I've been using a small auto responder / email marketing system for awhile now with good results. However, I know it has a few issues as I'm often finding out that leads haven't received my email.

Well I'm now prepared to invest some money into a professional & reliable email marketing service, however I'm having a hard time finding one that fits the real estate business.

So I would like to know what are you using and what would you recommend?

What I'm looking for is something with an

1. online signup form
2. drip campaigns
3. ability to easily branch drip campaigns so I can customize the message .. ie short or long term, buyers or sells etc.
4. ability for leads to sign up for more than 1 campaign ie short sales and buyers
5. ability for leads to get instant access to reports

I'm thinking that my list wants is pretty basic real estate use.

The price point seems to be around $30 or less / month and so far I've looked at:

1. Aweber - I had heard get things but after playing around with the account I found that I cannot move leads between campaign branches to customize them.

2. Get Response - I could move leads between branches but wasn't easy. If a lead was in 2 branches it seemed to count as 2 leads.

3. MailChimp - There online signup forms are the weakest of the
3 services. I could create my list so I could move leads between branches and it wouldn't double count my leads. BUT this was done at the cost of not allow leads to sign up for more than campaign type.

So none of these 3 achieve what I want to achieve and I'm starting to pull my hair out trying to research this topic.

So please help me out and let me know what are you using and what would you recommend as the best service for real estate?

Thanks

Anybody? Somebody else must be using an autoresponder service?

I use dada-mail. Free to download and can support more than one mailing list.

[quote=Kjmendy]Anybody? Somebody else must be using an autoresponder service? [/quote]

I am a software developer and I would be willing to build a custom autoresponder for real estate agents if I can validate that it's a common problem. I would charge around $30 per month as well. PM me if you want to talk further.

Hey thanks for responding!

I'm not looking for a custom solution as it's important to me that my provider has a relationship with the big email firms (ie google, yahoo) so that my mail doesn't got hung up in spam filters and either not delivered or ends up in the junk pile.

[quote=RachelG]I use dada-mail. Free to download and can support more than one mailing list. [/quote]


I never heard of them. What is it that you like about dada-mail?

Thanks

Constant contact or icontact are pretty good too.

I use mailchimp. No complaints so far, and it's free!!

I use constant contact for my email market updates, but that doesn’t really answer your question. I have 2 real estate websites and paid for someone to do a custom component for my IDX feed and registering users, and so on. The issue is you really need to understand code in order to get a programmer to do what you want.

Anything new on this? I'd be interested to see if you've found a solution and how you like it so far.

Drip campaigns work well... One tip if you do decide to implement one is to keep your messages short and sweet.

What things are you putting in your drip campaigns?

I prefer use MailChimp, but if you want you can use software like ActiveCampaign, Oempro, Etarget, Power emaileur pro, ....

I think what you need is a Real Estate CRM.

Here are a couple that are popular:

Wise Agent
Top Producer
Realty Juggle
Kunversion
Follow Up Boss

Contact each of them, tell them what you are looking for and hopefully you'll find one that fits your need.

I use mailchimp and really like it for setting up auto responders based on all kinds of information (buyers versus sellers, price point, etc). What might solve the issue of sign up forms is Formsite. I use them both in conjunction. You can make forms on formsite that are much more user friendly than mailchimp. I have one I use while talking to a client (like the sample one I have here http://fs6.formsite.com/itinker/form16/index.html) and then you can integrate formsite with mailchimp. You can also embed formsite forms on your website.

So for example, once the lead completes your formsite form, or you complete it after speaking with them, their information gets transferred over into mailchimp, too, for future email campaigns.

Also, a note about how to organize leads in mailchimp and campaign types. I've found best practice is to keep all leads, current and past customers on one list. Then create groups that allow you to do multi-pick. For example, if they are interested in short sales and investment properties, they can just check off BOTH and then you can set up your campaigns however you want based on this info. You can email just your short sale customers, or just your investment customers, or only customers that fit both, or customers that fit either.

Hope that helps.

I saw a mention of Realty Juggler and we just started using it. It will do much of what your looking for and it's $99/year.

oh i hope there is someone who could refer you to a system that meets your requirements. I am also using auto responder / email marketing system but i am using get response. Works perfectly for me.

We really like Realty Juggler!

Old thread, but I'll chime in.

I like using AWeber. You can great marketing campaigns, send out blogs, broadcasts, follow-ups, whatever you need.

Plus, you can keep on creating new follow-ups and place them in the campaigns. You can also have prospects use a sign-up form and collect any info you want.

ActiveCampaign is awesome. No double opt-in unless you want it, full campaigns, marketing automation based on different factors - a great system.

I've used getresponse for over two years and have found it to be exceptional.

Mailchimp is by far my favorite. It's especially great if you have a small mailing list! Cuz then it's free!

AWeber is OK but GetResponse is far more intuitive. Get it, watch the video tutorials and make your life easy. Once the person is in the funnel you can send pre-programmed messages to stay in touch triggered by either an action from them (for example clicking a link in an email) or on a time based system. All the big IM guys are using AWeber or GetResponse and in my mind GetResponse is winning the race.

Active Campaign can handle everything the OP mentioned for $9 a month for 500 contacts, which is considerably less than the others charge.

Disclosure: I'm an Active Campaign partner and internet marketing consultant

I used Aweber for a long time years ago. I know what you mean by not being able to move leads between lists, but as a workaround can't you export a single list into CSV format, then pull out the leads you want and put them in a separate CSV file, then manually load them into your desired list in your Aweber control panel?

I know you can load in your own leads, so if you just export the list, take out the ones you want, and import them into another campaign, wouldn't that work?

I have used ConstantContact, Aweber and Get Response. I feel like they are all pretty similar.

I am looking into elevatednetwork.com, they have competitive pricing and lots of features for a good bang for the buck. Although it must be a newer company because I cannot find anyone that uses it here for some feedback.

Actual marketing automation software such as SharpSpring is great! It has a bit of a learning curve so it may be worth it to hire an agency to set it up. But once it's up and running it doesn't need much maintenance.

It's a great idea to set up a post-close email drip campaign. A few emails that go out periodically to past clients to help continue the relationship and hopefully get some nice referrals :)

I have tons of other ideas just message or comment if you're interested in hearing more!

You can use practically all of the email marketing softwares for this now: mailchimp, aweber, get response, activecampaign

They all have this type of functionality built in.