At my company, HouseHunt, we put out two different email newsletters each week. One is specifically agent oriented, and the other is targeted for homeowners and non-professionals interested in real estate investment.
We consider periodic emails to be an important part of our content marketing strategy. However, we felt it was time to spruce up our newsletters for even greater effectiveness! Here are a few of the changes we’re implementing. Maybe they will help you with your email blasts, as well.
1. 1. Lessen the Frequency
People rarely unsubscribe from a newsletter because of the content. If they felt compelled to sign up for emails at one point, they are probably still interested in what you have to say. So why do people unsubscribe? They’re getting too many emails; that quantity is spammy even if the quality is strong.
2. 2. Stay Consistent
When people open your newsletter, they should know exactly what they’re going to get. The format should be similar week-to-week (or month-to-month, etc.). If you stay consistent in your structure, people would be consistent in making your material a part of their schedule.
3. 3. Exclusive Content
Perhaps there’s a free ebook for signing up! Or each newsletter has a sneak peak of something your company has in the works! Whatever it is, a little something extra is a great way to boost sign-ups and open rates.
4. 4. Highlight Your Advocates
Have a client or someone in your network with a positive quote about you and your services? Give them a blurb in your newsletter. Most customers are looking to other customers for referrals, so a few testimonies will target that market specifically. This tactic of having former customers advertise for you is called “sideways marketing,” and it’s at the core of every successful real estate business. A company called King Arthur Flour started including three customer blurbs per newsletter and saw a 30% increase in newsletter virality.
5. 5. Pictures Worth a Thousand Words
Social media is obviously image driven, so apply the same logic to your newsletter. You usually don’t want someone to simply open your email. You want them to click something and take action. A picture is much more captivating (and likely to garner a click) than a copy/pasted article.
Do you send out a periodic newsletter, or do you think they're outdated? What adjustments have you made to increase open or click rate? Excited to hear from you in the Active Rain comments!
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