Email marketing still works - in spite of popular opinion. Opening rates for B2B and B2C emails differ slightly, sitting between 15% and 20%.
That might sound low.
But the simple truth is that, with a large enough audience, even low engagement rates yield high rewards.
Keep reading to learn all you need to know about real estate email marketing.
Why Email Marketing Is Still Relevant
It's no secret - the world is dominated by social media and instant gratification. Emails, by contrast, are long bodies of text that many people overlook.
Yet, when used correctly, it offers a world of benefits for cunning real estate agents.
How Email Marketing Benefits Real Estate Agents
A good email marketing campaign is the bedrock of your marketing strategy. It's how you find new buyers and connect with sellers.
The core benefits of email marketing for realtors include:
- Low cost
- Wide reach
- Personalized messaging
- No barrier to entry
Email marketing allows you to connect with potential clients in a more personal and direct way. Unlike social media, email provides a direct line of communication that is not dependent on algorithms or third-party platforms. This means that you have more control over your message and can tailor it to meet the needs of your specific audience.
Email marketing is also a cost-effective way to generate leads and build your brand. Unlike traditional advertising methods, such as print or TV ads, email marketing allows you to reach a large audience without breaking the bank.
Planning the Perfect Real Estate Email Marketing Campaign
If you're a real estate agent looking to launch an email marketing campaign, there are a few key steps you should take to ensure its success. The three-step plan you'll be following is simple in principle:
- Plan and prepare
- Execute your marketing campaign
- Analyze your outcomes and repeat
With time, your skills and strategies will improve to help you reach larger audiences, improve email open rates, and ultimately, increase your revenue.
Setting Your Goals and Objectives
Any email marketing campaign should be tailored to what you're trying to accomplish. You won't find success if you try to do everything at once.
So, ask yourself what you're trying to accomplish.
Are you trying to generate new leads, nurture existing ones, or promote a particular property? Are you trying to connect with people and keep your services fresh in their minds?
Defining your objectives will help guide the content of your emails and ensure that your campaign is focused and effective. Fundamentally, there are three types of marketing campaigns that you need to choose between:
- Cold email campaigns
- "Drip" email campaigns
- Single send campaigns
Cold emails are how you reach and connect with new people, whether they're agencies, buyers, or sellers. They have the lowest engagement rates because unsolicited emails are often eyed with suspicion by most people.
That means cold email campaigns can be the hardest to get off the ground (but don't be discouraged).
Drip campaigns are recurring. They're a series of emails sent to people who sign up for newsletters, mailing lists, and websites via online forms. Drip emails are intended to nurture leads over time and, like cold emails, typically have low open rates.
Even so, you only need people to click through an email once. In many cases, drip emails will be your bread and butter.
Finally, single-send emails promote one event at a specific date. For that reason, single-send emails require more care and attention to encourage readers to open and consider them.
Narrowing Your Audience
To get the most out of your email marketing campaign, it's essential to target the right audience.
Segmenting your email list based on demographics, interests, or behaviors can help ensure that your emails are relevant and personalized. In real estate, your audience falls into three distinct categories that rarely overlap - buyers, sellers, and other agents or agencies.
To narrow down your audience further, divide them based on categories that make the difference. In real estate, those categories include estimated average income, average property values, mortgage viability, and physical location.
Consider employing social media marketing to increase your reach and find new leads.
Creating Effective Email Templates
The design and content of your email templates will play a big role in the success of your campaign. Your emails should be visually appealing, easy to read, and provide value to your audience. Consider using images, videos, or infographics to make your emails more engaging.
Remember: the most important thing is for people to open your emails.
That's where an effective, attention-grabbing subject line comes into play.
Incorporating Calls to Action (CTAs)
No marketing email would be complete without calls to action (CTAs) littered throughout the text body.
What is a CTA?
It's a clickable link that scoops a reader up and sends them from their inbox directly to your services. Effective CTAs are simple and enticing, yet give the reader an idea of what's on the other side of a link.
Executing Your Marketing Campaign
Once you've planned your email marketing campaign, it's time to put it into action.
The only real test of your campaign's effectiveness is how many people you reach - and how many open and read your emails. As a real estate expert, don't get caught in the trap of endless planning and preparation.
You'll only chase your own tail up without taking the plunge.
Building an Email List
You'll be building your email list from the audience you've targeted in the planning phase. Create a database of emails and determine who to target with your campaign.
Remember that it's okay to omit people who aren't a good fit. Sending irrelevant emails that clog up their inboxes will only result in them clicking "unsubscribe" and you with a smaller pool of potential leads in the future.
Testing Your Campaign
Consider running a quick pilot to test that everything is working.
Testing with a small segment of your audience will allow you to identify any issues with your email templates or CTAs before you launch your full campaign.
Following Up
As we discussed above, drip email campaigns work over time - and that's where following up is crucial. Weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly emails can prod your mailing lists or attract attention over time.
However, it's important to avoid oversaturating your target audience with emails. Doing so will only increase the likelihood of people unsubscribing from your mailing list - or their email service provider flagging your marketing emails as spam.
Analyzing the Results and Adapting
One of the most important aspects of successful real estate marketing is the ability to adapt your approach over time.
This means regularly reviewing your results. You need to make changes to your marketing campaign based on what's working - and what's not. For example. To do so, you first need to understand your email response rates.
Understanding Metrics
In order to effectively analyze your results, you need to understand how to measure response rates.
This includes tracking metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates. Metrics like these can be monitored with a handful of tricks.
The easiest is to analyze your ROI. Contrast the volume of emails you send with the amount of income you generate. Comparing your average income with prior months - during which you weren't marketing yourself via email - is a good place to start.
The other metrics you can measure include the delivery rate, click-through rate, and conversion rate. Delivery rates describe how many emails reach the recipients' inboxes. Click-through rates are a key element in your marketing analysis, as they show you how many recipients click on a link in a marketing email.
Conversion rates are the number of clicks that turn into customers. You'll notice a steady decline starting with delivery rates and ending with conversion rates. Your goal is to maximize the number of conversions.
By monitoring these metrics, you can determine which marketing tactics are most effective and adjust your approach accordingly.
Adapting Your Strategy
Once you've analyzed your results and identified areas for improvement, it's time to adapt your marketing strategy.
This could involve anything from changing your messaging or targeting different demographics to experimenting with new channels or promotional tactics. The key is to be flexible and willing to try new things until you find a strategy that works for you.
Best Practices for Email Marketing
Real estate marketing via email can be a highly effective tool for real estate professionals, but it's important to follow best practices in order to avoid spam filters and ensure that your messages are well-received. This includes:
- Personalizing subject lines
- Segmenting your email list
- Including a clear call to action in every message
GDPR Compliance
If you do business in the European Union, it's also important to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
This means obtaining explicit consent from EU residents before sending them marketing emails and ensuring that you're protecting their data in accordance with GDPR guidelines.
Find New Marketing Leads
Real estate email marketing is thriving. Mastering email will help you to find new leads and keep in touch with buyers and sellers long after you've concluded your business with them.
If you're a real estate agent who employs modern, digital solutions to sell to buyers, we can help. At Hommati, we combine virtual tours, HD photography, virtual enhancements, and augmented reality to offer unforgettable experiences. Click here to touch base with us.