Marketing Automation enables you to design and deliver campaigns with ease. Campaigns consist of a series of scheduled emails and texts sent to subscribers over a set period. You have full control over the timing, allowing you to define the intervals between each message—commonly known as "drip email." Discover how to create and manage your campaigns effectively here.

Default Campaigns

Your account comes pre-loaded with three campaigns to make it easy to start using Marketing Automation. You can send these campaigns as-is, or edit them to suit your needs.

The campaigns that will appear by default when you click the Communications button are:

Emails to your leads are blind-copied, the email will look like it was only sent from you to that particular recipient.

Also, if you send an email to multiple groups and/or campaigns and you have the same people in some of these groups/campaigns, the system will automatically de-dupe the email address so they receive one copy of your email.

Creating a Campaign

In the Control Panel, you can create a campaign by accessing: Communications > Campaigns and clicking the “Add Campaign” button.

You will be asked to name your campaign and select the type of smart content to be used. Once you save your campaign, you'll see it on the Campaign index page. You're now ready to create and schedule messages .

Copying, Deleting, and Deactivating a Campaign

Click the Action button of a campaign to access the following options.f you delete a default campaign, contact support@ihomefinder.com and we will add the campaign back to your account.

Campaign Settings

To change the Settings on a Campaign, open the Campaign and select the Setting tab. In the Settings tab edits can be made to Name, Description, and the Smart Content type. When the smart content type is changed for an active campaign with current subscribers, the smart content type in the emails those subscribers receive will be changed with their next message. 

Stats on the Campaign page

The campaign page has useful information about the performance of each campaign.

Assigning Leads to Campaigns

Campaigns are meant for leads to be assigned to them for the campaign emails to be sent out. There are two general ways to get leads added to your campaigns, Manually and Automated.

Manually

You can manually add any lead in your iHomefinder Lead Database to a campaign, to do this sign into your Control Panel and go to:

Communications > Campaigns > Campaign Name (The one you want to Subscribe them to) > Subscribers

Add Subscribers
There are two options for adding a subscriber:

Start typing the name of the lead and names appear as available or on existing campaigns in the drop-down. Once the name appears select the name and add to subscriber list. The lead will appear in the subscriber page.

When creating a new lead three fields are available:

After fields are added, save your work and a new subscriber will be added to the open campaign.

Additionally, you can subscribe a Lead to a Campaign through the Lead Details page under Leads > Lead List > Lead Name > Subscriptions. Here you will click Add New under Marketing Automation Campaigns and select the Campaign you want to subscribe the lead to.

Add Yourself as a Subscriber
Here's how to receive emails from this campaign as if you are a new lead:

Automated

The fastest and easiest way to start automating your follow-up with new leads is to activate the "General Follow-up" campaign. This is a ready-to-use 6-month followup campaign appropriate for buyers or sellers.

Automation and Rules are used to add new leads to campaigns. Rules can be used to assign new leads to specific campaigns based on specific criteria such as the lead source.

Default Automation Rule

To add a rule that covers all incoming leads, add a default rule. The default rule is a backup rule that can capture all leads (if it's your only rule) or any lead that has not been assigned via another automation rule. If you add a default rule it will appear at the bottom of all your rules because it’s the fallback rule. 

Create your Default rule in 3 easy steps:

Log in to your IDX Control Panel:

With these settings in place, all new leads will be assigned to this campaign. By adding additional rules, you can assign new leads to different campaigns using criteria such as the lead source. 

Lead Source Rules

Lead assignment rules are located in Automations:

Control Panel > Communications > Marketing Automation > Automations

Create a rule with a source and assign the source leads to a campaign. If you’re using Lead Source Tracking, you can type the lead source directly into the field provided and click Add to create a rule for it.

Send an Email

Additionally, you can send individual emails to your lead database without using campaigns. To do so:

Adding Content to a Campaign Letter or Email

Once you have created a campaign and ready to editing an existing campaign letter or create a new email, you will be able to insert your content into the letter using the email editor. Below is more information on the tools available for the emails.

Columns

The Columns module allows you to set columns to create engaging layouts but is also a required step to have at least one column in order to insert content modules into your email. To get started click and drag the Column module from the right into the email content area. Once placed you can click on the module to set the column layout on the right, all columns will default to a single column: 

Once placed, you can then add additional columns so you can have create custom layouts of one row a single column, the second row can be a three column row, then add another one column row afterward like below: 

Text

Once you have your column set, you can get started by adding your written content through the Text Module. To start, add a Text Module to the email content area by clicking and dragging the Text Module from the right and dropping it into the column you want this text to be displayed.

