In the age of Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media communications, is there a still a place for email marketing? Is anyone out there reading your messages? Are you hopelessly behind the times?
As a real estate agent, you should be happy to know that the answer to the first two questions is a resounding yes and to the last a decisive no!
According to Forrester Research, one of the world’s most influential research and advisory firms, public attitudes toward emails are increasingly positive, and for three very good reasons:
They’re effective – Email is a part of almost everyone’s life. According to recent surveys, 91 percent of consumers check their email every day and 74 percent prefer to get commercial communications via email.
They’re mobile – We can read our emails on our ever-present mobile devices, so nearly three out of every five email marketing messages doubles as a mobile marketing message anyway – and emails have more space for content than text messages, allowing for better marketing pieces than those created via texting.
They’re cost-efficient – One of the best things about email marketing is that it offers one of the highest returns on direct-marketing available – an estimated 4,300 percent, according to the Direct Marketing Association. You can target specific contacts or types of contacts with customized news messages, and allow recipients to opt out of emails they don’t want.
The fact is email marketing remains one of the best ways to bring people to your blog or website and to entice them to interact with you in potentially lucrative ways. So what are some of the best ways you can maximize the benefits of real estate marketing via email?
Newsletters and digests – Increase consumer interest and readership by sending your newsletter and/or blog to selected groups within your sphere of interest (SOI) database. Or extract ‘digest’ portions of your information, sharing bits of local real estate data designed to entice readers to ‘click here’ for details.
Personal interest items – Emails unrelated to real estate can help keep you top of mind. Use email to send birthday and other greetings, highlight upcoming community and/or sports events, and/or review (with photos) new restaurants or other openings of local interest. Be sure the subject line reflects your message, and don’t hesitate to include a link to your website, blog or report on local market conditions.
Thank-you emails – After you’ve sent a personal interest email or other item, if someone refers a friend, signs up for your newsletters, or responds to your item with a pertinent comment, thank them for their engagement with a personal and specific email.
Barbara Pronin is an award-winning writer based in Orange County, Calif. A former news editor with more than 30 years of experience in journalism and corporate communications, she has specialized in real estate topics for over a decade.