The 5 Best Real Estate Newsletter Ideas

If home buyers and sellers are researching the market on top-rated sites like Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com, how can you keep them interested in you, your services and your brand? Engaging with your clients through email is a great way to start. Deliver a timely, helpful and informative real estate newsletter with these five key ingredients.

A McKinsey & Company survey found that email marketing is 40 times more effective at converting customers than Facebook and Twitter combined. Social media can help you build a brand and drive newsletter sign-ups, but a strong newsletter will help convert your prospects into clients who buy and sell real estate with you.

1. Work the Backend with Personalization with Automation

Experienced Realtors separate their email newsletters into two primary audiences: buyers and sellers. Although both lead types require unique content and email copy for effective lead nurturing, both lead types will always respond best to a touch of personalization through automated email marketing tools.

Personalization and automation are easy with the use of a real estate CRM. Modern CRMs have a email drip campaign features built right in, allowing you to create emails for prospective buyers and sellers that can go out at a moment's notice.

2. Offer Value, Every Time

Your email newsletter should offer something of value each and every time. If you're still sending out newsletters that have "Just Listed" and "Just Sold" updates, the 1990s are calling and they want their newsletters back!

Here are a few examples of value offers for your newsletter recipients:

• For buyer leads: Offer personal recommendations for inspection companies who can help them dive into every nook and cranny of their home to find potential deal breakers.
• For seller leads: Send market reports which will answer one of the most commonly asked questions: Is now a good time to sell? Market reports will not only provide tangible value, it will also establish agency as a local market expert.
• For buyer leads: Offer an appointment to look at competing listings that are for sale in their area.
• For seller leads: Help sellers discover the best remodeling "bang for your buck" with insightful content that outlines which home improvements drive the best value.

3. Redirect Readers to Your Website

Outside of a strong call to action, you should always be driving traffic from your email newsletters back to your real estate website. Referral traffic from your email newsletters are great for SEO!

For example, instead of packing property listings and market information into your newsletters, put it on your website. Your site should syndicate MLS listings and neighborhood data through an IDX feature, and your blog should provide new market information.

4. Offer a Mobile Tool

According to the Pew Research Center, 77 percent of Americans own a smartphone. If you're a member of a large brokerage, inquire about personalized apps for agents. If you don't have access to a personalized app, most IDX websites are mobile-friendly. Dress up the description and invite prospects to use your website on their phones and tablets.

5. Include a Strong 'Call to Action'

If a prospect is reading an email on a phone, your email is competing for their attention against restaurant meetings, family time, text messages, etc. A hyperlink to your contact page is not a strong call to action!

Check out MailChimp's excellent CTA Design Guide to help you implement a winning CTA strategy into your newsletters.

Bonus Tip!

Attractive and mobile-friendly real estate newsletters offer bold headlines, a few introductory sentences and a "read more" option that sends readers to a website, like this example from GetResponse.

To view the original article, visit the Chime Technologies blog.