My eyes start at the horizon. Tones of gray and thick black blanket all that slumbers beneath. Birds circle above waiting in anticipation for last week’s five star entree. Plastic bags, wads of paper, and dirty diapers create the earth’s floor, only accented by old chairs, rustic sneakers, and ancient food. These once valuable things are tossed and then forgotten. Can’t you just picture it? Oh, and don’t forget to take a deep breath … Mmmmm, nothing like exhaust and waste in the morning.

Not often are people so moved by trash. We do not travel miles to gawk at famous landfills nor do we pride ourselves on climbing the highest mountain of garbage. Poets do not dote over rubbish, and putrid scraps do not inspire musicians.

Nature. Trees. Lakes. Mountains. Deserts. All of these ideal settings are what makes our earth beautiful, thriving and alive. In order to keep our earth as a true paradise we need to start thinking green. As cliché as this sounds, it is true. One way we can begin to act in a more eco-conscious manner is to lessen our use of paper. For businesses this means transitioning from snail-mail marketing to email marketing.

Reduce Cents

Money really does grow on trees. That is, if the trees stay in the ground. Every year companies spend thousands and sometimes millions of dollars on paper marketing. They pump out cash for postcards, newsletters, and essentially for rent in the landfill. Why, though? Paper marketing prices usually range from $1- $6 per person. And, production with color and custom templates just adds time and money to this fiasco. Email marketing on the other hand, costs usually around $20- $50 per month. For any company with a large client base, email marketing is by far the more economic route. (For more information visit http://www.ruddyortiz.com/why-use-email-marketing-vs-direct-mail-marketing/)

Increase Sense

It is estimated, according to Inwise, “a ton of standard office paper requires 15-24 average-sized trees.” For that amount of paper 7,000 liters of water and 380 gallons of oil are used in production. Still feel like using paper marketing? Think back to that “picturesque” landscape I described earlier, old food and diapers etc. Ringing a bell? Well, I think I forgot to mention that roughly ¼ of the waste in the landfill is paper. That’s a lot of trees, water, oil, and trash. It just doesn’t make sense to waste resources and waste money. (For more information visit http://blog.inwise.com/email-marketing-is-green-marketing.html).

Paper in Your Pocket

All right, all right I’ll get off my soapbox. I don’t want you to think that I’m a paper basher, because I’m really not. Paper can be a very useful tool and can be quite effective for paper airplanes, ammo for spit wads, and sometimes marketing. But are the harmful and wasteful consequences of paper really worth it? Is it worth the detriment of your wallet and the planet? In my book (paperless of course), no. 

For any successful business and earth, email marketing is the way to go. With email marketing you can create extremely targeted marketing campaigns, monitor your progress (click/open rates) and protect our limited resources. So why not? Email marketing is green marketing. Save trees, save resources and save money. With email marketing paper will still play a major role in your business, but it will just be in your pockets rather than in the landfill.

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Why force consumers to drag their heels down to the mailbox only to find irrelevant coupons and numerous advertisements? This waste of paper ends up residing as a constant coaster on the coffee table or as build-up in the trash. The days of traditional paper mail marketing are slowly fading away and making room for targeted and meaningful email marketing. Email marketing is a great way to get your products, deals, and company at the tip of consumers’ fingertips. Although this type of marketing makes for an easy “in” with many clients, there are a couple of tips to remember in order to fully enjoy all of the many benefits.

WHO’S IN CHARGE HERE?

First of all let’s get one thing straight, the customer wears the pants in this relationship. They are the entity dictating your email marketing messages. Just because you really want to send a message to every contact in your mailing list, does not necessarily mean that they want to hear from you. Take advice from the great Rolling Stones and my mother, “you can’t always get what you want”. It has to be what the customer wants. And at the end of the day, the customers are the ones who will either grant you more access to themselves and their business, or completely shut you out. By handing over that control, you are on the right path to boosting your open/click rates and increasing conversations around your product/service. 

