Help with Real Estate Agent Marketing

[Brett Synicky]

Can any successful agents suggest a way to get started with email marketing?  I work for a small brokerage so I'm sorta on my own when it comes to marketing.  I'm just getting started and have reserves for a while but I certainly don't have wheelbarrows full of cash to throw at marketing.  I'm not afraid of sweat equity as I've been door knocking and handing out tons of business cards and sending letters to everybody I know but I want to take it to the next level and start sending out a newsletter or something of value to my prospects.  The last thing I want to do is fill peoples inbox with junk.  I know in many cases you get what you pay for but is there a cheap alternative to using a service like aWeber?  Has anyone had any success with mailchimp?  I'm sure I'm over thinking this which probably stems from a lack of experience/confidence when it comes to writing.  Also I would love to automate this as much as possible.  I do plan to use direct mail as I start making more money.  

Thanks in advance!

[Dawn Brenengen]

I know a lot of people who like Mailchimp. 

This isn't really going to answer your question, but most people do not do email marketing well. You have to offer something of value to your audience, and your generic emails about "tips for staging," etc are not going to do the trick. I find that people have better results with more targeted messages. Focus on farming a neighborhood and do market reports. You could even start with your own neighborhood and do a market report and send it to your neighborhood list serve. 

I like sites like Activerain. There are some successful bloggers there, and they have found Activerain to be good for driving traffic to their websites.  Use social media to stay top of mind (but don't be annoying).