If you are one of the real estate property agents and are doing email marketing frequently, did you check what the ROI of your email marketing is? Why the response rate for your e-newsletter is low? Have you ever wondered is email marketing is the right marketing channel to promote real estate sales? Email marketing is a great tool only when you know how to use it effectively. If your email marketing fails, you could be making these common real estate email marketing mistakes without realizing it so read this post carefully and you will be thankful later for what you have read.
Mistake #1: Mass Email to the Same Mailing List
Sending the same e-newsletter without little or no update to the same mailing list is a big NO-NO practice. In short, if you are recycling your email messages every week and hoping that someone might be interested in your offer is not working. Your email recipients would either ignore or get annoyed and block your email so whatever email you send in the future will not be seen by them.
You can check your email online report and see the open and unopen rates. If the latter is high, it is a good time you need to change your email marketing strategy.
Mistake #2: Your Recipients Do Not Know You
Did you purchase the mailing list from a broker or third-party sources? Or you are sharing the same customer database as your other property agent colleagues? If the answer is “Yes”, it means your email recipients have no ideas who you are and why you are sending emails to them. In other words, you are sending unsolicited emails to your email recipients without their permission. Since they do not know you; they have no relationship with you so let alone trust. And yet, trust is the most important factor in real estate marketing as it involves a huge amount of time, effort, and cost in purchasing a property.
Mistake #3: Sending Email without Identity
It is always a good practice to add your real estate property company name and your name in the email header or “From” field so that your recipients will identify you easily in their inboxes. Use a consistent company email address and not any personal email like Gmail or Yahoo Mail to instill trust and credibility.
Mistake #4: Poor Design
Another reason why real estate email marketing fails is that most of the property e-newsletters sent out are lackluster in design. Good design with nice visuals especially showcasing new property launches or property in the sale is critical for closing the deal fast. Everyone interested in purchasing property will have their own dream home so adding a good visual is worth a thousand words. A nice property photo has already sold itself.
A good email marketing tip is to structure your email content properly and not clutter it with large amounts of text as people do not read in detail but rather scan it quickly. The font size should not be too small and the sub-header can be varied with different colors. Organizing the text into different sections with a clear Call-to-Action button will improve readability.
Mistake #5: Information Overload
To save time and effort, some of you might make this email marketing mistake of cramping everything into one e-newsletter. You might be ambitious to achieve many things in one e-newsletter but a lengthy email will easily lose the attention of the email recipients and thus its effectiveness.
An effective email should be short, clear, and concise with good emphasis. Any details should be linked to a website so that visitors will not overload with unnecessary details in the email. At the same time, you can see which links attract the most clicks and which content topics are popular so that you can improve your next email marketing copy to create a more relevant email next time.
Mistake #6: No Strong Call to Action
Another common email marketing mistake for real estate email copy is using the “RSVP” when in fact hardly anybody will RSVP these days. There is no sense of urgency created so nobody will take action. A better way of doing it is to limit the number of viewing for a specific period. At the same time, allow the potential customers the freedom to book a date and time they are comfortable with online.
In addition, offer a special bonus for early bird who book early for viewing or consultation. And the Call-to-Action button must be clearly visible at the end of the email. This will help to create better engagement and response for each email you sent.
Mistake #7: No Segmentation
Mass emailing the same or one-size-fits-all email to your mailing list is not an effective way to do email marketing. A more efficient way is to segment your mailing list and this is even more important in real estate business as different customers have different needs and goals. For example, you could segment them into different categories such as the following:
- Investors
- Office Renters
- Home Buyers
- Home Sellers
You could even segment the main categories into subcategories based on the type of buyers, sellers, property, or location. Consequently, you will find that it is easier to craft your email marketing copy that resonates well with your targeted audiences.
Mistake #8: Not Adding Sharing Feature
The beauty of using email marketing software is it helps to facilitate sharing of your email message or e-newsletter so remember to enable the feature of “Social Sharing” in your email marketing software so that your recipients could share them with their friends, colleagues, or family. This will help to increase the visibility of your e-newsletter and reach out to more new potential customers for your services.
Mistake #9: Not Conducting a Survey
If you do not conduct surveys regularly from your mailing list, you have no idea what your prospects want and what are their opinions towards your offering and services.
Conduct a regular and short survey via email. Rewards your mailing list with a little incentive such as a nice cup of coffee or a shopping voucher. Test out your incentive and see which group of subscribers responds. This encourages engagement and will help you in creating an effective segmentation strategy too.
Mistake #10: Use the Wrong Email Marketing Software
Some email marketing software does not have all the features required to function effectively and thus needs to tap on third-party software to complete the required tasks. If this is the case, do a re-evaluation of the current email marketing software you are using and see if it meets all the demands otherwise it is a good time to explore other software.
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Learning why your email marketing fails and understanding where your email marketing mistakes are will help you to become a better real estate marketer next time.
However, real estate email marketing can be a time-consuming and laborious process so if you prefer someone to help you with your email marketing design, do get in touch with us. We are happy to help.