Consumers aren’t going to visit your real estate website and decide to buy right away. They’re still getting to know you. They’re still searching for information … the right information.
About homes for sale in the area. About the community (best schools, things to do, etc.).
They’re testing your knowledge over the local market area. And they’re getting a sense of your level of expertise.
Building that relationship that moves a consumer from stranger to customer is a process. And one way to bridge that gap is through an effective email marketing campaign.
What Seth Godin likes to call “Permission Marketing:”
Permission marketing is the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them.
Permission is like dating. You don’t start by asking for the sale at first impression. You earn the right, over time, bit by bit.”
Building a permission asset (a.k.a. a mailing list) is going to help you stay in touch with people interested in your market area and it’s going to help you stay top-of-mind. So that when it comes time to buy/sell real estate, they know who to contact… YOU!
But in order for it to be effective, it needs to be something that you create, not something that you outsource.
For example, the other day I received this email newsletter from a real estate agent:
There was 6+ articles linked to in this newsletter. Each one linked to a different website (not the agent’s website). One article in particular:
A few things came to mind:
- This email list was lazily put together. Maybe I’m being overly critical. But the truth is, nothing about this newsletter strikes me as “relevant.” Instead, it’s just a random mix of articles strewn together. Nothing about it is specific to my needs in regards to learning about buying, selling, or learning about the local community.
- It’s sending traffic to the wrong sources. Rather than driving traffic to your own website, it’s sending traffic to each of the individual websites linked to in the email.
So, how do you build a permission asset that readers find personal, relevant, and that drives traffic to the right destination (a.k.a. your website)?
Here are a few ideas…
3 Types of Email Marketing Campaigns for Your Real Estate Blog
1. Create a home buyers or sellers drip campaign.
At AgentPress we’re creating regularly updated reports and showing real estate agents how to build private content libraries designed to convert traffic into leads and leads into commissions. Here’s an example of what one of those content libraries looks like:
When a user registers two things happen:
- They get access to a members-only dashboard where they can download their buyer/seller resources. (Pictured below).
- They get added to an email marketing campaign where they’ll get weekly/bi-weekly/monthly emails on buying or selling real estate in that particular market area. A couple of things to note: a). Only send email as often as you’ve promised to send it, and b). only send an email to your list if it’s absolutely relevant to them.
Here’s what the members dashboard looks like once they’ve registered:
2. Create a “Get listings by email” sign-up form for each of your neighborhood landing pages.
As you create your neighborhood profile pages, remember, some people are going to be interested in homes for sale in that area. So one of the things you should be doing is creating an easy way for them to opt-in and get listings updates by email.
Yes, you can embed the latest IDX listings on your neighborhood profile page, but another way to do it is to ask for the email opt-in front and center. For example:
That form will either be powered by your IDX system, or, you can create your own email opt-in form using Aweber or MailChimp then send the latest listings to your email subscribers via RSS (provided your IDX provider has the ability to give you an RSS feed for your IDX listings).
Once a reader has opted in, send them an email only as often as new listings are published to that market area. And, remember to keep it personal. For example, here’s what I might say in my (daily) email to them:
Hi [Ricardo],
Here are the latest listings in Altadena for today. The market is down approximately 29.9% compared to the same time last year So the market is favoring sellers who price their home intelligently.
If you have any questions on any of the listings below, feel free to give me a call at ——- or just hit reply to this email.
3. Get local with your email updates.
The Weekend Sherpa is a weekly email newsletter that goes out every Thursday designed to give you the “inside scoop” on things happening in San Francisco and Los Angeles for the coming weekend.
If you’re already building a hyperlocal website (see: Your Boulder, Your North County, See South Bay) it’s easy to include a weekly round up of your best content featured on the site along with a list of upcoming events for the weekend.
Remember, not everyone who visits your website is going to be in the market to buy or sell real estate right now. So they might not be interested in reading your latest market report or listing updates. But they still care about the community – what’s happening, new developments, etc. They still want the “inside scoop.” So give it to them!
Ryan Erisman authors the Villages Florida Book. He has an ebook that he sells for $19.99 and it includes a monthly email newsletter called “The Villages Monthly” that covers everything you need to know about the most important issues happening in the Villages. It includes interviews with residents who have made the transition to living in the Villages so you can learn first-hand what life is really like living there.
It’s so good people are willing to pay for it!
While this model might not work for everyone, it’s the exclusivity and the content that makes it so appealing. And that’s something you can easily replicate for your area!
Easily Use Email To Score More Clients!
You’re already creating high quality content via your real estate blog. The next step is to create a high quality email marketing campaign that engages your readers over the long-term all the while earning their trust and attention bit by bit so that when they’re ready to buy (or sell), they think of you.
So what are you waiting for? It’s time to set up that mailing list!
I absolutely agree with you. Email marketing is so important these days than ever before, if you had a good list of subscribers, you will not be affected so much by the Panda nor the Penguin. Provide good content which is useful to your readers and email subscribers, engage with them and you will succeed.
Jasmine: You nailed it! If you can continue to be useful, and you build that email asset early, it’s an incredibly effective way to build your business! Of course, that’s easier said than done 🙂