Although I very rarely, publicly at least, go into a long winded rant, today it just hit me and I just can’t keep my mouth shut on this one. I was sent a link from a friend to check out a company offering web sites for Realtors. The company was called Alamode, you can check it out by going to www.alamode.com.
Now, at first glance, I thought the site looked very Good and the websites being offered were nice looking. But once I dug deep into the system it was glaringly apparent that the websites, programs, etc. being offered at this site were not developed by a Realtor but by a team of programmers and tech heads.
While I have no problem with programmers or tech heads, in fact I use them everyday in my business, I do have a problem with a company, their programmers or tech heads making statements on their sites that are absolutely ridiculous and totally unfounded. I see this all the time, some company will come up with a new technology that they think is the best thing since sliced bread but when it is actually put to use in the real world, it totally flops.
When purchasing any real estate related products, services or technology always, always ask the following questions:
1. Was this developed by a Realtor?
2. Was or is the Realtor That developed it actually successful?
3. Can I speak with the person that developed this system directly?
If you do not get the answer you are looking for on any of these questions, I would strongly encourage you to run, don’t walk the other way.
So back to Alamode, the following statement is actually printed on one of the main pages of their site, and I quote:
"Forget the standard drip e-mail or postcard real estate marketing. They’re time-consuming, outdated and expensive. With XSellerate, you’ll automatically turn leads into clients and always stay in touch with targeted, effective real estate marketing."
Huh?? Did they just say that marketing with postcards is outdated? Umm, by who’s standards? Maybe their programmers and tech heads standards. I’m here to tell you this statement is completely false. I will close over 100 transactions this year as direct result of postcards alone and have made literally millions of dollars using postcards over the years as have thousands of our clients.
Now, I have nothing against Alamode, they may very well be a great service and great real estate websites, but just reading through their salesletter and site alone would totally turn me off as a successful Realtor as I know some of the statements on the page are incorrect and are not proven in the "real world".
It drives me absolutely crazy when I hear either a fellow Realtor or some tech company saying that they are transferring all of their marketing to e-mail and abandoning everything else, that is a recipe for absolute disaster. Test after test after test after test all show that postcards pull at much, much higher rates than any drip e-mail or any e-mail follow up system, PERIOD.
Now, keep in mind as you read this that I run a drip e-mail and autoresponder service so I am not against these at all, quite the contrary. But, heed this advice, e-mail should be used as a "supplement" to your direct mail and offline efforts and not as your only source of lead generation and follow up. If you choose not to listen to this advice and use e-mail only you are going to be very unhappy in the near future:)
