Ray Tomlinson sent the first email 45 years ago and decades later it has evolved to become one of the most cost effective methods of direct marketing. Email marketing is both fast and inexpensive and serves to monitor and react to consumer behaviour that allows for a better understanding of your target market.
Email marketing targets specific key markets and enhances business communication. It occurs when a business sends a commercial message to a specific group of people via email. This form of marketing is imperative because it helps build client loyalty, promotes brand recognition and helps establish and maintain trust in your real estate business or real estate brand. In addition, email marketing is an easy way to stay connected with your clients while simultaneously promoting your real estate business. Email marketing has the ability to effortlessly connect with your target market without the need for excessive marketing costs such as extensive print space and television or radio time.
It is now incorporated with advanced software that allows for a segmented email list based on several factors that include areas and suburbs of interest, affordability or property type preference. After a client's profile has been analysed emails are then generated and sent out to specific members in your mailing list that is highly personalised containing the necessary property information they may be interested in or have requested. The benefits of this are far-reaching as it helps promote customer loyalty and trust while generating an increase in direct leads.
Email marketing comprises of several different campaigns such as welcome letters, newsletters, property email alerts, promotional emails and an email signature. Customised property email alerts allow users to register their exact property requirements via their real estate website. Once registered, users receive property email alerts as soon as a new and suitable property listing is added. A newsletter (weekly, monthly or quarterly) serves to promote featured listings and publish news and advice articles. In addition, it maintains regular contact with your clients and keeps them continuously informed about your real estate services and other new developments. To promote a marketing event such as a special offer or an important announcement directed at a specific segment in your mailing list, promotional emails get the job done. Lastly, to effectively brand your real estate company it is imperative to create a personalised emailed signature. The unique business print will drive traffic to your website and other social media sites.
Almost half a decade later, the email continues to evolve and reach new platforms with some notable trends emerging in 2016. Firstly, we are seeing more emphasis on personalisation as real time email marketing increases in popularity. Clients are now drawn to messages that address personal taste and preference. Secondly, businesses continue to place a growing importance on mobile devices in opening emails and it is predicted that mobile devices will greatly outnumber desktops by the end of 2016. Thirdly, the transformation in email content continues to evolve in terms of video and animation. Such content attracts subscribers’ and contains a healthy level of interaction. Allowing clients to respond to graphic and moving elements such as timers, amps up the click through rate. Lastly, we are witnessing an comprehensive and consistent tracking of email campaigns. Real estate businesses have begun tracking the success of each email campaign and suitably adjusting it to meet consumer demands. A major focus is now placed on data driven excellence and user appreciation when tracking email campaigns. This allows businesses to understand data such as: email opening, click through rate, accessibility, comparisons of various campaigns and business conversion rate from email to clients.
At Prop Data, we have systems in place to analyse traffic driven to your real estate website via your email campaigns. We can see the precise success rate of each campaign via Prop Data Insights that give you the tools to determine where your strengths and weaknesses lie. This serves to optimise future email marketing projects that ensure continued growth rates in your website visits.