Anne Marie Malfi, Real Estate Marketing Consultant/Virtual Asst, Bucks County,PA

What could I possibly be talking about?

There are many words you could use to describe it - clutter, junk, odds and ends, disorder, chaos, confusion, and mess.

Perhaps you experience the same - there is just never enough time to sort through the many rooms in our homes to remove the clutter that we all accumulate.

Last weekend we tackled the garage - the place (besides the basement) that we seem to dump the items that we don't know what to do with them -and usually they stay there until we finally decide we have not used them or even touched them since we placed them there and they finally end up on our curb or are driven to a donation center.

The empowerment you feel when you throw out stuff you don't need...freedom!

Once we start tackling these "clean up and out" projects it always inspires me to keep going and this weekend I ended up at the drawer in my kitchen. You know the one that has ALL the miscellaneous things in it that you are holding onto for some reason. Have you looked in that drawer in your home lately? Go take a look right now; I'll wait here for you.

Ok, so what did you find? Perhaps an all dried up stick of glue, a pen that no longer works, receipts for miscellaneous stuff (mind you not one for a major purchase you made) - funny isn't it that we find the need to hold onto these things. Why do we do that? Are they providing us with some sense of comfort or is it that we just can't, won't or are afraid to make a decision about what to do with those items? Will we need them again?

These items have no real purpose anymore except to take up space and create clutter in our lives. So how can throwing out these items not to mention our old makeup, keys from our apartment when we were 20, outdated prescriptions, and all those items that just serve no purpose any longer help us declutter our minds?

Letting go of things that no longer contribute to your daily life can be quite freeing and will help you feel more in control which will certainly spill out into all the areas of your life.

I think the same thing applies to how we work and relate to our clients. If we're so bogged down with all we have to do and trying to fit so much into our day, the clutter if you will, we give that vibe and appearance to those we work with and interact with. We can find ourselves stuck, perhaps in our approach - being stuck in one way of thinking vs. being open to other possibilities or we can just simply let important things go undone because of all the chaos we are trying to operate in.

This is not to suggest we go storming through our homes and lives and throw out everything (some things simply just have too much sentimental value or memories attached to them) or create living and working environments that are perfectly tidy (that's not any fun.)

It's about letting things go that we no longer need, that no longer serve their purpose, so that we have our hands free to grab onto all that awaits us.

For fun sake - feel free to share what's in your "junk" drawer (bet many of you can come up with some funny, interesting and even bizarre stuff.)

I'm sure you've heard this phrase before:

"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink."

Your websites, blogs and email campaigns are tools you use every day to encourage potential clients to engage with you. It's true, you can't make them call you but you certainly have every opportunity to engage with them and encourage them to make contact with you by providing great, relevant content and having calls to action that will help you build trust, credibility and shows you care about what they need.

In addition to great content, your call to action is one of the most important components on your email campaign.

Calls to Action should answer the following questions:

1. What you want your recipients to do (Examples: buy something, make an appointment, visit your website or blog, fill out contact information or a form, get more information)
2. Why they should click on your call to action (WIIFM)

To get the results that you desire, while at the same time appealing to your readers, make sure your calls to action are:

Visible - For best results your calls to action should be throughout your email (beginning, middle and end.) With all the emails people receive each day, many are simply skimming the email quickly to see if there's anything of value to them to make them want to continue reading and taking action.

Clear - Don't crowd your email with so many calls to action, graphics and words that it's so busy and visually unappealing. KISS ( Simple: keywords and phrases, bullet points and short paragraphs work best.) Be sure to write in the present as a passive voice weakens your message.

Compelling - You want your calls to action to encourage them to take action. Some key phrases to consider "Buy now", "Read more", "Call today", etc.

Some persuasive words to consider using in your email campaigns:

You, your, discover, free, easy, introducing, gain, new, advice, no obligation, call today, results, proven, benefits, effective, save, value, now, win, right, why, guaranteed.

Rewarding - You've heard of WIIFM - what's in it for your readers to click on your call to action? If they click here what will they receive? Stick to incentives that make sense and offer value to your readers. Perhaps you've teamed up with another service provider, such as a stager, who can help you by offering your clients a consultation or maybe you have giveaways or are having a raffle. Get creative and tap into what your readers want and are interested in by conducting polls and asking them for feedback in another email campaign.

Direct - Your calls-to-action should link directly to your website or blog or should provide a phone number where they can contact you. This is a perfect opportunity to invite your readers to your blog to further engage with them and find out topics that they are interested in for future email campaigns.

