One of the tools you have available to you for incubating Internet real estate website prospects is drip email.

What is Drip Email?

If you’re not familiar with drip email, it’s a capability offered by some websites (like Point2 Agent) and other tools with prospect database management capability.  Using drip email, you can compose a series of emails on specific topics of interest to a particular target group.  Then, you can assign prospects to participate in a particular drip email campaign, and the email series will be sent to those prospects at pre-defined intervals.

The objective is to stay top-of-mind with prospects who aren’t ready to make a move or work with a professional.  And, as we all know, the Internet is full of those independent, “I want to do it myself” types.

When Should You Use Drip Email Campaigns?

In my view, there are only two ways in which drip email campaigns should be used:

1. To stay in touch with prospects you have had contact with, in between regularly scheduled personal telephone calls and emails.
2. To stay in touch with prospects who refuse to interact with you in any way.

When Should You NOT Use Drip Email?

So, what does that leave out?  That leaves out using drip email as a method for contacting prospects when you first get their contact information.

Let me say that another way.  If someone registers on your IDX search, or requests a report from your site, and leaves a telephone number and email address, you wouldn’t use drip email as the only way to contact them.

The first thing you need to do in order to convert that prospect into a lead is to contact them personally.  If they leave a telephone number, call them.  If they leave only an email address, send them an email.

How Do YOU Make “First Contact”?

Let’s talk about converting prospects to leads.  How do you respond to a new prospect from your website?  How’s it working for you?