Why should you use a real estate client e-newsletter for your marketing in 2022?
After all, email marketing is dead, right?
(Too spammy... old fashioned... on its way out.) Make way for social media!
Except... this:
Year after year, the stats say that email is one of the best advertising tools you could use.
Done correctly - and "correctly" is the key word - email is an excellent, cost-effective way to win referrals and stay top of mind with your real estate prospects, clients, and sphere.
Let's look at how and why.
Bad Emails vs. Good Emails
First of all... why does email sometimes get such a bad rap?
It's worth diving into this, because nobody wants to come across as spammy or bothersome, even unintentionally.
Yes, real estate agents tend to have a reputation for being heavy on sales, but what I've found is that most agents value their professional reputation and want to market themselves without coming across as "salesy".
Bad Emails...
Emails that are sent too often, mailed to purchased lists, have misleading subject lines, or contain content that's generic, heavy on sales, and light on immediate value to the reader - these are the campaigns that give email marketing a bad name.
What this means, however, is that there's a HUGE opportunity to create value by doing the opposite.
Good Emails...
Let's think about what your readers are looking for.
People always need and want information that will help them get more value, safety, and enjoyment from their current or future real estate.
(Think about it. Who doesn't want those things?)
Even experienced homeowners make costly and time-wasting choices involving their real estate. They're busy, they don't have time to keep track of the latest trends and regulations, and so much information out there is either incorrect, misleading, or outdated.
1. Email Newsletters Are Win-Win
That's why an INFORMATIONAL real estate e-newsletter is a great marketing tool.
It provides an immediate benefit to the reader by sharing actionable, high-value content, and it takes a soft approach to marketing by highlighting the expertise and character of the agent.
I'm a huge fan, and that's why I've based an entire real estate client email newsletter service on that concept.
It's also something you can do on your own, however, if you have the time and inclination to write a real estate client e-newsletter yourself.
Let's look at some key logistics that show why email is a great marketing tool
2. Email Marketing Has Excellent ROI
Did you know that email marketing has an average ROI (Return on Investment) of nearly $39 for every $1 spent?
For retail and consumer goods - the industries closest to real estate in the survey - the ROI was closer to $45 per $1 spent.
These are amazing numbers. Even the lower figure of $39 is an ROI of 3800%. Compare email's 3800% return to the estimated average 28% ROI from social media.
And, speaking of social media....
3. Social Media Has Big Problems
I'm not saying there's no place for social media when it comes to real estate marketing, but there are some issues that are very helpful to know about.
Organic Reach Is (Way) Down
Facebook's algorithm has changed over the last 10 years, and that hasn't been good for non-advertisers.
These days only around 5.2% of the people who follow your Facebook page are likely to see anything you post that doesn't have ad dollars behind it.
Stopping the Scroll is a Struggle
Even when your posts do get seen on a site like Facebook or Twitter, you're fighting a constant, attention-grabbing stream of competing posts and cat videos. It's not a great environment for sharing high value content.
Your Social Media Account Isn't Actually Yours
We all talk about "my" (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc.) account, but in reality, we don't own these accounts and they could get shut down at any time - sometimes for no apparent reason.
It may not happen often, but when it does, our social media fans and followers are gone for good.
4. Your Email List Is Yours Forever
By contrast, your email list will always belong to you and only you.
This makes your list an extremely valuable asset, especially as social media becomes less and less reliable.
Even if you change companies, change social media focus, or find that a social media account got shut down or hacked into, you will always have your email list.
5. Email Makes It Easy for Others to Share Your Content
Your email newsletter can easily be shared on social media and forwarded to other people by your readers.
You can share previous issues of your e-newsletter via your Archive Page, or by including a link in the signature portion of your traditional emails.
And any person who reads your email and realizes it's pertinent for a friend (i.e., "I'm not remodeling right now, but this email about kitchen design trends would be great for Steve and Lauren") can forward your e-newsletter on with just one click.
6. Email Is Efficient
Do you want to send a helpful resource or an amusing video to your sphere?
With direct mail this isn't the easiest thing to do, but with email you have the power to point your readers directly to the best content.
Tip: When including links in an email, send people to the exact page you want them to end up on. It's so frustrating when a link leads to a main website page and the reader then has to search to find the specific page or resource on that site that was mentioned in the email.
7. Email Is Eco-Friendly
This is becoming more and more of a "thing" (finally)!
I'm still a fan of some direct mail, but we all know that there's an enormous amount of waste created by direct mail marketing.
Using an email newsletter helps bring your real estate marketing up to speed with today's demand for environmentally friendly methods.
8. Email Is How Professionals Communicate
Yes, we've all seen politicians and celebrities tweeting and TikToking themselves into a frenzy over the past few years.
But think about how you communicate with your doctor, attorney, or tax professional. Do we message those people on Instagram or Facebook, or do we reach out to them via email?
When someone is helping us with something very important, such as our health or hundreds of thousands of dollars of our net worth (as real estate agents do), email is the preferred mode of communication.
9. Email Is Very Cost Effective
Finally, some relief!
After all the expenses involved with working in real estate, email provides a way to easily reach out to prospects and sphere without shelling out huge amounts of money.
If you write your own e-newsletter you could actually write and send it at no cost - not taking into account your time - using an email publishing service that has a free plan, such as MailChimp or MailerLite.
(Sending mass emails from a normal email account is very 1990s and will trigger spam filters galore.)
If you prefer to make your email marketing easy by going with a "done for you" service, check out my company, Tools For Real Estate.
We provide a high quality real estate client email newsletter that gets sent to your contacts monthly, and all of the plan levels are designed to be easily affordable.
Big Tip: Automation Is Your Friend
From personal experience, I strongly recommend finding a way to automate your real estate e-newsletter marketing.
I personally would never be able to consistently write and send a monthly e-newsletter simply on my own behalf as a real estate agent.
Writing a good newsletter takes a lot of time - not just to gather information, but to fact check it, vet the sources, throw out a portion of what others consider to be newsworthy and relevant, and then take the best of what remains and format it so that it's interesting and easy to read in an email.
It takes even more time to find and buy appropriate, non-cheesy images, and to research links to make sure there's no peripheral content that would be controversial or reflect badly upon the sender.
What seems relatively easy is actually very involved, and for most of us who have worked on DIY marketing, we know that it only takes one phone call from a client to make everything go flying out the window - for months or years, not days.
The Bottom Line
We need more good emails in this world, real estate agents need high quality, budget-friendly marketing options, and your clients need information that helps them make the best choices with their current or future real estate.
That's why a truly helpful client e-newsletter about real estate is win-win for both you and your contacts, and a great option for your real estate marketing in 2022 and beyond.
