ClientDIRECT™

Getting Started with ClientDIRECT™: A step-by-step guide

Your new ClientDIRECT™ newsletter is a powerful marketing tool designed for the real estate and mortgage professions. In a nutshell, ClientDIRECT™ lets you control your own publishing and marketing, eliminating a third party company from ever being between you and your customer. You will be amazed at how fast you can create your own personalized newsletter and even more amazed at how much fun you will have doing it. The 15-20 minutes you spend each month creating this will help secure years of loyalty among your customers.

Step 1: Give your newsletter a title
Click on #1 on your control panel: This function is the business card part of your newsletter. In the very first box, enter the title your newsletter. Call it anything you like. The more focus the name places on your community, the more effective it will be. The more focus you place on yourself, the less effective. Here are some ideas. Seattle Monthly, What's Happening in Tampa, This Month in NYC or Community Real Estate Monthly. Publishing a community newsletter will embrace the readers far more effectively than the typical All About Me newsletter. Once you name your newsletter, fill in all your personal information as you would like it to appear on your newsletter. Please note: The UserName and Password will not appear on your Newsletter. This is a security function to make sure only you can access your ClientDIRECT™ newsletter. When you are one click the "Save my information" button down at the bottom.

Step 2: add your picture to your newsletter
Click on #1 on your control panel Your photo must be saved as a .gif, .jpg, or .jpeg image. You will get the best result if your picture is 80 pixels x 120 pixels. Click the "Add/Change My Photo" button. There you will see a "Browse" window.
Click on the "Browse" button. A window will open pointing to where your files are in your computer. Double-click on the correct file and the link will now appear in your "Browse" window. Hit the "Submit" button and your picture is now uploaded into your newsletter. Now click the button on the left side of the page "Back to my control panel" so that you can start adding the other content.

Step 3: create your own article or articles
Click on #2 on your control panel Here is where you get to create your own information. This is what makes this newsletter so different for all others. It allows you to carry across the services and information you tend to provide offline. Here are some content suggestions that would greatly enhance your customers experience with this product.

Write an article of your own tips about buying, selling, ownership and or mortgage.
Write a report about your local market.
Create a list of recent home sales in the area.
Create a calendar of interesting and fun events going on in your community.
Secure discount coupons for many of your recommended service providers in the area. This is a wonderful way of adding value each and every time you send out your newsletter. Some ideas include: Exterminator, pool cleaning company, Rug cleaning company, House cleaning service, landscaper, flower shop, babysitter, title company, lawyer, seamstress, interior decorator, driveway paving company, restaurant, the list is endless.
Create a classified ad section. Allow your farm to send you items they are selling and you post them in your newsletter. This encourages participation in your newsletter and further insures readership.
Create a Bulletin Board or Announcements section. Let your readers know about School plays, Tupperware Parties, Open Houses or food drives. This section is also effective during holidays like Halloween, Xmas, 4th of July in informing your readers where the best places to view festivities are.
Create a directory of local service providers. Just names and phone numbers, from the Utility Company and local dial up and Internet service to where you can sign Johnny up for soccer.

These are just some of the ideas you can go with. When you finish creating an article, click the "Save" button towards the bottom of the page. To easily add pictures to your article or articles, go back to your newsletter control panel. Click on #2. Find the article you created. Click on it. You'll see several options to edit. Click the "Add a photo to this article" button. Again, you will then see a "Browse" button. Remember the image must be saved as a .gif, .jpg, or .jpeg image. You will get the best result if your picture is 80 pixels x 80 pixels. Now you can search your files and find the photo. When you locate it double click it. The file link will appear in the Newsletter browse window. Hit "Submit". It's now saved. When you complete this process, you can create another article. You can create up to 6 of these articles in total. When you've completed this, be advised that they have not yet appeared in the newsletter. That's because all you've done is created the article. You have not published it yet. No worries. We will get to that later. First, let's finish creating the newsletter.

Step 4: add listings to your newsletter
Click on #3 on your control panel The procedure is exactly like step 3. There are 3 elements to add here. 1. Name -- Type in the main selling pitch of the home. This can either be an address or something descriptive like, "Great bungalow with view" 2. URL -- This is the link to the page where your listing is located on the web. Simply cut and paste this into the URL box. 3. Description - Write a 25-word description of the property. This doesn't have to be any longer than this since the main description will be located on the web page where the property resides. When you are done, hit the "Save" button. Click add a photo of the home. - Simply use the "Browse" feature to locate a picture of the property on your computer. Your photo must be saved as a .gif, .jpg, or .jpeg image. You will get the best result if your picture is 80 pixels x 120 pixels.

Step 5: Create a list of web site links
Click #4 on your control panel This is simple. Where it says "Web site name", simply define what website the link is for. For example Your website, or The Local Community College. Next, enter the Web address of that Website in the "URL" field. Hit save. Choose sites that would be of value for the consumer. Anything from your Website to the local college, winery, museums, ski resorts, local news and weather, newspaper, children's activities are great choices. Change them up each month.

Step 6: Choose the articles you want to display on your newsletter
Click #5 on your control panel On this page, you will find dozens of articles that are available for you to publish in your newsletter, including the ones you created. If you see a headline that looks interesting, click it to read it. If you like the info, simply point your cursor inside the little square box and click. Remember, you can create a maximum number of 12 articles to appear in the newsletter. This can be a combination of your articles you created back in #2 and the Inman articles in this library. The first set of articles on this page will appear prominently in the body of you newsletter under “Articles and Advise”. The second set of articles is in case you do not have any listings and will appear on the left under “Features”. Make sure you click "Save my choices" at the top of the page. Now you are at the stage where your newsletter has been created. It's time to organize your content and prepare it for publication.

Step 7: Organize the information in your newsletter
ClientDIRECT™ will order your articles, listings and hotlinks automatically. To customize the settings: Click #6 on your control panel Here you will see all the content you created for your newsletter. Next to each item is a green arrow pointing up or down. Click on the arrow to change the position of each item. Once you are satisfied with the order, hit "Done".

Step 8: customize your "contact me" message
Click #9 on your control panel This page let's you customize the lead generating "contact me" form on your newsletter. This message design will appear when your client clicks on “contact me”. Here are some ideas on how to use this to generate leads:

Offer a valuable service that will give the reader reason to contact you. For example "Get a free analysis of your home's value".
Conduct a sweepstakes: for example "enter to win two ticket to next Sunday's football game".

To customize the form, simply type in the text that you want to display and hit the "Save my contact me message" button.

Step 9: View your finished product!
Click #7 on your control panel When you click on this link, a new browser will pop up. This is your completed newsletter. If you want to make any changes, simply go back to your control panel and follow the procedures for editing and saving any changes. Remember every month Inman News will populate the article database with news and fresh content so there will always be fresh new content to use.

Step 10: Final Comments
You may send your newsletter link to your contacts using your own e-mail account anytime you wish. Make a note to refresh your content with new listings, breaking news or holiday greeting so you are first in mind with your clients. ClientDIRECT™ includes mortgage calculators and real estate Q & A with every newsletter and they cannot be edited or deleted.

Once again, if you have any further questions, please email cs@car.org.