3 Easy Ways to Improve Your Real Estate Emails and Drive Results

Written by Posted On Thursday, 22 September 2016 13:43

Though face-to-face interaction is still one of the most effective tactics in the real estate industry, in the era of hyper-connectivity, it's no longer enough. Promotion tools like email marketing help bring real estate sales into the digital age and let you connect with customers where they're most active. However, as more and more real estate professionals incorporate email marketing into their strategies, it gets increasingly difficult to stand out from the crowd. With a few minor tweaks, you can ensure your emails are reaching the right people at the right time and driving meaningful business results. 

Optimize for mobile. 

Gone are the days where you only need to consider what your email design looks like on a desktop computer. In fact, 51% of email opens come from a mobile device and 69% of mobile users delete emails that aren't optimized for mobile. If you're not thinking mobile first, you could be missing out on potential customers. 

This is especially true in the real estate industry where much of the work occurs outside of the office. For The Apartment Service, the need for mobile optimization became clear after evaluating the needs of their audiences. After recognizing their clients were constantly on the go, the company immediately ensured their messages could be read easily on various platforms. Relevant, to the point content with mobile-friendly design are the keys to keeping clients engaged with your messaging. 

 “After optimizing the design template for our corporate apartment business, Roomspace, we started getting positive responses from our clients,” said Bard Vos, Marketing Manager, The Apartment Service. “When you make your messages easily read on various platforms and tell subscribers something they want to hear, email marketing works.”

Segment your audience. 

From landlords to investors to buyers, you're constantly working with a variety of audiences, each with different real estate goals. As a result, your marketing emails should never be one-size-fits-all. Segment the members of your email list to reflect their interests, then tailor your messages to each specific group. The more you segment your lists, the more relevant your campaigns will be to your target audience and the greater your chances of reaching your desired outcome. 

SRS Real Estate Partners has seen the benefits of email list segmentation first hand. The company represents both sides of a sales transaction or lease, and their subscriber list is a who’s who collection of brokers, owners, landlords, and investors, as well as the points of contact at high-profile concepts and boutique retail brands. SRS leans heavily on email communications for its ability to target any desired segment, either geographically or by interest. By customizing their message by specific audiences rather than blasting generic emails to all subscribers, they've been able to make their email communications more efficient and effective.

“Our more than 20 regional marketing coordinators keep our email marketing platform busy with different messages going out Monday through Friday,” said SRS’s senior communications manager, Christina Wezwick. “They each capture what they know about their unique contacts into the platform’s CRM first, allowing each coordinator to properly segment their audience.”  

Automate follow ups. 

While over 80% of realtors agree referrals are incredibly important to their business, only 18% of agents follow up with past clients on a monthly basis -- a key tactic in generating future referrals. In fact, 42% of buyers found their real estate professional through the referral of a friend, neighbor or relative, meaning realtors who fail to keep in contact with past clients could be missing out on new leads. Instead of relying on memory to follow up with previous clients, turn to a tool marketers are increasingly using to drive results: email automation. Automating your emails allows you to schedule customized emails to specific audience segments. To use automation to follow up, segment your email list into past and present clients, then schedule automated "catch up" emails to touch base, and share information about current properties that match their past buying history. You may be surprised by how many new referrals can be sparked by simply checking in.  

 iContact helps small and medium businesses worldwide achieve significant results with their best-in-class digital marketing solutions and knowledgeable team members. Made scalable to serve the needs of high-volume senders, modern marketers, and businesses new to email, iContact's easy-to-use technology, available in both English and Spanish versions, ensures that every customer has what they need – whenever they need it – to succeed.

 

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Keri Brooks

Senior Strategic Advisor at iContact. Since 2003, small and medium businesses worldwide have achieved significant results by turning to iContact's best-in-class digital marketing solutions and knowledgeable team members. Made scalable to serve the needs of high-volume senders, modern marketers, and businesses new to email, iContact's easy-to-use technology, available in both English and Spanish versions, ensures that every customer has what they need – whenever they need it – to succeed. Located in Morrisville, N.C., iContact is an award-winning company in the Cision family of brands, receiving recognition from TopTenReviews, Salesforce AppExchange and G2 Crowd.

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