Meaningfully connecting with prospective buyers and sellers online and getting them to open your emails can be challenging. 

Real estate email marketing is a simple and cost-effective tool for powerfully engaging with existing and potential clients and driving traffic to your website. That’s why it is important to send emails that are timely, relevant, and personalized with attractive subject lines to encourage higher open rates among your leads.

Some of the keys to successful email campaigns include entertaining, educating, and connecting with your audience. That is, if you want your emails to avoid getting marked as spam. 

Not sure how to get started? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Read on to learn ten of the best real estate email marketing ideas available today.

Email Marketing Ideas for Real Estate Agents

1. Personalized Welcome Automation 

Start simply by introducing yourself with a welcome email and don’t be afraid to sell yourself a little to build trust! In your welcome email, you can ask about their preferences with a user profile to get specifics on their needs. Going forward, it’s important to send a series of emails that are relevant to leads based on their specific housing needs, whether it be buying or selling, to get them ready to buy or sell. 

However, also consider sending personalized emails based on topics that they have displayed interest in from prior surveys, tracked email interaction, or explicit interaction. You could also take the time to do personal searches for very important clients to show them that you care and value them. 

2. Open House and Follow-up Emails

It’s always wise to follow up with potential clients about their interest in properties after viewings and schedule another viewing if needed. You can ask their thoughts on the property and answer any remaining questions they might have. It’s also a great idea to check in with your clients after they have closed on a house to see how their move went. Let them know that you’re there to help them with the transition. 

The best email marketing software for real estate agents will send behaviour-triggered emails to ensure personalization. For example, if one of your subscribers has taken an action such as clicking on a property listing link, the software will follow up and automatically send out an email inviting the reader to a viewing. If your subscribers haven’t opened up the follow-up emails you can set up the program to send another follow-up email later on.

3. Local Housing Market Highlights and Updates

Give clients the information they need on the local housing market by sending buyers information on new property listings on a regular basis – whether it be monthly or weekly – with a real estate email newsletter service. You can automate these alerts using RSS campaigns that link back to your blog to drive traffic to your website and get them excited about buying a house. 

You can also provide them with important updates regarding properties they displayed interest in that are no longer available and offer similar properties instead in the neighbourhood to keep them with you.

4. Housing, Mortgage, and Finance News

Send relevant updates on new government initiatives for buyers and give your expert opinion on each measure. You can also include a variety of relevant and useful resources for your clients such as:

• News reports on mortgage rates and applications
• Housing affordability studies
• Consumer sentiment surveys
• Foreclosures in their area
• Home sale, price, and value reports
• Income, employment, and job creation rates

By keeping this information relevant to prospective areas for your leads, you’ll be doing your part to keep your clients thoroughly informed on important trends and relevant statistics.

5. Home Ownership, Insurance, and Finance Advice

Start by giving your subscribers tips and advice on whether or not they should buy or rent given their financial situation and their housing wants and needs. You could even email them links to long-form educational guides such as ebooks or reports from your website to guide their decision-making process. 

If they are interested in getting a house, provide them with helpful financial information on saving for a home purchase and little-known tax breaks and incentives that they can take advantage of, as homeowners. Tell them about how to find the right home insurer and reduce their insurance costs. If they are considering a loan or mortgage, let them know what’s needed for home loan pre-qualification or how to refinance their mortgage. 

6. Homeownership Advice and Tips

Send your subscribers useful websites, apps, and resources to help them with everything from finding a new home to the right moving and contracting company. 

You could also send them some homeowner’s tips such as how-tos on home maintenance, home renovation, safe proofing for pets and children, and even cleaning to-do lists based on the season such as reminding them to clean their gutters. These tips might seem small but there are many new homeowners who might benefit substantially from this information.

7. Information on Local Events, Businesses, and People

Help your clients integrate with their community by letting them know about local events and festivities and notable community members all in their area! Help orient and acquaint them by sending them emails on great restaurants, shopping malls, small businesses, festivals, parades, charities, group meetups, local recreational groups, and more happenings that they might be interested in. 

You could also send them information on civic leaders, town officials, and other people who are active in the community. 

8. Testimonial & Referral Request Emails

One of the most useful real estate email campaign ideas involves embedding previous referrals and testimonials that you have received to set yourself apart from your competitors.

You can request valuable referrals and testimonials from clients via email to establish your credibility and build your portfolio. 

You can also ask industry partners like lenders and attorneys for mutual referrals to penetrate new markets. Feedback is important not only for growth but for success so always send thank you messages to those who took time out to give a testimony or referral for you. Maybe even consider rewarding them with a voucher gift.

9. Entertaining Emails 

Get creative! Show your subscribers that you have a fun side by sending real estate agent emails that showcase your personality and maybe even a little bit about your personal life. You could wish them happy holidays and share a photo of your family at the cottage. Don’t be afraid to share blog posts either such as interviews with real estate experts, commissioned guest posts, trends in interior decoration, or even home product reviews that they might find useful. 

You could even give them interesting updates on recent company news such as success stories and new real estate agents. The possibilities for keeping your audience engaged and entertained are endless!

10. Email-to-SMS Campaigns 

Although this one isn’t technically an email, you can combine SMS messaging into an email campaign to instantly update your subscribers based on conditions you set. For example, if the email that you sent about a new promotion, exclusive offer, or event happening right now isn’t opened within a certain amount of time, you can send an SMS message with the information directly to your subscribers’ phone. 

SMS marketing messages are highly effective as over 90% of SMS messages are read within 3 minutes of receipt. You can significantly enhance your email’s reach and effectiveness by collecting the phone numbers of your willing subscribers through email so that they don’t miss out on time-sensitive information. 

Boost Your Real Estate Email Marketing Effectiveness With ActiveTrail

Whether or not you’re trying to grab the attention of buyers or sellers, these are some real estate email marketing examples that you can implement today to develop a successful email campaign.

Are you interested in seeing how you can use ActiveTrail to transform your email marketing campaigns? Start your free trial today to get started!