You’ve heard that real estate agents/companies should have their own newsletter to remind their clients that they are around, appear like an industry leader or a local expert, and to get referrals. At the end of the day, it’s all about getting leads, and your competition is already doing it. We are not here to convince you to send out newsletters. We’re here to help you decide what to put in them, and how. Creating a real estate newsletter doesn’t have to be difficult. Here’s what to do:
1. Appearance: capture their attention
Templates are becoming so much better that you don’t need to be a designer to put a very nice looking newsletter together. I would particularly recommend that residential agents send regular email blasts to their database. There are many attractive real estate newsletter templates already created, and various email marketing services offering ready-made newsletter themes, so don’t let fear or laziness stop you. You don’t have to be an artist to put together something nice. The platform I prefer is Mail Chimp because I find it very easy to use for non-tech savvy individuals.
2. Content: bring value to their life
Well, well, well. It’s not just about the look, or it would be too easy. With your newsletters, the whole point of you sending them is to stay at the front of yourclients’ minds. But don’t be “that person” that sends new home listing emails to individuals who have just bought a home, that just doesn’t make any sense. It’s a bit different for investment properties, but most commercial brokers have their company send out their email blast. In any case, good content marketing is meant to help, not sell, and engage your reader through interesting topics.
• 40% Tips for your target audience: whether you are sending information about how to stage a property, what type of insurance your buyers should get, or a blog post about condos versus co-ops, make sure this is the most important part of your e-blast. Free and relevant advice.
• 20% Real Estate News/Trends: What’s going on in your market right now?
• 20% Promotional: your new listings
3. Strong subject lines
If no one is even opening your newsletter, what’s the point? Make sure to put a very attractive or witty subject line. You have very little time to convince your audience to open your email. So make it count. If you’re not much of a writer, hire someone to do it for you. Again, I am not saying everyone should manage their newsletters or any marketing platforms by themselves. I’m just suggesting that real estate brokers and agents should focus on what they do best: closing deals - and leave the marketing to the marketers.
4. Frequency: stay consistent
The frequency will depend on your goals and your current situation. Your goal matters! Focus is key when running your real estate newsletter. If you are a broker with a lot of new listings, you will probably want to send a weekly email blast. If you are a new agent, a bi-weekly or monthly should be enough. Make sure always to send it within the same period of time. Consistency is crucial in your marketing effort.
5. Test and Track!
Make changes based on what has worked in the past. Make sure to track results, otherwise, what’s the point, and how will you determine your ROI? It’s all about response: email replies, telephone response, website traffic, opening rate, clicks, etc. Again, I wouldn’t expect you to do it all by yourself, but these are important metrics to track so you can see if your email campaigns have been efficient or need improvement. Don’t look at ineffective emails as failures, though, as the information that no one clicked through, (or opened or read), can also offer you important feedback. A particular email message means you can turn your attention to other subject matters to integrate into your campaigns. Remember that testing is a part of marketing, and over time, if you test enough, you’ll find the magic email mix for your campaigns.
Developing appealing real estate newsletters that produce high email open rates takes time and effort. You can either buckle up and go for it or hire a team of professionals to help you. Make sure to relay your marketing goals, set deadlines and have a reporting system in place. It’s all about the results!