had no targeting, when you can customize it to a niche the impact is far greater and more likely to be passed on.

"What I see is that agents may not be using their newsletters to differentiate themselves," says Russer. "Sending a newsletter to keep your name in front of customers? Business cards do that."

"Yes, but who gets a business card out once a month and looks at it?" offers Evans. "Staying in front of customers is a legitimate goal in this commitment-phobic business environment. And when they can ask questions by responding to something in the newsletter it, like a local market report or a interest rate drop, it opens the door to a sale."

Russer says, "Marketing means more than having your name out there. That is the least of it. You have to differentiate yourself and prove the value that creates the differentiation."

Newsletters can help you implement a five-point marketing plan that can help you stand out online, says Russer. "It's a powerful tool that meets every step," he says.

Russer's five-point marketing plan goes as follows:

1. Identify your target market - who do you want to send this newsletter to?
2. Determine your value proposition - what customized content can I put in that will be perceived as high value?
3. Differentiate yourself in the content - what unique positioning statement is on every page of the newsletter?
4. Create a relationship - what content helps your prospect want to interact with you?
5. Call to action - ask your subscriber/prospect to send you referrals, call you or send you information so that you can close deals and build your farm.

Published: August 8, 2001

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