Having an engaged email list is one of the easiest ways to promote your services and listings. But how do you grow an email list? Where do you find people who actually want to subscribe to your list?
Most of the time, this involves what’s called a lead magnet, which entails offering your prospects something they want for free in exchange for their email address. Your lead magnet should be on your agent website, but it’s also possible to create external sales funnels and landing pages that prospects land on as part of a direct-response campaign through ads on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram.
While it’s true that most people don’t want to sign up for yet another email going into their inbox, it’s also true that people still regularly open emails from those they trust, making email a very relevant part of your real estate marketing strategy.
If you think about the kinds of emails you open, they’re probably all very similar: they either provide you with entertainment, valuable information or some sort of promotion from your favorite brands.
When it comes to email marketing for the purpose of selling luxury homes, the idea is the same. The goal is to provide value up front, solve your prospects’ problems and very rarely ask for anything in return. At the Institute, we’ve been passionate about spreading our message to “Ditch the Pitch,” and it’s possible to have a real estate marketing strategy that’s mutually beneficial for both you and your prospects.
Access Ditch the Pitch Sales Practice Program via Membership Portal.
With that in mind, a lead magnet should solve a problem for your prospect first, and sell them luxury homes much later down the line in your sales funnel. For now, the goal is to focus on offering something valuable enough for them to want to share their email address with you, and continue to open your emails.
Let’s look at a few different lead magnets that luxury clientele are actually looking for:
1. A Local Luxury Market Report
The market of luxury homes is changing all the time, and savvy clientele want to know where to put their money. Offering a free, downloadable luxury market report for your local market is one of the easiest ways to connect with your target market, and it’s something that most prospects find valuable enough to sign up for.
You can create the report yourself, or you can use the monthly, done-for-you reports that the Institute offers its members. Either way, giving your prospects the latest information on market inventory, the average listing price of the luxury homes in your area, or whether you’re in a current buyer’s or seller’s market are all important details they want to know.
2. An Ultimate Home Buyer or Seller’s Guide for Your Market
With a rapid influx of millennial buyers entering the luxury market, your typical luxury buyer or seller may not be as experienced as they used to be. In fact, even some experienced buyers and sellers who have worked with other agents still may not know some of the basics of navigating luxury real estate transactions.
Providing prospects with a detailed, downloadable PDF or eBook outlining best practices can not only educate them, but also helps warm them up by putting what they learn into action. To go a step further to make your guide more valuable than what someone might find simply searching online, you can also give them detailed information about how to go about finding luxury homes in your specific market.
You may even want to provide some client stories and testimonials in your guide to give your prospects extra confidence and motivation.
3. An Exclusive Webinar
If you’re an agent who works with a lot of new luxury home buyers or sellers, or if you work with many investors, a webinar gives you a unique opportunity to not only build instant trust and credibility to talk about a somewhat complex subject, but also allows you to build your email list while you’re at it.
One of the best things about webinars is that you can choose to run them live, or you can create them once and let them run without any extra effort. If you choose to run a live webinar, it’s best to choose a recurring time and date to make it easier on your schedule and easier for prospects to remember. The benefits of a live webinar are being able to answer participants’ questions in real-time and covering current market conditions.
If you choose to create an evergreen webinar, you may not be able to answer questions in real-time or cover current topics, but you can still educate your participants on the fundamentals of luxury buying, selling, and investing in your market and you don’t have to spend any extra time on it after it’s created.
Whichever you choose, prospects will appreciate the effort.
Want to learn more about inbound marketing to grow your luxury real estate practice?
Our podcast, Estate of Mind, features full-length segments from our exclusive Leaders in Luxury Event, where you’ll learn cutting-edge strategies to attract luxury clientele. If you prefer visuals, you can also watch the episodes on our YouTube Channel!
Diane Hartley is the president of the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing, a premier independent authority in training and designation for real estate agents working in the upper-tier residential market. Hartley brings her passion for luxury marketing and more than 20 years of experience growing and leading businesses to her role as president of the Institute.
