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  This article was revised and shortened from the original version by Stephanie French, published on the Constant Contact Blog.   Buying a home can be an exciting yet emotional experience for buyers. I experienced almost every feeling out there when I bought my apartment a few years ago. When I was ready to find my first apartment, I looked for an agent to assist me. The one who followed up with me immediately was the one I went with. I expressed that I was a first-time buyer and based on the information I provided when signing up, she knew exactly what I was looking for.   Email marketing is one of many keys to have hanging off of your real estate keychain. It’s an essential part of the lead nurturing process. But first, let’s discuss how to find those leads using list growth tools.   📣 Purchased or scraped lists cannot be uploaded into your Constant Contact account as these violate our Email Permission Policy and can result in your account being shut down. But not to worry, we have a wide range of tools for you to organically grow your list and collect new leads.   But first, how do you drive leads to sign up? If you’ve signed up to receive emails from a business or organization, there is a reason why you did so. This is the same approach for leads. Why should they receive emails from you?    Give them the goods   Offer something free to accompany them during the home-buying process, like a listicle (“10 Things to Remember When Buying a Home”) or a video your former clients found interesting.    Make them feel special   No one wants to refresh listing websites all the time. Let potential leads know of your connections or insights and prompt them to sign up for fast notifications of new properties on the market.   Get to know your leads   A sign-up form shouldn’t resemble an application. Collect the most important information without being too invasive. You’ll have plenty of time to get to know them better. We suggest:   First Name Last Name Email Address Phone Number Budget Desired area of purchase   Ready to grow your list? Take a look at our keyring of list growth tools:   Lead Generation Landing Page - A simple and quick way to collect lead information and share a bit about yourself. Hint: include the landing page link in your email signature! Facebook and Instagram ads - Did you know real estate agents who use our social ads tool report an average of 44 leads per ad?  Inline and popup forms - Keep visitors on your website while having them sign up for your mailing list List builder apps - Reduce the risk of not being able to read email addresses on a sign-up sheet and have prospects enter their information on a tablet Text-to-join - If your prospective leads are like me, they’ll most likely have their phone within arms reach while touring a property Integrations with other sources - If you use sites like Zillow, quickly sync your leads and bring them right into your account using Zapier. Of course, there are plenty of other ways to find new leads outside of online marketing. Think about referrals, reviews, and community presentations!   Don't close the door   Now that you've collected leads, continue to nurture them. Put out the welcome mat by sending a welcome email, thanking them for showing interest and assuring them you're here to help. If you've collected information on the area where they're looking to purchase a home or property, send listings with the most important information upfront. If they click on the listing, this will show in your email reporting and you can follow up with a phone call to answer questions or schedule a viewing.   Unlock new leads today!   Now that you have learned some new techniques for driving leads, you're ready to grow your list. Building a list is not just about adding names; it's about creating new connections and strengthening relationships, turning leads into clients. If you’ve already experienced success with bringing in new leads, let us know what’s worked for you in the comments! ... View more

It’s time to kickstart your year-end fundraising plans.    We're taking the most popular questions from our latest webinar and expanding upon them so you can uncover the essentials of building an effective fundraising campaign. Also, learn how to craft compelling narratives that tell your organization’s story while captivating your audience and harnessing the power of modern tools and channels to maximize efficiency.   You can view the webinar directly through Wistia or right here on the Blog!     🌟Want to talk to others in the nonprofit space? Join our Nonprofit Group!     Our nonprofit does an end-of-year appeal. Any ideas to make ours stand out? I’d check out 11 Ways to Nail Your Holiday Fundraising Appeal This Giving Season. It’s important to acknowledge your donors on a more personal level and highlight how their contributions are positively impacting your nonprofit goals. Design-wise, there are a lot of template options to build from and make your own.     How do I identify which channels I should increase my presence in to increase outreach and donations? Focus on email, social media, and text/SMS. These are the major channels to promote and communicate about your events and other fundraising campaigns in a public space.    Email reaches your most interested audience directly and provides a larger space to share more details. and include more images. Social media drives awareness and garners engagement. This is also the space to encourage your followers to sign up for your emails! SMS messages are best for more timely announcements.     How do we connect with potential donors? ​This is the perfect opportunity for storytelling. Your nonprofit storytelling should hit on all of the personal factors that draw prospects to your mission. Think about what’s important to your donors, like the health of their family members who have a history of cancer, combined with initiatives that will present a solution to a problem they have, like a research project that could help cancer patients live longer. If someone directly benefited from a past donation, ask if they would be comfortable sharing their experience.     How do you craft your message to compel donors to give big without alienating others who might not be able to give a large gift, and often not give anything feeling their donation won't make a difference? Many organizations will equate a dollar amount where the donor can easily see how their donation, large or small, creates an impact. For example, $100 can provide training and $10 provides food for a week.     What is a drip campaign? A drip campaign is a series of emails automated to be sent over a predetermined period of time. The emails will be triggered by a specific user action - or lack thereof. You can create an automated series in your Constant Contact account.     Is SMS Marketing included in my plan? SMS Marketing is an add-on to your email plan, starting at $10 a month.     Can you talk about regulations about how you can text people? Do they have to sign up and say yes you can text me before you can text them? Your SMS contacts need to say yes to receiving your texts, just like with email. Other regulations include ensuring people are aware of what they are signing up for, they will need to confirm their registration in a text message as well as including your organization's name and how they can opt out.     What software are you using to keep track of donors and their giving habits? During this webinar, we spoke with Julia from Donor Perfect so we have to speak about it! You can pull detailed reports, watch campaigns, communicate with donors, and much more. However, if you're looking to shop around, check out Donor Perfect's buyer's guide to help you prioritize your needs.   We use Donor Perfect and Constant Contact, but we don't have a budget beyond that for marketing. How can I find donors without spending money? We currently only have a handful of donors, so I don't have people to email. Acquiring new donors while having a small budget is a daunting task. However, there are plenty of no-cost strategies to help you get your name out there. Check out DonorPerfect's "New Donor" resources to get some practical ideas.   Is the AI bot an open or closed system? (Is the data we enter used as training data beyond the closed system) DonorPerfect's fundraiser bot and the Constant Contact Content Generator tool are closed systems. None of the data is shared with anyone, including OpenAI.   We have many one-time donors and are finding little success getting them to re-engage. Any suggestions? Getting the second gift is so important, and yet so difficult. Here are some resources for donor retention. ... View more