KNOW YOUR CLIENT:

In any business, you should know your customers and do your research. This aspect of email marketing is what I like to call “dating”. It is in this time period that it’s your job to find out who your clients really are. Don’t be afraid to ask them what kind of emails they would like to receive and at what frequency. This will help you get a feel for what they need/want from you, and gives you the groundwork to start to develop a plan for your email marketing campaign.

As far as research goes, monitor closely click rates and views. See who is looking at what, and what campaigns work the best for which group of clients. Also, don’t be afraid to look at what doesn’t work. Why did a client unsubscribe or send you straight to SPAM? Negative reactions are just as helpful during research as positive reactions. Use this information, create lists of clients based on interests and requested frequency, and hopefully with a bit of tinkering you can achieve your maximum email marketing potential.

FREQUENCY:

Remember, an email inbox is not like a jar of chocolate chip cookies, as in more is not always better. There is a very delicate balance between way too many emails and not enough. You want your client to know that you are thinking of them and want their business, without the overwhelming feeling that you are occupying their inbox. Look at the research you have gathered and analyze which campaigns work, and what frequency works. Whether it is twice a month or twice a week is really up to your clients. Keep your ears to the ground and really feel out how your emails are being received in order to establish a successful email frequency.

 LIVE IN RELEVANCE:

Lastly, which should come naturally if you followed the aforementioned advice, only send targeted and relevant emails. As a young female, should I really be getting emails about men’s hair-loss supplements? No, because quite frankly, it isn’t relevant to me… at all. Your clients feel the same way. They want to get email marketing messages that look like you hand-selected the email campaign just for them. For example, let’s say a young couple was looking to move into a bigger house. And, because I’ve done my research and because I’m keeping their best interest in mind, I send them a listing about a new house in their area. Don’t you think this shows that I know my client and their needs? Sending relevant emails proves to the customer that you care and you are not abusing their inbox.

BOTTOM LINE:

This entire long list of what to do really comes down to the one basic principal of marketing, know your client. My apologies for sounding like a broken record, but it is true. If you do your research, listen to your clients, use targeted/relevant email marketing and with the correct frequency, there is no way your email marketing campaigns will not be successful.

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SEO, PPC, Web Site, Email, Twitter, Facebook, Google+. It's all out there, and something else will be the next big thing. Your agents are in these spaces. You may be too. But do you know if you are seeing an ROI for your time and effort?

Where should you focus your time and money?

I was recently at a nice Sotheby's brokerage that has about 30 agents. I heard all of the common arguments. "Our website is awful. We aren't on Twitter and Facebook." Yada, yada, yada.

Referred by (or is) a friend, neighbor or relative:  48%

Internet Web site:  10%

Used agent previously to buy or sell a home:  9%

Visited an open house and met agent:  7%

Saw contact information on For Sale/Open House sign:  6%

Walked into or called office and agent was on duty:  5%

Referred through employer or relocation company:  3%

Personal contact by agent (telephone, email, etc.):  3%

Newspaper, Yellow Pages or home book ad:  1%

Direct mail (newsletter, flyer, postcard, etc.):  <1%

Other:  7%

If you are a broker/owner or an agent look at these numbers like a Vegas casino. Remember John Paulson? He managed the hedge fund that bet big against housing when the crowd was still saying it's going up, up, up.

Think like John Paulson, think like a Vegas casino. Ask yourself "How does my marketing strategy allow me to play the percentages?"

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CLOCKWORK EMAIL MARKETING

When it comes to email marketing, it seems pretty straightforward. Marketing material is passed from a company to a client and whether or not it’s opened depends on the persuasion of the company and a click of the mouse. But is it really that simple or perhaps is there a science behind the most effective email marketing campaigns?

Following studies conducted by Dan Zarrella and Pure360, email marketing seems to work in rhythm with the clock.  There is a best time to send out marketing materials to achieve the highest open rates and thus the most effective marketing. Follow along below for a break down of the email marketing clock.

