In this guide, I\u2019m going to walk you through setting up automated emails to prospects<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The scenario here is an email for all those people who tell you they\u2019re interested in buying a house \u201cat some point\u201d… and you need to stay in touch so they remember to talk to you<\/strong>\u00a0when that \u201cpoint\u201d arrives.<\/p>\n But you could also use this same system to stay in touch with potential home sellers<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 or many other scenarios which I\u2019ll cover at the end of the article.<\/p>\n In every case, the goal is the same: You set up these emails one time, then they work behind the scenes for you for months (or years) to come.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not possible (at least not currently) to set up recurring emails, mail merge emails, nor automated follow-ups in Gmail without a third-party email marketing platform.<\/p>\n In this article I\u2019m going to demonstrate how to set up automations using GMass<\/a>. GMass turns Gmail into a full-featured email marketing, cold email, and mail merge platform<\/strong>.<\/p>\n And since GMass works inside Gmail, there\u2019s no complex new interface to learn.<\/p>\n GMass has become widely popular with real estate agents who like keeping all their emails in one place<\/strong>\u00a0(as opposed to, say, using an external site like Mailchimp for email marketing).<\/p>\n You can use GMass for everything from cold emails<\/strong>\u00a0to sending a weekly\/monthly newsletter<\/strong>\u00a0to the automations<\/strong>\u00a0we\u2019re covering in this article. Some real estate agents send all<\/em>\u00a0their emails through GMass, even one-on-one emails, for the open, click, and reply tracking features<\/strong>.<\/p>\n You can install GMass<\/strong>\u00a0by going to the Chrome Web Store<\/a>. It\u2019s free to get started (no credit card required). If you want a full setup walkthrough, check out the GMass quickstart guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n Then come on back to this article to get your automations rolling.<\/p>\n We\u2019re going to go step-by-step through setting up a year-long series of follow-up emails to real estate prospects<\/strong>.<\/p>\n In the example, we\u2019ll reach out a total of seven times, an initial email then a follow-up every two months. (You can easily adjust this timing if you want to contact people more or less often.)<\/p>\n You\u2019ll need a Google Sheet<\/a>\u00a0where you\u2019ll add prospects.<\/p>\n In my Google Sheet, I\u2019ve set up the following columns:<\/p>\n I\u2019d recommend only putting your own information in the Google Sheet to start, for testing purposes. After you\u2019re happy with how everything\u2019s working, you can start adding client info.<\/em><\/p>\n Head over to Gmail<\/strong>\u00a0and open a new email compose window<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Click into the \u201cTo\u201d field and click the GMass icon<\/strong>\u00a0that appears on the right side.<\/p>\n Choose From a Google Sheet<\/strong>\u00a0in the pop-up window.<\/p>\n Select your spreadsheet of prospects from the dropdown. If you check the box for Update Sheet with reporting data<\/strong>\u00a0like I did, GMass will add columns to your spreadsheet to show you whether your prospects have opened, clicked, and\/or replied to your messages.<\/p>\n Now you can write your first email to prospects. This is the first email that will go out when you add a prospect to your list<\/strong>, so I\u2019d recommend making it a quick overview of your services and a friendly suggestion to reach out whenever they want.<\/p>\n Now we\u2019ll add the prospect\u2019s first name (and, if applicable, their partner\u2019s name) for a little personalization<\/a>.<\/p>\n Go to the spot in the email where you want to add the name and type a left curly brace<\/strong>. You\u2019ll see a pop-up selection box with the names of all the columns from your Google Sheet. Click on one to add it as a mail merge field<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Advanced technique: <\/strong>Now I\u2019m going to use conditional logic<\/a>\u00a0to add their partner if they have one, or add nothing if they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n It looks complicated on first glance. But basically, I\u2019m including the primary contact with `{PrimaryFName}`. Then I\u2019m checking to see if the PartnerFName in their row is not empty with `{{IfPartnerFName != \u201c\u201d Then}}`. If it\u2019s not empty, GMass will add and {PartnerFName}<\/em>\u00a0to the email. If it\u2019s empty, GMass won\u2019t add a second person to the first line of the email.<\/p>\n And here are the different results depending on whether the person does or doesn\u2019t have a partner in the Google Sheet.<\/p>\n Now that we have the initial email done, we can set up the automated follow-ups<\/a>.<\/p>\n Open the GMass settings<\/a>\u00a0by clicking the little down arrow next to the GMass button in the compose window. Then head to the Auto Follow-up<\/strong>\u00a0section.<\/p>\n Check the box under Stage 1<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Now you\u2019ll have an option of whether or not you want to use a trigger to potentially stop this email sequence<\/a>\u00a0before the final message. For instance, you could choose If No Reply<\/strong>\u00a0if you want to stop sending the rest of the follow-ups in the sequence to a prospect if they reply.<\/p>\n However\u2026 someone might reply just to thank you for checking in when they still aren\u2019t ready to buy. So I\u2019m going to go with the Everyone<\/strong>\u00a0option, which means they\u2019ll keep getting these auto follow-ups regardless of whether they open, click, or reply. (Later, in the section of this article on suppression, I\u2019ll show you how to remove someone from this sequence once they have<\/em>\u00a0moved on to the buying process.)