Welcome to the world of the Internet Empowered Consumer (IEC).  In fact, recent studies of IEC behavior suggest that the vast majority of online leads may be months away from taking action.  This is mostly due to the fact that the Internet allows them to do a considerable amount of advance research at their leisure.

It used to be very difficult and time consuming to keep these folks interested during their "information gathering" stage.  Well, not any more!  Thanks to the advent of e-mail "drip-marketing" systems, the entire process of staying in touch and even growing the relationship with online prospects can be completely automated.

Campaigns For Success

An e-mail drip-marketing system consists of one or more targeted "campaigns" where each campaign contains a series of e-mail messages that are automatically sent to a contact (either prospect or current client) who has been subscribed to the campaign.

For example, suppose a first time buyer prospect stopped by your site and requested more information.  You could offer to include them into your "free" series of educational e-mails (i.e. your First-Time Buyer campaign) about the entire purchase process.  The following table gives you an idea on how this particular campaign might be structured:

The Day # indicates when the contact will be sent the respective message. Messages set to go out on Day 0 are sent immediately upon entry into the system.  It's important to note that each contact in a particular campaign will receive their messages relative to when they were first entered and completely independent of when anyone else in the campaign receives theirs.  Most drip-marketing systems allow you to adjust when each message will "fire" within a particular campaign.

The beauty is that you can have can have campaigns for any number of target markets or situations, such as: FSBOs, Condo Buyers, Buyers After Close, Sellers, Relocation, Waterfront Property, etc.  Once set up, this kind of a dynamic, interactive program will start converting prospects to clients like clockwork!

The Devil's In The Details

There are two aspects to consider when choosing an e-mail drip-marketing system: a) The online or software "engine" that manages the entire process; b) The messages sent within the campaigns.  And they are both extremely important. (NOTE: I'm going to restrict my discussion to online, Web-based systems since they tend to be much more automated and "hands off" than any software solutions that reside on your computer).

There are three Web-based (i.e. controlled through any Web browser) e-mail drip marketing systems worth mentioning, each with their respective advantages and disadvantages depending upon your skill level:

• iPersonalservice (http://www.ipersonalservice.com - beginners) - this is the simplest of the three and the least flexible.  It offers essentially only one campaign, however you can modify the pre-written messages to some extent.
   
• Intersend (http://www.intersend.com - intermediate) - allows you to create as many campaigns as you want and currently offers about 16 default campaigns which you can modify or add to as you wish.  Some of the pre-written messages in these campaigns are okay, but could be improved upon.  Also, you have limited ability to adjust the look and feel of the messages that go out.
   
• Proautoresponder (http://www.proautoresponder.com - advanced) - this is by far the most powerful e-mail drip marketing engine I've ever come across.  It gives you the ability to create unlimited campaigns, containing unlimited messages, going out to an unlimited number of contacts.  Messages can be sent in both Text and high-impact HTML formats simultaneously where the recipient's e-mail software will automatically choose the correct format for its display.  Also, it automatically senses AOL recipients and will adjust any links (just for their messages) to be "clickable" (and that's important considering that so many online prospects come from AOL).
  
  You can sign up contacts manually or they can opt-in to receive one or more of your campaigns (simultaneously) through a simple Web form on your site.  The system can also be set to notify you when someone signs up.  For even greater impact (increasing response rate by up to 300%) you can also attach your voice message that will automatically start playing the moment the recipient views their message!  This system will also track when they opened your message and what links they clicked and when --incredibly valuable intelligence to help you determine just how effective your campaigns are.  All this for currently less than half the price of the other two systems¹.  The only "disadvantage" is that it does not come with any pre-written messages (typically not an issue for the advanced e-mail marketing veteran).
  ¹ CLICK HERE to see how you can save 33% off the normal price of this service.  This is part of Mr. Internet's e-Bate� program where discounts are passed on to you and neither Mr. Internet or his company receive any compensation whatsoever.

In addition to the "engine" that runs your campaigns, the content of each campaign message can make a huge difference in the results you will see.  Here is a few tips to consider:

1. Value, Value, Value - it's critical that each campaign message offers real value relative to the campaign topic;
    
2. Engage The Recipients - ideally, your campaign messages are written in a conversational style that continues to build relationship with the contact with each message that is sent;
    
3. It's Not About You - avoid the temptation of including blatant self-promotion in any of the campaign messages --to do so will greatly undermine your efforts to convert the prospect into a client.
    
4. Allow Opt-Out - it is critical that every message allow the contact to opt-out (i.e. discontinue) from the campaign at any time.  Otherwise you risk annoying them to the point of damaging your online reputation.

I could write an entire book on the powerful business-generating possibilities of e-mail drip-marketing.  However, the above is enough to get you started.  Once implemented, you will quickly begin harvesting a steady stream of new clients that started out as typical online prospect inquiries --all with very little effort on your part.