You probably know that the purpose of the headline or subject line is to get readers to read the first sentence. The purpose of the first sentence is to get them to read the second – and on and on.

But sometimes, a brilliant idea for that first sentence just isn’t there.

Here’s good news:

This morning’s email included a Target Marketing message that should help. It offers up a list of 48 “starters” that have been proven effective in marketing over the past many years. Some come from the pre-internet world of direct marketing, but that’s OK – our methods of communicating have changed, but human nature has not.

Readers STILL want an answer to “what’s in it for me” before they read on.

I personally disagree with a couple of the suggestions on this list. A couple would actually make me delete the message immediately. For instance “We’ve missed you.” My mental response is that I don’t care – I left/unsubscribed/quit buying your products because that’s what I wanted to do.

Notice that this irritant begins with the word “we.”

All of these have been proven to work, but to be on the safe side, I believe you should “choose and use” those that are customer-focused and avoid starting any message with “we” or “I.”

Anyway, if you’ve ever been stuck, take a minute to visit Target Marketing and print off their list of 48 “starters.” It just might come in handy one day.

It might be by:

• finally creating their own website
• joining Active Rain and blogging or commenting
• commenting on blogs that allow them to leave their URL
• answering real estate questions on real estate portals
• setting up a business page on Facebook
• joining LinkedIn
• joining Real Estate Marbles
• posting to social sites they already joined but haven’t used

And I issued a challenge: Do 2 new things this week to make yourself more visible, then come here and tell us what you did.

You’re invited to join the challenge, whether or not you read the ezine.

Yes – that means you’ll get a link from here.

When you write your comment, be sure to include your name, your role in the real estate industry, and the city or area you serve.

In that search I came upon a page that looked like it might have what I wanted. The type was awfully small and the paragraphs awfully long, but I thought I’d try to tough it out and see if it held the information I wanted.

But I changed my mind just a few seconds later.

Pages load slowly with Wild Blue service, so I saw the type before the background – which turned out to be a busy photo!

I don’t know if I said it out loud, but I know I thought “Ackkk!” as my eyes crossed and I hurried away from the page.

Why do people do this? The purpose of a web page is not to look pretty. It’s to convey information. And for most of us, it’s to generate business.

Why would anyone make their page so difficult to read that visitors leave without even trying?

My advice: If you have a website, go there yourself and read it.

Check out this post by web designer David Smith.

It might be filled with all kinds of useful advice and tools for your visitors. And you might think that’s enough to make them love you and use your services. But it’s not.

They may feel gratitude for the information and tools you offer, but that won’t make them choose your services.

For that you need 2 more things:

• Reasons why you are going to serve their needs better than anyone else.
• A call to action. Yes, you need to say “Call me.”

This will be the subject of my real estate ezine this week. If you’d like to be sure to get a copy, come over to www.copybymarte.com and request your free first time buyer letter. Then you’ll be on the list to receive the ezine.

They’ll probably remember to hand out a business card when they meet someone new, but getting a marketing piece written and sent to their sphere of influence or their client leads gets put off from day to day. Pretty soon they realize that it’s been months since they’ve gotten in touch with those important people.

One reason for that is that most real estate agents tend to start all over from scratch with each prospecting effort.

And, when you’re tired from a long day of dealing with a variety of people and situations, sitting down to write a letter can be just “too much.”

But you don’t need to fall into that trap, because there’s a simple cure.

Use the non-busy time to set up autoresponders and pre-load those autoresponders with messages. Then set those messages to go out at the intervals or on the dates you choose.

Your prospecting will then be happening even when you’re too busy to think about it.

You can create one autoresponder list to mail to your past clients and sphere of influence – so that you’ll maintain top of mind awareness with them and they’ll remember to send you referrals. This list should hear from you at regular intervals – the same day each month or the same week each quarter.

Then place “capture forms” on your website – one for buyers and one for sellers. If you’re ambitious, you can even create different forms and thus different lists for different kinds of buyers and sellers.

You may already have something set up to let buyers tell you what they’re looking for in a house. If so, you can simply begin drip marketing to those buyers. But remember that not all buyers will fill out your search forms.

So offer them a special report, then follow that up with other useful information every few days.

What kind of report? That depends upon who you are targeting on your web pages. If you want first time buyers, send them a report that helps them decide if now is the time for them to buy. Follow that up with a checklist and other information that’s useful in helping them decide what they really want and need in that first home.

Save more time buy choosing one or both of my sets for buyers who visit your web page.

If you’re targeting relocating buyers, send them some good information about the community. Then follow up with letters that outline the superior service they’ll get with you as their buyer’s agent.

For sellers:

Your website might also offer sellers an on-line market analysis. Why not follow that up with an offer to do a no-obligation analysis based on seeing the home? Then follow that up with promotional letters outlining the steps sellers need to take before listing a home, an overview of the current market, and promotion about how you market your listings.

As long as you keep sending useful information, those buyers and sellers will welcome your emails. And – the useful information will position you in their minds as an agent who “knows your stuff.”

“We can see you have a good web site but you could use a significant increase in targeted web traffic. We can review your site for free and show you how you can improve this portion of your online business right away. Reply to us now and include the best way to reach you with our results.”

Each time it’s from a different sender – who has no doubt paid to be a part of this promotion.

And now… there’s MORE!

I’ve started getting messages taking me to task for not answering them.

Some unscrupulous individual has told them this would work. But you and I know that if someone starts telling you off, they’re the LAST people you’d do business with.

It really is sad.

I KNOW people are trying their darndest to find a way to profit on line. I also know there are hundreds of scammers, taking their money with a promise that they’ll get rich by sending these messages.

Please don’t fall for them.

Some real estate websites are what I call “Chamber of Commerce” sites – working hard to convince visitors that they should relocate to that city.

The sad thing is, agents have spent sometimes thousands of dollars to have a beautiful site developed – but they stopped short of paying for actual marketing copy.

The result is that the sites are full of really tired old phrases that do nothing to make the agent stand out from the crowd.

Take the time to evaluate your own site this week-end, and judge it against the age-old copywriting formula: AIDA

• You’ll have to grab Attention with a good headline or strong photos.
• The Interest can be captured by demonstrating how you will make their lives better and easier.
• The Desire should be to buy or sell a home – with YOUR help.
• The Action – should be a call or an email to you.

Look at your website this week-end. Is it selling you, is it selling your city, or is it simply providing a search function?

To learn more about real estate websites, visit me at Copy by Marte…

So go there today. Read it as if it wasn’t yours, and see if it’s giving your visitors a reason to stay and explore – or a reason to choose you and your product or service over all others.

I usually talk about real estate sites, because that’s what I write most often, but this applies to EVERY site.

If you offer goods are services that can be perceived as just like the goods and services others offer, you need to offer a reason why yours are the best choice.

Too often, consumers don’t realize that there really are differences. Until they’ve had a noticeably good or bad experience, they think that all real estate agents, all mortgage lenders, all insurance agents, etc. do the same work and provide the same services.

So today, read your web pages. See if they need some tweaking.

And if they do, get in touch. I’m a freelance copywriter specializing in helping independent business people dominate their local markets. (Even if “local” means “national.”)

Darn new technology anyway.

Tammy Emineth is a SEO expert who blogs on Active Rain, and this morning she was explaining  Google +1 - It’s Google’s answer to Facebook’s “like.”

If you’re interested, I suggest you read her blog, and then you can spend a half a day with it just like I did!

And then, when you see this image on a page you like, click it! You’ll be helping someone with a real site rank higher than those annoying link farm sites that pop up in a Google search.

Next task, learn how to put the button on a blog…