The 10 Most Costly Email Marketing Mistakes for Realtors (Part 2)
This post originally aired as a podcast!
🎧 Listen to the show on Apple Podcasts | Spotify
How much time and money have you spent looking for new leads or sources of business?
It can be stressful, constantly filling up your real estate business' pipeline. But one of the most overlooked forms of marketing today is your email list. The people you know and the people you attract could lead you to your next closing.
Email marketing has an incredibly high ROI and low entry cost. All the fancy tech aside, all your need is an email to start. How amazing would it be to send an email after this podcast that connects you with your next buyer or seller - it's entirely possible!
This week's blog and podcast are part two of an email marketing series. Last week, we covered the first five mistakes real estate agents make.
Not branding yourself through your emails
Not consistently using email marketing
Not updating your marketing list or maintaining your database
Not segmenting for targeted emails
Not having a goal for each email
If you missed part one, view it here, and now let's dive into the next costly mistakes you could be making.
Mistake 6 - Sending Lame Email Content
Yes, I said it - sending "lame" content is why many people don't like email marketing and why many emails go unopened. Last week we talked about why segmenting your email is so important. We want to know each type of person on your list to send them emails that they would find value in.
Emails can be a form of entertainment; perhaps you just filmed an engaging video that highlights your local community. Emails can be educational and layout the home buying and selling process or be motivational or even action-based. Whatever the topic is, we want to be creative and thoughtful with the content.
Avoid sending boring or irrelevant emails by having a keen understanding of the people on your list. If they're new leads, what are their challenges or concerns about the home buying or selling process? If they're in your sphere, would community or lifestyle content be of interest to them.
Tips like "how to clean your kitchen counter with vinegar" aren't original and can make people feel like they are on a dread drip email campaign! Imagine one person in your segmented list who represents the group, and then craft the mass email to them. Simply adjusting your mindset to more personalized communications can make a more enjoyable reading experience.
If you need help coming up with content, I'd suggest you read or listen to "Episode 7: What to Post on Social for Real Estate Agents." While the topic is "social," the content very much applies, and you can also download my 30-days of ideas to apply to email marketing.
Once you put in the work in crafting your ideal content upfront, email marketing starts to get a lot easier!
Mistake 7 -Not Using Sequences or Automation
The beauty of email marketing is you can put in the work upfront to save yourself time later on!
Email sequences or drip campaigns allow you to create a systematized approach to real estate marketing that is relevant, timely, and easy to implement.
Sequences or drip campaigns are a series of predefined emails that go out over a set time frame. An action often triggers these types of emails the lead or contact takes (such as filling out a form on your website) or that you enable within your CRM.
For example, you might enable an email sequence for all the new buyers you are working with. The first email could introduce you and invite them to fill out your Buyer's Questionnaire. The second email sets expectations of the process and working with you. The third email could talk about financing and so on.
For a sequence to be effective, it needs to have a goal or purpose for each email and be hyper-relevant to the person receiving it.
Mistake 8- Not Asking for Engagement
Are you hearing crickets after your emails?
We don't want people only to be reminded of you by showing up in their inbox. You can use email marketing to further your relationships as a real estate agent.
It starts by simply asking for engagement.
End your next email with a relevant question. If you sent an email about an exciting new development coming to your local area, ask your readers what their thoughts are on it. The more specific you can be with your questions, the better.
To make it more personalized, you can use your CRM or email marketing platform to insert the person's name into the question. For example, "{insert name} while I'm excited about this new grocery store coming to our area, I can't help but wonder what kind of traffic issues it could cause. Do you take XYZ road during your commute at all? And are you excited about this new development?
Another advanced tip is to use other personalization fields from your CRM. This technique is where you add information to a field in your CRM that can then be added to an email. An example of this would be, "since you live in {insert neighborhoood}, are you interested in learning more about the new community center down the road?
Inserting personalization makes people feel like you're paying attention to them and care to remember. We don't want your emails to feel like email marketing; we want your contacts to feel like they're getting a personalized email from you.
Mistake 9 - Not Checking Your Metrics
How well is your email marketing working within your overall real estate marketing? Is it leading to more buyers, sellers, or referrals? Is it helping you nurture your relationships?
Make a note of how your email communication leads to a sale. You can download my marketing plan here to update the business tracker. However, success with email marketing isn't all about sales. Let's take a look at some of the most important metrics to follow:
Open Rate: What percentage of people opened your email
Ideally, we're looking for open rates over 15% for your real estate marketing. While this might seem like a low number, it's actually higher than what you often see with social media!
Open rate is influenced by how enticing your subject line is. So, spend a reasonable amount of time thinking about what subject lines would be most attractive to your audience.
Advanced tip - you can change the subject line and resend the email at a later time JUST to the people who didn't open the original email (using segmentation)
CTR: Click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of people who clicked on a link from those who opened the email.
If your goal is to drive traffic back to a link such as your website or social, you want this metric to be higher.
It can also be an indicator of topic interest. My highest ever CTR was not my highest open rate. I sent an email about tips for new construction marketing, and the CTR back to my blog was ten times higher than average. This higher rate signals that the people who did open the email found great value in the topic.
Lead Scoring: Some real estate CRMs rate or rank contacts based on their engagement with your emails and website.
If somebody is frequently opening your emails and clicking on links, this could signal they have a real estate need even if they haven't been in direct communication with you.
While some systems use technology to provide you with this predictive information, I encourage you to look at your own contact and lead engagement. If you see somebody looking at homes for sale, reading articles on your blog about selling, or generally engaging with your content, it might be a good idea to pick up the phone and call them or directly ask them if they have a real estate need.
The most important metric to keep track of is your list size, leading me to my last and most crucial email marketing mistake for REALTORS, list size.
Mistake 10 - Not Growing Your Email List
Have you ever heard the phrase, "the money is in the list?"
Whether you are focused on sphere-based real estate marketing or are working on generating internet leads, the saying holds true. The more people you know and systematically engage with, the more likely it will lead to transactions.
Focus on growing your list through lead gen activities or make it a habit to consistently add the people you know and are working with to your email list.
It's so easy to get into good habits with email marketing and then slip when it comes to growing your list. However, the person you met last week or the month before could be the source of business next year. Yet, if you don't have a way to stay in touch with them, they could quickly forget about you as a real estate agent. Email marketing doesn't replace face-to-face conversations, but it helps people from falling through the cracks.
Have you tried email marketing in the past with no results? Likely one of these mistakes we talked about was the culprit. And if I had to guess, I'd say it had to do with the content and lack of segmenting. It's so important that we treat our real estate marketing as a form of connection and come from a place of service.
Email marketing should be at the top of your real estate marketing priority list because of how effective it can be with little cost to you! It's all about personal connections through systemized real estate marketing. And that comes down to you taking the time to hone in on what people want and how you genuinely show up for them.