Success in the real estate market means constantly making connections—at dinner parties, viewings, open houses, networking events, and even when you’re just grabbing coffee.
But the initial connection is only half the battle. You need to nurture the contacts you make so that when they’re ready to buy or sell, you’re at the top of their mind.
One of the best ways to do that? Being at the top of their email inbox.
Email marketing isn’t going anywhere, and you should be harnessing it. Still, 45% of brokers and agents report that “keeping up with technology” is their biggest challenge. If you relate to this, then the idea of diving into email marketing software, understanding click-through rates, and dealing with automation might feel overwhelming.
We’re here to make it more approachable, with this comprehensive guide to real estate email marketing.
Find It Fast
Is real estate email marketing effective for agents?
The answer is simple: yes. Real estate is a profession that relies on relationships, which means email is an ideal marketing channel. Here’s why:
Real estate mail marketing keeps you top of mind
The home-buying process isn’t a one-touch operation. Potential clients often need to interact with you multiple times before they’re ready to move forward.
The more you put out there, the more people get to know you—and we all know how important “know, like, and trust” is when you’re dealing with people’s homes. With over 3 million active real estate licenses in the US, consistently sending regular emails with valuable, compelling content keeps you at the forefront of current and potential clients’ minds so they think of you when they’re ready to buy or sell.
Email gives you more control than social media
Social media is an important part of your real estate marketing strategy (check out this article for tips on using it effectively). But let’s face it—you don’t have a lot of control over who sees your content on Instagram or Facebook.
A dialed-in email marketing campaign frees you from the tyranny of the algorithm and lets you build your business on ‘land’ you own.
According to Mailmunch, if you have 2,000 followers on Twitter, 2,000 followers on Facebook, and 2,000 subscribers to your email list:
- 435 people will open your email
- 120 of your followers will see your Facebook post
- 40 of your followers will see your Tweet
With targeted emails, you get ungated access to your contacts whenever you want, safe in the knowledge that they will actually see the content you send them.
Email feels more personal
Potential clients in the luxury real estate space want to feel special. Email marketing is an easy way to make your clients feel as if you’re talking directly to them. Segmenting and custom fields (where your email marketing software fills in their names automatically) allow you to send a personalized message directly to their inbox, rather than speaking to everyone at once on your social media feed.
Email helps you reach wider demographics
While social media usage is higher amongst younger generations, rates of email usage are consistent across all age groups. Since income tends to increase as we age, using email to communicate with your audience can help you tap into those in higher income brackets who are looking to buy and sell luxury listings.
It’s easy to segment and filter your audience
Email marketing software makes it incredibly simple to segment your audience. You can use the data you have about your contacts to divide them into geographical areas, how ready they are to buy or sell, what they’re looking for in a home, and so much more. This allows you to run customized email marketing campaigns that speak to each group.
You can automate your real estate email marketing campaigns
Almost every email marketing service offers automation features, allowing you to set up and automatically send emails to specific groups.
A good example of this is a welcome email series. When a contact joins your list, they are automatically sent a series of emails over a week or so, introducing them to your brand and pointing them in the direction of useful information. Welcome emails tend to have a very high open rate, and once you’ve set them up, there’s virtually no effort on your part.
For more, explore this guide to marketing automation.
How do the best agents do real estate email marketing?
Okay, so email marketing is important. But how can you harness it to drive your business forward? The best strategy is to focus on what your audience wants to read and how to reach them. If you’re serious about real estate email marketing, here are the best ideas for content creation and building your audience.
Share valuable content
Once potential clients have signed up to be on your email list, you need to take that responsibility seriously. That means not spamming them with unrelated and purely sales-y content. Instead, focus on topics you know your ideal audience wants to hear about.
Consider including the following real estate content ideas:
- Announcing new listings
- Neighborhood guides
- Your opinion on market trends
- A recent blog post you’ve created
- Success stories or testimonials from past clients
Sending out regular email newsletters is an easy way to keep your contact list up to date on what the market is doing and what you can offer them. For more, check out this article on crafting the most effective real estate newsletters.
Grow your subscribers
Here are some tried and tested methods for increasing the size of your email mailing list:
- Tell your network about your new email list and explain how to sign up
- Include an email opt-in on your website
- Run ads to drive people to a landing page with a newsletter sign-up form
- Offer something in exchange for signing up (such as a guide to staging your home)
- Post on social to share the value your emails provide and the positive responses you’ve had from current subscribers
- Partner with other real estate industry professionals and get them to share your list
How to create good subject lines for real estate emails
Let’s be real here—attention spans are pretty short and inboxes are pretty busy. That’s why one of the most important pieces of real estate in your email is your subject line. This is what grabs people’s attention and encourages them to open an email from a real estate agent.
Here are some best practices for creating email subject lines that your subscribers will actually click on:
Keep it short and sweet
The best-performing subject lines are around 41 characters—not much space to play with. So try to get to the point without using flowery phrases.
Use action words
Verbs inspire action, so using action words in your subject lines is a useful way to get your potential clients to open your emails. Make sure to emphasize things they want to happen, such as:
- “Sell your house with ease!”
- “Find your perfect school district!”
- “Connect with sellers all over the state”
Personalize it
Subject lines that are personalized are 26% more likely to get opened. They’re also less likely to end up in the spam folder. Use the custom fields in your email marketing software to automate the process, and personalize a subject line that speaks to your potential client.
Include a call to action
Including CTAs in your subject line makes it clearer to readers what your email is about, and gives them a reason to click. Try asking a question or letting them know the information you’ll deliver by the end of the email.
Use keywords
A little bit of SEO research can go a long way to encourage your contacts to open your emails. Once you know what your ideal client is searching for on the internet, you can weave those keywords into your subject line. Just make sure the topic makes its way into the content as well, or your subscriber might feel duped.
Make use of ready-made real estate email marketing templates
Keen to get started with real estate email marketing, but still feeling slightly overwhelmed? You don’t always have to write your emails from scratch. There are plenty of quality real estate email templates out there, and we’ve pulled together some of our favorites:
- Zillow offers several email newsletter templates.
- Here’s a useful collection of email templates and scripts from our real estate marketing experts.
- HubSpot has some great ideas for templates for your next email campaign.
Level up your real estate marketing with Luxury Presence
From crafting a memorable logo for your business to building beautiful landing pages with effective email capture forms, Luxury Presence can help you elevate your emails and other marketing campaigns. Schedule a free demo today to learn about our award-winning design and branding services and expert marketing solutions.
