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If you're a real estate agent, your work doesn't end with listings, offers, inspections, and appraisals. Marketing, too, is essential to the success of your business. One good way to remind your clients of your name and service, and provide them with valuable information, is to send out a newsletter.

You might have considered a newsletter but decided against it because it seemed too time-consuming or too expensive to do well. But Microsoft Office Publisher 2003 can help you to create professional-looking newsletters quickly and inexpensively. To create your newsletter, you need to:

• Define the message that you want your newsletter to convey.
• Customize a Publisher predesigned newsletter by adding your content.
• Insert artwork to add a personal touch.
• Fine-tune the content and design.
• Send the newsletter to clients in the body of an e-mail message.

You don't have to learn page layout design or pay a hefty fee to a freelance graphic designer. As an independent business person, you succeed by saving time and cutting expenses.

 Note   Before you set out to market by e-mail, consider the suggestions in "Harness the sales power of e-mail," in the See Also section of this article. This information will help you make the most, and avoid the worst, of a targeted e-mail campaign.

Define your message

A newsletter can provide useful information for your existing clients, as well as generate leads. An informative newsletter puts you in the position of being the expert in your market. Some general content ideas to consider include:

• Housing market details and trends
• Mortgage rate outlook, including charts showing rate changes
• Tips on remodeling
• Insights into the "real" world of real estate
• New listings, highlighting neighborhoods or special features
• New-buyer articles
• The importance of "curb appeal"

A newsletter is a great way to impart relevant news, self-help information, and important reminders to home owners and home buyers.

Create your newsletter

After you've decided what information you want to include in your e-mail newsletter, you can choose from a number of different options in Publisher for creating it. For example, you can send a page of an existing publication as an e-mail message or create an e-mail publication from scratch. (For more details about these options, see "Create and send e-mail publications using Publisher" in the See Also section of this article.)

In this example, you create and send a quick real estate newsletter in an e-mail message.

Follow these steps to create a customized, professional newsletter:

1. Start Publisher.
2. Under New from a design, click Web Sites and E-mail in the New Publication task pane. (If you don't see the New Publication task pane, click New on the File menu.)

   

3. Under Web Sites and E-mail, click E-mail.
4. In the preview gallery on the right side of the screen, click the newsletter design you want to use. In this example, click Arrows Newsletter E-mail.

    Note   If you've never used Publisher before, the Personal Information dialog box appears. If you enter information about your business (for example, organization name, address, and business motto) in the dialog box, and then click OK, these details appear automatically in your newsletter. If you want to enter the information manually, as in this example, click Cancel to close the dialog box.

5. In the Publication Designs task pane, click Color Schemes. In this example, click Moss.

   

6. Click Font Schemes if you want to change the default font used in the newsletter.

   

7. On the Standard toolbar, click the arrow on the right side of the Zoom button, and then click Page Width in the drop-down list.

   

8. When you are ready to insert content, click inside a text box and start typing. Customize the newsletter with:
• Your company name and logo
• An image of your choice
• The headlines and content for your feature articles

  

   Note   You can resize or delete text boxes to fit your content as needed.

Use clip art for impact

Office Clip Art and Media on Microsoft Office Online has a large collection of images you can use to customize your newsletter. In the following example, the lead story informs your clients about using their homes' equity to upgrade their kitchens, and you want to place a suitable graphic in the newsletter.

Follow these steps to add clip art to your newsletter:

1. Click the image in your predesigned newsletter. In this example, the image is a stick figure.
2. On the Insert menu, point to Picture, and then click Clip Art.

   The Clip Art task pane appears.

   

3. In the Search for box, type house.
4. In the Search in box, leave All collections (the default selection) to search Office Clip Art and Media and other sources.
5. Under Results should be, click Selected media file types, select the Clip Art check box, and make sure all other check boxes are cleared.
6. When you are ready to search, click Go.

   A gallery of images related to houses appears.

   

7. Click the image you want, click the arrow that appears to the right of the image, and then click Insert in the drop-down list.

   The picture you chose is placed in your newsletter.

   

8. On the File menu, click Save.
9. In the Save As dialog box, type a title for your newsletter in the File name box, and then click Save.

Fine-tune the content and design

You can continue changing your newsletter's content and color schemes and trying out different clip art images until you are ready to send your newsletter to clients. A little practice goes a long way toward making the creation of your next newsletter even faster.

Send your newsletter in an e-mail message

After you've finalized your newsletter, you can send it directly to your clients. By sending the newsletter in the body of the e-mail message, you eliminate the extra steps your clients must take if they do not have Publisher. An added bonus to sending the newsletter directly in an e-mail message is that your clients won't have to open an attachment, which might raise concerns about security.

Follow these steps to use Publisher to send your newsletter in an e-mail message:

1. On the File menu, point to Send E-Mail, and then click E-Mail Preview. A preview of your newsletter appears the way your customers will see it, which is without design gridlines.

   

2. Close the preview window and in Publisher, point to Send E-Mail on the File menu, and then click Send This Page as Message.

   This opens your newsletter in an e-mail window in which you can make any last-minute adjustments to the text.

3. Add a subject line and e-mail address, and then click Send.

    Note   Because it's a good idea to keep your roster of client names confidential, consider placing the names of all recipients on the Bcc line, and your own name on the To line. In this way, recipients can't see each other's names and can't "reply all" to your client list.

   How?

   1. On the E-mail toolbar in Microsoft Office Outlook, click the down arrow on the Options button, and then click Bcc.
   2. In the message window, add recipients to the new Bcc line.

Let Publisher help you get the word out

Your livelihood as a real estate agent depends in large part on marketing and good communication. Publisher can take the stress out of newsletter design and distribution so that you can spend your time and resources staying current with your clients instead.