Why not do an email newsletter?

You wouldn’t believe how many times this gets asked

Now that’s a question those who are less informed on marketing tend to ask. New employees will ask this question and also when the topic, “What do you do for a living?” comes up in social situations. It’s a valid question with the internet and email being so prevalent in our lives. We’ve been watching email marketing since it became popular, and it was apparent that everyone wants to put out a net to acquire sales, but do as little as possible to service the sales that are made. Great idea if you sell books or tools.

When you compare the response rates of email vs. direct mail for Loan Officers and REAs you will see that no matter what you put in an email, it’s opened long enough to decide if it’s important enough to read. It’s sad but very true. The fact is that 80% of consumers will react to a call to action in direct mail vs. 45% using email.

If email marketing was the answer for the Loan Officer or REA, you can bet we’d include it in our marketing products and services for our clients.

The human condition is such that regardless of where technology takes us, some things will always trigger acceptance, loyalty, and cherished relationships over other things. If you send a congratulations letter to a colleague on a promotion it has a far greater emotional impact than sending it by email.

The reason we don’t sell or produce an email newsletter or sell marketing automation to LOs and REAs are very basic and paramount to the concept of how marketing works. Emails are best suited for impulse purchases, Loans and Properties aren’t impulse purchases, there’s no Buyers Journey associated with them, and from a basic “human condition” perspective, this is why they don’t work for the LO or REA. Another reason is that reaching out to your past clients via email is seen as sales and marketing, while sending a newsletter by USPS, on quality paper, from you, as YOU is seen as real. You put effort into someone you generally and genuinely care about and are seen as part of the family.

I’ve said this on many occasions, “technology changes almost every day, the human condition doesn’t change. People are still affected by things they’ve always been affected by” And to this day, this is still as solid a concept as anything can be.

The bottom line is, that an email newsletter isn’t a newsletter, it’s an email and the actual printed and mailed newsletter will always be perceived as having a higher value than an email newsletter every time. See for yourself by seeing what Exodus Clients have to say.