Marketing with E-Letters: Give Your Readers What They Want

Lori, Judy, and Bob: Thanks for hosting an event on this subject! It's something I've been thinking about lately.

I look forward to meeting all of you and some other local Bizniks!

Emily,

Looking forward to meeting you, too. Bob and I are very excited to host an event with Lori in Bellingham. Glad it's a relevant topic for you.

Judy

As business and budgets change more often, it's been difficult for me and my businesses to make the hard choices on advertising and marketing myself without spending thousands of dollars to only receive a fraction of it back. I have noticed there are fewer Realtors placing paper ads and more ads on the internet: websites, blogging, and social networking websites, etc. I look forward hearing about current prospecting ideas. Thank you Bob, Judy and Lori

I send an e-newsletter to my real estate clients and prospects now and then. I look forward to learning more about what works and how to do it! Thanks for coming to Bellingham, Bob and Judy. And thanks to our Bellingham Ambassador, Lori, for putting this together.

Meredith

Meredith,

Thanks for signing up. I look forward to meeting you.

Real estate newsletters, done right, have great potential for helping you stand out in your particular (crowded) marketplace.

Wow, Lori! How did you get Bob and Judy to come up to Bellingham? AND after I moved to Portland?

(Might have to try to twist their arms to come down here!)

I'm a subscriber to their newsletter, and know that this event will be PACKED with high quality, practical, actionable content.

>>>By the way, if you haven't read Judy's recent article on creating 'sticky' (reminds me of Jantsch's Duct Tape Marketing!) content, read it NOW!

Tshombe,

How did I miss that? You are on our e-tips list? How cool!

Thanks for the kind words. You know, Portland is one of our very favorite cities and we would LOVE to come down there. Let's talk about that. Maybe you could co-host it with us?

Hi Judy,

I know you'd be a hit here in PDX and would be super-excited to co-host an event with you and Bob. I'm just learning the City, and I'm definitely experiencing a love affair with Portland.

Yes, let's talk about putting an event together. I can't wait! Thank you for the offer.

>>> Also, a special note to everyone attending this event at Exit Realty: While still honoring Tom (Thank you, Tom!!!), who has been so instrumental in facilitating the events at Exit Realty, I'd really like to express deep gratitude to the brokers and co-owners of the Exit Realty Bellingham office: Mike Hays and Andy & Angela Rogers.

It is with their permission and belief in sharing the space at no cost for the purpose of connecting with the Bellingham community (not to mention this is a brilliant marketing and public relations strategy) that makes events like these possible.

How cool would it be if we Biznik beneficiaries of this kindness regularly flooded Mike Hays and Andy & Angela Rogers with thank you notes, mentions on our blogs and tweets, and remembered Exit Realty Bellingham when talking with our colleagues and friends!

I challenge Biznik Bellingham to reward good with more good.

Well, already a conflict. Sorry, I need to cancel.

Hey this sounds good. I write more stories than e-newsletters it's time I did a few. Also it will be fun to see new faces as well as chat with those I already know.

Tom, so sorry you won't be part of the class but thanks again for loaning the facility. Sounds like there is a lot of cool community building going on in Bellingham.

Ellen, thanks for signing up. Yes, it's always fun to meet new biznikers. See you there!

Tshombe, you are supportive even though you are now in Portland. We miss you here in Bellingham. I love the idea of rewarding good with MORE good and will definately thank the brokers and co-owners of EXIT Realty - they have saved us some serious cash by allowing Biznik events to be hosted there.

You can have Bob and Judy after they share with us in Bellingham!

Awesome to Exit Realty, to Tom, to Lori...you are right on the money, Tshombe. Thank you all.

And thanks to to Bob and Judy. I am delighted to see you here, for we can use your skills and knowledge base.

I used to do hardcopy newsletters to my clients...and it gave me an 80% retention rate! Doing it right pays big dividends.

Moving this skill to the web has been my challenge. I don't have a good technical roadmap or checklist to follow...so maybe you can bring something that would help us physically get it done? I hope you can cover not only the writing part, but how we feasibly do it so that those of us who know its power can actually execute the action.

Thanks so much, Joy

Thanks a bunch! Really looking forward to it!

Hiya, So sorry that I missed the announcement for this event, it sounds great! If there are any cancellations, could you let me know? I'd love to attend! Thanks so much, Jessica

Jessica, just keep checking back - especially a day before or even the MORNING of, because almost always, something will come up for someone.... last minute changes, and once that happens, you can grab their spot.

Thanks to everyone for making an effort to take your name off once you realize you cannot go. You can see that it will make the difference as to whether someone else can attend in your spot.