MORNING:

From 6 a.m. to 9 a.m., the beginning of the workday, deals on clothing, food, and many other consumer goods have a very high open rate. Consumers at this hour are not quite into work mode and easily allow themselves to drift into distraction.

The 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. hour is really just a “good for nothing” time slot. People are hard at work and not easily lured by tasty deals or real estate steals. For marketers in any arena, it is best to wait until later in the day.

AFTERNOON:

If financial marketing services are up your alley, search no further, and be sure to commit 2-3 p.m. to memory.  Although workers try to hold onto their thread of focus, finances during this hour seem to unravel even the toughest of mindsets.

From 3-5 p.m., real estate marketing booms! Emails knock on the door, and people seem to be answering. During these hours people start to pack up and think about heading head home. Home, they ponder, could it be improved? Could it be changed? This curiosity has workers clicking, opening and reading real estate focused emails.

EVENING:

5 p.m. to 7 p.m. usually attracts consumers, perhaps people stuck at work into the late hours, who dream of relaxing vacations and a world far removed from their desk.

As people arrive home from their long hum -drum at the office and gear into relaxation (7- 10 p.m.), gym/sport and clothing offers are highly successful. But, be wary, as 10 p.m. approaches consumers tire and click rates decline.

From 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. refrain from sending out marketing materials! These efforts are rendered ineffective and certainly a waste of the many benefits that email marketing provides.

FOLLOW THE CLOCK!

 Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach the growing digital and tech-savvy generations. Just remember, in order to reach full marketing potential, check your clock and follow the scriptures of the hour.

For more information check out the full research results and complimentary infographic at: http://blog.kissmetrics.com/science-of-social-timing-2/

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Come find us on the LAUNCH Pad at the LAUNCH Conference where we will be demoing our latest enhancements to the Rezora multi-tiered email marketing system.

Founded by Jason Calacanis, the LAUNCH Conference is a gathering of start-up, most launching publicly for the first time. Find out more at launch.is.

We'll be attending the Inbox Love conference in Mountain View where panels and presenters all gather together to talk all things inbox - past, present and mostly future. While we won't be presenting, we will be looking to engage in meaningful conversation and meet new friends.

Founded by Dave McClure and 500Startups, the event promises to be both informative and entertaining. Find out more at inboxlove.com.

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We are excited to announce three new features aimed to further add quality to your newsletters, monitor the activity levels of your contacts, and measure your database's effectiveness as compared to that of your fellow agents.

Custom Newsletter Links

In addition to the local and national news feeds we provide you, it is now possible to create a link to any web page and include it in your newsletter. Just click the Custom tab on the Add Real Estate News page and add the URL of the page you want to include. A summary of the page will be created that you can drag and drop onto your newsletter just like any other news item.

Contact Activity Meter

On your Rezora Dashboard, you now have a Most Active Contacts section that provides you with a snapshot of the most active contacts in your database. The Contact Activity Meter informs you of which contacts have most recently been actively engaged in the marketing materials and communications you have delivered to them.

Agent Badges

Your Rezora Ranking is a fun and easy way to determine your overall efficiency in the Rezora system compared to that of your peers.

In simple terms, the higher your number the better – a Rezora Ranking of 85% means that you are performing better than 85% of all Rezora users. The factors included in our formula include things like the effectiveness of your contact database as measured by open, click and bounce rates, measured against things like how proactive you are in using the system to communicate with your clients.

We hope that these new features help further strengthen the relationship between you and your clients and provides you with a deeper understanding of your clients' needs. We look forward to hearing any feedback you have on these new features.

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Norwalk, CT  and Edwards, CO -- March 3, 2010 -- William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty today announced a comprehensive agreement with Rezora as its chosen provider of e-mail marketing and client insight solutions for its 1,100 plus agents in the New York and Connecticut markets.

With the launch of William Pitt, Julia B. Fee and Litchfield Hills Sotheby’s International Realty, Rezora unveils a significant enhancement to its suite of functionality by integrating directly with a brokerage’s web site.  “This is a very exciting day for us”, said Paul Reinarz, Co-Founder and CEO of Rezora. “By integrating all consumer search activity and metrics with a brokerage’s existing website, Rezora is able to consistently outperform traditional search and online advertising.”

