Getting Started with Your Real Estate Opt-In List
Any Internet marketer worth their salt will tell you that the money is in the list. In the real estate game, where business relies on building personal relationships, an email may seem somewhat impersonal and counterproductive. But, while newsletters and promotions aren’t the most effective method of communicating with qualified leads, they’ll certainly reinforce your name as a go-to resource.
Before you can secure those precious meetings with potential clients, you need to establish a reputation. An opt-list can provide a platform of communication that’ll help you convince future prospects that you’re the right person for the job.
These seven tips will help you get started.
Find a Suitable Email Service
Unless you want to endure the headache of manually amending the contents of each email, or logging on at awkward times of the day to schedule send-outs, it’s probably best to purchase a specialist email service. Aweber and MailChimp are the two most popular options in the real estate business and are specifically designed for collecting email addresses and communicating with the masses. Both of them will do the job and offer trial periods.
Don’t Create a New Email Address
Most of your current prospects will already have your email address on record. In addition, if you’ve been using Gmail, Yahoo or another third party email client the contact information for your leads will already be stored on the system. With most applications you can simply export your list and add it to your new service. Creating a brand new email address purely for a newsletter or promotion will only cause confusion.
Simplify the Social Sales Funnel
Don’t drive people through the social sales funnel, guide them. In the real estate business Instagram is your most powerful ally as it can showcase your properties in a very flattering manner. Link it to your Facebook and Twitter account to utilize its features, and make sure your email contact information accompanies each picture. You could even buy Instagram likes to boost your credibility as an agent and entice users to sign up.
Run Competitions on Facebook
People will jump at the chance to win free stuff, especially those who are about to enter the most financially crippling time of their life. Competitions give you a platform with which to collect valuable data in an ethical and respectable manner. Applications such as Woo Box and Short Stack allow you to create your own custom contests and embed them on Facebook with “Share” buttons. This could expand your social reach far beyond your current “Likes.”
Publish a Privacy Policy
Website visitors are often reluctant to disclose their email address to people working in the real estate business due to the fear of receiving a constant flurry of random listings. Privacy policies will give your reluctant readers more confidence in your services. In addition, Google rewards websites with custom privacy policies with higher search rankings.
Tighten Up Your Headlines
Headline copy can make or break a newsletter or property advertisement. Fail to capture the recipient’s attention and it’ll end up straight in the bin, or worse, in the spam folder. Make your headlines short, accurate and relevant to your geographic location. The world of real estate can differ from city to city; therefore, a broad headline may not appeal to your target audience.
Monitor Your Statistics
Email tracking may be a grueling, tedious task, but it’s crucial. To get the most out of your campaign choose an application that will monitor open rates – both Aweber and MailChimp offer tracking information. Statistics will help you tighten up your copy and trim away the fat. Recipient’s that forward your messages straight to the bin or spam folder do nothing but skewer your stats and increase your running costs.
Don’t Neglect Offline Marketing
In the digital age it’s easy to forget about traditional marketing methods altogether; however, they still deserve a prominent seat at the table. Encourage prospects that you meet in the field to sign up to your newsletter. Leave a signup sheet on your office reception or waiting room table and make sure your email address is clearly displayed on everything from your business cards to your bumper stickers.
“Email is the longest running and most private social network of all” – Michael Gwiazda Real Estate. Whether it’s used to showcase new properties, promote an open viewing or simply to share helpful information, nurture your prospects and keep them as close as possible. Time and persistence turns leads into clients, but before you can reap the rewards, you must earn their trust.
We hope you found the above promoted content as entertaining and helpful as we did!