Now I have a conflict. So sorry to cancel! I hope someone else can benefit -- maybe Jessica can attend.

Emily,

Appreciate the thoughtfulness, and the fact that you cancelled in time for someone else to take the spot. Thanks much.

I was really looking forward to coming to this event, but I have many projects gelling right now that make it impossible to fit this in tomorrow.

I hope that someone else can fit into the slot and gets the opportunity to learn from such wise marketers!

Have fun tomorrow!

Joy

What a fun session - Bob and Judy Dunn brought valuable information, generously gave it to us, and also demonstrated their professionalism through their PowerPoint presentation, business cards and marketing materials. You two really walk your talk. Thanks for your generosity. I highly recommend working with these two.

Thanks for a fantastic event! I got a lot of great ideas and I'm excited to start an e-tip newsletter before my company has our booth at the Home and Garden Show in March.

Wow - Judy and Bob - a huge THANK YOU for coming all the way up from the Tacoma area to Bellingham to share this valuable info. I am so glad you're taking the time to spend the night up here and enjoy our beautiful city. If you ever need hotel/restaurant tips for your next trip, feel free to give me a call. We sure love it here!

I got so many ideas today for my Real Estate busienss and for the clients that I work with on Promotion, PR, events, etc. (a second business.) I am excited about getting on an e-mail program site like Constant Contact. I took 4 pages of notes (I am a kinesthetic learner!), so I can keep using the tips you gave us today. Thanks again! Warmly, Meredith

Thanks for the great info, I'm going to your website to sign up for the etip now! The workshop helped to clarify how to not be a 'dirty rotten spammer'- something I am nervous about but find there is a fine line. easy to assume the info you have is SO useful and SO great and everyone will want to hear it...sadly not so true. Gentle courting, trust building, and every opportunity to opt-out are key- Thanks for making that clear. Does anyone know for sure the Constant Contact alternative that was mentioned? Again, Thanks!

Hi Bob & Judy, thank you for taking the time to come and share your valuable information with us here in Bellingham. I am really glad I attended this before I started my E-Newsletter, you gave great tips to get me started. To answer Leslie Beia's question above, an alternative to Constant Contact is www.icontact.com, you get a bit more for your money and the basic service is $9.95 vs. $15.00 with CC. Appreciations to the Dunn's for the value they give Biznik.

Bob, Judy & Lori,

Thanks so much for organizing and presenting a program on this topic. I learned a lot and will be modifying my e-updates to make them better.

Your advice about building contact lists (quality vs. quantity), being useful, providing value and how to come up with content was great.

Thanks again for your time!

Patti

Thank you for your direction. I'm sorry I could only stay for an hour but your presentation certainly was interesting, online letters to be circulated through the wonderful weave of the web etc. This also shows the power of bringing in advisers from out of our area - thank you too, Lori.

Bob and Judy, thanks so much for coming all the way up here to do this! I learned a lot in such a short period of time. I very much enjoyed it, and I'm starting to feel like I might actually be able to make this stuff work for me in my business. You did a great job of taking something that seemed overwhelming, and making it seem much easier to accomplish. Thank you!

Wow, thanks for the generous compliments. After just a couple of days in your fair city, we came away with an appreciation of all Bellingham has to offer. You are so lucky to live there!

Bob and I are glad to see so many of you moving ahead with your e-letters. If you think of questions that were not answered, please feel free to e-mail me or Bob with them.

And Lori, it was great to finally meet you in person. Thanks for being such a gracious host.

Bob and Judy, I thoroughly enjoyed your presentation and learned a lot. I will be visiting etip for any postings relating to paper shredding service, etc. I have been interested in producing an e-letter but did not have a clue until your presentation yesterday. Thank you for giving so freely of your time, experience and ideas.

That was a first-rate event!

I appreciate the opportunity to learn more about such subjects from folks who are so very knowledgeable. I understand so much more now about the thought process behind newsletter writing and about the systems that can be used to facilitate them.

Thank you, Lori, for organizing this, and thank you, Judy and Bob, for generously sharing your time and talents.

Thank you Bob & Judy for hosting this incredibly educational event! I enjoyed the straight forward approach to helping people make their news letters and articles a success!

I will be looking forward to your next big event!

I was so glad that I attended this event. It as really good t hear that we are doing a lot of things right and to discover some new ideas that we can easily integrate. Thank you so much for taking the time to come to Bellingham and share with us.

Yes, what an event it was. Thanks to everyone.

I wanted t mention the new service that is giving Constant Contact (which I use) a run-for-its-money........ called Ratepoint. I have been getting mailers and there is a page to go to for a free, 30 day trial, http://www.ratepoint.com/hello