“This is intelligent real estate marketing in its simplest form – communicating with clients new and old while adding a digital spin,” said William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty’s vice president of marketing, Vincent Socci. “Rezora enables our agents to market to that segment of their sphere that they have historically had a difficult time reaching – repeat and referral clients.”

Socci continued, “The email campaigns sent through Rezora are directed at offering the recipient insightful and educating information by seamlessly integrating MLS data right into the email.”

“Our relationship with William Pitt, Julia B. Fee, and Litchfield Hills Sotheby’s International Realty allows us a wonderful platform to launch a huge breakthrough in our functionality”, said Mike Russo, Co-Founder and Head of Sales for Rezora. “Our numbers consistently show that this new feature drives more visitations.  It’s better than just blind consumer traffic; it brings the most qualified consumer back to our clients’ websites.”

Rezora, an Edwards, CO- based technology firm, specializes in providing digital marketing solutions for real estate brokerages and agents throughout the United States.  Rezora offers the industry’s only e-marketing solution featuring live integration with MLS data- allowing an agent to incorporate any active listing into their client insight program. 

About Rezora:

Rezora, founded in 2008, is the real estate industry’s leading e-mail marketing solution.  The only industry-specific e-mail platform, Rezora enables brokers and real estate agents to digitally market to the people that matter most, the people they already know.  The Company is the e-mail marketing provider to many leading real estate firms across the nation.

About William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty:

William Pitt, Julia B. Fee and Litchfield Hills Sotheby’s International Realty are leaders in the Connecticut and Westchester, NY real estate markets. Combined the firm has over 1,100 agents in 29 offices with a network of over 500 offices in 40 countries/territories worldwide through its affiliation with the Sotheby’s International Realty network. For more information, visit the website at www.wpsir.com.

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I consider myself extremely lucky getting to participate in meetings at some outstanding real estate companies around the country. No matter where I go both companies and agents are trying to engage heavily in SEO(search engine optimization). In a few meetings I think people considered it heresy when I mentioned that I felt people should be spending less money on SEO and shift the online budget to PPC(pay per click).

So, let's describe the landscape on what is being played for here. According to NAR's latest report, eighty-eight percent(88%) of consumers are searching for homes online, thirty-two percent(32%) are identifying the home they purchase online, and nine percent (9%) identified their Realtor online.

The logic behind this madness is for Realtors to pick up new buyers. So, all of this money is being spent on where 9% of the consumers find their agent. The challenge with SEO is that it is very difficult to measure and more importantly our beloved Google(where most people search) is changing the game. They give us all of these great applications for free because they generate billions of dollars from the advertising.

Below are two screen shots. The first is of a Google search for Baltimore real estate(just because that is where I am sitting at the moment), and the other is from an SEO company called SEOBook on one of their blog posts. Blog post for SEOBook found at http://bit.ly/7uXU6

In the screen shot from SEOBook they are explaining how basically everything that appears now is a Google ad except the #1 result in the organic search. WOW!!!! Only the #1 organic result is displayed above the fold on the screen. How many brokerages or agents can achieve the first spot? I imagine almost none. Also the company or person that is there almost never gets moved out. I know in 4 years of owning Aspen Sotheby's International Realty we were in the top 3, but we were never able to achieve #1.

In the screen below you can see a live example of search for Baltimore real estate companies. Using the example from the SEOBook screen shot, only Long and Foster is displayed naturally and everyone else is either an ad or being displayed on the Google Map promotion or ads.

You will also notice that the best company in the real estate industry(ZipRealty) for generating web leads is the #1 PPC ad. If you have Zip Realty in your market, do Google searches until your heart's content and I bet you will almost never find them in an organic search.

