Web Reviews: Pick a Card, Any Card

Tired of blowing your budget on direct mail promotions that get lost in the shuffle alongside letters proclaiming that “You May Have Already Won $1 Million!"? Electronic greeting cards present a convenient and inexpensive way to stay in touch with past, present, or potential customers. They can incorporate links that guide recipients to your Web site. And because they’re quicker to produce and send than traditional cards, they’re perfect for appointment reminders and open house invitations. eMailaCard is a great resource for free real-estate themed e-cards that can promote your services and increase hits to your Web site.

To select a free card, choose from the site’s pull down menu of available categories, then click the “send a free card” button. The site offers real-estate specific cards for categories including just sold, closing, open houses, appointment reminders, prospecting, and mortgage approval. If you also track clients’ birthdays and anniversaries in your contact management software", you can also find some general cards on the site. However, you’re probably better off checking out a site such as Hallmark.com, for these occasions.

Once you’ve selected the appropriate category and picked the card you wish to send, you must fill out a quick information form that includes your company name and e-mail address, your recipient’s e-mail address, and your personal message. Once you have entered your information, click the “send” button; the site then e-mails the recipient a link to a page that displays your card. You can ask for a return receipt, so you know if the recipient opened the e-mail. You can only send one free card at a time; however, paid subscribers can send mass mailings.

Many of the cards include features such as optional music and animation. One of the most useful features for real estate professional lets you affix separate links to your personal Web site and virtual tour page to the card. Simply enter your URL into the appropriate fields in the information form, and the links will appear on the e-card. These links catch recipients while they are already online and allow them to immediately jump to your page. This quick and easy process is much more likely to drive recipients to your site than sending them traditional printed material that includes your URL and expecting them to remember it the next time they sign on to the Internet.

The site also offers several membership options that give you more features and a wider array of cards. Subscriptions for a “basic membership” are available for three months for $71.40, six months for $128.70, and a full year for $205.50. Its benefits include a Card Blaster, which you can use to send blind carbon copies of a card--for instance, a prospecting card--to up to 1,000 recipients. Additionally, you can create an address book so you don’t have to retype your information or clients’ addresses into the computer every time you want to send a card. eMailaCard also offers a wider variety of cards for members, including designation cards that promote your expertise; recipe-of-the-month cards; and client feedback cards that include a customer satisfaction survey. You can even upload a picture of a property and use it to create a custom e-card. Another subscription option is the “premium subscription,” which offers the services listed above, as well as allowing you to create an e-card gallery for your Web site. It’s available for a $309.40 annual subscription.

It would be an exaggeration to say that print is dead, but e-cards carry a number of advantages over their snail mail counterparts. eMailaCard provides real estate themes that allow you to place information in recipient’s inbox, instead of buried in a pile of junk mail.