A Comprehensive Guide to Real Estate Email Marketing

Real estate is a highly competitive industry. In the US alone, there are already two million real estate agents. If you want to stand out, you need a winning marketing strategy.

Enter, real estate email marketing.

With real estate email marketing, you can connect with prospective buyers at a deeper level and increase conversion rates. For every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can generate a whopping $42 of ROI. After all, 59% of people say email marketing affects their purchase decisions. That applies to real estate as well. 

In this article, you’ll learn how to harness the power of real estate marketing to boost revenues and sales.

But first:

What is email marketing?

Email marketing is a marketing strategy that sees businesses like you sending email messages to current and potential customers. This form of direct marketing aims to raise brand awareness, convert prospects into customers, and promote customer loyalty. As the stats show above, it works, too. 

That’s because real estate email marketing campaigns let you nurture leads and keep customers connected to your brand. With specific email campaigns, you can cater to each customer’s interests and nudge them to take your desired action.  

Good email marketing tools can help you with creating beautiful and effective campaigns. You can create visually appealing emails and segment customers so you can send them personalized messages. The tools can even help you track all your email marketing campaigns from one place. 

Why realtors should embrace email marketing

Research shows that real estate email marketing also yields excellent results. The average open rate for real estate emails was 21.7%. That’s higher than the 21% average open rate of regular emails. The email click-through rate in this industry is pegged at 3.6%, also higher than the rate reported across other industries, except for education.

The excellent stats aren’t surprising. Through personalized email sequences, email marketing helps real estate agents build trust and foster lasting relationships with clients. That’s important since real estate is a huge investment. People don’t part with their money if they don’t trust, not just the product, but also the person assisting them in making the purchase (in this case, the realtor). That’s probably why 40% of property buyers say they find realtors mainly through referrals. Over 70% of consumers trust recommendations made by people they know.

To cut the long story short, real estate email marketing is a proven cost-effective digital marketing option and a powerful tool for promotion. Complement it with other offline strategies like attending local networking events or hosting open houses for the best results. Just don’t forget to distribute your best-looking virtual business card in these events to make a good impression.

5 types of emails for real estate marketing

But don’t just send the same type of email all over again. As part of their email marketing strategy, real estate marketers like you can send a mix of the five main types of email below:

1. Property listings

When new property listings come up, why not notify your clients? Here’s an example.

However, only reach out to people you know who are looking for property in that area. Personalizing emails gives you a higher chance of boosting engagement. You can get a 139% increase in click-through rate with a personalized email than if you send a general email. This can easily earn you some appointments.

2. Welcome emails

Whenever a potential customer fills out your sign-up form, send them a customized welcome email. Thank the customer and explain to them what they can expect to get in their inbox with the sign-up. Here’s an example.

Welcome messages are one of the most effective real estate marketing ideas for your email campaigns. Welcome emails have high open rates, at a whopping 50%. That makes them 86% more effective than your regular newsletters.

3. Special offers and promotions

Purchasing property is a tough decision for buyers. As such, they’ll appreciate it when you send them special offers and existing promotions. Here’s an example.

Again, you want to make sure your emails are relevant to your recipient. In other words, don’t send them emails of special offers for properties in Asia if they’re interested in properties in the US, for instance.

4. Testimonials and success stories

In general, word-of-mouth is an effective strategy in marketing. As we’ve seen, people trust reviews from the people they know more than they trust a company’s marketing material. So, including customer success stories and testimonials in your real estate email campaigns is a must. 

Here’s an example of a nice testimonial that can be part of an effective real estate email marketing strategy:

Emphasize in the testimonial email the client’s problem and show how you helped them solve it and achieve their goal. With positive online reviews, you can boost the client’s confidence in your business.

5. Other informative content

As part of your lead nurturing email campaigns, share other informative content that can help your potential clients make the right decision when it comes to real estate. So you can create blog posts and video guides on property financing options, investments, and renovation tips. That way, you’ll also remain top of mind with your potential clients. 

Here’s an example of this type of content.

You can also use real estate newsletters to promote industry events that your target audience will find useful. 

4 tips to follow for better real estate email marketing

Email marketing can be a game-changer for your real estate business. However, you’ll need a compelling strategy to maximize your ROI. Follow these email marketing tips for the best results:

Segment your email list

Segmentation means splitting email lists into multiple groups based on certain shared traits. This helps you ensure you send relevant content to each group. Using email marketing software, you can divide your list into segments based on the following factors:

• Recently closed clients
• Current clients
• Previous buyers
• Location of interest (where they want to buy property)

Segmentation facilitates personalization. Personalized marketing emails bring in more clients and are more effective than general email blasts. Personalized email marketing yields an average return on investment of 122%! Moreover, employing a bulk email verifier can remove the invalid email addresses from your email list, thus enhancing the effectiveness of your segmented and personalized campaigns.

Provide high-quality content

Whether you send property listings or welcome emails, you have to ensure your content is top-notch. Top-notch content means it’s relevant to the recipient. Take note that content here means both visual and text content. So, if you need to translate a video or text in your email for it to provide value to your subscribers, do so. 

If you’re using pictures to supplement your email text, make sure they’re high-quality as well. The recommended minimum image resolution for emails is 72dpi. 

Top-notch content also means your text should be devoid of spelling and grammatical errors. So, proofread your emails before hitting that “Send” button. If you’re sending a video, you might want to make sure it’s also of value to your target 

Include a clear and compelling CTA

A call-to-action is aone of the most essential parts of any email marketing campaign. Whether it’s email marketing for SaaS, ecommerce or a small personal business, a CTA can make or break your camapigns. It’s not any different for real estate email marketing. Even if your email is not aimed at getting readers to buy at the moment, you should include a good CTA to get them to take your other desired actions.

For instance, you might want them to check additional details of the property you showcased in your email:

Or, you might want them to set up a call or read your newest blog post on your website. For your CTAs, use action verbs and be concise (“Sign Up,” “Buy”) to increase the chances of the recipient taking action.

Ensure your emails are mobile-friendly

Optimizing your emails for mobile devices is a must. A whopping 60% of email campaigns are read on mobile devices, after all.

So, use mobile-friendly real estate email templates when creating your emails. Keep your subject lines at a maximum of 30 characters to prevent them from being cut off. Also, make sure your CTAs are big enough for them to be clicked on a small screen. The recommended size is at least 44×44 pixels. 

Once you have your real estate email, test it across different devices–including mobile—to ensure users won’t have difficulty engaging with it.

In closing

Real estate email marketing is a cost-effective way to reach your potential leads and prospects. It allows you to communicate on a more personal level with potential buyers and build client relationships.

But you need to do it the right way. You learned some tips for this. Whether it’s a property listing email or a special offer email you’re sending, make sure you segment your email marketing list, provide high-quality content, and include a good CTA. Also, optimize for mobile. 

With these tips, you’ll enhance your email marketing efforts, and generate the best results. Good luck!