Guide To Email Marketing For Real Estate – Proven Strategies & Tips [2024]

Real estate is a growing industry, but let’s be real—it’s also super competitive. In a market where every agent has a listing in the same neighborhood or the same block, staying ahead of your competition is a real challenge.

However, there is one way that has proven to deliver higher ROI for most realtors – email marketing.

According to GitNux, email marketing for real estate can deliver over 3600% ROI compared to other marketing methods and can achieve 40% higher conversion rate than social media marketing.

If you can use email marketing effectively, then you have a chance to become one of the most successful realtors in your area.

Today, you will learn how you can plan effective ways to grow your real estate business using email marketing.

After reading this article, you will learn,

• Why real estate email marketing super important,
• Step-by-step instructions on how you can start using email marketing as a realtor,
• Proven email marketing strategies to get maximum ROI.

Eventually, you will have a complete process in place where you will be busy dealing with regular potential clients and closing more deals.

Let’s begin.

Why Email Marketing Is Important For Realtors?

Normally, you would expect clients to call you for inquiries after browsing through your website or maybe watching your Ads. However, a lot of these inquiries are most likely just to find out more about the house, without any real intention to buy.

However, it’s quite different with emails. Email marketing is one of the few ways you can directly communicate with potential clients. And most importantly, it is much easier to collect emails than phone numbers.

So, if you have planned a properly targeted lead generation campaign, then your leads will be easier to convince using emails.

The following are the core benefits of using email marketing for real estate agents:

1. Promote Your Listings To Potential Clients Directly

Whenever you have new listings, you may send out an email to relevant clients who are looking for homes in that neighborhood. Most people who are willing to move or invest in a new house will surely read your email and may end up asking for a visit to one of them.

Plus, it is just an easier way to communicate as both of you can check the emails and reply at your own convenient time (though, as a realtor, you should respond as soon as possible).

2. Have A Chance To Work With Long-term Clients

Other than just sending new listings, you may also prepare emails on the latest trends, upcoming new constructions, or the latest homes you sold in the area that your clients are interested in.

You may send these emails on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. While this seems less potential for sale, it will help you build a relationship with potential buyers. They will remember you more and when they are ready to make a purchase, your name is more likely to come to mind.

Hence, you won’t have to hunt for new clients all the time. You will have a steady stream of buyers that will buy from you at different times of the year.

3. Easier To Reach The Right Customers

If you have segmented your leads well, then you will be able to offer the right properties to the right audience. This will ensure your prospects aren’t getting annoyed; rather they will be more interested to read your emails in search of their ideal home.

4. Better Opportunity To Highlight A Property

Once a person has shown interest in a property, you can then send out detailed emails about various features and advantages of getting that house.

In fact, you may even make a discount offer down the line, if they do not make a decision within a month.

It will help you convert more clients that could have been missed.

5. Sell More Houses To The Same Client

After you have sold a house to a person, it will mean he will now trust you more, provided that you delivered good service. Now, you will have a chance to convert this same client again for other listings he may like.

Now, it is less likely that a client will buy a second home right away. But if you use real estate email marketing smartly, you will be able to maintain a good relationship with the client for a long time and eventually get him interested in another house in about 6 to 12 months.

Yes, it may seem lengthy, but once you continue using email marketing on a regular basis, you will have enough real estate leads to work on every month.

Now, let us look at how you can prepare yourself to start using email marketing effectively.

Step-by-Step Instructions On Using Using Email Marketing For Real Estate Sales

To be able to get results from your email marketing campaigns, you first need to prepare your business in a way so that you have a growing email list of potential clients, and the right email campaigns in place to convert prospects into customers.

Following the steps towards actively using email marketing for real estate agents.

1. Choose The Right Tools To Setup Your Real Estate Email Marketing Process

You first need a website where you can build your online presence. We recommend you use a WordPress website.

Next, you need to collect a few reliable tools necessary for the best outcomes from your email marketing efforts.

• Directory Listing Software
  You would want to use directory software that will help you present your listings in an intuitive way.
  • We recommend you use Directorist.

• Lead Generation Tool
  It is important to set up lead funnels to collect potential real estate leads. Hence, you should find a landing page builder with a lead form or a lead generation funnel builder.
  • You may use WPFunnels to create your lead gen funnel.