I have two conclusions:
1. If you are spending money trying to generate buyers then spend it on PPC. The advantages are that you can control both you result placement and your budget.
2. Is that the majority of advertising dollars should really be spent online promoting listings. One area the industry seriously needs to improve is consolidating these online statistics for sellers. There are so many sites out there today and very hard to get good consolidated data to share with a seller.

So, listing agents get out your wallets and start promoting your listings online. That is where 32% of your prospective buyers are finding their next home.

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The entire Rezora team is looking forward to working with the Southport office and appreciate the feedback that was passed on to us.

-----Original Message------
From:To: Karina Caulfield
Subject: Feedback
Sent: Jan 20, 2010 8:54 PM

Hi Karina,
I wanted to let you know I sent out my first news letter tonight, to all my clients.
I heard from one of my most important customers. She is a very very sucessful life coach. She sends me many many referrals.
She sent me an email tonight after she received my news letter and raved about how wonderful the news letter was and what a great promotional tool it is.
Thank you both so much introducing Rezora to the office. It's very exciting. I can't wait to use it to it's full potential.

Laura :)

Sudler Sotheby's International Realty
3746 N. Southport
Chicago, IL 60613

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As a broker/owner of a real estate company have you ever thought of having training on organizing contact lists?  I imagine most don't, but I would love to hear from ones that do.

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I was reading an article on btobonline.com called "Nearly 40% of Marketers Plan to Boost Budgets" and a few comments jumped out at me. Original article can be found at http://bit.ly/4vjoYR

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As the past owner of Aspen Sotheby's International Realty I can tell you that I honestly spent millions of dollars on real estate marketing. We did all of the traditional marketing that you still see today. We spent money on newspapers, glossy magazines, high-end brochures, postcards, etc., etc. Aspen Sotheby's also ran multiple websites and spent plenty of money on the web for advertising. Overall I considered our marketing program successful. Our market share grew ahead of all of our competitors and over 10% of our business came from the internet.

Although I considered our marketing successful I had two major frustrations from our marketing. The first was that I always wanted to be spending less on my marketing. (What brokerage owner doesn't???) Secondly, there had to be a more effective way to spend my marketing dollars. The largest challenge as owners is that we know that all of the marketing dollars are spent on branding or trying to drive leads with consumers that have no previous relationship with our brokerage or agents. Now depending on the statistic you would want to use, somewhere between 50 and 70% of the our business comes from referrals to our agents. But the entire marketing budget is spent targeting the people that have no experience with anyone in your brokerage. (If this doesn't make you angry than check your blood pressure quick....)

Although there are the rare exceptions, most brokerages do not receive the contact lists of the agents. As owners we are always uncertain if our agents are marketing to their contacts like they should. In fact according to the most recent NAR study 50% of agents only communicate with past clients twice a year. Hardly enough to have the top of mind presence to generate future referrals. Now, we would love to market to these people. It is where the majority of our business comes from and the lists represent real people that we would like to reach, spread our message, and help our agents receive a referral. But when was the last time an agent walked in and said, "Will you market to my clients on my behalf?" Never.......

Rezora can help you change all of this about your brokerage and your marketing. We address a number of major issues and I will mention a few below.

1. How can the brokerage market to the agent's clients and contacts?
2. Agents can have the brokerage/owner market to their clients and never share their contact list with the owner/brokerage. (I must be kidding right???)
3. Brokerage receives real data on the performance of their marketing.
4. Agents can have detailed information to help them decide where they should be spending their time in regards to buyers, sellers, or people thinking about real estate.

Last but not least, agents have been extremely excited with Rezora. (See comments from previous post http://rezora.posterous.com/rezora-postcards-awesome) We look forward to sharing more about Rezora with you in the coming year.

Please contact us at sales@rezora.com with any questions about Rezora.

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Sent: Wed Dec 23 14:01:05 2009
Subject: RE: Winter Greetings from Jackson Hole 

Nice Job! Love this new product!

Sales Associate

Sotheby's International Realty

185 W. Broadway, PO Box 3281

Jackson, WY 83001

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