Success as a broker or agent is largely dependent on having a large and loyal client base. You need to be proactive and mingle at social gatherings to raise awareness about yourself and gain new clients.
But how can you possibly nurture relationships with everyone you meet along the way? It can be difficult to keep up with everyone, but it is possible to nurture these relationships by staying in touch and being thoughtful.
Email marketing can be a helpful tool for the real estate industry, acting as a personal assistant of sorts.
This marketing tool allows you to save, sort, and segment your contacts. You have complete control over your list and the message you want to communicate. Automated email marketing campaigns send the correct message to the right person while you are occupied finding new homeowners for the properties you have to offer.
Email marketing can be an effective way to reach more people and close more deals when used correctly.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to capture leads, establish long-lasting relationships, close deals, and keep in touch with new homeowners and happy sellers.
Why use email marketing for your real estate business?
Even though the final transaction has been made, relationships are still important in real estate (40% of buyers find an agent through referrals from past clients, after all)! Email marketing lets you nurture your client base so that they come back to you for their next purchase, and/or refer their network to you as well.
Since the pandemic started, digital interactions have become more important than ever. People are now more ok with shopping online, so realtors who use email to promote updates, videos and blogs will see an increase in engagement. Our 2021 industry benchmark report found that since 2018, real estate email open rates have increased by 32%, and click-through rates by 54%!
Although a large majority of real estate agents do not feel confident in their online marketing skills, there are still many ways to improve your reach and get more people talking. Email marketing is a great way to start.
The major perks of using an email tool
An email marketing software can help you effectively manage your real estate business. It can provide you with the necessary tools and resources to help streamline your operations and improve your productivity.
The major perks of using an email tool include:
- Collecting new leads and clients with ease
- Building long-lasting relationships within your community
- Establishing your own brand and reputation
- Growing your sales with well-timed emails
- Saving time and manual work with email automations
- Encouraging referrals after a deal has been closed
The more clients you have, the more your business will grow. Keeping a healthy, active email list is a great way to achieve this.
Picking the best email tool for you
Since real estate is all about networking and maintaining relationships, email marketing is a great way to keep in touch with clients. This is especially useful since you can only meet with so many people in person in one day.
With so many contacts, different properties and demanding clients to handle simultaneously, your email tool should offer:
- If you want to automatically collect and organize new leads, sign up forms are what you need. You can direct them into groups and segments of your choosing for a more personalized experience for subscribers.
- Subscribers can be segmented based on geographical location in order to nurture customer relationships and build trust. By sending emails that are relevant to their situation, you can create a more personal connection with the subscriber.
- Groups can be updated manually, which allows you to target emails to specific audiences such as sellers vs. buyers, those interested in different types of property, or different budget ranges. This increases your sales and credibility. People are more likely to trust and value your services if they receive emails that are useful to them.
- You can set up automation for many of your standard emails, such as welcome messages, follow-up emails, or check-in emails for satisfied customers. Once you have set up the automation, it will do all the work for you, leaving you free to check engagement and see where people might need additional help.
- In order to have successful one-on-one conversations with new leads via email, you need to put effort into branding. This means creating newsletters that are attractive and reflect your business well. You’ll need an easy-to-use email builder to do this effectively.
Email marketing can be extremely beneficial for real estate agents if done correctly. Agents should send relevant emails to clients at different stages of their journey in order to maximize results.
63% of email marketing campaigns in the real estate industry were successful.
There are several email marketing techniques that real estate agents can use to convert leads and nurture prospects. These techniques can also be used toearn business from former clients.
1. Start with an actionable welcome.
The most important email is the welcome email.
No matter how they got to you, a welcome email is the best way to start off your relationship on the right foot. A welcome email is a great way to introduce both cold and warm leads to your services. If a customer has opted in at an open house or your website, or they may be someone you’ve gotten through a referral, a welcome email is the best way to start off your relationship on the right foot.
An email greeting new prospects is a nice touch and could be sent after the first day of house-hunting or consultation about selling their home.
At any rate, a welcome email will thank subscribers for opting-in and give them two critical pieces of information:
- What kinds of emails to expect from you in the future
- Why you’re the best agent to help them buy or sell their home.
This is how you can get ahead of the competition and make your brand more successful.
Your welcome email should be designed in a way that is clear and easy to follow.
This means that your emails should have a clear call-to-action (CTA) to schedule a phone call or meeting, connect on social media, or even request to be added to the recipient’s “safe” list so that your emails don’t go to their spam folder.
2. Add value with a newsletter full of relevant, interesting content.
Your prospects want to be kept up to date with local market information and the best way to do this is through an email newsletter full of relevant and helpful content.
Newsletters are a great way to promote your own services, while also keeping you top of mind for potential customers as they make their decisions.
Regularly sending newsletters can help you stay in touch with former clients and increase the chances that they will refer you to their friends.
