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Marketing real estate on the Internet begins with common sense and basic strategies.

I moved recently from Chapel Hill to Sarasota. Naturally I did a lot of home searching on the Internet. I visited many real estate sites and contacted many real estate agents. Now I have a first hand experience as the Internet prospect - not only as the Internet coach and web site evaluator.

Let me tell you this right away: it is amazing how few real estate professionals use internet effectively. I mean really REALLY amazing how very few and far between!

Since there are so many real estate web sites, so many more than just a year before, you might assume that your competition is tight. Sadly, nothing is further from the truth.

Most realtors don't do anything to follow up with the inquiries they receive. If they do answer email (many don't), their messages are painfully ineffective. So, it is easy to set yourself apart from your competition just by paying more attention to people who visit your site and request information.

For example, I received the following message from the only agent who one way or another followed up with me until now. Here is the ENTIRE message I got:

----------> snip

Open the attached file to view the MLS Data. In most E-Mail browsers, double-click on the icon.

-----------> snip

Now, is this a serious follow up message?
NOT in your lifetime!!!!

In the matter of fact it went IMMEDIATELY to my delete file. The only reason I retrieved it later was to share with you, my readers, what you should never do.

There is this naive notion in real estate (perpetuated for years by some real estate trainers) that people will call you if you just send them something from time. Something to remind them that you exist.

Not so! Especially not so on the internet.

Of course, it is necessary to keep in touch on a regular basis but it's not about sending something -- it is about sending something that compels people to do business with you. And more: to do business only with you!

It must be something demonstrating not only your real estate knowledge. You need to demonstrate your ability to listen, show how thoughtful you are and that you don't treat people like numbers. You need to keep in touch to show that you care. Sending a two-liner with the attachment of the MLS file will not do the trick for sure.

Here are a few things that will make your keep-in-touch e-mail messages more effective:

Begin with a salutation

Always start with a greeting and address the recipient with a name. The heading "Dear Wanda" will make me read -- generic "Hi" is more likely a kiss of death (or a delete file)

Once your list grows, you will want to use special program to merge fields -- for example with WordMerge you can send hundreds personalized messages to your contact list in just minutes. You can download a free evaluation copy from here.

Schmooze

Do say something nice in your e-mail before getting down to business. Something like "I hope you had a nice weekend" if you send e-mail on Monday. This will make your message feel much more like a personal letter than a sales pitch.

Send it in the BODY of e-mail if you can

Whenever possible send the information in the BODY of the e-mail -- with so many viruses people are quite paranoid about opening attachments (and they should be - the famous Melissa virus was spread through the common WORD files.

There are other problems with attachments. They take much longer to download and then it takes an additional step (and time) to launch a program to open the attachment. That's why a majority of people dislike attachments and dump them upon the arrival unless it is something they *request* AND it is mailed from a secure source. What is secure? -- a source *they* trust (the fact that *you* scan for viruses is here immaterial if they don't know you well).

Here is how you can copy and paste"

You can paste any text in the body of your email - any document (e-mail messages or text on your files, in any format). To copy, place your mouse at the beginning of the document, click on the mouse and while holding that clicker down, drag the mouse to the end. This will highlight the entire document.

Now release the left click and click the *right* button of the mouse. A little menu will pop - select "copy". This will save the document in memory.

Now place your mouse on top of another document, precisely where you want to insert your copy. Right click and from that little menu select "paste" -- and voila! Your copied text appear instantly in the body of your e-mail.

If you MUST send an attachment ...

... *always* ask for permission before sending it! And even if you receive a permission, say in the body of your e-mail what is it the attachment. Be specific. People on the Internet have short memory and they will not necessarily remember what they requested an hour ago -- not to mention a few days or weeks before.

If it is that *something* generated from your MLS data, write: "here is an updated list of $250-350,000 one family homes for sale now in Lake George area." Or "I am attaching details about several recently listed condos in the Sarasota area". Use rounded sentences and pay attention to punctuation. Your e-mail message speaks VOLUMES about you - make sure it speaks on your behalf, not against you.

By the way.....

I risked the life of my computer and finally decided to open the attachment I received from that real estate agent. The computer launched slowly the MS WORD program and... guess what? Was this indeed some important MLS data that had to be send as an attachment? No. It was just a short note telling me that there were no new listings matching my criteria... Ouch! What a terrific way to kill credibility!

Finish with your signature file

Always finish with a cordial greeting, sign with your name AND attach a signature file containing your full name and contact information. Because you *would* like them to contact you, right?

There are also many misconceptions about those signature files -- but that's a topic for another article....