Build Your Email Lists... Naturally!

It goes without saying: in order for your business to be successful and grow, you must focus on expanding the client base. But many real estate agents are asking, Where do I find new clients? How can I engage more people without spending a ton of money?

One approach is to build strong outreach lists for email, direct mail, telephone, and other forms of communication. This is the first article in a four-part series that's designed to help you with building natural, organic lists filled with people who want to hear from you and your business.

To get the most out of this series, let's start with basic terms that you'll need to know...

What is a natural, organic list?

A natural, organic list is made up of people who have opted in to receive information from you and your business.

This opt-in may occur in many different ways, such as:

• Interaction with your website (contact forms, newsletter subscription forms, online purchases, etc.)
• In-store/on location sign-ups (i.e., Join Our Email List)
• Special offer registrations (on site or virtually)
• Open house sign-ins
• Requests for specific information (house listings that match desired criteria, upcoming open houses in a certain market, etc.)
• Newsletter registrations (helpful articles, consumer-oriented content, educational material, etc.)

Basically, the people who constitute your natural, organic list are people who've specifically opted in to receive some sort of future communication from you, either short-term or ongoing.

A natural, organic list is built over time.

It's true, good lead lists don't happen overnight. But a good lead list will provide you with a much greater opportunity to convert the people within that list to loyal, long-term clients—which is the end goal.

Third party lists

Many companies offer third-party lists that can be purchased for sales and marketing purposes. If you are planning a direct mail campaign and are able to purchase a list of candidates that meet specific criteria (e.g., Millennial home owners in San Antonio who make over $125k per year), then go for it. This tactic costs more than building and nurturing through email, but can be a great complement to your marketing initiatives if the audience is carefully selected.

BUT...buying a third-party list for email outreach? Don't do it.

Why not? Because that officially makes you a spammer (see below).

SPAM

There are laws against purchasing third-party email lists and sending email without the recipient's permission. And email marketing companies, like eMerge, audit your send activity and reserve the right to freeze or de-activate your account if you break those laws.

When you send emails to people who have not requested to receive email communication from you, it's called SPAM.

Also, your likelihood of capturing new business from sending spam is much lower because you are actually turning people OFF of your business, instead of ON. Is spamming someone the impression you want to make about yourself, your business and your ethics? Of course not!

But I need lots of new business prospects—fast!

We understand. Many businesses don't feel they have the time or patience to build natural, organic lead lists over time. In Part 2 of this series, we're going to cover how you can capture leads and build lead lists, much faster than you may think. Trust us, it's not only easy—it will also help you convert more business!

To view the original article, visit the eMerge blog.

Ready to discover the best content to send to your email lists? Join eMerge in FREE webinar next Tuesday, Jan. 9! You'll learn how to get creative with content, as well as the six pieces of content all your leads should receive. Reserve your space now!