Cut Through the Clutter How to Create an Awesome Marketing

Transcription

1 Cut Through the Clutter How to Create an Awesome Marketing A Lasso Whitepaper Published: March 2013 Copyright 2013 Lasso Data Systems Inc. All Rights Reserved. For more information visit call or sales@.

2 Marketing is Alive and Well Over the past five years, homebuilders, real estate developers, and sales and marketing companies have increased their marketing budgets and refined their strategies for two simple reasons is cost effective and it works. allows marketers to engage with their target audience, establish brand loyalty, and build relationships with relevant information in a non-disruptive manner - all at a very low cost. In 2012 alone, 144 billion s were sent daily, and that number is expected to continue climbing. 1 With marketers and advertisers of every industry vying for consumers attention, must be implemented correctly and responsibly in order to be noticed and read. This is where Lasso CRM can help. marketing is built right in to our software, and is one of our most popular features (every month Lasso sends millions of s to consumers on behalf of our clients). We know marketing, and we can help you implement your own campaigns, or you can tap our expert resources to do the work for you. Though we are here to help, this whitepaper is all about helping you create awesome s. In it, we ll discuss the opportunities for homebuilders to leverage marketing, and suggest specific strategies to create awesome s. Table of Contents I. Planning your Campaign Pages 3-6 II. Creating Your Pages 7-11 III. Anatomy of an Awesome Page 12 IV. Before You Press Send Page V. Reporting and Metrics Page 15 VI. Next Steps Page 16 VII. Professional s Yield Results Page 16 VIII. Marketing Checklist Page 17 IX. Glossary of Marketing Terms Pages X. About the Authors Page 20 XI. References Page 20 In 2012, 144 billion s were sent daily. The goal is to be noticed and read. 2

3 I. Planning Your Campaign Too often, businesses hurriedly throw together a couple of sentences about their latest product or release and send the to their entire database. This is the Throw it Out There and See What Sticks strategy. This, however, is not the best use of time, talent or valuable inbox real estate. With your database, you have a captive audience waiting to receive interesting, relevant information that will engage them. One size does not fit all. Treat campaigns as you would any other marketing initiative. Think about the answer to each of these questions: What is your goal? What is your message? Who do you want it to reach? What action do you want people to take? How will you measure results? Look at Past Campaigns To start, take a look at your past campaigns to determine the following: Are you exceeding the real estate industry average of 20% open/view rates? If not, why? What is the percentage of failed addresses vs. successful delivery? What percentage of prospects has opted out or selected No as a contact preference? Examine past templates why did one have a higher view/open rate than another? The average open rate for real estate is 20%. How well do your s perform? 3

4 I. Planning Your Campaign (cont.) Develop a Calendar Include marketing in your overall media schedule. Just as you would plan when to run a print ad, and what it would say, do the same for your s. Consider the following when developing your calendar: Events - including prospect, broker, homeowner and marketing events. Seasonality or sales cycle frequency Other communities there may be opportunities to send one about multiple communities. Once you have determined when and the type of information to send, prepare your s in advance so they can be reviewed and edited before the deadline. Automated Campaigns An automated campaign is a series of pre-scheduled s that are sent based on a trigger, such as website registration. Campaigns are a great way to deliver timely messages to your prospects as they advance through the sales cycle (Lasso offers users the option to send automated campaigns). Management Mass mail should be coordinated and managed by the same key individual(s) within your marketing team. This ensures that proper branding guidelines are followed, helps control frequency, and improves message relevance to your audience. List Management Your database is the life force of your campaign, and keeping it updated is crucial to success. How many valid leads are in your database? If they ve been there for a while, are they still looking for a new home? Are their addresses current? What type of information are they interested in now? Develop an calendar just as you would for any major marketing initiative. 4

