Real estate email prospecting may not be the easiest part of an agent’s everyday follow-up agenda but it does work. People prefer email to other marketing channels and want more email communication. In fact, studies have shown that email ROI is $38 per $1 spent! Start capitalizing on the power of this channel and enhance your emails with these simple and effective hacks.
Here are just a few stats showcasing the value of email marketing:
- people check email, not social media, first thing in the morning: 58% versus 11% checking social media first (OptinMonster);
- email has higher organic reach. A message is 5x more likely to be seen and read via email than via Facebook where organic reach is just 1% compared to email’s 79% (Radicati);
- 66% of users say they made a purchase as a result of email marketing as opposed to 20% via social media.
Email can become the best selling channel but most agents still find real estate email prospecting daunting. If you’re seeking to boost your response rates, these tricks from top-performing realtors will come in handy.
Real estate email prospecting tricks from pros
1) A picture is worth a thousand words
Add a single image to your prospecting email and it’ll instantly get more eye-catching and convincing. There are at least three irresistible benefits a visual will provide:
- brevity. Short emails get 46% more responses. But what can you do if you just can’t squeeze your message in five sentences? Use an image to reinforce what you have to say and let it speak instead of lengthy sentences;
- credibility. Using real-life pictures in your emails ticks one more option in favor of the trustworthiness of your real estate brand;
- engagement. Images catch interest, evoke curiosity and compel people to click to find out more. Overall, they make your emails look richer and more informative.
A lot of salespeople and marketers say memes and GIFs can work well too.
[Related post: Real Estate Image Optimization 101]
2) Go for shorter emails
Emails with less than 100 words tend to get 46% more responses than the longer ones. Jump straight to the point and do your best to be as short as possible. If you’re talking about something that is already featured on your website or real estate blog, simply link to it and invite people to read more.
However, some tests show that longer emails work better after the sixth follow-up and can deliver a 19% increase in responses. Whether this can stand up to scrutiny will depend on each particular case, but you might as well try.
3) Reply to leads asap
Getting back to leads within at least an hour dramatically increases the odds of converting them. Harvard Business Review did some big research a few years ago to investigate more on the lead response time and this is what they found out:
Firms that tried to contact potential customers within an hour of receiving a query were nearly seven times as likely to qualify the lead (which we defined as having a meaningful conversation with a key decision maker) as those that tried to contact the customer even an hour later—and more than 60 times as likely as companies that waited 24 hours or longer.
Don’t waste your chance to sign up new customers – reply as fast as you can.
4) Add a link to your site in the first line
Putting links as close to the beginning of the email as possible increases the possibility of your prospects clicking through to your site. Even if they haven’t responded to you, you can set up retargeting campaigns to redirect people to your site and keep them in the loop.
5) Add attachments
To boost engagement, try offering your prospects some resource that they can download right from your email. Whether it’s a brochure with an overview of a new development or an updated neighborhood guide, you might offer people an easy way to view the info and ask to share their thoughts with you.
If you’re attaching some files or guides, make sure to mention it in a subject line as this, in turn, can boost open rates (e.g. adding [PDF], or [PDF attached]).
6) Only ask for one action in each email
Having read your email, prospects should see a clear agenda ahead. What’s the next step? What action do you want them to take to continue communication?
Make it very clear and easy for your prospects to understand what you mean and take that action. Include a link to a page offering a free valuation, or a CTA redirecting to your calendar so leads can book meetings.
Ultimately, never send open-ended emails, that is emails that leave prospects confused with the next step.
7) Be persistent with follow-ups
Real estate email prospecting can produce mixed results. Naturally, some leads reply to your very first email, others hardly ever open them. One fact that stands true at all the time is persistent follow-ups do work. Surveys show that it takes at least 8-10 touch points to get a response but in practice it may take even more than that.
Usually, the first email is the most effective but there’s still a 25% probability to get a response after the third email.
[Related post: 5 Real Estate Emails Your Should Send to Convert Leads]
8) Always offer something more
Make your emails look less salesy by offering a link to some interesting piece of information that your prospects will find useful. This makes you seen less as a salesman and more as an expert. Even if people don’t reply or sign up immediately, they’ll know who to talk to should they need it.
That’s where your real estate blog should go to work. If you’re featuring a variety of locally relevant info, you’ll never find yourself wondering what you should include in your real estate email prospecting messages.
Take a few minutes of your time to review your existing emails and remember to enhance them with these super easy tricks top-performing agents are using. Be ready for some trial and error but the results are always well worth the effort.