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Bob Hafer,
MIRM, CSP |
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The art of e-mail marketing
Last month's newsletter was the first in a series of three newsletters where focus is customer follow-up. The follow up involves taking the necessary steps from the outset of the sales presentation to bring the customer back, ready to
listen, understand and buy. And the best way to make that happen is to develop a complete follow up strategy that includes: phone, e-mail and mail correspondence.
This month's newsletter concentrates on the art of using e-mail to follow-up. It is my privilege to have Tom Sieger, Director of Sales and Business Development for Lead Velocity, co-authoring this month's newsletter. Lead Velocity is
considered by building industry independent consultants to be the "best," "easiest to use," and "most flexible" builder lead management tool available today.
I am proud to say that Lead Velocity is one of my Alliance Partners. To learn more about Lead Velocity, visit
www.CustomerVelocity.com or call Tom Sieger at 281-383-9380; and of course you can e-mail him at
info@customervelocity.com. I know Tom would love to hear from you. Lead Velocity is truly a marvelous product and Tom will be sharing the benefits of using a builder lead management system in the second article of this newsletter.
A bit of review
Last month I mentioned a study done by Red Tree Marketing. A consulting firm based in Denver, Colorado. Red Tree's study of 50 new-home communities in Denver found that only about 50 percent of the sales agents asked if they could follow
up, 36 percent actually did it, and only 14 percent sent anything relevant to what the prospects said was important to them.
Even more shocking was this statistic: On 16 percent of the visits, no one even spoke to the shoppers, even though they stood in the sales center or model and clearly demonstrated interest – and even when they were the only visitor in the
sales center. In 74 percent of the visits, the shopper was the only person in the sales center; in another 20 percent, there was only one shopper there.
It doesn't take a genius to see that if you develop a well-thought out follow up e-mail program you will differentiate yourself from the competition. The key is ‘well-thought out'. If you simply start sending out unwanted e-mails, most
likely, they are going to get caught in a spam trap.
E-mails can turn to spam very quickly
First off, forget about finding a standard definition for ‘spam'. There isn't one (or at least one that I can find) that everyone can agree on. Instead, think of e-mail as a spectrum of possibilities. At one end is the kind of e-mail that
just about everybody would say is spam. That would be an e-mail where for example:
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You didn't ask for the e-mail
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You don't know the sender
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The subject line is misleading and bears no relevance to the content
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You have no interest in the content
At the other end of the spectrum is the e-mail that we all can agree is legitimate. One that is based on widely-recognized best e-mail practices. For example, a prospect visits your builder's website and submits an e-mail requesting
information. Another example is where you ask a new home prospect if you can follow up using the e-mail address provided on the registration card. So, a key to e-mail best practices is permission. Without permission your e-mails can turn
to spam very quickly. So, rule #1 is ‘ask for permission'.
Follow up checklist
What follows is a suggested checklist. Consider this checklist as a work in progress, since you'll likely add items as e-mail and text messaging continues to evolve. Yes, I did say text messaging. With today's young buyers they're very
savvy when it comes to text messaging. Many would rather receive a text than an e-mail. Once again, permission is the key. Ask your prospects how they want you to follow up. Many will opt for text messages. Here are things to consider for
inclusion on your checklist:
Subject line
First 15 words: Do the first 15 characters contain the main hook to draw your prospect's interest? How does the subject line appear on a desktop monitor? On a Blackberry? Send yourself a test e-mail or text message to see.
Spam filters: Are there any spam-filter words in your subject line? Visit
www.SubscriberMail.com and click on ‘White Papers'. There you will find an article titled: The Seven Dirty Words You Can't Say In Subject Line; Plus 100 Others You Probably Shouldn't Use Either. Use what you find as your
guide.
Message
Include a call to action: If you have to search for it, that's your first sign of trouble. It should be among the first thing your prospect sees when they click on the page. Is it repeated throughout the e-mail?
Mandatory: A mandatory for an open house or Grand Opening is the date and location of the event and a ‘register link'. In other words, what is the must-have copy and design requirements for your email? Every e-mail will have
several mandatories, make sure you include yours.
