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As we move into the summer months, also known as the busy season for real estate, agents around the country will be ramping up their marketing efforts.
Many have their sights set on millennials, who the National Association of Realtors notes is now the largest population of homebuyers — outpacing all other generations.
But how do you reach this evasive and highly mobile-oriented group, especially now — at the peak of the season? Simple — get to know them first.
Here, we’ve mapped out some essential traits of the millennial crowd and aligned them with some of our favorite tips for email marketing success to help get you started.
1. Millennial trait: Hates ads and sales pitches
Marketing tip: Don’t play a character — be direct.
On his show “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood,” Fred Rogers once said, “One of the greatest gifts you can give anybody is the gift of your honest self.”
This advice is especially good when talking to millennials, who value honest conversation and are extremely adept at recognizing and blocking spam.
According to a survey released by Elite Daily and Millennial Branding, this audience values authenticity even more highly than content itself.
The message? Be more direct, and cut out the sales spiel. Get to know your contacts on a more personal level, and offer content that shows you understand them.
2. Millennial trait: Wants personalized info
Marketing tip: Customize content to reflect homebuying needs.
Speaking of getting personal, offering personalized content always scores with consumer audiences — and millennials are no exception.
As you get to know this group’s particular wants and needs, you can continue to segment your contacts into lists based on demographics, desires and behavior. Then send more targeted emails that get a stronger response.
For example, the National Association of Realtors found that millennials want to live in cities, but gravitate toward more affordable neighborhoods that are less centrally located. So, you might consider including commuting times to major cities as part of your next email campaign.
3. Millennial trait: Addicted to smartphones
Marketing tip: Get mobile-savvy.
We know everyone says it’s a mobile world, but when it comes to millennials, this might be an understatement.
About 80 percent of millennials sleep with their phones within reach. Email is the most popular smartphone activity, according to 78 percent of users ages 18-44.
Agents can adapt to this by embracing text as a primary means of communication, and designing email campaigns to be responsive so home listings and other content shows up correctly on any smartphone, tablet or other mobile screen.
This group relies heavily on smart technology. If you want your campaign to make an impact, so should you.
4. Millennial trait: Checks email constantly
Marketing tip: Test timing to maximize effectiveness.
One study shows that people between the ages of 18 and 36 check their phones 43 times a day on average, which makes it tough to pin down the ideal day and time to send an email campaign to this audience.
We’re big fans of using testing in email marketing to see what works — whether it’s subject line, layout or more.
One way to test timing is to send the same email to a different group of people every day for seven days. Then follow suit with different times of day, to find out when you see the most activity from your millennial readers.
Thanks to an improving job market and lower mortgage rates, homeownership is within reach for more millennials than ever before. Make your email campaigns millennial-friendly, and you’ll make someone a new neighbor before you know it.
Eric Krattenstein is the chief marketing officer at Mailify. You can follow Mailify on Twitter or LinkedIn.