NACHI Email Database

[whandley]

For me, one of the value benefits of joining NACHI was the email database system. This system would allow NACHI to send out monthly, quarterly, etc. marketing news letters on behalf of its membership. I've uploaded over 17,000 client email addresses into the system. Since I've been a member over the past 16 months, NACHI has sent out (3) email marketing news letters. I've received inspection orders after each submission. Now, the NACHI email marketing news letter system appears to have been replaced by a member and or director owned fee based news letter system. Were the membership email address listings submitted to NACHI, propriatery? Has NACHI used those address submissions for other database systems and or private enterprises outside the scope of their intended use and or benefit?

Is it possible for the individual chapters to access the NACHI email data base system for marketing news letter distribution for "their memberships" email contributions within the system?

[Nick Gromicko]

Will, Chris Morrell sent out over 1 million again today I believe, at no charge to members. Email him for an update and post it here.

[jmichalski]

I don't think it was so much "replaced" by John O's fee-based newsletter as it was "surpassed" by it.

[Michael R. Boyett]

For those that don't want to use the fee-based Grail system then the NACHI newsletter might be a good alternative, that is if it works and goes out as described. My problem is, I elected to go with John O's system and do not want to participate in the NACHI version since I don't want my clients and Realtors getting two different newsletters from me. E-mails to Chris and others have gone unanswered as to how to get out of the NACHI newsletter. You can add to the names database but you can't delete from it. I don't know how many names nor which ones I put into the NACHI system. This really sucks!

[A Dan Leleika]

Originally Posted by gromicko

Will, Chris Morrell sent out over 1 million again today I believe, at no charge to members. Email him for an update and post it here.

Through the NACHI email database????
If this is the case, then it must not be working (or something else). Or is NACHI using the Homehints newsletter as this. I know I've entered quite a few email addresses including mine so I would get a copy and know when the newsletter went out. Haven't received anything since last August. I have received, however, Homehints newsletter from Nick.

[jmichalski]

Dan, my results are the same as yours.

Michael, I wouldn't worry too much about your NACHI version hitting too many people. They seem to go out sporadically (at best) and the problems I see posted here (realtors in WI getting newsletters from HIs in FLA) seem to indicate that there are still some bugs to be worked out.

I put my name in the system to get one when they go out so I could peruse what it looks like before allowing it to go out under my name. Still didn't get one from this last batch of 1 million.

[David P. Valley]

The NACHI email system definitely needs improvement.

It would be really nice to see this NACHI email system updated, so Members can actually have their very own control panel such as John's Home Hints ENews.

[rdawes]

As a customer of John's Grail system, I can say that every email in there for me was entered by me. I didn't get any kind of jumpstart from the NACHI system and I'm sure none of his other customers did either. John saw a need, invested his money in getting a system developed, has made it work and work well.

Apparently the NACHI IT staff consists of Chris all by himself. I'm sure he has his hands more than full. I doubt if the NACHI email system will ever be as sophisticated as the Grail system until NACHI is willing to invest a lot more in it which means an IT staff that is significantly larger than 1 or contracting various projects out to outside IT providers.

[jmichalski]

Ron,

I agree.

It is a defininte need for an organization that touts itself as "dominating the internet" to have a staff of IT professionals (not just one guy).

It is an area where the investment (in salary) would add some small amount to the bottom line of the org (a few new members might be attracted by our techno wizardry once things like this are running well), but it would be a HUGE benefit to members.

[John Onofrey]

I guess it boils down to you get what you pay for.

To administrate and provide support for such a system as NACHI might offer would employ at least one full time person. There are obvious techinal challenges that would need to be overcome with an open and unlimited system. An enormous potential for abuse exists from a number of fronts. Can Spam act compliance is definitly an issue as is proper branding of your company.

Obviously, there is overhead involved in doing things right. HomeHints eNews gives you full control to manage your subscriber list. Build your subscriber list on our system and export the list to your computer at any time. Brand the newsletter with your photo and logo. Gauge results with our reporting. Who viewed it, what links did they click on, etc.

Just like any other form of marketing, it takes some time to work and some effort on your part. You must be active in growing your subscriber list. You can't just put a couple of email addresses on the system and expect to be successful. This is a numbers game. The more you send the better the results will be. The better quality of addresses along with quantity and it will be enormously successful.

This is a no-brainer. If you try this system for one year and it does not return 100% of your investment you can call me a liar.

[Chris Morrell, CTO]

Hey folks,

I initiated the process yesterday. All messages have been queued, and now they're awaiting verification. Before that process starts I want to provide a way for members to remove e-mail addresses and specific messages. That should be done by the end of this week, with a period for verification over the weekend. If all goes well, the e-mails will start going out on Monday.

I'll post more detail when the new features are up and running.

Cheers,

[Nick Gromicko]

Joe M:

We asked members to submit articles to send through our system. We received 9 so far. I've refused to sign off on 8 of them as they have to be good enough that the REALTOR does not "Opt Out" of future ones. If that happens, we cannot email them again! So it is risky.

Having been a REALTOR, I've been pretty successful at picking one's they will "Opt Into" by looking at these stats: http://www.nachi.org/buyersrealtorsenewsletter.htm We've only lost 1 in 10,000 to "Opt Out."

Of the 9 articles that members submitted since the last blast, NONE were submitted by you. So I think this is as much your delay as it is IT's.

[whandley]

Hey Chris, Nick;

Who controls and or manages the NACHI email newsletter system or program? How often will NACHI email newsletters be distributed? Does MAB or some other committee have oversight of the program and or content contained in same? Here's my problem. I thought NACHI's primary benefit would be for the generation of business and revenue for its membership. Lately, it seems I'm more of a sales target for other vendors using the NACHI membership database. I receive several solicitations weekly by phone, mail and email. I'm sure we've all enlisted the services of other fee based online inspector search engines to help grow our client base and revenue streams, wasn't that one of the promised benefits of joining NACHI. Having to pay for private fee based search engines, email newsletter distribution, etc. lowers the bang for my NACHI buck.

Third request on this next question...

Is it possible for individual chapters to access the NACHI email marketing newsletter system for their specific localized membership?

[whandley]

Hey Nick;

Just noticed you online. Have we used those (4) smoke alarm related photos offering free systems through the NACHI foundation as content in any of the prior email newsletters? They look great, very high quality. Here in California homeowners and agents are always interested in information regarding earthquake, forest fire, and or environmental safety related issues.

I've also been entering realtors, buyers, sellers, lenders and insurance agents email addresses to the NACHI data base. Everyone needs a home and on any given day one of those parties may also need a home inspection or know someone who does. Let's market to the home buying public at large, not just realtors....

[A Dan Leleika]

Originally Posted by gromicko

Joe M:

We asked members to submit articles to send through our system. We received 9 so far. I've refused to sign off on 8 of them as they have to be good enough that the REALTOR does not "Opt Out" of future ones. If that happens, we cannot email them again! So it is risky.

Having been a REALTOR, I've been pretty successful at picking one's they will "Opt Into" by looking at these stats: http://www.nachi.org/buyersrealtorsenewsletter.htm We've only lost 1 in 10,000 to "Opt Out."

Of the 9 articles that members submitted since the last blast, NONE were submitted by you. So I think this is as much your delay as it is IT's.

I don't think this is true at all...Last year Aimee asked for members to vote on the NUMEROUS articles that are in the NACHI archives. She even held a T-Shirt giveaway for input. This was all done for the NACHI newsletter which ran July, August...then that was all.


Thats the way I remember it anyway.