Real Estate Email Marketing: Deciphering the Data

Email marketing campaigns are a great way for REALTORS® to stay in touch with their clients. But do you know how your campaigns are performing? More importantly, do you know how to use that data to further enhance the performance of your current efforts?

Deciphering the data behind a real estate email marketing campaign isn't difficult. Just by understanding the potential the statistics your email sending platform can provide, you can uncover easy opportunities for enhancing your current efforts.

Here are some key email marketing data points and how you can best use them:

• Total Opens: Do you notice that certain emails generate higher open rates than others? Even if they are sent to the same group of people? Examine the subject lines of emails that seem to generate more interest and use that information to adjust the subject lines of future emails. It's a small thing, but it can make a big difference when it comes to the performance of your efforts.

• Total Click Throughs: It's not enough that people are opening your emails, you want to know if they're interacting with them as well. Knowing which links your contacts are clicking can give you insights into the type of content to include in future campaigns. After all, the goal of any email campaign is to provide useful information that's engaging.

• Bounce Backs: When an email is designated as a "hard bounce" that means it was sent to an address that is invalid. It's important to make sure invalid emails are updated or removed from your list. Reach out to those contacts with bad addresses. It's safe to assume other information may have changed since the last time you spoke with them.

• Spam Notifications: You don't want your email campaigns to end up in the spam filter. Many times, it's the subject lines or content of the body of the email itself that sends them to a contact's spam folder. If you see a particular message is getting flagged as spam, take the time to examine the language. Words like "Buy now!" and excessive "sales" lingo can often be marked as spam.

• Day/Time Info: There are mixed notions about this, but email experts say that the day and time you send an email can affect its overall performance. Try varying the time you send messages, as well as the day you send messages, and watch how it affects open rates. If a particular day and time performs well, experiment by sending a less successful email at that same time.

• Individual Opens and Click-Throughs: Email systems, such as those provided through IXACT Contact, often let you see who exactly is opening, clicking and even forwarding your emails. These people could be hot leads. For instance, suppose you sent out an e-Flyer promoting your newest listing with a hyperlink at the bottom "Click Here to learn more about this amazing home!" Wouldn't you like to know who opened this email and, especially, who clicked on the "learn more" hyperlink? Of course you would because these people have demonstrated with their behavior that they're interested in the listing – even if they haven't picked up the phone and called you about it. Even better, they're not strangers. Because they're in your database, you already have some level of existing relationship. Next step? Give these people a call and ask them if they got your e-Flyer and if they're interested in the home. Then let the conversation unfold naturally.

To see the original article, visit the IXACT Contact blog.