As I stated in my previous post, remember it's important to have specific email mailing lists setup so that your calls to action appeal to those specific contacts. Emails to current and previous clients can be a bit more direct and an email to a potential client might need to start off softer. An example of a softer approach might be having a call to action that encourages them to visit your website or blog or "learn more."

Now that you have ideas for putting together your next campaign with calls to action what should you do next?

Review your reports to see the click throughs (A click through rate refers to the percentage of recipients that click on a URL that you provide in your email) and determine which calls to action worked best for each group. Yes, it takes time and you won't get perfect results the first, second or third time you send your campaigns.

It will be a work in progress but this becomes your formula for success and will ensure more of your emails are not only read but that you are receiving the results you set out to achieve.

Since I like sharing, here are some creative examples of calls to action that you might consider using in your next campaign:

• Watch this video on how to declutter your home.
• See how we helped this seller get the results they were looking for
• Listen to our client's testimonial of our services
• Download our guide to getting your home ready to place on the market

What are some of your creative calls to action that have yielded you great results?

In the past couple of weeks I have received some great emails and calls from many of my Activerain friends family members wondering where I was and what I was doing. Some even suggested posting an alert since I'd gone missing.

Hello everyone. Sorry I went missing for awhile (hope I'm forgiven?) but I needed to take several steps back from my regular posting to focus my attention on many things from family to business.

Sometimes you come to a point when everything is happening all at once. That certainly has been true for me on a personal level with many family events occurring in the last few weeks, my father's surgery and recovery and just the fact that it's summer and kids are home from school. Thank you to all of you who have reached out to me directly to check on me and also for your thoughtful prayers and inquiries on my dad who is doing fairly well since his surgery.

In addition to focusing my attention on family, I have also used this time off as an opportunity to take a closer look at my business and make what I consider to be some positive changes in my business model and services I offer my clients.

I think sometimes we all get to a point in which we feel like all we're doing is spinning our wheels instead of having the feeling that we're moving forward and achieving the goals we've set for ourselves. If you're anything like me, you enjoy having specific tasks assigned to each day and putting check marks or crossing off those items from your list to feel a sense of accomplishment. But sometimes all that focus on moving from one task to another squelches your creative mind.

Sometimes it comes down to taking a much needed break. Pulling back from your usual routine can provide many sources and avenues to explore and open up your creativity.

Stepping back from your typical routine allows you to think and observe. It gives you another outlet to channel the real you ~ a person that perhaps you've forgotten about for awhile. This much needed time has left me with this realization that I needed to step back to reconnect with myself in order to move forward so that I'm able to provide in all areas of my life - to my family, my clients and the many great and loyal friends and followers of my blog that I have here on Activerain.

Yes, the gift of time has given me ~ me.

Hello me ~ nice to see you ~ I've missed you.

What have you done lately to reconnect with yourself? (taken a step back, tried something new, vacation?)

If your inbox looks anything like mine, crowded with emails from all sorts of websites, clients, groups and networks, all vying for your attention, how do you possibly decide which ones to read and where do you find the time to sort through them all. The same goes for your clients and prospects.

You may be thinking, my email campaigns have such great and relevant content that will compel your contacts to open and read your emails, but if your contacts don't open them then your email campaigns are not achieving the goal you want and need.

So what are some of the ways you can increase your chances of your emails being opened, read and possibly receiving contact from these clients and prospects?

Here are 5 to think about:

1. Setup specific mailings lists

Do you currently just have one database list with all your contacts in it? I don't necessarily think having one giant list is the way to go - we have multiple audiences and the "one size fits all" might not be working for them or you if you really think about it. Setup groups so that you are targeting your members specific interests. The more you tap into their interests - the higher your open rates will be. Here's an example of different groups you can set up:

• Prospects
• Former clients
• First Time Home buyers
• Sellers vs. Buyers
• REO
• Agents
• And so on...

Having smaller, more targeted groups and emails that speak to your contacts increases the likelihood that your emails will be opened. If your currently have one giant list - why not start a little at a time refining these lists and see the great results you will get with a more targeted group and email campaign.

When you get an email about something you are truly interested in and that is relevant to you, you are more likely to open it.

2. Gain interest with your subject line

We all know that blog titles are what initially may encourage someone to click on our posts to further explore the topic we are covering so the same goes for your email campaigns.

It's especially helpful to show the contact that there's a benefit to reading your email - WIIFM (what's in it for me.) This is also why you don't want to be sending all your emails to all your contacts - target your content to specific groups. For example, if you have an email that is full of great content about refinancing you wouldn't necessarily send it to someone that is a First time home buyer would you? If it's not relevant to them - they will not be compelled to open it and find out more. Everyone is busy and you need to share content specific to your contacts that will convey to them that they will be missing out if they don't open your email.

