Extreme Makeover: Email Edition

In my years in the homebuilding industry, I’ve done quite a bit of copywriting. It’s not always an easy task.

From crafting mass email marketing messages to writing copy for web sites, I am constantly seeking new and creative ways to describe a particular home, community or lifestyle. And to tell you the truth, it can get rough. After all, once you’ve already used the words “spectacular”, “magnificent” and “elegant” in a paragraph, how many words are left to use in describing a luxury home?

But the reason I love writing MAILbytes is because it offers me the opportunity to speak in my own “voice.” I don’t have to sound like a brochure, and I don’t have to sound like a stodgy company memo. It’s just me writing to you. I can say what I want, how I want. I can write like a person, not a corporation.

I’m pleased to offer you the same exciting opportunity.

Take a look at some of your recent email correspondence with customers. Do your emails read like sales literature? Are you regurgitating the copy from your community brochure? Do your personal emails read as if they’ve been written by like an ad agency?

If so…well, welcome to Email Writing 101. Here are a few email writing tips to make every message count:

• Find your voice. Think of 4-5 adjectives that best describe YOU – then write like that person. Be yourself!
• Write like a human being. Customers know “brochure-speak” when they see it. It looks great in sales literature, but this is a personal email! Writing becomes less tedious when you can inject a little bit of personality. Try it! Your customers will see you as a real person, rather than just another representative of a large company.
• Ask questions. Don’t just answer questions; ask some of your own! Start dialogue and create a relationship with your customers over email. You’ll be one step closer to a sale with each message.
• Spelling and grammar count. More than ever! Don’t get too carried away - remember that you’re not writing to your sister in Chicago. This is still a business letter, and you represent a company with a reputation to protect. Proper sentence structure, paragraphs, punctuation and spelling are critical (they also make your message easier to read).
• Keep it brief. If you stop and think about it, reading on a screen is harder than reading from a piece of paper. To make your email easier to read, keep it short and sweet.

Once you start writing like a human, you’ll soon see how liberating it can be…plus, there’s a good chance you’ll start seeing better responses from your customers. Let me know if you’re successful!

Rapid Response Requested

In our last exciting episode of Stampless MAILbytes, we discussed how a speedy response to a customer’s email inquiry can send a powerful non-verbal message to the customer. But sometimes it takes a real-life, personal experience to drive the point home.

So this time, I’ll prove it to you…with my own bank account as evidence.

Last week, my wife was browsing through the Bed, Bath & Beyond web site. She had a question on a product she was interested in, so she sent them a quick email.

Within 4 minutes, she received a response.

Pleasantly surprised and truly impressed, she emailed a follow-up question. Three minutes later, poof, up popped the response. Knowing that I’d be interested, my wife forwarded me the exchange. She does a fair amount of shopping online, but never had she experienced such a high level of quality online customer service.

To be honest, I’m really not sure if this rapid response prompted her to actually buy that particular product. But boy – it sure left her feeling really darn good about Bed, Bath & Beyond. And as a result, I’m really scared to see what my credit card bill will look like next month…

The Internet is a big place. Email goes unanswered much more than it should. So, in the mind of a potential customer, a quick…no…immediate response goes a very long way.

In new home sales, we speak quite a bit about maintaining an upscale image for our homes and companies as a whole. We make sure our Sales Centers are clean and neat. We double-check our models to ensure all light bulbs are working properly. We’re careful to portray a “classy” image from the moment a customer drives into a community.

All of this to impress our potential customer every step of the way.

But now you have the chance to do even better. Show ‘em what your company stands for right off the bat, before they come to visit. My wife was truly “wowed” by the service she received from BB&B. She’s even told her friends about it. Wouldn’t you like to delight your customers the same way…long before they visit you in person?

Is My Email Address For Sale?

Whenever I meet with a new client, it seems I always get asked the same question:

“Do you have access to lists of email addresses for purchase?”

It never fails. With email marketing as cost-effective as it is, almost all companies are intrigued by the possibility of getting their email out to tens of thousands of potential new customers. And why not? After all, what company hasn’t purchased a “snail mail” list as part of their direct mail efforts?

At first glance, it makes a ton of sense. But a closer look at the nature of email marketing teaches us that, unlike direct mail, the purchase of email lists can do more harm than good.

Quite simply, email is not direct mail.

There are so many reasons why, but it mainly boils down to customer control. With email, your customers expect to be in control of the relationship. They decide whether or not they want receive email from you, what kinds of information to receive, when they’re ready to unsubscribe, even when they’re so annoyed by your emails that they (heaven forbid) click on the “this is spam” button.

Unlike direct mail, customers have come to expect that kind of control. Plain and simple, they don’t want to receive spam from you.

So if you do choose to send out unsolicited email…sure, there may be a few (very few) potential new customers who will be intrigued by what you have to offer and seek further information. But chances are very high that even more recipients will get annoyed by the disturbance and make a beeline for the “this is spam” button.

And if enough people do just that, well, good luck getting your future emails delivered - even to customers who have opted-in to your mailings. Internet Service Providers such as Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, etc. now think you’re a spammer, and will send your future emails directly to their customers’ “spam” folder.

And besides…how eager would you be to do business with a company that sends you spam?

If you’re bummed about all this, relax. You’re almost guaranteed to get great results from your in-house list, made up of people who have asked to receive information from you. They’re not only willing to receive your emails, they’re often excited to hear from you!

So if we’re all “stuck” with the email addresses (from QUALIFIED potential customers!) in our in-house list, what’s the best way to grow that list?

