At a time when virtually everyone has some sort of presence in the online world, it might seem harder and harder to stand out in the crowd. Gaining attention online can be particularly challenging if you own a business and you’d like to promote your services on various platforms. These days social media sites are filled to the brim with advertisements of all kinds, so it might seem difficult to reach your audience and attract new customers in such a competitive market.
If you’re interested in targeting your potential clients directly, you might find email marketing a useful and effective tool for your real estate business. With the help of a handful of user-friendly platforms, you can easily hone the skills necessary to present your ideas in an appealing, attractive way to your core audience. Check out a few tips which will help you use email marketing for your real estate business:
Building up your email list
Before you start thinking about templates, visual patterns, and the message you’d like to broadcast your followers, you first need to work on building up a solid email list. This can be done in a few ways, but remember that the best way to collect contact info about your future clients is in an organic way. Using growbots and various other programs which promise hundreds of addresses won’t lead you anywhere, since these individuals rarely turn into paying customers.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s see how you can organically build up your email list. Firstly, you’ll need a website or at least a landing page where you showcase your services and your business purpose. You can easily install a pop-up through which you can collect emails in exchange for insightful monthly or bi-weekly tips regarding real estate. Another way to gather contact info is by offering something to your readers, like an informative brochure about real estate trends if they sign up to your newsletter. Lastly, you can always set up a blog and encourage your visitors to share their email address with you to get regular updates.
Email marketing platforms
When it comes to templates, layouts, and platforms to collect, store email addresses and formulate, compose, and send out real estate marketing campaigns, the opportunities are endless. From free websites that offer customizable layouts to pricey platforms with over-the-top templates, there are many varieties to choose from.
MailChimp is a popular option, thanks to its easy-to-use design, intuitive interface, and simple tracking and analytics system, which is great considering that it doesn’t cost a dime! AWeber is a similarly simplistic platform that ensures quick and effective drip sequences. GetResponse is another popular option among real estate professionals, offering smart automated campaigns, various email templates optimized for smartphones, segmented subscribers lists, and many more handy features for $15/month. A more affordable alternative to this is SendPulse, which is known for its ease of use, clever design, great reporting, and tracking system and its economical price tag of only $8.85/month.
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Real estate marketing campaigns
Similarly to email marketing platforms, campaigns are also abundant and can be quite varied. There are dozens of ways in which you can set up your email marketing strategy, depending on the interest of your lead and their position in the sales funnel.
Targeted campaigns send out relevant information to only a group of people, which is fantastic if you want to advertise family homes to young couples with small children, or one-bedroom condos for retirees. Cold campaigns aim to build up your relationship with the reader, so they’re less likely to generate sales and are more about spreading information. Drip campaigns aim to keep leads engaged and interested, which might lead to a sale after a while.
Event campaigns help you invite and gather relevant people to an open house or a home viewing session. After the event, you can send follow-up emails advertising similar occurrences, or related properties and viewings. Once a sale is completed, you shouldn’t forget about your client. Instead, send out newsletters requesting testimonials, reviews and referrals. These can be an extremely valuable feature to showcase your skills and professionalism to other potential clients.
Golden rules for an effective email marketing strategy
For an effective email marketing strategy, stand out from the crowd of newsletters by offering something unique to your readers. Over time, it’s advisable to develop somewhat of a style so your followers can differentiate your emails from the rest. This can be done in a myriad of ways: by writing eye-catching subject lines (which should never border on spam-like, attention-grabbing empty promises), using humor to make a point, or educating your audience with facts presented in an appealing way by using visual tools like info graphics.
You should always aim to provide useful information in an entertaining, simplified way using as little technical jargon as possible (which has a tendency to scare away followers). Making a first impression is key and if you start off on the right foot, you might reach a point where your followers actually look forward to your email dropping into their inbox. Don’t forget to include a call-to-action in the letter and try not to be too pushy. Instead of encouraging your readers to buy something, direct them to your landing page instead. Invite them to open houses and boast about recent sales, but never address them as a potential dollar sign. Email marketing should be about building relationships and not about desperately trying to sell something.