• Virtual Tour Creator
  Virtual tours are the latest trend to present properties to buyers with a better visual representation of the house. Today, people find virtual tours more engaging than images & videos. So, you should use virtual tours of homes for sale on your website.
  • Check out WPVR, the best virtual tour creator in WordPress right now.

• Reliable Email Marketing Tool
  This is obvious. You will need an email marketing tool with options to segment leads, design emails, and set up email automation flows.
  • Mail Mint is currently your best option in WordPress.

Once you have these tools, it’s time to move to the next step.

2. Create Lead Generation Campaigns For Targeted Audience

Your email marketing campaigns will only be as successful as the quality of your leads. But most importantly, you will need to have an email list to send out emails.

So, you first need to set up a way to collect potential real estate leads.

Following are a few ways you can collect leads for real estate email marketing. Implementing SEO for real estate can further enhance your lead generation efforts by ensuring that your website ranks higher in search engine results, driving more organic traffic and potential leads to your real estate business.

i. Set Up A Lead Generation Funnel Using A Quiz Form

The best way to collect leads would be to use a quiz funnel.

Basically, you would want to prepare a quiz where you ask specific questions such as where they are looking to purchase a house, what could be their specific requirements such as roof type or floor type, their budget, etc.

To create this process, you would need to build a 2-step lead generation funnel (along with email automation) using WPFunnels & Mail Mint and then drive potential traffic to this page to start getting leads.

Here’s how you can do it:

1. Create the quiz form using Mail Mint.
2. Build a 2-step funnel using WPFunnels.
3. Embed the Quiz on the landing page,
4. On the thank you page, thank the customer and inform them that you will reach out soon.
5. Set up an automated email so that upon form submission, the customer will get a confirmation email.

Once this is ready, you then have to start driving traffic to the landing page. You may run Facebook ads, set up re-targeting Ads, and share on social communities.

If you drive the right traffic, then you will start getting leads. More importantly, you will have vital data such as the budget, preferred location, etc. to segment them. So, you will be able to prepare personalized offers for these prospects, i.e., a better chance to convert.

ii. Use VR Tours With Embedded Booking Forms On Your Website

For each of the properties you are consulting for, create a virtual tour of it. The idea would be to use both images and a virtual tour to allow prospects to get a good idea about the property before making a decision.

To do so, you will first need to capture 360 panoramic images. And then, use WPVR to turn them into a 360 virtual tour. You may connect every room or space to each other via buttons, and you may add engaging content such as tooltips and a mini-video to share additional details about the property.

Most importantly, you will be able to embed a booking form so that a person will be able to book a meeting with you or a visitation directly from within the tour. So, whenever a person taking the tour is ready, he will be able to contact you immediately.

Overall, potential buyers will get a realistic idea about how the property is structured and planned out, making it easy to decide on an action.

The bookings you get will be your leads. You know very well that these meetings may not mean the deal is guaranteed. But you have the leads to promote your services moving forward and hope for a conversion in the future.

iii. Create A Directory To List Properties And Include A Booking Option

You would want to make it super easy for your prospects to find a house that meets their requirements. And the best way would be to create a directory of properties that you work with.

That way, for each listing, you will have a separate page while all the listings can be viewed together in a single organized area, similar to an e-commerce shop.

This can easily be done using the plugin, Directorist.

For each listing, you will have a dedicated page where you may include details about the house, and include a virtual tour. Plus, you may add an option to book a call with you to find out more about this house on that page.

This will help to collect leads via phone call requests. Make sure to collect the name and email of the customer on the booking form.

After the call, if the customer is yet not convinced to buy, you may then keep them on a list and plan email campaigns for them in the future.

**For booking forms, you may use a booking plugin or any form builder.

3. Segment Your Leads Based On Customer Data

During the lead generation steps, you may collect useful data that will help run more curated email campaigns.

Create segments based on customer data such as their location, budget, and preferred features. These, you may identify from their choices in the quiz or the VR tour/Directory they submitted an inquiry from.

For example, if you serve in multiple counties within California, then you may have separate segments for each county. That way, you will have people who prefer a certain county listed in one place. And you will be able to send personalized listing recommendations for that area to these people.

Again, you may segment people based on different budget ranges. That way you can send recommendations of homes that are within their budget.

However, when running email marketing campaigns, you may want to combine a few segments to make it more sensible. For example, you would want to send listings of houses in San Jose within the price range of $500k to $700k to people who have selected these as their city and budget range.

You may easily create such custom segments using Mail Mint.