Design: This is where you need to be very careful. My suggestion is to get help from a professional. I know Lead Velocity offers templates to eliminate design errors. If you have a marketing department, make sure they're
involved in design. Be sure to check how your e-mail appears in the different inbox environments. Remember, less than half of recipients' who open your email will bother to download your images. Provide alt-tags for all images, including
photos, banners, and take action buttons.
Copy: Is your copy short and to the point. Have you answered the main questions every e-mail should answer:
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Why should I open this e-mail?
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What do you want me to do and why?
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Why should I do it with you?
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Why should I do it now?
Of course, your own e-mail checklist may differ greatly from what I've outlined here depending on your software management system, company, e-mail objectives, and so on, but this should give you a baseline for getting started.
To help you I've written 15 short, attention grabbing e-mails, that I'll send you. Make your request to
buildingresults@BobHafer.com, include ‘Send follow up e-mails' in the subject box.
Send to a friend
Thank you for reading my newsletter. You now have a choice to make - choose to use the ideas included in this newsletter now. My belief is that you will begin seeing, feeling and hearing results immediately. And do me a favor, choose to
forward this newsletter to 5 people who you feel will benefit from the ideas and principles included. My goal is to send this newsletter to at least 1000 people monthly (and I'm getting pretty close). If you have already made the choice to
forward my newsletter, thank you. If you have not, please take the time now to help your friends become more successful. At the bottom of the newsletter you will find a ‘Send to a Friend' button. Just click and follow the
easy instructions. Thank you in advance for helping me and your friends achieve their goals. It is appreciated!
Robert E. Hafer Seminars
To learn more about Robert E. Hafer seminars and workshops and purchase Building Results – The Ultimate How-To Guide For New Homes Sales>
, visit
www.BobHafer.com, email Bob at
buildingresults@BobHafer.com or call 972-795-5926.
Good Luck and Good Selling!
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Lead Velocity
By Tom Sieger
In the past new home buyers began their search for a new home by visiting with salespeople in the community. It was the only way to really get information about floorplans, pricing, options and neighborhoods. Sales Associates were in-
person so they could read verbal and non-verbal clues about their prospective buyers level of interest as well as their likes and dislikes about the things they were seeing and hearing. The challenge for buyers was that this was a time
consuming process and sorting out how to best spend that time was difficult.
The internet has changed things
With the advent of the web all that has changed. Savvy buyers immediately began using the web to locate builders in their area of interest. Research on-line, over the telephone and through e-mail became the preferred method for narrowing
down to a couple of builders in several communities that would be visited. As web technology has become more and more sophisticated, so has the adoption of the web as the primary search and research vehicle for new home buyers. With
interactive floorplans, kitchen designers and on-line tools to complete pre-financing, much of the work is done before a prospect ever visits a single community.
E-mail - a first inquiry tool
The internet has also introduced new vehicles of customer communication. Customers in the early stage of looking have always been reticent about salesperson involvement. When they are not yet ready to be engaged the common saying for
buyers of all goods is, "Oh. I'm just looking." So it's no surprise that buyers have adopted the anonymity the web affords them as they seek to find out more without being confronted by someone seeking to sell them something.
On-line chat and e-mail have become a primary first inquiry tool amongst new home shoppers.
Often when filling out forms they provide no more than an e-mail address. At first glance this may seem like a decided advantage to the buyer. No longer can the salesperson read the clues in person and understand the level of interest
based on what is said or the buyer's body language. And yet these on-line tools that afford the buyer the ability to research anonymously and safely, if utilized properly by the sales associate and company can prove the single most
effective way to increase appointments and closings. The key is having the right processes and tools to be effective.
How to do it
First put yourself into the prospect's shoes. If I just filled out a form on-line or submitted interest via e-mail it's because I don't yet want to speak with anyone. I'm uncomfortable and concerned about being pressured to do something
before I'm ready. What I'm after is completing my research and getting more information than I have been able to dig up on the internet by visiting your website, blogs and third party listing services.