Content that is interesting and relevant, like the articles and tips found in newsletters, can be incredibly effective for your real estate business. Your newsletters should be short and skimmable documents with content that is engaging and shareable.
Don’t ever send a newsletter to someone who has not given you explicit permission to do so or who does not expect to receive one from you.
Sending newsletters to a brand-new lead can impact your chance of conversion. Here are some of the things you can include in your newsletter to educate and entertain:
- Recent or upcoming events
- Focus on local restaurants or businesses
- New homes listed or sold
- Open houses
- Mortgage news/advice
3. Nurture your buyers’ decision-making.
Sending weekly or more frequent email updates with the latest listings to potential buyers helps keep them engaged.
Even if your potential buyers have signed up to receive alerts for new listings through your website, follow up with them personally to see if they’ve found anything interesting.
Staying in touch with buyers and understanding their current needs is important to maintaining a good relationship. This email template can help with that by providing a way to periodic check-ins.
4. Captivate interested sellers with emails.
Sellers are interested in finding out the value of their home and if you can be trusted to help them sell it.
It’s important to answer both questions, so keep in touch with the people who asked them via email to encourage them to do something about it.
The goal of your emails should be to eventually meet your client in person to discuss their needs in-depth. All emails should prompt a meeting or phone call with a CTA.
5. Special care for former clients to promote lead generation
Most of a real estate agent’s customers come from referrals. The National Association of Realtors says that 40% of buyers and 38% of sellers choose the agent that was recommended to them by a friend, family member, or neighbor.
If you’re marketing to former customers, you’ll need to be careful with your approach. They likely have a good understanding of the current real estate market, so focus your newsletters on topics like home and garden tips or local events.
An alternative approach is to skip newsletters and send less frequent personalized emails.
Sending wishes on special occasions or holidays is a great way to remind your friends or family that you are thinking of them. It also shows that you appreciate and value your relationship with them.
6. Maintain the connection using automation.
You should consider setting up an automated email system to send transactional emails based on customer behavior.
When someone opts-in to your email newsletter, requests information online, or takes some other action on your website, follow up with them via email.
Email marketing campaigns that are personalized see higher conversion rates than those that are not. Personalization can also increase the ROI of your email marketing campaign.
7. Capture real estate leads
You can either collect email addresses the old-fashioned way or use an iPad app to add people directly to your real estate email list.
If you want to generate leads and grow your client base, you should take your business online.
You can advertise online to target specific groups of people, for example by using paid ads on Google or social media. You can also make it easier for potential customers to find you by ensuring your website appears high up on search engine results pages for relevant keywords, such as ‘real estate broker in [city]’.
If you’re looking for ways to get more traffic to your website or property listing pages, online ads can be a great option. However, it’s important to keep in mind that PPC advertising can get expensive quickly, so be sure to budget accordingly.
8. Brand yourself
You want to establish relationships with people before asking for favors or promoting your services, just like you would in normal, offline relationships. First work on building your credibility, then you can start doing business.
Welcome email
An automated welcome email is a great way to break the ice with new subscribers. This email can be sent immediately after someone signs up for your list, or you can add a delay of a few hours or a day to your automated workflow. Your email marketing software will handle these autoresponders.
Introduce yourself in the welcome email and focus on why customers should do business with you. This is your first chance to show your level of expertise, trustworthiness, experience and professionalism, so make it count.
You want every email to contain a call to action, preferably asking the reader to set up a phone call or grab a coffee to chat about their situation.
Here is some advice on creating a call-to-action that will be effective in your real estate newsletters.
Entertaining emails
For the first set of emails, focus on building a rapport and showing your personality instead of immediately going into a sales pitch.
Send your subscribers emails about:
- Local charities you participate in
- Events happening in town
- Updates on interest rates on the market
- Periodic comparative market analysis
- Newly opened shops and restaurants
- Holiday greetings
- Home improvement tips
- Mortgage news
- Housing decoration inspiration and trends
Redfin offers home buying classes, a price range calculator and a local market filter to help their readers find the best value in the housing market.
9. Stay top of mind with targeted emails
Once you have grouped your subscribers together in different segments, you can begin to create a concept for the real estate emails you will send out. Automating as many emails as possible will help you make the most of your email marketing.
It’s a good idea to have a mix of both regular email marketing campaigns and automated workflows. This way, you can connect with your customers in multiple ways and keep things running smoothly.
Regular campaigns could include:
- Just sold properties
- New or expired listings
- Current events in town
- Seasonal information
- Updates
Seasonal events and festivities provide an opportunity for you to host something for potential buyers and sellers. A giveaway or competition can help build up excitement, just like Trulia did in their email campaign below.
Wrap up
We’ve looked at several marketing ideas that will make you more competitive and help you stand out in a crowded industry.
If you want to convert leads into clients, it is important to provide them with content that is unique and relevant, and to stay in touch with them throughout the buying or selling process.
Former clients need to feel valued in order to give referrals, which are essential for real estate success.
