Inbound marketing aims to attract, engage, and delight. Newsletters have the potential to check all the boxes. Whether you’re thinking of starting a real estate newsletter or you’ve already got one up and running, implementing best practices can help you make the most of this popular inbound strategy.
Here is a closer look at using newsletters to generate leads and give your business a serious boost. And you’ll get 15 newsletter ideas to get you started, too.
The Benefits of Real Estate Newsletters
As a Realtor, you’re well aware that real estate is about relationships. You’re not just buying and selling property; you’re earning and building trust. This trust facilitates loyalty, which leads to referrals — the lifeblood of any real estate business.
Enter real estate newsletters.
Your real estate newsletter isn’t just an opportunity to showcase your featured listings. It’s also an opportunity to deliver real value to your target audience. This means packing your newsletter with useful, relevant, and actionable information that will help meet their needs.
Best Practices for Your Email Marketing Newsletter
The most effective real estate newsletters share several common components, including the following:
Responsive Design
Your audience will be reading your newsletter on a variety of devices — from desktops and laptops to smartphones and tablets. If it can’t be easily accessed and navigated across all of these devices, you will not keep their attention.
Responsive design and mobile-friendliness are must-haves. Your newsletter should look just as good on a small screen as it does on a large one.
A Compelling Subject Line
What good is creating the perfect newsletter if your target audience never sees it? When it comes to improving your email open rates, a captivating subject line makes all the difference. Your subject line may seem simple, but a lot goes into it.
In fact, the case can be made that getting the subject line right is just as important as nailing the content itself.
Some attributes of great subject lines? They’re positive in nature, timely, and local.
Personalization
Speaking of local, personalization is another attribute of effective real estate newsletters.
According to a report from Experian, personalized communications have 29 percent higher open rates and 41 percent higher click rates than non-personalized communications.
Personalization also demonstrates a level of care and attention to detail that your real estate clients are looking for.
Images and/or Video
Pictures and videos are worth much more than a thousand words when it comes to marketing real estate. Just like you use photos and videos to showcase your real estate listings on your website, enhance your newsletter with high-quality photos, videos, and other graphic elements.
Appealing Layout and Design
While photos and videos can improve the look of your newsletter, keep design at the forefront. You wouldn’t clutter your real estate website with a hodgepodge of graphics, would you?
To keep your audience from clicking away, your newsletter should be clean, simple, and easy to read.
Relevant, Useful, and Timely Content
Connecting with your clients is not about selling to them, but rather about understanding and meeting their needs. Real estate listings are just one way to drive traffic back to your website via your newsletter.
On a similar note, consistency is critical to a successful newsletter campaign. If you commit to a weekly newsletter, follow through.
Another way to optimize your email newsletter open rates? Send it at the right time. According to CoSchedule, Tuesday is the best day to send emails, followed by Thursday and Wednesday. Late-morning (around 10 a.m.) is also generally regarded as the best time to send emails. Other top-performing times include 8 p.m., 2 p.m., and 6 a.m.
A Call to Action
The primary goal of your newsletter is to inform your target audience, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any opportunities for promoting yourself and your business.
Be sure to include a Call to Action (CTA) instructing your reader on what to do next, such as clicking through to your blog for more insights or scheduling a listing consultation.
15 Real Estate Newsletter Ideas
Wondering what to include in your real estate newsletter? We’ve got you covered. These 15 ideas can help you build out a content calendar for your publication.
- Suburb Spotlights: What makes a suburb a good place to live? From commuting times to local amenities, help your audience get a better feel for prospective communities in your area.
- Client Testimonials: Your newsletter is the perfect place to highlight your happy customers and give your audience the social proof they value.
- Property Features: What noteworthy listings are in your area that your readers will want to know more about?
- Property Listing Roundup: What listings have hit the market in the past week or month? What Open Houses are coming up?
- Local Vendor Features: This one’s a win-win. Not only are your readers interested in local products and services, the vendor you feature will likely share your newsletters with family, friends, and clients — thereby opening the door to more new customers.
- Hot Topics: What’s on your clients’ minds when they’re thinking of buying and selling? From how much house you can afford to the costs associated with selling a property, your newsletter is the perfect place to proactively provide answers.
- New Homeowner/Renter Resources: From links to the best takeout to the local trash and recycle schedules, hook up homebuyers (and renters!) with all the info they’ll need — at their fingertips.
- Home Seller Resources: Curating a list of resources for sellers is also helpful. These may include which documents they’ll need for the sale, information on closing costs and home valuation, plus tips and FAQs.
- Blog Links: Your blog is full of helpful information. Your newsletter is the perfect way to direct your target audience to your blog.
- Checklists: People love a good checklist. Examples include new homebuyer checklists, what to look for during an inspection, move-in checklists, and home selling checklists.
- Share Your Brand Story: What differentiates you from your competition?
- Employee Features: Your employees keep your business up and running. Showcasing them in a feature story underscores the personality behind your brand while helping to facilitate a more personal connection with audience members.
- Event Promotions: Recently attended an event or have one coming up? Your newsletter is the perfect way to get the word out to buyers, sellers, and renters.
- Industry News: What’s happening in the real estate industry? Just remember to share this news from the perspective of what your audience will want and need to know.
- Quizzes: Interactive content is an excellent way to engage your audience, and who doesn’t love a quiz? In addition to being fun; quizzes can also offer you insights into the mind of your audience. Sites like Outgrow can help you build interactive quiz experiences — without coding.
Looking for even more email newsletter examples and ideas? Trulia, HGTV.com, and Realtor.com are full of spot-on content. And be sure to check out Realtor.com’s quizzes, such as Are You Truly Ready to Buy a House?
One last thing to keep in mind? In order to get the most out of your newsletters, you’ll need subscribers. An incentivized opt-in page on your website, social media, and other marketing materials can entice people to sign up. This can be as simple as, “Subscribe to my weekly newsletter for the latest real estate trends, new listings, industry insights, and more.”
The Light Digital is ready to help you with all of your real estate email marketing and other digital marketing initiatives, including your real estate newsletter. To start reaching more customers and clients immediately, contact our team today.