5 I. Planning Your Campaign (cont.) List Management (cont.) Not only do peoples needs change, but it is estimated that 34 percent of addresses change each year. 2 Sending to bad addresses not only skews results, but is also used by providers to determine if your future s will be marked as spam. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) refer to this as your sender reputation. If you constantly try to send to invalid domains or to recipients who don t open your , or too many recipients mark your as spam, it negatively impacts your sender reputation. Today, many ISPs and inbox providers determine the quality and credibility of senders based either completely on reputation or on a combination of reputation and content. It is important to not only manage failed s, but to also determine the interests of the prospects in your database. Build your lists carefully. Ultimately, your goal is to have an extremely targeted database that includes prospects who are interested in purchasing a new home, and brokers who are actively working with clients. Here are some tips to achieve this: Make it easy for your prospects to register on your website. Be sure that the Register Now link is prominent on every page along with a basic web form requiring first and last name, and . Capture pertinent information from sales center walk-ins by having them fill out a registration card or ipad form that feeds directly into your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. Use a double opt-in process to confirm that your prospects want to join your lists. Studies have shown that opting-in twice increases the total open rate by almost 76 percent. 3 It also results in fewer hard bounces by validating the . A smaller, segmented and qualified list will produce better results than a broader, unqualified list. Quality over quantity. To reduce the amount of spam entering your database, consider installing a Captcha code to confirm the registrant is an actual person. Ask your prospects what type of information they want to receive. Provide them with the ability to update their profile information. In Lasso, this feature is called a Self-Serve Registrant Update. 34% of addresses change each year. 5

6 I. Planning Your Campaign (cont.) Clean your lists frequently. Databases can quickly become stale, especially if your community has a sales life of several years. addresses change and people move on, so it s important to keep your lists fresh and up-to-date to ensure accuracy and deliverability. Label inactive subscribers so that you don t send them regular and to help you report campaign results more accurately. Use other marketing channels to keep your brand in front of them; when the time is right, they will re-engage. Update your list each time you send an . Remove or update addresses that have failed. Remove distribution accounts such as sales@, or info@ on your lists. Including these types of addresses on your lists will likely create spam complaints. Segment Your Lists Your database is only as effective as the information you put into it. When it comes to following up with prospects both online and those who have walked into your sales center it s important to rate, label and tag leads so that sales and marketing teams can segment lists to provide more focused follow-up. It is estimated that 39 percent of marketers who segment their lists experienced higher open rates. 4 A good CRM system will allow you to assign a grade or rating, multiple source types and contact preferences to each prospect in the database. But in order to reach these prospects with the kind of specific and timely information that will spark their interest (and prompt engagement), think about additional details you d want to remember, such as last event attended, whether or not they have a pet, or which floor plans they re interested in. Using this information, you are able to send highly targeted, relevant information to those who will find it most useful. 39% of marketers who segment their lists experience higher open rates. 6

7 II. Creating Your How an looks is as important as what it says, so you must ensure that your s are received in the intended format. If best practices for HTML design are not followed, your message may be misinterpreted as spam or junk. Additionally, think about the goal of your and be sure you are providing prospects with the right content and links to accomplish it. Plan the Layout Before you even begin designing your , think in general terms about how you want it to look. Reference your own inbox for creative inspiration. What formats are easiest to read? How do they translate to mobile? Do you want to use one column of text or two? How many images do you want to incorporate? A great tool to use is your marketing system s template library, which Lasso offers as a built-in feature. These are pre-built templates that are designed to look good and read well. You simply drop in your own text and images. From Name - Keep it consistent. This is the basis of your relationship with your audience if they don t recognize it, they may delete the message. It s often said that a recipient will decide whether to delete the message by looking at the sender name, and whether to open the by the subject line. Subject Line - The subject determines if the rest of the is read. Choose your words carefully; make it appealing, concise and relevant. The subject should always relate to the content of the . Avoid spam trigger words like Free, Offer or Deal. Include your company or community name to create credibility and familiarity. Be mindful of using all upper case letters this gives the appearance that the sender is screaming. Don t use excessive exclamation marks, question marks, or special characters as many ISPs identify these tokens in their spam filters. 5 Plan your before you even begin designing it. 7

