Seasoned pro or just starting, there’s not a real estate professional anywhere who doesn’t know the value of email first-hand. In fact, email typically boasts an ROI of 3,800 percent, according to research from 99Firms.
In the age of social media and instant messaging, emails remain relevant since they allow users to communicate without the limitations that other platforms have, especially when it comes to character and formatting options. It’s no wonder that 63% of realtors rely on email campaigns to generate buying and selling leads.
More importantly, it’s much easier to filter spam and digest long-form content with email messages. And therein lies the perpetual challenge that all marketers are content with on this platform — staying relevant to subscribers so they don’t wind up ignored, or worse, get blacklisted.
If you find your email open rates and CTORs dropping, read on for some fresh tips and ideas on ways to liven things up.
Quick Tips for Real Estate Outreach Success
Get creative with subject lines
The right subject line can boost an email campaign’s results tremendously. In one particular case, A/B testing results found that a friendly, casual, and relatable subject line boosted clicks up to 228%.
Sure; you can ask for feedback using the “Rate your last open house, (first name)?” form, but going back to that A/B testing case, something charming like “Did you like our cookies, (first name)?” may get a better open rate.
Certainly, it’s important to sound professional in the real estate industry. However, there’s absolutely no need to sound robotic. As in any interaction with clients, a little bit of warmth and good humor goes a long way.
Mind your image resolution and size specifications
This is obvious, I know. But when you’re busy finding buyers and helping anxious homeowners, it’s easy to overlook something as image resolution in the emails you send out. But a single blurry image can give the impression of low standards, so this is something that definitely matters.
Add to it that different scenarios impact how your readers wind up seeing your email message. According to Campaign Monitor, for example, Gmail doesn’t display background color when the email width is over 640 pixels.
Keep your content concise
While email’s positive point is that it works well with long-form content, it doesn’t mean that it’s wise to send emails of biblical lengths. Sure, you want to give your clients all the information about a listing in one go, but sometimes less really is more.
In this case, HubSpot sets forth that the best-proven length for high click-through rates is 200 words. Meanwhile, emails between 50 to 125 words have been found to have response rates exceeding 50%. If you’re sharing information about a listing, consider making the email a sort of teaser to get clients over to view the house!
Keep it personal instead of commercial
When you’re writing emails for a subscriber list made up of clients from past sales, it’s easy to lose touch with the fact that each one of them is an individual rather than a group. Relevance isn’t just what gets your content past the spam filters; it’s what will hold their attention and keep you in their inbox over time. (And this is absolute crucial after you’ve made the sale if you want to keep the connection warm for future referrals.)
If you’re getting low click-through rates, open rates, or even unsubscribes, try sprinkling in news about family events and local happenings in your newsletters.
Encourage referrals
If you’re like me, your first response to this suggestion is “how?” As realtors, we hand out business cards, right? Some of us even give out pens and refrigerator magnets with our contact information.
Taking this concept to the next level, you can give out branded limited edition gear or partner up with local businesses to reward client referrals with exclusive perks or discounts.
Make email more effective by combining it with social media
Email and social media are two very different animals. Together, they make a powerful duo. Social media allows you to stay in touch with short messages and GIFs. You can go live on video during an open house event. Via email, you can send out footage of past events and share more comprehensive details on events and listings in a less cluttered environment.
Bonus: Fresh Email Content Ideas To Keep Clients Hooked
Once you’ve set up your welcome email and other staple messages, generating relevant content continuously for homeowners and potential buyers can pose a challenge. Between showings, open houses, and everything else in between, fresh content can easily come last on your list. And frankly, during the busy season, who has the energy to squeeze out creative email ideas all the time?
Luckily, we’ve got you covered with the following list:
● Reviews of local neighborhood establishments
● Recaps of notable town events
● Announcements of local family events
● Important town announcements
● Video teasers of available listings
● Video interviews with satisfied homebuyers
● Educational emails on home projects
● Information about the local housing market
Wrapping Things Up
There are a ton of other tips I can give you to ramp up your email campaign ROI, but it all boils down to clean, segmented subscriber lists. And to keep things neat, regular cleanup really is a must.
Notice your bounce rates to spiking? Some of your clients may have switched jobs and now have invalid addresses if they were using their professional email addresses.
Are you finding that more of your emails are going to spam? Aside from working on making email content more relevant, you can also make sure you include an “Unsubscribe” button that’s easy to find. This way, instead of risking being blacklisted by internet service providers, subscribers can instead opt-out.
Author Bio
Alain Kapatashungu is Co-Founder & CEO of Frontdoor, a company reinventing how work gets done. ‘How can we make the day-to-day life of agents more efficient?’ It’s the DNA of Frontdoor.nt.
