Even with social media disrupting the industry, email still plays a vital role in real estate marketing. It boosts referrals, keeps your business at the forefront of clients’ minds, and fosters powerful relationships. Here are some email marketing tips that you can use to enhance your strategy today.
Nurture a trusting rapport through emails with personality
I don’t need to tell you the importance of establishing a human connection when you’re selling a property.
In real estate, personality matters. It’s about creating a rapport with your clients, a bond of trust that lets them know that you are someone they can trust in this important decision.
As a real estate agent, you know how to do this. From baking fresh cookies for an open house or dealing with property investors face-to-face rather than over the phone, there are little things that you know help establish a rapport.
But that human connection isn’t limited to your in-person experiences. It’s present in all of your client contact, especially in your email marketing.
Your email strategy continues that rapport that you established when you met your client. But how do you continue that highly personal connection and scale it with email marketing?
The answer lies in your copy.
Just because you’re a business, it doesn’t mean you can’t let your personality shine through in your marketing. Be friendly and informal to nurture that human connection.
Obviously this will vary depending on who you’re emailing. Your first-time buyers and young families will appreciate the personable, human touch.
And while that will play a role when you’re dealing with real estate hedge funds or property investors, they might prefer a more professional, assured tone of voice. But even then, you should deliver confidence and authority in a human tone of voice to let your clients know they’re dealing with a real person, rather than a faceless being.
Knowing your tone of voice is influenced by each of your customer segments which we’ll touch on later. But first let’s look at exactly what your marketing emails should look like.
Don’t just go for the hard sell — deliver real value
Your email marketing isn’t just about going for the hard sell and selling property. It’s about delivering an all-round experience that genuinely benefits your clients. Your emails should contain more than just sales copy — they should provide value.
Buying a property is replete with pain points, problems and issues that cause the potential buyer concern. Getting pre-qualified for mortgage credit, liaising with a reliable home inspector, finding a third-party appraiser — buying a property is not easy!
Your email marketing can provide advice and solutions for these pain points. Your first-time buyer clients would benefit from some vital tips on what to look out for, for example. And for parents whose kids have flown the nest, a detailed guide to downsizing would be a real godsend.
But it doesn’t just need to focus on pain points. Provide other useful content that speaks to your clients’ various needs.
For example, a data-led guide to the best places to invest in property based on your predictions isn’t just valuable — it shows that you know your stuff.
Content like this doesn’t just benefit your clients either. Create useful content that your clients value, and they will share it with friends and family who might also benefit from it. This helps get your agency’s name out there, resulting in more leads for you.
Go above and beyond with automation
The proliferation of email automation systems make it easy for businesses for virtually any industry to enhance their marketing strategy.
Automation software can take your email marketing further by scaling your existing efforts, targeting your campaigns to specific audiences (more on that later), and personalize each email to delight your clients.
For example, the newcomer email software Moosend comes with a handy Weather Conditions Filter that sends recipients targeted emails based on the weather in their area. In the same vein, you could use a conditional statement service such as IFTTT, Zapier or Flow to send investors notifications of upcoming price spikes or drops in a specific area.
So let’s say you’ve got a client who wants to invest in an affordable warehouse property with visions of developing it into apartments. They’ve got the capital, but they want to rent them out for big dollars, so they want to know where the next popular neighbourhood will be.
Using a conditional statement app, you could arrange for your client to receive a personalized email as soon as prices start to fluctuate, for example if a business is moving its headquarters there.
Automation is ripe with possibilities for real estate agents. Use it to deliver value, delight clients, and grow your business.
Use advanced segmentation for personalized email marketing
As a real estate agent, your clients are likely to be a highly diverse bunch. You might help a young couple buy their first home in the morning, but advise a wealthy client on their next portfolio investment by lunch.
Consequently, your email marketing should reflect and be tailored to each of your different client types. These disparate types are known as segments, and your email content will vary according to each.
To that end, organize your email subscriber lists by the type of client you’re dealing with. Most email systems provide comprehensive data segmentation functions as standard in their software.
Organize your lists by important factors such as income, existing or previous portfolio, marital or familial status, and so on. These will help you tailor your marketing to deliver only the most relevant information to those that need it.
For example, not all of your clients would be interested in your downloadable guide to buying your first property. But you can be sure the young couples looking to get on the property ladder and start a family are.
Know your clients inside out. You can then give them exactly what they want, increasing your authority and value as a result.
Email marketing is still your number one means of marketing to your clients. Follow the tips above to generate more leads, increase awareness of your agency, and create trusting relationships that will benefit your real estate business for a long time to come.
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Patrick Foster is a writer and online commerce expert from Ecommerce Tips —a community ecommerce blog dedicated to sharing entrepreneurial insights from the business sector. Check out the latest news on Twitter @myecommercetips.