Old Rule: Video games are diversions for kids.
New Rule: Kids who first played video games are now                 prime first-time homebuyers.

At the end of the day, the real estate professional with the biggest and the best database wins, especially when it's time to sell your practice. A well-maintained, opt-in, three-point trophy database (e-mail, postal, phone) will become your most sellable asset.

The sooner you get started creating your database, the faster your business will grow, and the greater its value will be when the thought of retirement puts a smile on your face. One cost-effective route to a profitable database is making your collection of e-mail addresses a top priority. Then use this online information as a springboard to gather street addresses and phone numbers.

Five ways to attract e-mail users with online and offline promotions that exchange an item of real value for their e-mail addresses are:

1. Look into such eRainmaker favorites as e-mail updates of latest listings, information on recent sales, sweepstakes, newsletter subscriptions, and prize drawings that require prospects to register.

2. Include your e-mail address in every piece of direct mail you send from your office, and ask the recipient to reply via e-mail. Announce special giveaways for everyone who registers with you via e-mail.

3. Consider sponsoring ready-made community websites that residents -- and prospective residents -- can visit to learn about the neighborhood (eRainmaker.com: Client/Community Pages). Features such as events calendars, classified ads, and recipe exchanges are popular. As a sponsor, your photo, e-mail address, and website link should appear on every page. Build a geographic e-farm by organizing your responses according to area.

4. Cultivate a business-to-business e-mail network by regularly sending e-mails to real estate colleagues and referral source connections.

5. Use your auto responder to confirm every response with an instant thank you note.

Seven effective techniques to get prospects and business contacts to give you their e-mail addresses.

1. Provide direct links on your website to registration forms offering a wide selection of relevant, must-have information or services.

2. Use a variety of registration motivators such as too-good-to-pass-up offers, guest books, sweepstakes entries, and "forward to a friend" viral marketing. Display response forms throughout your site to capture voluntary submissions of e-mail addresses.

3. Ask everyone who gives you a phone number to give you their e-mail address as well.

4. Give clients and prospects the ability to send an instant text message, directly to your pager, via a text-pager form on your website.

5. Include your e-mail address in your voice mail greeting, and suggest that callers leave their e-mail as well as their phone number to ensure the quickest response.

6. During the initial registration process, always ask prospects to enter their e-mail address a second time to guarantee accuracy.

7. When speaking with prospects, customers and business acquaintances, either on the phone or in person, routinely ask for any missing contact information.

Strategies to guarantee list accuracy through aggressive attrition management to keep your database current and its value high.

• "Address Book Update" services for MS Outlook are available through several companies. On a regular basis, say quarterly, the services automatically send an e-mail message to all the contacts in your address book asking them to update their contact information. This is very effective, especially to convert e-mail-only web leads, plus stay in touch with all your contacts.

• Establish a routine system of list maintenance to update contact information and eliminate duplicates. Subscriptions to automated list management services are available.

• When e-mails are returned as undeliverable, resend the message a second and even a third time to eliminate soft bounce-backs. If those e-mails are returned, contact your prospect by phone or mail immediately about the change.

• Acknowledge opt-outs with a good-bye message and invite them to opt-in again any time the preferences change. Keep them in your database and continue to send them postal mail.

Published: May 24, 2005

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