RealeSeller Drip E-Mail

How to create a Drip E-mail RealePlan

There are a few major steps involved with creating a Drip E-mail RealePlan. You will need to create the e-mail templates (or documents that will be converted to an e-mail) that will be sent out. You will then need to create the RealePlan template and RealePlan items for each time you want to send out an e-mail. Then you can apply the RealePlan template to any prospects you wish to send the drip e-mails to.

It is up to you...you can either create the RealePlan template first or the documents first. In this case we will create a few documents first. RealeSeller can convert, and embed the following types of documents to an HTML e-mail:

File Type	File Extension
Microsoft Word files	.DOC or .DOT
Microsoft Word saved as HTML	.HTM or .HTML
Web Page/HTML files	.HTM or .HTML
Web Page Archive/MHT files	.MHT or .MHTML
Outlook Message files	.MSG
Outlook Template files	.OFT

If you choose to have any other file type to be e-mailed such as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file, it will simply be e-mailed as an attachment.

1) Creating the e-mail templates or documents that will be embedded into the drip e-mails

There are several options available to you for creating the e-mail templates:

A) You can create a new/blank email in Microsoft Outlook, add the text and any pictures you want to it and save it to the Drafts folder or some other folder.

B) You can create a new/blank email in Microsoft Outlook, add the text and any pictures you want to it and save it as a .OFT or .MSG file.

C) You can create a Word Document and save it as a .DOC or .DOT file or save it as a Web Page (HTML) file.

D) You can create a HTML file in any HTML editing program such as Microsoft Front Page.

E) You can go to Tools, RealeSeller Mail Merge and create a Mail Merge Document based on any Prospect and Property and save it as a .DOT (Word Document Template) for later use with the Drip E-mail RealePlan.

F) You can create a flyer using RealeSeller Flyer Creator or an Investment calculation and save it as an MHT file.

In this case, we will use the RealeSeller Document Library to create and store our templates using Microsoft Word.

Navigate to the Document Library folder.

Select the Word Documents folder and click the Create a new document button.

Give the new document a name. In this case, the first e-mail to be sent out by our Drip E-mail RealePlan will be a Thank You e-mail so we will name the first document Drip Email - Thank You.

Click Ok and a new Microsoft Word Document will open. At this point you can begin entering the text and any optional pictures, logos, etc. When your satisfied with the contents of the document, click File, Save.

Repeat these steps until you have several or all of the templates that you want to send with the Drip E-Mail RealePlan.

2) Creating the Drip E-mail RealePlan

We are now ready to begin setting up the Drip E-mail RealePlan template. Go to the RealePlans folder.

Click on the RealePlans Templates tab.

Click the New RealePlan button and give it a name such as Drip E-mail.

3) Creating the Drip E-mail RealePlan Items

Then click the New Plan Item button and give the new plan item a name that will give some indication of the e-mail that will be sent out. In our case, the first email to be sent out will be a Thank You e-mail, so we will call this item Thank You.

Double click the Thank You RealePlan item to edit it's scheduling options.

Change the Activity Icon to E-mail.

If you want the first e-mail to be sent immediately after applying the RealePlan to a prospect or contact, then set the Start date to 0 Days After. Since this is the FIRST RealePlan item in the series, we will want to use the RealePlans Apply date for the offset. If you set the Start date to 5 Days After, then the e-mail would be sent out 5 days after you apply the RealePlan to a prospect or contact. You can optionally set a Due date and reminder time although one is not needed in this case. Leaving the due date at zero means the item starts and is due at the same time.

4) Activating The RealePlan Item to automatically send an e-mail

Now click the Activate button. This is where we tell RealeSeller that we want this RealePlan item to do more than just create an Outlook appointment or task to remind us of something.

Choose the default option of When the item is due. Basically this tells RealeSeller that this automated e-mailing is going to occur when the item is due. Otherwise, if you selected 'When the item is marked as complete' RealeSeller would not perform the automated e-mailing until you, the user, marks the Outlook task as Complete. Click Next.

Choose the option to Send an e-mail. Click Next.

