269 billion e-mails are sent out every single day. 49.7 percent of those e-mails are spam.
The open rate for all incoming e-mails is 34.1 percent. 13.7 percent of people will open a marketing e-mail on their mobile device, while 18 percent will open a marketing e-mail on their desktop.
Meanwhile, 81 percent of all Americans have a social media profile. With the rise of social media and a seemingly low click-to-open rate on marketing e-mails, it’s reasonable to wonder if real estate email marketing is still worth it.
We’re sharing with you a few statistics to help you determine whether real estate email marketing is right for your company.
There’s Still a High ROI
The whole point of real estate email marketing is to get a response that turns potential customers into buying clients. With e-mail marketing, that’s fairly easy to accomplish.
E-mail marketing is extremely cost-effective. Perfect for real estate agents who often operate with limited marketing budgets. Even better since the average ROI for e-mail marketing is 122% on average.
That’s not to say that every campaign is that successful. Individual success rates are determined by how sophisticated your e-mail marketing software is. You also need to acquire a quality e-mail list.
It’s an Effective Technique for Digital Marketers
While it may not seem as though real estate email marketing is on par with the main channels most digital marketers take, it is. E-mail competes with both organic and paid search. It also delivers far higher volumes than Pay Per Click (PPC) or displays.
However, it should be noted that none of these techniques are effective without focusing on the goals you have for your company. Without a proper strategy set in place, all forms of digital marketing can quickly turn into a waste of time and money.
E-Mails Still Reach Most of the People They’re Intended For
Consumers actually still like e-mail, even with the high volumes of spam that’s being received. They use e-mails to shop and find deals.
E-mails also have managed to adapt and remain relevant. There have been new ways for consumers to effectively avoid spam while engaging more intimately with the e-mails that they’re interested in openings.
Also, while some social media sites like Facebook seem to have staying power, not all of them do. Think back to when MySpace was incredibly popular. Even Vine ended up being shut down.
Even if your preferred social media site(s) don’t become irrelevant or get shut down, they can shut you down. Social media sites can legally take away your profile at any time. Even if you’re a celebrity with millions of fans.
If you have your own real estate email marketing list, it’s yours to own for as long as you wish to own it. This makes it an effective long-term tool for connecting with your customers.
Easy to Track and Measure the Success of Real Estate Email Marketing
Tracking and measuring your success is where real estate email marketing excels. Many marketing options are difficult to measure but e-mail marketing is incredibly easy for anyone to track.
That’s because e-mail marketing uses automated technology. This makes it easy to track your critical e-mail statistics. You can also track the performance of your e-mail lists and you’ll even know whether or not your recipients are opening or just clicking through your messages.
This information is vital to help you adjust your campaign strategy.
Subscriber Personalization Increases Open Rates
No one gets excited about opening a piece of snail mail sent to “occupant”. The same is true for e-mails. In fact, 86% of marketers using e-mail marketing have reported a lift in measurable results after they personalized their e-mails.
Personalizing your real estate email marketing campaigns will make your recipients feel as though you’re sending an e-mail just for them. Best yet, personalization doesn’t stop when you use their name within the e-mail.
It’s also possible to use a personalized subject line. Doing so can dramatically increase your open rates. With the right tools, you’ll also be able to learn how the recipient interacted with your e-mail.
This information can help you increase your overall engagement. The more you know about your customer, the better experience you can create for them, including your marketing messages.
When it’s done well, it will enhance their experience which in turn will increase your sales.
You Can Reach Your Customers from Anywhere
It doesn’t matter where you are when you send out your real estate email marketing campaign. It also doesn’t matter where your clients are at the moment, either.
Sixty-six percent of all e-mails are opened or read on mobile phones and tablets. What this translates to is that most of your customers are checking their e-mail on the go.
This means it’s your responsibility to provide an excellent mobile experience for your customers. Find the right template that allows your message to work great on all devices. Doing so which increase the impact of your campaigns.
The Software Is Easy to Use
E-mail marketing software is easy to use. Even if you’re a novice, it’s usually a system that needs to be set up once. After that, only small tweaks are usually required.
Many people choose to use software that asks interested recipients to sign up when they visit your website. E-mail marketing is also extremely easy to share on social media. With just a click of a button, your newsletter can be shared by your recipients on their social media sites.
Choosing a template is incredibly easy, as is maintaining e-mail lists. You’ll also be assured that the only people receiving your e-mails are people who are actively interested in hearing from you.
