Digital marketing is about a number of different online mediums. But don’t let prospecting via email get lost in the shuffle. This may be the original form of online marketing, but it’s nonetheless still one of the most effective ways to market any business.
Eighty percent of business professionals rely on email marketing, and insist it improves customer retention. For real estate agents, working in the commercial and residential sectors, that’s an impressive statistic. You can keep working with your prospects via email throughout their current and future real estate journeys.
If your target market is the millennial age group, the stats support email marketing: 73 percent of this demographic prefer to receive emails from businesses over any other communication method.
That’s evidence that prospecting via email is still powerful, and works alongside social media and SEO to get you the best leads. Email outreach — especially when you’re reaching out to solid potential contacts based on a comprehensive property and owner database — deserves a place alongside of all other digital methods to bolster your real estate business.
But not all emails are equally effective. You should, and can, develop an email marketing strategy that turns your emails into conversions. Here are 5 tips for writing great marketing emails, and 3 more for making your emails particularly dynamic and meaningful.
Tip 1: Answer the Question: Why Choose Your Services
Start with the point right out of the gate. Use the subject line of the email to grab the prospect’s attention. Tell them why opening the email benefits them. Focus on the service, not you — at this stage of your prospect via email strategy, your respondents may not know enough about you to open the message by virtue of your name alone. In that flash of curiosity, they will open the email and skim — step one of your conversion strategy.
Tip 2: Make it a Personalized Email Conversation
Don’t jump right into the sales pitch with your prospect. Start a conversation in the email, with a carefully crafted piece of information. Answer a question that’s connected to their business or real estate concerns. You will show off your expertise, at the same time showing your prospect that the email has something to offer them — and that your services may be of value. In the competitive world of real estate, your advantage is your impressive knowledge base.
Tip 3: Prospect Via Email and Voicemail Follow Up
There’s one danger with email marketing — it often sounds impersonal, like your prospect was one of thousands on an auto-generated list. Ease their concerns by showing you are interested in their specific business needs. Call and leave a voicemail, then follow up with an email. This shows that they are not just a target of spam advertising — they are important to you. After all, you’ve likely used smart search filtering to identify them as an important potential contact. Let them know the contact was not random.
Tip 4: Offer Something of Value
Think for a minute about the emails you receive from businesses. When you have one that simply acknowledges you as a customer, versus another that gives you something you can use — like a coupon or discount code — which one do you respond to? You don’t have to give your email prospects any discounts, but you should outline a service pitch. Tell them what you’re offering — make it brief, but specific enough so they know what the deal is.
Tip 5: Make “the Ask” Explicit in the Email
In any digital marketing, the call to action — aka “the ask” — is one of the most important features. This is where you get your reader to do something in response to the email. Focus on building great content in your email body. Get their attention, make the pitch, and then tell them how to get in touch. It’s as simple as saying, “sign up for our newsletter,” or “call us to view properties in your price range.” The ask is up to you — just make it targeted towards your ultimate conversion goals.
So, those are some easy tips for the structure and content of your emails to prospects. Here are three more ways you can get attention and responses.
Bonus Tip 1: Include cool graphics. Who wants to skim through text, when they can look at pretty pictures? A few shots of your latest listings can do the trick, as well as a headshot of yourself and your team members.
Bonus Tip 2: Make it mobile-friendly. Forty-six percent of email opens happen over a mobile device. If you’re not optimizing for mobile, you’re going to give your prospect a frustrating experience — so they’ll likely click delete.
Bonus Tip 3: Use an email builder. Just because you want to make it personal doesn’t mean you can’t prospect via email using technology. Mail Chimp and others can help you get the job done — so it looks professional and makes prospects want to get in touch with you.
This is only the beginning when it comes to optimizing your real estate business success. ProspectNow has been around since 2008 and offers superior data to real estate brokers nationwide. By using this service, you’ll close more deals and increase your revenue. Learn more about ProspectNow’s unique platform features today!