I contacted you on-line so I'm looking for an on-line response in the form of an e-mail. If I've asked specific questions I am looking directly for answers to those questions. The last thing I want is for you to reiterate what I already
read on your web-site. A good rule of thumb is if it can be found on your website; don't write an e-mail just link back to it. The key here is to communicate new information every time you send an e-mail. Some of these e-mails may need to
address very specific concerns or questions and will need to be written individually. Others may be marketing related about upcoming events, special offers or community updates. These may be addressed in an automated way through campaigns
and e-mail blasts.
Lead Velocity software affords you the opportunity to do automated or semi automated e-mail blasts and campaigns as well as direct response. What's more it provides the ability to make automated responses look and feel personalized.
Because the e-mail tools are directly linked to and are part of the contact and lead management software a single template e-mail can be set up to automatically pull buyer specific data from the database individually into each e-mail that
goes out. This results in personalized e-mails that refer to the individual buyer's community of interest, timeframe to purchase and original lead source.
Although the blast may go out to thousands of buyers, each one is sent individually and draws this data for the end recipient based on what has been recorded previously in the lead management system. Further to assure maximum delivery the
staff at Lead Velocity manages and monitors all out bound mail servers, assures spam compliance and works aggressively with the major e-mail gateways to assure white listing.
But I still don't know who these folks are and how interested they are
That's where it gets really interesting. What if more anonymity meant less anonymity? What if you could read and know what people are doing and thinking in addition to what they are saying? With the convergence of e-mail marketing and Lead
Velocity that is exactly the power you gain. As people fill out on-line forms or send you e-mails the system captures all the data on move-in dates, number of bedrooms needed, current housing, household income, etc. These are the things
people are sharing overtly or the things they want you to know.
Sending relevant e-mails that hit the target
For instance I might say that I'm interested in 4 bedrooms with a fireplace in the master bedroom and I have no more than 300k to spend. You now send me an e-mail that has $250K, $300K and $350K floorplan links. Further it has a unique
link for floorplans with Mother-in-Law suites. Each time I click through on the $350K Mother-in-Law suite floor plan the software traps this and places it in my contact record. Your next set of e-mails can now be adapted to my behavior
inviting me to come out and see some Mother-in- Law suite floorplans. If I visit any of your communities you can pull up my contact record and can see that I may have $350K to spend and I'm interested in Mother-in-Law suites.
At the end of the day you have more information on my wants, needs and desires than you have ever had before. And, most importantly, you made it easy on me and I know you heard me.
Sales success in action
One sales associate at Park Square Homes actually used this information in this way. She had been speaking with what seemed to be an enthusiastic buyer from out of town that requested e-mail information and a call back in a couple of
weeks. Several weeks later she had not been able to make contact via phone and the buyer was getting ready to go into a cold e-mail follow-up campaign in Lead Velocity. The sales associate decided to first take a look at what the buyer
had done with the –e-mail she had sent. For a week straight the contact opened the e-mail and clicked through on a specific floorplan. The sales associate called the buyer at the same time that next evening that they had been opening the
e-mail and began with the question, "Do you have any questions about our Ventana floorplan?" The buyer responded positively and reconnecting with the good feelings she had had during her initial call moving the sale forward.
Using e-mail marketing and Lead Velocity results in real sales
J. Sweeney homes sold 10 additional homes in less than two months from a single campaign, by following up on leads that showed the most interest by the numbers of opens and click throughs. All of a sudden you are reaching more people,
more frequently in the way they want to be contacted. Because you are sharing information on a consistent basis these buyers are becoming more and more comfortable with you, your product and the way you do business. Suddenly, your b and c
leads are beginning to contact you via telephone and coming into your communities and closing on more homes.
For information on Lead Velocity
To learn more about Lead Velocity, visit
www.CustomerVelocity.com or call Tom at 281-383-9380; and of course you can email him at
info@customervelocity.com. I know Tom will love to hear from you. Like I said earlier Lead Velocity is a wonderful product and most importantly, IT WORKS!
