Key Takeaways
- Your welcome email, the first email you send, is important in establishing who you are and the value your offer.
- Content emails, those which offer instruction or insight, are best when coupled with a call-to-action.
- Testimonial emails work great for not only establishing credibility, but also working as a sales vehicle.
Despite the ever-increasing popularity of social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, nothing quite rivals the power of a well-constructed real estate email marketing campaign. That’s because with real estate email marketing, you control the medium and the message, and don’t have to “wait” for leads to passively find your marketing.
The big question many investors have is a good one: how does email marketing for real estate actually work?
Some of the most important emails you can send are welcome emails and those that spell out how often you’ll communicate. You also want to master content informational emails, as well as testimonial emails that can also help your sales.
Here are four emails every real estate investor should plan on sending in their next real estate email marketing campaign.
Plotting Your Real Estate Email Marketing Campaign
1. The Intro
Just like it sounds, this email introduces you to your new email subscriber, but it’s not as simple as it sounds. Any investor learning how to use email marketing for real estate purposes should certainly keep the following in mind:
- Never email cold leads: By cold, we mean leads who didn’t actually opt in to your email list (lists purchased from a third-party). Not only will this lead to ineffective results, but it can also get your account put in the penalty box from email providers.
- Don’t say too much: You don’t need to blitz new subscribers with everything under the sun, right off the bat. Just tell them a few things: who you are, why you’re reaching out, and what you can do for them. (Hopefully you’ve segmented your lists well enough to actually know what they want.)
- Send the welcome email immediately: The moment somebody opts into your email list is the moment you should send that welcome email. Not an hour later. Not the next day. Immediately. Even if you have nothing to sell, at the moment, introduce yourself and give them something to think about.
2. Set Ground Rules
The second email you send, long before you pitch somebody or try to sell them something, is an email in which you establish the ground rules of how your real estate email marketing relationship will go.
Ground rules might be too strong of a word; “etiquette” might be a better way to put it. Because in this second email you should adhere to the following best practices:
- Send 1-2 days after welcome email: You don’t want to inundate new subscribers with tons of messaging in a short period of time, such as three emails in 24 hours. Instead, space it out. Take your time. Build a relationship first.
- Let them frequency of emails: Are you going to send email once week, twice a week, three times a month. Let them know when (what day of the week) and how often you’ll reach out to them to set clear expectations.
- Emphasize value of subscribing: You should have touched on this in the welcome email, but you want to re-affirm the value people will get from your emails. Awesome deals, timely tips, recommended resources. Let them know what they can expect. (And they’ll actually look forward to your emails.)
3. The Info Content Email
These type of emails will represent the bulk of your email marketing efforts. They will help your subscribers and establish you as a credible resource.
What this content will cover depends on the particular segment you are talking to. If you’re talking to wholesale buyers, your message will be entirely different than retail buyers, or motivated sellers.
But no matter who you’re talking to, a couple of good guidelines to follow include:
- Showcase website content: Blog posts, videos, slide decks…anything you’ve created that helps folks is a great use of email.
- Market trends: Everybody wants to know about hot markets and upcoming trends. So, let people know what you’re hearing on the street about particular neighborhoods.
- How to buy/sell/flip home: Chances are, if somebody is on your investor email list, that they have inkling to either sell, flip or buy a property. So, why not share any nuggets of wisdom you’ve picked up along the way. It’ll pay off big when it comes time to ask for something.
- Include call-to-actions: Just because it’s a content email, doesn’t mean you can’t tell people what you want them to do. Whether it’s asking people to click on a link to your blog post, or a request to fill out a survey, make sure you tell people what action you want them to take.
4. Testimonial/Sales Email
Here’s where investors get off track with their email marketing strategy. They create emails that have one job: sell, sell, sell. But subscribers can see that coming a mile away.
A better strategy is to clothe that sales email in the form of a testimonial. Simply tell a story involving somebody you’ve helped; it’s a simply yet powerful statement. At the end of the email, ask if they would like similar results. Simple, but a powerfully subtle way to ask for the action you want without turning off potential clients with a hard sales push.
Have you run a successful real estate email marketing campaign? Let us know what worked for you in the comments below.
