The 10 Most Costly Email Marketing Mistakes for Realtors (Part 1)
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When you hear the phrase "email marketing," does it make you groan and think about all the things you'd rather be doing? Or is it something that excites you and you see opportunity in? If your attitude towards email marketing has been lukewarm lately, I'm going to change your mind after this episode!
Because email marketing is still one of the most effective forms of marketing you can do. And if you do it well, it can be a representation of your branding, a form of connection, and a major driver in your business. Not to mention an opportunity in the market because many real estate agents are making the mistakes we're talking about in today's episode.
Why Should Real Estate Agents Focus on Email Marketing?
Quite simply, email marketing empowers you to reach the right people!
Whether you are looking to nurture leads, continue your relationship with past customers, or generate referral-based business from your sphere, email marketing creates opportunity.
In fact, email is an incredibly cost-effective form of marketing. According to a study by Constant Contact, "for every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect an average return of $42. That's a higher return than you can expect from any other form of marketing — digital or otherwise." With the rising cost of paying for leads, email could be a lucrative form of marketing for you.
It's also a personalized form of real estate marketing. While email is often thought of as generic, strategic content can help you build relationships and be a pathway for conversations. By creating the right email for the right person at the right time, your next email could easily lead to your next sale.
However, most real estate agents are making costly mistakes when it comes to their email marketing strategy. Let's uncover precisely what those mistakes are and set you up for success in this two-part series.
Mistake 1 - Your Emails Don't Represent Your Agent Branding
Your emails are a representation of your branding as an agent. While this might make perfect sense when sending an email directly to a customer you're working with, it's often forgotten when sending mass emails.
Your branding far extends beyond including your headshot and logo in your email signature. The language used, the information provided, and the visuals included are all representations of your branding.
Highlight your personality by making sure the email content itself sounds like it's coming from you. If you use any automated emails you didn't write, double-check that you are good with the content and make any necessary changes.
Another way to build your brand as an agent is through niche marketing and hyperlocal content. Further, establish yourself as the go-to agent by including information that is pertinent to your local area. All of the content in your email marketing can further support your agent branding goals.
Want to learn more about branding yourself as a real estate agent? Don't miss my "Branding for Real Estate Agents Series" to take your branding to the next level, or download my branding worksheet to get started.
Mistake 2 - You're Not Consistently Using Email Marketing
You've heard the phrase, "consistency is key." This statement could not be more relevant than to your email marketing efforts. Whether you want to send weekly, monthly, or quarterly emails, find a flow and stick to it.
The same goes for using email drip campaigns or sequences. If you fail to enroll all the applicable contacts or leads in your email campaigns, you're not fully taking advantage of your email marketing. These easy slipups could mean that people slip through your communication cracks and could result in lost sales to you.
For your sphere, the people you already know, consider starting with a monthly newsletter that contains relevant info. You might also find unique opportunities for email marketing in today's hot seller's market. Start a Monday email series for your buyers that gives them advice about the market but, more importantly, is motivating and helps them stay positive during the process.
But what if you haven't emailed your contacts in a while?
How to reengage the leads & contacts on your list
We've all been there. You want to be consistent with your email, but unfortunately, it's been a while since you last appeared in anyone's inbox.
Write a re-introduction and engagement email! In it include:
That you wanted to reconnect and acknowledge that's it's been a while.
Provide content of value in this email. So, include information about a topic that you think your contacts or leads would find interesting, helpful, or entertaining.
Let them know what types of content you will email them about in the future and at what frequency. This declaration will help set expectations and allow them to self-unsubscribe if they are no longer interested in hearing from you.
Make sure you stick to what you promised, and hopefully, your list will be looking forward to hearing from you more!
The key to email marketing is making sure that we are staying in communication with the people you know, your past customers, and potential buyers or sellers. If you fail to email them regularly, you could be missing out when they have a real estate need.
Mistake 3 - Not Updating Your Marketing List & Maintaining Your Database
This is the biggest mistake that I see real estate agents make.
Often when you get a new CRM or email marketing platform, it's easy to upload a CSV of your contacts. The problem is, agents, forget to add to this list continuously. To get the most out of your email marketing, you need to be hyperfocused on growing your list. The more people on your list, the more opportunities you have for connection and ultimately sales.
Make it a habit to add to your list at a regular interval. A good option is to time-block Sundays and add people you've met during the week to your CRM. If you are more tech-savvy, take advantage of the mobile platforms your CRM or email marketing platform provides and add people on the go.
Also, use this time to remove contacts who are not engaging with you, such as old internet leads, and maintain a healthy email list. (A healthy email list that opens your emails helps prevent you from being marked as spam.)
While you're updating your email list, it's essential to take time to segment your list, which leads us to mistake number four.
Mistake 4 - Not Segmenting Your List
Most people who don't like email marketing don't like it because of the content in the email itself.
We want to catch your reader's attention and give them a chance to engage with you. However, not every email is suitable for every person on your list. The new buyer you're working with might be interested in different info than your customer from five years ago.
Segmenting allows you to craft the ideal message for the different types of people you know and are on your list. Segmenting is usually done by creating lists or using tags or hashtags in your CRM, which allows you to categorize people. By grouping like contacts, you'll be able to make more strategic real estate marketing decisions.
Segment types are often thought of as buyers, sellers, sphere, or past customers. However, I encourage you to think differently and get even more specific because you can use these "data points" to further your relationships. Use your CRM to tag people who live in a particular neighborhood, or bought at a certain price point, or have school-aged children. You can then reach out to them with content that applies the most to them.
For example, if you have a list of people who bought a home or live on a particular side of time, you can reach out to just those individuals with info about a new development coming to an area. Likewise, if you have an upcoming Open House, you can email people who already live in the area and invite them to an early V.I.P. Open House event. Learn more creative, open house promotion strategies here.
The more you can get local and get specific, the more meaningful your email will be to the person receiving it.
Mistake 5 - Not Having a Goal for Each Email
Email is often unsuccessful in real estate marketing because there is no clear goal or purpose. Simply knowing "you need to send an email and stay in touch" is not an email goal.
A goal might be to introduce yourself to a new client with a video or have your new buyer fill out your buyer questionnaire. If you don't know why you sent the email, it will not be impactful on the other side.
My weekly email at Ideas for Real Estate aims to get people to read my blog or listen to my podcast episodes. A lot of people find me on Google, but they haven't listened to my podcast. The goal of my email is to introduce that week's topic and provide high-quality content they might find helpful in their real estate careers. Subscribe (at the bottom of this post) to my email marketing to see how I implement these best practices and get weekly marketing tips.
The first five tips we covered today are the foundation of your email marketing best practices for real estate. The following five are where you start refining your marketing and seeing success with email marketing.
So, be sure to tune in next week as we carry on this discussion all about email for real estate. Because I can promise you - your next buyer or seller received an email today. But did they receive an email from you?
Click here for part 2 of this series on email marketing for real estate agents!
UP NEXT:
I’m Heather Colby, host of the “Ideas for Real Estate Podcast.”
If you like what you read here today, I’d encourage you to take a listen to the episodes. :
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