8 II. Creating Your (cont.) Pre-Header A pre-header is the line of text that precedes your header or the first image in your . It s a shortcut for users to either click through to whatever you re promoting (such as an event RSVP), or to a web version of the if they are unable to read it on their mobile devices. This is especially useful if you send similar s often; for example: a series of events. Also, many applications have a preview pane that can show up to the first three lines of text before the recipient opens it. Choose your words carefully. Header - If you choose to use a header image, be sure to include an alt text description in case the image cannot be displayed. Layout - Use HTML programming to keep it simple and clean. You want to create an that is visually appealing and that the eye naturally follows (left to right, top to bottom). Use tables in your HTML code for maximum control over placement of text, images and the width of the message. Keep HTML s no wider than 600 pixels. If you choose to use images in your mass mail, ensure there s a good balance of text and images. The images should help to convey the message of the . Remember, images are often blocked once they are in the recipient s inbox. Make sure the message can still be understood even if the images are not visible. Place the call to action above the fold, meaning in the top half of the screen. Avoid cutting and pasting text from Microsoft Word into your HTML editor. Instead, cut and paste text from Word to Notepad and then into your editor. Format the text in your editor. This will avoid any unusual coding that can cause rendering issues. We do not recommend converting a PDF flyer to a JPG to use as your marketing . Flyers are meant to be printed and handed out, and do not translate well to for numerous reasons: links do not work, copy cannot be read if the entire image is blocked, copy is often small and illegible, and colorful backgrounds and text can be hard to read. Your should be built specifically to be opened in browsers and on mobile devices. Use HTML programming to keep your s visually appealing. 8

9 II. Creating Your (cont.) Images It s always a good idea to format and size your images before uploading them to your template. This ensures they will fit perfectly and have the correct resolution. Lasso offers photo-editing options within the application, but here are our recommendations for additional programs: Snag It (Basic) This is an application that can be downloaded on either a Mac or PC and allows you to capture images from the web or your computer, and edit them. Snipping Tool (Basic) This application functions much like Snag It and is part of Windows; there s no downloading required. PowerPoint (Basic/Intermediate) Many know this as a desktop publishing tool, but it s very easy to create and edit images using PowerPoint. It s especially helpful if you want to layer text or other images on top of an image. Photoshop (Intermediate/Advanced) This program has all the bells and whistles of photo software, and some editing knowledge is required. The result is beautiful, custom images. Content/Relevance - There are several factors to consider when developing the content of your . The tone should be consistent with your branding and audience. The information should be relevant and specific to the people you are sending it to (this is where list segmentation is important.) Personalization - Personalization goes a long way to connect and build relationships with your prospects. We ve already discussed segmenting lists to make sure your content matches the audience. But there are other ways to personalize a mass mail, such as: Create Buyer Personas - By creating 2-3 personas of members of your target audience, you are able to craft marketing messages that are specifically in line with their interests. For example, you could create a story of a young couple purchasing their first home, including their motivations and interests, if this is your target audience. Personalization goes a long way to connect and build relationships with your prospects. 9

10 II. Creating Your (cont.) Ask the Right Questions on Your Web Forms - And in your sales presentations. Make sure the answers are populating to your CRM system and use that information to match content to the prospect. Use Merge Fields This may be the simplest way to personalize a marketing . Start off your s with Dear Allison rather than no salutation at all. Send from a Person, Not a Company Pay careful attention to which name is in the From field. Consumers are more likely to open an from someone they recognize like a sales agent or manager they ve worked with. Include Specific Information For example, use the fields provided in your CRM system to segment lists by last visit date, and incorporate it into your . This is a memory trigger for the prospect and gets him or her thinking about your community. Calls to Action A marketing can have several goals, one of which should always be to engage the reader. You can accomplish this with calls to action (CTAs). If you want your audience to RSVP for an event, be sure to include a link to a form that says, RSVP Here. Invite them to explore your website with a CTA to View More Floor Plans. Use action verbs, offer several opportunities to engage, and make it clear which actions you want them to take. Social Media Include social media buttons to encourage prospects to follow community news, happenings and events online. Make it easy for users to share your message on Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Google + and other social networks. Signature Let people know how they can get in touch with you. Include your community s phone number, physical address and website. Make your signature a brand standard so that it is consistent across all s. Having contact information increases your credibility and invites engagement with prospects. Be sure your contains at least one call-to-action. 10

