Russell Volk : Are your emails being read?

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Are your emails being read?

By: Russell Volk
Friday, September 21, 2007 9:59 AM

Hey guys,

just wanted to get your feedback and find out how effective your emails are that are being sent out from your P2 site.

Every lead that I get, I set them up on a drip campaign and add them to a prospect group. On the first of every month, I send out a market update to the entire group. On September 1st, I sent an update to the entire group (280 prospects). I like a little utility where you can check who's opening your emails. When I checked on that groups email activity, only 70 emails were opened out of 280. That's only 25%. I'm not sure if some of the opened emails are just not being recorded or people are just not opening the emails or maybe some of the emails are just not reaching my prospects.

I thought that perhaps the emails go to a Spam folder, but there are no images in my emails. Just plain text with links to my site.

If you watch your groups email activity, please share your experience.

Take care,

Russell Volk

Bucks County PA Real Estate

Comments

Member Since '07	Shelly Constantz said: Russell, it is possible of course that the email is being swept right into a spam folder or something else. I send out a monthly newsletter and check the read response as well. I have that different months get different readership levels. I think a 25% return is actually pretty good. One thing to remember, is that even if they don't open your email, it is still registering with them that you are in the business and they know if they need your information, how to get it. I know before I went into the business a friend of mine sent me a newsletter every month. Some months it had an article I wanted to read and sometimes I was just too busy and I deleted it. But, when I needed to refer him (and I did), I could go back and retrieve that information. They aren't requesting to opt out, so assuming they are getting the email, and not being swept into the spam folder, they want to continue to get it. Some months they will read it and some months it will just get deleted. Shelly September 21, 2007 8:26 AM
Member Since '07	Candice A Donofrio said: I think even a 10% return is pretty good! I know I personally trash half the e mails I get daily or I would get NOTHING else done. BUT I still want to get those e mails just for when I do have time and can go thru 'em. September 21, 2007 8:32 AM
Member Since '05	Cyd Weeks said: It's also very possible that they are reading the emails. I have the ability with outlook to 'see' and read the email without actually opening it. My old broker had it set up on his computer that he could open the email and not have it picked up by the point2 system although I don't know how he did it, but I found out when I would send out group company emails and it would show he hadn't opened it. But he had. So, you really can't go by the stats you are looking at. And you're doing pretty good even with those stats. :) September 21, 2007 9:32 AM
Member Since '03	Alan Endermann said: I agree with Shelly. A 25% rate of "opened emails" is a pretty good on any campaign. I have found that depending on the subject line (and you can change the P2P drips to your needs), if you hit the correct "buzz word(s)", opened responses are sometimes higher and I get occasional responses. Good Luck in your RE business! September 21, 2007 10:06 AM
Member Since '06	Russell Volk said: Thanks for the feedback guys. I didn't realize that a 25% response is good. I usually don't get any emails where people want to opt-out, although I do get emails back, with people thanking me for the update on the market conditions. I'm actually thinking of starting something new next month. I'd like to create a page on my blog with listings for a specific subdivision. Of course the page would be SEO'd and optimized for search engines and send out an email, like once a week, to the entire group of prospects. I would call it "Featured Community". A lot of my prospects are not signed up for a listing notification, but I thought that if I would continue sending them emails with listings for different communities, every once in a while, someone would be interested in contacting me. Just trying to increase the "email-to-contact" conversion rate. Thanks for your feedback everybody. September 21, 2007 11:39 AM
Member Since '05	Jana Davis & Virginia Houghton said: Russell I have found it a hit or miss. Seems they open by topic they might be interested in. 25% sounds pretty good to me. Are your emails being opened by the same 25% or is that just an average number? I would look at those who have never opened an email and tweak those, with a personal message. Jana September 22, 2007 12:31 PM
Member Since '07	Michael Klijanowicz said: I have had agents actually ad me on their drip campaigns and the emails that are pre-typed from P2 that I have seen are very generic and boring and I wouldn't be surprised if those people just placed your email address as their spam or on their ignore list! That is probably why no one answered! People aren't stupid and can tell if something is for real and genuine or if it is just fluff and all of the comments I have seen from the drip are fluff! I would suggest creating your own! September 24, 2007 5:36 PM