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As a busy real estate professional, you’ve learned you can’t be everywhere at once. (Have you ever booked one too many showings on opposite sides of town?) You can’t take on every essential business task each day (well, except your IDX website optimization … right?). That means you have to prioritize your core responsibilities and put other agency activities on the back burner for when you have more time.
Your lead nurturing efforts, however, should not be one of the daily tasks you decide to let slip through the cracks. You’re only in “energetic agent mode” for so much of the day and the majority of that energy should be spent nurturing your leads.
Maybe you’ve attempted some form of email outreach before, but your prospects didn’t respond in the way you’d hoped they would, or you became discouraged by the minimal amount of contacts on your email list. It’s possible they didn’t respond well (or at all) because of how your emails were structured. The good news is, there are ways to improve your emails to get more engagement from leads. You just have to make sure your messages contain some essential details to be as effective as possible.
Check out our entire comprehensive real estate email marketing webinar for even more information on using emails to enhance your real estate business!
What makes email marketing for real estate the essential lead nurturing tactic? It’s your prospects’ preferred way to communicate.
Studies indicate that 72% of consumers prefer to receive communication from businesses through email, so you won’t have to worry about whether or not your prospects are receptive to your real estate marketing efforts. But the key, then, is to focus on how your emails are organized, the specific content you include in your messages, and how frequently you’re in touch with your leads.
Email marketing can be quite effective at nurturing and converting your prospects. In order to see success from the emails you send, you not only need to develop a strategy that works within your time constraints, but also make sure your messages are composed in a way that piques the interest of your leads.
For instance, let’s say you send out an email blast to a group of your middle-of-the-funnel prospects that you threw together quickly. It isn’t personalized, and doesn’t have an intriguing subject line, but the content is relevant and interesting to some of your prospects. You may see a fair amount of engagement from that send, but not as much as you’d hoped. A targeted lead nurture drip campaign, however, can help deliver value over a longer period and increase engagement over time.
The success of your messages depends on a few crucial elements. Namely, that they’re targeted to the specific leads you’re trying to reach, and that they contain the content those prospects want to consume. We’ve detailed the necessary components each message must have below to see the most engagement from your list of prospects.
Turning your real estate leads into clients through email campaigns requires attention to every detail of the process.
Sending dedicated drips directly to your prospects’ inboxes ensures a) they go to a place people check frequently, both from their mobile devices and desktop, and b) your brand will stay top-of-mind with your leads.
Focus on sending messages specifically targeted to your leads to increase their overall value.
Being aware of these details, you’ll need to consider the types of messages you want to send to your leads for the highest amount of engagement and, eventually, a healthy percentage of prospect-to-client conversions, and what absolutely needs to be incorporated in your communications to achieve your goals.
A few steps need to be taken when you’re creating drip email campaigns on your site.
Once you’ve arrived at the Plans section of your website, you’ll be able to create and title a new campaign.
From there, you can either write your own message to send to your prospects, or, if you’re short on time, you can use a pre-created template.
When composing your messages, don’t forget to fine-tune these nitty-gritty components to be as appealing to prospects as possible. Without paying close attention to these elements, you won’t transform many leads into new business opportunities.
Solid Subject Lines
Much like the title of a book, your email subject lines can either entice people to learn more about what’s offered inside, or cause them to lose interest. When selecting just the right subject lines, ask yourself:
- Is this compelling enough for my prospects?
- Does it connect with them on an emotional level?
- Is my title beneficial to leads and does it relate to what they’re specifically seeking?
Also, don’t forget to analyze how effective your emails are so you gain an understanding of what motivates people to open and read your messages in the first place. In crafting enticing subject lines, you want to play on the emotions of your audience. One way to do this is to inspire curiosity.
Want even more drip campaign insights? Download our Drip Marketing Visual Guide here.
If a message is waiting in your prospects’ inboxes with a subject line like, “These are the top five things real estate agents won’t tell you about buying a home,” chances are their interest will be piqued. Since people are emotionally-driven creatures, once you’re aware of how those behaviors inform their responses, you can use that information to your benefit when writing the subject line for your next email send.
Relevant, Engaging Content
Any strategy or process you’ve developed for your real estate email marketing won’t be very effective if your leads aren’t interested in reading past the first example they have of your content. This brings us to the next crucial step in crafting and sending out emails to your leads. Above all else, strive to produce valuable, eye-catching content for your audience.
As an agent, there’s no better authority on the properties for sale in your community than you (or, at least, that should be the case). So, translate your knowledge into relatable language that will educate your leads.
Showcase your specialty when communicating with leads so your name remains top of mind.
For instance, when composing your emails, write as though you’re having a conversation with a prospect and speaking directly to them. This will increase engagement and communicate to your leads that you’re professional and relatable.
If it makes sense, include visuals in your real estate emails. Research shows visuals can trigger the emotional responses of your prospects. For instance, in an email showcasing your top picks of recently sold properties within a market report, you could include a photo of a pair of ecstatic homebuyers in front of their new home. Your leads will relate to the story and imagine themselves in a similar situation.
Clear Calls-to-Action (CTAs)
Honestly, there isn’t much of a point to your email campaigns if they don’t include an actionable step for your prospects to take after they’ve finished reading. This is where the content you’ve been so tirelessly creating comes in handy. Link to landing pages for blog posts or downloadable resources, and use language to encourage a click.
When all is said and done, it’s up to you to create unique email campaigns for your leads — so spend time learning what they want to learn.
In order to completely engage with your content and your brand’s message, your leads will need to consistently receive messages targeted specifically to their needs. The details to prioritize when you’re composing and sending out are:
1) Focus on the value your potential customers can gain, rather than solely on your brand.
What are the pain points of your real estate leads? Consider the questions you’ve been asked most frequently by clients and how your agency will address those concerns. For example, if your prospects are particularly anxious about the process of obtaining a mortgage, provide them with information for every step of their journey so they’re able to make a sound decision.
2) Balance automation with personalization.
If you boast a large contact list, you’ll want and need to automate a portion of your email sends to save on time, but not every message to your prospects should be automated.
Decide to personalize certain messages to your most engaged leads. Doing so will ensure your email drips remain relevant, and your prospects will undoubtedly appreciate receiving emails written directly to them.
Want more drip campaign insights? Download our Drip Marketing Visual Guide here.
Then, Check out our entire comprehensive real estate email marketing webinar!