11 II. Creating Your (cont.) Designing for Mobility Making sure your is viewable on mobile devices has never been more important. Eighty-eight percent of people now check their on mobile every day. 6 Sixty-three percent of Americans would either close or delete an that is not optimized for mobile. 6 Fortunately, Apple devices (which account for 85 percent of all mobile opens) resize images and text to be legible in the smaller format, but to make sure your message is legible on all devices, consider the following: Font size should be no smaller than 13 pixels. Use a single column of text. Have a balance of images and text one or two images per is fine, but be sure they are no more than 600 pixels wide. Limit the amount of colored backgrounds and text. A high-contrast layout, such as black text on white background, works best. If you use a mobile website, be sure to include appropriate coding on your links so that the reader can view web page information in full, rather than an abbreviated mobile format. 88% of people check on their mobile devices every day. Is your optimized correctly? 11

12 III. Anatomy of an Awesome Subject Line: Quattro Only 2 Weeks Remain To Take Advantage Overall: Balance of images and text Nicely laid out Designed in a table All links to website contain tracking tokens 1. Preheader 2. Header & footer images link to website 3. Personalization 4. Creating Urgency (in subject also) 5. Click to view larger images (indicates interest level) 6. Signature with contact info. 7. Map to sales center (links to Google Maps) 8. Links to social media sites

13 IV. Before You Press Send Legal Information These days, it takes more than a clever subject line and well-formatted layout to have a successful . You must abide by SPAM legislation that has been enacted in the United States, Canada, and other countries. Prospects must be able to opt-out and unsubscribe from your s, and you must honor their requests immediately. When someone no longer wishes to receive your , most CRM systems will automatically exclude that recipient from receiving future s. Here s what you need in order to be compliant with most spam legislation: 7 Don t use false or misleading header information including the originating domain name. Don t use deceptive subject lines they must reflect the content of the s. Identify the message as an advertisement. Provide a valid, physical mailing address of where you are located. Provide an easy, clear way to opt-out from your s, and honor those requests immediately. Be responsible for your own content, even if a third-party is sending on your behalf. Test for Deliverability and Performance Testing your before it is sent is critical. Testing will help you determine A) that your looks the way it should, B) what type of information is more likely to be read, and C) when is the best day and time to send it. Some marketing platforms, such as Lasso s, has testing built right in to the software. Otherwise, here are some ideas for testing: Send the to yourself as well as a test list of s from various ISPs. Set up free accounts with Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, and other free mail services. You ll see what potentially could land in junk mail, what is getting blocked by ISPs, as well as how your renders with other providers. Governments are becoming stricter with anti-spam regulations. Make sure your s comply. 13

14 IV. Before You Press Send (cont.) Check how messages render in preview panes with images turned off. By default, most of your recipients will receive the with their images turned off. Ensure that the message can still be understood. Confirm that your sending domain has been authenticated. authentication sets the stage for improved delivery and defines who can send for a specific domain. Simple A/B testing allows you to determine if one subject line or header is more engaging than another. Send small test groups the same with two different subjects. Use the subject that was most engaging (most opened s and clickthroughs) for the larger mass . Experiment with which day and time works best for your audience. Typically, in real estate, you ll find that a high percentage of s are read on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, but don t be afraid to send on other days of the week. Although these days have traditionally seen higher open rates, try a test on weekends or on Fridays. Some communities have found that Friday can be a good day since fewer business s are sent. Weekends can be positive too as this is when a prospect may have more time to read your . A Note About Frequency Sending infrequently can be just as damaging to your marketing efforts as sending too many s. You don t want your audience to forget about what you have to offer, but sending too frequently could mean a higher unsubscribe rate. Also, different groups will require different frequencies of communication. Rely on your website registration form and CRM to guide you here. An inactive prospect who has requested the newsletter might receive fewer s than someone actively looking and closely following sales activity. In real estate, most s are read Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. But don t let that limit you. 14

