MARKETING
DIRECT
Targeted emailing of your market can be achieved with some general estate agency software packages too. Property Manager, for example, has the advantage of having a new system that includes emailing facilities from the start. Richard Jackson says that their USP is the ability to send emails both for administrative purposes and also for marketing purposes. “Through the Property Manager ‘Communicate’ feature, an agent can easily select any number, geographical area or type of landlords or tenants and send them a marketing email to promote their business – including an attachment if needed,” he says. The mailers arrive in the client’s inbox
as a regular email, with or without an attachment, as the agent wishes. Agents can also use the software to sending SMS mobile phone instant messages to prospective or current clients. That’s a fair set of tools, but there’s more to come; “We are excited about our new feature going live in early September, called ‘e-mark’ which allows an agent to email prospective tenants e-newsletter type marketing details that include summary property details and images. The recipient can then click on a property if they wish to see more details. If they do, a PDF will automatically download and display the property brochure.” Property Manager’s SMS service is
charged on a per message basis and costs approximately 8p per message – less depending on volume of messages sent. And the new feature is also cost effective if its used frequently, “We intend to keep the ‘e-mark’ feature at a very reasonable price of £45 per month, per branch as the property details will be hosted on our own infrastructure,” says Richard.
No software expertise needed!
The e-newsleTTer An even more sophisticated offering is the detailed e-newsletter, but this is almost impossible to prepare professionally unless you have an in-house IT team with a marketing bias. So it’s just as well that there are e-newsletter software companies which do just this; one which is making inroads into the property sector is BriefYourMarket. Rick Palmer is an ex-agent who, with software developer partners in South Africa, created the product. It’s used by ARLA to communicate to their membership and PROPERTYdrum’s weekly newsletter JUNGLEdrum also uses the software. Rick says that BriefYourMarket is
allowing many forward thinking agents to
communicate with their clients on a more personal level. “The system gives agents the power to send ‘intelligent newsletters’ that are tailored to the specific interests of the clients – helping to build stronger bonds. We have set up some fantastic integration relationships with the major software providers including Reapit and Dezrez – this facilitates the sending of automated messages to clients and prospects at the correct stage of the sale process and allows timely contact with a customer without any person within the estate agency touching the BriefYourMarket system.” BriefYourMarket takes a list of your
products and services and matches it with
the interests, needs and wants of your customers. It also enables you to see how often an email is opened and by who, which in turn will help you follow up the correct person to get the sale. The key is the Content Management
System (CMS) which is very easy to use having familiar toolbars as you’d find in Microsoft Word and similar applications, to create the newsletter. You don’t need to know HTML or any ‘back end’ software expertise at all and it also helps you manage your database. Another key USP is that it’s web based,
meaning you can access your BriefYourMarket account from any internet connection and build and send a newsletter or manage the database. It’s a ‘white label’ product which can be styled to exactly mirror the agent’s website. The newsletter appears in the recipient’s
inbox, branded and styled and could for example, show a list properties each with an illustration; click on the interesting one and it takes you out of the email reader into a web page where full details can be displayed. One of its other key benefits to agents is that the individuals’ preferences for the type of property they are interested in can also be built into the database. “Customers can choose to select the information that they allow into their inbox by changing their profile on an ongoing basis, this results in a very high readership rate compared to ‘bulk mailer’ products,” says Rick, “for example a seasoned investor who is looking for property has very different requirements to a first time buyer.” But the agent can then interrogate the
results of the email-shot to see how many people have looked at which property and exactly who has looked at which property,
‘The system gives agents the power to send ‘intelligent
newsletters’ that are tailored to the specific interests of the clients – helping to build
stronger bonds.’ rick palmer brief your markeT
PROPERTYdrum SEPTEMBER 2010 21
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