We now need to tell RealeSeller what template file to use for creating/composing the e-mail we want sent out. Since this example used the RealeSeller Document Library, select that option and click the folder button. If you stored your document template in a different location, select the appropriate option and then click the folder button to browse for the e-mail template file.

In the RealeSeller Document Library window, choose the document that is to be used for this e-mail template and click Open.

You will now see the title of the document you selected. Enter a subject that you want to appear in the subject field of the e-mail when the prospect or contact receives it. You can optionally specify advanced options by clicking the Advanced button. Click Next when you are ready.

Here you have options to address the e-mail. Usually you are going to want to send the e-mail to the prospect or contact that the RealePlan is applied to. You could also add yourself or your assistant to the BCC recipients list so that you or your assistant will get a copy of the e-mail as well. Click the To button to add the applied Prospect/Contact as a To Recipient.

Choose the first option The person the RealePlan is applied to and click Next.

Choose the first option to send to the first available e-mail address on the Prospect's or Contact's record. Click Next.

The RealePlan ActiveTask now shows the Applied Contact as one of the To Recipients. You could also add other recipients by clicking To again and repeating the process with different options. Click Next when you are done adding recipients.

Enter a descriptive name for the ActiveTask and click Finish. This descriptive name will show as the name of the attachment in the RealePlan item and in the Outlook task item when the RealePlan is applied to a prospect or contact.

Note the Word document attachment in the Attachments box.

Click the Save and Close button to save your changes to the 'Thank You' RealePlan Item.

5) Creating the second RealePlan item

Now its time to create the second RealePlan item. Click the New Plan Item button and give the new plan item a name that will give some indication of the e-mail that will be sent out. In our case, the second e-mail to be sent out will be a 'How I work with buyers' e-mail, so we will call this item How I work with buyers.

Double click the How I work with buyers RealePlan item to edit it's scheduling options.

Change the Activity Icon to E-mail. Then click the Schedule Type button.

If you want the second e-mail to be sent 1 week after the first, then set the Start date to 7 Days After. Since this is the second RealePlan item in the series, we will want to use the first item in the RealePlan item series for the offset date. To do this, choose Thank You from the combo box and then choose Complete Date. This means that this item will be sent out 1 Week after the first email task is completed.

Since this is the SECOND item in the series and we want this task to occur AFTER the first item (Thank You), select the first item, Thank You, from the drop down list.

You can now see the descriptive task that explains that this item Occurs 1 Week after the complete date of the RealePlan Item 'Thank You' and is also due on the same day is occurs.

Now click the Activate button as before and proceed through the wizard choosing the same options as before. You can return to step 4) Activating The RealePlan Item to automatically send an e-mail to walk through Activating the RealePlan Item. After doing so, continue again with step 5) Creating the second RealePlan item for creating the third, forth and all other Drip E-mail RealePlan items that you wish to add.

6) Applying the RealePlan to a Prospect

By following the above steps you have created a RealePlan template that can be applied to any number of Prospects. To do so, go to the Prospects Folder in RealeSeller.

If you have not already done so, click the New Prospect button to add a new prospect record for the person you wish to apply the Drip E-mail RealePlan to.

When ready, right click the prospect that you wish to apply the RealePlan to and choose Apply RealePlan or click the Apply RealePlan button from the toolbar.

Select the RealePlan you wish to apply, in this case, Drip E-mail. Click Next.

If there were any RealePlan items that you did not want applied to this particular item, uncheck them now. Click Next when you are ready.

Make sure the correct Prospect and Property is selected. In this case, we do not really use the property in this RealePlan, so you could click the X button to remove the property from this RealePlan. Click Next.

Change the apply date if needed. This allows you to apply a RealePlan in the past in case you forgot or were unable to apply it when it should have been. Or you can set it up and apply it now even though you don't want it to actually "start" until a later date. Click Finish and the RealePlan will be applied. There is nothing more to do. RealeSeller will begin sending out the automated drip e-mails as scheduled.

To see details about this applied RealePlan at any time, you can go to the RealePlans folder and choose the Applied RealePlans tab. In the following example you will see the Drip E-mail RealePlan applied to Denise.