15 V. Reporting & Metrics The beauty of marketing is that it is easy to measure program efficacy and return on investment. Your marketing provider should be able to provide you with a mass mail summary report that shows the statics of each sent, including bounced s, open rates, click through rates, forwards and unsubscribes. It is important to review these stats after each mass so you can continue to refine your strategy based on what works. Determining a Successful Mass The real estate industry typically experiences about a 20 percent open rate. If your open rates are less than that, some research may be in order to figure out why. However, open rate should not be the only metric by which to judge a successful . You ll want to look at other business-related metrics such as click-through rate (remember those calls to action?), website activity, walk-in traffic, and event attendance. If an received just a standard number of opens, but the ones who did became very active on your website and showed interest in specific floor plans, then that could be considered a success. Going a step further with the use of website analytics, you can continue to narrow your prospects interest and deliver even more targeted information. Here are some other useful benchmarks for real estate marketing: 8 Average Click through Rate 2.90% Average Unsubscribe Rate 0.32% What Do I Do with All This Data? As you would with any other marketing analytics, look for trends and patterns. What types of s are prospects opening? Do s sent at a certain time of day get more opens or click-throughs? Use the data to better execute your next marketing and improve your campaign. With marketing, it s easy to measure program efficacy and ROI. 15

16 VI. Next Steps Part of effective marketing is having a solid follow up strategy in place after an is sent. Will sales agents follow up personally with those who opened the e mail? Is there a plan to contact those prospects whose addresses bounced? Is there a follow up ready to be sent to all those who opened the ? Will the be resent to those who did not open it? Were your goals accomplished? If not, what should you do differently next time? VII. Professional s Yield Results marketing is a powerful tool to help you connect with prospective home buyers, build trust and credibility, and deliver relevant information in a timely manner. Produced and managed correctly, can yield exciting and measurable results. It may take more time on the front end, but having a well conceived, expertly executed marketing campaign will pay off in the long run by helping you achieve market awareness and sales goals. There is not one silver bullet that will deliver 100 percent successful results with each , but the suggestions outlined in this white paper, used collectively, will get you one step closer. marketing doesn t stop once you hit Send. 16

17 VIII. Marketing Checklist Spell check the body of the as well as the subject line. Make sure your images have titles - this way, when the images are blocked, the recipient can read text instead of an x. Read and re-read the then send it to someone else to read and review. How does the look in the preview pane (can you still get the gist of the message)? Review the design. Does the look good? Look at the critically; is there a good balance of text and images? Is it easy on the eyes not too busy? Have you chosen a familiar sender and an enticing, smart subject line? Remember, recipients will look at the sender of the to determine whether they delete an and at the subject line to determine whether they open the . Test your ! Don t just rely on the preview mode of creation. Actually send the to a few different addresses setup up free accounts with Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo! to test rendering. s delivered to Hotmail will look different from an received by Gmail. Check how your images are displayed (or not displayed. Do your links work? Post- strategy. Do you have a follow-up planned and ready to go? Are you planning on calling all those prospects who clicked on a specific link? Whatever the strategy is, make sure you have a plan prior to the being sent. And, finally, after the has been sent, don t forget to... Review the Mass Mail Report how do your stats compare to other s? Is your open rate increasing or declining? Why? You want to learn from your experiences; it s important to create metrics so you know what is effective and what is not. Spell check, read, and re-read your before you send it. 17

