A lot of investors search for seller leads using the old-fashioned post office. People still use direct mail for one main reason – it works. Once they have the contacts, investors like to switch to email whenever possible.
Besides the cost aspect, email is just easier. Buying envelopes, paper, printer cartridges and stamps can be a real pain. Not to mention stuffing envelopes, adding stamps and trudging down to the post office.
These days, we can count on technology to help us set up direct mailings. Microsoft Word has the ability to customize letters to potential sellers. Word can also automatically address envelopes.
You just have to print and stuff.
If you haven’t used the traditional mail merge with Word, here is a video on how to create a custom letter.
With email you don’t have to print and stuff. But you do have to customize each email. Then you have to customize each one to a certain recipient.
An Easy Way to Email Merge
Not to be outdone by Microsoft, Google has come up with a way to ‘Mail Merge’ your emails. Using Gmail and a Google Doc spreadsheet, you can send a customized email to up to 100 recipients a day. For a small fee you can send up to 400 emails a day.
This email merge would be great for investors to send customized emails to:
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Your cash buyer’s list
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Follow up with potential seller leads
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Tenants in all your properties to alert them about upcoming events (rent’s due?)
Best of all is that once you have it all set up, there are no envelopes to stuff or stamps to add. Just point and click.
Creating Your Custom Email Merge
The mechanics of creating your email merge are pretty simple (if it weren’t simple, we wouldn’t be recommending it).
To start, you need a spreadsheet and a custom email in Gmail. The spreadsheet is in Google Docs, and has columns listing the custom information you want placed in the email:
The email addresses should be in the first column. Then, you need column headers (‘First Name’ and ‘Invest Area’) for all the custom information.
From the spreadsheet, you just insert the header name where you want the custom information to go, with two ‘<’ and ‘>’ signs surrounding it.
Make sure your email is saved under the draft section of Gmail, and then go to the spreadsheet.
In the spreadsheet menu bar, select ‘Add Ons’
If you don’t have the ‘Yet Another Mail Merge’ Add-on, select ‘Get add-ons’. Then search in the pop-up for ‘Yet Another Mail Merge’ and save it.
Google will ask you if the Add-on can share some of your Google accounts, and then will add the mail merge Add-on to your spreadsheet.
Once you have the spreadsheet and email set up, select ‘Start Mail Merge.’ Google will pop up a box asking you which email you want to use from your draft folder.
You will also set up your sender name and let Google know if you want to know that an email was opened.
Then either select ‘Send a Test Email’ if you’re not sure. Otherwise, hit ‘Send Emails.’ Google will then let you know how many more custom emails you can send out the same day (100 - the number of emails you sent), and send the emails out.
After Google sends out the emails, it will also update your Google Doc spreadsheet to document that an email has been sent out.
That’s about it. Once you have tried it, you will be amazed how easy it is to send out tons of custom emails.
Whatcha Got?
Other mail merge tricks and tips? Please let us know in the comments below.
Communicate – Real estate investing is all about relationships. Regular communications with everyone is the best way to make people want to do business with you.
Increase Your Productivity – Look at what takes up your time during the day. How can you cut down on that activity and still get the same or more value?
Test Different Mediums – Which mode of communication provides your best results? Keep testing, tracking and adjusting to find you best game plan.
JP Moses
is a real estate investor in Memphis, TN, with experience ranging from land lording to note buying, rehabbing, and wholesaling. However, wholesaling is the area that he enjoys most and where he bring the most experience and expertise to his students.