Send to a friend
Before reading the last article I have a favor to ask. I want you to send this newsletter to 5 people who you feel will benefit from the ideas and principles included. My goal is to send this newsletter to at least 1000 people monthly. To
achieve this goal I need your help. If you have already forwarded my newsletter to 5 friends or colleagues, thanks! If not, at the bottom of the newsletter you will find a ‘Send to a Friend' button. Just click and follow the
easy instructions. Thank you in advance for helping me and your friend achieve their goals. It is appreciated!
Robert E. Hafer Seminars
To learn more about Robert E. Hafer seminars and workshops and purchase Building Results – The Ultimate How-To Guide For New Homes Sales/B>
, visit
www.BobHafer.com, email Bob at
buildingresults@BobHafer.com or call 972-795-5926.
Good Luck and Good Selling!
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Summary
E-mail marketing requires discipline. Are you up to the task? If you are unsure, maybe this is not the right business for you, especially now. Times are changing. Gone are the days when you could just show up at the model home and
administrate your way through a sale. To succeed in today's tough market you need to fully participate before, during and after the sale. What follows are some e-mail marketing action steps you can begin using today. If you do, you are
setting yourself apart from the competition, and giving your builder an opportunity to stand out in the marketplace. The choice is yours to make – choose wisely. Remember, choice not chance will always determine success.
Action steps
Step 1 – Ensure that every person who steps into the model home is greeted promptly in a meaningful way. If you've taken any of my sales training courses you know my favorite greeting is: "How may I be of service, to you,
today?" Try it, it works.
Step 2 – Seek to discover what is important from every prospect. Make sure you write down what you learn so that any correspondence will be meaningful and relevant. This is a very important point. Make sure your discover what your
prospect wants and make sure you mention their wants and needs in any e-mail correspondence.
Step 3 – Develop and implement a process that ensures that a registration card or some type of follow up information is completed by your model home visitors. You can not follow up if you don't have contact information. And don't
forget to ask for permission to make phone calls, send e-mail and text messages, post cards and letters. You must concern yourself with your customer's privacy. Identity theft is no joke and people protect their identity – be respectful of
the information provided to you.
Step 4 – Establish a procedure that ensures every prospect receives a meaningful, relevant follow up tailored to the on-site interaction. What this means is you must participate with your prospects during the visit. If you don't how
can you follow up with anything that is relevant. I believe the reason salespeople are reluctant to follow up is because they haven't participated in the model home visit, therefore, they have no reason to follow up. Start today;
participate in every prospects model home visit experience. It's easy to stand out from the crowd – JUST PARTICIPATE and BE RELEVANT.
Step 5 – Ensure there is a automation tool that will help you manage your follow up communication. I recommend Lead Velocity. For information on this marvelous contact management system go to
www.CustomerVelocity.com. I know you won't regret it – it will be the best follow up decision you've ever made.
Step 6 – If you plan to contact prospects via e-mail, ask for permission and request prospect to set their spam filter to allow e-mails from you and your builder. The key to a successful e-mail follow up is permission. Without
permission you can't possibly know what's happening to your email. Remember, in life you get what you ask for; ask for permission.
Send to a friend
Thank you for reading my newsletter. You now have a choice to make - choose to use the ideas included in this newsletter now. My belief is that you will begin seeing, feeling and hearing results immediately. And do me a favor, choose to
forward this newsletter to 5 people who you feel will benefit from the ideas and principles included. My goal is to send this newsletter to at least 1000 people monthly. If you have already made the choice to forward my newsletter, thank
you. If you have not, please take the time now to help your friends become more successful. At the bottom of the newsletter you will find a ‘Send to a Friend' button. Just click and follow the easy instructions. Thank you in
advance for helping me and your friends achieve their goals. It is appreciated!
Robert E. Hafer Seminars
To learn more about Robert E. Hafer seminars and workshops and purchase Building Results – The Ultimate How-To Guide For New Homes Sales, visit
www.BobHafer.com, email Bob at
buildingresults@BobHafer.com or call 972-795-5926.
Good Luck and Good Selling!
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