Many in the real estate industry are quite skeptical about the effectiveness of online marketing, let alone email marketing. The reservations are always the same; email marketing isn’t effective and hard sales pitches fall victim to the spam folder. Yet despite what the critics say, email marketing is a tried and tested formula for online success.
In fact, according to the DMA email marketing has an ROI of 3800%. Email marketing is a great avenue for loan officers looking to expand their online network. Taking a proactive approach and investing time/money into your email marketing strategy will enable you not just to generate new leads but close sales as well. Below we take a look at why you need to implement email marketing into your marketing efforts.
- It’s Cost Effective
When it comes to marketing the aim of the game is to make money, and it is in this way that email is most effective. When executed correctly, the average order value of an email is at least three times higher than that of social media. This is staggering, given that social media is already an extremely effective method of reaching customers.
Likewise, for every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can realistically generate a return of $38. If you have traffic, all you need to start is an email subscriber opt-in form on your site and an offer to lure prospects to sign up (A newsletter with property guidance is a simple but effective way of doing this). Once their on your subscriber list, regular quality content with clear CTA’s will help to close deals over the long term.
- You Can Communicate With Customers
No less impressive than the hardline ROI benefits is the less measurable benefit of being able to connect with your customers. Trust and connection are one of the most underrated aspects of the real estate industry. If prospects don’t connect to your brand, they won’t want to do business with you, particularly when real estate is such an expensive investment.
Sending an email to someone directly is a great way to start a conversation and to offer your brand proposition in a 1 to 1 setting. The customer is also free to reply and ask the questions that are important to them. Whether you’re communicating with old customers or new prospects email marketing is a great way to build a long-term relationship, and nurture leads into sales.
- Emails Increase your Reach Dramatically
If you limit yourself to your high street presence and a website, you won’t have anywhere near the reach you would if you employed an email marketing strategy. The popularity of email is such that 3 billion users will be accessible via email by 2020. Though many of those won’t be in your locality, there’s more than enough near you to boost your network dramatically.
Many of your prospects check their email every day. Sending regular emails is a great way to engage this audience this audience on a long term basis and provide valuable content in the form of newsletters and articles crammed to the gills with specialist advice. In addition, unlike many other methods of marketing you’ll be able to segment your audience between regular subscribers and new leads, adjusting your content accordingly.
- Transparency
When real estate firms and loan officers make the transition to online marketing, it can often be difficult to assess how effective your marketing is. After all, how many of those social media shares really translate into sales, or how many visitors on your blog have you converted? Email marketing stands alone in that it allows you to cut the guesswork and see some concrete figures.
Signing up to a third party email service will allow you to track your campaigns in great detail. You’ll be able to see whether or not your emails arrive, their open rates, bounce rates and you’re overall click through rates. This means, you’ll know when your email marketing is developing notable returns, and when to discard emails that fail to engage customers.
Email marketing builds a connection
The world of digital marketing is very new to most loan officers, but whether you’re new or a battle tested veteran, it’s a good idea to make regular emails a core part of your marketing strategy. All other mediums pale in comparison in terms of reach, effectiveness and ROI. Of course there is a caveat: your email content has to actually be valuable and engaging (Especially in the world of real estate, where customers expect expert advice).
Dry generic emails are a one-way ticket to the spam folder, but if you take the time to reach out to your audience with quality content and clear offers, they’ll be much more receptive to you. The key to long-term success is refining your emails over time. Checking for emails with the lowest bounce rate, and the highest click through rates will give you an idea of which content sells.
If you’d like to hit the ground running with an effective digital marketing and social media campaign, contact us today. Our expert staff will supply you with a bespoke real estate digital marketing plan.
