What Real Estate Agents Can Learn From TIME’s 40% Newsletter Open Rate

The editorial team at NewsCred wrote an excellent article on the success of TIME’s newsletter open rate. It’s a good read.

According to the article, TIME boasts a 40% open rate and a click-through rate of about 16%. That’s 2x’s the industry average.

Most industries, according to MailChimp, average around a 20 – 25% open rate. Real Estate shows an average 21.12% open rate with a click-through rate of 2.68%.

The format of their email is simple. It’s called The Brief.

Each email contains 12 hyperlinked headlines with a short paragraph teaser.

Simple, right?

It reminds me a lot about what Scott is doing with his real estate newsletter. Here’s a screenshot:

Every week Scott shares what you need to know right now in the mortgage and lending industry if you’re a current home owner or are thinking about buying a home.

He’s not linking to articles published on just some random website. He’s linking to articles he has written himself in the previous week.

It’s how he continues to drive traffic back to his website long after that initial site visitor has come and gone. And he never misses a delivery date. As a subscriber I know I can expect an email from him every week on Tuesday.

What can you learn from TIME’s success and apply to your own email marketing campaigns? 

• Know what the purpose of your newsletter is before you hit send. Come up with a theme, an editorial schedule, and stick to it. It’s better to have a strategy than no strategy at all.
• Deliver on your headline’s promise. Failing to do so will cost you subscribers.
• Be consistent with your delivery. Make your newsletter something to look forward to on a given day and time. Scott Schang sends his mortgage and real estate newsletter every Tuesday and regularly links to articles he’s written driving traffic back to his website.
• Get better at writing headlines and subject lines. The subject line is the most important factor in deciding whether to open your email or not. Regularly test your subject lines to see which types of titles get the highest open rates.
• Curate your best content. In other words, share your best stuff. Scott Schang does this with his newsletter and regularly see’s spikes in traffic every time an email broadcast goes out. I don’t doubt The Brief regularly drives traffic to TIME’s website.

Callie Schweitzer (Editorial Director of Audience Strategy at TIME & TIME Inc.) says:

“The Brief is not a breaking news alert, it’s a primer and a recap of everything you need to know right now.”

Think about how you can translate that to your local real estate market.

Here’s a recap of everything you need to know in [your area’s] local real estate right now.

Share your best real estate advice that you’ve written that week. Then close with a call to action.

• Click here to search for homes.
• Click here to request a free home valuation.
• Click here to search this week’s Open House listings.

Do you have an email marketing strategy?

Do you have an email list?

How regularly do you send emails? Is your open rate and click-through rate above or below the industry average?