Take 5 – and Trust Your Email Marketing
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Take 5 – and Trust Your Email Marketing
Getting to know potential home buyers and sellers is one of the best things that you can do to grow your business. That’s a no-brainer. And the Internet—including email—is an essential way to communicate with prospective buyers and sellers. Again, a no-brainer. Where many agents get stuck, though, is how they use email.
Be Proactive
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Since nearly 3 out of 4 people think hitting the “This is Spam” button in their email is the way to unsubscribe, it’s wise to prevent complaints about you in the first place. Otherwise you may end up on an ISP’s list of suspected spammers. That’s right: spammers aren’t just big businesses. Even you could be listed as a spammer if you’re not careful with your email.
Here are 5 tips to take so you can trust that your email marketing is doing its work:
If one out of five postcards you sent wasn’t seen by its intended recipient, what would you do? You’d find out what went wrong, because you care about your marketing investment. You’d ask, “Did I forget the stamp? Did I have a legitimate address?” It’s important to pay just as much attention to your email marketing.
As real estate agents, we use every tool available to build relationships with prospective buyers and sellers. That’s how we grow our business. Today’s buyers and sellers use computers—so it makes sense for you to use the Internet and email to keep in touch. When you track effectiveness properly maintain your email communications, you can relax, because your online marketing stands the best possible chance for success.
1. Tell ’em what it’s about. Let people know what they can expect from your email by linking to a recent example of your newsletter on your sign-up page. Once they’ve subscribed, send a welcome email that reminds them of your newsletter frequency. Encourage them to add your email to their address book.
2. No means no. If a person requests to unsubscribe, immediately stop sending email. However, many wise agents use the unsubscribe to get in touch personally. Call and ask why they unsubscribed. I’ve heard stories of agents doing this—they find out that the “unsubscriber” only wanted to stop the emails temporarily while on vacation. Leverage this personal contact into an in-person meeting.
3. More is not always better. Yes, it’s essential to keep in touch. However, too much email contact is annoying. Email with an appropriate frequency, then send postcards and make calls from time to time.
4. Beware spam triggers. Certain combinations of words or layouts can trigger spam filters: “Dear friend” for example, or writing in ALL CAPS, using fonts bigger than 14 or bold and red. Avoid unusual fonts—Arial and Verdana common, safe fonts. You may get away with a few triggers, but the more triggers in your email, the more likely it will be filtered. Use a testing program before sending to check for triggers.
5. Watch trends. Establish email delivery benchmarks. Do you know the received rate and open rate for your last email? If you don’t, it’s time to find out and work to improve them. Study any complaints and unsubscribes, looking for patterns. Did you see a spike? When was it—after you sent an email that wasn’t about real estate? Are the unsubscribers new people? If so, maybe you’re not meeting the expectations you set when they signed up.
If one out of five postcards you sent wasn’t seen by its intended recipient, what would you do? You’d find out what went wrong, because you care about your marketing investment. You’d ask, “Did I forget the stamp? Did I have a legitimate address?” It’s important to pay just as much attention to your email marketing.
As real estate agents, we use every tool available to build relationships with prospective buyers and sellers. That’s how we grow our business. Today’s buyers and sellers use computers—so it makes sense for you to use the Internet and email to keep in touch. When you track effectiveness properly maintain your email communications, you can relax, because your online marketing stands the best possible chance for success.
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