This will change the look of the Column Module replacing it with the Text Module with filler text “This is a new Text block. Change the text.” You can then click on this text to pull up the Text Module settings and the ability to add your text to the email. 

Merge Fields

When writing an email, you can insert merge fields that will automatically include information such as your lead's name, your own name, and phone number. Merge fields are found in the Text Module.

To see and select a merge field, click in the Text Module where you want this Merge Field to be inserted as if you are editing the content in the email content area, you can then either click on Merge Tags to choose from or start typing a left curly bracket "{" inside. A pop-up menu will appear with the merge field options you can select. 

Images

You can add your own images to the email by clicking and dragging the Image Module from the Content tab, on the right, into a column you set in your email content area.

Once placed, click on the Image Module in your email content. The image options will appear in the right panel where you can select the image you want to display. You can either upload the image or enter in an image URL. 

Once you have an image inserted into the email content area, you can click the "Apply Effects" button in the Image Module settings in the right panel under Image. Once clicked an additional menu where you can also make edits like resizing or cropping your image. 

Stock Images

Free stock images are also available in email creation. To add a stock image, drag and drop the image block into your email, click the Image block in the email, on the right a drawer will open, scroll down and click on More Images and Stock Photos. 

In the search bar, enter any terms you want to filter images with. Once you find an image you like, you can click and drag it over into the image block you placed in the email content area. 

Buttons

Another great feature is that you can insert preformatted buttons into your email by using the Button Module.

Drag and drop this module into a column in your email content area. Click the button module in the content area, you will get the settings to appear on the right side where you can set your URL, button color, width, font, spacing, and border.
 

Adding Video

If you have YouTube or Vimeo messages you’d like to insert in your email, drag the Video item into your email column and click on it. In the right panel, paste the URL of your video and a thumbnail image will be included in the email.

When recipients click on the image, they’ll be brought to your video. 

Smart Content

Another great feature is that you can insert dynamic content into your email by using the Smart Content features.

Drag and drop this module into a column in your email content area. Click the Smart Content module in the content area, you will get the settings to appear on the right side where you can set the Smart Content you want to display. You can choose between Similar Listings, which will pull from their saved searches and or Markets they have signed up for in the past, and Area Statistics which will pull up sold data based on the same searches / Markets a lead has signed up for.
 

How Does Smart Content Work?

When you create a campaign, you select whether the smart content included will be based on each lead's profile or on a Market you've created in the Control Panel.

When smart content is based on Lead Profile, our system looks at the lead forms, listing views, or search behavior of each lead and sends area statistics or listings that are similar to what they've shown interest in. Listings are determined to be "similar" based on price, beds/baths, and location.

If the campaign is based on a Market, smart content will display area statistics or listings for that Market.
 

Adding Smart Content to a Message

To add smart content to a message, open the message and from the right-side panel of the editor and drag the Smart Content icon to the spot in your message on the left panel where you would like it to appear. Similar Listings will appear by default -- to display Area Stats, place your mouse over the smart content in the left panel and click. The right panel will then display options for the smart content, and you can select Area Stats from the dropdown. 

Similar Listings

Adding listings a lead might be interested in to an email is a great way to get them engaged with you and your website. Providing recommendations for all your leads is a snap with smart content Similar Listings.

When you have added Similar Listings to a message, you will see this in the message body within the editor:

{{similar_listings}}

When the message is sent to a campaign subscriber, they will receive an email with up to four listings embedded within the message, formatted the same way as standard email alerts.
 

Area Stats

Providing buyers and sellers with market statistics is helpful and informative, and smart content makes it easy to send these to all your leads, customized to their area of interest. When you add area stats into a message, it will appear in the body of the message like this:

{{area_stats}}

This will display area stats in emails to your leads, formatted like the following: 

Default Address

In campaigns that use the Lead Profile for smart content, the stats and listings will be based on the lead's activity. If a lead on a campaign has no activity, the smart content will show listings near the smart content default address.

This can be configured by accessing Control Panel > Communications > Settings.

If no address is entered in this field, the content will use the Map Search center address (if map search is on the account), and will otherwise use the agent address.