| The tools used for your marketing materials will depend on the collaterals you create: Print and PDF materials: Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher, and Adobe InDesign are perfect for postcards, open house flyers, sign-up sheets, disclosure lists, neighborhood comps, listing presentations, and ads. E-mail and Web materials: Adobe Macromedia Dreamweaver is the best tool for professional and semiprofessional users, while Microsoft's Windows-only FrontPage is good for beginners and semiprofessional users. Make sure e-mail materials are correct by sending yourself a test message before scheduling the bulk delivery. And transfer any Web files to your server so they are available on your Web site when or before any ads appear for properties you are listing. Images: Adobe Photoshop Elements can help you retouch, enhance, crop, and resize images for use in your materials. Your photos should come from a digital camera or be processed onto a CD from a film camera.
Once created, publish the materials for distribution. You have several options to print and distribute your materials, for example: Print open house flyers on an inkjet printer at your home office, and then make enough copies at your local copy shop for the for-sale sign's document box, for distribution to other agents, and for use at open houses. Take the disc with the flyer files to a printing business like FedEx Kinko's and have it print the flyers for you. Print all the flyers you need on your inkjet printeralthough that's usually about as expensive as having them copied and can be a time-consuming hassle if you're printing more than a dozen at a time. Print a copy for the local service that distributes flyers to other agents. This saves you from having to drive around to distribute them to the agents. Use a Web-based printing and distribution service, like NetPost Online, to do the actual printing and mailing from your files. This is often the priciest option, but it is also the most convenient. Generate PDF versions of your printed flyers to include on your Web site and the local MLS database's listing.
Checklist Marketing Toolkit A basic technology toolkit for real estate marketing would include the following: Microsoft Office: To produce flyers, listing presentations, checklists, neighborhood comps, and postcards using Word; to track marketing campaigns' effectiveness using Excel; to manage contacts and schedules using Outlook; and perhaps to create sales-style presentations using PowerPoint. Microsoft FrontPage: To produce your Web pages.(On the Mac, you need to choose a different tool, such as Adobe Macromedia Dreamweaver, since FrontPage works only in Windows.) Adobe Acrobat Professional: To create and edit PDF materials. Adobe Photoshop Elements: To work with digital images. A digital camera: To take pictures of your listings and of properties buyers might be interested in.
If you're comfortable using more complicated but powerful software tools, adjust the preceding list as follows by using these tools: Microsoft Publisher or Adobe InDesign (in addition to Microsoft Office): To create many of your printed materials. Macromedia Dreamweaver (in place of Microsoft FrontPage): For your Web materials, and a file-transfer program such as Ipswitch's WS_FTP Pro for Windows or Fetch Softworks' Fetch for Mac. G-Lock EasyMail Pro: To send out e-mail campaigns. Tools for creating animations and virtual tours: As described in Chapter 6, "High-Tech Marketing Collaterals." Remember: Give yourself plenty of time to create these materials the first time, since the process can be tricky.
Feel free to use different tools than those recommended hereas long as they do the job you need, of course.
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