Real Estate Email Marketing

Up to 80% of future homebuyers are looking to the internet to search for properties according to some research. They’re looking to real estate websites to view galleries of their dream home and getting a feel for cost. They’re also researching real estate agents to assist them in their purchase. Reaching these homebuyers requires a strong online marketing strategy which includes email marketing.

In this blog, we’ll look at what email marketing is and how it can help you grow your real estate business. We’ll also touch on how to use your CRM to create effective email marketing campaigns, as well as different campaign ideas.

Table of Contents

  1. What is email marketing?
  2. Can email marketing help you grow your real estate business?
  3. Email marketing best practices
  4. Real estate email marketing ideas
  5. How your CRM can help you create effective email marketing campaigns
  6. Conclusion

What is email marketing?

Email marketing is the use of email within your marketing efforts to promote your product or service. It’s a form of direct marketing and digital marketing and can play a vital role in your marketing strategy for lead generation, brand awareness and customer engagement. (MailChimp).

Can email marketing help you grow your real estate business?

Email marketing is a popular marketing tool, particularly in the way that it can help you grow your business. It helps build trust with homeowners and homebuyers through the content it serves and it’s a direct line of communication between you and your prospects. It’s also a great framework to move a prospect through your sales funnel. (Become a Local Leader)

Moreover, OptinMonster says that 30% of marketers globally cite email marketing as having the highest ROI and that for every $1 spent on email marketing, $44 is made in return (i.e. a 4400% ROI). Other interesting email marketing success statistics include:

  • 81% of SMBs still rely on email as their primary customer acquisition channel, and 80% for retention. (Oberlo)
  • Real estate emails had an average open rate of 19.24% and a click rate of 1.9%. (Mailerlite)
  • Email is 40x more effective at acquiring customers than Facebook and Twitter combined. (OptinMonster)
  • Shoppers spend 138% more when marketed through email, as compared to those who do not receive email offers. (OptinMonster)
  • 49% of consumers said that they would like to receive promotional emails from their favourite brands on a weekly basis. (Oberlo)

Email marketing best practices

Based on research we did across the internet; these are 6 of the top email marketing best practices that stand out:

  • Build your own email list, don’t purchase contact lists. From a legal perspective, GDPR regulations require that you have recipient consent before sending anyone an email. From an emotive standpoint, trying to connect with people whose data you’ve purchased could result in a drop in email performance.
  • The quality of your emails beat the frequency that you sent them. Don’t overwhelm recipients with too many emails as they’ll either unsubscribe or mark your email as spam.
  • Segment your email list so that you cater to the specific needs of your customers. This will likely result in a message that resonates and higher engagement.
  • Keep your email uncluttered, use no more than 3 typefaces and optimise the email’s preview text. Keep to branding guidelines and be consistent with logo placement (center or upper-lefthand side of the email).
  • Clean your email list frequently, clearing it of unengaged subscribers who no longer want to hear from you. In this way, you’ll have a more accurate view of email open rates.
  • Keep your core message and CTA above the fold so that it’s immediately seen by recipients. Use A/B testing on subject lines and CTA’s so as to make changes where necessary to boost open and click-through rates.

Real estate email marketing ideas

The types of emails you’ll send to customers depends on their individual needs. The content that you serve must add value and be useful and informative. The message should resonate, no matter where the customers are in the buyer’s journey. In real estate, consider these types of email marketing campaigns/content:

Engage new prospects with a welcome email

Engage new or prospective customers that have subscribed to your newsletter with a welcome email. Be emotive and make them feel good about their decision to subscribe. Inform the reader about the type of content that they can expect to receive and how often they’ll receive it. Include appealing CTA’s such as a link to set up an appointment or to schedule a call, or to specific landing pages on your website.

Highlight your expertise with a newsletter

People want to engage the services of someone who understands their needs and has the relevant expertise to address those needs. So, pack your newsletter with helpful information that will be of value to your readers. Include content that appeals to your different audiences. Make use of blogs, articles and videos that keep your readers engaged and which is shareable with their network. Keep your newsletter short and to the point. Anything more than a quick read or a 2–3-minute video view is too long, and interest will wane. And nobody says don’t try and sell to your readers, but keep it soft, don’t make selling the focus. Finally, ensure you have the permission to reach out by email. Compliance with GDPR regulations have never been important.

Keep your prospects updated

Somebody looking to purchase a property is not necessarily ready to buy. Visitors to your website may have signed up to receive notifications for new listings but these leads might still need nurturing. Others may have enquired after a particular property they saw on your site but then communication went quiet. Reach out to these leads with a personalized email. Send them frequent updates on all new property listings and ask whether they’ve seen anything they like. Be sure to also include any other useful information that will help make their decision to buy a little bit easier.

Word of mouth referrals

Word of mouth referral is one of the most impactful forms of marketing that exists a here are some Nielsen stats to support this theory:

  • 92% of consumers believe suggestions from friends and family more than advertising.
  • Beyond friends and family, 88% of people trust online reviews written by other consumers as much as they trust recommendations from personal contacts.
  • And 74% of consumers identify word of mouth as a key influencer in their purchasing decisions.

So how do you leverage the relationship you have with previous customers to get them to refer your business to their personal contacts? By staying in touch and maintaining a relationship long after a sale has been concluded.

How your CRM can help you create effective email marketing campaigns

An intelligent real estate CRM should offer you the tools needed to design and deliver impactful email marketing campaigns. Hereunder are two ways that your CRM can help you achieve email marketing success:

Segmenting target audiences

Use your CRM to segment contacts into groups based on common characteristics and where they are in the sales pipeline. These contacts could be comprised of hot or old leads, property buyers, property sellers, first-time homebuyers, etc. Then create customized email campaigns through which to serve content that meets the specific real estate needs of each group. The Qobrix CRM contacts module records and filters the contact details of all individuals or organisations with whom your real estate enterprise does business with. Contacts can be easily managed by linking them to corresponding leads, opportunities, clients, agents and other relational data.

After-sales promotion

Your real estate CRM software is filled with the names of people who have purchased property through your organization. With Qobrix CRM, use the dashboards function to generate a report of all previous customers and send those people personalized emails that include useful post-purchase insights. Examples include blogs or articles on how to maintain a garden, tips on redecorating or upgrading your home, getting the most out of small space, local real estate trends, etc. In this way, you are demonstrating that you still care about the needs of those to whom you have already sold, making them more inclined to want to share their experience with others.

Conclusion

It’s clear that email marketing offers real estate professionals many benefits in terms of customer engagement, nurturing relationships, lead generation, business growth and return on investment. So make sure to spend some time in building a real estate email marketing strategy that will help you serve valuable content that connects with every subscriber. Then use automation tools like MailChimp to help you optimise the process of distributing your emails so that you or your team can focus on sales.