One thing I've learned over the last year or so is that agents just aren't getting how important and easy to use that little “E” – as in e-mail and e-marketing – is in today's real estate world.

E-mail is the most powerful tool available to anyone who markets anything and that includes real estate professionals. There are no stamps, no printing costs and instantaneous delivery with a chance for an immediate response.

So if you have e-mail, the address should be printed on every piece of promotional material you have including but not limited to business cards, property flyers, just listed and just sold cards, postcards, ads, websites, and franchise or designation rosters. It really will become our preferred method of communication.

However, what really should come before you start promoting your e-mail address everywhere is to have a permanent domain – that part of the Internet address that comes after the "@" sign and before the ".com."

For example, if your e-mail address is patzaby@earthlink.com, the "domain" is earthlink.com, which happens to be the Internet Service Provider, or ISP. If you change ISPs, everyone who did have your e-mail address now won't know how to get in touch with you, nor will any of that e-mail be forwarded to you. It is just like moving without filing a change of address and you have to reprint all your advertising materials, signs... not to mention all your flyers and brochures.

You can have multiple e-mail addresses and have them all routed to one e-mail program for convenience. Another idea is to create one for emergencies and send those important messages to your pager.

Getting your own personal domain is simple. Go to a registrar on the Internet and search for the name you want. Remember that ".com" is the preferred address. If it is available, buy it NOW. Someone else may buy it if you wait. Believe it or not, there are people who buy other people's and company's names. In most cases, this will cost you $70 for two years.

Once you own your Internet address and maintain the registration fee, it becomes your permanent address for the world to find you. If you change Internet Service Providers, it will follow you. You will use this domain for your e-mail and your Web site.

Which brings me to my next point and that is using your e-mail for e-marketing.

Have you ever heard of HotSend™? HotSend™ is a free, downloadable program that allows you to send anything you can print – including rich, full color documents – by e-mail to anyone and you don't have to worry that they will not be able to open it.

Just imagine. You can send color flyers of a "just listed" home to the best agents in the area without postage or printing and the delivery time is immediate. The 10% of the agents who are selling 90% of the homes will know about your new listing within minutes.

Here's an idea. Create a distribution list called "best agents in area" in your e-mail program. Each time you get a new listing, price reduction or change in status, you can send them a flyer that looks just like one that you would have to print in color, stuff in an envelope, attach a label, place a stamp on it and wait several days for them to get it.

Another possibility is to make a multiple-page personal brochure in PREP™ Presentations. When there is someone you want to have it, maybe the person to whom you just spoke with on the phone, you can e-mail the entire brochure in one easy attachment. They could be looking at it before they get off the phone with you. How's that for speed and efficiency?!

How would you like to send the weekly service reports to your sellers by e-mail? It's no problem with HotSend™. Simply pull up the report that you want to send, click print and change the printer driver to HotSend™ and follow the steps it walks you through. You'll save paper, ink, envelopes and the time it takes to handle them. Best of all, the seller will have the report moments after you send it.

The possibilities are endless.

Think of this: one of your past customers calls you on the phone responding to your offer to help them determine if refinancing is appropriate. You ask for some basic information and prepare a refinancing analysis. Instead of mailing or faxing it to them, you click the print button, choose the HotSend™ driver and it goes immediately to them by e-mail. You can talk about it while they are looking at the same document you are. It will be impressive.

Or this: a past customer you sold a home to a few years ago calls to tell you that they have outgrown the home. They don't know whether to build an addition or sell it and buy a larger home. You open the appropriate article in PREP™ Presentations, print it to the HotSend™ driver and it is sent by e-mail immediately with the same attractive layout as if you had printed it.

How about your monthly mailing. Right now you probably don't have the e-mail addresses of all of your Sphere of Influence but you do have some. The very same mailing that you are going to print and send monthly can be sent through HotSend™. The difference is no postage, no printing, no physical handling, no going to the post office and no waiting on their part. They will receive it immediately.

If you want to start using the power of e-marketing today, here is a step-by-step description of what you need to do:

Pat Zaby is Vice President, Homes.com and a nationally known real estate speaker and trainer. He has a degree in real estate and holds four professional designations. He has been a Realtor since 1968, has been involved with automating real estate agents for over 12 years and speaks to tens of thousands of people a year on the subject. For information about having Pat speak at your next event, contact Mechelle@patzaby.com.