Email marketing is a form of direct marketing using electronic mail to send commercial messages to an audience.
It is part of online marketing, which includes promoting actions via third-party websites, social media, blogs.
Every email sent be it real estate news sharing or an event invitation to a customer is considered email marketing.
Through email marketing, you can promote your business at a more personal level.
The best use of email would be to develop and maintain better relationships with potential or existing customers.
In due course, this results in increased sales and enhanced customer fidelity.
Best practices for email marketing
Email marketing best practices include building permission-based email lists rather than buying an email list that will label you as a spammer.
Obtaining consent is the only way to create a respectful relationship with your customers.
The newsletters should also include an unsubscribe link to allow your email recipients to opt-out of your email campaign.
Configure your email messages for mobile usage to ensure your recipients can read your email.
According to the latest statistics over half of the emails are read from mobile devices.
Personalize your messages by doing an audience segmentation.
You can target a specific group of customers or even individuals to offer special deals or a discount on the customer’s birthday.
The advantages of email marketing
This form of direct marketing has the advantage of being cost-effective and easy to implement.
Sending emails is the most inexpensive way of promoting your business compared to other marketing actions.
Email marketing can considerably increase your income as it is a great way to get people to visit your website.
More traffic usually results in more money, and, according to a 2015 study by the Direct Marketing Association, for every $1 spent, email marketing has an average $50 ROI (return on investment).
For small realtor businesses, it is a type of marketing accessible and easy to manage.
The advantages of Newsletter Plugins
With the use of a newsletter provider, you can set up and track an email marketing campaign in a few minutes.
If we compare to other online marketing tools, email communication ranks higher than social media regarding benefits:
Email marketing allows targeting different segments of the audience (by income, area, etc.)
You get advanced analytics reports, such as click-through rates, open rates, bounce rates, and conversions
Email templates can be configured in various ways based on your needs, unlike social media messages.
The highest gain of email over social media is that there is a good chance your recipients will see the email rather than the social network message.
Your post, however, might not show up in the target audience feed.
Of course, an excellent online marketing strategy will include both email and social media elements.
You can do that by adding like and share buttons to your emails so that your recipients can further connect with you.
You can include positive reviews from a social network in your emails, and you can also use social media to encourage your fans and followers to subscribe to your email newsletters.
Which takes us to the best ways of building your list of email addresses.
To develop an email list create a signup form on your website and offer additional info and benefits for your website members. The signup form should include an opt-in newsletter subscription.
Or you can create a newsletter subscription form and set it as a pop-up or a sticky widget for first-time visitors. If you have made a good impression with your website, they will want to stay in touch with you.
A landing page used in your online advertisements with a clear call to action is another good way to grow email signups.
If you have build up a substantial follower base on social media, use it to gather newsletter signups and organize a contest or offer special deals for new subscribers.
Make your email content shareable on social media by offering relevant and engaging content and by adding share buttons.
Remember that buying a list of email addresses is not only ineffective but even harmful for your business.
The best email marketing services won’t also allow you to use a purchased list.
After you have to build your list of people who want to receive your newsletter you can start sending them emails.
Keep in mind the following email marketing tips before building your campaign.
- 1) Your emails should respect the regulations of the CAM-SPAM Act of 2003. The messages must have a non-deceptive subject line, a link for unsubscribing, and should include your signature at the bottom of each email.
- 2) If you are doing a newsletter campaign, make an email marketing calendar and commit to the schedule. Sending messages on a regular basis will enhance trust as your recipients will know what to expect from you.
- 3) Use your newsletter to build a good relationship with your subscribers by sending relevant content and not just promotional messages.
- Think of sharing your expertise in home buying/renting and offer valuable insights into the real estate market. Share information about your company if it’s interesting, such as invitations to open house visits.
- 4) Treat your subscribers with respect. The latest B2C email statistics show that welcome emails are highly effective: on average, an increase of 320% in revenue is attributed to this kind of message than other promotional emails.
- 5) The aspect of an email is just as important. Luckily, most email marketing services provide beautiful templates and a comprehensive guide to design your newsletter campaign.
In the following article, I will guide you through the steps of an email marketing plan from defining your audience to measuring your results so stay tuned!