4. Use Email Marketing Strategies & Email Automation

Now that you have a way to collect leads and segment them, it’s time to plan effective strategies for real estate email marketing. There are a few strategies that have proven to deliver high results for others. So we will look at these strategies more closely.

i. Welcome Email Series

Whenever you get a lead, it’s best to start interacting as soon as possible. You may set up a 3-email series to be automatically sent once they sign up.

• Email 1 (right after they sign up)
  Offer tips on how one can find the best homes in a neighborhood. Suggest ways to judge if a house is right for them.
• Email 2 (2 after Eamail 1):
  Based on where they are looking for a home, you may suggest a few available homes in the email for them to take a look at. Link these to the homes that you have listed on your website.
• Email 3 (4 days after Email 2):
  Offer to get on a call to discuss how you can help them find a home that matches all their requirements. So here, you will be requesting your leads to book a call with you with a no-obligation discussion.

The end goal here is to get on a call, which will increase your chances of closing a deal and getting more details for proper segmentation for further promotions.

ii. Email Newsletter & Nurturing Emails

You may send a weekly or monthly newsletter with information on new available homes in the customers’ preferred neighborhoods.

This will especially work if you have used the quiz funnel to collect leads and saved the data on where each individual is looking to purchase a property.

Besides suggesting new property listings, you may send many other useful emails to continuously engage with your leads and keep them warm for promotional emails later.

• Listing Announcements: Every time a new property comes onto the market, let your leads know.
• Virtual and Video Tours: Give them a firsthand look from the comfort of their home.
• Neighborhood Guides: Offer insights into good neighborhoods for buying homes with details such as available schools, parks, natural beauty, marketplaces, etc.
• Real Estate Trends: Educate them about what’s happening in the market such as pricing and housing preferences.
• Reasons to Invest: Maybe there’s a new development coming up or tax benefits they should know about.
• Client Success Stories: Nothing builds trust like showing how you’ve helped others. Share stories of happy homeowners you’ve worked with.

These emails will nurture potential leads and get them slowly interested in buying a house with your help.

iii. Email Follow-ups After Phone calls

When you have a phone conversation or maybe a video call with a prospect, it’s important to show that you value the customer and have paid attention to their needs.

Hence, you should send a follow-up email with all the details you discussed and then reach back again to see if you can get them to make a decision anytime soon.

1. Detailed Recap Email
   Right after your call, send them an overview of what was discussed, especially the details they inquired about regarding the house they were interested in.
2. House Availability Reminder
   After about 3-5 days, days, reach out to the prospect to remind them that the house is still available but others are also looking at it, so he/she should make an offer soon. Plus, suggest a few similar properties nearby as options in case the prospect is not interested in that particular house.
3. Urgency Email (FOMO)
   If you do not hear from the client for over 15 days, send out an email suggesting that the property is being demanded by others and you may not be able to hold on to it for long. Plus, you may add an additional discount on the price to convince the prospect to make a decision. Give a clear message that you will no longer hold it and start discussing it with another client if you don’t hear from them in 7 days.
4. Alternative Options To Buy
   If the prospect didn’t make an offer on the house and has already passed the 7-day deadline you gave in the last email, you may send a friendly email by suggesting other houses that meet his/her requirements. Make sure to suggest homes that are within their budget (or close).

This is a great way to ensure people do not just vanish with no decisions after speaking with you.

iv. Promotional Follow-up Emails After Visits

If a person chooses to visit a house, it means this customer is determined to make a purchase soon. You have to make sure you work extra hard to try and make them buy one of the homes you guided them with.

Naturally, after the visit, they will ask for all the details including payment options, pricing, legal requirements and complications, and the full process. But it’s not necessary that they will make a decision on the spot. So, you should set up email follow-up automation flows.

1. Visit Recap Email
   Send an email about the house and the details of the whole buying process that you discussed.
2. More About the House
   A week after the visit, send an email to share what specialty the house has and what the prospect is missing out on if they miss a chance to get the house. You may share details on the neighborhood and the ease of access to several facilities around.
3. Request To Make A Decision
   About 15 days after the visit, send them a final offer to convince them to make a decision. Try to find out what is holding them back. If they do have some concerns, request to get on a call.
4. A Final Call To Buy The House
   If the client hasn’t made a decision for over 10 days since the last email, reach them again. Let them know that the property is being demanded by others and you may not be able to hold on to it for long. Give a clear message that you will start discussing it with another client if you don’t hear from them in 7 days.
5. Alternative Options To Buy
   If the prospect didn’t make an offer in the given 7 days, you may consider that the client has decided not to go for it. You may then send a friendly email with other suggested houses that meet his/her requirements. Make sure to suggest homes that are within their budget (or close).