<\/p>\n And I\u2019m going to send this email 60 days after the original message.<\/p>\n Now I\u2019ll type in the first follow-up message to my prospects.<\/p>\n This message will go out as a reply<\/em>\u00a0to the initial email you sent \u2014 keeping it in the same email thread. That makes it feel more like a one-on-one email, not something automated<\/strong>. Plus it keeps all the correspondence organized in one spot.<\/p>\n If you want it to have a separate subject line and appear in a second thread, you\u2019d use the other option in this box: Send rich-text email in <\/strong>new<\/strong>\u00a0thread<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Need help? Here\u2019s more on sending <\/em>rich-text auto follow-ups<\/a><\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n You can also add your Gmail email signature<\/strong>\u00a0with things like your website, social media, and realtor license ID to your auto follow-up by adding `{mysig}` to the end of the message.<\/p>\n Now you\u2019ll repeat this process, adding each new follow-up. Set the second follow-up at 120 days (the days operate as the distance from the initial email, not the previous follow up). And keep going until you\u2019ve created all six follow-ups for the year.<\/p>\n Optional: Skip weekends<\/strong><\/p>\n Let\u2019s say 240 days from your initial email to someone happens to be a Saturday. And you\u2019d rather your automated email go out the next Monday.<\/p>\n You can do that with the Skip weekends<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0feature. Go to the Schedule<\/strong>\u00a0section of the settings and check the box next to Skip weekends<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Now that you\u2019ve created the sequence, you want to see how it will look to your prospective clients.<\/p>\n Go to the top of the GMass settings box and click the arrow next to the Send Test<\/strong>\u00a0button. That will bring up a list of testing options. Check the box next to Send all stages<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Then click the Send Test<\/strong>\u00a0button. GMass will send you a test of the full sequence of emails<\/a>\u00a0so you can see what your prospects will see. (Of course, you\u2019ll see it all at once instead of slowly dripped over the course of a year. We don\u2019t want you to have to wait a full year to see your test in action.)<\/p>\n Once you see your sequence in action, you may decide you do<\/em>\u00a0want your email signature in each email (or any other possible changes as well). You can keep editing your email draft and the auto follow-ups<\/strong>\u00a0until things are perfect.<\/p>\n We\u2019re now going to set up this campaign so it goes out automatically whenever you add a prospect to your Google Sheet in the future.<\/p>\n That means: Whenever you add a new contact, GMass will notice you\u2019ve added them to the sheet<\/strong>\u00a0and send them the first email in the campaign, the first follow-up 60 days after that, and so on.<\/p>\n In the GMass settings for the draft, go to the Schedule<\/strong>\u00a0section. We\u2019re going to use the Repeat<\/strong>\u00a0option to make this a recurring campaign<\/a>.<\/p>\n Check the box next to Repeat<\/strong>. Then choose how often you want GMass to check your Google Sheet for updates. If you\u2019re adding prospects all the time, you might want GMass to check daily. If you aren\u2019t adding prospects that often, you could set GMass to check every few days, or even weekly.<\/p>\n For this example, I\u2019m going to have GMass check the sheet for new rows every three days.<\/p>\n Now every three days I know GMass will look at the sheet, find any new additions who\u2019ve never received your prospect nurturing sequence before, and start them on the automation.<\/p>\n And GMass will send you a notice every three days<\/strong>, letting you know how many new prospects the campaign went to.<\/p>\n Everything\u2019s ready \u2014 so it\u2019s time to set the campaign live.<\/p>\n To get the automation going, just click the GMass button<\/strong>. (NOT the Gmail Send button.)<\/p>\n GMass will send the email to everyone currently on your spreadsheet (which, if you followed the tip earlier, is only your email).<\/p>\n But from now on, every time you add someone to the Google Sheet, GMass will start sending them the campaign within three days.<\/p>\n We set up the campaign to send all six follow-ups to everyone over the course of the year.<\/p>\n But in some (hopefully, most or all) cases, your prospects will decide they\u2019re ready to work with you before that year\u2019s up<\/strong>. And when that happens, you\u2019ll want them to stop receiving the remaining follow-ups<\/a>.<\/p>\n The \u201csafest\u201d way to do this is to use GMass\u2019s suppression feature<\/a>. It\u2019s more reliable than deleting their row from your Google Sheet; there are some rare circumstances where they still might get follow-ups if you delete them. But if you add them to a suppression list, you\u2019re in the clear.<\/p>\n Find your live campaign in the Gmail drafts folder. Then open the Advanced<\/strong>\u00a0section of the settings and click the arrow next to Suppression<\/strong>.<\/p>\n In the field marked These domains and email addresses<\/strong>, add the email address of the person to whom you no longer wish to send follow-ups. (Also, to be safe, if you were CCing their partner on those emails, add that person\u2019s email to the suppression box as well.)<\/p>\n Now those people will stop receiving your auto follow-ups for this campaign.