It's now hard to remember when things were not available instantly via email or fax. Can you Fax that to me? Can you email me a copy of this? Can you send me confirmation via email? These have all become common phrases to hear people around the country say.
However, email has created a monster and that monster is SPAM! We have the CAN SPAM ACT of 2003 and rules that were implemented for commercial emailers but that doesn't diminish the fact that we use EMAIL as a way to stay in front of or in touch with our client or potential client base.
What if I was able to show you a way around all of the SPAM filters that your message to your customer could be heard EVERYTIME?
Imagine this scenario...you send out about 10,000 emails in the form of a "NEWSLETTER" to your client base. About 20% of those are caught by "spam filters" and never seen. About 30% of those are people who never really check email or to a "dummy" email address that someone doesn't monitor. About 20% are seen, but never really read as they head their way into the trash bin (just like traditional mailouts!). So out of 10,000 emails that went out, you actually reach about 3,000 of your intended audience AND you have contributed to the problems produced by MASS EMAIL MARKETING---SPAM! The problems produced by email distribution of this kind is phenomenal. It can cause your email server to be blacklisted with companies like SPAMHAUS and then you will NEVER reach your customer base! Multiply YOUR 10,000 emails out by 50,000 real estate agents mailing out in similar manner multiply that by 5,000 other business fields mailing out in a similar manner and you can see this is a HUGE problem.
So how do you get around this problem? The answer is right in front of you!
BLOG!
When you want to reach your client or potential client base without SPAM penalties:
BLOG!
When you want to reach MORE people than you ever could with a predefined database:
BLOG!
While reading Richard Nacht's book on Realty Blogging, one of the sites he mentions is Lexblog who was selected as IT innovator of the year for Legal IT forums. Because of their blog, they went from the aforementioned 10,000 person data base to a site that gets over 600,000 hits! Not only that they also do VERY well with rankings for their search terms with the big search engines Yahoo and GOOGLE.
So could BLOGGING actually replace email? No, probably not completely, but it certainly could help manage the SPAM problem!
Blogging isn't convenient you say? Neither is cold calling or preparing mailouts or walking neighborhoods...but you do that don't you? Blogging has to be as much a part of your day as phone calls are! That's how serious it is.
I get asked a lot if BLOGGING is worth what you get out of it or the potential of what you get out of it. My answer is very simple:
No, I wouldn't blog if I were you!
After all, why would I want my competition to have a tool this huge in their arsenal to take me on!?