18 IX. Glossary of Marketing Terms Authentication protocols: Protocols that help inbox providers avoid messages from anonymous bulk senders and messages from those who attempt to spoof the identity of legitimate senders. By allowing e mail providers to verify the purported identity of senders, these protocols also serve as a first step in reputation systems. Blacklist: The practice employed by ISPs of blocking an IP address or series of IP addresses to prevent the receipt of e mail messages from a server that is suspected of transmitting SPAM. Many companies use blacklists to reject inbound e mail, either at the server level or before it reaches the recipient s inbox. Block: A refusal by an ISP or mail server to forward your e mail message to the recipient. Many ISPs block e mail from IP addresses or domains that have been reported to send spam or viruses, or have content that violates e mail policy or spam filters. Bounce message: A message sent back to an e mail sender reporting the original message could not be delivered and why. Note: Not all bounced e mails result in messages being sent back to the sender. Not all bounce messages are clear or accurate about the reason e mail was bounced. Bounce handling: The process of dealing with the e mail that has bounced. Bounce handling is important for list maintenance, list integrity and delivery. Given the lack of consistency in bounce messaging formats, it's an inexact science at best. Bounce rate (also known as Return rate): Number of hard/soft bounces divided by the number of e mails sent. This is an inexact number because some systems do not report back to the sender clearly or accurately. Bulk folder (also known as Junk or Spam folder): Where many e mail clients send messages that appear to be from spammers, contain spam, or are from any sender who s not in the recipient s address book or contact list. Some clients allow the recipient to override the system s settings and direct that mail from a suspect sender be sent directly to the inbox. e.g., Yahoo! Mail gives recipients a button marked Not Spam on every message in the bulk folder. Challenge response system: An anti spam program that requires a human being on the sender's end to respond to an e mailed challenge message before their messages can be delivered to recipients. Senders who answer the challenge successfully are added to an authorization list. Bulk e mail senders can work with challenge response if they designate an employee to watch the sending address' mailbox and to reply to each challenge by hand. Churn: How many subscribers leave a mailing list (or how many e mail addresses go bad) over a certain length of time, usually expressed as a percentage of the whole list. Domain authentication: The effort to equip messages with enough verifiable information so that recipients can recognize the nature of each incoming message automatically; the means for ISPs to establish the true identity of an e mail sender. DomainKeys: An anti spam software application being developed by Yahoo and using a combination of public and private "keys" to authenticate the sender's domain and reduce the chance that a spammer or hacker will fake the domain sending address. Double opt in (also known as Confirmed opt in): A process that requires new list joiners to take an action (such as clicking on an e mailed link to a personal confirmation page) in order to confirm that they do want to be on the list. Enhanced white list: An example is AOL s enhanced white list for bulk e mail senders who meet strict delivery standards, including less than one spam complaint for every 1,000 e mail messages. E mail senders on the enhanced white list can bypass AOL 9.0 s automatic suppression of images and links. Hard bounce: Message sent to an invalid, closed or nonexistent e mail account. Hard bounces should be removed immediately. To avoid this pitfall, heed best practices like proper list hygiene to keep your list fresh and build a double opt in mechanism into your registration process. ISP: ISP stands for Internet Service Provider. An ISP provides access to the Internet for others via some connectivity service(s). Examples of ISPs include Shaw, TELUS, Earthlink, Mindspring, and WorldNet, to name a few. 18

