The Importance Of Using Email Feedback Loops For Your Email Marketing Part 4

Another thing you can do to ward off spam complaints is by accepting these complaints yourself.  Put your unsubscribe link at the top of your email but change the wording of the link to say “Mark This Email As Spam”.  If anyone clicks this link they’ll be brought to the unsubscribe page and you’ll have one less complaint against you.  You could also setup a special email address from spam complaints (eg. spam-complaints@your-domain.com) and include it in your emails.

The Importance Of Using Email Feedback Loops For Your Email Marketing Part 3

So if enough people from a particular email provider (eg. Hotmail.) vote against your email by clicking the Spam button then the email provider will either start putting all your messages into their recipients’ spam folders or (more likely) start blocking all emails you send to their users.  Even worse, you will have no way of knowing this is happening.  Email providers won’t tell you your emails are being spam filtered or blocked unless you sign up for their feedback loop.

The Importance Of Using Email Feedback Loops For Your Email Marketing Part 2

Email providers don’t really look at what is being advertised in emails flagged as spam by their users.  They just know their users really don’t want to receive these types of email.  Considering that these spam type emails are often sent in the tens of millions and are sometimes phishing scams to boot, you really don’t want to be tarred with the same brush as actual spammers.  Spammers have received some serious persecution for their activities in recent years: huge fines and even jail time.

When people click the Spam button, they’re

The Importance Of Using Email Feedback Loops For Your Email Marketing Part 1

Almost everyone hates spam.  Have you ever bought anything through an unsolicited email?  I haven’t.  But did you ever stop to think some of your prospects in your email database may regard your email bulletins as spam?  It’s likely some of them now do because when they signed up for your mailing list when they were in the market for a new home.  But now that they’ve bought a home your email bulletins are now irrelevant to them.

It’s NOT good when people consider your email bulletins as spam, and it’s got greater consequences than you’d think.  It’s not just as simple as someone deleting your email anymore.  If your email is considered spam by your recipients you face larger problems than indifference.  Sometimes much larger problems.

Here’s why. 

A Case Study On Rapidly Building Your Email Database Of Prospects Part 6

Geographically Specific Home Locations

I have always maintained that real estate professionals should focus on niche area of real estate so they can become highly expert in what they do and beat out all the generalists who try to be jack of all trades and master of none.  One of the best ways of doing this is focusing on a particular geographic farm area.  This rep is doing this in spades with his Craig’s List ads.

He has setup ads to attract people looking for homes in specific neighborhoods within the Toronto area.  Here are some examples of the ad headlines he uses for doing this:

A Case Study On Rapidly Building Your Email Database Of Prospects Part 5

This would help determine not only what keywords and phrases you would want people to find you under in Google but also what words to use in your Google ads to drive people traffic to your squeeze pages.  Doing this can save you literally hundreds if not thousands of dollars.  I’ve seen a lot of money wasted on Google Ad Words campaigns with little return, and this could be alleviated with some experimentation with Craig’s List which costs only time.

A Case Study On Rapidly Building Your Email Database Of Prospects Part 4

When prospects visit his squeeze page on his website for First Time Buyers they see the following message:

A Case Study On Rapidly Building Your Email Database Of Prospects Part 3

Another important reason to vary your ad wording is broadening your appeal.  Some types of ads will appeal to some people, other types will appeal to others.  So think about anything that might describe a first time home buyer and don’t be afraid to use it somewhere in your ad.

Here are some of the short but sweet ads this rep uses for attracting first time buyers:

A Case Study On Rapidly Building Your Email Database Of Prospects Part 2

He starts to reel them in by creating very short classifieds ads on Craig’s List on a daily basis that bring people to a squeeze page on his website.  The squeeze page entices the person to sign up for his mailing list to receive updates on suitable homes via email.

Let’s take a closer look at how he’s designed this database building system:

A Case Study On Rapidly Building Your Email Database Of Prospects Part 1

The ante has really been upped for real estate professionals in recent years.  The near monopoly we once enjoyed with the MLS in our corner is long over.  With consumers being empowered by the internet and technology in general and free online classifieds sites like Craig’s List becoming among the most popular sites in the world, an increasing number of people are trying to sell their homes privately.  And succeeding.