Why Email Marketing for Estate Agents?
Emails might be one of the oldest forms of digitally connecting with your customers but, done properly, it also remains one of the most effective.
When we talk about email marketing for real estate and letting agents in 2024, we’re not thinking of tired old newsletters, which are all about you and what you’ve achieved. Good email marketing is a tool to help you connect with precise audiences and nurture them into loyal customers.
Based on our experience of helping estate agents develop winning email strategies, we look at the key things you need to consider first.
Why does my estate agency need email marketing?
One key benefit of email marketing for real estate agents is that it can be targeted to the right audience to deliver results - unlike your social media output, which could be falling on deaf ears. It is also very cheap - particularly when looked at alongside the results it delivers.
In addition, it gives you the space and time to develop a relationship with your customers - and it is very easy to monitor and evaluate, meaning you can test your strategy and alter it to what works best.
In particular it can:
Help you find valuation leads and drive conversions
If your goal is to increase valuations, creating email sequences can be the right approach to capture and nurture leads until they are ready to make that booking.
Start by offering quality content on your blog; up-to-date local area information that makes you an authority or incisive guides for sellers, for example.
Offer them something for subscribing, whether a checklist, podcast or e-book, but don’t go in too soon with pressure to arrange a valuation. Instead, develop your relationship with additional quality content geared to them and their pain points.
Help smooth out the buying and selling process
Email marketing isn’t just about leads and conversions. You can use it to make everyone’s life easier and less stressful too - which in turn can buy you customer loyalty. Many buyers and sellers, particularly first-timers, aren’t too clued-up about the process. Well-timed emails can actually speed up a sale by keeping everyone on track.
Use your expertise to educate customers through informative blogs or videos, supplemented by nudges - to organise their survey, fill out their sellers’ questionnaire or get quotes for building insurance.
Help you find and retain good tenants and landlords
The same principles apply to the rental sector as to buying and selling. You also need to connect with landlords and tenants, bringing them quality content and appropriate advice at points when they need it most.
For tenants, give them the right information for finding the best - and most affordable - rental home for them. Then keep the channels of communication open with everything they need to know about their responsibilities, plus how and when to get in touch if they need to.
With rafts of changing legislation each year, landlords need your help more than ever, so use email marketing to demystify the process. You’ll help take the stresses of renting out property from their shoulders and be their first choice if they decide to add to their portfolio.
Effective ways to use email marketing for real estate
How to make sure your emails will be opened and read
There’s no point in using email marketing if your communications lie unopened in an inbox or are deleted without being read. Everything you send out must attract attention, be relevant and polished.
TIP: Find our more about how we can help your business capture, nurture and convert more clients via email marketing.
Five things to do now to make email marketing work for you:
1. Love your email list
How you craft your emails is important, but they need to be reaching the right people and you must be operating legally. Capture the email addresses of warm prospects through social media content and advertising, your blog or even good old-fashioned leaflets. You must stick within the rules on GDPR by making sure the recipients have genuinely consented to have their data used in this way.
2. Nurture, nurture and nurture
Plan your sequence of emails for each type of prospect to keep them interested and engaged. Pull together lists of the valuable information they need, whether they are first-time buyers, vendors or new landlords, then schedule your emails to reach them at regular - but not too regular - intervals.
Whether this is sending a newsletter with your new listings, an email inviting them to read your latest blog post, promoting an open house day or a video, make sure your content is relevant to the email list you are targeting.
3. Find the best email marketing software for real estate
You need to use dedicated software here - not your CRM database, so dig around and find which one works for you, whether that’s Mailchimp, AWeber or something else.
We use ActiveCampaign, here at Art Division as we find this tool to be well priced, easy to use and and built for the needs of real estate email marketing.
Most tools have free plans, but the paid for options aren’t expensive so it is probably worth investing in more than the basic level. Using dedicated software will also help you stay within the law, by letting you monitor complaints and unsubscribes properly.
4. Make it two-way
It’s not just about you broadcasting to an audience. Try and find ways of getting them to talk to you too, whether that’s through surveys, competitions, or just asking questions. If you can get a response, you’ve moved the relationship onto a personal footing that is more likely to lead to a phone call and valuation booking.
Online reviews and testimonials really do help create trust in your business - second only to word of mouth recommendations. Getting and learning from feedback should be an essential part of your real estate business and email marketing makes it easier to obtain. As well as interrogating the data which comes with your software, use your mailings to solicit reviews, feedback and testimonials.
5. Is your EMAIL template polished and professional?
The platform you choose should allow you to create your own email templates or use an existing theme. Alternatively, you could invest in a professional design that works well with your brand.
Make sure the email template you chose has a clean design with minimal fuss, good graphics and images. Avoid big walls of text with nothing to break them up - if you want to include a lot of copy, link to your website.
We hope you have found this blog useful. Please contact us if you need help with your email marketing strategy.
General FAQ
Do estate agents need to run email marketing automation?
Absolutely. Email marketing can help you capture valuation leads and nurture them until they are ready to reach out. Capture valuation leads as they visit your website in exchange for local area guides and advice. Impress valuation leads with your local market knowledge.
What Benefits Does Email Marketing Offer Estate Agents?
Email is the only marketing channel that allows you to send highly targeted messages that perfectly match the wants and needs of your clients and customers, something that is vital for estate agencies. It also offers one of the best returns on investment, making is a highly affordable marketing method.
What are the best email marketing tools for estate agents?
There are many providers out there, providing very similar functionality. A good email marketing platform should be easy to use and deliver high open rates. At Art Division we use Active Campaign.