Email marketing may be a relatively old platform, but it’s a reliable one. Compared to social media, an email inbox is shaped more by the user than by algorithms. So once your message is in there, it has a good chance of being seen.
How do you make sure your emails are worth opening though? In real estate, it’s mostly a matter of timing. You want your leads to keep you in their inbox until they need to buy or sell a property.
One way to do this is an email newsletter. Many real estate agents and firms use newsletters to great effect. They provide their readers with useful information and, so doing, ensure they’re top of mind when those leads need to buy, sell, rent or lease.
Here are some tips for creating useful, effective emails that will keep your contacts hooked until they’re ready to purchase.
Most of your leads will be searching by area, so your email marketing content should be similarly organized. Sorting leads by location is one of the best starting points for segmenting your contacts.
(Image from Chris McGuire)
Additionally, when you’re focused on a specific area, you can feature more than just your own listings. People looking for a new home, office or what-have-you are also often concerned with the neighborhood. Use this as an opportunity to throw in some relevant information on dining, leisure or other knowledge you may have picked up as a real estate agent working the area.
(Image from Smith & Berg)
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Landlords and lessees obviously have different interests. If you cater to both buyers and sellers (or other similar distinctions), consider making separate newsletters for each. The content in these newsletters doesn’t need to be entirely different, but even a few small changes can vastly improve your email marketing — segmented emails are opened more, lead to fewer unsubscriptions, and get around twice as many click throughs (source: MailChimp).
(Image from Portico)
A lot of the stress that people face in real estate comes from the complex calculations surrounding it. Taxes, loans and valuations can confuse everyone from new homeowners to long-time landlords. Providing information on these topics is a great way to get people to click through from your email onto your website. Taxes, in particular, have a certain sense of urgency that can compel people to click, so consider using them for headlines, as Portico did in the example above.
Linking to articles and blog posts is a good, easy way to integrate this into your email marketing strategy. If you have the resources to spare, however, you may want to offer quick consultations or develop an automated tool to bring leads further down your funnel.
Questions, quizzes and polls can be a great way to draw attention. Dress them up right, and they can provide a spot of amusement in a contact’s inbox. The email below, for example, doesn’t just ask readers to scroll through a catalogue — it invites them to exercise their aesthetic taste.
(Image from Trulia)
When used well, these quizzes can act as informal surveys, securing valuable information on your leads — and if they enjoy it, then everyone wins.
Working your social media campaigns into your newsletter content can be a great way to make progress on both fronts: your emails get added content, while your social media gets more reach.
Sales, contests, and other limited time offers are particularly effective (though you’ll need to time your newsletter right to coincide with them). That said, don’t rule out other types of social media content. An especially captivating photo or video can work wonders for your newsletter. (There are a lot of layout and photo editing apps that make it easy to prepare an image for publishing on multiple platforms.)
(Images from @PorticoProperty and @uksothebysrealty on Instagram)
As mentioned earlier, timing is important. Real estate follows several overlapping trends — some are broadly applicable, while others are influenced by local factors. Your email campaigns should take these into account.
The holidays, for example, aren’t typically a high point for sales. During this time, even a simple holiday greeting should be fine. Remember, if you want to be a top real estate agent, it’s about building rapport. As long as your mail still reaches their inbox, your campaign is doing fine.
Not all of your emails will hit the mark. What’s important is you learn from your email marketing missteps.
Most email automation platforms also provide basic analytics, such as open rates, bounces rates and so on. If you analyze this alongside info from your website and other funnels (i.e. who’s clicked through from emails), you can get a pretty good idea of what your audience responds to best.
Use this information to improve your email content month by month, segment by segment — and when your leads are ready to buy, you’ll be the first real estate agent they think of.
Denise Langenegger is part of the team at Instasize – a content creating tool kit for anyone editing photos and online content on mobile.
, February 8, 2021, Team LimeCall
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