If you’re thinking of using e-mail marketing, make sure you honor these 7 habits for success:
1. Permission. One of the major reasons to launch an e-mail marketing campaign is to develop your relationship with prospects and clients. You can’t accomplish that without their consent. Also, permission is an essential first step for keeping everything legal.
2. Purpose. Don’t send e-mail just to be sending e-mail. Your campaign needs to have a purpose. Are you trying to find buyers in a tough market? Is your campaign designed to stay in touch with former clients even though they’re not thinking of buying or selling right now? Are you trying to solidify a client base for the future? Be clear about the goals of your campaign because what kind of marketing message you send out depends on what you’re trying to accomplish.
3. Planning. Develop a schedule of what you want to send and when. Don’t bombard people with so many e-mails they grow to hate seeing your name in their inbox. On the other hand, don’t let so much time elapse between mailings that people forget they gave permission to receive your messages.
4. Privacy. Respect the privacy of your contacts and never use their e-mail addresses for anything other than the stated purpose. Make sure whatever contact method you use includes a surefire way to unsubscribe.
5. Pertinence. The information you include in your e-mails has to be useful, timely, and entertaining. Otherwise, it will never get opened and it will never be read: purpose defeated.
6. Professionalism. The best option is to work with an e-mail marketing company that designs your templates and prepares your message content. That way you know everything looks good and works right. If your budget is tight and you’re doing much of it yourself, at least do your research to find the best resources on the Internet.
7. People. Real estate is and always has been a people business. It’s people who buy and sell homes and it’s people who refer you to other people. So make sure your e-mail campaign is people-oriented. Infuse a bit of yourself and your personality and cater your messages to the needs and interests of real people.
For more e-mail marketing tips, see these 10 E-Mail Marketing Mistakes to Avoid.