When thinking of titles consider these tips:

• Keep it simple and short
• Pull from the content of your email
• WIIFM - state what they will gets "3 tips for remodeling"
• Ask a question to your readers that will prompt them to open
• Speak to your reader by using "you" in the title (You can save....)

3. Determining the best times to send your emails

Is there one great time or day to send your emails? You'll never determine the "best" day or time but you can get closer to having the results you want. One way to do this is to review your last campaign.

Look and see how many were opened

• When were they opened (morning, afternoon, evening?)
• In your next mailing send to half your list in the morning and then to the other half in the evening - which got you better open rates?
• Determine if more of these emails in your database are work vs. personal email addresses. Work email addresses will ensure that more of your emails will be opened during the day vs. those with personal email addresses are probably going to be opened more in the evening.

Note: Again it's important that you have already worked on finetuning those lists by creating specific groups for each of your email campaigns or your results will not accurately reflect why emails are not being opened.

4. Does your email look like it came from you?

I know if I don't recognize a name on an email, I simply won't open it. In this day and age when so many viruses are attached and embedded in emails with links, who would want to open something from someone they don't recognize. Increase your open rates by having a recognizable email address and "from" name so your contacts know they are receiving an email from you. This could mean having your full name and company name,or something specific that your contacts will recognize so they know it's ok to open the email.

5. Determining how often to send and what to send

There are 3 reasons in my mind for why emails are not opened

• I get too many to open
• Content is not relevant to me
• I don't receive the emails I want regularly so I lose interest

One thing you can do is either ask your contacts how often they want to hear from you - weekly, monthly or based on a specific topic. You can do this when they initially sign up or you receive their contact information or by simply sending them a survey to gather that information. Think of it as another great opportunity to connect with a potential client - getting to know them and their needs is what will make them more receptive to you and your services.

Think about the content you are sending. Do you only send one email that has ALL the information you want to convey to all contacts? Instead why not have separate emails for your newsletter, topics you cover, open houses, new listings, and so on. This will help you determine which of your emails your contacts are responding to more and will allow you to make the necessary adjustments so that your campaigns are working for you and your contacts.

Serious email marketing requires a strategy. Not having one is a waste of everyone's time. If you want to have your email campaigns taken seriously and you want to stand out in someone's inbox, then you will need to commit to testing, measuring and refining your campaigns so you are getting the results you are hoping for.

Stay Tuned: In future blog posts I will further explore with you calls to action, links, and key words to use in your campaigns to ensure you have greater success - I hope you'll stop by to share your experiences and possibly learn new ways of improving your email campaigns.

Do you know the answer to this question:

Do you currently have an email campaign strategy and how's it working for you (and your potential clients)?

Holding some dice in your hand, thinking about the numbers you want to get, throw them out and see what numbers come up. Did the numbers you were thinking of come up?

Life is unpredictable and just like we can't always predict the exact numbers that will come up when we throw the dice; we can't predict what will happen each day and who we will meet.

We are always setting goals and making plans for ourselves whether in our work lives or personally. I'm actually someone that loves lists - they help keep me focused and ensure that I use my time wisely so that all people and aspects of my life get the attention they need. I also feel a great sense of purpose and direction because I have a clear vision of where I want to go and what I need to do to get there.

So what happens when those darn outside forces change my plans? It could be something as simple as having a client not call you when you have the time available or going to the food store thinking you're going to run in and pick up something really quick only to have one register open and a really long line in front of you.

It could also be something positive that happens - being in a rush and getting into conversation with someone unexpectedly that creates a wonderful opportunity that we might not have otherwise experienced that pushes us and requires us to be flexible and change our priorities.

It comes down to accepting what is happening to you and letting go of your original expectation that will help you deal with the twists and turns in life.

Sometimes we get stuck on how things should go, holding onto those ideas and expectations so tightly that we don't allow ourselves to accept anything that comes our way. Perhaps these twists and turns can take us to an even better place and provide situations and people into our day that we might not have otherwise experienced.

Life is unpredictable and these twists are what keep us alive and awake to all sorts of new and exciting possibilities and surprises.

Next time something unpredictable happens I hope you'll find yourself stopping yourself from trying to change it, appreciating that moment and opening your mind to a new opportunity, a new friend, new business and new twists and turns.

How do you handle these twists and turns in your day/life?

Are you someone that goes with the flow or do you find yourself trying to hold on tightly to your plans to control the outcome you had expected?

Don't miss out on life by holding onto your expectations so tightly ~ loosen your grip and see all the wonderful possibilities that are given to you each day.