#1— From www.Realtor.org

"I'm not a technology guru," says John M. Peckham III, CCIM, president of The Peckham Boston Advisory Co., "but I know a good selling tool when I see it. And e-mail is the best."

The first time Peckham used e-mail in his business, he sent a message to 92 commercial and investment real estate specialists about a property listing he'd recently received. Within three days, Peckham had closed a $2.6 million deal.

Peckham uses his e-mail primarily as a marketing tool. When he wants to sell a particular property, he sends a note to other commercial and investment specialists he thinks might know of potential buyers.

Peckham estimates it'd have cost about $1 per piece, factoring in postage, paper, printing, and staff time for stuffing envelopes. Cost of the same mailing by e-mail: $0, except for the time Peckham spent creating the message and the monthly fee for his online service.

#2— From Dan, a Coldwell Banker Burnet Realtor

Dan was learning how to do a free e-mail marketing campaign.  He partially prepared an e-mail — for practice.  It was not compete and didn’t even have his name on it.  Somehow, the incomplete e-mail was accidentally sent to 162 people from Dan’s Outlook Contacts.

Within 30 minutes, Dan had calls from two of those who received the e-mail asking him to list properties for them.  They recognized his e-mail address.  When all was said and done, Dan secured three listings from his “half-baked” e-mail.  Imagine what a fully prepared e-mail might have done!

“I do an e-mail Marketing Campaign for all my listings and changes to the listings as they are marketed.  I recently hired Tony to help set up an e-mail campaign on a price reduction for a short sale property. The e-mail generated four offers in one week.  I now use the same e-mail campaign for everything.  Thanks to Tony, the program is very easy to use and very effective.”

What does it cost to have me do an e-mail marketing campaign for you?