Email is one of the most valuable marketing tools that real estate agents have at their disposal. It’s a direct line to your leads, current clients and past clients.
Sending real estate emails will help you nurture new business and establish yourself as an expert in the eyes of your audience. They let you advertise your services and provide value to potential clients before they even start working with you to buy or sell their home.
The question you might be asking, however, is what types of emails should you send out? After all, most of our inboxes are overflowing on a daily basis, and many messages go unopened.
You need to ask yourself, what kinds of emails is your audience likely to open? What kind of emails would you open if you were in their position? The answer is emails that are interesting, useful and valuable. Here are a few types of emails — plus a few tips on setting them up.
1. Introduction emails
You’ll start sending emails to your real estate leads when they have taken some sort of action or indicated that they would like to receive information from you. You should not send emails to people who have not opted in.
Whether they filled out a form on your website or signed up on your list at an event, the first email your new audience members receive should introduce who you are.
- Thank them for signing up.
- Tell them who you are.
- Include your brief unique value statement.
- Add CTAs and links to your blog and your listings.
Be light and conversational in your tone, and include an interesting or funny real estate tip or fact in this first email to catch their attention and make them excited to receive your next one.
2. Content emails
This type of real estate email is where you can really shine and establish yourself as an expert.
Send them blog posts covering topics that are useful for both buyers and sellers (we’ll talk about segmenting your email list in a bit), market updates, industry updates, trends, tips and any valuable or interesting real estate information you can think of. Here are some examples of email topics:
- How to present your home for buyers.
- How to entice buyers to purchase from you.
- How to get preapproved for a mortgage.
- What to look for in a buyer or seller agent.
- Homes that recently sold in their area.
- Restaurants or things to do in the area.
- Real estate fun facts (a quick Google search should give you some ideas).
Be creative, and lean heavily on the content that you are creating for your real estate blog and website.
3. Testimonial emails
Client stories are huge when it comes to cultivating new business. When someone is deciding whether or not to work with you, they want to know that you have a track record of success. So tell them about it.
Talk about a tough deal you closed for a client. Describe how well something worked out for a client. Conduct an interview with a happy client so your readers or viewers can either read or see firsthand how clients feel about you.
You can either put these testimonials into a blog post that you link to in the email, or put quotes and embed videos right into the email itself.
4. Promotional emails
Although the majority of your emails should not be directly promotional, you do want some that directly speak to how well you can solve a lead’s problem. Send emails that cover what types of properties are your specialty and information and statistics about your past success.
Repeat variations of your unique value statement in these emails. Explain why you are the best choice for buying and selling homes — why should people come to you over other agents?
How to set up real estate email campaigns
Now that you know the different types of topics to include in your real estate emails, the next step is to actually create them and set them up to send out. Here are the steps you can follow to do that:
1. Find a platform
The first thing you have to do is find a way to send out emails. Luckily, in 2021, there is a very wide variety of choices available. Many CRMs (customer relationship management software) like Follow Up Boss or Real Geeks give you the ability to also send automated email campaigns.
While other services like Mailchimp, Constant Contact and SendGrid are more centered around just sending emails but can integrate with your CRM. There are many resources available to help you determine which is the best platform for your specific business and needs.
2. Segment your audience
After you are set up on a platform that lets you send email campaigns, the next step is to separate your audience. The simplest way to divide your leads is into buyers, sellers, past clients and unresponsive or inactive clients.
Once you segment your clients, leads and prospects, you can then set up different email campaigns for each group.
3. Determine how often you’ll send
After segmenting, you can then determine the frequency that you’ll send emails to each group. Frequency varies from business to business, and the only way to really understand what works best for you is to test out various lengths of time.
Leads who are closer to buying or selling should receive emails more often than someone not yet ready to buy. For your active buyers and sellers, most agents will send out multiple emails a week, but for previous clients or people who are waiting to buy or sell, once a week or once every two weeks or even once a month might be sufficient.
4. Set up automated drip campaigns
Drip campaigns are automated emails that you set up to go out in a sequence. That way, you can set up the majority of your emails beforehand, and you don’t have to worry about remembering to manually send them out.
They will be triggered by leads signing up on your list or taking some other action and be sent out in the order you set up.
5. Make your emails short and sweet
When it comes to real estate emails, you want to be concise and to the point. You can always link back to your website in case the reader wants some more information. Research how to write compelling subject lines — they need to be intriguing, start a story or show the reader the value they’ll gain if they open the email.
You should also add compelling CTAs that link back to your website and ensure your emails are mobile responsive (most people read emails on mobile devices).
Above all else, be creative and have fun with them! Effective emails are the key to nurturing your leads and turning them into clients, so be flexible and tweak your messaging based on what you find works and doesn’t work. Take the first step today!
Dale Archdekin is the founder of Smart Inside Sales and the current director of lead generation for Global Living Companies at Keller Williams in Philadelphia. Follow him on Facebook or checkout his Facebook group.