<\/p>\n You can edit, pause, or cancel your recurring campaign<\/a>\u00a0at any point in the process.<\/p>\n To edit<\/strong>, open the draft of the campaign in your Gmail drafts folder. You can edit anything: Subject, message, auto follow-ups, and\/or campaign settings.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019re done editing, open the GMass settings box<\/strong>, scroll to the bottom, and click the green SAVE Changes<\/strong>\u00a0button.<\/p>\n You can also use those colorful buttons to pause<\/strong>\u00a0or cancel the campaign<\/strong>. And when you choose one of those, you\u2019ll have the option to pause\/cancel just the campaign or pause\/cancel the campaign and<\/em>\u00a0any outstanding auto follow-ups<\/a>.<\/p>\n You can restart a paused campaign by going back to the draft and clicking the button at the bottom to resume. You can also resume a campaign from the GMass dashboard<\/a>.<\/p>\n Recurring real estate email automations are a powerful way to stay in touch with prospects<\/strong>\u00a0until they\u2019re ready to buy a home.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s not the only way you could use automations as a real estate agent. You could also use automated emails to\u2026<\/p>\n To get started on a free trial, download GMass<\/strong>\u00a0from the Chrome Web Store<\/a>. (You\u2019ll join more than 400,000 others<\/strong> who are currently using GMass and have left 9,000+ glowing reviews<\/strong>!)<\/p>\nReal Estate Email Automations: Table of Contents<\/h2>\n
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Before You Get Started: Setting Up Your Email Marketing Platform<\/h2>\n
How to Set Up a Series of Auto Follow-Up Emails to Real Estate Prospects<\/h2>\n
Set up a Google Sheet for current and future prospects<\/h3>\n
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![\"Set](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/realestateauto-prospectsheet-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nConnect the Google Sheet to a new email campaign<\/h3>\n
![\"Click](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/realestateauto-gmassicon-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n![\"Add](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/realestateauto-fromasheet-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n![\"Connect](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/realestateauto-connectprospectssheet-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nCreating your initial email message<\/h3>\n
![\"Write](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/realestateauto-initialprospectmessage-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n![\"Mail](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/realestateauto-mergeoptions-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n![\"Using](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/realestateauto-conditionalpartner-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/realestateauto-conditionalresult-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nSetting up the automated follow-up series<\/h3>\n
![\"Finding](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/realestateauto-autofollowsettings-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n![\"Setting](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/realestateauto-firstfollow-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n![\"If](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/realestateauto-newthread-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n![\"Adding](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/realestateauto-mysig-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n![\"Setting](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/realestateauto-allfollows-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n![\"If](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/realestateauto-skipweekends-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nTesting your sequence<\/h3>\n
![\"Send](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/realestateauto-sendall-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n![\"How](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/realestateauto-testedsequence-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nTurn this into a recurring campaign<\/h3>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/realestateauto-repeat-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n![\"Setting](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/realestateauto-recurfreq-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n![\"Notifications](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/realestateauto-recurnotify-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nSetting the campaign live<\/h3>\n
![\"Send](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/realestateauto-sendwithgmassbutton-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nManually removing someone from the campaign so they stop getting auto follow-ups<\/h3>\n
![\"Finding](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/realestateauto-suppressionfield-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n![\"Adding](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/realestateauto-suppressemails-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nEditing, pausing, or canceling\u00a0the campaign<\/h3>\n
![\"Saving](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/realestateauto-savechanges-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n![\"Options](\"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/realestateauto-pausecancel-tinified.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\nReal Estate Email Automations: Takeaways and Next Steps<\/h2>\n
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