In the media, on the Internet, and in your client's inbox

By Elyse Umlauf-Garneau

Keeping your name and expertise in front of prospects is even more important when the market is dragging and competition is stiff. Here are four strategies to advance your business.

Drip Marketing

Drip marketing allows you to automatically send news about you, your company, and market conditions to prospects over an extended period of time. Prepare content once, and e-mails are automatically sent at various intervals to give you steady exposure.
· Build a permission-based e-mail list and allow recipients to easily opt out. Find ideas on building lists at www.sharpecopy.com .
· Use feature-rich, dedicated technology programs that allow you to set up a drip marketing campaign and forget about it. Using your e-mail for blind copying all prospects is ineffective. Various programs have different approaches. Some drip programs include a snail mail component and others are exclusively electronic. Several to consider include C.A.R.'s free ClientDIRECT^tm (www.realtydirect.net/signin.asp), www.Icontact.com, and REALTOR.COM®'s Featured CMA Farming Edition (www.realestatemarketingexpo.com/featuredcma).

Rosemary Allison, an agent with Century 21 America, Camarillo, has been using Featured CMA Farming Edition, which delivers postcards to micro-targeted neighborhoods, and believes the strategy helps her branding efforts and builds good will. "Providing timely, useful information is just one aspect of good customer service," she comments.

· Grab readers' attention with compelling subject lines. Melani Gordon, president of gWave Consulting, a San Diego marketing consulting firm, suggests test-driving two separate subject lines and sending the e-mails to a portion of your list (say 1,000 to one group, and another 1,000 to another group) to see which garners more attention before sending it to your entire audience.
· Segment lists so readers receive appropriate content. Luxury prospects aren't interested in the same content as first-time buyers.
· Aim for a 20 to 30 percent open rate among those you know, suggests Gordon. If you're not hitting those numbers, re-examine your content, design, and mailing frequency.
· Break the tradition of saturating your mailings with logos, slogans, cheerleading, and photos. "Today's consumers are interested in content and your expertise," says Gordon.
· Track results. How many open your e-mail? How many click through to your Web site? How many opt out?
· Don't include the full content in the body of the e-mail. You want to be able to see what people are clicking through to read so you can assess readers' interests and deliver future content that targets their needs.

Do You Yahoo! Your Knowledge?

Yahoo! Answers (http://answers.yahoo.com) is a forum in which users pose and answer one another's questions on everything from pets to business. Become a registered user and you can answer people's real estate questions. Though marketing your business is forbidden, some users include their URL with answers, and it can't hurt to be the one offering the most cogent responses.

You might also be able to glean what issues concern consumers, which can provide insight into what educational information to include at your Web site and in blogs. Some recent question topics: finding a buyer's agent, home staging, and purchasing foreclosures. Questions also could spark story ideas you can pitch to journalists.

Sometimes Yahoo sponsors meet-ups where users can meet and greet, and such events certainly would be a spot to gather new contacts and, maybe, new business.

Good Ink

Good PR is like good advertising. The more people see and hear you, the more likely they are to remember you. That's according to Edward Segal, whose book, Profit By Publicity, serves up some meaty information about getting publicity. Segal, CEO of the Marin County Association of REALTORS®, taps his expertise from his former life as a Wall Street Journal columnist to show practitioners how to develop relationships with reporters and get their name and opinions in front of the public through print and broadcast media. Segal's blog (www.profitbypublicity.blogspot.com/) also offers insight on generating publicity.

"REALTORS® don't know how newsworthy they are," he observes. Print and broadcast reporters are constantly looking for fresh stories, and real estate practitioners can gain enormous mileage from press coverage. After all, Segal points out, "One way to promote property is for REALTORS® to promote themselves through their expertise and advice and opinions on the market."

Here are some strategies for landing media attention.
· Serve as a resource to reporters. Send letters or e-mails about your background and expertise and outline topics you can discuss.
· Develop news releases and send them to real estate reporters. Be sure your story idea is clear and deliver the who, what, where, when of the topic you're pitching. Keep it pithy. Writers won't wade through an eight-page release to find meat.
· Propose story angles that hook reporters and readers. Sending releases suggesting timely stories that address local market trends, a local spin on a national story, or advice to homeowners will get a better response than a release with promotional material about
your company.
· Reporters' time is finite. Before interviews, think about the three most important points you want to make, anticipate what questions reporters might ask, and have answers ready for each possible question.
· Have your statistics and information sources handy so you can refer to them during interviews.
· Speak concisely, especially in broadcast interviews. You have about seven seconds or about 35 words to make your point. Practice sound bites before delivering them live.
· Offer realistic market assessments, even if the short-term looks bleak. "Reporters turn to you for reality checks, not for views through rose-colored glasses," says Segal. "Be prepared for negative questions."
· Get yourself listed in expert directories, such as www.profnet.com and www.expertclick.com.
· Sharpen your PR tactics. The Public Relations Society of America's (www.prsa.org) "Tactics and the Strategist Online" tab offers useful information, such as pitching tips.

The Art of Feng Shui and Short Sales

You never want a house to scream desperation, but such is often the case with short sales. Eliminating that air of despair is critical in moving such homes.

Marie Pham, a practitioner with Keller Williams Realty Silicon Valley, Campbell, and a C.A.R. director, relies on feng shui-the ancient Chinese practice of arranging space to create a harmonious, balanced environment-to boost such properties' appeal and make them stand out from their competition.

In recent months, Pham has used the technique twice to market short sales and received multiple offers on both. One home sat on a street where 10 properties either were in foreclosure, were short sales, or had been lingering on the market. Pham got three offers and believes feng shui clinched the deal.

She also believes feng shui expertise is an asset when marketing yourself to prospects: Demonstrating how you've used it to move property provides a leg-up at listing presentations and when working with prospects for whom feng shui is important.

"Feng shui makes the home's features beautiful and makes the environment uplifting when people walk in," says Pham. Much of the technique involves common sense, such as de-cluttering, cleaning, and depersonalizing spaces.

These are a handful of easy-to-implement tips from the Western School of Feng Shui (www.wsfs.com):
· Create aesthetically pleasing storage areas for trash containers, lumber, and garden supplies. Don't allow such items to collect and become junk piles.
· Remove obstacles that keep doors from having a full range of motion.
· Include a wide inviting path that is designed to lead people to the front door.
· Conceal televisions and other electronics in cabinets with doors when they're not in use.
There are several real estate-specific books about feng shui, including Feng Shui Basics for Real Estate Agents by Kathleen K. MacKenzie, and Sell Your Home Faster with Feng Shui: Ancient Wisdom to Expedite the Sale by Holly Ziegler. To find feng shui consultants, see www.fengshuidirectory.com.

WISE UP!

More Short Sale Links: For information on working short sales, see "Short Sale Basics"; C.A.R.'s Legal Q&As at www.car.org; and the Short Sale Listing Addendum (C.A.R. form SSL), which is used to complement a listing agreement.

Elyse Umlauf-Garneau is a freelance real estate writer.