Real estate is a dynamic industry, with trends shifting as new marketing and tracking technologies emerge and investment opportunities explode.
Home prices are rising and there’s a healthy smattering of new construction to keep things moving. Add to that the fact that millennials are joining the house-hunting market in record numbers and you have a recipe for real financial success—if you can get your marketing on target.
It’s not enough to just be visible online—realtors must also engage their online audience. What is engagement? Engagement implies interaction: how often your audience interacts with your content through comments, shares, replies, and more.
Here’s why engagement is especially important for realtors. Competition for clients is high.
There are more than two million active real estate licenses in the US, which means the competition for clients is steep. Having high engagement with your marketing can ensure that your customers are taking notice of your content and remembering you when the time comes to sell or buy a home.
Engagement can lead to more referrals. Thirty-nine percent of home sellers find their real estate agent through a referral from a friend or family member. When your audience is paying attention to and interacting with your content, you’re more likely to come to mind when someone in their network needs a realtor.
This is also why your past clients should still be a part of your engaged audience. The bottom line: Email marketing is the best tool for real estate agents who want to engage their audience.
Email is perfect for nurturing potential buyers and sellers. You know that buying or selling a home is a huge decision for your clients. It can take months or years for homeowners or would-be homeowners to make the leap and contact a realtor.
Instead of just hoping potential clients in your area find you when they’re ready, you can use email marketing to nurture an audience that isn’t ready to buy right now but will be eventually.
Then, when they need a realtor, you’re already someone they know and trust as an expert. Here’s why email marketing is fantastic for nurturing potential leads.
1. With email, you have more control.
Compared to other digital marketing platforms—like social media or digital advertising—email marketing puts you in control. For example, when you post on Instagram or Facebook, you can guess who will see your content and when they see it. But you can’t be sure.
By contrast, your emails will be delivered at a set time directly to your email list. No confusing algorithm will get in the way of your content being seen.
2. Email feels intimate.
Email is one-to-one. It creates a relationship. And your emails can be personalized so that they read like a private letter from you. The closeness of an email relationship can quickly turn cold leads into warm leads.
3. Every demographic uses email.
With email, you don’t have to wonder how to reach your ideal clients online, because all demographics use email. So, whether you focus on a special type of home buyer or seller, or you serve everyone in your area, email marketing will work for you.
4. You can segment your audience.
Email is one of the only marketing tools that allow you to divide your audience into segments and deliver different content to each segment. To illustrate how this helps you nurture leads, consider the following scenario:
Subscriber A signs up for your email list after attending an open house. She didn’t make an offer on the house, but she’s indicated she’s interested in working with you in the future.
Subscriber B signed up for your email list months ago when he first started looking for a new home. Now, he’s successfully bought a new place he loves–with your help.
If you send both subscribers the same content, you quickly run into trouble. Subscriber A would best be served with content about your new listings or educational content about preparing to move. Subscriber B, on the other hand, would find such content useless, since she bought a house recently.
Email segmenting means you can target both types of subscribers with content that’s useful for them. Hopefully, Subscriber A will buy a house with you and Subscriber B will refer her family and friends to you.
5. You can educate potential clients.
On average, homebuyers spend three weeks looking for a new home on their own before contacting a real estate agent. By using email marketing to educate these buyers about the home buying process from the start, you position yourself as a trustworthy expert.
If these leads don’t succeed in finding a home on their own, they’ll decide to hire a realtor. Likely, they won’t have to look much further than their own inbox.
4 types of email campaigns for realtors to send
What topics are interesting to prospective buyers or sellers? What kind of content would make you a valuable resource for consumers and professionals alike? The answers to these questions present great real estate marketing ideas that you can use in your campaigns.
Here are some of the more popular topics for realtor email marketing campaigns:
1. New property listings
Some realtors send an email when any new home comes on the market. Others prefer a weekly or even monthly email of new listings.
Find out what your clients prefer and see if you can customize your email marketing strategy to match. You may even want to spend time sending personalized emails if you have a particularly important client who you are doing personal searches for.
2. Market trends
Are home prices going up or down? How about mortgage rates? How is the market in your area compared to nationally? Give a forecast that lets people know when — or even whether — they should look for a new home.
3. Real estate advice
No one is better equipped to offer advice on showing homes, negotiating prices, and financing than a real estate agent. You can offer your own advice, or even link to articles written by others in your industry that home buyers might find useful.
4. Company news
Some real estate email newsletter content should be about your own firm, including new offices, new agents and success stories. While you don't want to talk about yourself all the time, don't hesitate to share good news like this! It can make potential clients much more likely to get in touch with you.
4 tips for real estate email marketing
While creating these compelling emails, remember to follow the basic rules of email marketing, because not following them could backfire on you.
Email can be one of the most effective ways to reach out to prospective home buyers — that is, as long as it's carried out properly. If not, it can be obtrusive and cause bad feelings between you and your target market.
When you work in real estate, email etiquette is essential to marketing. That's why your strategy should follow these real estate email marketing tips.
1. Don't send unsolicited emails
Even though email is a popular form of communication, people don't like getting emails from strangers, particularly marketers. In fact, sending an email without getting permission first is a surefire way to alienate potential buyers.
Before launching an email marketing program, make sure everyone on the list has opted in, e.g. subscribed to your email list or given another kind of permission. You can add an opt-in box to your website, or even ask clients for verbal permission to sign up for your list.
Without permission, annoying and unwanted emails can be reported as spam, and your website's domain name holder may eventually blacklist you… which means you won't be able to send any emails at all! So use caution when creating and sending to your lists.
2. Build your email list with volunteers only
Direct marketers often purchase lists from relevant associations or publications. Results are always mixed — even with a good response rate, the cost of the list hurt the ROI.
A cheaper alternative is to build an organic list through social media, newsletter opt-ins, and direct contact with buyers. This also eliminates the possibility of sending an email to someone who doesn't want it.
3. Personalize your messages
Generic greetings and messages are frowned upon, especially in real estate email marketing. You want prospective buyers to feel like you're talking to them. Each email must address the individual receiving it.
If possible, your newsletter content should be tailored to their preferences as well. This enforces the personalization and may increase click rates.
How can you personalize your messages? Well, you can start by setting up your emails to address buyers by name. You can also create lists or groups that are in a certain area, home buying status (for example, “actively looking” or “looking soon”) and sending them content tailored just to them.
4. Encourage action
Email helps you share news, but it should also invite further communication. Once you've finished sharing new listings or other important updates, include a call to action that asks the recipient to do something.
This call to action could be a link to a listing, a request for information page, or the email address of one of your agents (if you're sending on behalf of an entire real estate company).
Or it could be a simple invitation to hit reply and get in touch. No matter what, just make sure you have some kind of call to action — otherwise subscribers won't hesitate to delete your emails!
Get started with email marketing for realtors
Real estate is a fast-moving industry, and you can't wait until tomorrow to get in touch. When you work in real estate, email marketing helps you reach buyers and sellers faster and close more sales.
Are you ready to add email to your marketing mix and speed up the cycle? Getresponse can help your real estate business reach more buyers and close more sales with highly targeted, professional emails. Check out their email marketing page to find out more about their packages.