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A Complete Guide to Email Marketing for Realtors

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Written By Adeyemi Adetilewa

There are more than 2 million active realtors currently in the United States, which means that competition in the real estate business is fierce, to say the least. To that end, marketing your business as a realtor is crucial to getting and keeping clients. 

Today, marketing involves a lot more than just handing out flyers in your neighborhood. You need a highly engaging and personal promotional campaign in order to reach your target audience effectively.

Email marketing is the ideal way to accomplish this. Even though social media marketing has proven to be incredibly effective, sending out emails to your clients allows you to maintain control over who can see your content. This way, only the most relevant content is shared with the consumer and their interest is maintained. 

Similarly, email marketing allows you to get more personal with your clients and share stuff that directly affects them. In this article, we are sharing some of the most important tips you should consider when running an email marketing campaign. 

1. Start with a welcome email

Once you get a potential client’s email address, send out a welcome email detailing everything that they need to know about you. This will include details about the services you provide, why they should choose you as their realtor, and what they stand to gain by hiring you.

8 Big Email Marketing Tips For Realtors: A Quick GuideSometimes people don’t want to receive promotional emails, so make sure to give them the option to opt-out if they want to. Ideally, your goal with this email should be to get them to stay and show interest in your business. 

End the email with a call-to-action button that allows them to set up a meeting or a phone call with you. It is important that you do this to ensure that you are fully accessible should the client want your services. 

A welcome email shouldn’t overwhelm the reader with information. Save that for the meeting or phone call. The purpose of this email is to simply get the client through the door. 

2. Add flyers and infographics to your email marketing campaigns

No one ever wants to read a boring email with plain text. People like color and pizzazz and that is exactly what you should give them.

Create fun and informational graphics and add them to your email to improve readability. Instead of telling people what you do through standard email text, make your words pop by adding short, snappy sentences to digital flyers. 

You don’t have to be a professional graphic designer to make these graphics. Sites like PosterMyWall have tons of free real estate flyer templates that you can customize according to your needs. It takes no time at all and does wonder for the emails that you send out. 

Make sure that you stick to a particular color palette and aesthetic when you are making your graphics. Too many colors or themes that are all over the place only make emails less visually appealing. 

3. Send out email newsletters

Newsletters are a great way to keep your clients updated on all the latest news regarding real estate. The real estate market is very volatile which means that you will have tons of content to share with your readers. 

Higher engagement with your content means that people will be more likely to do business with you. This is because the more authentic information they get from you, the more they’ll trust you as a business. As a result, they’ll then be more likely to sign up with you. 

Newsletter content will vary based on whatever the hot topics are during the week. You should write about any significant recent real estate events, open houses in the neighborhood, new homes that are up for sale, and news related to mortgage and rent. 

Also, make sure to subtly advertise yourself in the newsletter so that the reader has the option to contact you immediately if they see something of interest. You wouldn’t want to make the advertising too obvious though, because that tends to put people off.

Keller Williams is a US-based real estate company that routinely sends newsletters to its client base. According to them, newsletters are a great way to maintain brand recognition and establish local expertise. 

Send out your newsletter on a weekly basis. The ideal day would be Sunday when people have time to sit down and read.

4. Send out email blasts routinely

8 Big Email Marketing Tips For Realtors: A Quick GuideEmail blasts go out as alerts to your entire subscriber list. These should be sent only when you have extremely important news that you feel your clients should know instantly. 

Blasts allow you to keep clients in the loop about anything that may concern them. Sending them out as emails ensures that the client doesn’t miss the information, so they’ll be more likely to benefit you and them.

Send email blasts when new houses go on the market, when it is the right time to sell, or when there are new places to rent. 

5. Automate your emails

Automated emails are set for a particular date and time. Research shows that such email messages get 74.9 percent higher open rates and 161.9 percent higher click-through rates than traditional email messages. This is because the emails reach clients at the right place and at the right time. 

Sotheby’s International Realty is a real estate company that has heavily incorporated email automation into its online marketing. For them, such emails allow for a highly personalized marketing experience that not only gets their message across but also sets them apart as leaders in their field. 

Personalization is key when sending out automated emails. Despite being scheduled, emails should have a friendly, personal touch that resonates with the reader. 

Email automation is an extremely straightforward process. Simply use sites like MailChimp, which allow you to create and send out automated emails with just a few simple clicks. 

6. Segment your emails

Segmenting is one of the most important things to consider when creating an email marketing campaign. The last thing you would want to do is send out promotional emails to someone who is simply not the target audience for it. 

For instance, someone who is looking to sell their house would not be interested in new houses that are on the market. The target audience for that would be people who are looking to buy a house. Similarly, not everyone would want regular updates on rent mortgage rates. 

The idea is that you would have to sift through your email list and categorize them according to their interests. You can determine what each individual’s interests are by making a note of their interactions with you or by giving them the option to check off whatever interests them when they sign up with you online. 

Once you have your segments, you should send out relevant, personalized emails to each segment. This will ensure that each email goes only to its target audience, thereby making your marketing campaign a lot more effective. 

7. Keep track of engagement

8 Big Email Marketing Tips For Realtors: A Quick GuideYou need to know whether your emails are even being engaged with by the people you are sending them to. If they are, great, and if they are not, then you would know that you have to make some changes to your approach.

This type of analysis helps you streamline your marketing. It saves you time and energy that you would have otherwise spent marketing to the wrong people.

There are plenty of websites online that allow you to track the progress of the emails you send. For instance, you can follow your subscribers’ engagement with your content through Campaign Monitor, which gives you detailed stats regarding whatever you send to your consumers. 

8. Send frequent referral emails

In the real estate business, having contacts is very important. If people do good business with you, they are likely to refer you to a friend or a neighbor who is also looking to buy or sell a house. After all, everyone needs to buy, sell or rent a house at some point in their lives.

Digital Realty has a Channel Partner Program that allows clients to become Lead Referral Agents. This entitles them to special offers and discounts every time someone signs up with their agency using the agent’s referral code. 

Through email, you should reach out to your clients and ask them to refer you to their friends, family, and other people in their lives. In return, you should offer them special deals and discounts on your services. For instance, for each new sign up through them, they could be entitled to a free real estate consulting session. 

This is a great way to get the word out about your services. As more people sign up, the referral agent gets more perks and you make more money. It is a win-win situation for everyone. 

These are just some of the ways in which you can market to your clients through email. Today, email marketing is the way to go because it is direct, personal and it cuts through all the extra fluff that exists in traditional marketing and social media marketing. These tips should help you get started and make your real estate company a household name.

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