19 IX. Glossary of Marketing Terms (cont.) List fatigue: A condition producing diminishing returns from a mailing list whose members have become disengaged and are inactive. List hygiene: The act of maintaining a list so that hard bounces and unsubscribed names are removed from mailings. Some list owners also use an e mail change of address service to update old or abandoned e mail addresses (hopefully with a permission step baked in) as part of this process. List management: How a mailing list is set up, administered and maintained. The list manager has daily responsibility over list operation including processing subscribes and unsubscribes, bounce management, list hygiene, etc. Opt in: A specific, pro active request by an individual e mail recipient to have their own e mail address placed on a specific mailing list. Many list renters and buyers now require list owners to provide proof of opt in, including the actual e mail or IP address date and time the request was received. Opt out: A specific request to remove an e mail address from a specific list or from all lists operated by a single owner. Also, the process of adding an e mail address to lists without the address owner s pre approval, forcing those who don't want to be on your list to actively unsubscribe. Segmentation: The practice of dividing prospects into custom lists or groups based on profile information such as geographic location, product interest, rating, etc. Sender ID: The informal name for a new anti spam program combining two existing protocols: Sender Policy Framework and CallerID. SenderID authenticates e mail senders and blocks e mail forgeries and faked addresses. Sender Policy Framework (SPF): A protocol used to eliminate e mail forgeries. A line of code called an SPF record is placed in a sender s Domain Name Server (DNS) information. The incoming mail server can verify a sender by reading the SPF record before allowing a message through. Sender reputation: E mail delivery problems often stem from factors related to the reputation of the sender. A reputation score is determined by many variables, including the number of bounces, spam complaints, and the number of inactive subscribers. Soft bounce: E mail sent to an active (live) e mail address but which is turned away before being delivered. Often, the problem is temporary the server is down, the recipient's mailbox is over quota, or an out of office reply. The e mail might be held at the recipient's server and delivered later, or the sender's e mail program may attempt to deliver it again. Soft bounce reports are not always accurate because they don't report all soft bounces or the actual reason for the bounce. Spam: Spam is any message, regardless of content, that is sent to multiple recipients who haven t specifically requested the message. Other common terms for spam include: Junk mail, unsolicited commercial e mail (UCE), and unsolicited bulk e mail (UBE). However, some e mail recipients define spam as any e mail they no longer want to receive, even if it comes from a mailing list they joined voluntarily. Spamcop: A blacklist and IP address database, formerly privately owned but now part of the e mail vendor Ironport. Many ISPs check the IP addresses of incoming e mail against Spamcop s records to determine whether the address has been blacklisted due to spam complaints. Throttling: The practice of regulating how many e mail messages a broadcaster sends to one ISP or mail server at a time. Some ISPs bounce e mail if it receives too many messages from one sending address at a time. Unsubscribe: To remove oneself from an e mail list, either via an e mailed command to the list server or by filling in a Web form. View rate: The number of recipients included in a mass mailout that viewed the intended message. Web bug (also known as Web beacon): A 1 pixel by 1 pixel image tag added to an HTML message and used to track open rates by e mail address. Opening the message, either in the preview pane or by clicking on it, activates the bug and sends a signal to the Web site, where special software tracks and records the signal as an open. White list: A list of e mail senders, most often by IP address, considered by the list compiler to exhibit exemplary sending behaviour and therefore to be worthy of preferential treatment in the recipient system, which allows e mail messages to be delivered regardless of spam filters. 19

20 X. About the Authors Angela McKay, Marketing Director, Lasso Data Systems Angela is passionate about marketing! In fact, she joined Lasso five years ago as an Marketing Specialist. She continues to be involved in marketing whether working on Lasso s own marketing strategy or assisting clients with creating . Angela has over 20 years of business experience in marketing and business development positions and for the last seven years has focused on lead generation and inbound marketing efforts. angela@lassocrm.com Thaïs Cuffy, Marketing Manager, Lasso Data Systems Thaïs main objective is to deliver informative, innovative and practical content about Customer Relationship Management. With 10 years experience in real estate marketing and operations, Thaïs has worked with some of the nation s top builders and sales firms to deliver powerfully integrated marketing plans for new home communities. thais@lassocrm.com About Lasso Lasso Data Systems is the leading developer of innovative on-demand CRM home builder software for builders and developers. Lasso, deployed on thousands of projects globally, equips real estate developers, home builders and sales agencies to convert prospects to purchasers and to sell their developments faster and easier. The company s software manages potential homebuyers online from interest list to occupancy including marketing, sales, inventory and contract management. Lasso works equally well for diverse developments from urban high-rise to suburban town homes, single family, master planned and senior communities, and golf, mountain and ocean destination resorts. Lasso is designed for ease of use, rapid deployment and pay by usage to maximize each client s ROI and reduce their technology and financial risk. www. XI. References Rates-Data.aspx