Prospecting Made Simple

By Paula Hess

Your clients began their home search online and found you via the Internet, and now it’s time to remind them of the valuable services you can continue to provide as their REALTOR®. If you are searching for a way to touch past and prospective clients where they live—online—without investing a lot of time or money, then ClientDIRECT™, a free monthly  e-newsletter offered by C.A.R., fits the bill.

Quite simply, ClientDIRECT™ allows you to create and customize your own monthly e-missive with your photo, listings, listing photos, hyperlinks, articles, and links to your Web site. You also can title or brand your newsletter and either add your own articles or choose from a menu of professionally written articles that cover a wide range of topics of interest to homeowners: “Will Shopping Multiple Lenders Hurt Credit?”; “Power Tools Make House Painting a Cinch”; “Top Ways to Boost Curb Appeal”; and “Want a Fancier-looking Room? Try Wainscoting.” In fact, the palette of articles addresses every stage of the homeownership process.

ClientDIRECT™ includes useful enhancements, such as mortgage calculators that demonstrate the benefits (or not) of refinancing, and answer questions like “Should I make extra payments?” and “How much can I afford?”

Each month, ClientDIRECT™ arrives in the inboxes of up to 300 of your contacts, reminding them of your services—past and future. Before each edition is sent, you have the opportunity to change the featured listings and articles and keep the content fresh and relevant.

How easy is it to set up a ClientDIRECT™ account and create the initial installment? The sample e-letter on this page, including the photos and listings, was created in less than 10 minutes. Add your contacts, and voilà, you’re done.

ClientDIRECT™ is available as a free member benefit to C.A.R. members. To learn more, visit www.car.org and click the ClientDIRECT™ button on the right-hand side of the home page.

ClientDIRECT™

• Free to C.A.R. members                     

• Sent automatically every month

• Eight templates to choose from

• Easy to create and maintain

• Customizable, brandable with your photo and contact information

• Contains a menu of professionally written real estate articles

[Opt-in and Go]

After signing up for ClientDIRECT™, you and your subscribers will be required to opt-in, as required by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Yahoo! and MSN/Hotmail to prevent ClientDIRECT™ e-mails to your subscribers from being blacklisted. This process is fast and easy—and only needs to be completed once.

However, until a subscriber completes the opt-in process, we are unable to send your ClientDIRECT™ Newsletter to that subscriber. To check the status of your subscribers, click on the “Manage Your Subscriber List” link on the control panel.

Paula Hess is senior editor for California Real Estate magazine.