The #1 best way to grow an EFFECTIVE email list is to ask customers for their email addresses! This can be done online on a company’s web site OR any time a company interacts with a customer.

1. Online, we recommend that you add a signup box to EVERY page of the site, encouraging visitors to sign up for special offers, incentives, news, etc. (For a nice example of this strategy, check out bedbathandbeyond.com, and look near the bottom of every page on the left side) Don’t ask for more than an email address here. When your web site visitor clicks “submit”, you can ask for more customer information on the next page.
2. In person or on the phone, salespeople or customer service people need to ask customers for their email address (and VERIFY it with the customer each time they speak thereafter). Tell customers that you will use the address to send them special offers and news that will be relevant to them - and that you PROMISE not to share it with others. Most customers these days will be willing to cooperate. Some of my clients have even been successful in actually calling the prospects on their lists and asking for email addresses. Hey, it’s worth a shot!

No, email is not direct mail. The rules may be different…but the benefits are huge. Email is a low cost, completely measurable, almost instantaneous marketing channel. Adjust your thinking a bit…and the results will pay off!

Newspaper Advertising…Dead?

Just yesterday, I saw the following question posted on the popular networking site LinkedIn:

“How close, if ever, is the internet to replacing the Sunday newspaper real estate section for researching real estate listings?”

The question received a wide variety of responses. Some said that the Internet already replaced newspaper advertising a few years ago, while others claimed that newspapers still have some life in them, even in this digital age.

Before adding my two cents on the issue, I wrestled with the question for a while.

Sure, everyone is using the Internet as part of their home search. We’ve all heard the line that more than 70% (or is it 80% by now?) of home shoppers use the ‘net at some point. Yes, that’s an amazing statistic, and particularly exciting for people like me who make their living on Internet marketing. But is that the whole picture?

Let’s say you’re looking for new construction in the beautiful but overpriced state of New Jersey. What’s the first thing you’re going to do? If you have no clue where to go first, you’ll probably start with Google.

So you type in “new homes in New Jersey”, and receive, as of the time this was written, a mere 1,720,000+ results. Happy Browsing! You’ll probably look through some of the first sites in the list, but the information overload will soon drive you crazy.

But wait! Something catches your eye in that long list of search results. Hmmm, you think…didn’t I see that builder’s name on a billboard / newspaper ad / TV commercial / park bench / aerial billboard flying over the beach? Pleased with yourself that you’ve at least found a starting point, you begin your search there, a bit more confident in tackling the daunting task that awaits you.

The Internet has changed real estate marketing in a big way. And in a world of online banner ads, Google search results, home listing sites (e.g. realtor.com, homebuilder.com, etc.), blogger opinions and more, I have no doubt that many customers do find their dream home online without ever looking at an offline ad.

But aren’t those same people still influenced by offline media? The “vastness” of the Internet makes brand recognition more important than ever. They may find you online, but will they stop for a closer look?

I’ve met with builders and realtors who have told me that they’re ready to pull the plug on most offline advertising and jump full force into online marketing. Sure, it’s a great idea to GO STAMPLESS (sorry, couldn’t resist) and start allocating additional dollars to Internet and email marketing, but a carefully-planned online/offline combo is still the best approach.

And of course, make sure that all of your offline advertising directs readers to your web site, your 24/7 sales center.

So now it’s your turn to weigh in. Is newspaper advertising on life support? Post your opinion on the MAILbytes blog. And then feel free to check out the other responses offered by some very bright people on LinkedIn.

Make Every Email Count!

I was delivering a presentation on email marketing last week for a group of homebuilders in Philadelphia, when one attendee threw out the following question:

“What can we do to make sure our email blasts get through to the inbox - and are not sent to our recipients’ ‘junk mail’ folders?”

Ahhh…the classic “deliverability” question.

At first, I told him to avoid including any information in his emails about those little blue pills whose name starts with a “v” and are used for…well, you know - but then I realized he may be looking for an answer that’s a bit deeper.

Problem is, there’s no easy answer. Email deliverability is not an exact science. The rules change often, and vary depending on your recipients’ Internet Service Providers (such as Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, etc.).

But there are a number of things you can do to tip the scales in your favor. I’ll definitely touch on others in future columns, but here’s one simple method you may not have thought about.

ASK your customers to add your email address to their “trusted senders” list or address book!

Let me explain:

E-mail inboxes worldwide have become infested with “spam” (junk e-mail) – and recipients hate it (don’t you?). So over the past few years, large Internet companies like AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc. have designed ways to prevent spam from being delivered to your inbox.

They’ve created email filters for you, so that every time you receive an e-mail that they believe you won’t want, they send it directly into your “junk email” folder and not into your inbox.

While this method has proven very effective in blocking most of the spam we receive, there is one catch: the spam filter will likely block some messages that you want to read – and unless you check your “junk mail” folder from time to time, you’ll never even know you received them.

When customers provide you with their email address, they obviously want to receive information from you via email. But many of these customers never hear from you again, because your emails are trapped in their spam filters!

Fortunately, there is a solution. Find out the email address you use as the “from” address when sending email blasts. If your customers add this address to their address book, safe senders list, trusted senders list, etc., then your e-mails will ALWAYS get through.

Make sure your customers know this! Upon registration - whether online or in person - encourage them to take a minute to ensure that they receive the emails they’ve asked for, by taking the simple step outlined above.

Hey - if you’re spending money on email marketing…you may as well get the biggest bang for your buck, right?