You may even consider calling the client directly if you have permission to do so.

v. Invitation To Open Houses & Events

Open houses can make a big difference in real estate. They let potential buyers explore a property directly and understand if it is worth the investment.

1. Send an Invite
   Start with a simple email. Let them know when and where the event is. Tell them it’s a chance to check out the property up close.
2. Give More Info
   A follow-up email can then provide additional insights, share a teaser, or link to a virtual tour.
3. A Quick Reminder
   The day before the event, send a last email. Just a quick “don’t forget” can make sure they remember to come.

The more visitors you get to an open house event, the higher the chances you will get good offers from potential buyers.

Additional Tips To Use Email Marketing For Real Estate

Once you have all the 4 steps in place, you are bound to make good leeway in your real estate business. However, there are a few additional factors you need to keep in mind when collecting real estate leads or conducting real estate email marketing.

1. Brand Yourself As A Credible Realtor
   Have a strong social and professional profile with useful content online so that people realize you are an expert in your field. People, nowadays, trust more on online content more.

2. Request Clients For Word Of Mouth
   People who purchase homes are probably connected with others who may also want to buy houses. Hence, you should always request your clients to refer your service to their friends and colleagues. People referred by clients have higher chances of becoming a customer.

3. Actively Use Video Promotions & Virtual Tours
   It’s 2023. People no longer appreciate flat images. They either want to visit directly, expect a virtual tour, or expect videos. Hence, you should actively run video promotions and host virtual tours on your listing pages.

4. Focus On Quality Leads With The Right Question
   The quality of the leads will determine how successful your email marketing efforts will be. So focus on collecting targeted real estate leads and implementing lead segmentations. Ask the right questions to help you tailor conversion-optimized emails and store the answers for segmentation.

5. Optimize Your Website For Local SEO
   It is important that you rank your website on SERPS as a local business in your area. For that, you need to ensure your content and website in general is optimized for local SEO.

6. Create Guides On Why To Invest In Homes In A Particular Area
   Often, people are interested in buying homes but are not comfortable looking into the neighborhood they are not familiar with. This limits the listings you can offer. Hence, you should create resources to explain why investing in a house in a certain area is a great idea. You may email this via your newsletter or when a person is skeptical about buying a house in a certain area.

7. Ensure You Are Available At All Times
   Try to keep all forms of communication lines available so that a prospect can reach you anytime. This is important because you never know when a client will call. If they find you unresponsive, they may rather go to a competitor.

Keep those communication lines open. Being readily available will amplify your lead collection and email follow-up efficiency.

How To Use Mail Mint In Real Estate Email Marketing

So, at this point, you have probably realized the better you sort your real estate leads, the easier it becomes to present the right offer to the right people.

And when you’re reaching out to these leads, your emails should radiate professionalism and trust.

**Read this guide to learn how you can segment leads quickly using Mail Mint.**

To conduct successful real estate email marketing, running email automation is a must. Let me show you a quick glimpse of how to create email automation using Mail Mint.

Creating An Email Automation Flow With Mail Mint

Let’s assume you want to create a welcome email series whenever any prospect subscribes to your email list and you will send them 3 emails within your preferred delays.

i. First, go to the Mail Mint dashboard and select Automation

Then, go to New Automation.

ii. You have the option to start from scratch or you can choose any of its automation flows. Here we will choose the ‘opt-in welcome email’ flow.

iii. Now, set up the proper trigger, assign the tag, and put a delay to send your first email. Put delays for the next two emails as well.

**To know precisely about this process read this guide.

Final Thoughts

As you saw, email marketing for real estate agents isn’t as complicated as it sounds, but you still have to put some effort into making sure you have the right email campaigns in place.

The lead generation strategies and the email marketing strategies listed in this article are proven tactics that have worked for many out there. And you should start using them as well if you want to stay ahead of the competition.

Now, go ahead and get the necessary tools to carry out this whole process. If you are within WordPress, then I have already listed the required plugins:

• Directorist
• WPFunnels
• WPVR
• Mail Mint

If you are not in WordPress, find similar products out there that have the necessary features to carry out the whole project.

Start implementing real estate email marketing and grow your business.