This saves you a ton of time by not following cold leads. Instead, using the data e-mail marketing supplies, you can actively engage only with people showing a keen interest in hearing from you.
It Can Build Stronger Relationships
When you’re comparing a social media marketing campaign with your real estate email marketing strategy, it might seem as though social media is winning. However, that’s often not really true and here’s why.
It’s extremely easy to “Like” or Share something on Facebook and then completely forget about it. Which means your stats on social media may be more about quantity than quality.
Not so with real estate email marketing. People are much pickier about who they give their e-mail address out to these days. Which means if they do give out their e-mail information, they’re much more open to beginning a relationship with you.
Social media isn’t the place where people want to be bombarded with marketing messages either. Which makes it difficult for you to build a relationship with your followers.
When you use real estate email marketing as a strategy, it provides a more intimate effective experience for both you and the recipient. They are actively looking for your message through e-mail versus social media where they just want to see what their friends and family are doing.
E-mail marketing also offers the ability to segment and personalize their experience, allowing you the ability to forge stronger relationships.
Your Subscribers Actually Want to Hear from You
People have to actively subscribe to your real estate email marketing list. That automatically tells you that they’re interested in engaging with you and want to receive information from you.
Once they’ve given you the “green light” by signing up, it’s far easier for you to engage with them and point them in the direction that makes them more likely to take the action you want them to.
This can be anything from visiting a property, taking a virtual tour, or even checking out a new listing.
It’s Easy to Target the Right Customers
Since the recipient of your real estate email marketing campaign actively signed up to hear from you, it means it’s incredibly easy to reach them whenever you want to.
Since more people have an e-mail address than a social media profile, it enables you to engage in better marketing opportunities. E-mails are also the preferred method of communication for all age groups, including Millenials.
Using the data that your e-mail marketing campaigns provide you with, you can also easily see which clients are interacting with specific e-mails. This information can help you assess which clients are close to making a decision and which clients are still just seeing what’s out there.
This type of information can help you adjust your campaigns to include specifically targeted groups.
E-mail Marketing Has and Continues to Stand the Test of Time
E-mail began in the 1970s. The internet didn’t become widely used until the 1990s. This is a marketing platform that has clearly withstood the test of time.
While e-mail is getting older, it’s also still improving. As Google and other e-mail companies are getting stricter on their rules and guidelines, it’s showing how quickly e-mail has been able to evolve over time.
Gmail has implemented a new policy to provide a more informed experience for e-mail users. They have also placed a penalty on marketers providing an unsecured experience.
Thanks to engagement-based filters, it’s now possible to distinguish and deliver e-mail that users want in their inbox and e-mails that should be sent into the spam folder.
Those engaged in ethical real estate email marketing can easily adjust to the new e-mail rules. Smart brands are now taking the steps to protect their brand and their customers from e-mail fraud.
This is being done by publishing a Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC) record. It’s the most powerful weapon to date in the fight against phishing and spoofing.
Google is helping to speed up the process by warning Gmail users when the authentication is lacking or fails. Other e-mail providers are beginning to do the same.
How to Improve Your Rates
One way to improve your current rates is to become aware and heed the increased e-mail regulations. It will help keep your brand and your customers safe.
Since people only do business with people they trust, showing that you have their best interests at heart will only help improve your ongoing relationships.
To be in accordance with DMARC regulations, your real estate email marketing campaigns should include easy-to-understand consent confirmation campaigns. They should also be easy to read on all types of devices.
Innovations in e-mail rendering and e-mail features should be adhered to. Intelligent personalization should be used to make people more likely to open and read your e-mails.
Using more effective subject lines will also increase your open rate and ROI. The same is true when you create better customer experiences.
The Future and Beyond
Besides catching up with the latest regulations, e-mail marketing is heading in an exciting direction. New advances will allow for interactivity so recipients can interact with your content without even leaving the e-mail.
You’ll be able to use big data and integrating data to have a detailed, end-to-end view of your customers. It will enhance personalization greatly.
This integration will allow marketers to create an omnichannel experience. Customers will then be recognized wherever and whenever they happen to connect to your company.
By 2019, 80% of all consumer internet traffic will contain video. Which is great since now you’ll have the ability to embed HTML5 video into your e-mails. Best of all, it’s supported by the latest version of iOS where 53% of e-mails are opened.
Lastly, the near future of e-mail marketing will allow for more e-mail automation that’s focused on e-mails triggered by user actions.
Your Next Steps
E-mail marketing is such an easy, affordable, and effective tool for real estate agents to use. With new technology becoming available, it will only become easier and more reliable.
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